So over a decade of wanting to attend this event, it finally happened last Saturday (the 22nd). Tagging along was a my friend Ian who's never been to HHN as well, and we both had Express to make the most of our only night there. So how did things go?
First we started off with the Stay and Scream at Finnegan's, and thanks to the tips from you guys on here, we knew to get into the section that faced Jimmy Fallon before it got full/closed off. Once we were let loose, Ian and I hightailed it to Stranger Things and used our Express to get it out of the way ASAP, skipping the massive line and quickly getting into...
Stranger Things - This was honestly a great way to kick the event off as we had a awesome run. Bunch of scares, I found the GAT at the beginning, and I was impressed by both the sets and the look-alikes who're spot on. Ian and I agreed that if this house is any indication of what we're in for, this is gonna' be a great night!
After S.T. (and seeing just how much the line for that has grown...), we proceeded to bang out the remaining main soundstage houses.
Poltergeist - I don't know what was a better opening statement, the awesome facade...or hearing "You Son of a B!tch!". This house was chock full of crazy effects, and I loved how abstract/bonkers it got near the end. Shockingly though, there was a good bit of light leaking through the house which did lessen some of the second half for me. But it was still a great run, and the first giant beast head in the house made Ian fall to the floor! That cracked me up good, but little did I know that I wasn't immune to that kind of reaction...
Scary Tales: Deadly Ever After - Without a doubt, this has the best façade this year. Such a killer opening for any house. Now Ian and I love twisted fairytales, so this house was a treat for us. Even though it felt (and probably is) the shortest of the houses, there was a lot of great detail, smells and some nice scares, too. The MVP was the three pigs, especially the one who ended up getting us three different times (and not all in the same room either!). That pig also had a impeccable sense of timing, too. As the gentlemen behind us was commenting how he didn't expect that pig to pop out of the second place...only for the pig to pop out of of a third spot and get us once more!
Carnival Graveyard: Rust in Pieces - Wowza, this house was chock full of eye candy, easter eggs and GAT's. I honestly dug the hell out of this house, and I loved the set design where you could look over and spot other scenes from here and there. (A great example was seeing just how far the Christmas lights were strung out onto other areas of the salvage yard.) The middle of the house seemed a little slower, but the beginning and especially the end picked up the pace. (Loved the mirror gags!) An this house felt like it went on, and on and on. Definitely a great use of space.
After the soundstage houses, we made our way all the over to the back and got in line for Slaughter Sinema, where we noticed it wasn't even 8pm yet, so we were doing good on hitting the houses.
Slaughter Sinema - Holy crap, this house was so much fun! For the most part the themes either gave a good laugh or a good scare, which is what I was hoping for with this kind of house. An speaking of a good scare, when we got to Attack of the Swamp Yeti, the line in front of us made a beeline right out of it, leaving me all alone to walk through with nothing happening and the tension high. The first Swamp Yeti charged out and Ian got a front row view of me loosing every bit of strength in my legs as I rapidly lowered to the ground with each step till I was down on the ground. Now I was fully prepared for a couple other houses to really scare me (Seeds of Extinction, Dead Exposure.), but I was not ready for that friggin' Swamp Yeti!
After a little recovery/break for rides, we decided to use our express to get Blumhouse out of the way since we heard that's probably the weakest house.
Horrors of Blumhouse - So to be totally honest, Ian and I had a nice run through this house. The Happy Death Day segment was a lot of fun, with the cast getting some good scares in. As for the Purge, it was alright. Not as strong as HDD, but overall we both came out going. "If this is considered the "worst", we'll take it." Yeah, it's not as strong as the other houses, but I've personally been through much worse elsewhere.
After the decent Blumhouse, we decided to take the hiking trail to the parade house and used express for both.
Seeds of Extinction -This house was interesting. It was one of the ones I heard beforehand that it was really scary, though at the same time I heard from others that it was one of the weaker houses. With the run through we had, I got some hard hitting scares here and there, though Ian got the brunt of them. He found the house to be pretty scary, I found it good...but wanting a lil' more. There was some really nice set design (plane, slanted floor at the end) and I liked how claustrophobic it got, though I can understand how it's making others really torn on it. If there's a wildcard house, this is probably it.
Trick 'r Treat - Both Ian and I love the film, and we both agreed a this was a really nice house. A lot of great big set pieces, some neat effects here and there, and it had a wonderfully creepy atmosphere. Personally I would've liked to have seen more of the werewolf girls, but I liked the retouched puppet/AA they used for it.
We then took a much needed snack break and enjoyed the Pizza Fries we got, afterwards we used our express on...
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers - This was my pick for the "Dark Horse" house, and it gave us a dark horse run. While the source material isn't the best, and the set's are on the generic side, the cast was on fire and very aggressive. The house just ramped up with the actors and intensity, and Dr. Loomis got me good twice when he was trying to shoot Michael.
Finally, we expressed the last remaining house, taking a gamble to save this one for last since we felt it would be the scariest.
Dead Exposure: Patient Zero - All throughout the night I was looking forward to and dreading this house, was it going to be as scary as foretold (or I hoped)? Or would it be a bit of a disappointment. Once the main gimmick started, Ian and I proceeded to go "Nope. Nooope. No. This is not ok. No. No!NO!NO!"
This house was bar none the scariest of the night, and it didn't let up until we were out. I was literally sweating with fear afterwards, and all throughout the night we ran into people who admit it legit scared them. Major kudos to the cast who were gunning for us, even when the UV strobes weren't going off for insane double scares.
After another break for rides, Ian and I hit up Carnival Graveyard (a much better run then the first) and Slaughter Sinema a second time to finish Ian's night since his feet were killing him. I then hit up Scary Tales and Poltergeist a second time each, and at 12:56pm I literally hauled @$$ from Poltergeist all the way to the sprung tents and managed to make it in time to finish the night off with Slaughter Sinema for a third time.
So what did we think of the event? We downright loved it! For us, we didn't have a bad run through any of the houses. Which is honestly a awesome testament to how good this year is. Ian's personal favorite house was Slaughter Sinema, with Dead Exposure and Stranger Things right behind it. His personal weaker ones (but still fun) were Halloween and Blumhouse.
As for me, I'll admit I can't do a full precise ranking of the houses as a lot of them were really good for me and it'll get into some serious hair splitting to put them in order. But here's a general gist...
- Poltergeist, Slaughter Sinema, Dead Exposure, Carnival Graveyard and Stranger Things just duking it out in the top five.
- Scary Tales and Trick 'r Treat. Really solid houses, even though some of the tales in TrT had to be shortened a bit compared to others. An the shorter length is what put Scary Tales just under the ones above.
- Seeds of Extinction is quite the wildcard, I did like it, but I was wanting a little more oomph that the other houses gave.
- Halloween and Blumhouse are the "weakest" ones, but were still fun to go through due to their casts.
As for the scare zones, admittedly we didn't have too much time to really bask in them. However all of them were fun to go through. Vamp 85' put on a great show, Killer Klowns from Outer Space was just plain fun. We liked the twisted toys n' Care Bears in Revenge of Chucky, and both Harvest and Twisted Traditions had awesome scarecrow and pumpkin creatures. With TT reigning supreme in the atmosphere department...plus the killer glowing stilt walker pumpkin creature. As for the roaming chainsaws, the Clownsaws were a treat to watch in passing. An' I think the mechanics in San Fran are finding their ground. Late in the night we saw them do a pretty nice group attack.
All in all, it was a great first time for both of us! This was definitely the year to go, and I'm glad we did. I look forward to seeing what may come for next year, as I'll do what I can to return, hopefully for a couple nights so I can really take in everything.