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HHN 31 Reviews


JDW
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  • 2 weeks later...

I think this year is the most fun I've ever had at the event, and I will seriously miss it! But here are my rankings.


House Ranking - I'm not gonna lie, some of these houses were hard to rank!


1. Descendants of Destruction - Set design is top-notch for a Sprung Tent and features some intense scares. The bioluminescent cave finale is one of the coolest scenes I've experienced in a haunted house! The devolved humans are designed perfectly and are genuinely creepy! I love the intensity of this house and it never slows down! HHN has created something really good and I hope they consider this house for designing intense houses! I would love to see this house win HOTY, but there's another one lower on my list that I think will win. The butcher scene, bioluminescent caves, and the subway trains throughout are what seal the deal for me! I fell in love with this house and wound up doing it 10 times!

2. Bugs: Eaten Alive - It's funny, it's gross, it's BUGS! But on a serious note, the 1950s Sci-Fi theme is awesome to me! The storyline is very intriguing and quite creative in my opinion. The set design is average, but the scares are unique and the house overall is very different from a typical HHN haunted house. I'm a sucker for anything 50's aesthetic, so this one was of course gonna rank high on my list. Did this one 10 times as well!

3. Universal Monsters: Legends Collide - VERY immersive as the set design is immaculate and is much more impressive than I thought it would be. The scares are hidden extremely well in there and slowly become more intense as you go further into Mummy's tomb. Also, that triple scare was crazy! An upgrade from Bride of Frankenstein Lives.

4. Dead Man's Pier - Wow. Just, wow. This house kind of felt like Carnival Graveyard with the open floor plan style, but I think this house does it a little bit better. It's atmospheric and immersive! The house itself isn't very scary, but the set design, audio design, and overall story make up for it. Let's just say, I was seriously in shock the entire time. Just the sheer scale blew me away. The ship scene with the girl playing the violin is probably one of the coolest scenes I've experienced in an HHN house! Even though it's number 4 on my list, it's HOTY material.

5. The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare - This one genuinely shocked me! I had it at either number 9 or 10 on my hype list for the longest time, but it seriously proved me dead wrong. It's different from a typical HHN haunted house, which is cool. It can be kind of confusing if you're not familiar with The Weeknd or the music videos the house is based on. It's very strobe heavy, but it helps play into the storyline of the house! The mirror maze is trippy and can throw people off easily! The queue is probably one of the best HHN has had, due in part to the soundtrack. The sets are pretty good and the scares are pretty good as well! The frog creature scenes are probably my favorite. Would shock me if Dawn FM doesn't happen next year.

6. Halloween - I know many people have this ranked A LOT lower, but it was genuinely good! The Myers house facade halfway through was pretty impressive and the house, in general, is quite different compared to the 2014 version. There are some pretty cool scares in there and can get you REAL good if you're fixated on something else. It's Michael Myers galore, but it's still a lot of fun! The mirror maze at the end was a nice touch!

7. Hellblock Horror - I went into this thinking it was gonna be complete garbage, but it wound up being pretty good! There are so many different creatures in there and it was fun to point out creatures from the past HHNs! It was put together very quickly, but it seems Universal knew what they wanted and figured out how to create something fast. The set design is surprisingly good but feels a tad bit repetitive. The story, the scares, and the set design are all there, which makes it an awesome haunted house!

8. The Horrors of Blumhouse - This house is an upgrade from the past Horrors of Blumhouse, but my only problem with it is the location. Fast and Furious isn't the best location for a haunted house, as it seems there isn't enough space to work with. The Freaky section isn't bad. It has some pretty cool sets and creative/hidden scares. It just felt a little bit short. The Black Phone section was amazing! It's dark, long, and scary! The Grabber is a pretty cool character to come in contact with! I appreciate how the house is split into two, which makes it feel like two separate houses!

9. Fiesta De Chupacabras - The facade is insanely impressive! The set design and scares are immaculate in this, but it kind of falls flat. The characters are cool looking, but the lack of Chupacabra scares was very odd to me. The Chupacabra design is very cool and scary, but the original design they were going for is MUCH better than what we got. This house isn't bad at all in my opinion. Sure it may fall flat toward the end, but it is still a fun haunted house to walk through!

10. Spirits of the Coven - I like the story of this one! I love the prohibition era it's set in and does a great job of throwing you into that era. I always love when real history plays a role in the story of a haunted house. It starts pretty strong but evolves into a confusing mess. The first half is REALLY good, but the underground sections are kind of dull and confusing. It's surprisingly long for being in Soundstage 22. The witch queen at the end is pretty cool, but this house suffers due to the latter half of it. Again, this house isn't bad for me at all! It's still fun to walk through and offers an interesting experience!


Scarezones - It was pretty hard to rank the zones this year! They're all really strong!


1. Sweet Revenge - The whole 1950's theme is what sold it to me. The 1950s music and costumes were crazy cool! The soundtrack is amazing as well. Just the whole vibe of this zone is crazy cool.

2. Scarecrow: Cursed Soil - It seems like the Central Park zones are getting better and better every year! So many different characters in this zone. The farmhouse alone is impressive and just the immersive feel of this zone is incredible!

3. Horrors of Halloween - What a cool zone to walk through first! Offers a sneak peek into this year's event and helps set the mood and overall theme of this year's event! Seeing the Pumpkin Lord and the neon sign again was awesome.

4. Conjure The Dark - This one surprised me! Kind of expected all the characters to be similar to each other, but they are vastly different. The soundtrack is amazing and the little stage show is cool!

5. Graveyard: Deadly Unrest - It has some really interesting characters and set pieces! A very atmospheric zone, it's kind of quiet and almost gives off a sad vibe. Overall, a really good zone!


Shows

1. Ghoulish! A Halloween Tale - Of course, it's not as good as Marathon of Mayhem, but it was still a lot of fun! The soundtrack and visuals are amazing!

2. Halloween Nightmare Fuel Wildfire - It's very similar to last year's show, but it's still fun to watch.

 

 

Overall, this year is amazing! I thought it was going to be hard for Universal to beat HHN 30, but they beat it! The houses and scarezones are very strong this year and are very different from each other! I loved the traditional Halloween theme and will seriously miss this year's event. Thank you to Universal for putting on an amazing year!

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