Halloween Horror Nights 23 Reviews & Photos

[Scarletwebslingr]

I'm really quite intrigued by the varied responses to La Llorona and Resident Evil - very polarizing houses, it seems. For LL, people who've either experienced or are familiar with Hollywood's version seem disappointed due to the inevitable comparisons - for everyone else, the second half of the house appears to be where it loses people. Could someone maybe expand on why the second half of the house doesn't work for them?

As for Resident Evil, I might've expected the responses to coincide with one's familiarity with the games - and surprisingly, it doesn't seem to at all. Some people who are into the games loved the house, others despised it. People who don't know the game at all are equally divided - most agree it's too short, but the sets are grand so it kind of makes up for it. There are too many generic zombies, but the other characters are really well-executed. The pause scene is silly and dumb, but the finale rocks. Again - could someone maybe expand on how why or why not they think the house works/doesn't work?

Less than 2 weeks until I get to come join the fun.

I'll take a whack at it--The first part of LL has some pretty impressive scenery. Half way through, however, this turns into nothing but hanging nets and things to walk through. Literally, that's it. You walk through a bunch of hanging junk that is kinda swampy-looking and LL occasionally tries to boo you.

 

[martymcflyy85]

I've never been to HHH before, so I have a couple of questions. Should I be prepared for basically 30-45 minute waits at least for each haunted house? What about the rides, what are the waits like for those during the event? Does staying onsite get you a fast pass to HHH? Also, is there a hard strict rule about kids under 13, how does that work? Thanks!

 

[TylerDurden]

I've never been to HHH before, so I have a couple of questions. Should I be prepared for basically 30-45 minute waits at least for each haunted house? What about the rides, what are the waits like for those during the event? Does staying onsite get you a fast pass to HHH? Also, is there a hard strict rule about kids under 13, how does that work? Thanks!

It all depends on when you're planning to go...certain nights you'll be waiting 2 hours for everything, at least. The only thing I can answer for sure is that there are no explicit rules regarding children under 13. I saw kids who were 5 there on Friday. That little disclaimer is part suggestion, part marketing tool. With how mainstream and non-violent HHN has got, that little disclaimer is really not needed anymore, IMO

 

[Clive]

I'll take a whack at it--The first part of LL has some pretty impressive scenery. Half way through, however, this turns into nothing but hanging nets and things to walk through. Literally, that's it. You walk through a bunch of hanging junk that is kinda swampy-looking and LL occasionally tries to boo you.

It sounds like this is the portion of the house where you "enter the watery realm of LL herself," yeah? Sounds... perhaps poorly executed. Maybe they ran out of money?

I've never been to HHH before, so I have a couple of questions. Should I be prepared for basically 30-45 minute waits at least for each haunted house? What about the rides, what are the waits like for those during the event? Does staying onsite get you a fast pass to HHH? Also, is there a hard strict rule about kids under 13, how does that work? Thanks!

30-45 minute waits are on the low end of the spectrum. It's early in the season, so the bulk of the locals haven't shown up yet - later into the event on Fridays and Saturdays, expect waits as high as 2 hours. If you get there early (i.e. among the first people into the park) you can hit 4-5 houses without more than a 20 minute wait each.

Waits for the rides will be low with the exception of Rockit (possibly Transformers, not enough sample sizes to judge yet). Men in Black was almost always a walk-on, as was Simpsons. Mummy is completely hit or miss.

Staying on-site gets you express during the day ONLY. You get a special turnstile to enter the event, but express passes for the event are sold separately.

The PG-13 rating is suggested, not enforced - anyone can come into the event (even, for some reason, babies), but no child-priced tickets are sold.

 

[psljags71]

I've never been to HHH before, so I have a couple of questions. Should I be prepared for basically 30-45 minute waits at least for each haunted house? What about the rides, what are the waits like for those during the event? Does staying onsite get you a fast pass to HHH? Also, is there a hard strict rule about kids under 13, how does that work? Thanks!

Waiting 30-45 Minutes: Early in the day you'll probably wait if done properly 10-20 Minutes. Once it's dark. Lines average from an hour to (from my recollection of the SAW House from HHN 19) 4 hours. 4 hours is not the norm though, but it can happen. 30-45 Minutes doesn't appear often.
Ride Wait Times: Not nearly as bad as when the park is normally running. Most are in lines for houses. No clue on how bad Transformers will be though.
On Site = Express?: Not that I know of.
Strict Rule on 13 year olds?: Nope. I've seen babies in strollers going through scare zones and haunted houses. No joke. It's all about the $$$ sometimes.

 

[Tbad556]

I'm really quite intrigued by the varied responses to La Llorona and Resident Evil - very polarizing houses, it seems. For LL, people who've either experienced or are familiar with Hollywood's version seem disappointed due to the inevitable comparisons - for everyone else, the second half of the house appears to be where it loses people. Could someone maybe expand on why the second half of the house doesn't work for them?

