Doctor Jeffula Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 (edited) Another year another HHN. This year we got FOL passes and thankfully so the lines seemed to be really bad this year, a few of them reaching a whopping 140 Minutes!!!. Thank you Universal for not having Harry Potter open! We got to USH later than usual around 5 and did our traditional eat at Camacho's Cantina which was very busy at the time we got there, not that any of you care lol. Afterwards we lined up and went thru the new security area they have which i think is great. We line up get in......and no opening scareamony? I was confused we got in 15 before 7 and they handed us a red wristband i have no idea why because they had people corralled up in another area I'm assuming for early entry? Yeah just a confusing moment but we headed towards Walking Dead and was pleasantly surprised about the Purge Gauntlet we will go through afterwards The Walking Dead We stayed in line for a good 10 minutes waiting for it to open. Yes its boring ol walking dead we seen this for half a decade at HHN and now we will see this attraction for the next couple years I'm assuming. My GF is a huge walking dead fan and this was her favorite attraction but for me it was decent. I thought the scene where the house was on fire was pretty epic but other than that it was all scenes I've seen before in past mazes and its a little bit from each season they touch on. The attraction is based on the first 4 seasons I'm assuming but it seems to be way too short than what it should be. Not enough scareactors in here either. Grade: C Purge Gauntlet This was something we didn't expect. It was kinda a mini maze/scarezone. Nothing much to it you just walk through and theres purgers that jump out and scare you. Theres no wait at all and its nothing really special. I won't grade it because i feel its not something to be graded. Jabbawockees I thought i read that the show was "horror related" somewhere on the forum. It wasn't. Us hardcores don't really care much for the Jabbawockees but i watch the show anyways because its included with the price of admission. Its not my thing to be honest but they are talented at what they do and it takes a lot of stamina to put on those shows. I would have to say it was better than last years show. No grade for this either. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Blood Brothers Finally almost 2 hours in we get to do a HHN exclusive maze. This was the maze i was looking forward to the most out of everything because I'm a big TCM fan and its an original concept and I'm all for original concepts. The facade was a bbq restaurant which went with the theme of the story and throughout the maze we got a mix of restaurant scenes and scenes similar to the 2014 TCM maze such as the dinner scene and of course various forms of Leatherface scaring us andhacking people up. Chop Tops room was pretty cool I'm jealous of the posters. I loved this maze and the scare actors were on point got plenty of scares. People complained that there was a lot of blank hallways in the 2014 maze but i didn't notice any for this one. You might ask why give TCM a great grade? Well there was never a dull moment in this maze it was on fire!!! Don't miss this one Grade: A Terror Tram Well, Well, Well........ Everyones favorite attraction. The only reason why we went on the terror tram was because some people who went to employee preview night said this was the best terror tram they had in a while. Well.....sorta. There was a decent original background story to the maze and it was creepy to pull up in front of whoville (i think thats what its called) to see Hollywood Harry standing there with balloons waiting for us. Also if you remember 2011 and they tried to have a walk through whatever you want to call it in front of bates motel they did it again this year except they put effort into it. Also John Murdy said they rerouted the maze and no more dirt hill. Yeah no more dirt hill but you still have to walk up hill on pavement going towards the psycho house (photo ops available). Once on top of the hill you go through a lot of storage trailers and you also see sweet licks ice cream truck! Then war of the worlds area and back home. Im not gonna like i didn't hate the Terror Tram this year and i appreciate that they tried to spice it up a little bit. There is probably a little to much storage containers to go through and it does create a lot of congestion which is always a drag. Grade C Halloween: Hell Comes To Haddonfield Halloween was one of the better mazes last year. When they announced that Halloween was coming back this year but based off of the sequel i was really excited about it not because Michael Myers is an icon but they are basing this off the sequel. The maze starts out at the end of halloween and you end up in the hospital just like the movie and thats where a good chunk of the maze takes place. There were a lot of cool scenes a few good scares. It was going pretty good.....but then things got a little strange. Without giving away any spoilers what you would think the end of the maze would be is kinda cool then you get to the real end and its.....just.....weird. I came out of the maze saying "ok wtf was that?". Other than the ending the maze was cool very solid. Grade B The Exorcist The most anticipated maze in HHN history has finally arrived!!!!! A lot of people have been asking for The Exorcist at HHN and we finally got it, but was it worth it? Look, The Exorcist was gonna be a very tough maze to create because most of the scary scenes take place in a bedroom so are we gonna get a bunch of scenes in a bedroom? You bet we are and we are also gonna get a bunch of black hallways! like a lot of black hallways, no one likes black hallways right? But don't be too disappointed things actually happen in those black hallways unlike some mazes we get where there is nothing going on and i got a few good scares in those hallways but still they are black hallways and i don't pay to see black hallways. There is a very intense scene in the maze as well where everything is going apes*** in the room and the other non black hallway scenes are ok. The Exorcist wasn't the best maze at the event but they took a stab at making the maze and it wasn't as terrible as some have people said. It looked as though they really really really wanted this maze to be good and tried their hardest to not have any dull moments but sorry i don't think you