DTH's Something About Titans, Horrors, Games, the Further, a Shining and Ash - 9/16 Trip Review

[DTH316]

Universal Studios Hollywood presents
in association with Halloween Horror Nights
DTH's Trip Review
Something About Titans, Horrors, Games, the Further, a Shining and Ash. - 9/16 Trip Review
September 16th, 2017.
5 PM - 2 AM

 

As always, this is a very detailed review. By it's nature, spoilers are abound. This is for people who have already gone and want a refresher, for people who will never be able to go and want perspective outside of just watching walkthroughs, and for people who don't mind spoilers and want to just get more excited.

 

[ARRIVAL/EARLY ENTRY]
Arrived in the ET parking lot around 3:30 PM only to find parking has been raised to 25 whole smackaroos! This is a major inflation increase from the usual $20, or even the $15 it was merely 2-3 years ago. Anyway, met up with friends in front of the movie theater. Went to the Souvenir Store and around 4:40, we went to go line up for Early Entry. At 5 on the dot, they started letting us in, but with the line, it took a bit. At around 5:10, got wrist banded and made our way into the park. There actually wasn’t anyone checking wristbands at this time. Saw some employees later stationed around 6:30 by the Shining, but that’s it.  I wonder how many people snuck in that night. On the Stairway, I noticed the line was huge for Insidious already, most of the patio full and down the initial stairs you first walk up which is about a 2 hour+ wait. Decided to stick with my game plan by doing Saw first and headed straight to the Metro sets. None of the scare zones were going (I guess those open right at 7, which is a shame, because I easily could’ve missed them unless I made a point to go back).

[SAW: THE GAMES OF JIGSAW]
Lined Up: 5:28 PM
Advertised Wait: 10
Actual Wait: 13
Time In: 5:41 PM

 

They didn’t open the maze until 5:40, which was annoying, because if I would’ve known, I would’ve headed to American Horror Story first, which was open at 5:30. But I can’t complain too much, things worked out exactly as they needed to. We were one of the first in line for this, so immediately we were let in. As for the maze itself, walking in, things were much different from the first Saw mazes in ’09/’10… but also exactly the same. Just less. I read somewhere else that this maze is like walking through a museum with a scare every once and awhile and I agree with that 100%. What the hell happened to the idea of scaring while coming up with the idea for this maze?! I encountered I think maybe 3 scares the entire thing. Watched a video to make sure I didn’t miss anything and it’s basically the same. This is such a huge step down from the original mazes, it’s a joke, and I feel sorry for anyone who missed them. A few examples: the barbed wire trap actor just stood there while in the original he thrashed around in agony, the people in traps here just were stuck in the traps while the original they would lunge their hands out to interact with guests, the original bathroom was actually freakin’ huge with live actors in there. Another thing that was great back than, the plants in the crowd that would get kidnapped right in front of you. This maze wasn’t entirely bad though, as there was one REALLY great part: the saws on the walls, until you turn a corner and one comes directly at you. Got me pretty good.

 

Facade - 7. It’s not bad. But it doesn’t stick out. Doesn’t seem like they thought a lot about this one.
Set Design - 6. I keep comparing to the original mazes because I feel like I have to. It was way more cohesive, while this had awkward transitions that didn’t make sense.
Sound Design - 6. Again, the original felt like constant action. Something was missing here.
Scareactor Design - 10. Here’s one area they improved. The traps looked more real and the gore effects were more top notch. For example, the rack trap in ’10 was pathetic, this one was pretty gnarly looking.
Cast Performance - 7. I can’t fault the actors for not being directed to do more than they did, but I felt like they were doing their best with what they had.
Atmosphere/Tone - 6. It was missing the scares and the action. It got a bit stale and boring half way through when I realized nothing was happening.
Length - 7. Considering how much dead space they used when they could’ve been cramming in more traps, this ended when I wanted it to. I was done with this maze by the end, in a negative way.
Scare Level - 5. Non-existent, almost. I got 3 scares. THREE. I think there’s an intentional 5 designed into the maze and that’s it. There’s that many scares in the finale of Insidious this year, so WTF?
Story Comprehension - 5. So we go into Jigsaw’s lair and then uhhhh… I won’t dock it too badly, the original mazes didn’t make much more sense either, but at least that maze had a flow.
Personal Bias Points - 5. I missed Saw at Horror Nights, but they totally messed this up. My original score immediately after getting out of the maze was a ‘C’, but now thinking about it more critically, it’s sadly one of the lowest scores I’ve ever given for a maze that I was actually anticipating…

 

64 out of 100. ‘D’

 

[AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ROANOKE]
Lined Up: 5:49 PM
Advertised Wait: 25
Actual Wait: WALK ON
Time In: 5:49 PM

 

I didn’t like last year’s AHS maze, and I hated this last season of the show, so this was at the bottom of my anticipation list. Luckily, this is much better than last year’s maze and the actual season of the show. We were very lucky to walk into the maze while it had no wait and did it with nobody in front or behind us. We got every intended scare without them being ruined and there were many parts in the maze that were so dark, I didn’t know where we were going. I went the wrong way at one point, towards a boo hole, and got scared pretty dang good and was like “well okay than, apparently that is not the right direction!” The finale was also my favorite part, with a giant stick man coming after us. I’m used to this trick being done often at Knotts, but wasn’t expecting it at HHN. This was the scariest maze of the night (not my favorite though), but I can say that’s because we got the intended experience of doing this while alone. If you can find a way to see this maze like that, I highly recommend, but I can’t promise you’ll enjoy this maze as much as I did. With that said, there are some faults, and they’re mostly design-wise. The cast was fantastic and on fire, but it doesn’t compare to my favorites.

 

Facade - 3. Whack. Last year’s was an anthology, so I graded on each section’s facades. This year was no freakin’ excuse.
Set Design - 7. It was a bit TOO dark at points, but overall it looked pretty standard. Nothing stand out, but nothing bad.
Sound Design - 8. There was the right amount of dread built in, but it could’ve been more immersive.
Scareactor Design - 7. A bit too heavily dependent on the pig guys.
Cast Performance - 10. They were ferocious as I’ve ever seen a cast at Horror Nights. The first nurse lady in the MURDER room scared the hell out of me without a trigger scare. Major kudos to her.
Atmosphere/Tone - 10. It oddly didn’t feel like the show… it was actually scarier, there was more dread, and it more nerve wracking.
Length - 10. I felt like this maze was never going to end and it made it more terrifying.
Scare Level - 10. I got the best scares of the night in here, and some of the best ever at the event.
Story Comprehension - 7. If I had never seen the show, I would have no idea what the hell was going on. It makes no sense, but it looked simple, and was laid out in a easy to digest fashion. However, it could’ve conveyed the events of the maze a bit better.
Personal Bias Points - 10. For being one of the scarier mazes and from making a great come back and improving on the show, I hold this maze in high regard.

 

92 out of 100. ‘A’-

 

[ASH VS. EVIL DEAD]
Lined Up: 5:54 PM/1:01 AM
Advertised Wait: 15 minutes/10 minutes
Actual Wait: 13 minutes/Walk On
Time In: 6:07 PM/1:01 AM

 

Got to do this maze twice. The first time was in a huge conga line and I saw a lot of the same scares over and over again, or I missed them completely. However, my second time, there was nobody in front or behind me, and I got the intended experience, so I’ll judge it on that second time. I’m a huge fan of the franchise and I enjoy the show, but I wasn’t too excited about it coming to Horror Nights. We want the original movie represented already!!! But I took what I could get and figured this would at least be fun. For the most part it is, and I don’t mind half of the black walls they used for transitions, but I do agree the other half of them were either too long or unnecessary/awkward. Without that in mind, what was represented, was pretty good. The actors were into their goofy roles, which could easily go south very quick with people not committing to it. None of this experience was necessarily scary, but it does give some good jumps and startles. Looking at the experience as a whole though, it doesn’t feel like a fan made this maze. It seems like someone watched it once, wrote down some things they knew they could pull off, and was done with it. It’s missing so many iconic moments from the show. (I watched the Orlando version and that had quite a lot more represented). Even the bit where we go back to the old cabin from the original series didn’t seem all that inspired. The cellar door is off to the back left corner, going unnoticed with no attention to it, when it’s such an iconic staple of the entire franchise even in the remake. The room was also way too small and just felt like, “well they go there in the show, so we have to at least mention it.” Regardless of all the negatives, the fun is on the heavy side for a lot of it, that’s mostly due to the cast, some great make up, puppets, and a few good set design moments.

 

Facade - 7. Well, it does it’s job.
Set Design - 6. Some of the black walls that people are complaining about aren’t that bad, and a lot of the maze has some great designs, but there is a lacking as a whole in inspiration or love for the show.
Sound Design - 10. I think this really excels, as this helps a lot in understanding what the hell is going on in this maze, and giving the right tone of fun and scary, but not too over the top.
Scareactor Design - 10. I think Ash looked great, along with Cheryl, and pretty much everybody ripped right out of the show that they do represent.
Cast Performance - 10. They were all sold on conveying their silly characters, so props to them.
Atmosphere/Tone - 8. It was a bit funky, which I think was the point, but the transitions having no atmosphere or tone does hold it back from making it a more cohesive experience.
Length - 8. It was the right length, I just don’t think it was the right size. With a bit more room or utilizing a lot of the black wall areas for more scenes, this would’ve been a lot better.
Scare Level - 8. The second time I went through, a lot of the scares hit a lot harder. I think the cast found their timing and groove better as the night went on.
Story Comprehension - 8. Due to the sound design, a lot of this maze makes sense, but some tidbits don’t. However, this maze makes a lot of sense considering a lot of it could easily go off the rails in comparison to something like AHS, where the entire essence and why of the show was missing, as where this maze, it’s easier to follow.
Personal Bias Points - 9. This was a much more solid maze than it should be considering a lot of its downfalls. I had fun, it had some good scares, and I just love the franchise, but I know more TLC could’ve gone into it.

84 out of 100. ‘B’

 

[THE SHINING]
Lined Up: 6:26 PM/12:28 AM
Advertised Wait: 50 minutes/30 minutes
Actual Wait: 29 minutes/17 minutes
Time In: 6:55 PM/12:45 AM

 

Another maze I got to do twice, but the first experience was a bit better. Like the Exorcist last year, this was something I wasn’t sure how they were going to pull off, and this actually did better than my expectations of what they could do with the property. While in line, I feel like there’s a bit of a spoiler you can see of the last scene. Over and over again you hear “but you’ve always been the caretaker” and can see a snow mound. I wish they’d keep this more out of sight or move the line. Entering, it felt epic. I wish they would’ve did the typewriter stuff a bit differently, as something about it feels a bit off. The scare in that scene also isn’t that well hidden but it doesn’t help that the scare actor kept their door open a lot of the time instead of pulling it open to reveal themselves. This happened both times I went at completely different times and ruins the illusion. The twins not being actual people is a bit of a letdown, as I wanted a scare to come from them, but I think the pepper ghost effect is pretty cool in this spot. Another thing I hear a lot of negative feedback on, but doesn’t bug me much, is the elevator scene. Understandably, this is an insanely hard scene to pull off and although the projection is slightly warped instead of completely meshed into the environment, I think the illusion is done well enough. My only gripe is the image flashes to show other images like the movie. Further into the maze, the better it gets though, as now we encounter some of the long halls and creepy inhabitants within the maze. There’s a guy behind a scrim holding up a glass who I can’t imagine doing that job and saying the same thing over and over every 10 seconds, in the same exact manner. It’s a wonder how they decide on what some things can be mannequins, screens or what will be live actors, and my thinking is since he’s never utilized much for a scare, it’s like - what’s the point? He’s doing a great job, I just question the design elements that include him. The second time I went through, I asked the Jack that axes the body on the ground, “what did you kill him for?!” and he gave me a pretty funny shrug, which was a great moment.  The scene I got the best scare from is the woman in the bathtub, plus that smell was so foul — it works on such an eerie, creepy level. The “here’s Johnny” scene is easily my favorite, hitting every point of good acting, design, innovation, show-scene, and a follow up scare. The end hedge maze is fun, but it’s at this point where I started to notice every maze trying to do the same thing with the scare actors up in a box and popping out of the darkness. This worked very effectively last year in the Exorcist, and has worked seldom in other mazes in the past, but now it’s at least 5 times in EVERY - SINGLE - MAZE this year (except for Saw, which has no scares). This and Insidious are the only mazes I forgive for doing it. This, because there’s less to work with, and Insidious, because it’s concept is mostly about the darkness. However, for Titans of Terror, Blumhouse, AHS and Ash, this is overkill and the definition of shooting a dead horse.

 

Facade - 9. The hedge itself is okay, but I bump it up an extra point for the detailed map that’s also out front.
Set Design - 9. I think this was designed beautifully, with a few weak spots and a few things I disagree with, but this may be the only maze this year that gave me the Horror Nights experience I was looking for in terms of set design. Considering that grade is only a 9, when grades in the past have been 10s, even for bad mazes, this is a major indicator in drop in quality. I just wish they put this maze in a bigger space to show more of the grandeur of the property.
Sound Design - 10. REDRUM! REDRUM!
Scareactor Design - 9. The Jack masks are only goofy if you look at them for too long, but considering they pop in and out very fast, it’s pretty effective. Everyone else looks straight out of the movie.
Cast Performance - 10. Everyone here was doing their best work and seemed really into their roles.
Atmosphere/Tone - 10. A lot of the times, I felt like I was in the movie itself and I felt creeped out by being there.
Length - 10. I think there’s a scene or maybe a character or two that could’ve been added in, but by the end, I got exactly what I wanted out of the experience.
Scare Level - 9. With all the elements combined, this makes for some great scares in this maze with a few that hit pretty hard. However, the dark room, pop out of a box high up tactic was getting old, although felt a bit necessary.
Story Comprehension - 8. It’s not exactly clear what’s going on, I think the only thing that’s sure is Jack is going crazy and there’s ghosts. But missing is the family element, I felt like that’s not fully acknowledged. I know, it’s hard, but I have to take it into account.
Personal Bias Points - 9. Could’ve been better, but also considering it could’ve been a lot worse, I was fairly happy with the result and getting to see a classic favorite come to life in a well respected form.

93 out of 100 ‘A’-

 

[THE MUMMY]
We were an hour ahead of schedule, so I decided to give my group one ride we can hit and we chose this. I was disgusted they put an advertisement for the new film at the end of the ride instead of keeping the classic mummy statues.

 

[INSIDIOUS: BEYOND THE FURTHER]
Lined Up: 7:28 PM/11:55 PM
Advertised Wait:  75 minutes/60 minutes
Actual Wait: 36 minutes/24 minutes
Time In: 8:04 PM/12:19 AM

 

My game plan was to come back to the lower lot mazes at the end of the night, but we were an entire hour ahead of schedule, so I figured why not. And then when I did go back at the end of the night to ride Jurassic Park, I noticed the line for Insidious was extremely short even though it had a high wait time, so that’s when we did it again. However, the best time we did the maze was the first time, so I’ll judge it by that. I was pretty excited for this one, mainly because Insidious was easily one of the best mazes the two years it’s been at the event. This year was no exception, however, it doesn’t quite steal away maze of the year, and it doesn’t beat the other two mazes. The first version, the maze seemed more focused, and the second maze, it was just all around scarier. This one has some odd design flaws, where the transitions between movies doesn’t quite make sense and it seems they would’ve been better off just sticking to one movie this time around. For example, I think it starts with Chapter 4, has 2 rooms on the first film, one room on chapter 2, literally one HALLWAY on chapter 3, and then it goes back to Chapter 4 and goes into the finale. WHAT THE? Despite the odd storytelling, the elements come into play quite nicely and give the usual spookiness that Horror Nights needs. There’s a creepy little kid in the maze that constantly pops up and I dig it, as he’s right at the top of the stairs in the beginning. Both times I went through the maze, I would miss the first scare in the room however. In one room, I was greatly distracted by the little kid pulling on a curtain, looking at him for the longest time, until the scare came right in front of him. One of the weakest parts in the maze is the man choking the woman in bed, neither time did he lunge out after guests. The lady about to stab the baby basket was pretty creepy though. Going back into the first movie, I couldn’t help but think, “this was done so much better the first two times.” Even the Red Demon’s lair was just so short and lacking in atmosphere. To sum up, the first half based on Chapter 4 is great, and the second half on the other three movies were done much better the first few times that it’s hard to enjoy it as much. Why even bother with chapter 3 if there’s only going to be ONE HALLWAY on it? The Man Who Can’t Breathe is my favorite character from the series and he’s totally wasted in this maze. The one thing I did want recreated from the other mazes and I was looking forward to, was a scene in the Further with ghosts on both sides, but not this time?! Anyway, the maze ends by a FIVE TIME scare that had us running out of the maze, so I can’t even be all that mad at this maze. It did just an okay job, and most of my friends seemed to rank it number 1 on their list, so definitely don’t miss it, but don’t expect it to be the best it’s ever been.

 

Facade - 9. I like how real and practical the facade looks, but it doesn’t make me scared to go in. And the main reason I’m docking a point is that STUPID CARDBOARD CUT OUT GIRL in the front window, it looks so bad!!
Set Design - 10. Horror Nights always knocks it out of the park with the Insidious mazes. Yes, it could’ve been constructed differently to make more sense, but that’ll be an issue to take up with story, as what was designed looks phenomenal.
Sound Design - 10. Again, the eerie music makes this a very chilling maze to go through and it totally sets the mood.
Scareactor Design - 10. I think one of the best things about the Insidious mazes is how well casted they are, as they’re completely spot on with their look.
Cast Performance - 8. I’m docking a point for the boring choking man and the first room scare that I never got. Like c’mon, I went through twice and missed it both times?!
Atmosphere/Tone - 10. This is Horror Nights at it’s best and immersing their guests into a very scary environment. The second you enter, it’s SCARY.
Length - 7. After everything, I felt like I just wanted more. I wanted more of Chapter 4, I wanted more of the other movies they barely acknowledged. This would’ve been better as a super-maze.
Scare Level - 10. The scares hit hard in here, with some that are really well hidden and some good distractions.
Story Comprehension - 5. Okay, WHAT? I get the first half pretty well, but after that, this maze goes completely down hill and doesn’t even try to have a continuity.
Personal Bias Points - 8. I’m glad they could pull off such a great creepy maze, but I wish they would’ve put more effort into it making more sense. These Insidious mazes would get higher scores with that in mind.

87 out of 100. ‘B’+

 

[TITANS OF TERROR… TRAM]
Lined Up: 8:30 PM
Advertised Wait: 20 minutes
Actual Wait: 9 minutes
Time In: 8:39 PM

 

I’m just not exactly sure what the intended purpose of the Titans of Terror was supposed to be this year. Assuming the maze being last second is true, that would mean this would have been the only representation of the Titans at Horror Nights. Thank God it’s not, because the maze is much better (albeit, not that classic of a maze to begin with). Let’s start with the opening video. At what point is this supposed to make sense? It talks about the killing sprees of each killer, but doesn’t set up why they’re here. It only sets up Chucky being there, but he’s only there right when you get off the tram and the rest has nothing to do with him. It’s a decent section, but that’s it? He was made such a big deal of in marketing and most of his starring moments are in the video? Reminds me of SCREAM 4 YOUR LIFE in a bad way. I enjoy the Jason section, but how does a bed being folded in half outside of the room make sense? The TCM section is just the usual stuff we’ve seen before — they give no creative liberty to this franchise and I’m not sure why. With Jason and Freddy, they will veer off a bit, but TCM always has to stick to the book with stuff we’ve only seen in the movies before. Even in the “1.5” maze of Blood Brothers, it was ALL STUFF we saw in the FIRST movie, and in “Saw Is the Law!!!” The Freddy section was cool, but pales in comparison to what they did with Freddy in the WOTW area in 2008. It felt more like we were in Springfield back than, with the Freddy projections in the windows of the houses. This just threw a bunch of Freddys in the area and called it a day. AND WHY OH WHY do we go back to more TCM stuff, especially when it’s just a scene we’ll see again in the maze?! The ending video gives a slight chuckle, but it felt more pathetic than anything. Now, I can’t be too harsh. I had a lot of fun in this. The cast was rocking and I feel like I saw more scare actors running around this year than ever before. There were tons of villains and victims and I felt like there was a whole lot going on around me. I do miss the dark hill though. With that said, I’ve always defended the Terror Tram. This isn’t the worst (2010 and 2011), but it certainly is nowhere near the best (2007-2009). But it’s become quite clear they’ve gotten lazy with this attraction and have no desire to put life into it. I thought last year’s tram of new set pieces and a story were the start of something new, but clearly I was wrong. This was just okay and a decent time waster.

 

73 out of 100. ‘C’-

 

[BLUMHOUSE OF HORRORS]
Lined Up: 10:00 PM
Advertised Wait: 35 minutes
Actual Wait: 24 minutes
Time In: 10:24 PM

 

Whoever changed the name to “The Horrors of Blumhouse” is an idiot and it has no ring to it, I’ve seen the early drawings and it has the original name, so that’s what we’re sticking with and that’s what we’re calling it! Anyway, not like it matters, because even though none of the other mazes so far were stand out classics, we do have an absolute DUD among them now, ala Clowns 3D, This is The End, or Black Sabbath. Only difference, this isn’t a 3D maze, it’s just a poorly made one in so many ways. First of all, The Purge section is just a new version of the gauntlet we got last year, so who cares and what gives? It’s nothing different and there’s no scares or suspense whatsoever. Happy Death Day is an absolute joke and I am OFFENDED they’ll represent that stupid masked killer in a maze but not SCREAM?! Funny moment though, a baby popped out and stabbed downward into my cup, making me drop my cup with like 2 ice cubes in it. Sinister is the best part of the maze and it’s not even actually good, but it at least has some environment and a scary looking villain. The scare from the projector screen is brilliant, but that’s the only good thing I can say about it really. And the finale with the Purge, WHY?! I’m mad this maze exists, and I can’t even critically go into my exact reasons why, as I can tell this all reads like a RAGE-QUIT written review. It sucked.

 

Facade - 3. Why start with the lame wall and The Purge when that beautiful theatre set piece could’ve been your facade and have the Purge at the end?
Set Design - 7. As said just previously, there’s a beautiful theatre smack dab 1/3 into the maze. Everything else was top notch, even Happy Death Day, but I’m docking points for not actually enclosing the Purge area to be an actual maze.
Sound Design - 9. Each section of the maze sounded distinctly different, so I give it that.
Scareactor Design - 5. Something about the Purgers seemed cheaper than usual. The baby isn’t scary, but does look like the one in the movie. And something seemed very off about the Sinister villain’s mask that just made him look like a Party City costume instead of professionally made.
Cast Performance - 7. I can’t deny these guys were working hard, but they could be more aggressive though.
Atmosphere/Tone - 3. The Purge fails to do anything with tone, Happy Death Day felt like a basic slasher that didn’t need to become a maze, and Sinister had the best tone, but it felt like the wrong scenes being represented for the franchise to create the optimal amount of spookiness.
Length - 8. Considering it’s the “largest maze ever,” it felt very short and I’m glad it was over when it was over, because I was done being disappointed.
Scare Level - 6. Nothing in the Purge was scary. I got maybe half a jolt in Happy Death Day. Sinister was decent at best and I got at least one OH WOW jump from it.
Story Comprehension - 4. I’ll be fair knowing this is an anthology maze. Saw is a mashup maze and Insidious is all one story in the movie universe and could easily be coherent but it chooses not to, which makes that frustrating. Here, however, each piece should be judged individually… and it still fails. The Purge section doesn’t even try to tell a story. Happy Death Day actually makes the most sense going from scene to scene as the Groundhog Day-esque thing is easy to see. Sinister is just represented and some of the scenes are shown, but it makes no effort to explain anything or to the why of what’s happening. And the overall idea of the maze — are we park guests going through a maze based on Blumhouse movies or are we survivors of the Purge who go into a theater for shelter but then randomly start jumping into other movies, only to escape and be mowed down by Big Daddy’s machine gun? If it’s the second one, and I don’t know how else to interpret it, that’s literally the worst plot I’ve ever heard of — but at least there’s a plot.
Personal Bias Points - 8. What a completely crap-tastic maze. I’m only giving this 8 points here because I feel an ‘F’ would be too harsh, and I enjoyed the maze while I went through it and only hated it the more I thought about it, so I’m using this area to bump it up to a solid…

 

60 out of 100. ‘D’-

 

[HELL-O-WEEN]
Never realized how much this area needed those fire cannons, but ya know what, it did just fine without them. The actors were all high energy, I loved the masks, and the wheel out set pieces seemed amateur, but with everything going against this area, it could’ve been much worse. The zone in 07 and 08 were far worse and had no excuse to be that boring and bad. I give this zone props, as it was pretty fun, and it seemed like the actors were pretty relentless. Plus I gotta love the fact that finally something HALLOWEEN oriented is being put into the parks for once.

 

'B'+

 

[TITANS OF TERROR]
Lined Up: 10:35 PM
Advertised Wait: 20 minutes
Actual Wait: 10 minutes
Time In: 10:45 PM

 

I was shocked I was about to be finished with all the mazes by 10:30 on opening weekend. That’s with taking an hour dinner and doing The Mummy. Walking up to the facade of this maze had me giddy, and entering that first room, it has so much detail that I’ll need to go through a few more times to fully capture it all. Starting with Freddy made sense, the kid is supposed to be having a nightmare after all, right? I loved a lot of this section, it seemed very old school Freddy but new school scariness of the remake maze. The Jason section took the remake section completely, as you dive into his lair and even get victims from that film. I thought that was an interesting approach to take, considering I thought we’d be getting classic franchise stuff. As for what I wished they would’ve used the remake for is TCM, since that maze was the best of all time. But nope, back to the mill for the old and tired stuff we’ve seen in a TCM maze what seems like too many times now. I felt like they tried a little something new or harkened back to older mazes with the Freddy and Jason sections, but TCM’s section while not bad, just felt the most familiar and therefore, a bit of a letdown. The room with all the human skins was a nice touch. The finale is where the maze derails, losing the story it set up in the beginning, and failing to give us one room where all the killers are present. Couldn’t we get the kid waking up in bed, realizing it’s a nightmare, only to find out all three killers are now actually barging into the room? Would’ve been terrifying! That’s the maze ending I think everyone wanted, and instead we got something basic that worked better in the Insidious maze. Overall, I really enjoyed it though, for what it’s worth!

 

Facade - 10. I love it. This is brilliant. Too bad the idea isn’t followed up on.
Set Design - 8. Look, everything is beautiful in this maze but I have a major bone to pick with that very first room in the maze, enough to dock it down 2 points. You walk in the front door but end up in someone’s bed room. The TV is awfully far away from the bed (and small, I might add) and the bed nor the kid is even facing the direction of the TV. I love the spirit of the room, but this space physically DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.
Sound Design - 10. Each section is very well defined with all the iconic sounds.
Scareactor Design - 10. Every Jason, Freddy, and Leatherface look straight out of the movie!
Cast Performance - 7. They could be more aggressive.
Atmosphere/Tone - 10. Each section sets up their respective franchises pretty well.
Length - 7. I just wish it was longer so it could fully go into the story of what this maze was supposed to do.
Scare Level - 6. The best scare I got in the maze was walking by a Freddy victim’s body and his claw popped out of his chest near my head. This was something done in the NOES maze in 2010, but this was in much closer proximity! Everything else was standard and would help from a much more aggressive cast.
Story Comprehension - 7. It completely drops the story after the first scene. Each franchise is set up well though and they all make sense. I just wish there was a finale at least that went back to the home haunt aspect. And couldn’t we get a scene with all three in some way?! I mean, c’mon, that’s what I was anticipating this maze for!
Personal Bias Points - 10. I’m a huge fanboy for Freddy and Jason and they could be at the event every year for the rest of time and I probably wouldn’t care as long as they try to do something new each time. I loved the passion that seemed to be in that first room, and unlike the Terror Tram, this seemed interested in representing each killer to make them shine.
 

85 out of 100. ‘B’

 

[THE WALKING DEAD]
Decided to walk through since I had the time and I realized it was pointless. There weren’t more zombies like last year, this seemed to be the standard. They didn’t even try to up the ante for this in any way shape or form. Don’t waste your time unless you’ve never done it or you have hoooours to kill.

 

[JURASSIC PARK IN THE DARK]
No surprise here, nothing is new. In fact, the ride is in desperate need of repair. The first dinosaur is missing, making that epic opening of the gates meaningless if all you see are bushes. The truck still isn’t following. And the raptors weren’t coming down for that final lift. Why don’t they try just a bit harder for Horror Nights for this attraction, I’ll never understand. It could be so great.

 

[URBAN NIGHTMARE]
Missed this zone earlier in the day and went out of my way to go see it, and I’m glad I did. Choked with fog, hellish imagery and fired up scare actors, this zone is everything the metro sets have been needing to be for awhile. There was a scare every 5 steps, better than some of the mazes and the Terror Tram this year, that’s for sure. It was heavily populated with props and set pieces, I couldn’t help but be a fan. Also, a scare actor swung their weapon towards my nuts, in what was the scariest thing I’ve ever encountered at a Haunt, so kudos to him for being so… ballsy.

‘A’

 

[TOXIC TUNNEL]
This is the standard tunnel scare zone and I don’t expect much from it. I liked the masks/make up the dudes had on, that was cool. The music and lights are annoying, but I come to figure that’ll happen. It’s such a high traffic area, we’re lucky we get anything here at all. It’d be nice to get some fog or something, but that doesn’t seem likely. What does boggle my mind is how they think this can be a scare zone but not the lower lot. It is truly missing a lot of energy right now, and even when it was bad with just some chainsaw dudes, that would still be better than nothing. Anyway…

‘C’

 

[JABBAWOCKEEZ]
I was very happy I had enough time to catch this show since I had so much extra time, as I didn’t even include it in my game plan. However, I had to run all the way from Ash vs. Evil Dead back to the lower lot, up the stairs and grabbed an Icee with just a minute to spare before the show started. I was glad to see the show was much different from the previous year, but it didn’t seem as fun as before. Also, the dancers weren’t hitting their moves as hard, granted it was the last show of the night and the crowd didn’t seem to be all that into it, so maybe they cared less. The best part is the new female member of the group, but everything else is pretty forgettable. If they used more current music, this would hype up the crowd, as the biggest pops was when the jams from this year came on, but I can only recall 2. That “California Love” segment I know just recognize as a cheap pop to get out of the crowd, and this year, it didn’t even work. Nobody cheered, nobody seemed excited, and nobody danced. They all just sat there stone faced, as did I, because this was the third time they’ve used this song in their act. If you’re not interested or don’t think you can squeeze it into your game plan, you won’t be missing out on much. And plan carefully, because the show is a solid 30 minutes. I thought I’d get one more repeat maze in (ToT would’ve been great) if the show was 20 minutes, but we were let out at like 1:59 AM, and there was traffic leaving, so that didn’t work out as I hoped (Blumhouse was still letting in people but I had no desire to see that again).

‘C’

 

[OVERALL]
Without hyperbole, this was the worst year HHN has done in the last decade. And when I say worst, I mean it’s just an average event instead of a GOOD one like they usually are. I’ve been going since 2007 and have never seen such a string of average-to-bad mazes in a row done by them. 2011 and 2013 I remember being pretty bad on my first visit, but those weren’t conceptually flawed from the get go, they just needed their casts to get better. This year, even if the casts get better, the mazes are still designed poorly like somebody didn’t care or if the budget was taken away. Usually there’s at least one or two A+ mazes thrown in there to save the event and push it up in ranking, but never before have I looked forward to going to Knotts to see if they could do better.

 

I really have to say the biggest things pushing this event down this year are:
Saw’s zero scares
Ash vs. Evil Dead’s lack of passion
Insidious being incoherent in story
Blumhouse’s very existence, and not utilizing their hottest properties (Get Out, Split, Paranormal Activity)
Titans of Terror’s lack of follow up to it’s opening scene
the Terror Tram taking a huge step back
The Walking Dead not getting extra actors this year
still having no scare zone between the entrance of the park all the way to the backlot
and an average Jabba show

 

I know the casts will get it together by the end of the season, but conceptually, I have my doubts a lot of these mazes will be fixed, as it’ll require some heavy budget increases and rebuilding within a week that’ll just be impossible.

 

From me, with some minor cast changes, this year can be a B- which still isn’t great compared to past HHNs, but as of now, I’ll give it a…

‘C’+

[themazethinker]

hey dth, what would you change of this years event

[DTH316]

I'd change Blumhouse to have Sinister, Ouija, and Paranormal Activity. If there's more room, have some references to Get Out and Split. Basically the Blumhouse movies we WANT to see represented. Then, if still more room, where applicable within the maze, make some scenes more of a mashup instead of an anthology maze. There easily could be a Purge and Happy Death Day mix.

 

Make Titans of Terror more of a mashup maze to include all 3 Titans at once instead of separately, or at the very least give it a finale room with all 3.

 

Make Insidious start with Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, then go to Chapter 1 and 2, so the maze has a continuity that flows through time in the film's canon. Also give that a finale room with all the monsters from every movie. Include a scene in the Further.

 

Give Ash vs. Evil Dead a bit more life and passion to it, adding more scenes from the show. Honestly, just use Orlando's maze.

 

Switched locations for Shining and Saw, putting Saw back in it's old spot and giving Shining more room to work with so it can have more open areas and a bigger facade.

 

Then make Saw's layout similar to it's old maze -- it would've made me mad at first, but it's better than what we got now. Then add the new traps into it, keeping a lot of the same scares or changing them up for more surprises.

 

Roanoke was fine for the most part. I would've preferred Asylum, but it can wait.

 

Double the walkers in Walking Dead, with special walkers/scenes from the show only available to see during HHN.

[Grindhousehero13]

As someone who actually likes Jabbawokeez do you feel it's time to let it go? Or do you feel it can still be milked? 

[DTH316]

Definitely let it go. I understand it's inclusion the first year, as they could've been buying time to figure out how to replace B&T more fittingly. The second year, I'll give it a pass. This year, they should've figured something out, at the very least also had the farewell tour for B&T. Jabba is cool and all, but it's a VERY odd choice for Horror Nights and I completely understand if a dance crew isn't everyone's cup of a tea. Thematically, it feels so wrong during HHN. We need to get back to a pop culture send up staple that makes an audience laugh and cheer. Comedy is the perfect bedfellow with horror (Scream, Chucky, Freddy, and It all prove that). Maybe next year, Hollywood will borrow whatever idea Orlando uses to replace B&T with. Or I at least hope so. I'm even open to something more along the lines of a Purge Stunt Show. I'd love to see a Special Effects Stages: Horror Edition. HHN History. An improv troupe. A magic show. The return of Beetlejuice. With such heavy lines, even 2 or 3 of these ideas would be great.

[themazethinker]

also dth, the great party guy in shining is actually a projection not a actor

[DTH316]

It's an actor. I've seen videos where it's a different guy. I was also in that room where he reset a few times and there's slight differences in his movements. Plus it's behind a scrim wall, which would be an odd place to put a projection.

[themazethinker]

oh sorry, i feel bad for the guy now, mention to a party to him after the event and he'll probably lose his shit

[Grindhousehero13]

On 9/22/2017 at 4:20 AM, DTH316 said:

Definitely let it go. I understand it's inclusion the first year, as they could've been buying time to figure out how to replace B&T more fittingly. The second year, I'll give it a pass. This year, they should've figured something out, at the very least also had the farewell tour for B&T. Jabba is cool and all, but it's a VERY odd choice for Horror Nights and I completely understand if a dance crew isn't everyone's cup of a tea. Thematically, it feels so wrong during HHN. We need to get back to a pop culture send up staple that makes an audience laugh and cheer. Comedy is the perfect bedfellow with horror (Scream, Chucky, Freddy, and It all prove that). Maybe next year, Hollywood will borrow whatever idea Orlando uses to replace B&T with. Or I at least hope so. I'm even open to something more along the lines of a Purge Stunt Show. I'd love to see a Special Effects Stages: Horror Edition. HHN History. An improv troupe. A magic show. The return of Beetlejuice. With such heavy lines, even 2 or 3 of these ideas would be great.

Very well put also It’s very odd why Uni defends on social media and rigs the survey to only say nice things about them (read my review for 2015) I get why they avoid bill and ted like a f’en plague but come on at least admit it’s polerizing even a lot of kids 13-20 don’t agree I mean trade for AOV at least. But anyways great review as always

[Barbie06]

On 9/22/2017 at 4:20 AM, DTH316 said:

 I'm even open to something more along the lines of a Purge Stunt Show. I'd love to see a Special Effects Stages: Horror Edition. HHN History. An improv troupe. A magic show. The return of Beetlejuice. With such heavy lines, even 2 or 3 of these ideas would be great.

I watched a clip of the Jabba show on Facebook. I was surprised they didn't at least dance to Halloween music. I agree with you that an effects show would be a wonderful idea! Way more fitting to the event!

[DTH316]

This year we did the back lot (start with Saw, go to AHS, then AVED), head to the lower lot (either Insidious or Shining, whichever is shorter), head up to Terror Tram, then Blumhouse and TOT, then head back to the lower lot for whichever was the longer line.

[aam1995]

On 9/21/2017 at 0:46 AM, DTH316 said:

Universal Studios Hollywood presents
in association with Halloween Horror Nights
DTH's Trip Review
Something About Titans, Horrors, Games, the Further, a Shining and Ash. - 9/16 Trip Review
September 16th, 2017.
5 PM - 2 AM

 

As always, this is a very detailed review. By it's nature, spoilers are abound. This is for people who have already gone and want a refresher, for people who will never be able to go and want perspective outside of just watching walkthroughs, and for people who don't mind spoilers and want to just get more excited.

 

[ARRIVAL/EARLY ENTRY]
Arrived in the ET parking lot around 3:30 PM only to find parking has been raised to 25 whole smackaroos! This is a major inflation increase from the usual $20, or even the $15 it was merely 2-3 years ago. Anyway, met up with friends in front of the movie theater. Went to the Souvenir Store and around 4:40, we went to go line up for Early Entry. At 5 on the dot, they started letting us in, but with the line, it took a bit. At around 5:10, got wrist banded and made our way into the park. There actually wasn’t anyone checking wristbands at this time. Saw some employees later stationed around 6:30 by the Shining, but that’s it.  I wonder how many people snuck in that night. On the Stairway, I noticed the line was huge for Insidious already, most of the patio full and down the initial stairs you first walk up which is about a 2 hour+ wait. Decided to stick with my game plan by doing Saw first and headed straight to the Metro sets. None of the scare zones were going (I guess those open right at 7, which is a shame, because I easily could’ve missed them unless I made a point to go back).

[SAW: THE GAMES OF JIGSAW]
Lined Up: 5:28 PM
Advertised Wait: 10
Actual Wait: 13
Time In: 5:41 PM

 

They didn’t open the maze until 5:40, which was annoying, because if I would’ve known, I would’ve headed to American Horror Story first, which was open at 5:30. But I can’t complain too much, things worked out exactly as they needed to. We were one of the first in line for this, so immediately we were let in. As for the maze itself, walking in, things were much different from the first Saw mazes in ’09/’10… but also exactly the same. Just less. I read somewhere else that this maze is like walking through a museum with a scare every once and awhile and I agree with that 100%. What the hell happened to the idea of scaring while coming up with the idea for this maze?! I encountered I think maybe 3 scares the entire thing. Watched a video to make sure I didn’t miss anything and it’s basically the same. This is such a huge step down from the original mazes, it’s a joke, and I feel sorry for anyone who missed them. A few examples: the barbed wire trap actor just stood there while in the original he thrashed around in agony, the people in traps here just were stuck in the traps while the original they would lunge their hands out to interact with guests, the original bathroom was actually freakin’ huge with live actors in there. Another thing that was great back than, the plants in the crowd that would get kidnapped right in front of you. This maze wasn’t entirely bad though, as there was one REALLY great part: the saws on the walls, until you turn a corner and one comes directly at you. Got me pretty good.

 

Facade - 7. It’s not bad. But it doesn’t stick out. Doesn’t seem like they thought a lot about this one.
Set Design - 6. I keep comparing to the original mazes because I feel like I have to. It was way more cohesive, while this had awkward transitions that didn’t make sense.
Sound Design - 6. Again, the original felt like constant action. Something was missing here.
Scareactor Design - 10. Here’s one area they improved. The traps looked more real and the gore effects were more top notch. For example, the rack trap in ’10 was pathetic, this one was pretty gnarly looking.
Cast Performance - 7. I can’t fault the actors for not being directed to do more than they did, but I felt like they were doing their best with what they had.
Atmosphere/Tone - 6. It was missing the scares and the action. It got a bit stale and boring half way through when I realized nothing was happening.
Length - 7. Considering how much dead space they used when they could’ve been cramming in more traps, this ended when I wanted it to. I was done with this maze by the end, in a negative way.
Scare Level - 5. Non-existent, almost. I got 3 scares. THREE. I think there’s an intentional 5 designed into the maze and that’s it. There’s that many scares in the finale of Insidious this year, so WTF?
Story Comprehension - 5. So we go into Jigsaw’s lair and then uhhhh… I won’t dock it too badly, the original mazes didn’t make much more sense either, but at least that maze had a flow.
Personal Bias Points - 5. I missed Saw at Horror Nights, but they totally messed this up. My original score immediately after getting out of the maze was a ‘C’, but now thinking about it more critically, it’s sadly one of the lowest scores I’ve ever given for a maze that I was actually anticipating…

 

64 out of 100. ‘D’

 

[AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ROANOKE]
Lined Up: 5:49 PM
Advertised Wait: 25
Actual Wait: WALK ON
Time In: 5:49 PM

 

I didn’t like last year’s AHS maze, and I hated this last season of the show, so this was at the bottom of my anticipation list. Luckily, this is much better than last year’s maze and the actual season of the show. We were very lucky to walk into the maze while it had no wait and did it with nobody in front or behind us. We got every intended scare without them being ruined and there were many parts in the maze that were so dark, I didn’t know where we were going. I went the wrong way at one point, towards a boo hole, and got scared pretty dang good and was like “well okay than, apparently that is not the right direction!” The finale was also my favorite part, with a giant stick man coming after us. I’m used to this trick being done often at Knotts, but wasn’t expecting it at HHN. This was the scariest maze of the night (not my favorite though), but I can say that’s because we got the intended experience of doing this while alone. If you can find a way to see this maze like that, I highly recommend, but I can’t promise you’ll enjoy this maze as much as I did. With that said, there are some faults, and they’re mostly design-wise. The cast was fantastic and on fire, but it doesn’t compare to my favorites.

 

Facade - 3. Whack. Last year’s was an anthology, so I graded on each section’s facades. This year was no freakin’ excuse.
Set Design - 7. It was a bit TOO dark at points, but overall it looked pretty standard. Nothing stand out, but nothing bad.
Sound Design - 8. There was the right amount of dread built in, but it could’ve been more immersive.
Scareactor Design - 7. A bit too heavily dependent on the pig guys.
Cast Performance - 10. They were ferocious as I’ve ever seen a cast at Horror Nights. The first nurse lady in the MURDER room scared the hell out of me without a trigger scare. Major kudos to her.
Atmosphere/Tone - 10. It oddly didn’t feel like the show… it was actually scarier, there was more dread, and it more nerve wracking.
Length - 10. I felt like this maze was never going to end and it made it more terrifying.
Scare Level - 10. I got the best scares of the night in here, and some of the best ever at the event.
Story Comprehension - 7. If I had never seen the show, I would have no idea what the hell was going on. It makes no sense, but it looked simple, and was laid out in a easy to digest fashion. However, it could’ve conveyed the events of the maze a bit better.
Personal Bias Points - 10. For being one of the scarier mazes and from making a great come back and improving on the show, I hold this maze in high regard.

