Halloween Horror Nights 28 (UO): Reviews & Photos

[Frank Drackman]

here some more photos from last week

 

[Teebin]

Were all of the killer klown heads custom made by the onsite makeup effects team? They are cumbersome looking things.

 

[hhnholdem]

 

[ProColor]

Random thoughts after a quick unplanned night, post going to some other haunted events.

-Poltergeist really falls off for me once you go into the light. The clown no longer on the ceiling really impacts that.
-Another bad run through Sinema, I don't see this house staying in my top 3 if this keeps up.
-Stranger Things becoming a dark horse candidate for my top 3. Demogorgans are really working to get scares.
-Halloween 4 cast is saving the house. One of the most consistent houses this year.
-Even with a good run, still not a fan of Seeds.

-Going into houses by myself elsewhere really made me realize how much the conga line impacts scares. I know it's not something Universal can really avoid, but just an obervation.

 

[Octobers Fade]

Really enjoyed all the aromas in the houses this year and they were a real stand out for me.

Houses in order of best to.... well....

ScaryTales 3: 10/10
Best overall all house, great through out

Carnival Graveyard: 10/10
Gorgeous! Never seen anything like it.

Trick 'r Treat: 10/10
Should have been a house last year, and this house proved it.

Poltergeist: 8/10
The first half of the house is better than than the rest where it just doesn't hold up and feels like they ran out of ideas.

Slaughter Sinema: 8/10
Fun enough with different things to look at. All the 70's and 80's nods were great.

Stranger Things: 7/10
Had enough to be interesting, but it was I thought it would be, hit all the notes of the show.

Halloween 4: 6/10
More Michael Myers....and more, and more....
That being said it is always good to see Mikey!

Seeds of Extinction: 5/10
*My experience in the que and going in the daytime effect my opinion of this house
Everything kinda blended together and the creatures seemed to look the same.

Dead Exposure 2: 5/10
Some good scenes but felt uninspired

Blumhouse vol. 2: 2/10
meh.

Scare Zones

1. 
   Twisted Tradition 10/10
   Traditional with great sets
   
   Revenge of Chucky 8/10
   Chucky puppet is a blast.
   
   The Harvest 7/10
   I like the theme, but the zone suffers from too much light
   
   Vamp 85: New Year's Eve 7/10
   Some good things here.
   

• Killer Klowns from Outer Space 5/10
  Too small
  

Final thoughts:

Seeds Of Extinction
Dead Exposure
Stranger Things






Blumhouse
now make up the bottom of my list.

Academy of Villains: didn't make it past two songs, it was garbage.

Lines seemed to move better, but there were still times when it should have flowed more than it did. Crowds were less than the first weekend and made it alot more enjoyable, but still too crowded. The sheer amount of walking is Insane!!! Merchandise was bland, uninspired, and overpriced. They should have put KKFOS in San Francisco to even out the park a little better.

A really good year and another step up from the past seven years.

 

[Frank Drackman]

I used RoF and attended 9/19 - 9/22 and 9/28 - 9/29. We did not see every maze ever night. Here are my thoughts:

If I had to pick 'favorites' they would be:

Seeds of Extinction, Slaughter Sinema, and Poltergeist.

SoE for the sets, the imagination placed into the house, the story i guess (though I just do not see limbs or vines grabbing a plane out of the air) I think I just liked the environment on this one. I think I like a sort of humor with my horror and I do not know why, but I laughed a bit at the customs that wort of look like Tree trunks and the sort of came out and shook up and down...having to scare in those suits, but the cast delivered for me.

SS...well, everyone hated ASH last year, but I dug it as to me, the house had a sort of rhythm to it and I really enjoyed the soundtrack used in Ash last year. For the Sinema, I felt like the house had a pulse to its rhythm with 'Daddy' being such a key phrase that the house sort of pulses to. I dug the humor and the horror, Barber Chop, Cult of Beast Baby, Zombie Yeti...that stuff rocked to me!

Poltergeist. For this one, I just (again) love the environment. I was not a fan of Shinning last year, but for this IP, they really capture the suspense of the movie using such wonderful sets, the use of cold. The use of stilts and puppets

Halloween 4: This surprised me, we did not like our first walk through, but (for me) I think that was just do to me loving the first year we had MM, not really liking the 2nd year. For my 2nd walk through, it dawned on me that we were inside the whole night, the number of places MM could be hiding, the use of so many 'tricks' (pepper ghost, what ever type stuff) and the cast just pushing it. I think I only did three or four walk troughs but I think it is a well done house.

ScaryTales: was nice (but seemed under staffed). I was glad to have pleasant smells this year (like for Hansel), the opening facade, the witches....bears....I did really enjoy this one.

