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Halloween Horror Nights 31 (UOR) - Reviews, Photos, & Videos

At long last, here is our Halloween Horror Nights 31 REVIEW! This year, more than ever, the event feels like an awesome Halloween party. #HHN31

 
A complete return to form after 3 so-so to bad years. A cohesive theme that the team clearly had a passion for, house staffing stronger than I've seen in a long time, cast energy higher than I've seen since 25, and operations running well and more importantly invisibly. Didn't have anyone telling me to run through a house. What an amazing quality of life improvement that is. Food was also great, but the one place staffing definitely seemed to sag.

Overall, 31 ranks up there with 21 and 25 in my favorite years.

S-Tier
1) Universal Monsters: Legends Collide - A complete homerun in every sense of the word. Cast firing on all cylinders, amazing scenic, amazing costumes, great story through line, and well constructed scares. Possibly my favorite house I've ever experienced in the 11 years I've been going to the event.
2) Dead Man's Pier: Winter's Wake - Easily the most beautiful house I've seen. The way scenes bleed into one another creates a real sense of place I've not seen since 2011.
3) Ghoulish - The best fountain show Universal has done yet. Great music, great visuals. All around fun show.
4) Deadly Unrest - I actually got some scares in a scarezone. Easily makes this one of the best I've ever seen.

A-Tier
1) Descendants of Destruction - Great, energetic cast, cool scenic, and some really great scares near the end.
2) Fiesta de Chupacabras - A lot of fun with this one. Cast was more hit or miss, but the scenic still makes this one great.
3) Halloween - The first Halloween house that I consistently got scares in.
4) Sweet Revenge - Plain, old fun. Great music loop. Which there were more scripted scenes in it.
5) Scarecrow - Awesome ambiance
6) Nightmare Fuel - Still a good, fun show, but too similar to last year IMO.

B-Tier
1)Hellblock Horror - I liked this one! Cast had some energy. Scenic was boring and I think the ending was completely anticlimactic.
2)Horrors of Halloween - Kind of a nothing scarezone, but having a legit-feeling icon with Pumpkin Lord up front was so great.
3)Bugs: Eaten Alive - A bit disappointing. I don't think it was funny enough, or scary enough. A mediocre house, but not bad.
4) Conjure the Dark - A fun show element really livens this one up.

C-Tier
1) The Weeknd - Sorry, this just did not work for me. Some great sets, but absolutely devoid of scares and had a cast that seemed to have 0 energy.
2) Spirits of the Coven - Man, what a waste of a solid concept. Great sets, costumes, and ambiance, but absolutely no scares, and a confusing story to boot.

D-Tier
1) Blumhouse - Black Phone portion wasn't terrible, but the Freaky section was among the worst houses I've ever experienced.
 
A complete return to form after 3 so-so to bad years. A cohesive theme that the team clearly had a passion for, house staffing stronger than I've seen in a long time, cast energy higher than I've seen since 25, and operations running well and more importantly invisibly. Didn't have anyone telling me to run through a house. What an amazing quality of life improvement that is. Food was also great, but the one place staffing definitely seemed to sag.

Overall, 31 ranks up there with 21 and 25 in my favorite years.

S-Tier
1) Universal Monsters: Legends Collide - A complete homerun in every sense of the word. Cast firing on all cylinders, amazing scenic, amazing costumes, great story through line, and well constructed scares. Possibly my favorite house I've ever experienced in the 11 years I've been going to the event.
2) Dead Man's Pier: Winter's Wake - Easily the most beautiful house I've seen. The way scenes bleed into one another creates a real sense of place I've not seen since 2011.
3) Ghoulish - The best fountain show Universal has done yet. Great music, great visuals. All around fun show.
4) Deadly Unrest - I actually got some scares in a scarezone. Easily makes this one of the best I've ever seen.

