- Sep 23, 2013
- 4,160
- 3,765
Halloween Horror Nights 31 (UOR) - Employee Preview
- Thread starter reeseyNG
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Saw them over in the Transformers/Mels/front of Scarecrow area around 8pm. Seems they roam.
Agreed. I thought it seemed to have the most promise of all of the Blumhouse houses so far and I liked the break in the middle as it made it seem like two separate houses and was the longest house by far. It was severely understaffed on my run so maybe it’ll improve?
Only did three houses and Nightmare Fuel before I had to leave (since I had to be at the airport early). My rankings of those would be:
1. The Weeknd
2. Universal Monsters
3. Blumhouse
Nightmare Fuel - wasn’t expecting this to be so similar. It’s a very similar show to last year with minor changes, mostly in the music department.
Noticing a lot of Weeknd naysayers on Twitter change their tune after experiencing it at TM preview. Stoked to give it a walkthrough!!
- Sep 23, 2013
- 4,160
- 3,765
Exactly. I’m especially seeing a ton of people saying “This was the lowest house on my anticipation list and it was one of the best of the night.” Which makes me really happy
- Jul 24, 2018
- 3,414
- 7,591
Any reviews on food from anyone that was there?
Also - I haven't seen this discussed.. are the jump scares in Bugs just victims?
Also - I haven't seen this discussed.. are the jump scares in Bugs just victims?
- Feb 7, 2014
- 1,558
- 1,591
You do have to keep in mind that most houses were walk ons, so someone may feel a bit different about it waiting longer, especially because the queue plays the same three songs over and over again.
I’ll say though that The Weeknd was actually one of my most anticipated houses because I thought it had a lot of promise and I still really enjoyed it. I might have just had a really good run, but the cast was going all out and really giving it their all.
- Aug 17, 2009
- 8,006
- 9,862
Love to wake up and see some varied house rankings. It's also a great reminder that TM Preview is essentially a test run and a lot of little things can dramatically shape people's opinions to the point where these lists are all over the place.
- Feb 2, 2020
- 155
- 242
The rankings are all over the place. The one thing I can take out of last night is DMP is clearly one of this years best. I am worried about some reviews of all the other originals except Bugs.
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There were people who argued Slaughter Sinema was NOT a comedy house. I think there's an idea out there that comedy somehow means not scary, when the best of the dark comedy houses have been some of the goriest (Leave it to Cleaver comes to mind). But the problem with any Twitter review is it's too short to see the reviewer's perspective going in.
Yea, Slaughter Sinema and HR Bloodngutz are classics because they had great scares and great, goofy moments.
(Really happy with everything I'm reading from last night. Hoping a return to form has happened after a few blah years)
No clear frontrunner is always a good sign. Seems like quality across the board!
Also happy to eat crow regarding The Weeknd. I was skeptical but now I’m really looking forward to it.
- Apr 27, 2017
- 307
- 688
What a night.
Gonna skip the spoiler tag bc I'm tired and there have already been tons of spoilers but fair warning there will be many.
This is a rough order but keep in mind things are bound to change and I don't have great recollection of some of these houses cause, well, alcohol is half off lol.
Dead Mans Pier: This house has everything. The façade is ginormous and shows basically a big fishing village. There are some great show scenes like how they had in Yeti (there is a scene with a fisherman swinging back and forth from a hook which was really really cool). They make up for the TWD misfire with a scene that actually looks like there is water below you (no, it's not a mirror). What was most interesting about this house was that you can see some scenes in advance as they are visible from prior scenes. Too, you can see the lighthouse in the beginning façade all the way from the back of the house. It genuinely feels like you are walking through a real life setting and not a haunted house. The scareactors were already hitting their marks and all around this really feels like it is going to be far and away the strongest house this year. IMO it set a new precedent for what they can do with sets and scenery. I suppose the only knock would be that the scareactor designs in the SZ were a little cooler. Not by much though. Awesome house off the bat. Oh! Moving floors too! It's nothing too pronounced so hopefully it will stay for the run of the event. Also, the house truly is "sad" - the soundtrack is AWESOME and very eerie. I think they absolutely murdered a "slow burn" style house which is something they haven't really pulled off in the past. I could go on and on.
