HHNManics Posted November 10, 2017 Share Posted November 10, 2017 (edited) Warning: Heavy Spoilers Well here it is... My final review of HHN2017. Overall a Okay Year. There was some fantastic parts to it and some horrible parts to it. Some charm and some lacking charm. Despite it being "Okay" I will still miss HHN. There's something special about HHN so even if it's godlike or just okay there is still something special about it. This year in a lineup sense did make a lot of sense. - The Return of the Titans of Terror after being extremely popular last year. Plus they were the first really popular IPS to come to the event in 2007. - The Horrors of Blumhouse being celebration of Horror and Universal's Collaboration with Blumhouse over the years. - The Return of the Fan Favorite Insidious after being Highest Rated (2nd in 2015) for the 2 years. - The Welcoming of the Classic The Shining which is something Murdy, HHN, and Horror Fans have wanted for a long time. - Ash Vs Evil Dead being a Very liked TV Show and something that Horror Fans love. - The Return of Saw which was a massive hit in 2009/10 and is extremely popular for Horror Fans. - The Return of AHS and now having the Latest season after receiving some good reviews (And a lot bad) but has good enough content to make a Maze. So how did all of this translate into the Event this year? It was alright. Mazes: Upper Lot: Titans of Terror: I remember back at Scarela hearing this idea and being extremely excited for it. The Home Haunt Idea and Horror Super Fan idea is something a lot of Horror Fans can relate to. So right off the bat it's interesting. The facade is stellar and compared to the rest of the facades this is the best facade. Upon entering the first Scene hooks you in immediately with a Kid watching TV Horror Movie Marathon of TCM, FT13th, and NOES. The Room is extremely vibrant with Easter Eggs and all sorts of merchandise of Leatherface, Freddy, and Jason. Then a transition and you are in the world of Freddy. Freddy's Section: This was easily the Best Section of the Maze which doesn't mean that the other sections are bad. Not at all it's just that all of them are stellar and this is just a little bit more stellar. The Costumes are Great as always. The Scares are also great. The Lights/Cradle Room Scene was extremely creepy and was awesome. The Sets were extremely immersive and made you feel like you were in the Films. Overall fantastic. (A+) Jason's Section: Definetely pretty interesting. The Scares in this Section were actually probably the Best IMO. There was some really nice Set Design to it and it just looked visually stunning. The Costumes are as great as always. You see the Twisty Bus again from last year which was nice. But there is something kinda creepy about this Section. It isn't a bunch of Jason Kills or Camp Crystal Lake People. It was kinda creepy. Like just like a Hideout/Cave for this Section which was stellar and very creepy. (A+) Leatherface's Section: Now moving on to the weakest section in the Maze which is not a Bad thing. The Leatherface Section which was as always amazing. They had a total of 3 Scenes and each one was pretty good. I don't know why the Leatherfaces in this maze are incredibly energetic but it's great. Amazing Costumes and Sets as per usual. But overall stellar. (A+) After that you go to the finale which is Jason, Freddy, and Leatherface all attacking you while being announced that the Horror Movie Marathon is over. The idea was stellar and I was definitely not ready for the execution. Overall one of my favorite HHN Mazes and One of the Most Charming Mazes I have ever gone through. Set Design: 5/5 Costume Design: 5/5 Scare Rating: 5/5 Overall Grade: A+ The Horrors of Blumhouse: My expectations for this Maze were pretty low. I was not excited at all for Purge as I thought it would be incredibly repetitive and that Happy Death Day would just be bland and a Exorcist 2.0 with you entering a Different kill Scene similar to Saw which would destroy any potential for Scares. I was truly only excited for Sinister because the film was fantastic and I was excited to see the Execution. So then the Purge Original Sequel idea came along and the Undeground Idea which had me interested. Along with the idea of a Movie Theater Marathon Idea of Happy Death Day and Sinister. Which was interesting. So I was interested but had still low expectations so when I finally saw the Maze. It went below my expectations and was one of the Worst Mazes this year. Purge Section: My Expectations for this Section were very low as I believed it would be a Carbon Copy of the Gaunlet and Shorter with Creativety nor Imagination. And I was right. Truly the Worst Section of the Maze. The Costumes are all re-used and are all kinda bad. The Set Design is thrown together and it doesn't fit at all or flow as well as last year's Gaunlet. The Scares were particularly really weak. Maybe because it's very open. The thing is that if this is supposed to be a Underground Compound why is there no Cover over the Section? Why is it when I look up I see the Night Dark Sky? Had it a Cover the Scares would work