A-Tier
1) Descendants of Destruction - Great, energetic cast, cool scenic, and some really great scares near the end.
2) Fiesta de Chupacabras - A lot of fun with this one. Cast was more hit or miss, but the scenic still makes this one great.
3) Halloween - The first Halloween house that I consistently got scares in.
4) Sweet Revenge - Plain, old fun. Great music loop. Which there were more scripted scenes in it.
5) Scarecrow - Awesome ambiance
6) Nightmare Fuel - Still a good, fun show, but too similar to last year IMO.

B-Tier
1)Hellblock Horror - I liked this one! Cast had some energy. Scenic was boring and I think the ending was completely anticlimactic.
2)Horrors of Halloween - Kind of a nothing scarezone, but having a legit-feeling icon with Pumpkin Lord up front was so great.
3)Bugs: Eaten Alive - A bit disappointing. I don't think it was funny enough, or scary enough. A mediocre house, but not bad.
4) Conjure the Dark - A fun show element really livens this one up.

C-Tier
1) The Weeknd - Sorry, this just did not work for me. Some great sets, but absolutely devoid of scares and had a cast that seemed to have 0 energy.
2) Spirits of the Coven - Man, what a waste of a solid concept. Great sets, costumes, and ambiance, but absolutely no scares, and a confusing story to boot.

D-Tier
1) Blumhouse - Black Phone portion wasn't terrible, but the Freaky section was among the worst houses I've ever experienced.
I’m Flying out in 2 weeks and your post got me excited. On the Facebook page there is post after post how the event sucks this year or at least is a step down from the last few years. What does everyone who’s been already think?
 
I’m Flying out in 2 weeks and your post got me excited. On the Facebook page there is post after post how the event sucks this year or at least is a step down from the last few years. What does everyone who’s been already think?

Sounds like people feel like they were done dirty with Universal personally insulting them by denying them their God given right to have a Stranger Things Season 4 house this year.
 
Sounds like people feel like they were done dirty with Universal personally insulting them by denying them their God given right to have a Stranger Things Season 4 house this year.

I think the GP has become more conditioned to having a strong IP-presence and in that sense, this year feels a little lacking. Halloween was a good choice to use for the 31st year, but anyone who's been going for the past decade probably would feel a little burned out by Michael Myers at this point (though certainly not as much those on the West Coast should be). Monsters, if that counts, is going in its third year. Blumhouse, what can I say at this point other than we all know to expect disappointment from those. If there was a strong movie/TV-show to headline alongside The Weeknd, maybe that house wouldn't have had to do so much unfair heavy-lifting for marketing.
 
In the lobby of the hard rock (always fantastic if you can snag a decent rate) and here are my thoughts. Facebook sucks, don’t listen to those psychos. Great year. Best it’s been overall since 2018 although graveyard games from 2019 is still the goat. Rankings best to not great. Mostly used express except for one run through The Weeknd at start of the night Wednesday.

1) Dead mans pier- beautiful, great story, great scares. top in my group that went.
2) monsters collide - had an eh run first time through, but subsequent runs had me skip running after scares lol. Just amazing. Saw all three winners and one run had several dracs which was great. We always made sure to applaud for the winner and they appreciated that.
3) The Weeknd - might be biased because I love this music. Give me pop synth wave all day. Had some great runs with a couple crazy scares. One element I hadn’t seen through these past few days got me so bad last night. Who knew a pile of human goo could move? The queue was insane but had great energy from those in line.
4) descendants of destruction: great facade, amazing cast, the last bit in the caves got me so good every time. Just super solid all around
5) blumhouse - mostly just for black phone. felt like i was having a panic attack through those dark hallways with the window slam scares. Must’ve hit every scare one run through in black phone. Freaky was okay with the school scenes being pretty good.
6) bugs - it was fine. Was bummed about there being so many human characters. the SIF was strong in this one
7) Halloween - not as good as 2014, but still had great scares. not so much a complaint but seeing so many Michael myers around each other and in such quick succession threw me off the pacing. Just weird imo
8) chupacabra - KITTY! Was okay. Again, bummed by so many human characters
9) coven - ugh, what happened here? First part was great, but dropped off significantly. That last room was so anticlimactic and walking out gave me a “that’s it?” reaction. Very disappointed as this was my most anticipated.
10) hellblock - it was a replacement and you could tell. Cast gave it their all though. So wish we could have had evil dead here.