Bugs: I couldn't see jack sh*t in this house but I do know there must have been a million fake bugs in there. They are literally everywhere. The 50's setting worked well but didn't feel super consistent? There are also some giant bugs set up similarly to the Mind Flayer from 29 but better executed. I went through this house alone which was a cool experience. The scareactors are gross looking (people with maggots crawling out of their face.. gross) and there is very good (and gross) use of puppets. Think big puppet maggots shooting at you through gross looking holes. Just kind of gross all around which is awesome. I wish I did this house a second time last night to pick up some more of what I couldn't see. This one is going to make some people sick for sure. I do remember them emphasizing the SIF in this house but honestly all the houses have a lot of SIF. I think there could have been more tactile stile scares but there were a decent amount and I probably missed some.
Spirits of The Coven: I'll be honest folks. My memory of this house is a bit fuzzy. I guess this is a fitting house to do with a solid buzz lol. I do know I liked it more than I thought I would though. Good character design and diversity. Good music. Good vibes. I don't remember any WOW scenes in terms of sets but again my memory may just be failing me. I think this house had a cool train scene which I remember thinking would have been better fit in descendants. Looking forward to doing this one again.
Legends Collide: This house was all mummy and I'm here for it. I've seen some people say that maybe the other two monsters were lacking just because of preview and to that I say probably not. The entire house is egyptian themed. There may be some more Drac and Wolfman scareactors later on but I only saw 2 of each and the rest was mummy. This is a positive for me though as Mummy is my favorite monster. The facade! Wow!! Looks like the inside of the mummy queue by the staircase. Someone asked on this thread if there are Anubis scares. There are! They are awesome! I would knock it a point though as they did pull a scene pretty much straight from the mummy section of 29's house. Apparently the winner will change NIGHTLY and not throughout the night like how Icons was. I will say I didn't catch much of the whole Amulet story from within the house. Can't wait to go through this again!
Descendants of Destruction: This was basically two houses. One in a subway and one is some weird party city looking blacklight caverns. The first 2/3 of the house far outshine the last third. The first 2/3 of the house is amazing and had some set pieces that literally blew my mind. At one point, you walk underneath a HUGGEEE derailed train that looks like it spans all the way to the top of the tent. I really don't know how they pulled it off. The Mad Max correlations are accurate and you definitely get a post apocalyptic vibe. I think they pulled off the transition of scareactors very well. They really do progressively get more mutated. Seeds fans will love the first scareactor which is basically a ghillie suit plant guy. Also, there are vines throughout the whole house so it probably does take place in the same universe. The last third of this house was weak in my opinion. It felt like a 3D house without the 3D. The costumes were kinda cheesey and it was pretty much all blacklight paint. Funny enough this felt like the brightest portion of the house which is opposite of how they sold it on the podcast. Overall really solid house with good scares and some big WOW moments.
Fiesta De Chupacabra: I'm going to have to go through this house a lot more to gauge how I really feel about it. None of the puppets seemed to be working but their locations were good. Something that was missing in my opinion was some Chupacabras feasting on some villagers. That would have been awesome. The facade is very cool and again has lots of depth and very good forced perspective. The house only has a mild party atmosphere though which is something I was really looking forward to. While they did rely pretty heavily on the villagers, their masks are cool and made the scares a little more unique. The puppets themselves look pretty much like sabre toothed cats which was an interesting direction to take but not a bad choice. Jury is still out on this house but I can see it rising with some more love and technical improvements.
Halloween: This is the other house that I unfortunately don't remember very well. The Myers house is MASSIVE but unfortunately you don't walk through the front door. Has kind of a cold open like Stranger Things did in 28. Sorry guys I might as well have not gone through this one lol. I do remember it feeling short and not liking it as much as 24 and 26 but who knows.
Weeknd: Unfortunately, this house was pretty much just the music videos. Especially Save your Tears. I was really hoping for some more unique environments. This house also was not as "trippy" as I had hoped it would be but there may have been some effects missing. There is decent scareactor variety but it is mostly the bandaged people. Fun to dance through and right now sits pretty firmly as an average run through. The waits for this thing are going to be so massive though that I probably won't be seeing much of Abel this year unless the people I am going with really want to do it.
