It's Complicated

[Rikku]

I attended the week of 10/25-10/31 and after spending the weekend prior at this year's disappointing Hollywood HHN coming to Orlando HHN was a huge breath of fresh air. The wonderful feeling of HHN was there, the houses absolutely gorgeous and immaculately detailed, felt everything was managed well when I was there, wasn't terribly rushed through the houses, such an amazing year....yet had a lot of deja vu and almost dare I say it bored...The first night I attended with my usual friends and we've been attending HHN for years, about a decade for me (HHN 18 being my first) and even though everything was working it didn't??? I know that doesn't make sense thus the title of "It's Complicated" but everything felt like I've seen it before. The lightning scene in Scarecrow all I was thinking was the time I saw it in the Walking Dead, the Santa mirror gag in AHS seeing it in Jack's 25 with the Caretaker, the stilted vampire in Hive seeing it in Tomb of the Ancients, the maze of mirrors in Shining saw it in Freddy vs Jason, and other similar tricks utilized before. I was blind of all the awesomeness by the been there done that.

 

 Then the second night happened which my boyfriend started attending and he has never been to HHN before and I began seeing everything through his eyes again. The tricks all worked wonderfully, everything was fresh again. The barker on the Purge bus was hilarious again, the obvious spots of where actors hide became hidden again, and just everything worked because I had the fresh eyes with me. I fell in love with the event all over again but throughout the remainder of the event I was always wondering what would have happened if I didn't have my boyfriend come? It's complicated....and makes me truly wonder how and where the event will truly evolve onward. Not even in a IP vs original or do we have an icon manner just staying fresh. I had the wonderful privilege of attending Knott's Scary Farm and something about the houses feels fresh to me in a way HHN didn't. I still have every intention of attending HHN Orlando for many more years and don't get me wrong still had tons of fun even the first night and truly no one can do what HHN Orlando does, it is one of the best events. Especially this year the houses was probably one of the strongest line ups in a long time with all of them being similar in quality. Also I understand there are only so many ways to scare people in the capacity of the conga line and maybe I am being to harsh but just saying my thoughts. I guess 9 years of HHN there is bound to be deja vu but I want to see how this amazing event that I love and care for so deeply can avoid it. Seriously once my boyfriend arrived and he got the scares so well and the environments immersed him so I was able to see again and it was one of the strongest years ever. 

 

Don't need to give the houses a numerical or alphabetical rating as I already said they were all great and that was one of the beauties of this year was I was constantly changing my ranking of the houses in my head.  The only consistent ranking I had was Hive was always the worst for both me and my boyfriend easily. It was weak.

 

Anyways that should be enough to start a discussion if anyone would like for now and can discuss more from there. Let me know what you all think. 

Edited November 3, 2017 by Rikku