Ok, I'll play. Mostly because I saw a couple things differently from you guys so that's always fun :tongue:. I'm currently waiting on a delayed plane so I'll probably get a little self-indulgent and write a long one, hope you all are ready.
A couple things I noticed first though...I take back everything I said earlier in the HHN General Discussion thread about Universal being greedy and all that. Last night they extended the park hours to 2 am rather than 1...as someone who's worked front line jobs at the parks, this is a big deal. I really appreciate Universal's effort to accommodate what they thought would be massive crowds. Extending hours is not an easy thing to just up and do but they went ahead and did it anyway. Bravo. And what's more, they really didn't need to at all. It would've been very possible to knock out everything last night.
Which leads me to my next point...crowds were great. The walkways were very comfortable and it felt like we never waited over 30 minutes, even when the posted wait was 60. Express pass (aside from Werewolf) felt like it was handled well and evenly and you can definitely feel Diagon and the ninth house. It was a very, very nice night and I give Universal props for actually improving their event operations-wise.
Content-wise, however, I left disappointed. Something's just not the same. Maybe I'm just jaded after having been going for so long. But HHN used to be really special, and no matter how much money they put into extravagant set pieces and amazing houses, that atmosphere the park had up until 2010 is just not the same, but I'll get to that. First the houses...
6. Werewolf - I loved this house in 2013...it was honest to God one of my favorite haunted houses ever. And on paper, having it back is a dream come true because I loved it THAT freakin much. But it didn't click for me this year. It felt abbreviated or something (I remember it going on foreverrrrr last time for whatever reason). It also just wasn't as fun for some reason. Maybe it's because it's a repeat? Maybe it's because they really did cheap out on some aspects this time around? Either way, I was really disappointed coming out of my formerly favorite haunted house, thinking "that's it?". I will say that one of the big ass wolf puppets scared me pretty bad, but the rest of the house was just painfully mediocre.
5. The Purge - I actually really liked this one. It started out pretty uneventful, but it eventually picked up and I liked it for what it was. The loud music, the screaming actors, the graffiti everywhere, it was just fun. Yes, you can tell where certain Scream sets were supposed to be but it's only obvious if you knew that Scream was planned there ahead of time. If you guys had had no idea about that, I doubt you would've noticed and for that reason, I think it's getting unfairly panned. This house actually had my favorite finale of the night, best use of strobes since Dead Exposure.
4. Monsters and Mayhem - alright, I don't get it. This house was good, but best of all time? I don't think it even comes all that close to being best of this year. I've been going for almost ten years now, I am familiar with the houses of the past, but for some reason I had a hard time identifying what room was what, except for Gothic and the classic monsters. After reading up on it, I figured out what was what, but it didn't translate (I thought what was supposed to be Forsaken was Creature from the Black Lagoon and didn't realize the Nightengales were in it until reading about it and thinking, oh yeah, I guess that was what that one was). I don't know, the scenes weren't fully developed enough to establish a sense of place for me, so it was just a mumbo jumbo mess. Also didn't get too many scares (even the bear was disappointing for me). Too many classic monsters, not enough Icons, and it also felt short despite what I had heard about it being the longest house ever. I will say, the facade was amazing...but other than that, very very meh.
3. Run - Really liked this one. I am a huge sucker for the campy stuff, and I also have NEVER disliked an Earthquake house aside from Doomsday in '08 (disclaimer, I never did Leave it to Cleaver). Something about that venue clicks for me, and Run was the perfect house for it. It was fun, it was gory, I loved the detail in the transition rooms (the TV's, the score updates), and every room was just so out there but in a good way. I loved the guy who looked like he was nailed to the wall and then ran forward spraying you with "blood"...awesome effect. I don't know, for me, this was just a really fun house but it didn't sacrifice intensity which is a plus.