Blumhouse: I felt this house was really lacking and after one run, it sits at the bottom among the 3 blumhouse installments. The location really seemed to have a negative effect tbh. Freaky missed out on some of the best kills from the movie. For example, I do not remember seeing a freezer scene in the house - which I thought would be a lock. Even the kills that were featured felt lackluster. I will say - some of the cast looked spot on for Millies character.. Then comes a weird break with no theming and a big Black Phone movie poster entrance. Odd. Black phone was fun enough but had little variety and felt very spotty in terms of theming. This feels like the most empty space we have had in a house for a while. There are complete breaks in theming before entering some rooms. Was fun to go through but I can't see myself waiting in line for it often.
Hellblock: I did not do this house. Heard pretty good things from the people I met up with though.
General Notes:
- The food booths ALL look spectacular
- Both sprung queues look probably double the size of previous years. They completely rerouted them. There is some variation in the Parade queues too.
-Scarezones seemed really strong but I didn't spend much time in any of them and they were missing actors due to the rain
- Did not see the tribute store
- Did not see the shows
- HHN is back baby!
Gonna skip the spoiler tag bc I'm tired and there have already been tons of spoilers but fair warning there will be many.
This is a rough order but keep in mind things are bound to change and I don't have great recollection of some of these houses cause, well, alcohol is half off lol.
Dead Mans Pier: This house has everything. The façade is ginormous and shows basically a big fishing village. There are some great show scenes like how they had in Yeti (there is a scene with a fisherman swinging back and forth from a hook which was really really cool). They make up for the TWD misfire with a scene that actually looks like there is water below you (no, it's not a mirror). What was most interesting about this house was that you can see some scenes in advance as they are visible from prior scenes. Too, you can see the lighthouse in the beginning façade all the way from the back of the house. It genuinely feels like you are walking through a real life setting and not a haunted house. The scareactors were already hitting their marks and all around this really feels like it is going to be far and away the strongest house this year. IMO it set a new precedent for what they can do with sets and scenery. I suppose the only knock would be that the scareactor designs in the SZ were a little cooler. Not by much though. Awesome house off the bat. Oh! Moving floors too! It's nothing too pronounced so hopefully it will stay for the run of the event. Also, the house truly is "sad" - the soundtrack is AWESOME and very eerie. I think they absolutely murdered a "slow burn" style house which is something they haven't really pulled off in the past. I could go on and on.
Bugs: I couldn't see jack sh*t in this house but I do know there must have been a million fake bugs in there. They are literally everywhere. The 50's setting worked well but didn't feel super consistent? There are also some giant bugs set up similarly to the Mind Flayer from 29 but better executed. I went through this house alone which was a cool experience. The scareactors are gross looking (people with maggots crawling out of their face.. gross) and there is very good (and gross) use of puppets. Think big puppet maggots shooting at you through gross looking holes. Just kind of gross all around which is awesome. I wish I did this house a second time last night to pick up some more of what I couldn't see. This one is going to make some people sick for sure. I do remember them emphasizing the SIF in this house but honestly all the houses have a lot of SIF. I think there could have been more tactile stile scares but there were a decent amount and I probably missed some.
Spirits of The Coven: I'll be honest folks. My memory of this house is a bit fuzzy. I guess this is a fitting house to do with a solid buzz lol. I do know I liked it more than I thought I would though. Good character design and diversity. Good music. Good vibes. I don't remember any WOW scenes in terms of sets but again my memory may just be failing me. I think this house had a cool train scene which I remember thinking would have been better fit in descendants. Looking forward to doing this one again.
Legends Collide: This house was all mummy and I'm here for it. I've seen some people say that maybe the other two monsters were lacking just because of preview and to that I say probably not. The entire house is egyptian themed. There may be some more Drac and Wolfman scareactors later on but I only saw 2 of each and the rest was mummy. This is a positive for me though as Mummy is my favorite monster. The facade! Wow!! Looks like the inside of the mummy queue by the staircase. Someone asked on this thread if there are Anubis scares. There are! They are awesome! I would knock it a point though as they did pull a scene pretty much straight from the mummy section of 29's house. Apparently the winner will change NIGHTLY and not throughout the night like how Icons was. I will say I didn't catch much of the whole Amulet story from within the house. Can't wait to go through this again!