scarezones - most pretty amazing imo. Only outlier was the horrors of Halloween. Having pumpkinlord there saved it from being worse. Undeadly rest overtakes vamp 55 as my favorite of all time. Sooooooooo creepy and actually got scared a couple times. Twins are goated scareactors. Just incredible. Hoping they might give this one a proper house eventually. Would love to see a fleshed out story.

shows - lucked out with nightmare show as we were sat in the rip section since we got there kind of late and it was a packed house. Had an amazing view. Still awesome. Ghoulish was cute! Not as good as first marathon imo, but very solid! Loved the vibe.

food and drink: eh, only had the rat tails and they were good. premixed drinks were so so which is to be expected. Mostly just drank the hazy from rogue.

All in all had a fantastic time! Till next year!
 
I think the GP has become more conditioned to having a strong IP-presence and in that sense, this year feels a little lacking. Halloween was a good choice to use for the 31st year, but anyone who's been going for the past decade probably would feel a little burned out by Michael Myers at this point (though certainly not as much those on the West Coast should be). Monsters, if that counts, is going in its third year. Blumhouse, what can I say at this point other than we all know to expect disappointment from those. If there was a strong movie/TV-show to headline alongside The Weeknd, maybe that house wouldn't have had to do so much unfair heavy-lifting for marketing.
I know they lost Evil Dead but the lineup always seem like it was missing 1 big IP. Other then that I think the build has been great. Love the marketing, merchandise, podcasts. Guess I will find out when I get down there. Either way it’s HHN I’m sure it’s going to be great even if it’s not as good as last year. Last year I felt like there weren’t any bad houses at all.
 
I’m Flying out in 2 weeks and your post got me excited. On the Facebook page there is post after post how the event sucks this year or at least is a step down from the last few years. What does everyone who’s been already think?

I think last year was far and away one of the worst years at the event I've seen, and 2019 wasn't much better (Graveyard Games is the most overrated house of all time, a super duper disappointment for me). 2018 was decent, but I felt like it kept going downhill for 2019 and 2021.

Honestly couldn't care less about what IP is at the event. Just give me good houses and casts who want to scare.
 
I’m Flying out in 2 weeks and your post got me excited. On the Facebook page there is post after post how the event sucks this year or at least is a step down from the last few years. What does everyone who’s been already think?
This year is great, not sure why anyone would think that it sucks or is a step down from prior years. I think it is one of the best years I have been. The actors in most of the houses seem really aggressive, the zones are the best I've seen in awhile, love the theme, and it seems like they are doing even more with the event in the past, i.e-Dead Coconut lounge. I mean whether people think the year sucks or not is subjective but I am really enjoying it.
 
This year is great, not sure why anyone would think that it sucks or is a step down from prior years. I think it is one of the best years I have been. The actors in most of the houses seem really aggressive, the zones are the best I've seen in awhile, love the theme, and it seems like they are doing even more with the event in the past, i.e-Dead Coconut lounge. I mean whether people think the year sucks or not is subjective but I am really enjoying it.
Oh man I forgot to talk about Dead Coconut!

What a nice addition to the event, especially with the singers they had over the weekend. Hope that if it comes back in the future they offer themed tiki mugs, a larger menu, and a more permanent theme. It was so great!
 
This year is great, not sure why anyone would think that it sucks or is a step down from prior years. I think it is one of the best years I have been. The actors in most of the houses seem really aggressive, the zones are the best I've seen in awhile, love the theme, and it seems like they are doing even more with the event in the past, i.e-Dead Coconut lounge. I mean whether people think the year sucks or not is subjective but I am really enjoying it.
Again, Facebook is full of crazy people looking for attention to be edgy so I discount what they say right off the bat. Also yes to dead coconut club! Went last night and it was amazing. Singers were wonderful and the drinks were solid. Echoing Skip to say it would be cool to see a more permanent addition or at least theme it like they do the tribute store each season.
 
