I sure wish that I could work a camera that well...
Not to disregard Hockeyman's skill, but it's not that hard.
Halloween Horror Nights 23 Reviews & Photos
- Thread starter Tbad556
- Start date
-
Signing up for a Premium Membership is a donation to help Inside Universal maintain costs and offers an ad-free experience on the forum. Learn more about it here.
Not to disregard Hockeyman's skill, but it's not that hard.
Not to disregard Hockeyman's skill, but it's not that hard.
I think the hardest part for me when I started was just lean pay way around the camera. I had no clue what and is or f-stop even was but once I saw how each interacted with other other it became pretty each
- May 26, 2010
- 5,814
- 16,169
Very interesting mix of reviews. American Werewolf in London & Cabin seem to be the undisputed top dogs right now... La Llorona and Evil Dead seem to come in the next tier, with Walking Dead and Resident Evil all over the place. Afterlife and Havoc seem to be in the bottom tier. The streets seem to be almost universally disliked save for the little "show" elements that happen occasionally.
Hearing a lot of good things about Bill & Ted, which is exciting. Should be a decent run comparable to 2011, methinks.
Oh - and Tyler, thanks for the very in-depth review. As a huge fan of puppets/animatronic/prosthetic scares, I'm sad to hear that many of the effects don't quite measure up. The violence has been toned down gradually for years now, so I'm not very surprised (though no less disappointed) that it's just as bland this year. Humph.
Hearing a lot of good things about Bill & Ted, which is exciting. Should be a decent run comparable to 2011, methinks.
Oh - and Tyler, thanks for the very in-depth review. As a huge fan of puppets/animatronic/prosthetic scares, I'm sad to hear that many of the effects don't quite measure up. The violence has been toned down gradually for years now, so I'm not very surprised (though no less disappointed) that it's just as bland this year. Humph.
I think the hardest part to"get" is simply framing. It's like rhythm. Either you get it or you don't. It's not something you can learn.
And i I am encouraged by BriMan's comment about La Llorona. I was with him on his fist run through and if he says it got better then I'm excited.
And i I am encouraged by BriMan's comment about La Llorona. I was with him on his fist run through and if he says it got better then I'm excited.
Most of the people I know actually like the streets. We don't like the lack of originality but for what they have done it works really well.
Getting ready to go to HHN for the second time right now, so I will tell you all if I see any improvements or disimprovements. I'll also be sure to share my thoughts on the return of Rocky Horror when I get back.
- Oct 14, 2012
- 1,466
- 75
Sometimes they give us some cool stuff--2011 was really gory (Nightingales and Saws n Steam come to mind). The problem I have, personally, isn't the lack of violence itself rather than Universal's refusal to go all out with it this year. if you're gonna show a guy getting stabbed, don't make his body out of paper mâché. If you're gonna show a pile of body parts, make sure they're at least a notch above the Halloween party store decorations. And if you're gonna do houses based heavily on creatures (Residenr Evil, Cabin in the Woods),make sure the monsters don't look like inflatable puppets and rubber mannequins. I'm surprised AWiL is the best use of puppetry in a house at HHN because the other houses are disappointing in terms of these types of effects.
- Oct 14, 2012
- 1,466
- 75
I can see where 80% of the budget went.
That very well could be it! The thing is, everything else was top-notch. The sets and facades were stunning (as if I didn't drool over them enough in my review), and this year was a step forward in presentation, layout, pacing, design, and all of that. If they had just used whatever mentality they had that lent us these stunning houses, and kept the scares and effects simple, the disappointing props would've been a lot less damning. I don't need rabid dogs and tentacle monsters in my houses...but big rubber inflatable imitations don't do it for me.
A quick shot from another fun night tonight meeting up with some OU members.
Streets of Atlanta by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr
Streets of Atlanta by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr
- Aug 17, 2009
- 8,003
- 9,844
I dont think crowds were all that much higher than opening night. Ran into a lot of 30-45 min posted wait times and walking in the streets wasn't a hassle.
A quick shot from another fun night tonight meeting up with some OU members.
Streets of Atlanta by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr
Great shot! :thumbs: :rep:
This event may as well be called Halloween Horror Nights 23: People in Cages because that sums up about half of the houses. That isn't to say though that this event was without its gems...