can make this into a good maze. Grade C Walk to the Backlot Yes we have to talk to the backlot this year which sucks but they can't provide tram service due to the fact that AHS is in the way. 2 years ago we wanted something going on during the walk in the tunnel to make things more interesting. We got it and it sucked. I don't know about everyone else but those flashing lights messed up my eyes not only in the tunnel but also in the Jabbawockee show. We then get another scare zone going to the backlot maze area where it seems to be a lot of she purgers. Its the same ol like any other year Krampus When they announced this maze i thought we shouldve had this last year well we didn't and we got it this year. I have a feeling this maze may be a dark horse of the event i can see a lot of people liking this maze. The facade is spectacular and so is the maze design. A little bit too much fog in the entrance room they can cut down on but the design of the maze as a whole was great with The attic and snowman scenes were my favorite. The only downside of this maze is that i didn't get any scares but it was really fun going through it. If there were a lot more scares when i went through this could've gotten an A Grade B Grilled Cheese Food Cart The serviced sucked but in all fairness they did say their ticket machine went down several times and they ran out of cheese. But OMG the mac and cheese with bacon was AMAZING! The truck is located by Krampus. American Horror Story This was gonna be an interesting maze. This one is based off of a tv series (you probably already know that) but its an anthology series with every season being different I only seen The Murder House season, half of The Freak Show season and i started the current season to me the series is so-so. With 6 seasons the maze covered 3 which the maze covered in the order of The Murder House, Freak Show, Hotel. It seemed like the majority of the maze took place in the murder house which was outstanding. I got hit really hard on the shoulder by a guy looking like the gimp but he waved his hand in apology but ouch this was suppose to be fun. The Freak Show part wasn't scary at all and it seemed to be a "blink and you'll pass it" moment in the maze. It looked really cool but no scares just scareactors standing around (i am enjoying the freak show season though). The hotel part was better than the freak show part scare wise but not as good as the murder house part. They did an amazing job with the maze design which maybe was the best of the event and it did a lot to enhance the maze experience. A lot of people don't like the facade but i think its appropriate. I didn't think i would like this maze but i liked it a lot Grade A Freddy vs Jason Last maze of the night! Orlando got this last year and we didn't and i did not like that we didn't but knew we would get it this year. I seen a lot of high praise about this from employee preview night and I'm a HUGE F13 fan and i do like NOES but not as much as other series. From my understanding they didn't base this off of the movie and they went with their own concept which ok cool the movie wasn't great anyways. I have to say though that this maze was half good and half not so good. Walking out this guy behind us said "that wasn't worth the 2 hour wait". I wish they split Freddy and Jason up and gave them their own mazes this year but it would be even more redundant with TCM and Halloween being at the event. There were plenty of scareactors in the maze and they made a good effort at scaring . The cool part of the maze is the victor of the FvJ battle changes at the last scene every so often....damn straight Jason won when i went through. Grade C Merch This is the part where i wish i was a rich man, especially this year. Out of all of the years of HHN i would have to say this is the best year for merchandise. I got the Texas Chainsaw Massacre shirt but i also wanted the Titans of Terror shirt, All of the lunch boxes, The Freddy Vs Jason shirt, All of the playing cards, and pretty much everything else. But much of this stuff is pricy ($10 for playing cards) but you have a lot of great merch to choose from. Closing thoughts This HHN was for the fans and did it satisfy the fans? Well it did satisfy me. I thought this year was one of the best years and it could be THE best year i been to and I've been going since 2009. We finally got The Exorcist and NO 3D MAZES!!!!!! They even attempted to make the Terror Tram a little better! and the merch is incredible!!!! The one thing that caught my eye (maybe i never noticed) is that the maze designs for every maze were incredible and it really enhances the experiences. This is definitely the year to go though. Rankings 1. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. American Horror Story 3. Krampus 4. Halloween 5. Freddy vs Jason 6. Exorcist 7. Walking Dead 8. Terror Tram Edited September 17, 2016 by Doctor Jeffula 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsylumSB Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 First official review of this years event by Dr. Jeffula! Great job letting us know what you thought of the attractions without giving away too much. Your review is helping to keep the anticipation at a high level until I have a chance to visit next week. So, were you actually part of early entry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Jeffula Posted September 17, 2016 Author Share Posted September 17, 2016 (edited) 16 minutes ago, AsylumSB said: So, were you actually part of early entry? You know what if i was i didn't mean to be. Thank you for your kind words this year really is amazing and i hope you enjoy it Edited September 17, 2016 by Doctor Jeffula Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTH316 Posted September 18, 2016 Share Posted September 18, 2016 Sounds like we had polar opposite reactions to things haha And to the guy behind you at FvJ, uh... no maze is worth 2 hours duuuuuh lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Jeffula Posted September 18, 2016 Author Share Posted September 18, 2016 lol i was just reading your review and yeah you are right total opposite for the most part. I agree yeah TCM did have parts from 2014 they did use but FvJ reused a lot from past mazes as well! And I'm sorry but the scene of young jason being eaten by snake freddy looked gross because snake freddy looked like a (excuse my language) penis. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts