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Halloween Horror Nights 30 (UO): Reviews, Photos, & Videos

My HHN 30 Rankings

1. The Wicked Growth ( The Pumpkin Lord at the end “ I am Halloween hahaha” … so bad ass) 4 runs
2. Haunting of Hill House ( I‘m a big fan of the show… the facade was spectacular) 4 runs
3. Bride Of Frankenstein ( loved how it picked up right after the movie … it was a twisted love story) 4 runs
4. Revenge of the tooth fairy ( Thought the story was great and James was a little brat) 4 runs
5. Puppet theater ( the set was amazing) 4 runs
6. Legendary Truth ( What a complex story… some really cool scenes. Loved the Kitty Kat club) 3 runs
7. Icons 4 runs
8. Texas chainsaw massacre ( I’m surprised I didn’t like this more) 4 runs
9. Beetlejuice ( Was super excited for this house but just didn’t feel it… IMO it missed capturing the magic that Ghostbusters did) 4 runs
10. Scarey Ohio 3 runs

Halloween Horror Nights is an amazing event! We had such a great time but as everyone mentioned the plexiglass hurt the scares this year. It’s just not scary with an actor behind plexiglass. I get it Universal has to protect the scare actors and the event. All those people going through them tight houses with no masks would be a disaster and possibly shut down the event. A mask mandate would be a nightmare to pull off for TM’s. Despite all that ..The scare actors were Amazing ! Another amazing year and can’t wait for next year!
 
1a Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin- The essence of Halloween in a haunted house. It was beautiful and fun. Gets the very slight edge over Hill House for the bridge. The bridge was one of my favorite things I've seen in a Haunted House since maybe the Dead Waters façade.

1b Haunting of Hill House- I didn't get too far into the show before feeling too depressed to continue, but the house is fantastic. I love the creepy old house style mazes and this one didn't disappoint. I loved the mostly dark hallway and the even darker one with the soundproofing. Very unsettling effect. I can't say as though I get overly creeped out in haunted houses, but this one pushed a couple of buttons.

3 HHN Icons: Captured- Super fun house. With the event unable to happen last year, there was no better welcome back than this. All our old friends and tormentors back again to welcome us home. We'd arrived. Bonus points for allowing me to see The Usher on the throne at the end once.

4 The Bride of Frankenstein Lives- Loved the original spin and the classic monsters will always be cool to me.

5 Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth- Boris Shuster vs the supernatural. Someone should actually write the books. Love the lounge act.

6 Revenge Of The Tooth Fairy- Lots of fun, beautiful storybook façade, great monster masks

7 Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience- Awesome house with outstanding set design and one of the funniest puppet scares I've ever seen. Good on ya, head puppet person. My unmasking the horror tour guide let me in on the insane depth of research that went into this house and its time period.

8 Texas Chainsaw Massacre- One of my favorite horror movies and its kooky sequel made for a decent house.

9 Welcome to SCarey: Horror in the Heartland- This house didn't grab me. Not my favorite anthology house. It wasn't terrible and I like the idea of it, but I thought maybe a sequel house to one of the included scenes might have been better. Maybe longtime HHN fans love it though, so I can get that. Nothing to trash about it really and I still didn't hate it.

10 Beetlejuice- I didn't hate it, but I didn't find it memorable. I thought this was the only house the plastic really got in the way of things, which is weird since they've had so long to try to make it work. The live actor Beetlejuice makes the house for me and makes it worth seeing. I also deduct points on this one for its one great gimmick, the spinning tunnel, not working on three of my five runs. I agree with the many people who said it doesn't capture the magic like Ghostbusters managed to.

The Scarezones were alright. Not super memorable, but alright.

The shows were alright. Not super memorable, but alright.

They really need to stop running the "social distancing" announcement every eight minutes or whatever. It's a very funny joke that zero ride/line/show attendants will employ. I've never felt more Covid unsafe than I did at the Nightmare Fuel show. We wore our masks all night and made it back home unscathed, so it could have been worse, but it was hard not to worry for the 80% maskless around us.

All in all, my partner and I had a fantastic time and don't regret going at all.
 
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1a Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin- The essence of Halloween in a haunted house. It was beautiful and fun. Gets the very slight edge over Hill House for the bridge. The bridge was one of my favorite things I've seen in a Haunted House since maybe the Dead Waters façade.

1b Haunting of Hill House- I didn't get too far into the show before feeling too depressed to continue, but the house is fantastic. I love the creepy old house style mazes and this one didn't disappoint. I loved the mostly dark hallway and the even darker one with the soundproofing. Very unsettling effect. I can't say as though I get overly creeped out in haunted houses, but this one pushed a couple of buttons.

3 HHN Icons: Captured- Super fun house. With the event unable to happen last year, there was no better welcome back than this. All our old friends and tormentors back again to welcome us home. We'd arrived. Bonus points for allowing me to see The Usher on the throne at the end once.

4 The Bride of Frankenstein Lives- Loved the original spin and the classic monsters will always be cool to me.

5 Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth- Boris Schuster vs the supernatural. Someone should actually write the books. Love the lounge act.

6 Revenge Of The Tooth Fairy- Lots of fun, beautiful storybook façade, great monster masks

7 Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience- Awesome house with outstanding set design and one of the funniest puppet scares I've ever seen. Good on ya, head puppet person. My unmasking the horror tour guide let me in on the insane depth of research that went into this house and its time period.

8 Texas Chainsaw Massacre- One of my favorite horror movies and its kooky sequel made for a decent house.

9 Welcome to SCarey: Horror in the Heartland- This house didn't grab me. Not my favorite anthology house. It wasn't terrible and I like the idea of it, but I though maybe a sequel house to one of the included scenes might have been better. Maybe longtime HHN fans love it though, so I can get that. Nothing to trash about it really and I still didn't hate it.

10 Beetlejuice- I didn't hate it, but I didn't find it memorable. I thought this was the only house the plastic really got on the way of things, which is weird since they've had so long to try to make it work. The live actor Beetlejuice makes the house for me and makes it worth seeing. I also deduct points on this one for it's one great gimmick, the spinning tunnel, not working on three of my five runs. I agree with the many people who said it doesn't capture the magic like Ghostbusters managed to.

The Scarezones were alright. Not super memorable, but alright.

The shows were alright. Not super memorable, but alright.

They really need to stop running the "social distancing" announcement every eight minutes or whatever. It's a very funny joke that zero ride/line/show attendants will employ. I've never felt more Covid unsafe than I did at the Nightmare Fuel show. We wore our masks all night and made it back home unscathed, so it could have been worse, but it was hard not to worry for the 80% maskless around us.

All in all, my partner and I had a fantastic time and don't regret going at all.

I too would’ve much preferred a single sequel instead of a whole Carey mashup house.
 
Re-Review of HHN30:
So like I mentioned a few weeks ago after my Opening Night trip I had a 2 week trip from 9/21 to 10/4 which I'm at the Airport right now as I type this.

Overall of the 5 Events I've done this year being HHN Orlando, HHN Hollywood, Knotts Scary Farm, Six Flags Fright Fest, and Howl O'Scream Orlando this was 100% the best one and really did blow me away in every aspect.

Atmosphere - The Atmosphere of this Event was fantastic. The Music playing Hard Metal/Rock throughout the park when not in a Zone was really great since I'm so accustomed to Figure/Dubstep playing at HHN Hollywood. Actually feels like I'm going into a HORROR Event in HHN Orlando which is great!

Food - I'm sure others will have tried more stuff than me but I'm focusing mainly on the Sawyer Gas Station Food which I thought was great. The Lamb was fantastic and I'm genuinely not a fan of Lamb. Liked the Ribs as well. Grandmaw's Skeleton Tray was fine. The Chicken was okay and the Sausage was lmao.

Shows -
Marathon of Mayhem Carnage Factory:

This was actually my most anticipated Show after seeing on Youtube how fantastic the 29 Lagoon Show was. And seeing it was awesome. But that's as far as I would go. Just awesome. Not amazing or fantastic but awesome.

Genuinely kinda wished there was a Solo Bride of Frankenstein Lives segment instead of a full on Monsters segment. Hill House was kinda fine. Texas was awesome and the rest was also awesome. It's a good show that I really enjoyed.

Halloween Nightmare Fuel:
If any of you follow me on Twitter (Shameless Plug: @HHNManics) then you know I just saw this last night. And what did I think?

Incredible like absolutely stunning. Really impressive how they pulled some of those effects off. It felt extremely adult and mature which I enjoyed a lot. Congrats to everyone involved for an extremely well done show filled with talented people. Loved it.

Zones -
I'll go over this Quickly as I want to get to the Houses.

30 Years, 30 Fears was fine. Genuinely wished it was more than a Photo Op and actually had the Icons walking around but it was fine. Gorewood Forest had great decor and a great atmosphere but lacked actors. Crypt TV albeit a Photo Op zone was visually fantastic and felt very accurate to the shorts. Costumes were amazing. Seek & Destroy genuinely grew on me. The Actors being on Ground Level and roaming aside from one other zone helps a lot. It's Goofy definitely but it was really fun to go through this Zone. Lights, Camera, Hacktion: Eddie's Revenge was no doubt my favorite. This Zone has a perfect mix of everything. Photo Op Stages, Roaming Ground Actors, Stilts, and Chainsaws. One of my favorite Scare Zones I've been through this year at any event.

Houses (From Least Favorite to Favorite) -
Welcome to SCarey Horror in the Heartland (21x):
It's somewhat a testament to how strong the lineup is that I actually have this at the bottom. Genuinely loved this House. Getting to see a lot of Houses I've wanted to see like Dead End, H.R. Bloodengutz, and Leave it to Cleaver. It's very fun to go through and I really loved the Cheesiness of it all.

My only issue is the Ending and that I wish there was more a Commitment to the Town Theme. Like having a Sign at the end saying "You are now leaving Carey, Ohio!" or having the Radio Broadcaster throughout the House tell where you are going next would've been great.

Still loved this House though.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (17x):
This House initially I was not looking forward to but I did Opening Night and I loved it. Coming back and this House definitely got scarier like the Cast absolutely kills it in this House. So absolutely aggressive and mean.

I genuinely prefer this over Hollywood's Blood Brothers. Seeing Nubbins Corpse as a Scare Twice was amazing. And all of the little subtle touches in making it a Texas Chainsaw Sequel like the Boarded up Window before sitting room which is the Window Sally jumped out of.

Strangely I do prefer Hollywood's Texas Maze this year but this House is still strong. Smells awful too which made it very immersive. Only complaint was that I wish there was a Dinner Table Scene.

Beetlejuice (18x):
I know this House has been getting a lot of Hate but everytime I went through this thing it grew on me a bit more. I genuinely enjoy how much this commits to the tone of the Film in being fun. Yes it doesn't make a Great Haunted House experience but a great experience for fans. Don't think Hollywood would have been able to pull this off.

The Tone is perfect and feels exactly like Tim Burton's film. There are so many fun scenes in here with the Attic, Graveyard, Wedding. It's genuinely fun and funny to see Scenes play out.

Revenge of the Tooth Fairy (16x):
Another one that grew on me overtime but only after I did the Unmasking the Horror Tour. The Facade is so absolutely creative and the House is wonderful in it's storytelling. Unlike Hollywood's Bride which is another Maze that a Storybook Aspect this House sticks it's text up at the top of the scene or in the Middle for all guests to hear which they can also because the Audio Mixing is well done. It isn't like you can barely hear the Dialogue because Audio for everything else is too loud and the text for each scene is at the very bottom where guests won't look and is in a Black Hallway Transition each and every ttime.

Anyway this House was great and I slowly began to appreciate it over Knotts Version. It is more Campy and fun. The Tooth Fairies are great and the Black Wings are a nice touch. The Drill Scene and Finale were probably my Favorite Scenes of the House.

Universal Monsters The Bride of Frankenstein Lives! (18x):
Bride of Frankenstein is one of my all time Favorite films so I was genuinely excited to check this out. Blew me away in every way possible. The transition from Black and White to then the first resemblance of color being the Monsters Green Skin (Which was told to me on the Tour as intentional) was amazing. The Whole Opening is incredible as it genuinely feels like the Bride is mourning.

Seeing the Storytelling Unfold and the whole Trial and Error aspect of this House was so much better than just "The Bride fights Vampires!" like I can't stress enough that it works much better to her literally struggle and fail in the Blood Draining Scene instead of Hollywood's where everything just works out for her and she just coincidentally ran into the Brides of Dracula after escaping the Castle.

The Finale has tension and is incredible to watch. Seeing the last Scare be the 2 of them instead just the Bride killing another Bride of Dracula is so much better.

HHN Icons Captured (18x):
This one also grew on me overtime. And yes! I got to see all of the Icons on the throne. My favorite which isn't my favorite Icon was Lady Luck because of her playing Cards on the Stage which looked awesome.

Tons of incredible scenes in this House. The Director gets some of my favorite scares in this house and he is my favorite Icon as well. The Theater was huge and nostalgic as hell. Having the Jack in the Box light up that Jack was captured in right before his scene was a wonderful touch.

The Haunting of Hill House (21x):
Still believe this is my Favorite IP House of all time of the ones I've done from Hollywood from 2015 onward and this bring my first year for Orlando.

The Facade is possibly my Favorite of all time. The Set Design is absolutely gorgeous. It feels and looks exactly like like Show. They include every single ghost in here which was incredible.

The Dancing Nell Scene was incredible and very well done. Along with the Finale being the Fears of the Crain Children which was very well done and creative.

Puppet Theatre Captive Audience (26x):
Genuinely Creepy House. One of my runs I was alone for the first hallway and the guy with the 3 Masks popped out and I literally speed walked to catch up with a group ahead of me lmao.

The Set Design in here is wonderful as well. The Costumes is fantastic and genuinely creepy. The Theater Scene is huge and very active and the Puppet Hallway was also fantastic.

Case Files Unearthed Legendary Truth (27x):
This House was so much fun. The Storytelling is very cool and the Aesthetic is incredible. Most prevalent in the Outside of the Kitty Kat Club. Seeing actually locations for Orlando NY was incredible and very immersive.

The Costume Design is also incredible. The Finale is awesome and this House is so genuinely creative and fun.

The Wicked Growth Realm of the Pumpkin (28x):
Put a lot of thought into this and I think this is my Favorite House of all time. Aside from Origins the Curse of Calico I haven't felt this way about a House. I was genuinely sad when I went through it for the last time last night and I got an alone walkthrough.

Someone said that every scene could be a Finale and they're right it can. It captures the Spirit and Tone of Halloween down to a Tea. The Costume Design, Lighting, Actors, Set Design, just everything was perfect.

You can just tell the amount of Love that was poured into this House. I don't think there will be another House ever at any event that will have the same effect this one had on me.

Overall -
A phenomenal event in every sense. So much love poured into every aspect. I know it was my first year so I'm very over the Moon after having done HHN Hollywood 2015 and Knotts since 2013. It genuinely felt like an exciting event in every way to attend and talk about. I'm extremely excited for HHN31!

Here's some photos from my trip including a Photo of me and Eddie lmao.
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So after thinking I couldn’t go I went last night. It was an amazing night to go, nice weather(not as hot as Florida could be) and no rain! It was also not very busy at all, highest wait was BJ and HoHH at 60 minutes(maybe beat by RRR if you can believe that). My friend and I did 18 walkthroughs with no express and no rush, if we did rush we could have done 20+ walkthroughs. We also did all scare zones multiple times.
SZs
1. Gorewood- Cool to see the Terra Queen. Really cool outfits! CP is perfect of this zone.
2. Lights, Camera, Hacktion- Fun to see old SZs. Eddie was cool.
3. Seek and Destroy- Fun zone epically if you submit(bow before the controller or put a fist across your chest to any scareactor.
4. Crypt TV- Looksee was very cool. So was almost everyone. A little short but that’s all zones in SF.
5. 30 years, 30 Fears- Boaring zone and definitely not what I thought. Did see Bones though and Blood.

House rankings after one night
HHN 30 houses ranked
  1. Wicked Growth- AMAZING!!! Really caputure the Halloween vibe. Outside facade was amazing at night. Inside facade is amazing no matter what. Loved the broken bridge! Witch was cool. Easter eggs to Caine were well done. Pumpkin King was awesome!
  2. ICONS- Did this house three times. Was blown away everytime. 2nd walkthrough was during a cast change so we didn’t get a lot of scares but saw TWO icons on the throne in a single run. Usher at first then Director after. First was Jack on it. Last was Director again(did it twice in a row). Loved the Usher scenes. Popcorn smell was a nice touch as well as “Let’s all go to the Lobby” playing. Facade was cool. I saw it with no one in front of me.
  3. Puppet Theater- Smelled like baby powder, which really fit the house. Scare actors were cool and creepy. Loved the story of this house. Facade was one of mine favorites. Mirror scare was amazing even though I already knew about it. Ending we died so that always fun!
  4. Case Files- Cofusing story but my friend explained it to me. Some really good scares. Ending was very cool. Liked that LT was back and seeing the symbol was cool.
  5. SCarey- My first house. Really nice facade. Loved the Orphanage part and seeing Cindy! Liked seeing Leave it to Celever.
  6. TCM- Better then I thought but still kinda low. Facade was really well done. Probably my 2nd favorite with Puppets at 3rd. Leatherfaces were cool.
  7. Brides- Did it last year and didn’t have any changes I noticed. One of the houses I only did once. The brides of Dracula were better then I thought. Flying scare was cool. Facade was cool but I saw it many times.
  8. Hill House- A beautiful house that captured the show well. My favorite facade of the year. Also only did once. Tall man was well done. Basement scare was good. Hanging scene was in there just had to look. LOOK UP!!
  9. Tooth Fairy- Cool and very unique facade. Done this house last year as well. Did once as well. Fairy’s were cool just thought more could be done.
  10. Betteljuice- No facade. Only did once as well. Did last year as well. Didn’t really capture the movie like Ghostbusters last HHN of HoHH. Spinning tunnel was cool but I done that to many times now.
    I will be back later so saved the shows for then.
 
My thoughts on HHN this year...

My first HHN was 2000 (at the nice, young age of 14) and I've been to most of them in the years since (the biggest gap was the last few years since I no longer live in the Orlando area). So for me, this was a milestone year because it was Jack all over again.

This year was a solid year for me. Any HHN for me is going to be fun, no questions about it. I can't NOT enjoy HHN, but this was definitely not my favorite and who knows if its COVID-19 related or just the overall quality this year.

I did S&S in the Springfield area and was able to knock out Welcome to Scarey, Wicked Growth, and Puppet Theater when the park opened within the first 30-ish minutes or so. After that, I went in order and had knocked out all ten houses by 8:45PM, did another loop of the scarezones, got some food, and was home, in bed, by 11pm.

As many have mentioned here, the scarezones are quite lacking. At one point, I went through CryptTV and there were no SAs to be found. Really disappointing. The food options were solid (the jalapeno popper sandwich was REALLY good) while the Twisted Taters this year were meh. They've been better in other years.

My house rankings are

1) HHN ICONS
2) Beetlejuice
3) Welcome to Scarey
4) Puppet Theater
5) Case Files
6) Wicked Growth
7) Haunting of Hill House
8) Bride of Frankenstein
9) Revenge of the Tooth Fairy
10) Texas Chainsaw Massacre


Hoping to go back next year, fingers crossed!
 
My houses and scarezones rankings for HHN 30

Houses:
1. Wicked Growth
2. Icons
3. SCarey
4. Case Files
5. Puppet Theatre
6. Texas Chainsaw
7. Beetlejuice
8. Haunting of Hill House
9. Tooth Fairy
10. Bride of Frankenstein

Scarezones:
1. Eddie’s Revenge
2. Gorewood Forest
3. 30 Years 30 Fears
4. Seek and Destroy
5. CryptTV

My thoughts on HHN 30

My god was this year amazing. I was seriously bummed out when Universal canceled the event last year, but holy crap was it worth the wait. Not one house was weak. I could go on and on about how good they were! The scarezones were lacking… something, but overall they were pretty good. The vinyl scared me at first when I heard about it, but it really didn’t affect the houses at all. So many scares were still in-your-face. I’m always a little sad when HHN ends for the year, but this time, I am seriously going to miss it. This years lineup is perfect and it’s gonna be hard to beat next year. HHN 30 is one for the memory bank and I can’t wait for HHN 31!
 
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Question for the people who have been to the event. I am going down to universal today! Is the vinyl that bad? Is it noticeable to the point where you can see the scares coming? And are the scares at least different from one another or is it just scare actors just banging on the vinyl? Your input would be great as I am very nervous that the houses aren't good.

well,
the vinyl looks transparent most of the time, so you see the actors in full, but the vinyl shines from the lighting around the house ( even if the light is low or a dark blue tone. so when you enter the room you can see the shininess,reflected light even in dark rooms.
you do get to see the actor in full and they act their role, so it is not just banging on the vinyl, this time they are acting out more. bride of Frankenstein for example is full acting out
the scares mostly come from the loud noises, the light triggers and air guns, the scares are very loud and get you even with ear plugs.
yes the scares are diminished, and it is not as intense as before. But im glad we have hhn this year. its still nice

not all boo holes have vinyl, texas chainsaw and wicked growth and puppert theater doesnt have too much vinyl, those are amazing. tooth fairy is incredible even with the vinyl.
the worst house is Icons.
 
Now that I've had time to mull it over, my personal rank of the houses. I'm also including where I had it on my anticipated house list to show which ones really surprised me or not.)

1. Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin - Without a doubt, this is one of the most impressive Sprung tent houses I've gone through. How they were able to cram everything into that tent, I have no idea. But it makes for a stunning house that's chock full of great scares, memorable e-prom bites and a nice dash of humor to give us a Halloween treat. Anticipated House Rank - #4 (A nice jump up!)

2. Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth
- I had a feeling this house was gonna' be something special, but I had no idea just how much. From it's Noir inspired look and setting, to the Pulp Fiction novel transitions, to the wonderfully crazy array of creatures and a ton of awesome nods to HHN's lore and past. An after I got the whole story from the Unmasking the Horror Tour, I just loved this house even more! In a way, this is a Noir variant of Slaughter Sinema with a HHN Lore twist. This is easily going down as one of my personal favorites, and so far the best house I've gone through in this location! Anticipated House Rank - #3 (Got this one pretty close to me!)

3. Puppet Theater: Captive Audience
- This was a wonderfully creepy house, with a grab-bag of memorable and nutty characters. An just like with Wicked Growth, the set design and what they managed to cram into the Sprung tent was nothing short of impressive! I really dug the heck out of this house, and I'm really looking forward to future Sprung tent houses which how this and WG turned out. Anticipated House Rank - #2 (Got it pretty close, too!)

4. The Haunting of Hill House
- Woo boy, this house is yet another example why it's usually fun when A&D get to take a more original/creative route with a IP! Since the tv series, while really good, is more of a family drama that happens to have some ghosts in it. (And one, maybe two really effective jumpscares.) So I'm perfectly fine with Orlando focusing more on the ghosts and creepier moments to give us a very intense house. This one is PACKED with scares, and on a good runthrough it's pretty devastating, especially the basement scene which felt like it had a triple scare baked into that one. I also appreciate the return of a particular hall from Graveyard Games, especially since this added a scare to it which absolutely wrecked me. Anticipated House Rank - #5 (Another one I got pretty close!)

5. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Going into the event, this house was a Wild Card for me. Felt like the Odd-Man-Out compared to everything else, especially since it seemed like it was gonna' be focused on the 1st film which the event already did before. Thankfully that wasn't the case, as it was more of a bridge between the first films. So that meant a whole lotta' Leatherface and Chop Top, and you know what? It worked! I had a lot of really entertaining runs through this house, be it me getting scared or watching the folks in front of me absolutely lose it in this house. Seriously, this house wrecked the GP at LOT. Anticipated House Rank - #8 + Dark Horse House Pick! (Not only a nice lil jump, but it definitely lived up to my Dark Horse Pick. Hat's off to A&D and the Casts on this one!)

6. Welcome to (S)Carey: Horror in the Heartland
- For being a smorgasbord of an anniversary house with no transitions and it being the shortest house, this house grew on me quite a bit. Every runthrough I was getting hit with a good scare from a different scene and scareactor, so that was a nice consistency to have with multiple runthroughs, I was always seeing something new! All in all, I do like the scenes picked as it's a eclectic bunch. Only real downsides for me was the short length and some of the scares were hindered by the vinyl. Anticipated House Rank - #6 (Right on the money!)

7. Bride of Frankenstein LIVES
- While I experienced this last year, I still really enjoyed it this year with the various lil tweaks it got. Both casts were really good so I was getting some really good consistent runs. I think it would've ultimately been quite a bit higher for me if I didn't already see it before. Anticipated House Rank - #10 (The little tweaks and the solid casts really helped this one out for me.)

