duh1011 Posted September 24, 2017 Share Posted September 24, 2017 (edited) Introduction: So, on September 22, 2017, there was a whole slew of issues that affected HHN. While the props for the scarezones were finally up after all of that Irma aftermath garbage, many houses were shutting down over the course of the night. I'll write my review in a somewhat-chronological order just so i can write about all the crap that went down with the event. While most of it didn't affect me greatly, I still feel the need to detail it all since it became a bit of a shit show. Park Entrance: I still don't completely know what happened here. My gf and I arrived an hour early to stand in the line, but one confused series of events later lead me to entering it that hour early through the Annual Passholder line. We were lead to the three houses in the back; Scarecrow, Hive, and Blumhouse. Beyond just being able to hit these houses an hour before other guests, this proved to be an enormous stroke of luck for later tonight. So first, we went into Hive: First house was a walk-on. Nice. It was a slight shame that it was so early, since even wearing sunglasses before entering it was hard to see. However, I did enjoy what I saw there. I liked just how destroyed the house we were in had become, and the vampires with glowing eyes were very intimidating. Thats... about all I can say about it. It was kinda hard to see, and what we did see didn't leave much of an impression for the most part. Still, overall I did Like it Scarecrow: We walked right onto this house two times in a row. I see where the hype came from for this house; we managed to actually see both casts, since we saw them going through the change as we started to walk in the second time and man, both casts nailed it. The scarecrows were huge, and very quick and in-your-face. The intensity of the scares reminded me of the first Halloween house we had here; they were that good. There were some really creative scares and boo holes, and the costumes were great. I never knew scarecrow designs could get as grotesque as some of the ones i saw inches from my face. Also, that crow scene was terrifying. That level of chaos happening was crazy for a hhn house, and it definitely spooked me. Finally, the mirror effect at the end was completely lost on us because the daylight coming through the end made the mirrors plenty visible. We intended on coming back later with our express passes, but for reasons I'll get into later, that would never happen. Still, overall I'd say I Loved this house both times. Blumhouse: My gf and I decided to get this one over with since soon the GP would start pouring in, and we might as well take advantage of the early admission while we could. Posted wait was 25 minutes so we used express since we didn't have high hopes for this house. Turned out to be a 5 min wait, we still didn't care. This house was not very good. Starting with Sinister, the first Baghoul (sorry i spelled it wrong but i can't be arsed to spell it right) got my gf pretty good and was pretty creepy afterwards, just standing there. After the fifth time of the same character doing the exact same thing, we got bored of it. Thankfully next was the Purge area, which was okay. The actors gave it a good amount of energy which was nice, but it was way too short. Especially considering the next area for Insidious was huge, and man. This was just one big clusterfuck. We were just confused about what was going on more than anything else, and barely saw any actors go for scares. The last room with all the colorful paint on the walls was less confusing than this section, although the green paint room did hurt our eyes a good bit. While we did get some spooks from the Purge area and tbe very first Baghoul, and the actors at the end did try, overall we still felt Underwhelmed by the house. Invasion!: We arrived here exactly at 6:30, so the actors were all out and everything. The first time we went through the aliens were mostly just posing for selfies which sucked. However, we came back near the end of the event and found a bench to sit on, and then it was great. The aliens were all great, playing around with their roles to both comedic and scary effects. Some highlights included being surrounded on the bench by all the aliens before an army guy showed up, yelled at them, then got chased by them. Then there was the time when the army guy pointed at my shirt (it was AvP from a couple years ago) and whispered something into my ear which sadly I didn't catch, sorry to the actor bc my hearing isnt the best ;-; The sets in here were pretty neat, and the weird tone made it fun to watch. We Liked it a Lot. The Purge: I didn't at all like the other two years this scarezone was around. The actors were bland and pretty boring. The ambiance kinda sucked, and there wasn't much in the way of props. Basically,it felt like mediocre scareactors filled the NYC area in the same way the roaming hordes of some previous years would fill parts of the park. I can very happily say that none of that holds true for this year. With three purge movies under Uni's belt, there was plenty of variety in the costumes and masks. Some of the masks even looked really cool (you know the ones). There was a good amount of large props all over, and two stages for things to happen on. There was a third stage that never saw use and idk if it was supposed to have things happen on it, but it was tucked in a corner so it was no bother. What really made this zone was the actors. They were so full of violent