a lot better. It didn't feel like a Purge Compound. It felt like a repeat of the Gaunlet which Last year's Gaunlet was way better and more creative and memorable than this. Also how is there a Black Hallway in the Purge Section? (F) After the God-awful Purge Section you see a Very nice Theater Facade. Where Posters are glued to the Walls on the sides. Would've been awesome to have Projection stuff of the Films like Orlando but nope. Okay let's get to the 2 Sections inside the Maze which are Happy Death Day and Sinister. Happy Death Day Section: My expectations were pretty low for this as I thought it would be a Exorcist 2.0 with no personality nor charm. But... I was very surprised. Easily the Best Section of the Maze. Once you see the Film you appreciate the Section a lot more. The Main Character's Room is very nicely detailed along with other scenes. The Scares are best in this Section. There are a few good ones. The Costume Design was great. Baby face killer looked great. Very nicely detailed section. It matches the tone of the film perfectly. It felt like a Mix of Exorcist and Halloween 2015. There is one very long Black Hallway in the Section which is a shame. Then the ending of the Section which was a bunch of fake Baby Face Killers with 2 Real Ones which was really cool. Aside from One Very Long Black Hallway it was easily the best part of the Maze. (A) Then you go through a incredibly awkward transition and enter the Sinister Section. Sinister Section: Very disappointed. The First 2 Scenes are fantastic. The Scene with the Girl killing her family and the Projector Scene was great. The Projector Scare/Scene is one of my favorites this year. Bughuul looks fantastic. After that it's the church with a Kid coming out which he looks terrible. Laughable. Then it's a bunch of Church Hallways with nothing happening in them and then Black Hallways with nothing happening in them. Then the Church Scene with 5 different Scare Actors which was kinda a waste. Could have done a Saw like the Bucket Scene and had 4 Fake Bodies and One Scare Actor trying to get out but whatever. And that's it. Aside from the first two scenes this Section was really lackluster and extremely disappointing. (D+) Then the Ending which is a Purge Ending and is absolutely terrible. It's a bunch of Black Hallways and then Big Daddy shoots at you and that's it. Oh yeah right they removed that due to the Vegas Shooting which now he comes at you with a Machette which is even worse. What could have been a Fantastic Maze was watered down by a Lackluster Sinister Section and repetitive Purge Section. The only redeemable Qualities is the Happy Death Day Section and the first 2 scenes of Sinister. Aside from that. Really bad Maze. Set Design: 2/5 Costume Design: 2.5/5 Scare Rating: 1.5/5 Overall Grade: D+ The Walking Dead: Much better than most of the Mazes this year and that's not even a Joke. Sets are nice, Costumes are nice, Scares are bad. But still fun. Set Design: 4/5 Costume Design: 4.5/5 Scare Rating: 1/5 Overall Grade: B Then you move on to the Lower Lot where you have 2 Mazes. Insidious Beyond the Further and The Shining. Lower Lot: Insidous Beyond the Further: The facade for this Maze is Massive. Huge Facade and it looks epic in a sense. Most people say that the beginnng is Weak and as the Maze progresses it gets stronger. But I disagree. I feel as though the beginning is the strongest. The First scene is a Screen of the Key Demon and then he comes out and he looks fantastic. It's a living room scene with a TV and it's very nice. Then a Black hallway with Dirty Lady attacking you. There is then a Laundry Scene with her attacking you again which she looks fine. Then the Strangling Scene which is also great. Then Duck Boy points you into the Black Hallways and that's where the Maze falls apart and never picks back up. From there it's a series of Black Hallways with Scenes of someone doing something to someone like with a Lantern, a Demon strangling someone, and a Female threatening to kill a Baby with a Knife. All bland and are uninteresting and don't provide any opportunities for Scares. At this point the Scares are all incredibly weak. Then you enter a Red Door and are in the first Film where the same Red Lipstick Demon scene is used again but this time it's worse. Then some more black hallways and another red door where it's the same "Don't you dare" Scene which again is worse. Then more black hallways and another red door. And you enter a Hallway which you enter a Elevator and Man Who Can't Breathe comes out. And then you enter a Prison Hallway which was good. And then the Ending which everyone was raving about but it's just 5 Demons all coming out of Black Walls. Incredibly weak. The Maze is a long series of Black Walls/ Black Hallways with nothing happening in them. The Scenes from Chapters 1-3 are all bad. They try changing the layout of this Scenes but it doesn't work. The Scares are actually terrible which is surprising for a Insidious Maze. The Costumes are good. The Sets are pretty bland and nothing really special. It would have worked better had it been entirely The Lost