Stranger Things represented fairly well (not a fan of the 11 manikin near the end). Lots of demagons, but they did not seem too scary.

Carnival Graveyard - I did not know what to expect. The maze was different to me in that they had some central sets that the maze opened up to giving you views from different angles, but really of different sets. For every house this year, I think they went higher up in the Sound Stage mazes than I seem to recal in recent years...lots of details in every house!

Tick 'r Treat was fun for every run we did. I feel I was most impressed by the sinking school bus scene.


I only went through Dead Exposure twice (as the strobes apparently did a number on my wife that cut one night far shorter than expected), so not sure I have an opinion.

For Blumhouse vol. 2, we only went through it once and I really can't say I recall much of it.

I did go check out AoV once, I felt they had the sound up far louder than it needed to be (man, I really am getting old ;-) )

Anyway, overall, a great year for my family. They used a lot of puppets and stilts this year, a few pepper ghost here and there. I felt, just some real good stuff.

 

[Frank Drackman]

Were all of the killer klown heads custom made by the onsite makeup effects team? They are cumbersome looking things.

I assume those are not done by UNI creative (edit, A and D or on site team, I should not have said creative there) they were selling KKfOS mask and I assume these mask were the same type of thing anyway, but I truly would not know!!

EDIT, some more Klowns I do not think I posted yet:

 

[snayberry]

This is my fifth HHN. I went six nights in total, four nights on the second weekend and two nights on the third. I used a Rush Of Fear express pass.

Houses (from best to worst)

1. Dead Exposure - This became number one for me, after going in this house on the third weekend, it seemed a lot darker than the first two weekends. I got scared so many times, I jumped like crazy.

2. Stranger Things - Solid sets, smells, it had the whole atmosphere to it. I had an amazing run through this house, I felt like it was legit scary. I had my doubts, if this would be scary or not. That drop window scare made me jump to the roof.

3. Poltergeist - Went through this house six times, they did a phenomenal job, the facade from the empty pool and I was lucky enough to experience the rain. I was able to hit on all the scares and the falling clown even came down to scare me. I didn't find the movie too scary but this house has some solid spooks.

4. Halloween 4 - I didn't know what to expect going in this house. I saw the movie and thought it was alright, then the Shrek Theater is not so big. I went through this house a good amount of times and man, The Michael Myers are aggressive. I got some good solid jump scares in here, the cast brought their A game.

5. Seeds Of Extinction - It was a cool house, I got some good scares in here because they were camouflaged pretty well. I wish the house was a little darker.

6. Scary Tales - The facade with the flying witch was so cool. This was my first Scary Tales house and I enjoyed seeing all the old stories but with a horror twist. I never saw the witch finale scare though. The HHN bear was awesome.

7. Trick R Treat - I love the movie, the house has some beautiful sets. I just didn't get solid scares when going through. I loved the bus scenes though.

8. Carnival Graveyard - I had high hopes for this house, the way people were explaining the house would be. I didn't really get any good scares in here and it wasn't scary imo.

9. Slaughter Sinema - Another house where, it just didn't do it for me. the preview pics looked awesome and the idea of the house was great. I just feel like the execution was not the greatest. The only room I got some scares, it was the swamp yeti room.

10. Blumhouse Vol 2 - I was afraid of this from the get go. I was telling everybody, I hope it wasn't going to be HDD. I finally got around to watching the movie and thought it was decent. The execution in this house was not good. The whole repeating the room, it just didn't work and I didn't get any good scares. The First Purge part was decent at best but last year's Blumhouse was much better.

Scare Zones from best to worst

1. Twisted Tradition
2. Vamp 85
3. Revenge Of Chucky
4. Killer Klowns From Outer Space
5. The Harvest

Final Conclusions

I felt this year was more crowded than the five years that I have been, even with me using express. I was thinking this was going to be the best year of HHN, that I would have ever experienced. That was not the case though, it was a very solid year overall. I liked the addition of the tenth house. The originals to me this year, they weren't so great. A big thing to me this year, I felt the ops inside the houses, they kept rushing you and pointing the flash light at you, saying come on and hurry. I've never experienced it this bad, where almost every house, the ops are rushing you through it.

 

[Legacy]

I assume those are not done by UNI creative

Creative does rides. A&D does HHN.

 

[ProColor]

Creative does rides. A&D does HHN.

I always wonder if you have this in a notepad file or something

 

[Frank Drackman]

Creative does rides. A&D does HHN.

Thank you! I should try and understand the acronyms and the structure of the company as opposed to thinking of the word ‘creative’ to apply to a process.

I did not mean to insult the A&D group nor mix them in with creative!

