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.