- Jun 6, 2016
- 1,935
- 3,604
Alright so I did go last night and I did some reviews on my Twitter which I'm going to plug in @HHNManics. As it was also raining hard last night as well. I had the Loser Club Pass but hit everything (Except Exorcist) with GA to then do it again with Loser Club. Got everything done at 9:30. Some quick side notes before I get into the experiences/mazes.
- In order of what you should do: Conjuring, Arkham, IT, Tram/NOCCL, Exorcist. Conjuring gets really long waits because of the tour so absolutely head there first when you enter, Arkham gets long waits because of the pre-show element, IT had a long line but went by in 20-30 minutes. Tram has a consistently short wait and Exorcist didn't have much of one.
- Unlike HHN all of the attractions were open all night regardless of the hard rain and there were staff walking by the lines asking people if they wanted Poncho Coats.
- The Event had a cool entrance of abandoned Freak Show pieces and then entering through the Joker's Mouth and seeing different Freaks. This is their scare zone and only one. Which is cool but short and little to no set design except for outside the zone. I hope in the near future that HMH decides to do more Scare Zones similar to HHN and Knotts because without them it feels a bit bare.
The Conjuring Universe (1 Time): This was the first one I headed to as soon as I got inside and waited in line until 7 where they let us in. The facade is pretty cool having the Warren's house with the tombstones and the Curtains and the Hanging. It's a cool facade. Then you enter and then you are greeted by a guide tour for the Warrens where they do a investigation. You find out the Annabelle doll has gone missing. And etc. Etc... You all have probably heard but this one is pretty bad. The Scares are very nonexistent despite the Conjuring being a extremely scary franchise to almost all people out there. The Costumes are okay. The Nun looks good but the Lady who has her wrists cut with "Look What She Made Me Do" is terrible and so is the Scarecrow. The Sets are pretty bare looking and it felt less than a haunt. It felt really bare and just bad. The effects aren't that good either even the Nun Painting is really bad and awkward in person. Overall it's pretty bad and I want to see Horror Nights do it next year badly because of this.
Grade: F
Nightmare on Camp Crystal Lake (2 Times): So after doing that piece of trash I decided that I would do their Tram which I was excited for. The tour there kinda explains the story that you are people going to camp and you see Elm Street before going to Camp Crystal Lake. Then you get off and you basically follow a trail to a cabin and then get back onto a tram back. There's nice sets along the way and in the Cabin as well. The Immersion factor is fantastic and is very quiet in parts to make it feel real which it does. The Costumes are the same as HHN pretty much which I'm fine with. The Scares are fantastic. There's a lot of energy here. The Effects they have are really cool and the lighting is really good as well. However my problem is that this really doesn't feel like a Freddy and Jason type thing. It feels more Jason than Freddy or that it should/could have been just Jason. But whatever I also wish it was a bit longer but I overall liked it more than the Tram at HHN. Felt like a fresh breath of air.
Grade: B+
Batman: Escape from Arkham Asylum (2 Times): Yikes... Look I am a huge fan of the games and I have played through Arkham Asylum multiple times. The facade is cool. I really like the Batmobile out front. The inside with the Preshow/Joker Judge Room with Blacklight is really awesome. It's a great way to start the maze and then you go into the elevator and there's dialogue from the game it crashes. And then you enter the morgue and encounter Scarecrow. So far it feels like the game and is good. But then it falls apart with weird scenes that don't feel like that they aren't from the game. Like the weird Bar/Go Go Dancer Scene, and the hallway with the colored doors, and everything from that point. It just becomes lazy after the morgue. The Scares are not very good which sucks because it could be incredibly scary. The Costumes and Interactions with the Characters is the best part. The actors really capture the characters from the game. The maze has okay sets at best. It just doesn't feel like the game with no Mad Hatter, no Giant Scarecrow, no Killer Croc, no Bane, no Giant Joker, no Skeletons from the Scarecrow fights, or the mutated Patients from the Asylum. After the morgue they just threw it all together. Which sucks and the ending is pretty bad as well. With nothing in there but a box and a bat symbol and a exit out the maze. It's fun but my my god what a disappointment.
