I love reading everyone's reviews and recounting them against what I experienced. I need better tips on how to get fully immersed into HHN while there, because I feel like I missed so much. We were visiting from out of town, so it was a one-and-done trip, also had express passes in hand, but still, I feel like I didn't quite see everything like the locals and repeat visitors did.
Houses
#9: Hive - I totally blame having this ranked last purely on the family directly in front of my wife, who kept on purposely stopping every 10 feet, and also the teenagers directly behind me who kept running up on my side every 10 feet :fist:. I got ZERO scares triggered because of this and saw nothing cool happen because I was so frustrated. My eyes rolled completely to the back of my head during the entire walkthrough. One of the worst experiences I've had at either HHN, Hollywood and Orlando. Sorry Hive fans. Please continue to detail how great this one was and I'll gladly relive it through those details.
#8: Ash vs. Evil Dead - I'm usually a big fan of IP houses for the simple fact of it transporting you from that show/film/game and putting you in the middle of it all. I was familiar with the Starz show and even watched the first episode in preparation, but I still didn't fully enjoy it much. It seemed like I was just watching each Ash scareactor perform a 5-second skit, shoot his boomstick at something, then move forward. It was decent for the given material, but I had no desire to want to see more.
#7: Saw - This happened to be the last one we visited that night, so at that point, my feet were hurting so bad and it was raining pretty hard, just wanted to be over and done with. As much as I wanted to stop and stare, I missed every single trap get set off and didn't notice anything about any interactive traps because the security dudes kept telling us to "hurry up and move forward". The pig men were good, but like the Saw films, this just seemed like a torturous museum of death traps that we would view each exhibit, say "mmhmm" and move on. Requires a lot of undivided attention.
#6: The Fallen - This was ranked here based on my conga line experience and I believe we went through during a cast change. The guys in the front of us kept pointing and looking "up" thus, giving away the potential scares from above. The big S&M looking guy got me good.
#5: The Shining - I was really excited for this one because I literally just watched the film less than 24 hours before arriving to HHN, so everything was real fresh in my head. Loved the feel of the hedge maze and hearing the "Danny boy!" We just missed the axe to the door scare. The blood elevator left a bit to be desired, but hopefully they'll incorporate huge video screens as scare elements in future mazes. Room 237 was an awesome effect. Overall, this was a beautiful maze. I wasn't expecting terrifying scares because the film isn't on that level. So it did it's due diligence really well.
#4: American Horror Story - Another fun one. My wife and I are fans and have watched every season (although it's jumped the shark recently). However, I don't re-watch shows ever, so being that Asylum aired over 5 years ago and Coven was 4 years ago, I didn't recognize a whole lot from memory, but they were still fun scenes. The bloody face part with all the asylum cell doors was a good scare. I like the use of the mirror with the Santa scare. The Roanoke parts were all intense and that crawling chick on the wall got me. Overall, it was really long but the scenes were hitting all the way up.
#3: Horrors of Blumhouse - I'm a big fan of all the Blumhouse films and I was keeping up with all the rumors during the off season of this one (So glad they didn't include "Get Out"). Love the Sinister section with the Baghuul's, but wish it was longer. The Purge section was over in a blink of an eye, meh. Then all the Insidious parts were non-stop fun. I couldn't help but sing "Ooooo.. tip toe, through the window..." the whole time we around the lipstick demon. We loved the Insidious house from HHN 25 and this was almost as fun (would've loved to have the dark hallway with all the hands touching you). I hope they bring this back and incorporate Paranormal Activity and more Sinister scenes.
#2: Scareacrow The Reaping - I have to admit, I was so scared of what was to come, I had my hands on the shoulders of my wife as she lead on this one, and I kinda focused on the back of her head and screamed when she did. Lol. This was a very, very loud maze with tight, dark corners, not a lot of space around us and scareactors in your face every few seconds. Every time they popped out in front of us and on the sides, they gave a deep, longing stare and slowly retreated backward. Wish I could do this one again (or at least someone video that dang thing after the event is over to share). Awesome maze.
#1: Dead Waters - I didn't even know this maze had started, wanted to snap a pic of the awesome riverboat facade before entering, but then some "thing" jumped out at us and I dropped the phone. So good. Walking through this experience, it truly felt like we were no longer in Orlando and were in the swampy bayou. So immersive, lots of detail, the room with the Voodoo priestess was amazing, and just non-stop scares. I didn't even realize it was short until I read other reviews regarding so. This was what I pay the hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to go to HHN for, just purely amazing.
Scarezones
As for the scarezones, we walked through Trick r' Treat while it was still daylight and never made it back a second time, so didn't get the full "awe" of it. While approaching Invasion, I got a phone call, looked down to see the number, swiped to ignore the call then looked back up and we were out of the scare zone already :blank:. By time we were near the Purge, it was raining so hard, we ran through it in order to get a poncho. So not a lot was going on. And the other 2 I don't even recall.
Shows
Loved Bill & Ted, fun and preditcable show. I wish they stuck around Hollywood HHN longer, looking forward to how they get replaced, hopefully another type of fun pop culture recap variety show. We missed the Academy of Villians because by time we circled back, all we had left was the Saw maze and we were soooooo tired by then, definitely didn't want to stand in one place for 10 minutes, or however long the show is.
Again, wish I could have circled back and did some of the other mazes a second time for a better experience. Maybe I'll have to do a longer trip next time and break it all up, don't want to have to buy multiple express passes though. After using them in Hollywood and Orlando for all these years, I can't fathom ever going to HHN without it.
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