Key/Chapter 4 rather than all 4 Films. Easily the Most Overrated Maze this year. Really bad Maze. Set Design: 2.5/5 Costume Design: 3/5 Scare Rating: 1.5/5 Overall Grade: C- The Shining: My Most Anticipated Maze this year. And it was unbelievable. The Facade is Gorgeous. Beautiful Facade. You enter and see the Redrum Door which looks great. Then Jack typing at his computer in a Screen where he then picks up a Axe and leaves. Then it's the All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy Hallway which this is a fantastic transition. Jack leaving the Screen with a Axe and then immediately right afterwards being greeted by Jack with a Axe. I love how they pulled off this hallway. It feels original but so right. The twins scene was also really good and looked amazing. The 237 Bathroom Scene smells like soap and looks amazing as well. As pointed out by @ush.hacker the Lady in the Tub is humming "Midnight with the Stars and you" which is a very nice touch. Then the Old Lady comes out and she actually got me pretty good as a Scare. Then the Bedroom which again looks fantastic. Then a Black hallway with Jack attacking you. Then the Hallway leading up to the Gold room. I was in front and went with friends alone at 1 in the Morning on Closing Night. The Bear Man had a Axe which is awesome. Then there is someone from a Screen who says "Great Party isn't it?" which feels exactly like the film. Then you enter a Room with a Bunch of skeletons where a lot of them are fake but some are real. Then the Elevator Scene which looks fine. Another Black hallway where Jack attacks you. Then the Here's Johnny Scene which is the Best scene in the Maze. The Lady looks exactly like Wendy from the film and this scene is captured so perfectly. Another Black hallway with Jack attacking you. Then you enter the Hedge Maze and are attacked by Multiple Jacks where you see the Iconic Image of Jack frozen in the snow while the audio "You have always been the Caretaker" and "Midnight with the Stars and you" is playing. The Costumes are all phenomental. Along with the Sets which make you feel very available to roam. Very open but the Scares still work. Not tight like Previous Mazes in the Mummy Queue. The Scares are actually best in here as I thought they were very well placed. The Shining is overall my Favorite HHN Maze of the Year and One of my all time Favorite Mazes. Set Design: 5/5 Costume Design: 5/5 Scare Rating: 5/5 Overall Grade: A+ Then the Backlot where it's 3 Mazes being Ash Vs Evil Dead, Saw: The Games of Jigsaw, and American Horror Story. Ash Vs Evil Dead: Here we go... Why? So the Maze starts off with the Trailer as the Facade and you enter it where you see Ash shoot the Old Lady. Unlike Jack Ash looks terrible. Like horrible. Along with the Old Lady. He shoots her with both hands and has a normal shotgun unlike a double barrel shotgun like in the show. But hey! It's accurate don't worry. Then some Black Hallways with 2 Scare Actors where it's just nothing really happening. You enter Ash's family's home where there is a Scene where Ash paces around which looks absolutely terrible. And does nothing. Then the "Hello" scene they didn't even have in the Word and censor it. It's just her lifting the 2 Hitchhikers and says "Hello". COMEDY HORROR MAZE. What follows is almost 2 Minutes of Black Hallways with nothing happening. You then enter the Cabin which the facade is the only thing in the Maze that looks nice. Then a Black Hallway... Inside the Cabin. Then you see the Henrietta which looks bad. And then a Black Hallway and that's it. I'm actually really sad writing this because I love the TV Show and was extremely excited for this Maze. But it was truly awful. The Worst maze since This is the End 3D. Awful Costumes, Sets, and Scares. Only nice thing is the Cabin Facade which isn't saying almost anything. Set Design: 0/5 Costume Design: 0/5 Scare Rating: 0/5 Overall Grade: F Saw: The Games of Jigsaw: My Overall least anticipated maze this year as I thought it would be bland and be a bunch of Black Walls and not even creative (Which that was Surprisingly Ash Vs Evil Dead) and I was surprised. Is it a good maze? No it's okay but it is a lot of fun to go through. I liked the layout of the Maze. The Facade was really nice. Then you enter and it's a bunch of traps to follow which all look great. The Rack Trap looks great along with the Barbed Wire trap which was cool to walk through along with the Reverse Bear Trap from the First Saw film. A black hallway. Then it's the Pendulum Trap which is really cool. Another black hallway. Then the Water cube trap along with the Reverse Bear Trap from Saw 7/3D which both look great. Then the Bathroom which was really cool. Having the audio "Game Over" from Saw 7 was a really nice touch I really liked. Then the Bucket Trap from Jigsaw which looked cool. Then a Hallway with Bodies and strobe lights and Saws coming from the Walls. Which is honestly awesome, tense, and the best part of the Maze. Then you see Billy and a Pig Man attacks you. The Maze has no scares. Weakest Scares I have seen from a Maze in a very long time. The Costumes are