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Halloween Horror Nights 26: Reviews & Photos

I'd say consider doing Tomb of the Acients, Ghost Town, and Exorsist. AHS and or TWD if the lines are bearable for those last two...I'd probably do Krampus over TWD, but it felt short.

If you do S&S and can get into Finn's for dinner, that should get you into Exorsists fairly easily.
Thanks. Preliminary I'm looking at Exorcist, Tomb Of Ancients, Ghost Town, & AHS. We'll do Krampus for sure because my GF wants to see it. That's the only one she cares to see. We saw TWD in 2013 and it didn't impress or do anything for us, so I'll probably skip it.
 
1. Tomb of the Ancients (10/10)

This house has just about everything I love about a haunted house. It has immersive sets and a claustrophobic feel that amplifies the terror from the scares around many of the corners of this twisting labyrinth of fear. This is one of those houses at HHN that are really something special and you can tell there was a lot of though and love poured into its design. This also must be the most effective use of a sprung tent ever, as this house twists and turns for what feels like ages. I can usually keep my heading in a house but in this one after the first few turns you are so turned around and disoriented which adds to the atmosphere. There are some really creative scares and cool gags and misdirects that add up to a really special experience. This is a can’t miss house however one note is to either do this after dark or make sure to wear sunglasses in line during the daylight so your eyes will be adjusted to fully appreciate the house.

2. American Horror Story (9/10)

American Horror Story is the property I wished HHN got instead of Walking Dead all those years ago. With each season tackling a whole new setting and topic it would be the perfect IP to have long term since it would not get stale. So I was thrilled to hear this was finally coming and that they would tackle 3 seasons in a mega house. I know my general enjoyment of the show and ability to recall the scenes playing out helps me appreciate this house more, but I feel like the variety of locales brought to life with great detail and steady supply of good scares make this a house anyone can go though and enjoy. You can basically treat this as 3 mini houses and as such I would rank it Hotel>Murder House>Freak Show. Besides featuring Twisty in the promo material and merch, this part of the house is the shortest and least scary and relies the most on static figures. They have a good combination of misdirect scares and blind turns into jump scares all intensified by the creepy atmosphere. Also the house has Moira so I’m a happy camper.

3. The Exorcist (9/10)

This house was down towards the bottom of my list not because I hate the property but since the movie is limited locale-wise and creative stated that they would add in some more abstract scenes to flesh out the story, it would either be great or terrible. I wanted to temper expectations and expect the worst and hope for the best. Good news is that I feel they executed their concept very well which results in a very creepy and atmospheric experience. There are some staggering visuals and really good scares to behold in this house.

4. Ghost Town: The Curse of Lightning Gulch (9/10)

This house may not be the scariest house of the year, but it is the most beautiful. This house was artfully crafted and evokes a feeling of a lost Wild West town that has returned and erupted into chaos. There are cool effects and some good scares that come from unexpected places. The only downfall to creating such a grand and expansive house is that the house feels a bit short and sometimes the rooms are big enough that you can easily see the scare early or the person is too far away to effectively scare you. I think as the actors feel out their environment they will get more effective at the scares and make an already great house even better.

5. Texas Chain Saw Massacre (8/10)

This house is disgusting and feels oppressive to walk though. They did a great job casting leaftherface as they are all huge, hulking dudes coming at you with a chain saw. My favorite part is a hallway with 3 windows. The first two have a metal mesh over them that leatherface can use a cattle prod against to spark and the third window is a drop down boo hole complete with water effect that leatherface comes at you with a chainsaw with. This is one of the few times that got me to audibly react to a scare so I applaud the execution. There are some rooms that feel underutilized though and this house is just not as visually impressive as the ones above but still a solid scare filled experience.

6. Halloween 2: Hell Comes to Haddonfield (8/10)

Halloween 2 does a great job as a follow-up to the house from HHN24. While I don’t think it has the same impact as the original had, they one up it in size and scale with a venue change to the parade building. They use the verticality afforded to them to give you a great reveal to the hospital facade. This house does a good job of following the movie but then adding in way more Mike’s to up the action and scares. This house has some good hidden scare locations with Mike literally coming out of everything you can imagine, so nowhere is safe.

7. Krampus (8/10)

Only have been though once so far but this house leaves me really wanting to go back. It is a beautiful house that again uses the verticality of the venue to its advantage. This house has 2 or 3 house facades that really give a grand scale and make the house feel bigger than it really is. My only problems with the house is that it wasn’t that scary and was short, which is to be expected due to being in Shrek. They also had that strobe zombie trolley effect from the last 2 WD houses but instead it was the elves. I think it is a solid effort that can improve since I believe I missed a good amount of scares.

8. Walking Dead (7/10)

To sum it up in the simplest way possible, tired but enjoyable. Having roughly 80% of the sets being recycled takes some of the fun out of the house but they finally had the scares right. Scare-wise this is the best walking dead house and set-wise second only to the mega house from 24. At least this house is good enough to warrant me to want to repeat as long as the line is minimal. Had this house used fully new scenes and the scares were the same as they are now this would be a house higher up, but I hope this is the end of the line for the Walking Dead at HHN.

9. Lunatics Playground 3D: You Won’t Stand A Chance (5/10)

I was really disappointed with this house. I think this is partly due to reading the description and making a huge assumption. When they said that we will move between the real world of Chance’s incarceration and her “theater of the mind” I was expecting the real world parts in the asylum to be realistic sets with possible 3D paint on the wall, and then her “theater of the mind” to be the trippy, fully 3D part where her imagination is unleased. Sadly all this house amounts to is a mess of black walls with neon paint. The only think that I noticed that allowed me to discern what part I was in was the costume Chance was in (straight jacket or strappy dress). I wasn’t expecting greatness but this is a bad house. I’ll give it a second chance, but I only seeing myself doing this when coming with new people time permitting.
 
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1. Tomb of the Ancients (10/10)

This house has just about everything I love about a haunted house. It has immersive sets and a claustrophobic feel that amplifies the terror from the scares around many of the corners of this twisting labyrinth of fear. This is one of those houses at HHN that are really something special and you can tell there was a lot of though and love poured into its design. This also must be the most effective use of a sprung tent ever, as this house twists and turns for what feels like ages. I can usually keep my heading in a house but in this one after the first few turns you are so turned around and disoriented which adds to the atmosphere. There are some really creative scares and cool gags and misdirects that add up to a really special experience. This is a can’t miss house however one note is to either do this after dark or make sure to wear sunglasses in line during the daylight so your eyes will be adjusted to fully appreciate the house.

2. American Horror Story (9/10)

American Horror Story is the property I wished HHN got instead of Walking Dead all those years ago. With each season tackling a whole new setting and topic it would be the perfect IP to have long term since it would not get stale. So I was thrilled to hear this was finally coming and that they would tackle 3 seasons in a mega house. I know my general enjoyment of the show and ability to recall the scenes playing out helps me appreciate this house more, but I feel like the variety of locales brought to life with great detail and steady supply of good scares make this a house anyone can go though and enjoy. You can basically treat this as 3 mini houses and as such I would rank it Hotel>Murder House>Freak Show. Besides featuring Twisty in the promo material and merch, this part of the house is the shortest and least scary and relies the most on static figures. They have a good combination of misdirect scares and blind turns into jump scares all intensified by the creepy atmosphere. Also the house has Moira so I’m a happy camper.

3. The Exorcist (9/10)

This house was down towards the bottom of my list not because I hate the property but since the movie is limited locale-wise and creative stated that they would add in some more abstract scenes to flesh out the story, it would either be great or terrible. I wanted to temper expectations and expect the worst and hope for the best. Good news is that I feel they executed their concept very well which results in a very creepy and atmospheric experience. There are some staggering visuals and really good scares to behold in this house.

4. Ghost Town: The Curse of Lightning Gulch (9/10)

This house may not be the scariest house of the year, but it is the most beautiful. This house was artfully crafted and evokes a feeling of a lost Wild West town that has returned and erupted into chaos. There are cool effects and some good scares that come from unexpected places. The only downfall to creating such a grand and expansive house is that the house feels a bit short and sometimes the rooms are big enough that you can easily see the scare early or the person is too far away to effectively scare you. I think as the actors feel out their environment they will get more effective at the scares and make an already great house even better.

5. Texas Chain Saw Massacre (8/10)

This house is disgusting and feels oppressive to walk though. They did a great job casting leaftherface as they are all huge, hulking dudes coming at you with a chain saw. My favorite part is a hallway with 3 windows. The first two have a metal mesh over them that leatherface can use a cattle prod against to spark and the third window is a drop down boo hole complete with water effect that leatherface comes at you with a chainsaw with. This is one of the few times that got me to audibly react to a scare so I applaud the execution. There are some rooms that feel underutilized though and this house is just not as visually impressive as the ones above but still a solid scare filled experience.

6. Halloween 2: Hell Comes to Haddonfield (8/10)

Halloween 2 does a great job as a follow-up to the house from HHN24. While I don’t think it has the same impact as the original had, they one up it in size and scale with a venue change to the parade building. They use the verticality afforded to them to give you a great reveal to the hospital facade. This house does a good job of following the movie but then adding in way more Mike’s to up the action and scares. This house has some good hidden scare locations with Mike literally coming out of everything you can imagine, so nowhere is safe.

