zombieman Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Just got back from Orlando last night. I'll do my Hollywood vs Orlando house comparison after I attend HHN Hollywood. Believe it or not, I have not even been to Hollywood yet and I live a few miles from it. Will probably not go for two more weeks. As a reminder, I've done every HHN Hollywood and have been doing Orlando since 2004. This year my Orlando trip was 100% HHN-centric. Went 4 nights in a row - 9/21-9/24. Did all houses at least once each per night except for the Friday when three houses lost power... In addition to the house reviews, I'll briefly talk about the Express queue for each, because Express holders are getting stuck with some long built in waits. On my grading scale, A = Outstanding. Headliner attraction. B = Good or above average. Its existence makes the event better. C = Average or below average. D = Brings nothing new to the event. Not memorable. F = Its existence makes the event worse Scarecrow the Reaping A++ Anticipation level before going: Low to moderate. While I was intrigued by the dustbowl time period, I was concerned it would be too much like Tomb last year, which I thought was good but not great. Scarecrow was by far the best of 2017. It told a story from start to finish, and did not let up from the moment you walk in to the moment you leave. What I appreciated most was the utter lack of blank hallways, yet excellent transitions from environment to environment. Unlike Tomb which was the same environment throughout, Scarecrow keeps transitioning between outside and inside. Both casts were outstanding. Mirrors were extensively used at HHN this year, and I was completely fooled by the vast cornfield effect at the end. After the crow poop room, entering what appeared to be a cornfield made me think that this was a HUGE house for a tent. As may know, I take great effort to listen to people as I walk the park, trying to get a feel for others perceptions. ANY time I heard people talking about Scarecrow, it was always positive; I didn't hear a single negative comment. I heard a lot of people saying it was their favorite and the scariest. This house was NOT part of the UTH tour. Unable to conduct a tour in such a cramped space. Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 10 minutes. Merges with standby immediately before house entrance, which means a theoretical walk on for Express The Fallen A+ Anticipation level before going: Uber high. The perception on the board that Universal made last minute changes to "remove angels" had me really concerned. As did the notion that the house was a tour of hell. So let's start with that - I do NOT think there was any editing of this house. I got no feel that there was, nor did I feel anyone I spoke to was feeding me some false narrative. I think that "Angels vs Demons" was a misconception from the start around here. Nor are we on a tour of hell... The concept is that we are stumbling into the eternal battle between good (the Eternals) and evil (the fallen), and the Fallen are winning. Because evil is winning, we don't see very much of the Eternals but when we do see them, they are not happy. Although these Eternals may have (small) wings the angelic analogy stops there. They wear armor, wield swords, and otherwise look human. The Fallen are definitely demonic looking and also wear armor. No gargoyle representation. The facade definitely looks like a desecrated cathedral in ruins. Pay attention to the stained glass you see at the start - anyone else get a strong vibe of the 2010 Lantern? Sure felt like it to me. Just sayin'. A good amount of the story is told by listening to the background sounds. You will hear battle horns and clashing of swords and shields . A few rooms later that is replaced by the wails of the Eternals. After the scene where an Eternal has his wings ripped off, people who loved the Catacombs will love the next room, where sick and diseased Eternals cough on you. While I won't give away any spoilers here, be aware there are THREE stunt sequences at the very end - bang, bang, bang. Almost impossible to see all three on any pass. I will simply describe them as Hurl, Fly, Plank. In my 8-10 times through I only saw Fly one time. Hurl and Plank are fantastic stunts; you have never seen Plank before. So make sure you go enough times to catch all three. While The Fallen stands on it's own, if I had to describe it, I would say it was a mashup of Gothic and Hades, with a sprinkle of Dracula Untold. Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 5 minutes. 10 minute queue after merge with standby. Dead Waters A Anticipation level before going: High. Loved the idea that a scarezone icon would get her own house. Facade is best ever at HHN by a longshot. House detail is best ever at HHN by a longshot. Tells a cohesive story. Good varying environments. Scare intensity is so so. Abrupt ending, which takes away from an otherwise very good house. House seems too short, probably because facade eats up 15% of the space. I know this house is at the top of the list of many, and were it not for a lackluster ending and the fact that Scarecrow and Fallen are just that good, it would be there for me. Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 10 minutes. Merge with standby is immediately before entering soundstage, yet everyone is forced into a 10-15 minute queue in a black hallway before the facade. The spaced used in that hallway could have been used to provide a better ending. The Shining B+ Anticipation level before going: Low. Every major scene from the movie is in the house - except for Hallorann's death, which still sticks with me to this day. I was young enough when I saw the movie that that scene was iconic to me. Twins were super creepy; impossible to see their entire scare and spiel in one pass. Surprised they did the shower scare, but was effective. Shelley Duvall actresses looked EXACTLY like Duvall. Nicholson forehead appliances looked great. Elevator scene was much better than I expected. I didn't much care for the bear <gasp> or the mirror maze. I thought A&D did a bit of a cop-out by using the same technique they used for Exorcist - that is, set a section of the house in the mind of a character in the movie. Last year was Exorcist as seen through the mind of Regan, and this year it was as seen through the minds of Jack and Wendy Torrance. There comes a point where "through the mind" means "we couldn't think of another way to do this". My problem with the house is that if you didn't see the movie you would have NO IDEA what is going on or why. There are lots of IP houses that can stand on their own with no need for prior viewing: TCM, F13, Krampus, even Exorcist. Some just cannot, and I think The Shining is one of those. If you had never known the plot, you'd think that Jack Torrance was some escaped convict killing people. They did the movie justice, but this is an example of why I think IP gets in the way too often. Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 10-15 minutes. Merge is immediately before facade. HIVE B+ Anticipation level before going: Super LOW. Whenever a house concept is changed at the last minute, my hopes are very low. But I think they pulled off a solid one here. And I LOVED that an original took the place of an IP. I feel as if this concept was one of many sitting in their TBD files, and not one they threw together at the last minute. They probably have several ideas sitting on the sidelines that are centered around a wrecked residence. And wrecking the Conjuring house they certainly did. On the other hand, the lack of any facade sucks; I really hope they can build SOMETHING before October... 80's synth horror music doesn't do a good job of setting you up for what is inside. The storyline is not well done; we needed a facade of a condemned house and maybe a newspaper clipping about the missing owners. This can all be fixed in a few days if Creative gets the go ahead. But unlike The Shining, where you are totally lost if you didn't see the movie, this is obviously a vampire house and certainly not a bunch of random rooms. I really enjoyed the intensity of the scareactors. The UV eyes were super scary; I was really offput when one guy stopped what he was doing and just stared at me. I don't see this house getting a lot of love from the public. The wait times on Hive are always low while Scarecrow next door are very long. If they added a real facade and set up the story better, I'd give this an A-. Even in retrospect, I'd prefer this house over Conjuring. Express queue: Scan is at merge point. Once merged, there is a 5 min wait. Ash Vs Evil Dead B- Anticipation level before going: High. This was a rare IP I was looking forward to. Every single episode is full of house-worthy stuff, and we got pretty much what I expected. Was delighted to see the huge area outdoors even though it is not technically a facade. The music and previews pumped people up for this one; even if you never saw a single episode, you knew what to expect after watching the preview. There was zero storyline to speak of - just one random blood soaked scene after another. Which was kind of a problem, since the house was really little more than a live version of the previews you spent 15 minutes watching. In some cases, the previews were better than the live stuff because the live scenes seemed static compared to the previews. Some stuff just didn't work, like the "I''m in the butt" gag. Had you not seen that episode, it was just stupid because the prop just looked terrible. Likewise the kill in the bathroom stall was not working that weekend. The stall was encased in plexiglass so clearly something big was supposed to take place... For Ash lovers, the house was an easter egg hunt. For everyone else, it was probably so-so and not scary. Case in point, the puppet and Jacksonville scenes at the end. They really aren't talked about in the preview, so people may think WTF. Ash has the LONGEST walk - longer than any house I can remember. I paced it out and from ET to queue, through house, and back to ET is over 1/4 mile. This house was NOT part of the UTH tour. Very surprised the far-too-dark HIVE got on the tour instead of this. Express queue: Scan-to-merge point is 5 minutes. Once merged, there is a 5 min wait. AHS Asylum B- AHS Coven C AHS Roanoke C Anticipation level before going: High. I really liked last year's AHS, but thought this one was ok at best. I'd forgotten most of the Asylum season, but this brought a lot back. I think it was the best part of the house. The mirror scare in the rumpus room was my favorite use of mirrors in a long time. That scareactor simply appears out of nowhere. Coven and Roanoke were unfortunately pretty weak in this house. I got very little out of it. I think one thing that made last year's AHS so memorable was that area in the middle of the house where you transition to Freakshow and see that HUGE room with the carnival wagons. I really love it when A&D have a huge open room in the middle of a house as in Ghost Town or even Dead Waters. Heck, even Resident Evil was memorable for that. Without the video transitions, I think many people wouldn't have had any idea when they changed seasons in this house. Roanoke and Coven were character driven seasons, yet the more memorable characters seemed to be missing. Instead we got more pig heads....again. And for the record, I still don't think we will see Asylum in Hollywood for some time. I'm firmly of the opinion that Universal Hollywood doesn't want to go near an insane asylum theme anytime soon considering what happened at Knotts. Express queue: Scan is at merge point. Once merged, there is a freaking 20+ minute wait before you get to the facade. You are stuck in a huge switchback queue in a black room that is partially lit, listening to music from AHS. They could have at least shown scenes or opening credit animation for each season in this room. It is COMPLETELY unacceptable to tell someone who shelled out $9-$12 for an Express into that house that they have a mandatory 20+ minute wait. Saw D Anticipation level before going: Very low, and they didn't even live up to that. We did not need another Saw house. We did not need a third house in the same year to feature scareactors with pig heads. The GAT buttons were the best part of the house. Nothing else brought anything new to the table. The final room was supposed to be a sneak preview of a new Saw trap, but the trailer showed far more than this static scene did. Further, they have ops stationed just outside of the house, in direct line of sight as you enter this final room. How can ANY sense of danger or being in a trap when you see people in no danger standing calmly just outside of the room, staring at you? The only thing that keeps me from giving a lower grade here is the GATs. Speaking of which, I found 4 buttons, but only three seem to do anything. First button is small and NOT lit. It is very early in the house on your left on the wall. Pushing it did nothing. Other buttons are about 2 inches in diameter. Second one is NOT lit, on left just before the Pig room. It's just above a large metal can. Pushing it causes an effect in the can. Third button is lit and is on your left. Easy to miss. Causes an effect aimed at you. Fourth button is lit and is near the end on your right. Easiest to see. Pressing it causes an effect to someone ahead of you. Want to play a game? Find the buttons. It's the only fun you will have in this house. This house was NOT part of the UTH tour. No love lost there. Express queue: Scan-to-merge is 10 minutes wait. Merge point is at the house entrance. Blumhouse of Blah F Anticipation level before going: Higher than Saw. Utter waste of time. Zero redeeming qualities. Not a one. Made Chance's house last year look like Gothic. Sinister was one room and a hallway. Purge was one room and a hallway. The rest of the house was all Insidious. One room each for 1, 2, 3. The rest was all Chapter 4. Since none of us have any idea what Chapter 4 is about, of course it makes no sense. Tells no story. I complained that Hive told no story either, so why am I picking on Blumhouse for doing the same? Because for 3 movies we have been told what the Further is and what to expect when we are in it. Apparently Chapter 4 changes the story, because we end up in some very long green hallways where nothing happens. There is no explanation as to why the Further is now swamp-like. And I gotta say it comes off like a JayCee haunt. It was that bad. I actually skipped this house on two of my nights. Jason Blum cannot possibly be happy with this result. If he is, he has no idea what the hell he is doing anymore. This is in the bottom 5 HHN houses I've ever been to. And I've been to Disorentorium and Cold Blind Terror.... Not trying to be dramatic or unfair - this is after 5 times through the house - both casts - once with lights on. I can't think of a way of saving it. This house WAS part of the UTH tour, and it was a complete waste of time, as the tour guide was not allowed to talk about what was going on in Insidious 4 section, and they didn't know, either. So instead, we got a HUGE spiel about the backstory of The Purge and Sinister, each of which had one room and one hallway. This house should have been replaced by Ash for the tour. Express queue: Scan-to-merge is 5 minutes wait. After merge is another 5 minutes wait Shows: AOV - Afterlife B- The show I saw was highly abbreviated because Irma had destroyed main stage. But what I saw told no story nor did it even fit into HHN theme like last year. It was just dance numbers. WAY better than Jabbocrappeeeez, but still just dance numbers. Some of music the same as last year. I was blown away last year; hoping that the full show is much better than this. I have faith in these guys. Bill & Ted A "In time, everything will be alright". Was very hard not to shed tears during this show; I failed miserably. B&T was absolutely a reason I fly out every year from Los Angeles. Some years it was great, some years it stunk. But every year it was fun. Every. Single. Year. As I grew older I found myself understanding fewer of the references, but the younger crowds did. I don't for a split second buy the notion that they are removing it because kids don't relate to Bill & Ted. I don't recall a single year where kids were not stomping their feet and clapping their hands when B&T hit the stage. Shit, my kids grew up not knowing who E.T. was, and they STILL couldn't pick out Fievel in a police lineup. B&T has been a staple and it deserves to remain one. Maybe it's really being removed because Fear Factor stage is going away. Let's say that is the case. I gotta believe there are other venues that would work. What about a soundstage? If it can house a wrestling show, it can house B&T. And what the hell do they plan to replace this with? I mean seriously? It cannot possibly be another "skew pop culture" show. Academy of Villains is good, but they cannot be a headliner at HHN. Bill and Ted was a full scale production show. Even disregarding the B&T characters, that is a huge thing to replace. So I'm totally lost here as to how they proceed. I mean, trust me - you guys don't want a Jabbawockeez show. So I'm thinking - if Universal is playing a "let's see what happens until we have a new stage", the only thing I can come up with is they bring back icons next year and give them an AOV size stage to put on a "Carnival of Carnage" type show. I mean people have a tough time complaining about icons. And one of the biggest complaints about Chance was the lack of a show for her. So maybe they create an icon show and see if people are still pining for B&T. Other than that, you want a replacement for real? Get Penn & Teller. Have them go on hiatus from their multi-million dollar Vegas contract and do a full show. Ain't gonna happen, but it would take that level of show to replace B&T. Bottom line is I think they are going to get REAMED on the surveys this year for cancelling B&T and no matter what they do they will get reamed next year. I'd ream them but no one asked me to take a survey on any of the four nights I went. So maybe they bring back B&T for another farewell tour and that becomes a new theme for them. I'd be cool with that. But one thing is for sure. If we don't see them back by 2019, they are gone forever, or until B&T 3 finally gets made. So, I mentioned that there were some references I did not follow. Please help me out here... 1) During Death's "Dance with the Reaper" song, WHO was the guy in the black and orange suit supposed to be? I'm thinking some Asian viral video guy, but I'm drawing a blank. 2) When the 20 year old McDonald's dipping sauce was mentioned, WHO was the guy with the Statue of Liberty crown who came out and disappeared into the porta-pottie supposed to be? The audience went wild when both of these guys appeared, but I got nothing... I had a #3, but figured out they parodied the Backback dancer (who I only learned about from the Google search). Scarezones: Purge A- Excellent zone. Purge works so well as a scarezone. Not as a house. Trick R Treat B- People seem to be so much more into this IP than I am. Was a pretty good movie, but not a house that HHN needs. I feel the same about the scarezone. Plus, it has become one of four Photo-ops. Invasion B- I had high hopes for this, but maybe I was missing some good stuff. It LOOKS beautiful. It just was so static. And another ptoto-op Altars of Horror D Yet another photo op. I didn't find it amazing to have characters from the houses running around the streets. Did nothing for me. Festval of the Deadliest F Ugh. I mean really UGH. I enjoy seeing pole dancers as much as the next guy, but there was nothing going on at this zone except for a huge photo op. They have done such great things in this area in the past. Hero to zero. Overall B+ The original houses saved this year, because the IP was average. And let's think about the IP for a moment. This year we had only ONE standalone IP house - The Shining. If you want to understand it, your investment is 90 minutes. Hell, you could get in line and stream it on Netflix while you wait to go in. The other IPs are quite a bit more costly in prep time: Ash - 20 30-minute episodes (15 hours) AHS - 36 episodes across 3 seasons (24 hours) Blumhouse - 8 movies (16 hours) Saw - 7 movies (14 hours) That's asking a lot from haunt customers. Now, obviously you don't need to watch more than a couple of episodes to understand, say, Ash, and Saw is pretty self explanatory, but you either watch every season of AHS to understand it or it's a bunch of random stuff. But we got three wonderful Originals, and the fourth was not bad at all. Shining was good and the rest of the IP were ok, except for two of them that sucked. Hard. 7 out of 9 houses ranging from good to outstanding is not bad in my book. To me, the best year for houses is still 2011 followed closely by 2010. This year is better than average, but barely. I cannot hold Irma against AOV, but unless I see another fantastic show from them, I don't know if they can consistently churn out goodness. If B&T had not been here this year, I'd be looking at a B- to C+.... UTH Tour F (just lowered from D as I think about all the things we could not photograph) For those taking the UTH tour, things are only a tiny bit better than last year. In every single house - EVEN THE ORIGINALS - pictures are not allowed in some areas. In IP houses, there were VERY few places where photos were allowed. It truly seemed random. But to restrict in some areas of the original houses? Really? For example, in Shining you could only take pictures of the facade and in the bathroom. In AHS you could not photograph the Chen puppet, but were free to photograph other things in the room. In The Fallen, there were a lot of areas where we were not allowed to photograph (WE COULDN'T EVEN TAKE A PICTURE OF THE FRICKIN' FACADE, but Universal could put several up on their website!!!). In Hive you could not photograph at all in the nursery or in the attic. REALLY? Supposedly this was because dead children were depicted in those rooms -- just like in La Llorona where we were allowed to take pictures of the drowned kids. Yeah, that's consistent. Oh, and in Blumhouse you were not even permitted to THINK about Sinister, Purge, or Insidious. Maybe I'm not recalling that last one right... If they are going to censor content in the original houses, just stop offering the damned tour. This is why we can't have nice things. Food D Drink B Where the hell do you get chicken tenders anymore? I couldn't find anyplace other than Springfield. There used to be at least two stands. The Pizza Fries would be forgettable, had I not been burping them back up every hour. I did like the mini donuts (very overpriced) and the Bavarian pretzel. But, man, if you wanted anything resembling a real meal, you had to go to a restaurant with a very long wait. Missing seemed to be carts selling: loaded nachos, cheesesteak, chicken wings/fingers, etc, etc. It was so convenient in the past. Food was a step backwards this year. I saw a LOT of bars, and true, they only sold the featured drink (where they wave a bottle of alcohol over a bucket of orange juice and call it a mixed drink). However, there were PLENTY of vending carts selling beer. I never really knew the bars sold real booze, so that being absent meant nothing to me. Also true that there was no more jello shot girls. Instead people had the same blood bag carts, with popcorn but with buckets hanging from them. I did not see a lot of people buying popcorn... So for me, the drink situation was a non-issue. And for the record, I saw JUST as many obnoxious drunk men and ugly ass drunk women at the end of the night as when alcohol was readily available. When will women understand how unattractive they are when they are drunk? I guess the same time men understand what assholes they are when they are drunk. I still wouldn't mind it if the event became dry, but I don't see that happening. I'm looking forward to see what Hollywood has done with The Shining, Ash, and AHS. I expect Hollywood to have a completely different take on The Shining (their Exorcist was much better than Orlando's). I think I will end up liking Hollywood's AHS because they will have a full house to use for one season. I don't have high hopes for Saw, although I'm intrigued by the whole "you are in the trap" thing. And I cannot imagine Hollywood screwing up Blumhouse any more than Orlando did. But then again, Hollywood has two opportunities to do so. Finally, it was nice to meet up with Cloves and his wife. We went through Dead Waters together and then I went off on my own because I had Express. I hope you two enjoyed B&T. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourPallbearer Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Nice review. We share a lot of the same opinions. But a viewing of THE SHINING is going to cost you close to three hours, not 90 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ringwraith Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 12 hours ago, zombieman said: Just got back from Orlando last night. I'll do my Hollywood vs Orlando house comparison after I attend HHN Hollywood. Believe it or not, I have not even been to Hollywood yet and I live a few miles from it. Will probably not go for two more weeks. As a reminder, I've done every HHN Hollywood and have been doing Orlando since 2004. This year my Orlando trip was 100% HHN-centric. Went 4 nights in a row - 9/21-9/24. Did all houses at least once each per night except for the Friday when three houses lost power... In addition to the house reviews, I'll briefly talk about the Express queue for each, because Express holders are getting stuck with some long built in waits. On my grading scale, A = Outstanding. Headliner attraction. B = Good or above average. Its existence makes the event better. C = Average or below average. D = Brings nothing new to the event. Not memorable. F = Its existence makes the event worse Scarecrow the Reaping A++ Anticipation level before going: Low to moderate. While I was intrigued by the dustbowl time period, I was concerned it would be too much like Tomb last year, which I thought was good but not great. Scarecrow was by far the best of 2017. It told a story from start to finish, and did not let up from the moment you walk in to the moment you leave. What I appreciated most was the utter lack of blank hallways, yet excellent transitions from environment to environment. Unlike Tomb which was the same environment throughout, Scarecrow keeps transitioning between outside and inside. Both casts were outstanding. Mirrors were extensively used at HHN this year, and I was completely fooled by the vast cornfield effect at the end. After the crow poop room, entering what appeared to be a cornfield made me think that this was a HUGE house for a tent. As may know, I take great effort to listen to people as I walk the park, trying to get a feel for others perceptions. ANY time I heard people talking about Scarecrow, it was always positive; I didn't hear a single negative comment. I heard a lot of people saying it was their favorite and the scariest. This house was NOT part of the UTH tour. Unable to conduct a tour in such a cramped space. Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 10 minutes. Merges with standby immediately before house entrance, which means a theoretical walk on for Express The Fallen A+ Anticipation level before going: Uber high. The perception on the board that Universal made last minute changes to "remove angels" had me really concerned. As did the notion that the house was a tour of hell. So let's start with that - I do NOT think there was any editing of this house. I got no feel that there was, nor did I feel anyone I spoke to was feeding me some false narrative. I think that "Angels vs Demons" was a misconception from the start around here. Nor are we on a tour of hell... The concept is that we are stumbling into the eternal battle between good (the Eternals) and evil (the fallen), and the Fallen are winning. Because evil is winning, we don't see very much of the Eternals but when we do see them, they are not happy. Although these Eternals may have (small) wings the angelic analogy stops there. They wear armor, wield swords, and otherwise look human. The Fallen are definitely demonic looking and also wear armor. No gargoyle representation. The facade definitely looks like a desecrated cathedral in ruins. Pay attention to the stained glass you see at the start - anyone else get a strong vibe of the 2010 Lantern? Sure felt like it to me. Just sayin'. A good amount of the story is told by listening to the background sounds. You will hear battle horns and clashing of swords and shields . A few rooms later that is replaced by the wails of the Eternals. After the scene where an Eternal has his wings ripped off, people who loved the Catacombs will love the next room, where sick and diseased Eternals cough on you. While I won't give away any spoilers here, be aware there are THREE stunt sequences at the very end - bang, bang, bang. Almost impossible to see all three on any pass. I will simply describe them as Hurl, Fly, Plank. In my 8-10 times through I only saw Fly one time. Hurl and Plank are fantastic stunts; you have never seen Plank before. So make sure you go enough times to catch all three. While The Fallen stands on it's own, if I had to describe it, I would say it was a mashup of Gothic and Hades, with a sprinkle of Dracula Untold. Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 5 minutes. 10 minute queue after merge with standby. Dead Waters A Anticipation level before going: High. Loved the idea that a scarezone icon would get her own house. Facade is best ever at HHN by a longshot. House detail is best ever at HHN by a longshot. Tells a cohesive story. Good varying environments. Scare intensity is so so. Abrupt ending, which takes away from an otherwise very good house. House seems too short, probably because facade eats up 15% of the space. I know this house is at the top of the list of many, and were it not for a lackluster ending and the fact that Scarecrow and Fallen are just that good, it would be there for me. Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 10 minutes. Merge with standby is immediately before entering soundstage, yet everyone is forced into a 10-15 minute queue in a black hallway before the facade. The spaced used in that hallway could have been used to provide a better ending. The Shining B+ Anticipation level before going: Low. Every major scene from the movie is in the house - except for Hallorann's death, which still sticks with me to this day. I was young enough when I saw the movie that that scene was iconic to me. Twins were super creepy; impossible to see their entire scare and spiel in one pass. Surprised they did the shower scare, but was effective. Shelley Duvall actresses looked EXACTLY like Duvall. Nicholson forehead appliances looked great. Elevator scene was much better than I expected. I didn't much care for the bear <gasp> or the mirror maze. I thought A&D did a bit of a cop-out by using the same technique they used for Exorcist - that is, set a section of the house in the mind of a character in the movie. Last year was Exorcist as seen through the mind of Regan, and this year it was as seen through the minds of Jack and Wendy Torrance. There comes a point where "through the mind" means "we couldn't think of another way to do this". My problem with the house is that if you didn't see the movie you would have NO IDEA what is going on or why. There are lots of IP houses that can stand on their own with no need for prior viewing: TCM, F13, Krampus, even Exorcist. Some just cannot, and I think The Shining is one of those. If you had never known the plot, you'd think that Jack Torrance was some escaped convict killing people. They did the movie justice, but this is an example of why I think IP gets in the way too often. Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 10-15 minutes. Merge is immediately before facade. HIVE B+ Anticipation level before going: Super LOW. Whenever a house concept is changed at the last minute, my hopes are very low. But I think they pulled off a solid one here. And I LOVED that an original took the place of an IP. I feel as if this concept was one of many sitting in their TBD files, and not one they threw together at the last minute. They probably have several ideas sitting on the sidelines that are centered around a wrecked residence. And wrecking the Conjuring house they certainly did. On the other hand, the lack of any facade sucks; I really hope they can build SOMETHING before October... 80's synth horror music doesn't do a good job of setting you up for what is inside. The storyline is not well done; we needed a facade of a condemned house and maybe a newspaper clipping about the missing owners. This can all be fixed in a few days if Creative gets the go ahead. But unlike The Shining, where you are totally lost if you didn't see the movie, this is obviously a vampire house and certainly not a bunch of random rooms. I really enjoyed the intensity of the scareactors. The UV eyes were super scary; I was really offput when one guy stopped what he was doing and just stared at me. I don't see this house getting a lot of love from the public. The wait times on Hive are always low while Scarecrow next door are very long. If they added a real facade and set up the story better, I'd give this an A-. Even in retrospect, I'd prefer this house over Conjuring. Express queue: Scan is at merge point. Once merged, there is a 5 min wait. Ash Vs Evil Dead B- Anticipation level before going: High. This was a rare IP I was looking forward to. Every single episode is full of house-worthy stuff, and we got pretty much what I