- May 24, 2018
- 2,462
- 3,688
Wish I did more last night but I got rained out. I’m not to worried tho as ill be back. The houses I did do, I saw improvements from opening.
Halloween Horror Nights 33 (UOR) - Reviews, Photos, & Videos
- Thread starter Brian G.
- Start date
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- Jun 17, 2021
- 85
- 201
Had some terrible house runs on Friday but Saturday made up for them. My preliminary rankings:
1. Slaughter Sinema 2 - A sequel to my all-time favorite house and it didn't disappoint. The "Jaws" room was a treat!
2. Major Sweets - Super fun and I loved the smells! Finally a truly great F&F house!
3. Ghostbusters FE - Friday's run was awful. Actors were missing for about 70% of the house, including every instance of Garraka and Slimer. Saturday's run had everything going and it was incredible!
4. Insidious - One of the creepiest HHN houses I've ever been in. I felt uneasy throughout the whole thing.
5. Goblins - Not very scary, but the costumes and the cast were awesome.
6. A Quiet Place - Another one where Friday's run sucked, but that was because the group behind us would not shut up. They definitely weren't speaking English, so maybe they weren't aware of the context of the house. Saturday was much better in that sense, but some of the scares were missing from the night before. Hopefully I'll have a better run this week. It was a fantastic recreation of the films.
7. Triplets - Didn't care for the overall story, but it had some fun scares.
8. Museum - Not scary at all, but I loved the set design.
9. Monstruos - Listening to the podcast helped a little bit, but I still found the house to be boring.
10. Universal Monsters - I think I'm just over these Monsters. Bring me Gill-man!!
1. Slaughter Sinema 2 - A sequel to my all-time favorite house and it didn't disappoint. The "Jaws" room was a treat!
2. Major Sweets - Super fun and I loved the smells! Finally a truly great F&F house!
3. Ghostbusters FE - Friday's run was awful. Actors were missing for about 70% of the house, including every instance of Garraka and Slimer. Saturday's run had everything going and it was incredible!
4. Insidious - One of the creepiest HHN houses I've ever been in. I felt uneasy throughout the whole thing.
5. Goblins - Not very scary, but the costumes and the cast were awesome.
6. A Quiet Place - Another one where Friday's run sucked, but that was because the group behind us would not shut up. They definitely weren't speaking English, so maybe they weren't aware of the context of the house. Saturday was much better in that sense, but some of the scares were missing from the night before. Hopefully I'll have a better run this week. It was a fantastic recreation of the films.
7. Triplets - Didn't care for the overall story, but it had some fun scares.
8. Museum - Not scary at all, but I loved the set design.
9. Monstruos - Listening to the podcast helped a little bit, but I still found the house to be boring.
10. Universal Monsters - I think I'm just over these Monsters. Bring me Gill-man!!
- Jun 8, 2022
- 31
- 49
Ok. After going through all the houses (at least) twice. I have a solid grasp of what my top 10 houses are. Please note this is ONLY for now. My rankings could change as the season progresses. Also for #7-1, I equally LOVED them all, and it was hard for me (even hurt) to rank some of them lower on the list.
#10) Triplets of Terror.
#9.) The Musuem: Deadly Exhibits.
#8.) Monstrous.
#7.) Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines.
#6.) Major Sweets Candy Factory.
#5.) A Quiet Place.
#4.) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
#3.) Goblin’s Feast.
#2.) Insidious: The Further.
#1.) Slaughter Sinema 2.
(P.S the “movies” in Sinema that I really want to see get turned into full houses in the future are “Mardi Gras Murders,” “Blood and Chum”, and “Night of the Undead Clowns.”)
#10) Triplets of Terror.
#9.) The Musuem: Deadly Exhibits.
#8.) Monstrous.
#7.) Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines.
#6.) Major Sweets Candy Factory.
#5.) A Quiet Place.
#4.) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
#3.) Goblin’s Feast.
#2.) Insidious: The Further.
#1.) Slaughter Sinema 2.
(P.S the “movies” in Sinema that I really want to see get turned into full houses in the future are “Mardi Gras Murders,” “Blood and Chum”, and “Night of the Undead Clowns.”)