7. Krampus (8/10)

Only have been though once so far but this house leaves me really wanting to go back. It is a beautiful house that again uses the verticality of the venue to its advantage. This house has 2 or 3 house facades that really give a grand scale and make the house feel bigger than it really is. My only problems with the house is that it wasn’t that scary and was short, which is to be expected due to being in Shrek. They also had that strobe zombie trolley effect from the last 2 WD houses but instead it was the elves. I think it is a solid effort that can improve since I believe I missed a good amount of scares.

8. Walking Dead 26 (7/10)

To sum it up in the simplest way possible, tired but enjoyable. Having roughly 80% of the sets being recycled takes some of the fun out of the house but they finally had the scares right. Scare-wise this is the best walking dead house and set-wise second only to the mega house from 24. At least this house is good enough to warrant me to want to repeat as long as the line is minimal. Had this house used fully new scenes and the scares were the same as they are now this would be a house higher up, but I hope this is the end of the line for the Walking Dead at HHN.

9. Lunatics Playground 3D: You Won’t Stand A Chance (5/10)

I was really disappointed with this house. I think this is partly due to reading the description and making a huge assumption. When they said that we will move between the real world of Chance’s incarceration and her “theater of the mind” I was expecting the real world parts in the asylum to be realistic sets with possible 3D paint on the wall, and then her “theater of the mind” to be the trippy, fully 3D part where her imagination is unleased. Sadly all this house amounts to is a mess of black walls with neon paint. The only think that I noticed that allowed me to discern what part I was in was the costume Chance was in (straight jacket or strappy dress). I wasn’t expecting greatness but this is a bad house. I’ll give it a second chance, but I only seeing myself doing this when coming with new people time permitting.

Quick question, do you normally like 3d houses? I'm in the (I guess, rather small) boat of loving 3d houses so I usually take 3d house reviews with a grain of salt.
 
Quick question, do you normally like 3d houses? I'm in the (I guess, rather small) boat of loving 3d houses so I usually take 3d house reviews with a grain of salt.
With Chances house there's no grain of salt to be had. Its just a bad house. I enjoy 3D houses, when they are good (In-Between, Asylum) but her house and zone are garbage.
 
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Overall I would say its a great event. Far from 25 but due to fanfare and outstanding circumstances 25 will really be hard to beat.

Houses
1. Tomb - Loved it!! From scares to costuming its FANTASTIC!

2. Halloween 2 - Halloween are my favorite slasher movies and I really feel like the cast shares that enthusiasm. The ending may be one of the coolest ever done at HHN

2. Krampus - This house is all over the place with reviews, seems to be a love it or hate it house. Each run I've had, I've gotten a good scare. Very strong and aggressive cast. Ending is weak but overall the house delivers 95% of the way.

2. AHS - I do not watch the show but I appreciate the thematic execution as well as the incredible length to this house. Yeah it has its weak moments but overall the continuous onslaught of actors makes it a fantastic house. Also FWIW my first pass through this house was TERRIBLE but my second pass was INCREDIBLE. Casts make all the difference folks.

5. Ghost Town - IMO GT is probably the most beautiful house EVER created at HHN. I mean that. It is absolutely beautiful with incredible visual detail throughout. Only reason its at Number 5 is because I haven't gotten a single scare yet. Its early and the cast still needs time to get into a rhythm.

6. TWD - I KNOW RIGHT!! I just don't even know what to say... The Walking Dead house is actually good this year. Visually its not very impressive when compared to the likes of Ghost Town or AHS it pales in comparison. The driving force here again is the actors. Its almost like they have a chip on their shoulder, or they're preparing for full time roles as actors in a year round haunt...

7.Exorcist - Putting this house at 7 isn't a bad thing.. The facade is probably the best of the event and the theming is fantastic. Cast was also great. That puke room though is a little much lol.

8. TCM - I've only been through once and I'm pretty sure it was either a cast change or I just missed the scares cause I barely saw anyone in the house. Theming is fantastic though.

9. Chance - Not gonna beat around the bush, its just terrible. Probably the worst 3d house they've done in 10+ years. Even the Clown 3d house at BGT is better than this...

Scare zones
TBH I haven't spent enough time here to rank them yet. Definitely a step back from the 2 previous years of zones but not bad.

Shows
Bill and Ted so far hasn't really been good. But those who know B&T from years past know they will make adjustments and tighten the show up. So far though I would put it behind 23, 24, and 25 EASILY.

