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Stinkers of the year - Worst of the worst houses


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For a change of pace, I'm listing the worst house of every year I have been to HHN Orlando, and why

 

2004: Disorientorium - My very first year, I was so delighted to see all the detail of the houses.  Then there was Disorientorium, advertised to be a descent into madness.  What it turned out to be was a funhouse filled with black painted plywood walls.  Typical carnival scares - mirror maze, polka dot room, black and white room, strobes, etc.  The opposite of everything that the other houses had.

 

2005: Where Evil Hides (ICON HOUSE) - This was such a bad fit with the event, which was the most immersive year ever.  They designed an entire world around HHN, and then they created a house with an uncredited Michael Meyers(!) and the Storyteller.  As awkward as if Chucky was walking around with the Body Collectors.

 

2006: Did not go, but sounds like People Under the Stairs was the stinker, according to reviews

 

2007: Vampyr: Blood Bath - Not a bad house, really, but far too short.  Did not do justice to the 2004 Castle Vampyr.

 

2008: Reflections of Fear (ICON HOUSE) - Bloody Mary is still a beloved icon, I think partially because she will never be the icon again.  The curse of the Icon house continued.  Close runner up for me was Doomsday. 

 

2009: The Spawning - Was looking forward to it ("Fangoria presents!") and it disappointed on every level.  Every room and hallway looked the same.  Same exact monsters room after room.  

 

2010: I cannot say there was a single stinker in 2010.  The houses ranged from very very good to exceptional.  The one I liked the least was Catacombs, though; I am in the minority on that one.

 

2011: 2011 was my all time favorite year.  Every house was a home run.  The one I thought was least great was The Thing.  2011 contained the only exceptional 3D house HHN has ever done.

 

2012: Another solid year.  But Silent Hill just didn't work for me.  Mostly because I'd been to a haunt in California a couple of years better that had done Silent Hill perfectly.  Ruined me for all other versions.

 

2013: Havoc Derailed - Just three years earlier, Havoc was one of the best houses.  This sequel was a huge disappointment.  Short, less intense.  Close runner up was Afterlife: Death's Vengeance.

 

2014: Walking Dead - Third year in a row for TWD.  Make it stop.  Skipped this on multiple nights.

 

2015: Purge - How to retheme an IP house at the last minute: Dirty it up.  Smash stuff.  Make it look like a condemned house.  Both Purge and HIVE did this same thing.  One worked brilliantly.  One sucked.  It was so bad that it kept TWD from being the worst

 

2016: Lunatics Playground 3D (ICON HOUSE) - Chance is still one of my favorite icons.  They robbed her of a show and gave her this piece of crap to boot.

 

2017: Blumhouse of Fear - They advertised three properties and two of them were limited to a room and a hallway each.  Instead they focused on an upcoming film, with the supposed intent of making me want to see it.  I want to see it only because it focus on Elise Rainier.  Not because of what I saw in the house.  

 

 

My bottom 5 of all time:

Walking Dead (not just one house - the entire franchise being overused ruined it for me).  If they had only done, say, two houses, then it would be Purge

Blumhouse of Fear

Lunatics Playground 3D

Disorientoriuim

Where Evil Hides

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2013: Afterlife - Read all the stuff about IB and PT and had it in my thoughts this wouldn't be bad for my first year. It was lame, a "throw all the cool effects we got" 3D house instead of any attempt to put anything together.

 

2014: Roanoke - Not scary, and sets were generic. A tour of Roanoke. Finale surprise wasn't really worth the hype. TWD avoids this because I didn't go in 2013's so it was a newish experience for me (*Cough* 2013 Zones *Cough*)

 

2015: RUN - Scareless on all runs. Things come and go too fast to make sense. Lots of the same transition room. Meh. Purge and TWD had decent scares at minimum over this. 

 

2016: LP3D - What zombieman said basically. My least favorite HHN house. Icon having a 3D house should ever be an idea again. Once again, 3D for the sake of throwing in effects and stuff instead of trying to tie together. 

 

2017: The Shining - Horrid queue line for a honestly more boring house than anything. Sets feel grand enough. Scares happen, but they don't hit, exception of Gold Room. The abstract stuff was inconsistent with the real stuff, unlike Exorcist where they at least stuck with the artsy stuff the whole time, and the non-artsy stuff connected better in my opinion. Still not in my bottom 5 though.

 

Bottom 5:

LP3D

Afterlife

RUN

AWIL 2015 (Night and Day on this one between two houses.)

La Llorona (Lots of ladies reaching out of the dark. The 2nd half was basically incomphrensible.)

 

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Oh boy. 

Bottom 5 ever would have to be 

1. The spawning- by far the worst house I have been in. Stagnant sets and actors. Ever since there have been some pretty good ones in that tent.

2. Walking Dead 2015- Just awful. Really bad scares, bored actors, and at that point we were all bored of the franchise.

3. Havoc: Derailed- Solely because the original was so good. I'm hoping for a redemption one eventually.

4. Resident Evil- this was a franchise that was a tough task to get right and it just bombed. Didn't flow and the pause room was bad and broke the flow of the house even more.

5. The Thing (2011): the first IP that really blew it. Other than a good facade it was a dud in an incredibly strong year. 

 

Honorable mentions: Afterlife, Zombiegeddon, alien vs predator.

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2012-Alice Cooper (i think that was 2012, all i remember house-wise was the good ones i went to that year)

2013-Walking Dead

2014-Walking Dead

2015-Walking Dead (do you see a trend??)

2016-Krampus (I still enjoyed this one tbh and I skipped TWD this year)

2017-Saw (pretty awful house tbh, possibly my least favorite ever)

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22 - Alice Cooper, kinda a tie between Alice, Newk'd and House of Horrors but I rember going through Alice less and just in general not really enjoying it

23 - Afterlife: Death's Vengeance , This is single handily the worst HHN house ever for me, I couldn't despise this house more if possible

24 - Roanoke Cannibal Colony ... I guess? While certainly Roanoke and FDTD aren't making any of my best of lists I don't dislike them as much as Afterlife or Alice Cooper, and this was TWD's best year for me and actually even enjoyed it that year.

25 - The Walking Dead, after it actually being good for me at HHN 24 this really drove the "beating a dead horse" and really wanting it dead after taking two years to get it right finally then back to crap then just want it gone

26 - The Walking Dead, keep forgetting this house even existed last year and I think that alone should be reason for more people to give this house more hate than Lunatics Playground, at least LP I had some fun in but TWD I really didn't care at all.

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2015: The Walking Dead: The Living and The Dead- Out of the 3 years I've been, this is still the worst house I've ever been through. Not a single good scare, the façade was garbage, and... do I even need to say anything about the bathtub scene?

2016: The Exorcist- Now, I know, a lot of people loved this house because of how accurate it was to the movie, I agree. But just... too many dummies. Really again, not many good scares, but a couple of them were pretty good. 

(For now) 2017: The Horrors of Blumhouse- Holy crap, this house is awful. After watching Sinister, I was so excited to see some of those murder scenes... we got a projector and a hallway full of Mr. Boogies, The Purge is generic and nothing but a single room and hallway, and Insidious is WAY too long. Only 1 or 2 good scares in this house.

 

Favorite Houses

HHN 25- Jack Presents 25 Years of Monsters & Mayhem

HHN 26- Halloween: Hell Comes To Haddonfield

(For Now) HHN 27- Saw: The Games of Jigsaw

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