energy, and they were constantly going for people. It finally felt like we were in the Purge, and not just a zone with some people that happened to have weapons. We first went here when the park was just opening, and every single scareactor got my and/or my gf really well. We went to the guy standing on a car with the woodchipper. He comically motioned us slightly to the right of where we were standing, only to get the first blast of "blood" from the chipper. The second time we were here for long we just sat on some steps and watched the chaos unfold. This scarezone rocked, and I LOVED it. Tribute Store: I'll keep this brief. The store was very well-decorated, and had lots of great merch. Unlike last year, it felt like the shelves were kept stocked throughout the night. The clerks at the desk moved quickly to make even the longest of lines go pretty quickly, and they were friendly. Great store experience, I recommend anyone interested stop by at some point. The Fallen: While in the queue for this house both times we went, once very early and another time around... 10:30? there was signs of the event not running so smoothly. The first time, people in the queue were talking about The Shining house. Apparently, in the first few minutes of the park having been open, the house was closed twice for two incidents. One of these included a fire from what I heard. The second time we went through, we were stopped right before going in for about 15 minutes as they did some maintenance. My guess is that they fixed the flying parts of the house, since the first run-through they didn't work and it was disappointing. On the topic of the first run, it was okay. The sets here work fine and the actors did a decent performance. Again, the lack of flying actors kinda killed the whole end parts. They event lit up the actors who could even be many feet away as they tried to scare us, but since they were way off in the distance it only further highlighted the fact that they didn't work. That was most of what I came out of the house with the first run-through. The second could not have been more different. The actors were ferocious, some visual effects in the house were working right which really made it feel way more intimidating, and the flying actors. I thought their role would be lame like the "flying" gargoyle in Gothic, but I could not have been more wrong. All of a sudden I turned to a side and saw a HUGE demon flying very close to my face, and that startled me a heck of a lot. The second overhead flier got the person right in front of me, and man this effect was pulled off super well. This run of the house left the biggest impression on me, and I Liked it a lot. Next would be Dead Waters, but I'm saving it for the end for a couple reasons. Trust me, it will make sense. The Food: We got really hungry after Dead Waters, and I hadn't even eaten at all that day. We kinda skipped past Trick r Treat in order to get our bellies full bc we were just that hungry. Over the course of the event, I had gotten quite a bit of food-y items. The pizza fries were delicious, albeit a lil overpriced for the amount you got. The non-alcoholic Candy Corn frozen drink was very delicious, and I don't even usually like a lot of candy corn. The taste was just a bit more subtle, which worked well The non-alcoholic Smores drink however was a different story. All I tasted was the chocolate syrup, which became too much after a bit. The powerade was $4 which is absurd but man, when I got this at 11:00 PM it was a blessing. Lastly, the giant pink frosted sprinkle donut from Springfield. After the pizza fries and candy corn drink i was too full to eat much of it, so I carried it through the rest of the houses (I just now finished it oops) and holy crap. This made such a huge difference in how the event went for me. I'll be bringing this thing up plenty with some of my reviews after here Clowns take Springfield: This wasn't even a scarezone in the traditional sense but it was my favorite scarezone. We saw this zone as we were eating (eating and talking made this last a while) and this was the most fun I'd ever had with a scarezone. We saw both casts bc halfway through eating there was a cast change, and both casts were beyond outstanding. Every single clown did their own clown-like thing, and it was a blast to watch everything happened. I could go on and on about each scareactor's interactions, but this belongs in the Scareactor Appreciation thread. I've never seen such amazing acting by whole casts, and it was hands-down the best people-watching area of the event. I fucking ADORED it. Ash vs Evil Dead: This house always gets the shortest waits for many reasons, so we did this in the middle of the night with a 20 minute wait. We were very fortunate to have hit this house when we did, because we may have been some of the last people to go through this that night. Keep in mind this is the first house I hit with my donut box in hand, and it made the interactions so much more memorable. Anyways, the facade itself was awesome to see. I fell in love with Ash's Delta over the course of the series, and it was awesome to see it in it's possessed form outside the demolition derby. It felt like there was love put into the facade, which is a feeling that carried on throughout the whole house. So many scenes were faithfully recreated, and I had so much fun going through it. I had a couple Ashes gesture at my donut wanting a bite, and even one of the demon children went and grabbed at my box! The scares were there, the humor