Halloween Horror Nights 33 (UOR) - Reviews, Photos, & Videos

[MrRoamer]

Current Review after 3 or 4 nights? Overall, something definitely feels off and I'm not sure if it's me, the event, or just some surrounding of the craziness right now is for me. Houses are ok with few exceptions, but most of them share some common themes of I have no idea what is going on. Scarezones are as far from what they used to be as possible in my opinion. It also feels more like a food festival than in the past but instead of being stuff that sounds good it seems to be more all about the Gram. Being severely lactose intolerant doesn't exactly help my case either lol.

Is it still a great event - YES
Am I upset I wasn't able to get the FFP pass for the first time - not really at this point

10) Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines - Thankfully I had someone explain it to us before we went in last time because wow I had no clue the first time through. It could be a really cool concept for a movie or something, but just throwing you into this thing without any understanding is super confusing. We got out the first time trying to figure out why the wolfman had boobs.

9) The Musuem: Deadly Exhibits - Didn't really stand out to me in any way but have only done it once so far

8) Monstrous - Neat house but why do they want to eat the babies?

7) Goblin’s Feast - I really want to like this house a lot more than I do, the sets are really cool, characters are really cool, but it feels more like I'm walking through an exhibit than a house

6) Slaughter Sinema 2 - This one hurts, I LOVED the first one. The good rooms in this house are really fun and good, but that is also its biggest weakness. The scenes are way to short at empty intro poster room, show room and repeat. Would loved to have them be a little longer! at least they found a place to put the Fanta skeleton (Fantaton?) on all the merch

5) Major Sweets Candy Factory - BUTTONS!!!!! Cool idea, great characters, I like the little rat going haywire projected on the wall, but the environment doesn't match the idea

4) Triplets of Terror - I honestly like this house quite a bit, its got a fun vibe to it that is really cool and feels like if you cross House of 1000 Corpses with Halloween. The biggest issue I have with this house is the main characters ages are all over the place and don't make sense, if they just had the 3 of them in each year make sure they were the correct ages it would go a long way

3) A Quiet Place - Great sets, great scares, great movie, well done cast. Over the runs I've noticed most of the monsters are tacky and I hate them, since (as I said in another thread) they feel like reused characters from years past or the aliens in MiB. The extreme hype machine that they put out about using sign language just annoys me. (Insert old man yelling at cloud picture)

2) Insidious: The Further - Great house, scariest out of all of them by far! Very aggressive cast. The only thing keeping it from one of my all time lists is that it just feels like I have done it before.

1) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - After the first ghostbusters house having such big problems with staffing and the props not working and everything I was worried. This house is one of the absolute best IP houses they have ever done. Not super scary but this property didn't need to be super scary. Was absolutely beside myself with the amount of callbacks and everything they did, seriously great house. Only thing I can knock them on is there needed to be more Walter Peck

 

[HHN Yeti Lover]

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the houses this year. Some of them, like Insidious, Slaughter Sinema, and Ghostbusters, are really great. However, everything else feels either good, decent, or just okay. I still need to go through the houses a few more times to form a solid opinion. This year feels a lot less busy than past years, and I'm not sure if it's because they don't have a big intellectual property like Stranger Things or because of the rain. I plan to come back later in the season to see if I have more concrete feelings, but overall, this year just feels a little off.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the houses this year. Some of them, like Insidious, Slaughter Sinema, and Ghostbusters, are really great. However, everything else feels either good, decent, or just okay. I still need to go through the houses a few more times to form a solid opinion. This year feels a lot less busy than past years, and I'm not sure if it's because they don't have a big intellectual property like Stranger Things or because of the rain. I plan to come back later in the season to see if I have more concrete feelings, but overall, this year just feels a little off.

everyone in here is obviously a fan of hhn. maybe superfans. we follow the clues and updates all year long. we watch the podcast.

but I'm wondering how the general public is feeling on the event. and about the ips.

 

[HHN Maddux]

I don't think cohesion is a problem, the problem is that Universal simply didn't give us enough backstory for Sinist3r & Surr3al. What we do know about them sounds very cool and interesting, but we don't know enough. They would've really benefited from having a full podcast like Oddfellow's last year that tied everything together.