Great. The Sets are alright. I wish the Maze could have been more tense or more creative like the Saw coming of the Walls hallway but for what it was it surprised me and it wasn't bad. Set Design: 2.5/5 Costume Design: 4/5 Scare Rating: 0/5 Overall Grade: B- American Horror Story: The Season Roanoke has a really Amazing and Strong First Half where as the Second Half was incredibly weak and really bad. So overall a Okay season. I was still excited because I knew the Season had some great content for a Maze and it wasn't overstuffed maze like last year's maze (Which last year's maze was still good just not great). The Maze starts outside and then you enter the House where then there is a Series of Scenes to follow. Then you exit the House and enter the Tunnel which smells awful and then you enter a Small house and see the Polks and then the Ending which is 3 tall Scarecrows where one is real. The Costume Design is fantastic. Like seriously the Best of this year. The Sets are really big and grand and it looks fantastic. The Scares are also fantastic. The Maze I find to be much better than last year's maze and is one of my favorite HHN Mazes. Easily the Most Underrated/Overlooked Maze this year. Set Design: 5/5 Costume Design: 5/5 Scare Rating: 5/5 Overall Grade: A+ There's all of the Mazes so let's move on to the Terror Tram, Scare Zones, and Show. Titans of Terror Tram Presented by Chucky: Truly awful. It starts off with this Video introducing Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, and Chucky. Chucky then explains that he can now take on the Shape of any body now. Then you get off the Tram and see a bunch of Chucky's with Chainsaws which all look terrible. Why is he still as Chucky if he can take on the form of anyone? Then it's the Bates Motel with Jason. Jason's Section: This Section is the Best but it's still terrible. The Scare Actors are slightly good. The Costumes are terrible. It's just a bunch of Camp Crystal Counselors screaming at you. Then Jason is there with Kill Scenes. And that's it. Terrible. (D-) Leatherface Section 1: Terrible. It's a bunch of the Sawyer family instead of a Bunch of Leatherfaces but it's nothing. There's nothing to it at all. (F) Freddy Section: The WOTW Section and it's terrible. It's a bunch of Freddy's in different costumes and it looks terrible. The Scares are terrible. The Sets and Costumes are terrible. It doesn't feel like NOES like at all. There's even dupstep there to make it worse. Easily the worst section of the Tram. (F) Leatherface Section 2: Terrible. It's all of the Scenes from the Maze. (F) Then you get back on the Tram and see Chucky and see threaten the driver to promote his new movie or he will kill us all and the acting is so terrible. It was such a downgrade from last year's amazing tram. But the last tram was amazing and it was great meeting a lot of people from the community. Still terrible tram. Set Design: 0/5 Costume Design: 0/5 Scare Rating: 0/5 Overall Grade: F Moving on to the Upper Lot Scare Zone which is Hell-O-Ween. Hell-O-Ween: A very big downgrade from the previous Opening Scare Zones. It was bad. There is no flame towers which makes the Scare Zone feels empty and not as energetic as previous scare zones. The Opening Scaremony is fine. Nothing special. The Set Design is fine. The Costume Design is fantastic. The Scares are bad. But the Scare Actors are a lot of fun though. It fails to copy the feel of Halloween that Orlando was so clearly about to capture in their Trick 'r Treat Scare Zone this year. Set Design: 2.5/5 Costume Design: 4/5 Scare Rating: 2/5 Overall Grade: C- Toxic Tunnel: Easily the Worst Scare Zone I have ever walked through in my entire life. The Costumes are all reused Exterminatorz Costumes and all the Scares are terrible. Because there's way too many strobe lights for me or even the Scare Actors to see anything. Matter of fact they were pratically almost tripping in Opening Night. There is no sets at all. The Scaremony is good. Better than Hell-O-Ween's. Easily the worst Scare Zone I have ever gone through. Set Design: 0/5 Costume Design: 0/5 Scare Rating: 0/5 Overall Grade: F Urban Inferno: If you didn't know there's a Opening Scaremony for this one and it's easily the best. One of the best Scare Zones I have ever gone through. The Costumes are stellar along with the Sets. Incredibly Immersive and atmospheric. The Scares are also incredible. Everything I want a Scare Zone to be. Set Design: 5/5 Costume Design: 5/5 Scare Rating: 5/5 Overall Grade: A+ Jabbawockeez: Loses itself in the Story at times but it was alright. The whole girl thing is kinda awkward and doesn't fit. The songs are fine. Nothing special. It's fine. Overall Grade: C There was some fantastic parts of HHN2017 and some terrible parts to HHN2017. But overall it was fine. The Highlights were AHS, Shining, Titans, and Urban Inferno. It was a alright year with a lot of issues I discussed above. Excited for HHN2018. Overall Okay Year. Overall Grade: C+ Edited November 10, 2017 by HHNManics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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