8. HHN Icons: Captured
- Another anniversary house which gives us some time with the various Icons, and including a simple ending gimmick which made for a lot of runthroughs! Unlike SCarey, this one had a nice amount of transitions for everything to flow together. So why did I put this one lower? Well SCarey had the scares, and while that house had some hinderance with the vinyl, unfortunately Icons was really hindered by both the vinyl and the facemasks. Most of the scareactors really couldn't lunge out at you, a great example is the finale where some could only open a boo door to just...stand there. An the facemasks were a lil hindrance since most of the roles were face characters "talking". I still really enjoyed it, especially seeing the Storyteller take on a much more demonic role, but out of all the houses, this one felt the most affected by the safety protocols. Anticipated House Rank - #1 (In terms of ranking, I believe we call this one a bust.)

9. Revenge of the Tooth Fairy
- As with Bride of Frankenstein LIVES, I probably would've had this one higher if I didn't experience it last year. I still love this house with it's façade, design, soundtrack and just unsettling concept. Anticipated House Rank - #9 (Still had fun with this house, though the casts weren't as strong as last years, so it doesn't get the little jump that BoF:L got.)

10. Beetlejuice
- For what it's worth, I did enjoy this house! But compared to everything else this year, it just ends up the weakest. It is a little strange that for a lot of scenes you're more walking alongside them than through them, and there's not much of scares baked into this thing. It's to the point where I don't think removing the vinyl would actually change things in that regard. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the house and if this is the weakest of the bunch, I'll take it! Anticipated House Rank - #7 (Little bit of a dip, but nothing major like Icons.)
 
Sunday plans cancelled, sitting here bored. So decided to do aggregate the reviews in this thread to do Net Promoter Scores for this year's houses, to give a snapshot of popularity.

Quick primer for those who don't work in the hellhole of Corporate America. If a house is in someone's top 3, they "promote" it, gets +1. Bottom 4, they are "detractors," subtract 1. Add both to get a house's NPS score (ignoring any neutral 4 - 6 votes). Tried to only use final ratings, only use reviews with all 10 houses, but this is just for fun anyway, so don't take it too seriously.

Wicked Growth +25 (the runaway winner, only house with zero detractors)

Icons + 7 (a lot of promoters but a fair number of detractors--either love it didn't care for it at all)

Hill House +5

Legendary Truth +4

Puppet Theater +2

TCM -4 (worth noting LT, PT and TCM tied for the fewest "votes," further indicating their middle-of-the-road status)

Bride Lives -9

(S)carey -9

Beetlejuice -19

Tooth Fairy -21 (the only house with zero promoters)


Quick thoughts: Skimming reviews, being repeated seemed to hurt the HHN Lite houses. I wasn't sure Hill House had entered the zeitgeist but doing quite well; however the 80s IPs aren't doing that great. Have to think this solidifies The Pumpkin Lord's inclusion in the GOAT discussion.
 
Sunday plans cancelled, sitting here bored. So decided to do aggregate the reviews in this thread to do Net Promoter Scores for this year's houses, to give a snapshot of popularity.

Quick primer for those who don't work in the hellhole of Corporate America. If a house is in someone's top 3, they "promote" it, gets +1. Bottom 4, they are "detractors," subtract 1. Add both to get a house's NPS score (ignoring any neutral 4 - 6 votes). Tried to only use final ratings, only use reviews with all 10 houses, but this is just for fun anyway, so don't take it too seriously.

Wicked Growth +25 (the runaway winner, only house with zero detractors)

Icons + 7 (a lot of promoters but a fair number of detractors--either love it didn't care for it at all)

Hill House +5

Legendary Truth +4

Puppet Theater +2

TCM -4 (worth noting LT, PT and TCM tied for the fewest "votes," further indicating their middle-of-the-road status)

Bride Lives -9

(S)carey -9

Beetlejuice -19

Tooth Fairy -21 (the only house with zero promoters)


Quick thoughts: Skimming reviews, being repeated seemed to hurt the HHN Lite houses. I wasn't sure Hill House had entered the zeitgeist but doing quite well; however the 80s IPs aren't doing that great. Have to think this solidifies The Pumpkin Lord's inclusion in the GOAT discussion.

Agree with the HHN lite houses. Everyone seem to love them last year ( though it was easy to entertain in 2020). I didn’t go to HHN lite and think both houses were in my top 5.
 
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