P-towns HHN26 review (non-hater edition)...

[PeoriaBJJ]

Ok... I went 4 nights in a row: Sept 29,30 and Oct 1, 2. I had a ROF pass with Express. I got my monies worth and saw all houses every night (with one exception, read!). I put non-hater edition in the title bc I will talk about what I liked more than was I disliked. Although I do address a few dislikes for sure. Im just not one to nit-pick too much, I enjoy the event no matter what. I always say 'if you're lucky enough to go to HHN, you're lucky enough.' Here we go....

 

 

Lines:

I never waited more than 10 minutes in any line with the exception of when they closed Krampus to clean up some water on the 1st. They said we could come back but we just waited. About 20 minutes. No biggie.

Scare Zones:

Survive or Die-

 

Fun scare zone. Nothing too original or crazy. Great costumes for sure. Anything post-apocalyptic usually looks pretty good at night. Actors were definitely in character and having fun. The crumbling building projections are always great! 3/5

Banshee’s Liar-

 

This is my favorite area for a scare zone. Always has been. Last year was amazing, and even the year before was great. This year though… fell a little flat. No color to speak of, the costumes were rather bland too. Where were the lights? The color? The music. On our 4^th night they play Promentory (theme from Last of the Mohicans) which is a favorite of mine. It really worked in that zone which made it a lot better. Maybe just for me bc I love that composition? It was still cool but I we’ve seen so much better over there. Still a fun walk through that part of the park during HHN! 3/5

Dead Man’s Wharf-

 

Great idea. Great costumes. Great set. Crowded AF! Damn that boat was SICK! Very well designed scare zone. Actors were on point. Lighting was perfect. Just such a bottle neck on the busy nights. But very enjoyable and I got some great photos. 4/5

Vamp 1955-

 

I really liked this SZ. Cool idea! A couple times my wife and I sat on a bench and just took in the sights and sounds of this zone. We saw LOTS of people scared in this zone. It wasn’t until they were right up on you that you realized it was a vampire. Loved the float and the bats being projected on the walls. 3/5

A Chance in Hell-

 

I’m torn on this one. I loved the float Chance was on while she was barking. LOL we saw her talking to like an 8 year old kid and it was hilarious. The other static floats were kind of blah but got the point across. Fun zone. I think people really liked it. Good zone to walk into the event with… 3/5

 

Houses:

American Horror Story-

 

This house nailed it. Damn this was fun! It was cool to see all the characters from the featured seasons. A couple of the Lady Gaga’s were spot on. I told my wife I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out that one of them was actually her. Lots of Twistys! Sets were great! Saw a little Jack tribute in the Freak Show section. The scene with Liz and Iris was cool. Glad to see Uni is not veering away from the gun play! Really well done house. Glad this IP finally made it to HHN! 5/5

The Exorcist-

 

I walked into this maze with a touch of doubt. I wasn’t sure how they were going to translate a horror masterpiece into a haunted house. Well they did. And they did it well. Awesome house! Lots of Reagans, lots of noise and the scene where the ancient ruins of Pazuzu showed up through the walls was incredible. A&D killed it with this house. The voice of Reagan/demon in the movie is so creepy. Well imagine that at 100 decibels! Scary as hell. The actresses that did Reagan and the actors that did Merrin and Karras were great! The guy in the Capt Howdy make-up was great too. Good scare! Nice end to it too going through the ruins. Loved this house. 5/5

Ghost Town-

 

Fun house! Ghost cowboys isn’t the greatest/most original idea but the sets MORE than made up for it. As soon as you walk into the jail you are in a ghost town. The bar scene was fantastic too. The bridge over the canyon was a nice touch with the mirrors making the canyon effect (people please quit spitting on the mirrors!). Again… lots of guns pointed at you! Glad Uni isn’t pussifying the event. Overall a really good, fun house. Scenically one of the best! 4/5

The Walking Dead-

 

I will preface this with I’m so GD sick of TWD at HHN. Hopefully this was its send-off year. Now with that said… this was the best TWD house ever. I actually enjoyed it. Great scares, great sets (the sewer was awesome). I had fun every time I went through. The masks are getting a little tired, but there were some new costumes in there I don’t think I’ve seen before. IMO the best out of the 5 years at HHN. 3/5

Lunatics Playground 3-D-

 

