Henry14 Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 (edited) What is up everyone? This is Henry14 here and I am reviewing last year's event in order to get ready for my return to HHN 2016. Now this was my second year attending HHN and it definitely had its ups and downs. I will be ranking the mazes from worst to best and I will also talk about the scare zones and terror tram. I will try to be as detailed as possible in this review. Without further ado, let's get right into this! 6. AVP: Alien vs Predator Back in 2014, my second favorite maze was alien vs predator! The sets were awesome and the character designs were unbelievable. And of course, it has one of the best scenes that John Murdy and Chris Williams ever pulled off in HHN; the Alien Queen finale! But unfortunately, this was my least favorite maze in 2015 because it was the SAME...EXACT... THING!!! The only difference in this year's maze was that they added a new scare in the cop car...that's it! Everything else was just so predictable and boring, and I don't want a horror nights house to be either of those two things. The maze itself was awesome, but I would've preferred to see something different here. Final Grade: D- 5. This Is the End 3D When I first heard that this was going to be a house for horror nights this year, I thought it was just a sick prank. But no...it was real. I had low expectations for this one, but at the same time I tried to be optimistic about it. And when I finally walked through the maze...I actually had fun. Huh. I know most HHN fans hated this is the end last year but it's not all that bad. The facade did feel kinda cartoony but I thought Michael Cera twitching was a nice touch. When I walked in, it smelled like puke but it wasn't as bad as it was in Clowns 3D. James Franco and Seth Rogan covered in vomit also looked like a cartoon. The sets didn't look exactly like the rooms in the movie but I blame the 3D for that. The scares were so weak in this maze. You could totally see the demons right in front of you and they're not even scaring you, they're just waving their arms reaching out at you. The hallways in the house were just so unnecessary and it made the sets feel very lackluster and sloppy. It just has videos of James Franco and the gang from the movie and weird hipster junkie posters. And what's with all the fucking palm trees?!?! I know it's supposed to make me feel that I'm in Hollywood where James Franco lives but we don't need to see that! We're already actually in fucking Hollywood!! Anyway, the vibe of the house did make me feel like I was in a horror comedy maze. It had all the funny dialogue from the movie despite it being bleeped the f**k out. It also has the exorcism--oh sorry excuse me-- the "POSSESSION" of Jonah Hill which I thought was cool. My favorite scene in the maze was the welcome to heaven, motherf**kers room. Craig Robinson was pretending to giving me a fist pump, but when heaven turned into hell he tried to stab me with his pitchfork. LOL! When I went to hell, it was like a culmination of the all the 3D mazes that were ever in HHN. Demon statues from Black Sabbath. The shitty walls from Clowns. That room really bothered me. Overall, it's not the worst HHN maze IMO *cough "Face Off: In The Flesh" cough cough*. It does have a lot of flaws, but it didn't ruin my experience while going through this house. Final Grade: D+ 4. Crimson Peak: Maze of Madness I like the idea of having a Guillermo del Toro maze in HHN, but I really wasn't looking forward to this one. The facade was really lame and I hate how it said the title of the movie. It was making it obvious that this was a promotional maze and that made me cringe a bit. When I walked into this house, I noticed that there was a shitload of black transition walls with strings all over. Other than that, the sets were beautiful! The detail in this maze was on point and I give Murdy and Del Toro props for that. The scares here were as weak as the ones in This is the End. The character design was creepy, but it didn't have me running through out the maze. The ending was kind of underwhelming. It was just red clay with the smell of mothballs. I went through this before I watched the movie. After I finally watched it, I thought to myself it was just like the maze; beautiful to look at, but very predictable and boring. This didn't disappoint me because I didn't have high expectations but I still thought it was pretty weak. Walking through this maze is like dating a hot girl with an uninteresting personality. Final Grade: C+ 3. The Walking Dead: Wolves Not Far It's at this point in time that we were all tired of this damn property. "2012: Very awesome, 2013: This was also kinda cool, 2014: Meh, I don't like it, 2015: Best one since 2012!" The only TWD mazes I've been in were the 2014 and 2015 ones. Oh, and the permanent daytime attraction. The facade for this maze was astounding and it felt really gargantuan! As soon as I walked into Terminus, I smelled barbecue! That scene with the throat slicing was really great and a good distraction for a good scare. The actors who played the cannibals of Terminus were really into it and all the Terminus scenes felt