Tich0las HHN2016: Make America Scared Again

[Tich0las]

Oh boy. The best HHN in my five years of attending. Why ever bother going again? Let's just make this my final review of HHN and call it a night.

 

I lied.  I'll be back cause Ima sucker for this shit.

 

Before getting down in it, I'd like to mention how well organized this year felt. The security checkpoints are FANTASTIC. YYUUUGGEE improvement there. They also let me in with my camera equipment. Thanks! 

 

OK so here's my detailed review for #HHN26 from Sept 23-25. Let's start the show with the shows...

 

Bill and Ted's Bogus Halloween Adventure: C

 

That's what they named it this year, right? Sure there's a whole bag of dick jokes in the show, but they were all loosey goosey. As if someone wrote the show by reverse engineering it; writing the jokes/sketches first, then weaving a plot around it. On the positive side, I teared up during the Bowie and Prince tributes. I hope those two are being excellent to each other in heaven. 

 

Academy of Villians: A+

 

Holy shit. This show caught me completely off guard. Bravo to them. Bravo to the guy who's essentially a living breathing human version of Animal from the Muppets. I caught this show twice on two separate nights at two different times and the energy did not change a bit. BRAVO.

 

Before heading on to the scare zones. Let's take a second and collectively thank the HHN's gods that we A ) have scare zones  B ) have five different themes and C ) also got roaming hordes. There were LOTS of actors in the streets. 

 

A Chance In Hell: B-

 

There's a reason this zone gets this high of a mark, and another reason for why it's not higher.  Firstly, the little - uh inmate? patient? - walking around. WATCH HER. She not only scared us, she also made us crack up laughing. All of the scare actors were at least trying to have fun.

 

Pertaining to the latter for why it didn't get higher marks: Chance was being censored. I had a microphone with a slip cover attached to my phone. She asked what it was and then said "It looks like...it looks like a, well I don't want to say because I'll get in trouble." Uh, she's the icon of a horror event for adults. It should be anything goes.

 

One more positive note here: the sets and lighting were cool in this zone. Honestly thought this was the first scare zone I've seen in this area to look so good. 

 

Survive or Die: B+

 

DOMINIONS!! 

 

This one grew on me by the end of the weekend. Best time to see this is during a cast change because both sides face off with one another and they go berserk. Also noticed a lot of improvised game play between the rival sides; similar to capture the flag. The lighting effects on the buildings made me super happy since I never saw Acid Assault. Overall a very cool zone.

 

Dead Man's Wharf: A-

 

I loved everything about this zone except for its size. Wish we could have had this level of theming and atmosphere in a larger space. Props to the scare actors here for churning out the screams.  Even when we were sitting on the benches watching, the crew came after us and managed to pull off the scare. It sounds strange to say, but at night this zone is beautiful. I almost wanted to hang out here the entire evening. Well done.

 

Liar of the Banshee: C-

 

What was this suppose to be? The costumes are great, the atmosphere is good, but where's the cohesion?  Where's the theme? I know they reused a lot of costumes for this area, but WHY? For what STORY?? I wanted to like this, and enjoyed it enough to not totally hate it, but a real theme was missing. Seems to be the only zone this year without a plot.

 

Vamp 1955: B

 

This was a good zone. Loved the set pieces and the soundtrack in this area. The vampire with the ice cream cart is excellent. Definitely go over and talk to him during your next visit. In fact, all the actors were engaging, even if they weren't scary. I'll take characters improvising with each other over lame attempts at scares. Which brings me to...

 

Roaming Hordes: D

 

Roaming Hordes are the strawberry ice cream of Halloween Horror Nights. Thanks for having them!...but, really, no thanks. Give us more actors in one zone or house to add to a theme instead of spreading out nonsensical characters in dead zones of the park. Chainsaw wielding Geishas? No thanks. 

 

From here on out, I'm going to abandon the grading element for the houses and rank them. There are so many good ones this year. It's unbelievable. Normally I sincerely love 1 or 2 houses. This year it's 4. Normally I sincerely dislike 4 or 5 houses. This year it's 1. Hats off to Universal for giving it their all this year. 

 

9) Lunatics Playground 

 

Again I feel obligated to be grateful toward Universal for giving a new icon a house. But Chance deserved better than this. I'm surprised this was the one house I disliked AND THERE'S A WALKING DEAD HOUSE THIS YEAR.  Wish they had done more with the actual asylum instead of making everything black lit and 3D. The one cool effect I saw was the spinning heart. Also, the spinning tunnel. Let's give it a rest, please. 

 

8) Walking Dead

 

I went through this once with family members who just had to see it. Ended up enjoying it this year. A best of experience is the way to go for set diversity. The projections at the "facade" were cool too.  Somehow managed to get nearly every scare in every scene, so I'm sure I'm lucky to have gotten one good run and that's it. Oh and the cut throat scene got me soaking wet. They need to turn that thing down a bit.

 

Quick side note -- this isn't going away. Waiting in a 25 minute express line, the only express wait of my entire weekend, made it clear this son of a bitch won't die.  Hopefully they just build a permanent attraction and give us back a HHN house.

 

7) Texas Chainsaw Massacre

 

Whoah. Hang on. How is this one so low on the list? I truly wanted to like it more, but both runs made me notice a few things. First, the leather face masks don't seem right. They're too big maybe? Too thick? I don't know. The aesthetic just doesn't fit in with the first movie.  The chainsaws also seemed super fake. Other than masks and props, the house is short and scenes took waaayy too long to reset. Overall, I definitely thought the atmosphere was creepy as hell and everything inside smells awful. It's a good house, just not amazing.

 

6) Krampus 

 

Good job with the limited amount of space. Very fun experience with a couple of good scares. Enjoyed the gingerbread scene, the attic, and Krampus' liar the most. Main gripe here is the lack of Krampus. There are three of them and only one isn't totally inanimate.  Another good house that isn't quite amazing.

 

5) American Horror Story

 

I don't watch this show, but if I did I'm sure this would have been top three. Very well done house and a great combination of scare actors, set design, and effects.  Loved singing along to Life on Mars as the amputation scene played out. And, man, this house is LONG. Good for them bringing all this to life and making someone like myself have a blast while knowing nothing about the show. Cheers to our new IP Overlord! 

 

* From here on out, I'm splitting hairs. If I lived in Florida and attended every weekend, I'm sure the order would eventually change. *  

 

4) Tomb of the Ancients 

 

It's amazing A&D can still pull off a house like this. Tons of stuff in face, a two way path, and an enormous puppet that got me real good. During my third and final run, the cast were killing. The other two times, the cast members were good, but not consistent. Glad I got to see this house and hope they continue finding their groove. If they do, this will be HotY. 

 

3) Exorcist

 

Daaammn. They pulled this off. I thought for sure it would be a flop. Nope. Happy to see they had the creative liberty to include Pazuzu a bunch, and used the puke scene to their full advantage. I'll even give props to the dark hallway with the pool noodles touching you. Pazuzu got me real good in there. Also the girl at the end followed me out without breaking eye contact. Yeesh. Such a freaky good time.

 

2) Ghost Town

 

Ive heard people say this house is beautiful, but lacks scares. What?! Those air blast guns scared the hell out of me several times! And the piano head! And the dangling man! And the Indian! And the guy shot in the groin! I honestly don't have a single complaint about this one. Such a great house and a pleasure to have witnessed. Man it makes me want a non-IP event even more. 

 

1) Halloween II

 

How'd they do it? The movie sucks. This house is the movie but BETTER, MUCH BETTAH! 

 

Every run, after the first room, we would shout YOU DONT KNOW WHAT DEATH IS. I think this made the cast go after us because we had Michael Myers up in our face non stop. You know how Universal asks in their survey if the event feels threatening? This is the one house in HHN history where I felt threatened. THANK YOU HALLOWEEN II! Also, how about that fire scene at the end?! Pretty, pretty, pretty great. Now they have to do Season of the Witch...  .

 

Well that wraps up #HHN26 for me. It feels like the event is heading back in the right direction! Wish I could come back another weekend. Wish I had started scare acting this year. On the bright side, I'm going to HHN Hollywood in a week so stay tuned for that!!

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2016 by Tich0las

[JDW]

Great review. Glad you enjoyed it so much. We seemed to have fairly similar sentiments on everything (minus the houses I did not see). 

[Tich0las]

On September 29, 2016 at 11:56 AM, JDW said:

Great review. Glad you enjoyed it so much. We seemed to have fairly similar sentiments on everything (minus the houses I did not see). 

 

Thanks man. Wish you could have seen everything this year. 

 

After experiencing HHN 22-25, I'm convinced HHN 26 marks the beginning of a new chapter for HHN; where Universal makes an effort to create an event the die hard fans and general public can both love.

[JDW]

3 hours ago, Tich0las said:

 

Thanks man. Wish you could have seen everything this year. 

 

After experiencing HHN 22-25, I'm convinced HHN 26 marks the beginning of a new chapter for HHN; where Universal makes an effort to create an event the die hard fans and general public can both love.

 

Thanks, we are going to go back on Sunday so hopefully I can hit the last 3 houses. Maybe get in some of the ones I liked as well.

[PeoriaBJJ]

good review!!!

[YourPallbearer]

On 9/27/2016 at 2:08 PM, Tich0las said:

 

 

4) Tomb of the Ancients 

 

 a two way path

 

 

 

Not no more.
The path was open the first time I went through then the next night they closed it off with vines. You could only go right after that. I have no way of knowing if that was a temporary thing or not.