As for Resident Evil, I might've expected the responses to coincide with one's familiarity with the games - and surprisingly, it doesn't seem to at all. Some people who are into the games loved the house, others despised it. People who don't know the game at all are equally divided - most agree it's too short, but the sets are grand so it kind of makes up for it. There are too many generic zombies, but the other characters are really well-executed. The pause scene is silly and dumb, but the finale rocks. Again - could someone maybe expand on how why or why not they think the house works/doesn't work?

Less than 2 weeks until I get to come join the fun.

In my opinion (someone who hasn't played the RE games), I enjoyed the house so much because of the sets. It wasn't the scariest of houses, but I did get some good scares. I was thoroughly impressed by props such as the

Spoiler

helicopter

and even the some of the more static monsters. I said to the group of OU members I was with that I didn't really understand the point of the pause room because personally, it just felt like a pointless dead zone, but I guess it's sort of cool to see. I just somehow expected more from it since they hyped it up to be some cool new thing. It's hard to get a good opinion of the house in just one walkthrough though.

I've never been to HHH before, so I have a couple of questions. Should I be prepared for basically 30-45 minute waits at least for each haunted house? What about the rides, what are the waits like for those during the event? Does staying onsite get you a fast pass to HHH? Also, is there a hard strict rule about kids under 13, how does that work? Thanks!

Depending on when you go, I'd definitely expect most houses to have about a 30+ minute wait time. The rides this past weekend were all sitting at 5-15 minutes all night from what I saw.

 

[Drew]

In my opinion (someone who hasn't played the RE games), I enjoyed the house so much because of the sets. It wasn't the scariest of houses, but I did get some good scares. I was thoroughly impressed by props such as the

Spoiler

helicopter

and even the some of the more static monsters. I said to the group of OU members I was with that I didn't really understand the point of the pause room because personally, it just felt like a pointless dead zone, but I guess it's sort of cool to see. I just somehow expected more from it since they hyped it up to be some cool new thing. It's hard to get a good opinion of the house in just one walkthrough though.

The pause room seems to indicate that this is kind of the "campy" house of the year.

I look at it as if you popped Resident Evil 2 into an original Playstation today, clearly it wouldn't be as technologically sound as the most recent Resident Evil games on the PS3. If you have a certain mentality about the house you'll certainly enjoy it more from the sounds of it.

As a big RE fan, I can't wait to see it.

 

[Clive]

In my opinion (someone who hasn't played the RE games), I enjoyed the house so much because of the sets. It wasn't the scariest of houses, but I did get some good scares. I was thoroughly impressed by props such as the

Spoiler

helicopter

and even the some of the more static monsters. I said to the group of OU members I was with that I didn't really understand the point of the pause room because personally, it just felt like a pointless dead zone, but I guess it's sort of cool to see. I just somehow expected more from it since they hyped it up to be some cool new thing. It's hard to get a good opinion of the house in just one walkthrough though.

The pause room is the biggest WTF to me, honestly. Why break the immersion of entering this world? Are video games really so gimmicky that they have to take you out of the experience to remind you that this property is based on a video game? It'd be one thing if it was a room full of actors who were "paused" and then "unpaused" - but I've seen the scene, it's literally just a random vignette of static figures. Unfortunately, great sets alone do not make a good house, so while I'm sure I'll appreciate the artistry, I don't know how I'm going to feel about *even more* zombies. Time will tell.....

 

[Hockeyman55]

I'm not going to mention any names but in Resident Evil a certain OU member got scared out of his mind towards the end of the house. Was pretty funny

 

[SeventyOne]

Unfortunately, great sets alone do not make a good house, so while I'm sure I'll appreciate the artistry, I don't know how I'm going to feel about *even more* zombies. Time will tell.....

For what it's worth, I remember the various monsters far more than the zombies. And, honestly, at a certain point, zombies/ghost people/genetically engineered supersoldiers, they all start to look alike in the dark-- for me, it's all about the sets and effects. RE nails both.

 

[Disneyhead]

Towards the end of the night it started to become hard to tell between "Walkers" and drunks.

 

[Hockeyman55]

Best part of this weekend. . . . . Not a drip of rain :happy:

 

[Drew]

Best part of this weekend. . . . . Not a drip of rain :happy:

It's a Horror Nights miracle!

 

[Cupcakes]

Best part of this weekend. . . . . Not a drip of rain :happy:

You have no idea how relieving that was. :faint:

 

[Hockeyman55]

You guys aren't kidding. The only time I wanted to get wet was by going down the water slide at the Hard Rock

 

[Scarletwebslingr]

The pause room is the biggest WTF to me, honestly. Why break the immersion of entering this world? Are video games really so gimmicky that they have to take you out of the experience to remind you that this property is based on a video game? It'd be one thing if it was a room full of actors who were "paused" and then "unpaused" - but I've seen the scene, it's literally just a random vignette of static figures. Unfortunately, great sets alone do not make a good house, so while I'm sure I'll appreciate the artistry, I don't know how I'm going to feel about *even more* zombies. Time will tell.....