Walking Dead- Like people? Like cages? Boy does HHN has a house for you! Welcome to West Georgia Correctional Facility, aka "The Prison," where zombies are everywhere except anywhere outside of their cages. The set pieces were decent (albeit probably mostly reused from Psychoscarepy and elswhere) but not great and this wasn't billed as the "fun" house, either; it was billed as scary which it was not. Decent sets, good scareactors working with the cards they were dealt, boring otherwise. 2 out of 5 (by the way, I have no real rubric for these scores so don't take them too seriously)
Cabin in the Woods- Starts off strong with an impressive facade of the cabin itself and then...well, you guessed it, a lot of people in cages. It was fun, the taxidermy wolf head was there so that was pretty cool, and many of the monsters (including the Merman) drop in for an appearance, though, disappointingly, there was no Unicorn. For all you older-school HHN easter-egg hunters, Jack the Clown is totally in this house. Look for him. Great makeup/costumes, good set designs, and very true to the story with some okay scares. Definitely more focused on the scenery than scares when I went through but there was so much to see and take in (compared to a generic prison--see above) that not being scared s***less every two seconds actually worked in my favor. 4 out of 5.
Havoc--Something About a Train: So I forgot the actual name to this house but what it boils down to is a whole bunch of Dogs are being transported in a train. In cages. Oi. Anyway, the set pieces were actually really neat. You do feel like you're moving through a train with the lights rushing past, air smacking you when transfering between cars, and the tight quarters to meander through. Unfortunately, being authentically trainy had some severe drawbacks. The biggest flaw in this setup was the fact that you were literally in a train-sized path, meaning the couple Scareactors NOT in cages have few-to-no places to hide from you thus derailing (and I just remembered it was called DoW: Derailed) any chances of getting scares. 'A' for atmosphere. 'F' for scares. 'Y' for Yawn. 1 out of 5.
An American Werewolf in London: For those who have seen this movie, it is literally a frame-for frame recreation. There was little if any open dialogue going on here from the scaractors but instead voice-over tracks straight from the film! They have every scene from the Slaughtered Lamb to the porn theater and every scene was spectacular. Now usually I associate beautiful houses with low scares but not here. Oh no no no. The Wolf is freaking terrifying and pretty much all over the place. The puppetteering is absolutely amazing and it looks JUST like the Wolf from the classic film. Oh, and the ending is hysterically accurate as well so brace yourself. 5 out of 5.
Resident Evil: Words can't express how happy I was to see a true-to-form VIDEOGAME house based on such a nostalgic franchise. It takes you through the first two games (meaning both Leon and Jill coesist in the same house due to RE 1 and 2 running simultaneously in the same timeline). It's Leon's first day as a Raccoon City police officer and his work is cut out for him. They do a marvelous job recreating scenes from the game (and even pull a bit from the novels, it seemed like). The Licker, Nemesis, and the rest of the gang are after you and, I'd be lying to say a certain stupid zombiedog didn't scare the everloving crap out of me. You know when you're playing a scary game and something megascary happens so you just hit pause and say "nope" like a million times in a row? You'll definitely need one of those moments in this house. And get it. 4 of 5.
La Llorona: Perhaps if I hadn't watched the epic walkthrough video of this house over at Uni Hollywood I might have given this house more credit. But I did so I won't. It's really just a dramatically cheapened version of a far better house out West. The sets were pretty spectacular in the beginning but came crashing down somewhere towards the middle. I think I saw an undead alligator person in there somewhere. Anyway, La Llorona's masks are about as scary as Lady Lucks (though perhaps a littttttttle bit higher quality. But only a little). I don't know... I went into this house expecting something awesome kind of like how Disneyland people used wander into WDW's Toontown only to be extremely disappointing in such a half-hearted recreation of something so good. 2 out of 5.
Afterlife: I thought the premise here was a man is convicted on several brutal counts of murder and gets the chair where, as he journeys into the afterlife, he must face every single pissed off spirit of those he had killed on Earth. Awesome! Except it more like he died and went instead to a watered down version of the Inbetween, complete with the EXACT SAME DEMONS FROM THE INBETWEEN! The only "new" costume I noticed was the serial killer himself wandering about like a child lost in Walmart. Nothing fun about this house at all, not during my first experience anyhow. 0 out of 5.
So there you have it. I did every maze but Evil Dead and it was like every year--some very high highnotes and some very low lownotes. Oh yea, the streets were pitiful. Walking Dead just isn't scary. It's gross. It's intriguing. But it just not haunted house/street worthy much less EVERYstreetworthy. Hershel's barn was pretty cool, I'll hand them that. My personal favorite house was Resident Evil but I think overall Werewolf will walk away "Best House," unless Evil Dead is somehow mindblowingly outstanding. By the way, if anyone knows a TM and is a Florida resident...FF+ passes are only $85. Awesome, no?