was there, and the only complaint I have is that one scene is too large with two repeating scares happening, and it had the same two voice clips play the whole time. The repetition in that room grew old very quickly, but gladly it didn't ruin the whole house. If you like the show, you'll like the house. And since I loved the show, I loved this house. Trick 'r Treat: I loved this movie so much so I was looking forward to this zone. Sadly, it didn't deliver completely. The whole area looked way more beautiful than any scarezone I had seen in this area prior, with the pumpkins all over, nice lighting, and all the decorations. They did very well to incorporate so many scenes into one street. The costumes were amazing, especially for the Sams. However, the actors themselves lacked energy. They just kinda meandered around and I would occasionally see the Snow White werewolfgo for a spook here, or a trick-or-treater pop out there. The Sams were on point, one of them being very adorable and even at one point standing in the scrap area exactly where he did in the movie and waved at guests while they took pictures. That was awesome to see. Beaten-up Sam went for quite a few scares himself. However, we went through this zone a bunch of times and the scareactors hardly did anything. This was a pretty big let down. Still, all things considered I did still Like it a bit. Festival of the Deadliest: Whatever effect Irma had on this zone before was gone. The actors were good, the sets were all there and they looked neat, and there was just a whole lot going on. It really did feel like what the title says it is; a macabre party full of beings from the underworld. However, that concept itself is just kinda meh. The costumes looked nice and all but it just felt kind of generic. I give props to the scareactors for doing their jobs really nicely, and the ambiance and props were there. However, I was still underwhelmed by this on concept alone :T Altars of Horror: Speaking of a concept that wasn't my favorite to start. I had no hopes for this house and it lived up to that. I did get one scare from the twins from the Shining which really caught me off guard, since every video I've seen of them prior just had them walking around eerily. I really really liked that scare, especially since I was just saying their "wanna play?" quotes right before they broke out of their cycle to lunge at me and yell "WANNA PLAY?". It felt personal, and not like it was just any other scare. Kudos to them. Everything else was lame. My complaints are the same as everyone else's, so I'm just going to move on. Sucked. Before I begin the review of the next house, in this queue is when I heard the bad news. The area of the park that had the clowns, Scarecrow, Hive, AvED, and I think also Blumhouse and B&T had lost its power. This was huge. It was the middle of the event and only Blumhouse and B&T got its power back, if they had even lost it at all. I wanted to use my express for the other three houses, but never got the chance. This was a very minor issue compared to what I imagine so many other people went through that night. It never came back on for most of those houses, and Universal handled the entire situation very poorly. When people asked about it or wanted some form of compensation for not being able to experience so much of the event, Universal's Guest Relations closed up and on social media they were all just asked to contact the support desk. I understand that shit happens, but the way that Uni failed to respond to it with any sort of decency was inexcusable. This ruined so many people's nights, and the only thing that Uni did was they told people to call customer support. Their handling of this whole thing was god awful, and Uni should be ashamed. The Shining: Now, the original movie didn't do much for me. On top of this I saw fans of the movie were pretty disappointed more often than not with this house, so I thought it wouldn't be that great. I was wrong. Sure, not everything was absolutely perfectly represented. Sure, the facade wasn't the outside of the hotel. However, this house was still really great. There was a lot of mirrors used here, and every use of it did something different and these effects were pulled off really well. The paintings turning into The Shining (the psychic thing in the movie, not the movie itself) was neat. The blood elevator was pulled off amazingly well. The way the Jacks in the finale would get more and more desperate sounding and have more snow on them was such a cool touch. I could go on and on about how well I thought this house was pulled off. Instead, I'll just leave it with my opinion of this house which is that I Loved it. This was one of the best IP houses I had gone through. Oh, and the furry guy and this one other guy in the same crazy room both attacked my donut. That was fun. AHS: I don't like this show. I've tried it many times, but never like it. I want to like it, but I just... don't. This house kinda reflects that. From the standpoint of someone who hadn't seen all of what was shown here, it just looked like a bunch of random horror scenes happened. The first room in Coven with the super duper tall girls freaked me out, as did the baby powder room. The very first room in Asylum with those creepy white nun things had one of them reach allll the way down at my donut after i started clutching it around them. Aside from those few things, I didn't care for it. It wasn't scary to me nor did most of it impress me. This house was also underwhelming. Saw: The