The Forever Evil One's HHN25: Chaos Reigns (SPOILERS)

[ForeverEvil1]

Before I say anything else, I think this year is going to be absolutely fantastic in all. 8/9 houses (Insidious with yo damn wait times, I'll GET YA TOMORROW), and I didn't hate or even DISLIKE a single one, yes even Walking Dead. I'm basically gonna put the title, then put all my thoughts and acknowledgements into bullet points, in a random order.

Asylum In Wonderland 3D

• As far as I'm concerned, the 3D house is avenged after Crapterlife. Not the greatest house, but far and above better than that house.
• Facade is a giant comic book cover (like In-Between and even by the same publisher). 
• This is probably the closest to a comedy house this year (THERE WAS KILLER FLOWERS, KILLER FLOWERS)
• Quite a few past 3D effects (Tweedles had a room similar to the lights room in P&T) and one past scene (Eaten March Hare)
• Fav Room: Checkerboard Room with the Queen's Guard (for scares) or Mad Tea Party (I just like the room)
• This house is fucking insane (Killer Flowers, the Tweedles are on drugs or something, White Rabbit has a Hannibal like mask).
• The finale is pretty awesome. You transition from bright colorful Wonderland (From the Queen's throne, if I'm remembering right) into the dark damp actual asylum. The White Rabbit has gone from weird and colorful to dark and grey. So it was in Alice's mind, right? Well...that's left unanswered. "Asylum" Alice is killed by ?The Queen of Hearts? as the house ends. 
• Scares: Tweedles, Killer Flowers, Checkerboard Room, The actual Asylum
• What the fuck was the very first thing post Vortex Tunnel (That's in here by the way.)?

RUN: Blood, Sweat and Fears

• Queue is awesome. Pretty funny, from the totally stereotyped killers to the 80's music like Final Countdown being presented as "all new hits".
• Facade is pretty cool. The Running Man like bleachers, the fact you walk into the house on a red carpet. 
• Cool concept in all, if not obviously ripped off a bit.
• Lots of character and scene variety in here. Very cool. I swear there's a different character every scene.
• The transition rooms all look the same, except they become a bit bloodier by the end. I understand why, it just sorta makes the house FEEL repetitive, when it's honestly not at all. 
• Some scenes had a bit too much open space, like the Brutes scene with Ol Smokey.
• This house went by a bit fast for me. So future runs are a definite for me. 
• Favorite Room: Hmmm...probably the North Pole Reapers or the Japanese Dojo. or Ol Smokey's appearance.
• The finale....I don't remember. Yeah, this went by fast. 
• Even if the house doesn't end up delivering on the scares, I like the whole Running Man concept too much to really hate it. Wouldn't mind seeing a year of Horror Nights based on this Running Man concept. 
• Got the RUN feel, didn't really get the Hellgate feel. (Most prisony things were the transition rooms and the North Pole room had prison cells filled with Christmas items)
• Scares: Opening Room, Japanese Dojo, Conquistadors (sort of), Woodchipper Room (sort of) 

The Purge

• Didn't see the barker in the queue. Made me sad.
• Facade looks alright in my opinion, for being so late in the game.
• For anyone who for some reason doubted this replaced Scream and thought it was planned  the entire time, take a good look at the first two to three rooms of the house, where it's the Scream opening scene with Purge characters.
• Liked the opening room with the screens, thought it was neat.
• Fav Scene: Hunting Arena or NFfA Room (DEATH TO THE NFFA! BANG BANG BANG)
• There are knives, chainsaws, and guns in this house. Most of my scares were gun related.
• Lots of the walls have graffiti everywhere. While maybe sloppy, I feel it fits.
• SEIZURE WARNING: This probably had the most strobes out of all the houses, likely to disguise the Scream settings. Felt this also fit with the in your faceness of the Purge.
• No Auction Scene, but the Auctioneer does appear via video during the Hunting Arena Scene.
• Finale is strobes featuring Big Daddy and his gun, and the GOD / DOG Mask Purger. Sorta weak on that front.
• The Skull Facepaint Purger appears in an post house scare, similar to Halloween and M&M this year.
• Scares: The Cheater Tree, Hunting Arena, DEATH TO THE NFFA, Post Finale Scare, Strobe Scene with Purger stabbing someone on bed sending out water while another one's in a nearby closet, GOD / DOG Mask Purger.
• Overall, I think it was pretty good. Purge is likely coming for HHN26 (Purge 3 2016), and if I had the option of seeing a new full fledged non overlay replacement Purge house or a somewhat different SZ, I wouldn't mind having another Purge house, and this time actually intending to do it.