expected. Was delighted to see the huge area outdoors even though it is not technically a facade. The music and previews pumped people up for this one; even if you never saw a single episode, you knew what to expect after watching the preview. There was zero storyline to speak of - just one random blood soaked scene after another. Which was kind of a problem, since the house was really little more than a live version of the previews you spent 15 minutes watching. In some cases, the previews were better than the live stuff because the live scenes seemed static compared to the previews. Some stuff just didn't work, like the "I''m in the butt" gag. Had you not seen that episode, it was just stupid because the prop just looked terrible. Likewise the kill in the bathroom stall was not working that weekend. The stall was encased in plexiglass so clearly something big was supposed to take place... For Ash lovers, the house was an easter egg hunt. For everyone else, it was probably so-so and not scary. Case in point, the puppet and Jacksonville scenes at the end. They really aren't talked about in the preview, so people may think WTF. Ash has the LONGEST walk - longer than any house I can remember. I paced it out and from ET to queue, through house, and back to ET is over 1/4 mile. This house was NOT part of the UTH tour. Very surprised the far-too-dark HIVE got on the tour instead of this. Express queue: Scan-to-merge point is 5 minutes. Once merged, there is a 5 min wait. AHS Asylum B- AHS Coven C AHS Roanoke C Anticipation level before going: High. I really liked last year's AHS, but thought this one was ok at best. I'd forgotten most of the Asylum season, but this brought a lot back. I think it was the best part of the house. The mirror scare in the rumpus room was my favorite use of mirrors in a long time. That scareactor simply appears out of nowhere. Coven and Roanoke were unfortunately pretty weak in this house. I got very little out of it. I think one thing that made last year's AHS so memorable was that area in the middle of the house where you transition to Freakshow and see that HUGE room with the carnival wagons. I really love it when A&D have a huge open room in the middle of a house as in Ghost Town or even Dead Waters. Heck, even Resident Evil was memorable for that. Without the video transitions, I think many people wouldn't have had any idea when they changed seasons in this house. Roanoke and Coven were character driven seasons, yet the more memorable characters seemed to be missing. Instead we got more pig heads....again. And for the record, I still don't think we will see Asylum in Hollywood for some time. I'm firmly of the opinion that Universal Hollywood doesn't want to go near an insane asylum theme anytime soon considering what happened at Knotts. Express queue: Scan is at merge point. Once merged, there is a freaking 20+ minute wait before you get to the facade. You are stuck in a huge switchback queue in a black room that is partially lit, listening to music from AHS. They could have at least shown scenes or opening credit animation for each season in this room. It is COMPLETELY unacceptable to tell someone who shelled out $9-$12 for an Express into that house that they have a mandatory 20+ minute wait. Saw D Anticipation level before going: Very low, and they didn't even live up to that. We did not need another Saw house. We did not need a third house in the same year to feature scareactors with pig heads. The GAT buttons were the best part of the house. Nothing else brought anything new to the table. The final room was supposed to be a sneak preview of a new Saw trap, but the trailer showed far more than this static scene did. Further, they have ops stationed just outside of the house, in direct line of sight as you enter this final room. How can ANY sense of danger or being in a trap when you see people in no danger standing calmly just outside of the room, staring at you? The only thing that keeps me from giving a lower grade here is the GATs. Speaking of which, I found 4 buttons, but only three seem to do anything. First button is small and NOT lit. It is very early in the house on your left on the wall. Pushing it did nothing. Other buttons are about 2 inches in diameter. Second one is NOT lit, on left just before the Pig room. It's just above a large metal can. Pushing it causes an effect in the can. Third button is lit and is on your left. Easy to miss. Causes an effect aimed at you. Fourth button is lit and is near the end on your right. Easiest to see. Pressing it causes an effect to someone ahead of you. Want to play a game? Find the buttons. It's the only fun you will have in this house. This house was NOT part of the UTH tour. No love lost there. Express queue: Scan-to-merge is 10 minutes wait. Merge point is at the house entrance. Blumhouse of Blah F Anticipation level before going: Higher than Saw. Utter waste of time. Zero redeeming qualities. Not a one. Made Chance's house last year look like Gothic. Sinister was one room and a hallway. Purge was one room and a hallway. The rest of the house was all Insidious. One room each for 1, 2, 3. The rest was all Chapter 4. Since none of us have any idea what Chapter 4 is about, of course it makes no sense. Tells no story. I complained that Hive told no story either, so why am I picking on Blumhouse for doing the same? Because for 3 movies we have been told what the Further is and what to expect when we are in it. Apparently Chapter 4 changes the story, because we end up in some very long green hallways where nothing happens. There is no explanation as to why the Further is now swamp-like. And I gotta say it comes off like a JayCee haunt. It was that bad. I actually skipped this house on two of my nights. Jason Blum cannot possibly be happy with this result. If he is, he has no idea what the hell he is doing anymore. This is in the bottom 5 HHN houses I've ever been to. And I've been to Disorentorium and Cold Blind Terror.... Not trying to be dramatic or unfair - this is after 5 times through the house - both casts - once with lights on. I can't think of a way of saving it. This house WAS part of the UTH tour, and it was a complete waste of time, as the tour guide was not allowed to talk about what was going on in Insidious 4 section, and they didn't know, either. So instead, we got a HUGE spiel about the backstory of The Purge and Sinister, each of which had one room and one hallway. This house should have been replaced by Ash for the tour. Express queue: Scan-to-merge is 5 minutes wait. After merge is another 5 minutes wait Shows: AOV - Afterlife B- The show I saw was highly abbreviated because Irma had destroyed main stage. But what I saw told no story nor did it even fit into HHN theme like last year. It was just dance