alternate title for this house is "Loud Screams: The House". That's all I got out of it. None of the people in traps looked like they were in pain, more that they were mildly worried or bothered. It was light on scares. The layout sucked, just bringing us from trap to trap in a showcase of the traps. I did like some aspects of these movies, and do consider myself somewhat of a fan. That didn't help anything at all. This house really, really sucked. The bathroom scene was kinda neat though I guess and the guy chained to a wall begged for my donut which was funny. Dead Waters: Finally, we reach this house. I wanted to save this for last because the second and third times, both right at the end of the event, were spectacular. The first time I went through I got to appreciate the sets but not much else, since the actors weren't all on point just yet and for the most part didn't some out anywhere near me. The last two or three rooms was different, and I got scare after scare which mostly made up for it. However, I didn't really get to appreciate all that went into this masterpiece until the end of the night. First off, it was a gorgeous house with so much scenic variety. Unlike AHS which also had different scenes, these all flowed into one another extremely well. Starting with the facade, there were two scareactors hidden extremely well which both got me the third time I went through. The facade itself is out of this world, with mirrors for water being a cool little detail. There's too many cool details to touch on in this house but that mirrors-as-swamp-water effect was one I felt I needed to touch on since the way it was pulled off was superb. Over the course of three runs, I got every single scare and they got me good. From actors popping out from seemingly nowhere, to others blending in with similar-looking props, to that one under the crate of chickens that made me scream for the first time in all my years of going to HHN. The ambiance of each room was set extremely well. The boat rooms with their slanted floors made it extremely unnerving. The whole entire finale staring with the first appearance of the Bayou of Blood's Voodoo Queen was just so intense. This was easily my house of the year, since everything about it was perfect. I wouldn't change a thing. I Completely Adored this house. Also, tons of actors interacted with my donut in different ways here. One actor in particular was huge, but he popped out and just leaned waaaay down to get his face in my donut. This was hilarious and also frightening, since he was such an intimidating figure. I'll probably shout him out in the appreciation thread since he was amazing. Overall, I had an amazing time at this event. Sure, some parts of it were lackluster. Sure, not everything lived up to my expectations. The only thing that put a huge damper on the event was the blackout and the way Uni didn't seem to care at all for their guests during this time. Despite all of that, I Loved my night here. The good parts were just so damn good that it outweighs the negative. The clowns especially provided constant entertainment in that area, and they were all unique and mixed up their scares so it never got old. I wish I had the money and time to go again this year, it was so good. Make sure that if you want adonut, to bring it through the houses. I didn't touch on just how many times it made a difference in the houses, but it really did shake things up. It made for some unique and fun interactions! And finally, my rankings: Scarezones: 1. Clowns in Springfield (screw you, it counts to me :p) 2. The Purge 3. Invasion! 4. Trick 'r Treat 5. Festival of the Deadliest Should be Eliminated: Altars of Horror (would've been even lower if it wasn't for the twins having such a good scare) Houses: 1. Dead Waters 2. The Shining 3. Ash vs. Evil Dead 4. Scarecrows 5. The Fallen 6. The Hive 7. AHS 8. Blumhouse of Horrors 9. Saw Edited September 24, 2017 by duh1011 Had to finish the review! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XNaut Posted September 24, 2017 Share Posted September 24, 2017 (edited) That's a very detailed review. You, bringing a box of donuts in the mazes is funny. The guests in Hollywood are not allowed to bring food in the mazes. Edited September 25, 2017 by XNaut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mufusm Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 Was one of the people affected by the power outage. Had hours to go and had not made it to the part of the park without power until it had happened already. I definitely did not bother asking for compensation from employees there. I posted elsewhere that I ended up calling customer service the day after and they offered a ticket and express pass for another night. Kinda crappy guest services closed on purpose. But as far as my ticket and my gfs they handled it well. I had not been to the park at all in quite a while(over 10 years) and was looking forward to getting a donut from the Kwik e Mart! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duh1011 Posted September 25, 2017 Author Share Posted September 25, 2017 So, I can get free passes if i call them, huh? ...eh, it costed a lot to be there, and I did get to do everything. I was exhausted afterwards too. I do plan on doing HoS this year as well (and possibly Shallow Grave since this is its last year), but it's good to know that other people can get another night if they are able. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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