If we had something like that, while of course it wouldn't magically fix everything, I do think it would make the event feel a LOT less disjoined this year.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I don't think cohesion is a problem, the problem is that Universal simply didn't give us enough backstory for Sinist3r & Surr3al. What we do know about them sounds very cool and interesting, but we don't know enough. They would've really benefited from having a full podcast like Oddfellow's last year that tied everything together.

If we had something like that, while of course it wouldn't magically fix everything, I do think it would make the event feel a LOT less disjoined this year.

but it's a little further than that, their looks are a little funny. they kind of fit the scarezones they go to, but kind of not. they are kind of cool icons, but their connection to the event is not as strong as oddfellow, and uni creative could have come up with a better backstory and a better connection to the event, but, thet kind of remind me of FEAR ( and on paper FEAR had a reallyngood storyband connection to the event and the other icons)

 

[Casper Gutman]

but it's a little further than that, their looks are a little funny. they kind of fit the scarezones they go to, but kind of not. they are kind of cool icons, but their connection to the event is not as strong as oddfellow, and uni creative could have come up with a better backstory and a better connection to the event, but, thet kind of remind me of FEAR ( and on paper FEAR had a reallyngood storyband connection to the event and the other icons)

FEAR is an apt comparison. Sinister and Surreal seem likely to join him in the realm of the footnoted and forgotten icons.

The icons work when they fit into easily recognized social types and "borrow" from preexisting cultural products. This allows the casual guest to understand them without much effort and provides creative with a firm foundation on which to individualize and elaborate them with backstory for the more dedicated fans. Jack and Chance are clowns with a heavy debt to Joker and Harley. Oddfellow is a ringmaster and dark magician in the Facilier mode. The Usher, the Storyteller, the Caretaker, the Director - they're instantly understandable. Even Eddie (the slasher) and Cindy (the creepy little girl) work this way. Sinister and Surreal, like FEAR and the Terra Queen, don't.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I don't think cohesion is a problem, the problem is that Universal simply didn't give us enough backstory for Sinist3r & Surr3al.

More lore never helps, they're just not good characters that are poorly executed.

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

More lore never helps, they're just not good characters that are poorly executed.

What is really sad is the idea of two icons that make up kind of the same being is very intriguing, I hope they take another stab at this idea eventually.

They just fumble it so hard here, they look and sound ridiculous.
Their stage presence is made up of screaming and horrible voice modulation.
They are literally scrapped Power Ranger Villians.

How do you go from the charismatic yet powerful sounding Dr Oddfellow to this utter embarrassment…

 

[ReelJustice]

More lore never helps, they're just not good characters that are poorly executed.

“We’ve been working on them for 10 years.”-Lora Sauls

 

[Jake S]

The two genders.

 

[tyro]

Just had 3 nights are the event and had a great time. This was my third year attending (I started with HHN 31 )

House Rankings:

1. Insidious - Enough has be said about this one but even after 3 runs I still get nervous going in. They really nailed the uneasiness feeling throughout the house.

2. Slaughter Sinema 2 - although I do not have the original to reference back to, this was a great house, just really brings out the energy in every scene. And I would be happy with basically any of the shorts getting a full house.

3. Ghostbusters - Just a fun time, great effects and really captures the movie quite well.

4. Sweets Candy Factory- this is a great house that has some fun gags, and I have had some great interactions with the actors in there.

5. Goblins Feast - the sets in the tent really impressed me and I’m excited for the future of these new tents, overall a fun house, and the ending makes me laugh every time for some reason.

6. Monstruos- this house has the potential to be an intense house , but I feel like I missed quite a bit of scares each time I go through. I would’ve rather they followed one monster instead of the 3.

7. Quiet Place - that first tunnel is pretty scary, however I’m not the biggest fan of the movie, and while the puppets/animatronics are impressive however I don’t really find them scary especially after my first run.

8. Triplets of Terror - it’s a fun slasher house, just the story is a little hard to follow and it seems like it just randomly ends as you start getting into the interesting set pieces.

9. Monsters Bloodlines- I normally love the monsters houses, however this one just always felt empty.

10. Museum - I loved the idea on paper, however in execution the house just feels bland with not alot going on that interests me.

 

[Brian G.]