Ok to anyone who was an actor in this house…. You did great. BUT… this house was garbage. We’ve seen all this before. More than once. Too much random noise, too much strobe light, too annoying. We did this house the first night and didn’t return. This is the only house along with the Alice Cooper house a few years ago that I’ve done this with. I just think after the first run I wasn’t gonna enjoy it any more. So that was that. I feel like the 3-D houses are throw-a-ways anymore. 1/5

Texas Chain Saw Massacre-

 

Very high hopes for this house bc its probably my favorite movie of all time. They NAILED it. First off I want to address the Leatherface actors… all these dudes were gigantic. I’m 6’5”. I don’t look up to too many people. These dudes were all my height or taller. And husky to boot! So when Leatherface comes running down the hall chainsaw first, you get a little anxious. It worked. The sets were fantastic and pretty accurate to the film. It was billed as having all the kills in the film but I didn’t see that whiny little Franklin getting sawed LOL. But Sally jumping out the window was a great touch to end on…. Well except for the 2 or 3 Leatherfaces waiting to jump you outside the maze! Really fun house and did the film total justice. I even bought the shirt. First shirt I’ve bought at HHN in several years. Fits like shit, but I’ll still wear it! 5/5

Tomb of the Ancients-

 

Another fun original house from A&D. Claustrophobic? You bet. Scares coming from everywhere and stuff hanging from everywhere too. Great scenery and the cast was great too. Did I see a converted AWIL puppet made into a crocodile creature? That was bad ass! Only complaint I had was when two pieces of “fishing string” got caught together to catch my tall self around the neck and about drop me! Hopefully no one else got caught. Really cool house with cool creatures and great set design. You were definitely in an ancient pyramid (or whatever). 4/5

Halloween II-

 

I hope you like Michael Myers bc there were 500 in this house. They were everywhere!!! Loved it. True to Halloween 2 with the sets to match. Again, nice tribute to Halloween 3 thrown in there “Trick or Treat!” LOL. The end scenes where the place in on fire was awesome. It looked fantastic! I could handle a Halloween house every year! 4/5

Krampus-

 

This house was FUN! Something about the giant headed Krampus minions that are just creepy. The sets and costumes were so good in this house. The smell of ginger bread in the kitchen was awesome. Yeah a couple static Krumpus’ can possibly be a complaint but not enough to take anything away from this house. Its was a blast! 4/5

 

Shows:

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure-

 

First thing I noticed was… new female dancers for this year. I’ll leave it at that. LOL. This year wasn’t a particularly great year writing wise. It was funny but not the best I’ve seen. Still a great time and I got every single pop culture reference. Which is good for me… Im 39 and some shit just doesn’t come into my daily life like it did 10 or 15 years ago! Especially MTV. 3/5

Academy of Villains House of Fear-

 

Ok I wasn’t thrilled with a dance troop coming to the east coast HHN. Then I read they were horror themed. So I thought I’d give it a try. Not too bad. Watched in once ad enjoyed it. Not enough to make a point to watch it again but it was cool. Props to the performers… some serious athletes in that group! 3/5

 

Overall we had a great time as usual! Not the greatest year for scare zones but the houses (minus the 3-D house) were all really awesome! I got to add Leatherface and Pazuzu to my list of horror icons that I got to come face to face with at HHN! Over all I give the event 4/5. Not eh best year ever but really, really good though! We'll be back!

Edited October 4, 2016 by PeoriaBJJ

[criticalanalysis]

1 hour ago, PeoriaBJJ said:

This house nailed it. Damn this was fun! It was cool to see all the characters from the featured seasons. A couple of the Lady Gaga’s were spot on. I told my wife I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out that one of them was actually her. Lots of Twistys! Sets were great! Saw a little Jack tribute in the Freak Show section. The scene with Liz and Iris was cool. Glad to see Uni is not veering away from the gun play! Really well done house. Glad this IP finally made it to HHN! 5/5

 

 

It's funny, people who I know who don't like AHS (including me) don't like the house. Those that like AHS loved it.

 

1 hour ago, PeoriaBJJ said:

I feel like the 3-D houses are throw-a-ways anymore. 1/5

Absolutely agree. I don't know why they bother - in fact, it ruins Chance's ability to come back anymore. Make a bad house then no one wants to see her. I already didn't like her anyway so this solidified.

 

1 hour ago, PeoriaBJJ said:

Very high hopes for this house bc its probably my favorite movie of all time. They NAILED it.

 

Completely agree. Felt honestly horrific to be in the house. Whoever oversaw the creation of this one should do all the houses.