really intense. Of course the walkers are doing their own thing and trying to eat you. But the amount of them is what really sells to me that it was like I was in a real zombie infestation. In 2014, they promised more dead than ever. But last year they had more walkers here than in 2014's maze and scare zone combined! The truck scene at the end really had me in an intense and claustrophobic situation. It was a great room with hanging bodies and real walkers and I didn't know which was which. I do have some complaints about this maze. Not every set was impressive, there were a couple of weak rooms like the front the church and the cardboard box infested solar energy factory hallways. And again, it's the Walking Dead! I would very much appreciate it for John Murdy to get his hands on other television properties. But overall, this was a good maze and I liked the scares, energy, and the sets. Final Grade: B+ 2. Halloween: Michael Myers Comes Home I was looking forward to this maze. I'm not a big Michael Myers fan but I dig him. The facade was brilliant and I loved seeing little Mikey killing his sister. The beginning scene was very ominous and when I saw little Mikey staring at me, it creeped me out a little. The room with the dead dog was neat and it smelled pretty bad as it should have. The thing that I loved most about this maze was that it captured the spirit of the film very well. Not just the film but the character of Michael Myers himself. I really felt like he was trying to kill us. The sets were amazing and were just like the movie. The only thing that had me bothered were those god damn WALLPAPER LEAF HEDGES!! It took me out of the experience and it annoyed the shit out of me! I fucking hated that shit! I'm sorry for raging about that one scene but it just bothered me so much! I thought I wasn't gonna get any scares because there was a couple in front of us that got all the scares in the first 1/3 of the maze. But after that there were trick-or-treaters and Michael Myers popping out left and right! The scare that got me the most was in a transition black wall scene. I was expecting a scare, but I didn't know when it was going to happen. The ending was really amazing and intense. It was meant to represent that you can't kill the boogeyman. It was handled perfectly and the scares were so good. I couldn't tell which Michael was real or just a dummy. This entire maze was so good and I was terrified while going through Michael Myers Comes Home. Final Grade: A- 1. Insidious: Return to the Further Out of all the years that I've been attending HHN, no maze is more petrifying than Insidious: Return to the Further! I've never been to Back in Business as other people say that it was the scariest maze ever. I can't imagine what that house was like if it was scarier than this! The facade was just like the house in the movie and as soon as I heard that eerie music I ran into this maze just to get it over with. The sets were really great and the feel in every room felt very menacing and dark and well...insidious! There was barely any fog but I thought that was good not having too much of it. The scares were really intense and very unpredictable! That's what I loved most about this maze. This is how every HHN maze is supposed to be! I don't think any house can ever top the scares that Return to the Further had. Every scare made me feel like I was going to die. In a typical HHN maze, there are some rooms that have a curtain that's easy to spot and you know that's there is an actor behind it waiting to scare you. The curtains in the maze either blend in with the environment or are totally acceptable with a good trigger scare. Some of the scares don't come from a curtain, they get you from a wall or from above or pretending to be a dummy. Another redeeming quality from this maze is the transition walls. The black walls work well in this house because the further from the insidious trilogy is just nothing but darkness, fog, and a feeling of dread. The ending was a perfect finale for a trilogy house. You have all the three main antagonists from the films and they're all scaring you in Elise's seance room. I'm seriously trying to think of a flaw that this maze has. Hmmm...Uhhh...the whole maze smelled like wood...I guess. This maze was completely flawless! I absolutely loved this maze because it genuinely frightened me and so far no other maze has done that. I can't wait to see an Insidious 4 maze in the future.This is my favorite HHN maze ever, hands down! Final Grade: A+ Terror Tram: Survive the Purge This was a fairly good tram and it was definitely better than the 2014 one. When you have a bunch of mindless walkers trying to eat you there's not much of a sense of danger and intensity. But with human purgers, you feel like you're a real target and these sadistic Americans want to really slaughter you. The most terrifying thing about that terror tram was the dirt hill, because there's nothing scarier than more unnecessary walking. Despite it having a great cast of killers and freaks, I feel like there's actually no terror in this. And I had the same issue with 2014. It's like "Oh look the purge is happening and now we're going