The Walking Dead: The Living and The Dead

• So what happened with this facade? I appreciate having the Walkers outside once again, but *shrugs*
• For a maze called "The Living and The Dead" there was way more Dead than Living.
• However, the one "Living" probably has one of the best scenes with the Terminus throat cut.
• Water scene was underwhelming. Got a scare, but as Owen Disney said on Twitter "Walkers in a hot tub"
• From what I could tell, Grady Hospital didn't make the cut. Not shocked there.
• The Crappy Horde effect returned for the foodtrucks (At least make it fast, jesus)
• Thought the Church scene was good, the stormy forest and barn were okay. 
• Revolving Door scare actually got me good, because I was expected a eaten victim, but the dude slamming against the door caught me off guard.
• Surprised they didn't bring the strobe forest back. Not complaining, even though I did like that scene.
• Foodtrucks minus the Craphorde was an okay scene. 
• Finale made me lol and got a jump out of me. KNIFE PARTY FOODTRUCK.
• I think this was better than last year's. I feel not being large actually helped the maze, because then there's no "15 minutes of Walkers" complaints.

Saving Monsters and Mayhem for last, so...Body Collectors.

• Gorgeous sets. Facade is amazeballs. 
• Liked all the kills, missed the Spine Rip (Wah wah wah)
• Assistants were all on point for me. 
• Finale is fun, with the Grand Body Collectors, followed by the Body Collectors version of TWD's last year finale.
• The room with the windows breaking was cool, as well as the "Dungeon" scene. 
• A little shorter than I expected. Almost feels like 2-3 rooms are missing.
• That's sort of it to be honest, except the fact I was wrong and that tease photo WAS for this. I got fooled by the red shade. 
• Good house in all, hoping it's on the UMTH Tour. 

American Werewolf In London

• Some interesting changes to this one. 
• First off: New wolves are WAY scarier. Their eyes are soul piercing. 
• Didn't see the new wolf they were talking about, or maybe I did. Not quite sure.
• Nazi Wolves scene has been changed to more resemble Hollywood's, including the throat slit. No complaints, as you are now closer to the actors.
• Some other minor changes. More detail was added to the Slaughtered Lamb (I think), There's now wreckage on top of the Piccadilly police car.
• New Wolves also moved better. I was ready to howl at the moon with them.
• Still no actor in the opening SL scene. Thought that was a gimme. Piccadilly also still seems empty, though I did hear the whistle. I think they did move the police car towards the people more to fill the dead space a bit. 
• New policeman who shoots at the big wolf at the end. Makes the scene cooler IMO.
• Some rooms felt larger and smaller, but I don't exactly know, so I don't want to name anything. 
• I saw the bloody messed up dude I missed in the subway in 2013. That was nice.
• Ends with the big wolf and Marcels Blue Moon. 
• Still a good maze, think it may be more intense than 2013, but this has the advantage of the fact I can go through it multiple times, while I only saw 2013's once, so IDK.

Freddy Vs Jason

• Missed every fight scene, except for one video screen. So...bad run in that part.
• Jasons are huge, I said it already, and I'll say it again.
• Very nice facade, was not expecting the Jason from the forest.
• Jasons were all awesome, props to all of them.
• The Elm Street house was awesome. I loved the creepy eyeless girls at the front.
• Missed all the Freddies as well. Did like the NOES3 Kills and the Freddy Worm.
• Boiler Room Mirror Maze was nice, though I missed both scares.
• There was WAY more Jason than Freddy. Not complaining, since Jason's scarier. They even got original kid Jason in there.
• Does have some aspects of the movie (Pamela's head telling Jason to go to Elm Street).
• I'm thinking Jason won my run, since he came out at the end (You know what I mean.).
• Will do this again to hopefully get a better run. This was my last maze and it was basically 1, so that might have had something to do with it.

Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem

• Right now, HOTY. We'll see after Insidious, but for now, yeah.
• Facade was better than I expected. The posters are all on spinning columns which have bodies hung in them. 
• Scary Tales: Red Riding Hood was cool. The Bears caught me off guard. I honestly thought I was hallucinating for a second. "Hmm this scene smells good, I wonder what's-IS THAT A FUCKING BEAR?! One of them was a big ass actor, the other was a Werewolf like puppet. Both looked legit.
• Scream House: Did not see this scene coming, so I was hype as fuck going in. Caretaker was nice, I think this also had a Storyteller portrait. Cindy's scare hits hard if you're in the right position. It's loud as balls anyway, so you may get startled either way.
• LT Hallway was cool, with the Jack Picture at the end. Ghost got me on both sides.
• Forsaken: Not sure if I'm a fan of this scene. The walking while tilting just felt uncomfy. The actors might have not wanted to scare my dad in front of me, since he has a bad leg and limped this scene (Was fine after though.).
• Gothic: The looking down effect was cool. The gargoyle got me good. Pretty sure there was a Weeping Angel from Winter's Night.
• Nightingales: Fuck, this was loud. Got both scares here. There's a random soldier, but he didn't do much when I went through.
• UCM: Got both Frank and his bride's scares. Missed The Wolfman. Missed Phantom. Got The Mummy. Didn't see Drac.
• Castle Vampyr?: The bed was a nice distraction as the vampyre from the curtain straight ahead ended up getting me. Also very loud.
• Christmas (Bloodengutz?): Missed the scares here, the guy did greet me though.
• Jack pops up randomly in between sections to give scares. Got me good.
• Weakest Part? The finale. It was cool, but I missed the scares, and also expected a cool sorta Icons scene for the finale. 
• However, the after house scare by Eddie and / or Meaty Meetz makes up for it.

