Last year was my first in attendance, this year came up fast & I was so happy to make the trip back from New York for another go-around!
I have to preface this review by saying that HHN29 came with some personal hangups in my life (getting sick 4 days into the vacation among other things), but I will always cherish it & the memories I made. HHN30 may wind up being very bittersweet, but I don't plan on missing it for anything!
Final House Rankings:
10. Stranger Things 2 - Last year's best feature was actually it's final room; as much as people (myself included) dislike black curtain hallways, that last gauntlet of Demogorgons in ST1 was very fun on a full-cast night. My biggest problem with ST2 is that seasons 2 & 3 upped the creature-count, but the house never seemed to reflect that, instead opting for more character roles. Those are fun little cameos for named characters, but don't offer a lot of repeat value. The D-Dogs were not menacing (way smaller than expected), and the fleshy Flayer puppets were visually lovely to look at, but not intimidating. I guess I set myself up for disappointment when I jokingly commented that I wish they could revisit the Twister show technology to simulate Season 2 Flayer. I think more possessed Wills could have helped too. Almost anything else could have helped...
9. Ghostbusters - Fun to walk through. Loved the trivia from my UtH guide that roughly 8000 discarded books were donated from libraries to create the NYPL room, since I work in a public library back home. But the house was way too timing-dependent on it's best scenes. Never got a Winston during my 4 runs, sadly. Though when you got all the other street scene hits, it was a great time. Same with the black hallway midway through. Not sure what could have been improved. Though like ST2, the Terror Dog puppets were super telegraphed, unlike the big puppet scares from last year in Poltergeist & Slaughter.
8. Nightingales: Blood Pit - The OG Nightingales is one of my classic "ones that got away", a house that came about when I was a stupid alcoholic who always wanted to visit HHN but drank away the funds I could have used to go. So I really wanted to love the prequel house. And despite my concerns about the new costumes, I did grow to appreciate them. I actually think the static props of the new 'gales looked amazing. And I did love all the cool props in here in general. After my UtH tour, I couldn't help but point at the ceiling & cry, "YOU KILLED OUR BEAR!" at the 'gale right after the horse prop lol. So this house only ranks so low because I never had a perfect walkthrough of it. I really wish I had. The last room got better & better every time, but I often missed the neck-snap scene, the lion, the first window, etc... Props to the neck-snap guy for returning my "let him die!" thumb down on closing night though!
7. Us - Another house that suffered from never having a perfect walkthrough. I do give it credit for trying something different, the actors going more for uncomfortable staring than jumps was perfectly fitting. Wish the car scene was a little more aggressive, wish the mirror maze was focused on more, wish there were more Plutos! But the final room, the living room, and the Ophelia scene were all knockouts. The Jeremiah guy following me with his stare as I entered the house was great on one night.
6. Graveyard Games - So, there were some great runthroughs of this house, but twice we hit it with major major scenes just missing actors (the female teen's introduction and the final scare). I do love the scenery in here though, including the trees! To look up and just see trees everywhere was really immersive. I wish Carnival Graveyard had worked this well on the vertical plane last year. The actors were almost always awesome too. I should probably rank this higher, but I mean 6-1 are all so good. Candle hallway was epic.
5. Killer Klowns from Outer Space - So I do think Hollywood actually beat Orlando on this house (the "another door?!" scene sold me on that), but I will say that the cast here did a great job with the awkward costumes. I was shocked they were able to stay so mobile in that gear. Unrelated: dark-haired Mooney was one of the all-stars of the event, just sayin...
4. Depths of Fear - I went in expecting this to be a disaster after reading early-season reviews & seeing opening night footage. But the staffing/role changes really made a major difference! It was corny, but still had some in-your-face actors. The only reason this didn't make my top 3 is that godawful stagnant water smell in a couple of rooms, not to mention the thoughts of what could have been had all the intended water effects made it to showtime.
