HHN28 Opening Weekend Review

[Salookin]

Hey guys, I'm a newcomer to these forums but have been attending horror nights since HHN 25. I consider myself to be an avid fan of horror nights, and I of course was there for all three days of Orlando's opening weekend. This is my review, relatively spoiler free.

 

HOUSES (IN ORDER):

1. Poltergeist (10/10) - This is house of the year. The only house this has potential of losing to is Stranger Things, just because of its popularity. It's evident to me that for whatever reason, a bit more effort was put into this house than the other houses this year. While the house doesn't stay strictly true to the movie, I think the dev team had a little fun with it, and I enjoyed some of the creative things they did with this house. Set pieces are great, and this house is one of those special ones that is a perfect balance of intensity and great house design. This house is long, and one of the most memorable houses I've ever been in.

2. Scary Tales (9/10) - Amazing facade, one of the best I've seen (rivals dead waters from last year), some creative scares, and some awesome smells (apple pie, anyone?).  

3. Slaughter Sinema (8.5/10) - Really fun house. The set pieces are great. Not the scariest house, but it's probably the best "comedy" house I've been in during my short 4 years at horror nights. 

4. Trick R' Treat (7/10) - Enjoyable for me. Set pieces are good, and I had a really good time going through this one. Not sure what else to say here.

5.Carnival Graveyard: Rust in Pieces (7/10) - This is probably the most open house I've seen at horror nights. The facade and set pieces are good. Not as scary as many of the other houses, but has the most creative scares (multiple verticals). It's a good house, but not my favorite.

6. Halloween 4 - (6.5/10) - This is probably a bit higher than it should be for me because I'm a huge Halloween/Micahel Myers fan. Some unpredictable scares, and there's a ton of Michaels. If you like the movies, you'll probably enjoy this house.

7. Seeds of Extinction - (6/10) - I'm kinda meh on this house. I think it's a less intense version of scarecrow. Some pretty good scares.

8. Stranger Things (5/10) - I think the dev team worked with what they could, and I don't think this house could have been done any better. Stranger Things is far from horror, at it doesn't belong at horror nights in my opinion (I think we all know why they brought it this year). Demogorgon heavy. 

9. Dead Exposure: Patient Zero (2/10) - A lot of people liked this house, but I think they could have done a much better job.  Waaaaay too many strobes, and it was too dark; you basically couldn't see anything. Very loud house, and the scares are still pretty good. 

10. Blumhouse 2 (1/10) - This house sucked. For people who had Blumhouse near the bottom of their list last year, you're in for a rude awakening this year; this house is straight up worse than it's predecessor, and I don't even think that's arguable. Nice one, dickhead.

 

SCAREZONES (NOT RANKED IN ORDER):

 

Revenge of Chucky - If you walk through this scarezone when there's a crowd of 100 people crowded around his stage, it'll probably be the worst scarezone you've ever walked through. Not a ton of scareactors here, but can be fun to walk through when it's empty (or not a complete cluserf*ck)

Vamp '85 - More fun than scary. Loud 80's music playing with dancing scareactors. By far the largest scarezone; a lot of effort was invested into this one. My friends and I came up with arguably a better name for this one: Dance Party '85.

The Harvest - This scarezone blew. Re-used scarecrow costumes with random mini-facades of each of the houses? What?

Killer Klowns - Fun scarezone. Costumes are massive, and I feel the scareactors can't scare well because of the limited movement due to the size of them. 

Twisted Traditions - Probably the scariest zone. It's in central park, which is the closest quarters scarezone. Some of the costumes/masks are actually creepy in this one. Will probably get blocked by people trying to take pictures of the glowing pumpkin dude on stilts.

 

OVERALL REVIEW:

While not my favorite year of horror nights, some of the houses were great (Poltergeist is truly special IMO, might not see a house that good for years to come). The scarezones weren't that scary, but more fun. Idk what they even did with the food, but they messed it up (got rid of twisted taters and added like 10 waffle dessert items). Keep in mind that this has been the most crowded year of horror nights that I've been to, and others are saying the same. It is getting more crowded each year, and I'm seeing a potential expansion to islands in a few years because of these ever-growing crowds.

 

 

[Rikku]

Welcome to the forums. Great review and first post