So yeah, I've enjoyed every house at the event so far. Hopefully Insidious can live up to the hype as well as M&M did. Will also try to stay in SZ's a bit to analyze them, but I get itchy for houses, so we'll see how that works out. Don't expect show reviews. Bill and Ted doesn't appeal to me, and I spoiled Carnage Returns on Youtube.

 

 

Edited September 19, 2015 by ForeverEvil1

[AbeLinkedIn]

You covered one of the houses I'm excited to hit up (RUN) which from the description makes me think of 80s WWF in a way, from the stereotyped characters (Roddy Piper, Iron Sheik, etc.) to the music. That has me twice as excited. Now to see how Freddy Vs. Jason stacks up. That's another must visit for me. Good work so far! 

[Dr. Jimmy]

I believe that was a Jabberwocky, or perhaps the Jub Jub Bird... or maybe the Dodo?

[ForeverEvil1]

Added:

• Walking Dead
• Body Collectors
• AWIL
• FvJ
• Monsters and Mayhem

I believe that was a Jabberwocky, or perhaps the Jub Jub Bird... or maybe the Dodo?

That makes sense. Leaning towards dodo in this case.

[ForeverEvil1]

9/20

Insidious

• Monsters and Mayhem has some competition to say the least.
• Facade is beautiful, one of the best I've seen. Of course, the Soundstage ones are better (Well, maybe except AWIL), but still. Enjoyed how they added a gate to make it seem like you are entering in through a backyard of sorts.
• From what I could tell, none of the humans are represented in the maze by actor or mannequin, except for the "LEAVE THIS VESSEL" scene. This honestly makes you feel more alone, so I'm fine with this.
• Got the majority of the scares in this house with easy targets behind me, so that's a good sign I think.
• Man Who Can't Breathe doesn't have his mask from what I could tell. Took me the second time to realize it was him.
• Not any specific Chapter 3 scenes, from what I saw. All Chapter 1 and 2.
• I'm intrigued to know which hallway Jimmy was talking about that was one of the most terrifying he's seen. Because most of them were terrifying. 
• The Smiling Family was awesome to see and their scene is great. 
• Great touch having the baby toy move towards you during it's scene.
• Finale is similar to Hollywood's this year as it puts all three demons into one room. It was all the drawings scrawled on the walls, and the three demons were coming out of them. 
• Wait times are long for this one, right away. But I may push through those, because I just want to do this maze more.

Did RUN again. Once again a mostly flat run. Currently regretfully lowest on my rankings.

Did Wonderland again. Easy targets were in front of me, so I got the opportunity to admire the setting. Didn't see the cards before so that was nice. Probably one of my favorite finales.

Did AWIL again. Saw the new wolf this time, and I was technically wrong, because now Piccadilly isn't entirely empty. Decent run.

Did Purge again. Saw quite a few new scares I missed before. Slight correction: The Finale features the entire Anarchy group, not just Big Daddy and GOD Mask. 

TWD again. Once again got a decent amount of startles and scares. Saw the scene with the riot gear zombie. Saw the (b)eating of the horse this time. Zombie during the finale attached to the meathook was going wild.

Did Jack again. Still awesome, got a bunch of scares. Jack still don't have wigs, will watch for that. Caught the HAVOC scene this time. Got the Finale scares this time. Saw both Eddie AND Meaty Meetz this time around, so that was nice.

Current House Rankings:

1. Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem
2. Insidious (It's close though.)
3. The Rest are basically tied for me. 
4. RUN: Blood, Sweat, and Fears

Scare Zone Rankings

1. Evil's Roots
2. All Nite Die In Double Feature
3. Icons - HHN
4. PsychoScareapy Unleashed
5. Scary Tales - ScreamPunk

Honestly, I liked them all for different reasons. Evil's Roots actually got me good a couple of times.