My first time at HHN was a success! Keep in mind as this was my first time I was very overwhelmed for the first few until I got used to the whole haunted house thing. I also did an RIP tour which was good. However I plan to go next year and will opt for doing 2-3 nights at the event maybe one with express after 11 Which will probably net out to be the same price as I paid for one night.

Winter wake is my number one house the design is just jaw dropping, and then layering on the fact that it is all temporary blows my mind. The bungee scare actor got me really good my first run through this.

Coming in second and third was chupacabra and Halloween, both of these houses had some unique scares (to me at least), I liked the puppets for the chipacabra other I think it is a little cartoonish and went in a more demon like look (but there are so many takes on what it looks like it don’t mind too much) Halloween has some really fun scares, my favorite was the mirror trick as you walk “outside” in front of the house. And that final scene made my heart skip a beat the first time.

Next is monsters, I loved the tomb setting, however I think I missed some scares to really get what was going on.

Honestly the rest of a blur so don’t have too much detail to go into them but my rankings of the rest in Order is bugs, descendants into destruction, wish I got a second changes on those two) spirits of coven, hell block horror, blumhouse and The Weeknd.

The Weeknd is only last because it was my first house of the night and I was very overwhelmed during the entire thing as I was still getting used to haunted houses.

as for the scare zones I loved sweet revenge and walked through it many times just to see the interactions. The graveyard one was also great as there were “twin sister” scare actors that would just be on the side copying each other which was a great touch
 
I’m Flying out in 2 weeks and your post got me excited. On the Facebook page there is post after post how the event sucks this year or at least is a step down from the last few years. What does everyone who’s been already think?


Dead Man's Pier alone is almost worth attending. It's that good. Easily in my top 5 houses of all time. I just haven't figured out where yet.
 
It's the best time of the year, HHN is back! This is my 4th official year since attending 2018, and there was a lot of personal hype for this one. With new creatives at the helm, no more plexiglass from last year, a clear push for an overall Halloween theme, refreshed scare zones, a ragtag bunch of wildcard houses and even new additions outside the studios, it was hard NOT to get excited! But did it live up to my personal hype? Read on to find out, starting with the bread and butter of the event, the ten houses! Like with last year, along with the rank I'll include where the house was on my anticipated list, and I can say right now there were several surprises! Also, as another preface, I did enjoy all ten houses.

Houses

1. Dead Man's Pier: Winter's Wake
- When you step into the soundstage, you know you're in for something else, besides some really good AC which was a godsend from the hot, muggy nights the past weekend. The set design for this house is stunning, it really pushes what they can cram into a double-run house as well as how you approach certain scenes. And thankfully this house has more than just pretty sets, it creates a mood which is truly haunting. It's not about in-your-face scares left, right and center. It takes it slow and drags you into this cold, world full of sorrow. It may not be big on scares (though there are some good ones), but that's not the goal for this house. And I feel they met that goal hook, line and sinker. Anticipated House Rank - #7 (Now here's a sign of how this year is, a rather big jump right into 1st!)

2. Fiesta De Chupacabras
- Been waiting ten years for this kind of house, and for me it delivered! Now beforehand, I did hear folks mentioning their disappointment that there's more villagers than Chupacabra's, so I was prepared to see that. What I didn't expect were the awesome masks most of them are wearing, so I was instantly sold the moment I first saw the mask-seller! I was also sold by the reveal of the facade, seriously that is another impressive facade! For the rest of the house, I really dug it. There's a lot of cool details and set pieces, I was totally fine with the designs of the Chupacabra's, and there's some neat tricks in here. This house also lands its spot as my personal favorite a la' Case Files from last year. I just really enjoyed this house, I'm super glad they were finally able to do it! Anticipated House Rank - #4 (It had some good competition, but Chupa definitely clawed its way up here!)