Descendants of Destruction: This was basically two houses. One in a subway and one is some weird party city looking blacklight caverns. The first 2/3 of the house far outshine the last third. The first 2/3 of the house is amazing and had some set pieces that literally blew my mind. At one point, you walk underneath a HUGGEEE derailed train that looks like it spans all the way to the top of the tent. I really don't know how they pulled it off. The Mad Max correlations are accurate and you definitely get a post apocalyptic vibe. I think they pulled off the transition of scareactors very well. They really do progressively get more mutated. Seeds fans will love the first scareactor which is basically a ghillie suit plant guy. Also, there are vines throughout the whole house so it probably does take place in the same universe. The last third of this house was weak in my opinion. It felt like a 3D house without the 3D. The costumes were kinda cheesey and it was pretty much all blacklight paint. Funny enough this felt like the brightest portion of the house which is opposite of how they sold it on the podcast. Overall really solid house with good scares and some big WOW moments.
Fiesta De Chupacabra: I'm going to have to go through this house a lot more to gauge how I really feel about it. None of the puppets seemed to be working but their locations were good. Something that was missing in my opinion was some Chupacabras feasting on some villagers. That would have been awesome. The facade is very cool and again has lots of depth and very good forced perspective. The house only has a mild party atmosphere though which is something I was really looking forward to. While they did rely pretty heavily on the villagers, their masks are cool and made the scares a little more unique. The puppets themselves look pretty much like sabre toothed cats which was an interesting direction to take but not a bad choice. Jury is still out on this house but I can see it rising with some more love and technical improvements.
Halloween: This is the other house that I unfortunately don't remember very well. The Myers house is MASSIVE but unfortunately you don't walk through the front door. Has kind of a cold open like Stranger Things did in 28. Sorry guys I might as well have not gone through this one lol. I do remember it feeling short and not liking it as much as 24 and 26 but who knows.
Weeknd: Unfortunately, this house was pretty much just the music videos. Especially Save your Tears. I was really hoping for some more unique environments. This house also was not as "trippy" as I had hoped it would be but there may have been some effects missing. There is decent scareactor variety but it is mostly the bandaged people. Fun to dance through and right now sits pretty firmly as an average run through. The waits for this thing are going to be so massive though that I probably won't be seeing much of Abel this year unless the people I am going with really want to do it.
Blumhouse: I felt this house was really lacking and after one run, it sits at the bottom among the 3 blumhouse installments. The location really seemed to have a negative effect tbh. Freaky missed out on some of the best kills from the movie. For example, I do not remember seeing a freezer scene in the house - which I thought would be a lock. Even the kills that were featured felt lackluster. I will say - some of the cast looked spot on for Millies character.. Then comes a weird break with no theming and a big Black Phone movie poster entrance. Odd. Black phone was fun enough but had little variety and felt very spotty in terms of theming. This feels like the most empty space we have had in a house for a while. There are complete breaks in theming before entering some rooms. Was fun to go through but I can't see myself waiting in line for it often.
Hellblock: I did not do this house. Heard pretty good things from the people I met up with though.
General Notes:
- The food booths ALL look spectacular
- Both sprung queues look probably double the size of previous years. They completely rerouted them. There is some variation in the Parade queues too.
-Scarezones seemed really strong but I didn't spend much time in any of them and they were missing actors due to the rain
- Did not see the tribute store
- Did not see the shows
- HHN is back baby!
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- Aug 20, 2019
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- Apr 27, 2017
- 307
- 688
No. You walk right into the first scene described in the EW article of him getting his mind sucked out of him.
I’ll add: Dead Man and Legends had my favorite facades of the night.
- Jul 9, 2019
- 23
- 35
I noticed that as well. I'm not very good with the dark so I don't know how well I'm gonna be able to handle them, lol.
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