 

92 out of 100. ‘A’-

 

[ASH VS. EVIL DEAD]
Lined Up: 5:54 PM/1:01 AM
Advertised Wait: 15 minutes/10 minutes
Actual Wait: 13 minutes/Walk On
Time In: 6:07 PM/1:01 AM

 

Got to do this maze twice. The first time was in a huge conga line and I saw a lot of the same scares over and over again, or I missed them completely. However, my second time, there was nobody in front or behind me, and I got the intended experience, so I’ll judge it on that second time. I’m a huge fan of the franchise and I enjoy the show, but I wasn’t too excited about it coming to Horror Nights. We want the original movie represented already!!! But I took what I could get and figured this would at least be fun. For the most part it is, and I don’t mind half of the black walls they used for transitions, but I do agree the other half of them were either too long or unnecessary/awkward. Without that in mind, what was represented, was pretty good. The actors were into their goofy roles, which could easily go south very quick with people not committing to it. None of this experience was necessarily scary, but it does give some good jumps and startles. Looking at the experience as a whole though, it doesn’t feel like a fan made this maze. It seems like someone watched it once, wrote down some things they knew they could pull off, and was done with it. It’s missing so many iconic moments from the show. (I watched the Orlando version and that had quite a lot more represented). Even the bit where we go back to the old cabin from the original series didn’t seem all that inspired. The cellar door is off to the back left corner, going unnoticed with no attention to it, when it’s such an iconic staple of the entire franchise even in the remake. The room was also way too small and just felt like, “well they go there in the show, so we have to at least mention it.” Regardless of all the negatives, the fun is on the heavy side for a lot of it, that’s mostly due to the cast, some great make up, puppets, and a few good set design moments.

 

Facade - 7. Well, it does it’s job.
Set Design - 6. Some of the black walls that people are complaining about aren’t that bad, and a lot of the maze has some great designs, but there is a lacking as a whole in inspiration or love for the show.
Sound Design - 10. I think this really excels, as this helps a lot in understanding what the hell is going on in this maze, and giving the right tone of fun and scary, but not too over the top.
Scareactor Design - 10. I think Ash looked great, along with Cheryl, and pretty much everybody ripped right out of the show that they do represent.
Cast Performance - 10. They were all sold on conveying their silly characters, so props to them.
Atmosphere/Tone - 8. It was a bit funky, which I think was the point, but the transitions having no atmosphere or tone does hold it back from making it a more cohesive experience.
Length - 8. It was the right length, I just don’t think it was the right size. With a bit more room or utilizing a lot of the black wall areas for more scenes, this would’ve been a lot better.
Scare Level - 8. The second time I went through, a lot of the scares hit a lot harder. I think the cast found their timing and groove better as the night went on.
Story Comprehension - 8. Due to the sound design, a lot of this maze makes sense, but some tidbits don’t. However, this maze makes a lot of sense considering a lot of it could easily go off the rails in comparison to something like AHS, where the entire essence and why of the show was missing, as where this maze, it’s easier to follow.
Personal Bias Points - 9. This was a much more solid maze than it should be considering a lot of its downfalls. I had fun, it had some good scares, and I just love the franchise, but I know more TLC could’ve gone into it.

84 out of 100. ‘B’

 

[THE SHINING]
Lined Up: 6:26 PM/12:28 AM
Advertised Wait: 50 minutes/30 minutes
Actual Wait: 29 minutes/17 minutes
Time In: 6:55 PM/12:45 AM

 

Another maze I got to do twice, but the first experience was a bit better. Like the Exorcist last year, this was something I wasn’t sure how they were going to pull off, and this actually did better than my expectations of what they could do with the property. While in line, I feel like there’s a bit of a spoiler you can see of the last scene. Over and over again you hear “but you’ve always been the caretaker” and can see a snow mound. I wish they’d keep this more out of sight or move the line. Entering, it felt epic. I wish they would’ve did the typewriter stuff a bit differently, as something about it feels a bit off. The scare in that scene also isn’t that well hidden but it doesn’t help that the scare actor kept their door open a lot of the time instead of pulling it open to reveal themselves. This happened both times I went at completely different times and ruins the illusion. The twins not being actual people is a bit of a letdown, as I wanted a scare to come from them, but I think the pepper ghost effect is pretty cool in this spot. Another thing I hear a lot of negative feedback on, but doesn’t bug me much, is the elevator scene. Understandably, this is an insanely hard scene to pull off and although the projection is slightly warped instead of completely meshed into the environment, I think the illusion is done well enough. My only gripe is the image flashes to show other images like the movie. Further into the maze, the better it gets though, as now we encounter some of the long halls and creepy inhabitants within the maze. There’s a guy behind a scrim holding up a glass who I can’t imagine doing that job and saying the same thing over and over every 10 seconds, in the same exact manner. It’s a wonder how they decide on what some things can be mannequins, screens or what will be live actors, and my thinking is since he’s never utilized much for a scare, it’s like - what’s the point? He’s doing a great job, I just question the design elements that include him. The second time I went through, I asked the Jack that axes the body on the ground, “what did you kill him for?!” and he gave me a pretty funny shrug, which was a great moment.  The scene I got the best scare from is the woman in the bathtub, plus that smell was so foul — it works on such an eerie, creepy level. The “here’s Johnny” scene is easily my favorite, hitting every point of good acting, design, innovation, show-scene, and a follow up scare. The end hedge maze is fun, but it’s at this point where I started to notice every maze trying to do the same thing with the scare actors up in a box and popping out of the darkness. This worked very effectively last year in the Exorcist, and has worked seldom in other mazes in the past, but now it’s at least 5 times in EVERY - SINGLE - MAZE this year (except for Saw, which has no scares). This and Insidious are the only mazes I forgive for doing it. This, because there’s less to work with, and Insidious, because it’s concept is mostly about the darkness. However, for Titans of Terror, Blumhouse, AHS and Ash, this is overkill and the definition of shooting a dead horse.

 

Facade - 9. The hedge itself is okay, but I bump it up an extra point for the detailed map that’s also out front.
Set Design - 9. I think this was designed beautifully, with a few weak spots and a few things I disagree with, but this may be the only maze this year that gave me the Horror Nights experience I was looking for in terms of set design. Considering that grade is only a 9, when grades in the past have been 10s, even for bad mazes, this is a major indicator in drop in quality. I just wish they put this maze in a bigger space to show more of the grandeur of the property.
Sound Design - 10. REDRUM! REDRUM!
Scareactor Design - 9. The Jack masks are only goofy if you look at them for too long, but considering they pop in and out very fast, it’s pretty effective. Everyone else looks straight out of the movie.
Cast Performance - 10. Everyone here was doing their best work and seemed really into their roles.
Atmosphere/Tone - 10. A lot of the times, I felt like I was in the movie itself and I felt creeped out by being there.
Length - 10. I think there’s a scene or maybe a character or two that could’ve been added in, but by the end, I got exactly what I wanted out of the experience.
Scare Level - 9. With all the elements combined, this makes for some great scares in this maze with a few that hit pretty hard. However, the dark room, pop out of a box high up tactic was getting old, although felt a bit necessary.
Story Comprehension - 8. It’s not exactly clear what’s going on, I think the only thing that’s sure is Jack is going crazy and there’s ghosts. But missing is the family element, I felt like that’s not fully acknowledged. I know, it’s hard, but I have to take it into account.
Personal Bias Points - 9. Could’ve been better, but also considering it could’ve been a lot worse, I was fairly happy with the result and getting to see a classic favorite come to life in a well respected form.

93 out of 100 ‘A’-

 

[THE MUMMY]
We were an hour ahead of schedule, so I decided to give my group one ride we can hit and we chose this. I was disgusted they put an advertisement for the new film at the end of the ride instead of keeping the classic mummy statues.

 

[INSIDIOUS: BEYOND THE FURTHER]
Lined Up: 7:28 PM/11:55 PM
Advertised Wait:  75 minutes/60 minutes
Actual Wait: 36 minutes/24 minutes
Time In: 8:04 PM/12:19 AM

 

My game plan was to come back to the lower lot mazes at the end of the night, but we were an entire hour ahead of schedule, so I figured why not. And then when I did go back at the end of the night to ride Jurassic Park, I noticed the line for Insidious was extremely short even though it had a high wait time, so that’s when we did it again. However, the best time we did the maze was the first time, so I’ll judge it by that. I was pretty excited for this one, mainly because Insidious was easily one of the best mazes the two years it’s been at the event. This year was no exception, however, it doesn’t quite steal away maze of the year, and it doesn’t beat the other two mazes. The first version, the maze seemed more focused, and the second maze, it was just all around scarier. This one has some odd design flaws, where the transitions between movies doesn’t quite make sense and it seems they would’ve been better off just sticking to one movie this time around. For example, I think it starts with Chapter 4, has 2 rooms on the first film, one room on chapter 2, literally one HALLWAY on chapter 3, and then it goes back to Chapter 4 and goes into the finale. WHAT THE? Despite the odd storytelling, the elements come into play quite nicely and give the usual spookiness that Horror Nights needs. There’s a creepy little kid in the maze that constantly pops up and I dig it, as he’s right at the top of the stairs in the beginning. Both times I went through the maze, I would miss the first scare in the room however. In one room, I was greatly distracted by the little kid pulling on a curtain, looking at him for the longest time, until the scare came right in front of him. One of the weakest parts in the maze is the man choking the woman in bed, neither time did he lunge out after guests. The lady about to stab the baby basket was pretty creepy though. Going back into the first movie, I couldn’t help but think, “this was done so much better the first two times.” Even the Red Demon’s lair was just so short and lacking in atmosphere. To sum up, the first half based on Chapter 4 is great, and the second half on the other three movies were done much better the first few times that it’s hard to enjoy it as much. Why even bother with chapter 3 if there’s only going to be ONE HALLWAY on it? The Man Who Can’t Breathe is my favorite character from the series and he’s totally wasted in this maze. The one thing I did want recreated from the other mazes and I was looking forward to, was a scene in the Further with ghosts on both sides, but not this time?! Anyway, the maze ends by a FIVE TIME scare that had us running out of the maze, so I can’t even be all that mad at this maze. It did just an okay job, and most of my friends seemed to rank it number 1 on their list, so definitely don’t miss it, but don’t expect it to be the best it’s ever been.

 

Facade - 9. I like how real and practical the facade looks, but it doesn’t make me scared to go in. And the main reason I’m docking a point is that STUPID CARDBOARD CUT OUT GIRL in the front window, it looks so bad!!
Set Design - 10. Horror Nights always knocks it out of the park with the Insidious mazes. Yes, it could’ve been constructed differently to make more sense, but that’ll be an issue to take up with story, as what was designed looks phenomenal.
Sound Design - 10. Again, the eerie music makes this a very chilling maze to go through and it totally sets the mood.
Scareactor Design - 10. I think one of the best things about the Insidious mazes is how well casted they are, as they’re completely spot on with their look.
Cast Performance - 8. I’m docking a point for the boring choking man and the first room scare that I never got. Like c’mon, I went through twice and missed it both times?!
Atmosphere/Tone - 10. This is Horror Nights at it’s best and immersing their guests into a very scary environment. The second you enter, it’s SCARY.
Length - 7. After everything, I felt like I just wanted more. I wanted more of Chapter 4, I wanted more of the other movies they barely acknowledged. This would’ve been better as a super-maze.
Scare Level - 10. The scares hit hard in here, with some that are really well hidden and some good distractions.
Story Comprehension - 5. Okay, WHAT? I get the first half pretty well, but after that, this maze goes completely down hill and doesn’t even try to have a continuity.
Personal Bias Points - 8. I’m glad they could pull off such a great creepy maze, but I wish they would’ve put more effort into it making more sense. These Insidious mazes would get higher scores with that in mind.

87 out of 100. ‘B’+

 

[TITANS OF TERROR… TRAM]
Lined Up: 8:30 PM
Advertised Wait: 20 minutes
Actual Wait: 9 minutes
Time In: 8:39 PM

 

I’m just not exactly sure what the intended purpose of the Titans of Terror was supposed to be this year. Assuming the maze being last second is true, that would mean this would have been the only representation of the Titans at Horror Nights. Thank God it’s not, because the maze is much better (albeit, not that classic of a maze to begin with). Let’s start with the opening video. At what point is this supposed to make sense? It talks about the killing sprees of each killer, but doesn’t set up why they’re here. It only sets up Chucky being there, but he’s only there right when you get off the tram and the rest has nothing to do with him. It’s a decent section, but that’s it? He was made such a big deal of in marketing and most of his starring moments are in the video? Reminds me of SCREAM 4 YOUR LIFE in a bad way. I enjoy the Jason section, but how does a bed being folded in half outside of the room make sense? The TCM section is just the usual stuff we’ve seen before — they give no creative liberty to this franchise and I’m not sure why. With Jason and Freddy, they will veer off a bit, but TCM always has to stick to the book with stuff we’ve only seen in the movies before. Even in the “1.5” maze of Blood Brothers, it was ALL STUFF we saw in the FIRST movie, and in “Saw Is the Law!!!” The Freddy section was cool, but pales in comparison to what they did with Freddy in the WOTW area in 2008. It felt more like we were in Springfield back than, with the Freddy projections in the windows of the houses. This just threw a bunch of Freddys in the area and called it a day. AND WHY OH WHY do we go back to more TCM stuff, especially when it’s just a scene we’ll see again in the maze?! The ending video gives a slight chuckle, but it felt more pathetic than anything. Now, I can’t be too harsh. I had a lot of fun in this. The cast was rocking and I feel like I saw more scare actors running around this year than ever before. There were tons of villains and victims and I felt like there was a whole lot going on around me. I do miss the dark hill though. With that said, I’ve always defended the Terror Tram. This isn’t the worst (2010 and 2011), but it certainly is nowhere near the best (2007-2009). But it’s become quite clear they’ve gotten lazy with this attraction and have no desire to put life into it. I thought last year’s tram of new set pieces and a story were the start of something new, but clearly I was wrong. This was just okay and a decent time waster.

 

73 out of 100. ‘C’-

 

[BLUMHOUSE OF HORRORS]
Lined Up: 10:00 PM
Advertised Wait: 35 minutes
Actual Wait: 24 minutes
Time In: 10:24 PM

 

Whoever changed the name to “The Horrors of Blumhouse” is an idiot and it has no ring to it, I’ve seen the early drawings and it has the original name, so that’s what we’re sticking with and that’s what we’re calling it! Anyway, not like it matters, because even though none of the other mazes so far were stand out classics, we do have an absolute DUD among them now, ala Clowns 3D, This is The End, or Black Sabbath. Only difference, this isn’t a 3D maze, it’s just a poorly made one in so many ways. First of all, The Purge section is just a new version of the gauntlet we got last year, so who cares and what gives? It’s nothing different and there’s no scares or suspense whatsoever. Happy Death Day is an absolute joke and I am OFFENDED they’ll represent that stupid masked killer in a maze but not SCREAM?! Funny moment though, a baby popped out and stabbed downward into my cup, making me drop my cup with like 2 ice cubes in it. Sinister is the best part of the maze and it’s not even actually good, but it at least has some environment and a scary looking villain. The scare from the projector screen is brilliant, but that’s the only good thing I can say about it really. And the finale with the Purge, WHY?! I’m mad this maze exists, and I can’t even critically go into my exact reasons why, as I can tell this all reads like a RAGE-QUIT written review. It sucked.

 

Facade - 3. Why start with the lame wall and The Purge when that beautiful theatre set piece could’ve been your facade and have the Purge at the end?
Set Design - 7. As said just previously, there’s a beautiful theatre smack dab 1/3 into the maze. Everything else was top notch, even Happy Death Day, but I’m docking points for not actually enclosing the Purge area to be an actual maze.
Sound Design - 9. Each section of the maze sounded distinctly different, so I give it that.
Scareactor Design - 5. Something about the Purgers seemed cheaper than usual. The baby isn’t scary, but does look like the one in the movie. And something seemed very off about the Sinister villain’s mask that just made him look like a Party City costume instead of professionally made.
Cast Performance - 7. I can’t deny these guys were working hard, but they could be more aggressive though.
Atmosphere/Tone - 3. The Purge fails to do anything with tone, Happy Death Day felt like a basic slasher that didn’t need to become a maze, and Sinister had the best tone, but it felt like the wrong scenes being represented for the franchise to create the optimal amount of spookiness.
Length - 8. Considering it’s the “largest maze ever,” it felt very short and I’m glad it was over when it was over, because I was done being disappointed.
Scare Level - 6. Nothing in the Purge was scary. I got maybe half a jolt in Happy Death Day. Sinister was decent at best and I got at least one OH WOW jump from it.
Story Comprehension - 4. I’ll be fair knowing this is an anthology maze. Saw is a mashup maze and Insidious is all one story in the movie universe and could easily be coherent but it chooses not to, which makes that frustrating. Here, however, each piece should be judged individually… and it still fails. The Purge section doesn’t even try to tell a story. Happy Death Day actually makes the most sense going from scene to scene as the Groundhog Day-esque thing is easy to see. Sinister is just represented and some of the scenes are shown, but it makes no effort to explain anything or to the why of what’s happening. And the overall idea of the maze — are we park guests going through a maze based on Blumhouse movies or are we survivors of the Purge who go into a theater for shelter but then randomly start jumping into other movies, only to escape and be mowed down by Big Daddy’s machine gun? If it’s the second one, and I don’t know how else to interpret it, that’s literally the worst plot I’ve ever heard of — but at least there’s a plot.
Personal Bias Points - 8. What a completely crap-tastic maze. I’m only giving this 8 points here because I feel an ‘F’ would be too harsh, and I enjoyed the maze while I went through it and only hated it the more I thought about it, so I’m using this area to bump it up to a solid…

 

60 out of 100. ‘D’-

 

[HELL-O-WEEN]
Never realized how much this area needed those fire cannons, but ya know what, it did just fine without them. The actors were all high energy, I loved the masks, and the wheel out set pieces seemed amateur, but with everything going against this area, it could’ve been much worse. The zone in 07 and 08 were far worse and had no excuse to be that boring and bad. I give this zone props, as it was pretty fun, and it seemed like the actors were pretty relentless. Plus I gotta love the fact that finally something HALLOWEEN oriented is being put into the parks for once.

 

'B'+

 

[TITANS OF TERROR]
Lined Up: 10:35 PM
Advertised Wait: 20 minutes
Actual Wait: 10 minutes
Time In: 10:45 PM

 

I was shocked I was about to be finished with all the mazes by 10:30 on opening weekend. That’s with taking an hour dinner and doing The Mummy. Walking up to the facade of this maze had me giddy, and entering that first room, it has so much detail that I’ll need to go through a few more times to fully capture it all. Starting with Freddy made sense, the kid is supposed to be having a nightmare after all, right? I loved a lot of this section, it seemed very old school Freddy but new school scariness of the remake maze. The Jason section took the remake section completely, as you dive into his lair and even get victims from that film. I thought that was an interesting approach to take, considering I thought we’d be getting classic franchise stuff. As for what I wished they would’ve used the remake for is TCM, since that maze was the best of all time. But nope, back to the mill for the old and tired stuff we’ve seen in a TCM maze what seems like too many times now. I felt like they tried a little something new or harkened back to older mazes with the Freddy and Jason sections, but TCM’s section while not bad, just felt the most familiar and therefore, a bit of a letdown. The room with all the human skins was a nice touch. The finale is where the maze derails, losing the story it set up in the beginning, and failing to give us one room where all the killers are present. Couldn’t we get the kid waking up in bed, realizing it’s a nightmare, only to find out all three killers are now actually barging into the room? Would’ve been terrifying! That’s the maze ending I think everyone wanted, and instead we got something basic that worked better in the Insidious maze. Overall, I really enjoyed it though, for what it’s worth!

 

Facade - 10. I love it. This is brilliant. Too bad the idea isn’t followed up on.
Set Design - 8. Look, everything is beautiful in this maze but I have a major bone to pick with that very first room in the maze, enough to dock it down 2 points. You walk in the front door but end up in someone’s bed room. The TV is awfully far away from the bed (and small, I might add) and the bed nor the kid is even facing the direction of the TV. I love the spirit of the room, but this space physically DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.
Sound Design - 10. Each section is very well defined with all the iconic sounds.
Scareactor Design - 10. Every Jason, Freddy, and Leatherface look straight out of the movie!
Cast Performance - 7. They could be more aggressive.
Atmosphere/Tone - 10. Each section sets up their respective franchises pretty well.
Length - 7. I just wish it was longer so it could fully go into the story of what this maze was supposed to do.
Scare Level - 6. The best scare I got in the maze was walking by a Freddy victim’s body and his claw popped out of his chest near my head. This was something done in the NOES maze in 2010, but this was in much closer proximity! Everything else was standard and would help from a much more aggressive cast.
Story Comprehension - 7. It completely drops the story after the first scene. Each franchise is set up well though and they all make sense. I just wish there was a finale at least that went back to the home haunt aspect. And couldn’t we get a scene with all three in some way?! I mean, c’mon, that’s what I was anticipating this maze for!
Personal Bias Points - 10. I’m a huge fanboy for Freddy and Jason and they could be at the event every year for the rest of time and I probably wouldn’t care as long as they try to do something new each time. I loved the passion that seemed to be in that first room, and unlike the Terror Tram, this seemed interested in representing each killer to make them shine.
 

85 out of 100. ‘B’

 

[THE WALKING DEAD]
Decided to walk through since I had the time and I realized it was pointless. There weren’t more zombies like last year, this seemed to be the standard. They didn’t even try to up the ante for this in any way shape or form. Don’t waste your time unless you’ve never done it or you have hoooours to kill.

 

[JURASSIC PARK IN THE DARK]
No surprise here, nothing is new. In fact, the ride is in desperate need of repair. The first dinosaur is missing, making that epic opening of the gates meaningless if all you see are bushes. The truck still isn’t following. And the raptors weren’t coming down for that final lift. Why don’t they try just a bit harder for Horror Nights for this attraction, I’ll never understand. It could be so great.

 

[URBAN NIGHTMARE]
Missed this zone earlier in the day and went out of my way to go see it, and I’m glad I did. Choked with fog, hellish imagery and fired up scare actors, this zone is everything the metro sets have been needing to be for awhile. There was a scare every 5 steps, better than some of the mazes and the Terror Tram this year, that’s for sure. It was heavily populated with props and set pieces, I couldn’t help but be a fan. Also, a scare actor swung their weapon towards my nuts, in what was the scariest thing I’ve ever encountered at a Haunt, so kudos to him for being so… ballsy.

‘A’

 

[TOXIC TUNNEL]
This is the standard tunnel scare zone and I don’t expect much from it. I liked the masks/make up the dudes had on, that was cool. The music and lights are annoying, but I come to figure that’ll happen. It’s such a high traffic area, we’re lucky we get anything here at all. It’d be nice to get some fog or something, but that doesn’t seem likely. What does boggle my mind is how they think this can be a scare zone but not the lower lot. It is truly missing a lot of energy right now, and even when it was bad with just some chainsaw dudes, that would still be better than nothing. Anyway…

‘C’

 

[JABBAWOCKEEZ]
I was very happy I had enough time to catch this show since I had so much extra time, as I didn’t even include it in my game plan. However, I had to run all the way from Ash vs. Evil Dead back to the lower lot, up the stairs and grabbed an Icee with just a minute to spare before the show started. I was glad to see the show was much different from the previous year, but it didn’t seem as fun as before. Also, the dancers weren’t hitting their moves as hard, granted it was the last show of the night and the crowd didn’t seem to be all that into it, so maybe they cared less. The best part is the new female member of the group, but everything else is pretty forgettable. If they used more current music, this would hype up the crowd, as the biggest pops was when the jams from this year came on, but I can only recall 2. That “California Love” segment I know just recognize as a cheap pop to get out of the crowd, and this year, it didn’t even work. Nobody cheered, nobody seemed excited, and nobody danced. They all just sat there stone faced, as did I, because this was the third time they’ve used this song in their act. If you’re not interested or don’t think you can squeeze it into your game plan, you won’t be missing out on much. And plan carefully, because the show is a solid 30 minutes. I thought I’d get one more repeat maze in (ToT would’ve been great) if the show was 20 minutes, but we were let out at like 1:59 AM, and there was traffic leaving, so that didn’t work out as I hoped (Blumhouse was still letting in people but I had no desire to see that again).

‘C’

 

[OVERALL]
Without hyperbole, this was the worst year HHN has done in the last decade. And when I say worst, I mean it’s just an average event instead of a GOOD one like they usually are. I’ve been going since 2007 and have never seen such a string of average-to-bad mazes in a row done by them. 2011 and 2013 I remember being pretty bad on my first visit, but those weren’t conceptually flawed from the get go, they just needed their casts to get better. This year, even if the casts get better, the mazes are still designed poorly like somebody didn’t care or if the budget was taken away. Usually there’s at least one or two A+ mazes thrown in there to save the event and push it up in ranking, but never before have I looked forward to going to Knotts to see if they could do better.

 

I really have to say the biggest things pushing this event down this year are:
Saw’s zero scares
Ash vs. Evil Dead’s lack of passion
Insidious being incoherent in story
Blumhouse’s very existence, and not utilizing their hottest properties (Get Out, Split, Paranormal Activity)
Titans of Terror’s lack of follow up to it’s opening scene
the Terror Tram taking a huge step back
The Walking Dead not getting extra actors this year
still having no scare zone between the entrance of the park all the way to the backlot
and an average Jabba show

 

I know the casts will get it together by the end of the season, but conceptually, I have my doubts a lot of these mazes will be fixed, as it’ll require some heavy budget increases and rebuilding within a week that’ll just be impossible.

 

From me, with some minor cast changes, this year can be a B- which still isn’t great compared to past HHNs, but as of now, I’ll give it a…

‘C’+

LOVE your review. 

I completely agree with is 100%. I would do a detailed one, but it would be similar and I am too lazy haha.

[HHNBookworm]

On 9/22/2017 at 1:55 PM, DTH316 said:

It's an actor. I've seen videos where it's a different guy. I was also in that room where he reset a few times and there's slight differences in his movements. Plus it's behind a scrim wall, which would be an odd place to put a projection.

 

That's really odd. It sounds like they had something planned for him (scrim and his position) and something broke or didn't work so they just scrapped the scare and kept him.

[DTH316]

6 hours ago, HHNBookworm said:

 

That's really odd. It sounds like they had something planned for him (scrim and his position) and something broke or didn't work so they just scrapped the scare and kept him.

I think they just like him there for the ambiance and to be eerie. I feel The Shining is more of a show maze instead of a scare maze.