Walking Dead- Like people? Like cages? Boy does HHN has a house for you! Welcome to West Georgia Correctional Facility, aka "The Prison," where zombies are everywhere except anywhere outside of their cages. The set pieces were decent (albeit probably mostly reused from Psychoscarepy and elswhere) but not great and this wasn't billed as the "fun" house, either; it was billed as scary which it was not. Decent sets, good scareactors working with the cards they were dealt, boring otherwise. 2 out of 5 (by the way, I have no real rubric for these scores so don't take them too seriously)
Cabin in the Woods- Starts off strong with an impressive facade of the cabin itself and then...well, you guessed it, a lot of people in cages. It was fun, the taxidermy wolf head was there so that was pretty cool, and many of the monsters (including the Merman) drop in for an appearance, though, disappointingly, there was no Unicorn. For all you older-school HHN easter-egg hunters, Jack the Clown is totally in this house. Look for him. Great makeup/costumes, good set designs, and very true to the story with some okay scares. Definitely more focused on the scenery than scares when I went through but there was so much to see and take in (compared to a generic prison--see above) that not being scared s***less every two seconds actually worked in my favor. 4 out of 5.
Havoc--Something About a Train: So I forgot the actual name to this house but what it boils down to is a whole bunch of Dogs are being transported in a train. In cages. Oi. Anyway, the set pieces were actually really neat. You do feel like you're moving through a train with the lights rushing past, air smacking you when transfering between cars, and the tight quarters to meander through. Unfortunately, being authentically trainy had some severe drawbacks. The biggest flaw in this setup was the fact that you were literally in a train-sized path, meaning the couple Scareactors NOT in cages have few-to-no places to hide from you thus derailing (and I just remembered it was called DoW: Derailed) any chances of getting scares. 'A' for atmosphere. 'F' for scares. 'Y' for Yawn. 1 out of 5.
An American Werewolf in London: For those who have seen this movie, it is literally a frame-for frame recreation. There was little if any open dialogue going on here from the scaractors but instead voice-over tracks straight from the film! They have every scene from the Slaughtered Lamb to the porn theater and every scene was spectacular. Now usually I associate beautiful houses with low scares but not here. Oh no no no. The Wolf is freaking terrifying and pretty much all over the place. The puppetteering is absolutely amazing and it looks JUST like the Wolf from the classic film. Oh, and the ending is hysterically accurate as well so brace yourself. 5 out of 5.
Resident Evil: Words can't express how happy I was to see a true-to-form VIDEOGAME house based on such a nostalgic franchise. It takes you through the first two games (meaning both Leon and Jill coesist in the same house due to RE 1 and 2 running simultaneously in the same timeline). It's Leon's first day as a Raccoon City police officer and his work is cut out for him. They do a marvelous job recreating scenes from the game (and even pull a bit from the novels, it seemed like). The Licker, Nemesis, and the rest of the gang are after you and, I'd be lying to say a certain stupid zombiedog didn't scare the everloving crap out of me. You know when you're playing a scary game and something megascary happens so you just hit pause and say "nope" like a million times in a row? You'll definitely need one of those moments in this house. And get it. 4 of 5.
La Llorona: Perhaps if I hadn't watched the epic walkthrough video of this house over at Uni Hollywood I might have given this house more credit. But I did so I won't. It's really just a dramatically cheapened version of a far better house out West. The sets were pretty spectacular in the beginning but came crashing down somewhere towards the middle. I think I saw an undead alligator person in there somewhere. Anyway, La Llorona's masks are about as scary as Lady Lucks (though perhaps a littttttttle bit higher quality. But only a little). I don't know... I went into this house expecting something awesome kind of like how Disneyland people used wander into WDW's Toontown only to be extremely disappointing in such a half-hearted recreation of something so good. 2 out of 5.
Afterlife: I thought the premise here was a man is convicted on several brutal counts of murder and gets the chair where, as he journeys into the afterlife, he must face every single pissed off spirit of those he had killed on Earth. Awesome! Except it more like he died and went instead to a watered down version of the Inbetween, complete with the EXACT SAME DEMONS FROM THE INBETWEEN! The only "new" costume I noticed was the serial killer himself wandering about like a child lost in Walmart. Nothing fun about this house at all, not during my first experience anyhow. 0 out of 5.