3. The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare
- Further exemplifying the ragtag wildcard lineup of houses this year, we have this! I had a feeling it was gonna' be a fun house, but this one surprised me with some super-disorienting rooms and consistent intense scares. This house also delivered the biggest single scares I got during my trip! I really dug the demented funhouse/music video vibe, and speaking of vibes, the queue for this house really puts everyone in the right vibe. Didn't matter how long the line was, people were dancing, singing...they were just in a good mood, and I'll happily take this over the usual big switchbacks with nothing. All in all, this house was a curveball for a lot of folks, but it ended up being a very fun one! Anticipated House Rank - #3 (Right on the money!)

4. Universal Monsters: Legends Collide
- It's the annual UCM house, and I've always been a fan of these. I've really enjoyed seeing what A&D does with them, and this is a fun original story. The sets are pretty impressive, especially the facade! You're gonna' be looking up quite a bit in this house. And while I can understand the tomb setting can be a little one-note for folks, I will say out of the three UCM houses we've had so far...this one is by far the scariest! If you hit this with a healthy sized cast and the right timing, the scares are absolutely relentless, moreso than any house this year. I had several run throughs where groups were rushing through that house pretty quick since the casts wouldn't let up. Anticipated House Rank - #1 (Since this house is very scare focused, a couple eh run throughs did bring this down a little. But thankfully I got enough intense run throughs to keep this firmly in the upper half of the ranks.)

5. Descendants of Destruction
- So after 2018's Seeds of Extinction left me a bit mixed, how does a loose sequel/spin-off of sorts fare? In DoD's case, pretty well! Really cool set designs, I loved the Mad Max kind of vibe with the scare actors, and this house probably has the most vicious batch of scares for me, and the casts were quite consistent with them as well, especially in the finale! Overall, it was a solid house that really didn't dip in my run throughs. Anticipated House Rank - #8 (Consistently solid runs gave this one a nice little rise!)

6. Horrors of Blumhouse
- This one is literally a tale of two houses. I'll admit I was initially disappointed by the Freaky section as design-wise there's missed opportunities with what they could've done from the film. Conversely, the second half of The Black Phone is quite solid with some very unsettling moments and scares. Now over the weekend, after the initial disappointment of Freaky's design choices, I started looking more at the scares from Freaky, and they gradually got better for me during my run-throughs. The timing got better so that section was getting punchier and more frantic, and The Black Phone section stayed consistent, so I was exiting content from that house. And then came my final run on Sunday night, where Freaky gave a solid run, and The Black Phone absolutely destroyed me. It was the only time I was glad a scare actor was missing from their spot since holy heck did I need that pause as everyone else was on fire! Anticipated House Rank - #6 (Surprisingly on the money with this one!)

7. Bugs: Eaten Alive
- I see this house being the most polarizing. Without a doubt I've never seen so many guests who absolutely refuse to go through this house, so it's clearly a theme which has some serious untapped potential here. Now in terms of mass quantities of bugs, they succeeded on that part! Though I'll admit I would've liked to have seen more bigger bugs since those were pretty fun to come across when they did, the ending feels like it needed one more big bug as well. Anticipated House Rank - #2 (While the runs I had were solid, the concept could've been cranked harder into either the horror or campy side.)

8. Hellblock Horror -
Considering how last minute this house was, along with building a whole new set from the ground up, this turned out fine! Yes, the prison is pretty basic. But for what it's worth, the casts I saw were giving good energy, and that's about as much as you can ask for a last-minute house like this. It's not gonna' blow minds when you go through, but it'll be a fun time with some nice scares. I did have some fun run throughs with the casts messing with folks in the right ways, so there's no real complaints here. Anticipated House Rank - #9 (A little step up is also more than a house like this can ask for.)

9. Spirits of the Coven
- I love the concept, I love the decor and all the little touches in the entire house, I even get the story as well. Though unfortunately what I didn't get were enough solid run-throughs. Sometimes the timing was off, other times there were a lot of holes. Thankfully the last two I had were really fun, but the first two nights were real hit and miss for me. Also, I feel the first half of the house is way stronger than the second. While there's some cool set pieces near the end, things just peter out once you go underground. Anticipated House Rank - #5 (While it may not be the biggest drop this year, I really did want this one to end up higher than it did.)