See, for me when I play something scary, I hit pause. A lot. I take a breather and am all "f*** s*** nope nope nope." That was supposed to represent a gamer's "nope" moment. I thought it was clever and a fun nod to players. I mean, they only did it once and didn't have anything like that in any other house so seeing something like this only once in the entire event wasn't too much for me.

 

[USO92]

Wow. So this was my first HHN ever and I scare so stinking easily so I was terrified. But what a great event it was! My cousin had her face buried in my shirt and ended up throwing me into a few walls... But heres my review in order of rankings!

1.) Afterlife---This house was so beyond trippy and an insane amount of fun! The mirror room, vortex and first two scenes of the afterworld were incredible!! We ended up getting stuck in one room and the actors never stopped trying to scare us! They got us MULTIPLE times in that one room. The effects in this house made it so different and so unique; absolutely loved it.

2.) American Werewolf in London---There weren't a lot of scares in this one for me...Idk if it was bc it was during a change but there werent that many. But...when there were...they were good! The wolves were incredible!! The most life like puppets that I have ever seen. The transformation scene wasnt anything too, too special but it definitely added a lot to the story. Due to how loud it was I couldnt make out the narration but everything that they did really helped tell the story and it was one of the better houses when it came to storytelling.

3.) Cabin in the Woods--- This was the second to last house we did and it was definitely a thriller! The end sequences were the scariest of the night! Now, when I say scary it was due to the timing of the actors mixed with the screams/mixtape playing overhead. This was one of the houses that my cousin threw me into a wall lol. Definitely a cool house to walk through with some good scares!

4.) La Llorona---We ended up doing this house twice. Definitely a house full of scares! I loved the aesthetic beauty of it all and was definitely cool to look at. BUT...having seen the walkthrough of hollywood I felt we got robbed just a tad. For instance I was expecting the 2 huge puppets and was looking forward to those but they never came. So I was a little disappointed in that. The entrance to her realm was cool and original but everything after that didnt make much sense to me. The scenery didnt really change and I didnt know if we were back in the original realm orrr what. Though I have to admit the mirror effect with the children scared the mess out of me. Good house!

5.) Walking Dead--- Now the only reason this house was freaking scary for me was
1.) First house of the day (real jittery)
2.) It was unbelievably dark and LOUD
I mean every house was dark but all the other ones had some sort of supplemental lighting to go with it and this one did not. I could not see ANYTHING which then led to unseen walkers and lots of screaming lol. Now due to the two reasons I posted I didnt take in much scenery so the total effect of aesthetics did nothing for me. So looking back on this one it was scary but not as bad as I originally thought.

6.) Resident Evil---This house wasnt frightening at all. Like the only scare I got was at the very beginning when the cop and the zombie are roaming and that was because my cousin threw me into the zombie. lol. It was definitely one of those houses that I walked through and just looked at. The puppets were cool and the licker was definitely cool but this house was way overhyped. The pause room? Waste of a room. Terrible waste of space. But overall it was a nice break between houses.

7.) Havoc---We did this house at 6:45. The sun was out and so that means we saw EVERYTHING. Nothing was hidden and I saw every scare coming. Doesnt mean it didnt get me because they definitely got me but had we come back and done it at night Im sure it wouldve been better but yeah this house lacked for me. Anti-climatic ending as well. (but I did have a handicapped guy in front of me in a powered wheelchair who was having trouble with the blinds to each room but whenever an actor interacted with him he would fight back caused one of the actors to crack up in the middle of the scene)

8.) Evil Dead---N/A


Streets---The only streets I enjoyed walking through were the forest and clear. Other than that the streets did nothing. Someone else on here said that there is only so much you can do with zombies and they are not suited for the streets. Lame walking around and trying to scare people. At one point my cousin and i began to ask them if they had a minute to talk about Jesus

Bill and Ted---Definitely funny and had some great jabs at Disney. Those were my favorite parts Funny show overall.

So it was definitely a great night and I will definitely be going back any year I can!

 

[Cupcakes]

^ Great to hear your first time went well! And don't worry about being scared easily. The more you go, the more used to being scared you get. :thumbs:

 

[USO92]

Thanks!! And yeah I figured thats what it was. I literally had scratch marks on my side from my cousin

And I have to agree with the ride thing. The rides that were open did NOTHING to the crowds. Every ride (even DM:MM) was a 5 min wait. And last night seemed pretty crowded as well.

 

[Cupcakes]

As others have said, you'll probably see the rides (especially Transformers) soak up more people in the coming weeks when the typical HHN guests start piling in. But even then, they probably won't have that huge of an impact at the end of the day when it comes to houses like The Walking Dead.