So there you have it. I did every maze but Evil Dead and it was like every year--some very high highnotes and some very low lownotes. Oh yea, the streets were pitiful. Walking Dead just isn't scary. It's gross. It's intriguing. But it just not haunted house/street worthy much less EVERYstreetworthy. Hershel's barn was pretty cool, I'll hand them that. My personal favorite house was Resident Evil but I think overall Werewolf will walk away "Best House," unless Evil Dead is somehow mindblowingly outstanding. By the way, if anyone knows a TM and is a Florida resident...FF+ passes are only $85. Awesome, no?
Last edited:
Second impressions from last night:
- American Werewolf and Cabin in the Woods are still ridiculously awesome.
- Evil Dead I thought got better scare-wise. Resident Evil too.
- La Llorona, Afterlife, and Havoc 2 I thought all got worse the second time through. Hopefully that'll change.
- Walking Dead was just Walking Dead as usual. Didn't see any real changes in quality from my first time through.
- RHPS was just, fine, I guess. Not very many differences from the versions they had before, at least from what I noticed.
- The streets were a little better this time around. Still lacking in scares, but the show elements were definitely there.
Overall still a pretty decent event so far. I'm hoping it can get even better from here, though.
- American Werewolf and Cabin in the Woods are still ridiculously awesome.
- Evil Dead I thought got better scare-wise. Resident Evil too.
- La Llorona, Afterlife, and Havoc 2 I thought all got worse the second time through. Hopefully that'll change.
- Walking Dead was just Walking Dead as usual. Didn't see any real changes in quality from my first time through.
- RHPS was just, fine, I guess. Not very many differences from the versions they had before, at least from what I noticed.
- The streets were a little better this time around. Still lacking in scares, but the show elements were definitely there.
Overall still a pretty decent event so far. I'm hoping it can get even better from here, though.
Ranking based on first impressions, from best to worst (the middle is pretty subjective on that):
Bill & Ted was strong. Moves fast, so the scenes that don't really work don't bring it down. A second year of Scooby Doo homages, as well, which was awesome.
SZs felt repetitive. The tank is pretty much wasted (I mean, it's a tank!). Barn works well, at least. Maybe a mix of two TWD zones and four unique zones would have been better.
- American Werewolf in London: Flat-out amazing. Immersive sets, clever effects, freakishly true to the movie. Strong contender for best house ever.
- Cabin in the Woods. Not a huge fan of the movie, but this house captures the best parts of it. Amazing array of creatures in the second half.
- La Llorona: The impressive sets make up for the average to slightly above average scares.
- Evil Dead: Starts slow--three different introduction rooms. But once it gets going, truly creepy, closely replicating scenes from the movie in ways I didn't think could be done in real life. Left me wanting another room or two, which is good. If there's a downside, it's that it's one of those timing-dependent houses. With a little bad luck, you could walk through and see almost nothing.
- The Walking Dead: Sets actually look like things we've seen on TV this year, and definitely feel the increased length. Scares could be stronger, but still, 10x better than last year's.
- Resident Evil: Not a gamer, so not sure how true it is the source material, but interesting sets, some really well-done creatures, finale room is incredible. A couple unexpected scares, as well.
- Havoc 2: Like the original, a strong cast. Not much else, but sometimes you don't need gimmicks, old-fashioned distract and scare gets the job done. A solid, if hardly original, house.
- Afterlife: The one misstep for me. Queue and opening scene (describing a 1937 serial killer) seem incongruous with the flashy light rave that follows. Like going through Pirates queue and loading dock, only to find yourself riding Space Mountain. Felt very derivative from The In-Between, but that house did it all better. I did like the demon scene, but overall felt like a wasted opportunity.
Bill & Ted was strong. Moves fast, so the scenes that don't really work don't bring it down. A second year of Scooby Doo homages, as well, which was awesome.
SZs felt repetitive. The tank is pretty much wasted (I mean, it's a tank!). Barn works well, at least. Maybe a mix of two TWD zones and four unique zones would have been better.
- May 26, 2010
- 5,814
- 16,169
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.
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.
Book with our Travel Partners
Latest posts
-
Halloween Horror Nights 33 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors- Latest: AlexanderMBush
-
-
-
Halloween Horror Nights 2024 (USH) - Speculation & Rumors- Latest: ParksandSights
