Spoiler Free HHN24 Review

[foREVer56]

This year marks a decade of me going to the event. Out of that decade, 2011 stands strong as my favorite year, but this year is a great second. This year is super strong house wise, streets look great (scare zones are back and they're great!!) and B&T doesn't suck.

Houses in order of my favorites:

1. Dollhouse (4 runs)- A 2011 style original house. Meaning, an AMAZING house. Seriously the best original since 2011. Creepy as hell, very well done and creative scenes and costumes, and a lot of excellent scares. People aren't kidding. The Crib Room is fucked. Up. The whole damn house is. Wonderful job.
A+

2. Halloween (2 runs)- DAMN. I wasn't expecting much out of this house since it's just Michael in a home environment mostly (plus I still haven't seen Halloween), but boy was I wrong. The sets are excellent and the scares are relentless. The Michael's are hidden so goddamn well you can't even see some of their booholes. Scariest house of the event. Very narrowly misses the top spot.
A

3. The Walking Dead (1 run)- Hopefully this is the "End of the Line" cuz not only is TWD just done at the event, it's the perfect house to send it off. HUGE, super detailed and the scale is off the charts. The scares are absolutely relentless in this one. There's just so many actors in the house you get them one after the other after the other. However, there's one gag that's so unbearably bad you won't be able to help yourself from laughing (if you went to Hollywood last year, you know which one.). Probably tied with Halloween for scariest. But that's it. NO. MORE. WALKING. DEAD. Good job on A&D for turning a property they didn't wanna do again into an awesome house.
A

4. AvP (2 runs)- One of the greatest houses ever built by A&D from a scenic perspective. Wow. Absolutely incredible. Puppets look great, Predators are cool, no scares. That is the only problem with this house blocking it from #1. There is 0 intensity in the house and next to none scares. It sounds like they were having technical problems this weekend though. So if this house improves and becomes waaaaay more intense, it'll be #1 by a landslide.
A

5. Giggles (3 runs)- This house is flat out FUN. Way longer than described at first and very interesting set and costume wise. Great amount of scares and some humor as well. All around an excellent original. Feels great to love all 3 originals again.
A

6. Roanoke (3 runs)- Another solid original. GORY. Lots of wood. Some of the details in the second half is incredible, especially the finale. Scares are pretty hit or miss but when you hit them they're decent. Very good house.
B

7. From Dusk Till Dawn (4 runs)- This far down the list still has a good house. The (Titty) Twister scenes are AWESOME. Gecko Bros and the Barker outside the facade are the greatest. The middle Mayan temple scenes are gorgeous but pretty uneven scare wise all around. Overall a solid house that turned out a bit better than I anticipated.
B-

8. Dracula Untold (2 runs)- another really gorgeous house. Scares are hit or miss, but mostly miss. Not a damn clue what this movie's about. It's still not an awful house like some say it is, but it's not too great. Definitely the only house this year that's mostly a bore.
D+

B&T (2 viewings)- Some of the jokes are great, especially the jabs at Disney, but overall it's just ok. Doesn't touch last year's.
C

Overall this year is excellent. Strong house lineup and some fun streets. Everyone's favorite house this year seems to be based solely on timing, since 6/8 are super strong and FDTD is still pretty fun. Dracula's the only one I can't talk about so positively.
Overall event grade: A

How it compares to other years:

2011

2014

2006

2013

2007

2009

2008

2005

2010

2012 (only one that wasn't great, but still not bad)

Edited September 24, 2014 by foREVer56

[georgemoe]

Great review. Thank you!