10. Halloween
- It's a revisit of the original movie, and this time is a very linear version which is done pretty darn well. If you know the film or the series you've got an idea of what to expect. So why is this down at 10? It's by no fault of the scare actors who got me pretty good in my run throughs, and it's no fault of the design team either. I'll admit it's not necessarily my kind of series and/or house, it is well done, but there's other concepts etc. which I'm more fond of. I know plenty others who're gonna' love this house, so I think my personal placement is quite an outlier. Anticipated House Rank - #10 (Another one right on the money.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is certainly a ragtag group of wildcards in a very good way. And each one feels distinctively different be it tone, scares and what it brings.

---------
That does it for the houses, in the next post I'll dive into scare zones and everything else.
 
(Pt. 2)

Scare Zones


Ah, the zones. Over the years I've found the scare zones to be good atmosphere with some fun moments, but admittedly they've always been lacking on the "scare" aspect of things. Admittedly for some it's just hard to scare when you can barely move in them (looking at you, San Fran and Central Park.), but with no more daytime parade to limit what can be built in the streets, and a new team behind the zones, would this year be notably different for the zones?

Heck. YES.

In the four years I've been attending, these are easily the best zones I've seen so far at the event. The overall Halloween theme works great, and each zone brings a little something to its respective one. And each zone was rewarding for hanging out in and taking in both the atmosphere and the scares. Speaking of scares, this is easily the most scaring I've seen in the zones. The casts are going for it, and they even got me several times in multiple zones! One of the best examples on the difference in this year happened in Graveyard. In previous years, I could just walk down a street and have a whole bunch of actors just pass by me doing nothing. However, I had one walk through where five or six scare actors went after me in a row. I was pleasantly surprised by that, and every zone I went in had a good chunk of scare actors go after me. It made a world of difference and I truly enjoyed going through and hanging out in each zone.

Since the zones got just a refresh, I'm not gonna' do a precise ranking. Just lay on the praise since it's good to finally be able to do so.

Graveyard: Deadly Unrest - Man, this zone is DARK. A common theme through a good chunk of zones, but here especially. The few lights up above (mainly to simulate lightning), the occasional black light and a whole lotta fog made for a truly chilling atmosphere. The various spirits brought a nice amount of character or straight up scares, and Brother Death and Sleep are two killer looking reapers. The twins were also a big standout, just some great interactions and hand in hand scares which were a treat to watch. The stilt walkers here were pretty effective as well, some got a good scare out of me. There were also some smaller actors who had some great hiding spots in the zone.

Sweet Revenge - Ah, NY. An area which always seems to have a conundrum or two with any zone. More often than not, it feels like there's not enough actors to cover the space. And with previous years, it always feels like everything is focused on a stage or two by Mummy, and not much else when you head towards San Fran. Sweet Revenge is the first zone for me which felt like everything was properly spread out and staffed. And the 1950's Halloween Festival gone wrong theme brought an incredibly fun and off-kilter party atmosphere! This zone was a blast to hang out in, and it brought some nice scares and a whole lot of funny interactions with the casts. From tricycles and wagons to little show moments of the kids attacking security guards and a judge bewildered at the chaos going on, meanwhile Major Sweets and Mz. Treats were just soaking it all in. All in all, the right kind of campy mayhem that I was hoping for with this zone!

Scarecrow: Cursed Soil - Ah, Central Park. An area which normally has great atmosphere but can get super cramped way too often. Though this year it felt like there was just enough props to theme the area, but not clog up the walkway so there was actual space to walk through here! That alone is a win right there, and it allowed me to enjoy the zone proper since this was a wonderfully eerie and unsettling zone. The set pieces are great, and the sound effects definitely made guests look around nervously, and the scare actors got some wicked scares in here from the darkness and various distractions. It was really rewarding to see some of the actors experiment with spots to scare from and just nail a group moments later.