- Sep 22, 2023
- 7
- 10
solid year for houses, I loved the slightly different NF. Insidious, Quiet Place, and Goblins are the only ones that stood out this year. Museum has no scares and I’m not a fan of the costumes. Monsters is a just chaos in a bad way, is the mummy and wear-wolf on our side? There were scenes where the vampire is staked, and in the next scene she’s back holding heads? Is draculas daughter vibin’ with her fathers wives? Or did she surive the stake.
Duality and blumzone seem like they were just thrown thrown there last minute
Duality and blumzone seem like they were just thrown thrown there last minute
- Apr 4, 2020
- 1,895
- 5,986
As the biggest Triplets fan, I appreciate your genuine honesty and likeness for the house, and I do fully agree it's a lil disappointing that it ends just as it gets to the best point.
Overall, a very good review of this year, great work!
Now that I've had a bit of time to decompress and such from my trip, HHN 33 was my 6th year, and this time my Dad came along and this was his 2nd. The build up to this year was interesting to say the least. With the lack of a juggernaut IP and a general hodge podge of aesthetics when it came to merch, and various other factors, I couldn't help but notice folks were feeling down on this year before the event started. I wasn't quite feeling in the same boat, since A&D and casts can have a knack for showing their stuff when the moment counts. So how did this year fare with the houses? Here we go, from the bottom up!
10.) The Museum: Deadly Exhibits - There really wasn't much talk about this house leading up to the event, which made things quite intriguing for me. The concept is pretty neat, with some really cool costumes especially at the end. I did end up getting some really nice scares in here, but timing wise it wasn't as consistent as the rest of the houses, so here it is at #10. Anticipated Rank - #2 (While this is now tied for the biggest drop, I still enjoyed this house. And compared to previous years, this ranks higher than other houses that landed in the lower spots. Which is a good sign for the overall line up here.)
9.) Monstruous: The Monsters of Latin America - I'm always down for seeing more monsters around the world, and I was happy we got to see this house come over here from Hollywood. Granted, it didn't have the punch that Hollywood's had, but we got some pretty good sets and some nice scares here and there. Anticipated House Rank - #1 (Tied with Museum for the biggest drop, but once again I enjoyed the house, and this one gave me the biggest single scares of the whole trip!)
8.) Triplets of Terror - This year's slasher house, created by A&D themselves. I did enjoy the terrors that were Harmony, Melody and Jr, and there were some wonderfully nasty moments in here. Though amusingly, not quite as gory as I thought it would be. And I do agree with @Brian G. that just when it feels like it's reaching its stride, it ends. Anticipated House Rank - #6 (A fun house with some fun killers, but it does end right when it's getting good.)
7.) Major Sweets Candy Factory - Having enjoyed 31's Sweet Revenge, I was excited to get a prequel house. And this one was quite demented and chaotic, befitting of Ms. Treats and Major Sweets. In contrast to Triplets, this house was gorier than I expected, and I also loved the various GAT's in this house. Also, this is hands down the best house in this location, easily the best sets, too! Anticipated House Rank - #9 (Various fun runs with a lively cast bumped this one up!)
6.) A Quiet Place - No doubt the wildcard house and one big risk due to the entire concept of the IP, but I think both A&D and the casts pulled it off! With a fantastic sound design and great puppets/AA's, this house was tense, unnerving and brought some nice scares! Anticipated House Rank - #8 (The concept worked, so up several spots it goes!)
5.) Goblin's Feast - This house was honestly delightful! With great sets, a whole slew of character (and characters), and a fitting mix of scares and humor, this house was honestly fun to go through every time! And it certainly showed these new tents are a wonderful get for the event! Anticipated House Rank - #7 (Consistently fun runs sends this one up a couple spots!)
4.) Slaughter Sinema 2 - My first year was 2018, so I was very happy to see Slaughter Sinema finally return, and this version is a wonderfully cheesy treat like the first! With great trailers, that potent mix of scares, humor and cheese, this house was a blast! Anticipated House Rank - #4 (Right on the money with this one, easily one of my favorite house franchises at the event, and I look forward to what may come in the future from it!)