Grade: C
IT (2 Times): Despite last year's Hollywood Boulevard attraction being terrible/not good this is a Great Maze and the best of the event. The facade with Neilbolt is really nice and extremely pretty. Like Arkham they have the Character interactions as well and Great costumes in here which is great but it also has some very good scares. This maze out of everything felt the Most HHN Esc. I really like the Sets very pretty in parts. For the most part Costumes are good aside from Pennywise. The maze is very authentic to the film and it's just very nice. It's what I ended up getting the most scares from and enjoying the most. It's a Pretty Amazing Maze and probably the maze this year.
Grade: A
The Exorcist Forbidden Screening (1 Time):
The Church facade was very nice and I liked that a lot. Once you enter the priests give a speech about the rules and you start watching the Exorcist. What's cool is the 4D element the whole things moving when things move in the film. Something falls in the film something falls in the church. It's very cool. And then it goes into the actual Exorcist with flashes of Pazuzu on the walls and everything is moving. And the Church Rows you are sitting on start to shake. Then it blacks out and Regan appears trying to get at Guests. The priests take her away and you must exit the church. Overall very nice experience. I hope they expand on this and do a Exorcist Maze.
Grade: B
The events ticket prices are way too high for how much it offers and the quality. $30-40ish would be acceptable. This event IMO is fine. It's nothing special. A few cool things here and there. But it's fun but okay. I like IT, Exorcist, and Tram. But Arkham is disappointing and Conjuring is terrible. It should adopt HHN Strobe Scares but mix them with Knotts Scares. Because as of now the Scares are not that great.
On one side I don't want this event to do that well because I want to see IT, Conjuring, etc at HHN. But on the other side HHN could mess those up and HMH could be very special in the future.
I hope that if they continue that it improves greatly next year but I would just rather go back to Knotts, HHN, or Queen Mary than this for this year if I had to choose. It's fine but it has a lot of issues.
Overall Grade: C+
- In order of what you should do: Conjuring, Arkham, IT, Tram/NOCCL, Exorcist. Conjuring gets really long waits because of the tour so absolutely head there first when you enter, Arkham gets long waits because of the pre-show element, IT had a long line but went by in 20-30 minutes. Tram has a consistently short wait and Exorcist didn't have much of one.
- Unlike HHN all of the attractions were open all night regardless of the hard rain and there were staff walking by the lines asking people if they wanted Poncho Coats.
- The Event had a cool entrance of abandoned Freak Show pieces and then entering through the Joker's Mouth and seeing different Freaks. This is their scare zone and only one. Which is cool but short and little to no set design except for outside the zone. I hope in the near future that HMH decides to do more Scare Zones similar to HHN and Knotts because without them it feels a bit bare.
The Conjuring Universe (1 Time): This was the first one I headed to as soon as I got inside and waited in line until 7 where they let us in. The facade is pretty cool having the Warren's house with the tombstones and the Curtains and the Hanging. It's a cool facade. Then you enter and then you are greeted by a guide tour for the Warrens where they do a investigation. You find out the Annabelle doll has gone missing. And etc. Etc... You all have probably heard but this one is pretty bad. The Scares are very nonexistent despite the Conjuring being a extremely scary franchise to almost all people out there. The Costumes are okay. The Nun looks good but the Lady who has her wrists cut with "Look What She Made Me Do" is terrible and so is the Scarecrow. The Sets are pretty bare looking and it felt less than a haunt. It felt really bare and just bad. The effects aren't that good either even the Nun Painting is really bad and awkward in person. Overall it's pretty bad and I want to see Horror Nights do it next year badly because of this.