Conjure the Dark - San Fran, the most infamous bottleneck in the past several years. And for the first time in a while there's space. Actual space to move in. In San Fran. This alone is a massive win right here! As for the zone itself, it's certainly different with it being an imagined 1st Halloween literally conjured up by witches and featuring all sorts of unique creatures. While small, the zone was fun to go through. I loved the creature designs in here, and there were a couple horned demons who looked fantastic. The little show it had was nice too, quite short, but that might be to its benefit, so it doesn't hold a crowd for too long. Also, the soundtrack kicked major butt in here. In all honestly, I kinda' wish the soundtrack in here was used for the general park-wide loop for the event.

Horrors of Halloween - As I've said in the most anticipated scare zone thread, entry zones serve a bit of a different purpose. It's a warm welcome to the event and sometimes gives a nice taste of the event's theme. HoH fulfills both of them this year, it brings the Halloween theme and the warm welcome. And the Pumpkin Lord as essentially the main greeter and photo-op works as intended.

Overall, the zones are really good this year. I really hope the teams behind them carry on what they've applied this year, since this is such a wonderful improvement compared to previous years!

Food & Drink

In the past few years, HHN has turned into its own Food Festival in a way. The number of options has grown over the years, which makes for some very tasty snacks to try throughout the event! Drink-wise, I stuck with Ghoul Juice which is just as good as I remembered last year. And I tried Save Your Tears which I enjoyed as well.

For food, I had the Maggot Covered Cheese Dog, The Pepperoni Pizza Skull, the Major Sweet's Ice Cream sandwich, Witch's Cauldron Stew and the Fresh Ground Princess from the amazingly presented Meetz Locker. I enjoyed all of them, and the Pepperoni Pizza Skull was the biggest surprise on how good it was, while the Witch's Cauldron Stew was my overall favorite.

Shows

Halloween Nightmare Fuel: Wildfire
- It was pretty much last year's show with a bit of tweaking in a few spots, as well as a full fuel girl group which was nice to see. I felt the finale was better too, since I've always preferred that kind of magic trick compared to the one they did last year. Still a fun high-energy show, but if it does return next year, I'd like to see a whole new story etc.

Ghoulish! A Halloween Tale - After last year's disappointment with Carnage Factory, Ghoulish was a nice return to form! I caught it a couple times, and I really enjoyed it. The Halloween vibe carried on strong with this show, and it provided a great lil break from the action.

Ops

As usual with the second weekend and so forth, I didn't come across any ops issues that plagued opening weekend. Line ops were pretty smooth, and when I had Express on Saturday it moved pretty quickly. And line ops in the houses were honestly fantastic. There were no telling people to move faster, they only stepped in when they truly needed to like when a guest accidently turned the wrong way. It made for a great experience in the houses! Food ops were pretty quick as well, even if there was a sizable line here and there.

Memorable Moment

While I had plenty of memorable moments at the event, I'm gonna' focus on the one that was really sweet. On one of my last run-throughs of Chupacabra, one of my line buddies was a Puerto Rican grandmother and her family who was experiencing the house for the first time. The grandmother was really excited since she vividly remembered the tales of Chupacabra growing up in her hometown. We go through the house and I heard a LOT of screaming behind me from all the different scares. Both Dusty Bottoms and Dante got the grandmother really good as well, and Rocko and Skittles pretty much destroyed the rest of the family behind her. After we were out, I asked them what they thought, and the grandmother proudly exclaimed "THAT WAS AWESOME!". That just honestly made my night, to see someone who legitimately grew up with the legend, get scared and come out loving the house was really special. It's a great testament on how well the design team authentically pulled it off, and the family also loved the many touches in the house be it how the village looked to the fact that all the dialogue was in Spanish etc. It's that type of authenticity and attention to details which make me appreciate these houses even more, especially when they go the extra mile for a house like that.

