FINAL REVIEW/RANKING
HOUSES
(9) Purge: I liked the idea of the movie, really liked the scare-zone, and not much of a Scream fan, so was inclined to be positive. But no thematic consistency here. Just graffiti trying (and failing) to hide the house’s original intent, and way too many strobe lights and gunshots. The hunter and prom queen rooms were the only ones that felt like they “belonged” in a Purge house.
BEST PARTS: The outside barker—who I saw once.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: I think a Purge house done from ground up would’ve been much better—so don’t piss off your IP partners?
(8) TWD: Let’s get it out of the way: they botched the flood scene. Total whiff. I assume it was too far along so it couldn’t be dropped like the flare zombie, but still, never should’ve hyped it. And yeah, the zombies are repetitive, and the IP is tired, and they reused the sliding zombie gag from last year. That said—Terminus, church and barn rooms all worked decently. And there were some cool Easter eggs for show fans (admittedly, wouldn’t have seen them absent the behind-the-screams tour). Still a below average house with an IP it’s time to retire, but not the abortion the online community has painted it as.
BEST PARTS: That church/forest scene almost made me believe I was outside for a moment.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: No need to dogpile the flood scene—but one of the worst finale scenes in a house ever. Just a headscratcher.
(7) AWiL: Biggest shock for me, original in my top 5 of all time. I’ll be blunt, lackluster cast who paled compared to 2 years ago. Also, vandalism on first wolf meant you have a whole lot of walking before first scare. And not sure why, but new wolves didn’t work as well for me. Also, didn’t feel the same attention to little details (e.g. Mickey phone)—wouldn’t have noticed if 2013 hadn’t been so good about those.
But biggest problem is probably that any house gets tired after 8 or 10 runs. I think I did 12+ in 2013. So already felt stale.
BEST PARTS: Slaughtered Lamb still works despite no actors. Tube station still impressive.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Can’t help but think if there was a 10 year gap rather than 2, would be more forgiving/excited.
(6) Run: Some very clever ideas here, but loses the whole prison feel after the laundry scene. Other than opening pair of actors, both casts seemed lackluster (tho one was better than the other). Despite its low rank, I enjoyed this house quite a bit, probably gets a bump for the one 2 am run I got to make as the only guest in there. Makes me wonder if this would’ve been better received as an upcharge “Alone”-style house you actually had to run through.
BEST PARTS: Queue video. Opening scenes.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: The whole alt history backstory was probably unnecessary, but the choice to depict America as Candy Land was an especially WTF moment.
(5) Asylum in Wonderland: Very impressive 3D house with a committed cast, a clever conceit, some innovative scares (dodos on trampolines, Ace in Queen’s room, purple-haired heads). Disorienting and fun.
BEST PARTS: That tunnel. Never had issues before, this year, nearly fell down more than once.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Would’ve preferred more integration of the asylum elements throughout the house. Also, air bladder only worked less than 50% of the time.
(4) Monsters & Mayhem: Liked it a lot, even if it is ultimately a disjointed greatest hits package. Lots of effective scares, fun trip down Memory Lane, solid cast.
BEST PARTS: Caretaker section. Got me every time until I saw the trick on the backstage tour. Also the Phantom, who just brought the scares. And, of course, HHNBear.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Lack of Jack wigs the first two weeks. That long hallway at the end. Christmas room didn’t really need the plastic strips. Would’ve liked more mash-ups like Gothic/Nightingales.
(3) Insidious. What a creepy house—successfully distilled down what few elements worked in the mediocre movies to create something truly chilling. Cast generally brought their A game, as well, particularly the women in the house. The touching wall was an effective new effect to the event. I know the façade had its detractors, but I thought it worked great at night. Even the soundtrack was particularly effective to me.
Only thing keeping it a very good rather than great house was ops issues. Every run I ended up stopping in a room at least a minute. Which just made the ops teams act more obnoxiously. Also, this meant the bigger rooms give away their scares too early. Needed more tight corners, distraction scares up front.
BEST PARTS: Toss-up between “mannequin” room and the red demon just staring you down from behind his grate as Tiny Tim plays.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Ops. I guess the séance table, too, but if you walked past it more quickly wouldn’t have been as noticeable.
(2) Recollected. Race for #1 went down to the wire—placement at #2 does not mean this is anything other than an outstanding house, truly worth of its franchise predecessors. Detailed theming that creates an ominous atmosphere, a solid cast doing what they can for a scare, a nice mix of effects. Lots of short hallways and tight corners to hide upcoming scares.
BEST PARTS: The perfect façade. The opening throat-slit scene. The bi-sected man. The “manufacturing” room. Hell, third time around, but STILL that spine-rip scene.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: If this house was two rooms longer would easily be #1, felt just a bit too short. Also, the second throat-slit seems redundant in a year where you see the effect four or five other places as well.
(1) Freddy v. Jason. Thematic detail was just incredible—perfectly capturing the feel of both movies, then blending them together at the end into something new that felt organic to the story. Top cast this year, A & B both went out of their way to scare. The screens bothered me initially, but so much going on you barely notice them, they’re just one more thematic element. A satisfying length. Lots of tight corners and “distraction” scares. By two weeks in, everything jelled into an all-time top 10 house.
BEST PARTS: The Jasons—did they raid TNA for hosses? That Elm Street façade with the creepy little girls. The underwater scene with the bra on the oar.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: Need to buy the IP rights, just make this a year-round attraction.
Interesting aside, this is three years in a row the “classic movie” house has been my favorite. Really hoping we get Exorcist next year.
ZONES
(7) Prisoner/Old Hippie Chainsaws. Eh. Tried hard, but uninspired costumes, really contributed to the feel of chainsaw overkill this year (clowns and Eddie would have been fine). Maybe if they truly roamed, could go back into stores, but always saw around Transformers. As is, felt like an afterthought.
(6) Evil’s Roots. Favorite décor ever—loved the pumpkins, wicker men, Gog & Magog. But the characters? To quote Jack, what the poop? Recycled pumpkinhead and bat-woman are fine, but why are there fairies and orcs??? Also, too much fog, tho not as bad as Disaster, getting to be too tight a space. Cast didn’t really try hard for spares, but I think that’s because they couldn’t without bumping into or tripping over guests.
(5) Steampunk Scary Tales. Clever costumes in an otherwise completely average welcoming zone. Cast was good, tried to scare, but it’s ultimately just characters running around a street.
(4) Die-In. Still love the concept, the costumes were dead on (no pun intended), but wrong location. Way too congested. Screen effect wasn’t really noticeable which kills the whole idea. Cast was trying, but having to do constant selfies limited ability to scare.
(3) Clown Chainsaw Team. Purely for the glee they took in scaring everybody and anybody, even kids. Also doing the selfie fake-out to lure victims. And in a perverse way fit Krustyland. I think it helps they had a wide-open area to work with.
(2) Icons. Great make-up, liked the stages, minions did their part to scare. Shows seemed sporadic and were underwhelming but overall a good, if predictable, zone.
(1) Psychoscrapy. Best zone ever. Over-the-top cast just hamming it up. Plenty of actors. Clever props/staging areas. Nurse’s costume contest was a nice bit of dark humor. Décor and even the soundtrack were just on point. The unexpected highlight of HHN 25.