3. Yeti: Terror of the Yukon - Really fun maze, I feel like nothing ever lived up to my first walkthrough, but that walkthrough was soooo good. The chestburster scene, the door-smash, the charging cave Yeti, the dropping arm. All sorts of great scenes in here, plus wonderful detail. Made me feel right at home back north (it snowed for the first time here today! >.<)
2. Universal Monsters - Had it at my #1 right up until the last night of the event, and it's still wicked close. The Phantoms were all so intense, all of them got right in our faces & lingered there, it was amazing. Drac & the Mummies were great at that too. The Creatures were all so well-timed. Love the Bride's design. Quasi was having so much fun, it was contagious. I always left this with a smile on my face, even on Halloween when I had a depersonalization disorder attack minutes before entering the house. Thank you, Monsters, for being a bright spot in that really rough night.
1. House of 1000 Corpses - This. Cast. Killed. It. Maybe it had a slight advantage over UM in the sense that, as opposed to ST2, Corpses actually benefited from less masks & more face-character roles. The actors stayed in character while showcasing incredible improv talents. Some fun things that happened here:
-Every time Baby Firefly was singing on my walkthroughs, I'd mouth the song & points back to her. On one such walkthrough, Otis timed his "No funny business!" perfectly and I died laughing. Once that Otis knew me, he kept getting more & more in my face and pointed back to me when I wished him a Happy Halloween. He was an absolute legend & my favorite actor of the event.
-Dr. Satan was making fun gestures & went out of his way on our first walkthrough to interact with a clearly not-ready-for-haunts child behind us in a way that calmed him down.
-Back to the Baby Firefly & Otis scene; on our last night, Baby's audio cue played, but she never emerged. I looked over to Otis and we shrugged at each other. Then he started to ad-lib lines calling out for her & yelling at her. It all seemed like exactly what Otis would say in that situation & I couldn't stop laughing. I just thought he adapted to the situation really well.
-Captain Spaulding returned our "happy Halloween" wishes in-character on Hallow's Eve after his voice line played.
Zones:
5. Anarch-Cade - I do think it's eons better than last year's Harvest thematically, though I never saw the actors quite as aggressive as the Harvest ones were on closing week last year. But it's so short & not really fun to stick around in.
4. Vikings Undead - Not enough room for aggressive actors, bulky costumes, too dark for photo-ops at night. The actors last year at least had opportunities to scare from behind boxes. I don't think I ever saw that this year. The two scenes were cool, but congested foot-traffic quite a bit when in progress. Also, would never know the vikings were "undead" without the name of the zone telling me.
3. Zombieland - I hated this zone during my first few days in the park. Way too kid-crowded and I didn't care much for the scene-shows. Getting dinner at Finns on Sunday night made me a big fan of the actors. I loved how they acted out scenes in front of the windows near us or went for scares on dining patrons. It was so much fun!
2. Rob Zombie's Hellbilly Deluxe - Metal af. Dirty af. People loved it when we were there. The actors were a ton of fun, and the photo ops were great. If the Living Dead Girl stage is the closest we ever get to seeing The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari featured at Halloween Horror Nights, then I suppose I'll have to live with that.
1. Vanity Ball - I just went over-the-top in-depth about why this is my favorite zone I've experienced so far in it's own thread. Long story short: the talent was so in-character every time we went through, and they developed their characters so deeply that they had something new to tell us about themselves (or which of our body parts they wanted!) every time.
Other notes: Academy of Villains was amazing. S'mores fries were fun and tasted great, but I wouldn't get them again. Springfield chainsaw guy that just made "ri-gi-gi-gih!" noises instead of revving up his chainsaw was hysterical, more of him please! The artist (only know their name is Shelby, sorry!) who did the artwork of original houses/zones did an amazing job & I would buy more of their work anytime.
Tentative overall 2-year rankings Favorite-to-Least - Houses:
Slaughter Sinema
House of 1000 Corpses
Universal Monsters
Poltergeist
Dead Exposure: Patient Zero
Scary Tales: Deadly Ever After
Yeti: Terror of the Yukon
Depths of Fear
Killer Klowns
Seeds of Extinction
Graveyard Games
Us
Nightingales: Blood Pit
Ghostbusters
Trick 'r Treat
Halloween 4
Carnival Graveyard
Stranger Things 2
The Horrors of Blumhouse
Scare Zones:
Vanity Ball
Revenge of Chucky
Rob Zombie's Hellbilly Deluxe
Twisted Tradition
Zombieland
'Vamp '85
Killer Klowns
Vikings Undead
The Harvest - Anarch-Cade (tied because both did things right that the other didn't)