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.