 

[Legacy]

Thank you! I should try and understand the acronyms and the structure of the company as opposed to thinking of the word ‘creative’ to apply to a process.

I did not mean to insult the A&D group nor mix them in with creative!

It happens all the time. You’re good.

 

[Nick]

As a reminder, this thread is for photos and reviews only. Chit chat should be limited and mostly kept for the General Discussion thread.

 

[Frank Drackman]

last bit from KKfOS would be how the tent projection had me thinking I had seen the Northern Lights for the first time, and then some Chucky stuff

 

[Brian G.]

Some more. I'll be heading out with my 1.4 lens this weekend to bring on a new batch.

 

[ralphoutloud]

Photos taken with a Nikon D850 and a 50mm 1.4.

My final rankings & review from 3 nights of HHN 28 Sept 28th, 29th and 30th:

1. Poltergeist - House was absolute heat. Might go down as one of my Top 10 all time. Captured the spirit of the movie and then some. Loved how abstract it got towards the end and truly just felt like chaos. Facade smell and entrance were A1. Puppets were fantastic.
2. Scary Tales - Facade is incredible and just the general feeling that something is askew did it for me. Loved the character design and unique scares in this house.
3. Slaughter Sinema - Had a blast in this house every time I went through. Facade set up the vibe perfectly, a couple good scares, a couple laughs, and I just personally enjoyed it quite a bit. Would like to see a return of this with whatever else scrapped ideas they may have.
4. Halloween 4 - Cast was on fire every time I went through. Loved it, not much more to say. Underrated.
5. Carnival Graveyard - Beautiful house but doesn’t make too much sense or scare. Loved the nods to stuff but felt more like a junkyard rather than a Carnival Graveyard. Reminded me of Ghost Town.
6. Stranger Things - Captured the essence of the show, great detail, beautiful house, Demogorgans are good when they’re on. Painfully short. Terrible ending. Looking forward to the sequel next year.
7. Blumhouse - Simple House, cast was slinging heat everytime I went through. I like Happy Death Day a lot so really enjoyed that segment, and The Purge to me reminded me of Walking Dead: End of the Line from HHN24. Still a lot of room for improvement but to me it was enjoyable and fun.
8. Trick R Treat - Beautiful house to look at, one of the more impressive finales ever, but at the end of the day, this house was boring. Maybe I had bad runs. As a fan of the movie I enjoyed it, but wish it just had more excitement.
9. Seeds of Extinction - I get the idea but don’t think I had good runs in here. It was just a solid house. The walk though makes it almost Ash vs. Evil areas levels of “do not feel the need to do this” feelings. Interested to see how they use this location moving forward.
10. Dead Exposure - Yeah I don’t get it. Heard legendary tales about the OG which seemed more up my alley. I love the 80s French Aesthetic and Music...and then you actually go into the house. Strobing me to death isn’t my idea of telling a story or making a good house. I wish the strobes were slower paced so it was used more as a blinding effect rather than a constant eye-assault. Sets were okay. Out of 3 runs I never had a good one unfortunately so I feel I can’t accurately place this anywhere else but 10.

Scarezones were incredibly weak to me, save for Killer Klowns. Hope it gets the house treatment next year.

Didn’t see Academy of Villains.

Strong year and a great year to come for first timers. Would love to see the events progression by the final weekend.

 

[Brian G.]

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Done all the houses, can’t comment on a full list but Stranger Things and Trick r Treat are VERY high on the list.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

So after last night's visit, I think I can start judging the houses and zones (I'll add more to this later).

Slaughter Sinema--Really, really liked it. A&D gets to play with so many great ideas, and the majority of them work. The trailers outside are pure genius. Nice amount of gore, especially in the barber scene. The last yeti got me. Oh and some, ahem, eye candy as well.

Poltergeist--MUCH better run than on 9/21. Sucks that the drop down clown is gone, but the clown actors more than made up for it, as one of them scared the crap out of me. I was happy to see the rain working. Even without the clown drop, there are so many innovative scares in here.

Seeds of Extinction--Turn the lighting for this house DOWN. The set design is great (felt like a Rainforest Cafe gone wrong at times), the costumes are very scary, but the scares aren't going to work if the lighting is so bright that I can see them. The entrance is very ominous.

Trick 'r Treat--Sets are everything I could've hoped for. The school bus scene brought me back to Skoolhouse. There should be a couple more Wilkins. The "check your candy" scene smelled SO good!

 

[Brian G.]

After 4 weekends:

1. Poltergeist
2. Scary Tales
3. Trick R Treat
4. Seeds of Extinction
5. Carnival Graveyard
6. Slaughter Sinema
7. Dead Exposure
8. Stranger Things
9. Halloween 4
10. Blumhouse