3.) Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines - The Universal Monsters franchise has delivered some consistently good houses throughout the event, and this one was no exception! Already showcasing what can be done in the new tents, this house had great sets, great scares and a refreshingly bleak story. (Kinda' weird saying that, but it is.) Anticipated House Rank - #5 (With very solid run-throughs during my trip, this one cemented its place in the Top 3!)
2.) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Having experienced and enjoyed the first house in 29, I had a feeling what to expect with this house...or so I thought. Because this house surprised me in so many different ways. From the jaw-dropping sets to the energetic casts, to the surprisingly good scares and the sheer fact I found this way better than the 1st house in 29! Anticipated House Rank - #10 (Easily the biggest surprise this year, and now it holds the biggest jump I've had for a house. And just like with Dead Silence: The Curse of Mary Shaw and The Exorcist: Believer, you really can't judge a house based on its IP.)
1.) Insidious: The Further - Regardless of what one may feel about the movies, there's zero doubt that franchise is incredibly fitting to be house. And its very clear A&D had an absolute field day designing this house, this time forgoing trying to tell a story, and focusing on scaring the hell out of you in a house which just keeps going and going and going. All it needs are two casts to take advantage of the scares built into it and that is exactly what this house got, and the end result is a terrifying trip through the Further which consistently shot up my adrenaline like nothing else. Anticipated House Rank - #3 (I had high expectations for this house, and it absolutely delivered. In the 6 years I've attended, this was the most consistently intense house I've gone through. I will say, Ghostbusters made this a tight race for #1. But I give the edge to this house because it truly lives or dies by its casts as it's purely focused on the scares, and that can be hard to pull off. But the casts delivered, so they absolutely earned this tenfold!)
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All in all, this is a strong house line-up! I really enjoyed all ten and as I said before the ones ranked lower would still rank higher than houses lower ranked in previous years. Next up are the Zones, Nightmare Fuel and everything else.
10.) The Museum: Deadly Exhibits - There really wasn't much talk about this house leading up to the event, which made things quite intriguing for me. The concept is pretty neat, with some really cool costumes especially at the end. I did end up getting some really nice scares in here, but timing wise it wasn't as consistent as the rest of the houses, so here it is at #10. Anticipated Rank - #2 (While this is now tied for the biggest drop, I still enjoyed this house. And compared to previous years, this ranks higher than other houses that landed in the lower spots. Which is a good sign for the overall line up here.)
9.) Monstruous: The Monsters of Latin America - I'm always down for seeing more monsters around the world, and I was happy we got to see this house come over here from Hollywood. Granted, it didn't have the punch that Hollywood's had, but we got some pretty good sets and some nice scares here and there. Anticipated House Rank - #1 (Tied with Museum for the biggest drop, but once again I enjoyed the house, and this one gave me the biggest single scares of the whole trip!)
8.) Triplets of Terror - This year's slasher house, created by A&D themselves. I did enjoy the terrors that were Harmony, Melody and Jr, and there were some wonderfully nasty moments in here. Though amusingly, not quite as gory as I thought it would be. And I do agree with @Brian G. that just when it feels like it's reaching its stride, it ends. Anticipated House Rank - #6 (A fun house with some fun killers, but it does end right when it's getting good.)
7.) Major Sweets Candy Factory - Having enjoyed 31's Sweet Revenge, I was excited to get a prequel house. And this one was quite demented and chaotic, befitting of Ms. Treats and Major Sweets. In contrast to Triplets, this house was gorier than I expected, and I also loved the various GAT's in this house. Also, this is hands down the best house in this location, easily the best sets, too! Anticipated House Rank - #9 (Various fun runs with a lively cast bumped this one up!)
6.) A Quiet Place - No doubt the wildcard house and one big risk due to the entire concept of the IP, but I think both A&D and the casts pulled it off! With a fantastic sound design and great puppets/AA's, this house was tense, unnerving and brought some nice scares! Anticipated House Rank - #8 (The concept worked, so up several spots it goes!)
5.) Goblin's Feast - This house was honestly delightful! With great sets, a whole slew of character (and characters), and a fitting mix of scares and humor, this house was honestly fun to go through every time! And it certainly showed these new tents are a wonderful get for the event! Anticipated House Rank - #7 (Consistently fun runs sends this one up a couple spots!)