2. Freddy vs. Jason - I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of this property, and it sucks when the headliner is something you're indifferent toward (not like last year when we got Halloween and the fanboy in me exploded through the whole thing). That being said, this was a good house. I loved that we got two facades and three well-defined acts. There was also a ton of actors and they weren't afraid to get in your face. This SHOULD have been a little better though. The mirror effects had a lot of potential that seemed to get squandered. The finale was a little on the lame side (it was a pretty basic effect). But wasted potential aside, I loved the set design and the cast in this house.
1. Body Collectors - THIS is what HHN needs more of. No gimmicks, no IP, just a good old haunted house. Loved that the spine rip was back (even though I would've preferred a more original effect), and I loved the facade and general placemaking throughout the house. But the real star was the cast...they all got SO in your face. The finale to this one was insane. I actually still am recovering from a little stitch in my neck I got from jumping away from an actor so hard. They were THAT on point. This was just a great throwback and a great, intense, non-PC, bloody house.
My friends got tired by the end of the day and knowing I had to be up early the next day we headed out before hitting Insidious or Asylum (I have no intention of doing Walking Dead). However, it's looking more and more likely that I'll be coming back in a couple weeks, so hopefully I get to try those soon. The one thing about these houses is that while I *liked* all of them, I didn't love them. No house was without a couple major flaws. I don't know, they just didn't click with me this year. While I did get a few good scares in BC, for the most part, scares were minimal the whole night. Houses felt less eventful, with a lot of them being repetitive. Nothing felt new, I never walked through any of them thinking, "wow, this is awesome, I've never seen this before". Even the duds last year (like Dusk Til Dawn, for example) had at least ONE aspect that was stunning. On the flip side, each house here has at least ONE problem with it (like the recycling of the spine rip scene as the centerpiece of the BC house). There also seemed to be a little less energy than normal. Overall, I haven't been more indifferent to a lineup than 2012. I'm hoping that it gets better on my (hopefully) second go-around. But picking a number 1 was tough for me, just because they all were less than impressive IMO. I will say, this is the bloodiest year in a while and I really love that.
As far as scarezones go...
Scary Tales - boring, small, unoriginal, didn't like it.
Die-In - I was disappointed with the actors that I did see, overall this zone is too cramped and too low-energy. Wish it was bigger so that you could see some of the more iconic characters without having to sort through throngs of people.
Icons - thought this was pretty well-done, much better than the icon zone in 2010. Also thought the individual shows were a nice touch.
Central Park Zone - I forget the name, but this was pretty good. Loved the return of the pumpkins, and MAN they pumped some serious fog in there. Lots of good scares here, but really nothing we haven't seen the last few years.
Psychoscareapy - not overly scary or intense, but well-thought-out, original, and detailed. The actors, while not overly scary, are a riot, and the props are very cool and well-designed. Also really liked the projections in some of the windows, nice touch. But, like the houses, even the best zone this year was just ok to me.
Also, I have to mention the Jack Show. I hated this. This is, by far, my least favorite thing I've ever seen at the event. I like the concept behind it a lot, but the execution is just too weird for me. Look, I love gore as much as the next guy, but when you're inviting a bunch of nerds to yell, "Kill! Kill! Kill! Blood! Blood! Blood!" then it gets weird. I like the violence in the houses because it makes you wonder how they did it, and the spectacle of it is just cool. But this was just too macabre. If what you guys are saying is true, that this is really the pinnacle of HHN entertainment for you...well, I don't know what to say lol. This was just too emo-punk tryhard for me. Kills are cool for show, but it was trashy and weird here. Not gonna lie, judgments were made on some of the crowd.
And that's that. TL;DR: Like the return of blood, *like* all of the houses just fine, but don't love anything. Overall underwhelmed and missing the atmosphere of the olden days (even though I can't put my finger on exactly what that was). Still, a meh year at HHN is still a great time, and the logistics and operations of this event were a huge step above prior years. Can't wait to go again, but will still be reminiscing about '07, '08, and even last year over this one.
EDIT: Forgot to mention...saw Purge at 60 minutes (really more like 30) right next to Walking Dead which was posted as 30...really hope that it truly is dwindling in popularity and we can start doing other stuff soon.