Final Thoughts

This was my 4th official year, and with a unique lineup of houses, a great set of scare zones, good food, fun shows and a killer overall theme of the Holiday this event celebrates with a passion...without a single doubt this is the best year I've experienced so far! HHN is truly back. And when the only downsides for me is the park-wide music loop which is a tad hit or miss, and the fact that I could only go one weekend...that is honestly a great sign that this is one heck of a year!
 
Question, can anyone give me an honest review of the Scareactor dining? Is it worth it? I feel like videos on youtube might be selling it short, or giving exact feedback on what it actually is.
 
Question, can anyone give me an honest review of the Scareactor dining? Is it worth it? I feel like videos on youtube might be selling it short, or giving exact feedback on what it actually is.

I did the scareactor dining last Sunday. It wasn't worth it. I don't know if it's just not as good as previous years because this is my first time doing it, but I don't think I am doing it again next year. It didn't go too well from the very beginning: I had some issues with the reservation. When I brought it online, I booked a time and date for the reservation. When I printed out my ticket for the dining, the fine print said reservations are required and you must call to get one. I figured I was all set since I already did that until I called the number just in case and they said they did not have a reservation date or time for me, so I had to get one 30 minutes later than the one I originally choose when I brought the dining ticket. There was also confusion as to where you were supposed to go at the time of your reservation. I was told 3 different things by 3 different people. The correct answer is to go to the exit turnstiles of Studios (not the BMG theater) 15-30 mins before your reservation time and a TM will escort you to Louies.

The actual dining experience was not too great either. Buffet style with VERY slim slices of pizza, mac and cheese, salad, meatball sliders, etc. Gelato for dessert, as well as a macaroon, cake bites, things like that. Not bad food, but nothing worth writing home about. You can find better food, especially for the price. The actors did not interact with me that much. They have 3 roaming actors: one from Coven, Sweet Revenge and Chupacabra. The mask maker from Chupacabra is the only speaking actor and I had a decent interaction with her but the rest just walked around the restaurant. Micheal Myers and the Mummy were the 2 photo ops. I saw a lot of people sit down and go really quickly.

And while I'm here, might as well do my rankings for HHN. This is my final rankings as I won't be back this year.

1) Universal Monsters: Legends Collide: The first night I did this, the scares were relentless! They were non-stop scares, creatively done and just a really fun house to go through. I love the scene with Dracula swinging towards you while he fights the Wolfman: amazing. The Mummy put his hand in my face once, which scared the crap out of me and my friend came face to face with Wolfman, which was also incredible. They were not afraid to get close to you in this house.

Bugs: Eaten Alive: First time going through this house I did not understand why everyone was calling it a comedy house but after doing it a few times, I can see why. I'm not afraid of bugs but seeing everyone's reaction to this one made it lots of fun. I also love the design and look of this house.

Dead Man’s Pier: Winter’s Wake: It's a beautiful house with amazing production value but I only ever found it scary during one walkthrough. My other walkthroughs were perhaps just bad timing, but I did not find this house scary.

Fiesta de Chupacabras: Really interesting house and I enjoyed my time going through it. Sometimes I was confused about where I was in the story until I went to the Behind the Screams tour but the house was still really fun.

Descendants of Destruction: I just loved the setting of this house. The end of the house gets a bit confusing but I loved the environment and atmosphere of this house.

Halloween: Got some decent scares but I feel like we've seen all this before. I love that it goes through the entire movie, even the beginning and end credits, though.

The Horrors of Blumhouse: I found the Freaky portion to pretty lackluster in terms of scares. The Black Phone was better but I didn't love that this is basically 2 houses in one with no attempt to merge them together. You literally go into one house, leave, and then go into the other.

Spirits of the Coven: Nice design and starts off pretty strong and just gets confusing towards the end. A very long house though.

The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare: A fun house but just not scary. I appreciate it for being different and there were some fun visuals in this house, just not very scary.

10) Hellblock Horror: Just not scary, messy, hard to understand, and really lacked detail. The scareactors were trying though, so always props to them. It's just very clear which is the house that no one seems to enjoy when other houses have a 70 minute wait and this was literally a walk on.
 
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