4.) Slaughter Sinema 2 - My first year was 2018, so I was very happy to see Slaughter Sinema finally return, and this version is a wonderfully cheesy treat like the first! With great trailers, that potent mix of scares, humor and cheese, this house was a blast! Anticipated House Rank - #4 (Right on the money with this one, easily one of my favorite house franchises at the event, and I look forward to what may come in the future from it!)
3.) Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines - The Universal Monsters franchise has delivered some consistently good houses throughout the event, and this one was no exception! Already showcasing what can be done in the new tents, this house had great sets, great scares and a refreshingly bleak story. (Kinda' weird saying that, but it is.) Anticipated House Rank - #5 (With very solid run-throughs during my trip, this one cemented its place in the Top 3!)
2.) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Having experienced and enjoyed the first house in 29, I had a feeling what to expect with this house...or so I thought. Because this house surprised me in so many different ways. From the jaw-dropping sets to the energetic casts, to the surprisingly good scares and the sheer fact I found this way better than the 1st house in 29! Anticipated House Rank - #10 (Easily the biggest surprise this year, and now it holds the biggest jump I've had for a house. And just like with Dead Silence: The Curse of Mary Shaw and The Exorcist: Believer, you really can't judge a house based on its IP.)
1.) Insidious: The Further - Regardless of what one may feel about the movies, there's zero doubt that franchise is incredibly fitting to be house. And its very clear A&D had an absolute field day designing this house, this time forgoing trying to tell a story, and focusing on scaring the hell out of you in a house which just keeps going and going and going. All it needs are two casts to take advantage of the scares built into it and that is exactly what this house got, and the end result is a terrifying trip through the Further which consistently shot up my adrenaline like nothing else. Anticipated House Rank - #3 (I had high expectations for this house, and it absolutely delivered. In the 6 years I've attended, this was the most consistently intense house I've gone through. I will say, Ghostbusters made this a tight race for #1. But I give the edge to this house because it truly lives or dies by its casts as it's purely focused on the scares, and that can be hard to pull off. But the casts delivered, so they absolutely earned this tenfold!)
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All in all, this is a strong house line-up! I really enjoyed all ten and as I said before the ones ranked lower would still rank higher than houses lower ranked in previous years. Next up are the Zones, Nightmare Fuel and everything else.
(Pt. 2)
Zones
This is where it gets interesting, for it's pretty clear the zones this year were affected in one way or another. They lacked the overall cohesion which made them shine in the past two years, and then you have Duality of Fear which clearly lacked everything to the point where you have to question if it's really a zone.
That said, thankfully something which hasn't changed are the casts themselves, as they're making due with what they have and still made the zones enjoyable. I didn't know if I would enjoy a theme like Torture Faire, but the casts made that zone fun! Demon Queens was a surprisingly nice vibe with Surreal strolling around and the monsters and queens getting people, Swamp of the Undead looked fantastic and those misters actually felt kinda' nice at points.
I figure I can also talk about Sinister and Surreal in here since they're the most present in the zones. I gotta' say both of them grew on me throughout the trip. I love that both of them are mic'd up so they got to show off their personalities while engaging with folks, and I don't know if it's just me, but it seemed like Surreal's autotune was tweaked a bit so she doesn't sound so shrill like she sounded early on, so for me her voice was a lot more pleasant.
So while the zones overall aren't on the level of the past several years, the casts still made them enjoyable.
Nightmare Fuel: Nocturnal Circus
Having seen every iteration of Nightmare Fuel, I did enjoy this one quite a bit! Very happy to see a whole new story which I think was needed at this point, and the new costumes are really great, too! The dancing, fire and specialty acts are always nice, and I really dug a lot of the music choices. While the show might not reach the highs of last year's show, it's still quite enjoyable. (Plus, last years had that Endgame effect where it was a finale several years in the making, so that would be impossible to match/top the following year.)
Food
When it came to the specialty food this year, my Dad and I really enjoyed the stuff we had. For a good snack, there was the Red Door hand pie, the Heart "Beet" Tostada, and the Wooden Board Eclaire. For something more substantial, the Eggs in the Further definitely hit the spot. We probably would've hit up more, but we were generally full from our dinners at places like Vivo, The Wok Experience at Royal Pacific etc., so we were only down for one snack a night. And the night we could've snacked a lot was Thursday, but it had a long period of rain, so we chose to take shelter in Minion Cafe which was a good, tasty choice.