Grade: F
Nightmare on Camp Crystal Lake (2 Times): So after doing that piece of trash I decided that I would do their Tram which I was excited for. The tour there kinda explains the story that you are people going to camp and you see Elm Street before going to Camp Crystal Lake. Then you get off and you basically follow a trail to a cabin and then get back onto a tram back. There's nice sets along the way and in the Cabin as well. The Immersion factor is fantastic and is very quiet in parts to make it feel real which it does. The Costumes are the same as HHN pretty much which I'm fine with. The Scares are fantastic. There's a lot of energy here. The Effects they have are really cool and the lighting is really good as well. However my problem is that this really doesn't feel like a Freddy and Jason type thing. It feels more Jason than Freddy or that it should/could have been just Jason. But whatever I also wish it was a bit longer but I overall liked it more than the Tram at HHN. Felt like a fresh breath of air.
Grade: B+
Batman: Escape from Arkham Asylum (2 Times): Yikes... Look I am a huge fan of the games and I have played through Arkham Asylum multiple times. The facade is cool. I really like the Batmobile out front. The inside with the Preshow/Joker Judge Room with Blacklight is really awesome. It's a great way to start the maze and then you go into the elevator and there's dialogue from the game it crashes. And then you enter the morgue and encounter Scarecrow. So far it feels like the game and is good. But then it falls apart with weird scenes that don't feel like that they aren't from the game. Like the weird Bar/Go Go Dancer Scene, and the hallway with the colored doors, and everything from that point. It just becomes lazy after the morgue. The Scares are not very good which sucks because it could be incredibly scary. The Costumes and Interactions with the Characters is the best part. The actors really capture the characters from the game. The maze has okay sets at best. It just doesn't feel like the game with no Mad Hatter, no Giant Scarecrow, no Killer Croc, no Bane, no Giant Joker, no Skeletons from the Scarecrow fights, or the mutated Patients from the Asylum. After the morgue they just threw it all together. Which sucks and the ending is pretty bad as well. With nothing in there but a box and a bat symbol and a exit out the maze. It's fun but my my god what a disappointment.
Grade: C
IT (2 Times): Despite last year's Hollywood Boulevard attraction being terrible/not good this is a Great Maze and the best of the event. The facade with Neilbolt is really nice and extremely pretty. Like Arkham they have the Character interactions as well and Great costumes in here which is great but it also has some very good scares. This maze out of everything felt the Most HHN Esc. I really like the Sets very pretty in parts. For the most part Costumes are good aside from Pennywise. The maze is very authentic to the film and it's just very nice. It's what I ended up getting the most scares from and enjoying the most. It's a Pretty Amazing Maze and probably the maze this year.
Grade: A
The Exorcist Forbidden Screening (1 Time):
The Church facade was very nice and I liked that a lot. Once you enter the priests give a speech about the rules and you start watching the Exorcist. What's cool is the 4D element the whole things moving when things move in the film. Something falls in the film something falls in the church. It's very cool. And then it goes into the actual Exorcist with flashes of Pazuzu on the walls and everything is moving. And the Church Rows you are sitting on start to shake. Then it blacks out and Regan appears trying to get at Guests. The priests take her away and you must exit the church. Overall very nice experience. I hope they expand on this and do a Exorcist Maze.
Grade: B
The events ticket prices are way too high for how much it offers and the quality. $30-40ish would be acceptable. This event IMO is fine. It's nothing special. A few cool things here and there. But it's fun but okay. I like IT, Exorcist, and Tram. But Arkham is disappointing and Conjuring is terrible. It should adopt HHN Strobe Scares but mix them with Knotts Scares. Because as of now the Scares are not that great.
On one side I don't want this event to do that well because I want to see IT, Conjuring, etc at HHN. But on the other side HHN could mess those up and HMH could be very special in the future.
I hope that if they continue that it improves greatly next year but I would just rather go back to Knotts, HHN, or Queen Mary than this for this year if I had to choose. It's fine but it has a lot of issues.
Overall Grade: C+
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