to kill you! Rawr!" Also, even though it's better than 2014, this tram felt so similar to the walking dead one; "There's chainsaw people who want to kill you in Whoville. You go to Bates Motel and see corpses on the floor. You walk up that god forsaken hill. You go to a little mini maze. You're at War of the Worlds. You go in another mini maze. Chainsaws again. End of tram. Have a wonderful night!" Thank god the route changed this year because I want to get scared, not exercise. But all that aside, I had some good scares here and the actors were really having fun with their roles. Final Grade: C Scare Zones: In 2014, the scare zones were a lot of fun but I didn't really much care for them that much because they were all kind of weak. The zones in 2015 were no exception. I'm not really going into full detail about the zones, I'll just be giving these a grade and move on. Corpz:C- Dark Christmas: B- Exterminatorz: A- The Purge: A- Jabbawockeez: Oh boy! People in the HHN community did not react well to this when it was first announced. I didn't rage when it was announced, I just didn't care for it. But I saw the show anyway and I gotta say, the Jabbawockeez are really talented but...why is this here? This show was in Halloween Horror Nights, but I did not see Halloween, I did not see Horror, and I didn't realize I was watching this at Night. With Bill and Ted they called their show an Excellent Halloween Adventure so they at least tried to remind us that we were in HHN. The Jabbawockeez could've at least danced to Halloween music in the show to have a horror nights vibe to it. But they didn't, and I had no idea why! The show itself was pretty good. I thought it was just going to be a random compilation of dancing, but it had an actual story and it's pretty fitting for the kind of dance group they are. They even had some comedy in this and that really surprised me. The Deez Nuts reference had me dying because it was so unexpected and stupid. I know it's idiotic but that's what makes it work for a show like this. I know a lot of people in the HHN community didn't enjoy this show but that's okay, we all have different opinions. I thought it was a great show but I would have preferred to see something else. Final Grade: B Right before I left the park, there was the chainsaw chase out happening like always. But this one was a very special chase out. Mr. John Murdy himself was standing in front of a bunch of scare actors that were giving him a special thanks for HHN 2015. They were chanting and yelling and holding up their weapons. It was really touching and sadistic at the same time. That was the first time I saw John Murdy in person and it was so cool! I like his work and I noticed that he likes to take risks. Not all of them went so well like This is the End or Universal's Monsters Remix, but I appreciate that he wants to tackle on properties so he can do something creative or imaginative with them. He is very passionate about his work and I hope the next future creative director is like this. So overall, the entire event was really good and I would have to say that this was a bit better than HHN 2014. It had stronger mazes, a better terror tram, and an enjoyable show. I had a blast last year and I hope the upcoming years in the future will be even better! HHN Hollywood 2015 gets an A-! That concludes my review for the 2015 event! This is my first review for this site so if guys have any suggestions on what else I should do or how I could improve, please let me know as I get ready for my review of HHN Hollywood 2016. Thanks for reading and I hope you guys have a wonderful day! Edited October 11, 2016 by Henry14 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTH316 Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 I really loved this review, I'm kinda shocked TitE is over AvP even though it's a repeat, but cmon! Haha can't wait to read your review on this year and to see if anything tops Insidious for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henry14 Posted October 11, 2016 Author Share Posted October 11, 2016 On 10/10/2016 at 2:32 AM, DTH316 said: I really loved this review, I'm kinda shocked TitE is over AvP even though it's a repeat, but cmon! Haha can't wait to read your review on this year and to see if anything tops Insidious for you. Thanks man! Your feedback just made my day. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsylumSB Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 I agree....this is a well written review of 2015 (and pushes me to finally post my 2014 and 2016 reviews). And we have agreement with AVP. I thought the maze was a bit lacking in various areas when compared to 2014. Although, This Is the End was a bit higher on my list of attractions. On October 10, 2016 at 2:32 AM, DTH316 said: I really loved this review, I'm kinda shocked TitE is over AvP even though it's a repeat, but cmon! Haha can't wait to read your review on this year and to see if anything tops Insidious for you. Ahhh DTH, don't buy into the hipster TiTE hate train. It was not that bad. Hee Hee! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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