numbers. WAY better than Jabbocrappeeeez, but still just dance numbers. Some of music the same as last year. I was blown away last year; hoping that the full show is much better than this. I have faith in these guys. Bill & Ted A "In time, everything will be alright". Was very hard not to shed tears during this show; I failed miserably. B&T was absolutely a reason I fly out every year from Los Angeles. Some years it was great, some years it stunk. But every year it was fun. Every. Single. Year. As I grew older I found myself understanding fewer of the references, but the younger crowds did. I don't for a split second buy the notion that they are removing it because kids don't relate to Bill & Ted. I don't recall a single year where kids were not stomping their feet and clapping their hands when B&T hit the stage. Shit, my kids grew up not knowing who E.T. was, and they STILL couldn't pick out Fievel in a police lineup. B&T has been a staple and it deserves to remain one. Maybe it's really being removed because Fear Factor stage is going away. Let's say that is the case. I gotta believe there are other venues that would work. What about a soundstage? If it can house a wrestling show, it can house B&T. And what the hell do they plan to replace this with? I mean seriously? It cannot possibly be another "skew pop culture" show. Academy of Villains is good, but they cannot be a headliner at HHN. Bill and Ted was a full scale production show. Even disregarding the B&T characters, that is a huge thing to replace. So I'm totally lost here as to how they proceed. I mean, trust me - you guys don't want a Jabbawockeez show. So I'm thinking - if Universal is playing a "let's see what happens until we have a new stage", the only thing I can come up with is they bring back icons next year and give them an AOV size stage to put on a "Carnival of Carnage" type show. I mean people have a tough time complaining about icons. And one of the biggest complaints about Chance was the lack of a show for her. So maybe they create an icon show and see if people are still pining for B&T. Other than that, you want a replacement for real? Get Penn & Teller. Have them go on hiatus from their multi-million dollar Vegas contract and do a full show. Ain't gonna happen, but it would take that level of show to replace B&T. Bottom line is I think they are going to get REAMED on the surveys this year for cancelling B&T and no matter what they do they will get reamed next year. I'd ream them but no one asked me to take a survey on any of the four nights I went. So maybe they bring back B&T for another farewell tour and that becomes a new theme for them. I'd be cool with that. But one thing is for sure. If we don't see them back by 2019, they are gone forever, or until B&T 3 finally gets made. So, I mentioned that there were some references I did not follow. Please help me out here... 1) During Death's "Dance with the Reaper" song, WHO was the guy in the black and orange suit supposed to be? I'm thinking some Asian viral video guy, but I'm drawing a blank. 2) When the 20 year old McDonald's dipping sauce was mentioned, WHO was the guy with the Statue of Liberty crown who came out and disappeared into the porta-pottie supposed to be? The audience went wild when both of these guys appeared, but I got nothing... I had a #3, but figured out they parodied the Backback dancer (who I only learned about from the Google search). Scarezones: Purge A- Excellent zone. Purge works so well as a scarezone. Not as a house. Trick R Treat B- People seem to be so much more into this IP than I am. Was a pretty good movie, but not a house that HHN needs. I feel the same about the scarezone. Plus, it has become one of four Photo-ops. Invasion B- I had high hopes for this, but maybe I was missing some good stuff. It LOOKS beautiful. It just was so static. And another ptoto-op Festval of the Deadliest D Yet another photo op. I didn't find it amazing to have characters from the houses running around the streets. Did nothing for me. Altars of Horror F Ugh. I mean really UGH. I enjoy seeing pole dancers as much as the next guy, but there was nothing going on at this zone except for a huge photo op. They have done such great things in this area in the past. Hero to zero. Overall B+ The original houses saved this year, because the IP was average. And let's think about the IP for a moment. This year we had only ONE standalone IP house - The Shining. If you want to understand it, your investment is 90 minutes. Hell, you could get in line and stream it on Netflix while you wait to go in. The other IPs are quite a bit more costly in prep time: Ash - 20 30-minute episodes (15 hours) AHS - 36 episodes across 3 seasons (24 hours) Blumhouse - 8 movies (16 hours) Saw - 7 movies (14 hours) That's asking a lot from haunt customers. Now, obviously you don't need to watch more than a couple of episodes to understand, say, Ash, and Saw is pretty self explanatory, but you either watch every season of AHS to understand it or it's a bunch of random stuff. But we got three wonderful Originals, and the fourth was not bad at all. Shining was good and the rest of the IP were ok, except for two of them that sucked. Hard. 7 out of 9 houses ranging from good to outstanding is not bad in my book. To me, the best year for houses is still 2011 followed closely by 2010. This year is better than average, but barely. I cannot hold Irma against AOV, but unless I see another fantastic show from them, I don't know if they can consistently churn out goodness. If B&T had not been here this year, I'd be looking at a B- to C+.... UTH Tour F (just lowered from D as I think about all the things we could not photograph) For those taking the UTH tour, things are only a tiny bit better than last year. In every single house - EVEN THE ORIGINALS - pictures are not allowed in some areas. In IP houses, there were VERY few places where photos were allowed. It truly seemed random. But to restrict in some areas of the original houses? Really? For example, in Shining you could only take pictures of the facade and in the bathroom. In AHS you could not photograph the Chen puppet, but were free to photograph other things in the room. In The Fallen, there were a lot of areas where we were not allowed to photograph (WE COULDN'T EVEN TAKE A PICTURE OF THE FRICKIN' FACADE, but Universal could put several up on their website!!!). In Hive you could not photograph at all in the nursery or in the attic. REALLY? Supposedly this was because dead children were depicted in those rooms -- just like in La Llorona where we were allowed to take pictures of the drowned kids. Yeah, that's consistent. Oh, and in Blumhouse you were not even permitted to THINK about Sinister, Purge, or Insidious. Maybe I'm not recalling that last