AOV - I bashed the hell out of this show after it was announced.. And now I am eating crow.. I know it won't appeal to everyone but overall I thought it was fantastic!! This isn't just a 20 min filler while you finish that 12 dollar beer I thought it'd be. Its a must see imo if your attending the event.
 
Sounds like it's more of my type of event, I like the concert/party vibe. Last year, the houses were lacking and the scare zones were alright, I didn't care for Jack's show either. So I guess it's all on the matter of people's taste. I'll be back with a solid review this weekend.
 
Overall I would say its a great event. Far from 25 but due to fanfare and outstanding circumstances 25 will really be hard to beat.

Houses
1. Tomb - Loved it!! From scares to costuming its FANTASTIC!

2. Halloween 2 - Halloween are my favorite slasher movies and I really feel like the cast shares that enthusiasm. The ending may be one of the coolest ever done at HHN

2. Krampus - This house is all over the place with reviews, seems to be a love it or hate it house. Each run I've had, I've gotten a good scare. Very strong and aggressive cast. Ending is weak but overall the house delivers 95% of the way.

2. AHS - I do not watch the show but I appreciate the thematic execution as well as the incredible length to this house. Yeah it has its weak moments but overall the continuous onslaught of actors makes it a fantastic house. Also FWIW my first pass through this house was TERRIBLE but my second pass was INCREDIBLE. Casts make all the difference folks.

5. Ghost Town - IMO GT is probably the most beautiful house EVER created at HHN. I mean that. It is absolutely beautiful with incredible visual detail throughout. Only reason its at Number 5 is because I haven't gotten a single scare yet. Its early and the cast still needs time to get into a rhythm.

6. TWD - I KNOW RIGHT!! I just don't even know what to say... The Walking Dead house is actually good this year. Visually its not very impressive when compared to the likes of Ghost Town or AHS it pales in comparison. The driving force here again is the actors. Its almost like they have a chip on their shoulder, or they're preparing for full time roles as actors in a year round haunt...

7.Exorcist - Putting this house at 7 isn't a bad thing.. The facade is probably the best of the event and the theming is fantastic. Cast was also great. That puke room though is a little much lol.

8. TCM - I've only been through once and I'm pretty sure it was either a cast change or I just missed the scares cause I barely saw anyone in the house. Theming is fantastic though.

9. Chance - Not gonna beat around the bush, its just terrible. Probably the worst 3d house they've done in 10+ years. Even the Clown 3d house at BGT is better than this...

Scare zones
TBH I haven't spent enough time here to rank them yet. Definitely a step back from the 2 previous years of zones but not bad.

Shows
Bill and Ted so far hasn't really been good. But those who know B&T from years past know they will make adjustments and tighten the show up. So far though I would put it behind 23, 24, and 25 EASILY.

AOV - I bashed the hell out of this show after it was announced.. And now I am eating crow.. I know it won't appeal to everyone but overall I thought it was fantastic!! This isn't just a 20 min filler while you finish that 12 dollar beer I thought it'd be. Its a must see imo if your attending the event.
Andy once again it's scary how close we are with our reviews/thoughts. Our top 3 are the same. Definitely can't subscribe to WD & Ghost Town over Exorcist. You must have missed a bulk of the scares in that one or hit a bad cast but overall good review.

Last year, the houses were lacking
Oh boy. :doh:

Read this guy's review of Chances house. Make sure you're sitting down.
Halloween Horror Nights 2016 review: The best and worst
 
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some photos:

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Quick question, do you normally like 3d houses? I'm in the (I guess, rather small) boat of loving 3d houses so I usually take 3d house reviews with a grain of salt.

at least Penn and Teller had actual sets, had full rooms and props. In between had creative costumes and very good use of 3D effects. Lunatics just has some painted walls and some fake murdered bodies. its really not that good
 
We managed to do all the houses last night with express. And to be honest Chances house imo was not the worst. I would give the worst to the Halloween house. I will have to review them later from my pc. Were worn out in our hotel room. My negativity of the halloween house has to do with the fact that there was no ceiling above these sets and is the walls are abour 9 foot tall. The sound stage was still well lit above you. In my oppinion it took you right out of the emersion. And too much whooshing sounds of plastic knives.
 
We managed to do all the houses last night with express. And to be honest Chances house imo was not the worst. I would give the worst to the Halloween house. I will have to review them later from my pc. Were worn out in our hotel room. My negativity of the halloween house has to do with the fact that there was no ceiling above these sets and is the walls are abour 9 foot tall. The sound stage was still well lit above you. In my oppinion it took you right out of the emersion. And too much whooshing sounds of plastic knives.

ghost town has the same problem with the roof.
 
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