one right... If they are going to censor content in the original houses, just stop offering the damned tour. This is why we can't have nice things. Food D Drink B Where the hell do you get chicken tenders anymore? I couldn't find anyplace other than Springfield. There used to be at least two stands. The Pizza Fries would be forgettable, had I not been burping them back up every hour. I did like the mini donuts (very overpriced) and the Bavarian pretzel. But, man, if you wanted anything resembling a real meal, you had to go to a restaurant with a very long wait. Missing seemed to be carts selling: loaded nachos, cheesesteak, chicken wings/fingers, etc, etc. It was so convenient in the past. Food was a step backwards this year. I saw a LOT of bars, and true, they only sold the featured drink (where they wave a bottle of alcohol over a bucket of orange juice and call it a mixed drink). However, there were PLENTY of vending carts selling beer. I never really knew the bars sold real booze, so that being absent meant nothing to me. Also true that there was no more jello shot girls. Instead people had the same blood bag carts, with popcorn but with buckets hanging from them. I did not see a lot of people buying popcorn... So for me, the drink situation was a non-issue. And for the record, I saw JUST as many obnoxious drunk men and ugly ass drunk women at the end of the night as when alcohol was readily available. When will women understand how unattractive they are when they are drunk? I guess the same time men understand what assholes they are when they are drunk. I still wouldn't mind it if the event became dry, but I don't see that happening. I'm looking forward to see what Hollywood has done with The Shining, Ash, and AHS. I expect Hollywood to have a completely different take on The Shining (their Exorcist was much better than Orlando's). I think I will end up liking Hollywood's AHS because they will have a full house to use for one season. I don't have high hopes for Saw, although I'm intrigued by the whole "you are in the trap" thing. And I cannot imagine Hollywood screwing up Blumhouse any more than Orlando did. But then again, Hollywood has two opportunities to do so. Finally, it was nice to meet up with Cloves and his wife. We went through Dead Waters together and then I went off on my own because I had Express. I hope you two enjoyed B&T. Also, Festival is the pole dancing one and Altars is the one down Shrek Alley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunnylvr Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 Shocker: I mostly agree with everything you said.. EXCEPT Trick R Treat. Dude... seriously? That's an easy A. It's completely classic Halloween zone, and it's beautiful. I know, I know, there is an ass for every seat, and it's just an opinion.. but I was right with you until that comment. Also, did you play the games at Dare 2 Escape? I was told we had someone come in and play all the games by himself. Thought it may have been you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombieman Posted September 27, 2017 Author Share Posted September 27, 2017 Pallbearer: Yup, you're right about Shining. 90 minutes would be a highly edited for TV version... Ringwraith: It's funny, when I started writing about those two, I didn't know (or care) which was which, so I put the two names separated by a slash. Then I decided to split them and of course got it backwards. I still think of the floats with the dancers as being altars, so I mixed them up. I have corrected this. Thank you Hunnylvr: Trick R Treat was probably the best use of that area I can recall; it was nice to see it lit for once. I'll give you that. And a B- is by no means a fail. I just personally never saw TRT as something that would make HHN better. You're really gonna hate me for saying this, but I put it in the same scarezone class as Cirque Du Freak. For me, the classic Halloween house was The Hallow because it was purely Halloween folklore, albeit not modern day. Overall, this year's scarezones are the weakest in a long time. Most are more used for photo ops than scaring. Purge seems to be the only true in-your-face zone this year. That being said, I HOPE they still have more to add/restore following Irma. I'm sorry to report I did not go to the escape room. Full disclosure - at 50, a night of HHN wears me down. Four nights in a row kills me. My days consisted of sleeping in, taking the water taxi to Citiwalk for lunch, and then back to Sapphire Falls. Didn't even drive out of the parking lot. But I really wanted to see your rooms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Nice review, Zombieman! On 9/26/2017 at 5:37 PM, zombieman said: I'm looking forward to see what Hollywood has done with The Shining, Ash, and AHS. I expect Hollywood to have a completely different take on The Shining (their Exorcist was much better than Orlando's). I think I will end up liking Hollywood's AHS because they will have a full house to use for one season. I don't have high hopes for Saw, although I'm intrigued by the whole "you are in the trap" thing. And I cannot imagine Hollywood screwing up Blumhouse any more than Orlando did. But then again, Hollywood has two opportunities to do so. I'm definitely looking forward to your Orlando/Hollywood comparison, since there is plenty to talk about Hollywood this year. An' I've got a good feeling how it'll go considering what you said about Scarecrow and the IP counterparts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombieman Posted October 13, 2017 Author Share Posted October 13, 2017 An interesting thing happened since I wrote my Orlando review... I went to HHN Hollywood. The two coasts were vastly different this year. More diametrically opposed than ever. Hollywood made Orlando seem like an A- in comparison, rather than the B+ I gave it. Orlando made Hollywood seem deserving of the solid F I gave it. How can two events be so completely different? Surely Hollywood was not an utter failure, right? The problem is that if you looked at Hollywood in a bubble, it was maybe a C. But when you see how much better Orlando attacked every single piece of IP, it comparatively looks like Hollywood chose the worst possible way to do everything. I wish more of you could do both parks. I would bet that anyone who reviewed Orlando to be a "pretty good" year would re-evaluate it to be a stellar year if they had also gone to Hollywood. Conversely, I bet anyone who thought Hollywood was "really good" would completely rethink that if we subsequently went to Orlando. Hollywood was the worst single year I can remember for HHN, and Orlando is very much responsible for burying Hollywood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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