Ops
Ops were totally fine on my end, all the lines seemed to move pretty smoothly in both standby and express, and ops only needed to step in when needed. Great example is waiting in line for Major Sweets on Friday, and two teens thought it would be A-O.K. to rough house and push each other into a nearby trash can. The TM monitoring the line immediately stepped right in and showed the two that if they're gonna' be trash, it gets taken right out. And what made that situation all the better was there was a group of teens in front of me who proceeded to applaud the TM for doing that. Also, I can happily say the walks this year are the best they've ever been. With no more massive hike to and from E.T., and the two new tents being its little courtyard where you can chain both together, it helped a ton!
Memorable Moment
As usual for any year at HHN, there's a bunch of them and this year is no exception. But there is one moment which I really wanna' bring attention to as it's really nice. One of my friends I got to hang out with has worked at the event as a tour guide and is in a wheelchair, so I got to talk with plenty of staff members they know and got some wonderful insights. Something that made both my friend and staff members very happy were how the casts were tackling a rather big complaint from last year, that complaint being that casts weren't really going after folks in wheelchairs etc.
This year is a total 180 on that as the casts in zones and houses were absolutely going after them, much to the delight and surprise of those in the wheelchairs and those pushing them! I was witness to a lot of that, and I got to talking with the nice folks about that and they were super happy about it! They relayed last year was pretty bad, so this year is a massive improvement on getting engaged by the casts. Hilariously, that can either be fantastic or terrible in a house like Insidious because I saw some all-timer scares hitting wheelchairs. (Thankfully the lady I saw in the wheelchair LOVED that, I think her friend pushing the wheelchair liked it as well...once she calmed down. XD ) Either way, massive hat's off to the casts for making sure everyone's involved!
Final Thoughts
While this year might not reach the overall highs of 32 which is still my favorite year, a very strong house line-up, great casts, a fun show a good food still make this a very enjoyable year for me. My Dad and friends really enjoyed this year as well, so a good time was had by all of us!
Zones
This is where it gets interesting, for it's pretty clear the zones this year were affected in one way or another. They lacked the overall cohesion which made them shine in the past two years, and then you have Duality of Fear which clearly lacked everything to the point where you have to question if it's really a zone.
That said, thankfully something which hasn't changed are the casts themselves, as they're making due with what they have and still made the zones enjoyable. I didn't know if I would enjoy a theme like Torture Faire, but the casts made that zone fun! Demon Queens was a surprisingly nice vibe with Surreal strolling around and the monsters and queens getting people, Swamp of the Undead looked fantastic and those misters actually felt kinda' nice at points.
I figure I can also talk about Sinister and Surreal in here since they're the most present in the zones. I gotta' say both of them grew on me throughout the trip. I love that both of them are mic'd up so they got to show off their personalities while engaging with folks, and I don't know if it's just me, but it seemed like Surreal's autotune was tweaked a bit so she doesn't sound so shrill like she sounded early on, so for me her voice was a lot more pleasant.
So while the zones overall aren't on the level of the past several years, the casts still made them enjoyable.
Nightmare Fuel: Nocturnal Circus
Having seen every iteration of Nightmare Fuel, I did enjoy this one quite a bit! Very happy to see a whole new story which I think was needed at this point, and the new costumes are really great, too! The dancing, fire and specialty acts are always nice, and I really dug a lot of the music choices. While the show might not reach the highs of last year's show, it's still quite enjoyable. (Plus, last years had that Endgame effect where it was a finale several years in the making, so that would be impossible to match/top the following year.)
Food
When it came to the specialty food this year, my Dad and I really enjoyed the stuff we had. For a good snack, there was the Red Door hand pie, the Heart "Beet" Tostada, and the Wooden Board Eclaire. For something more substantial, the Eggs in the Further definitely hit the spot. We probably would've hit up more, but we were generally full from our dinners at places like Vivo, The Wok Experience at Royal Pacific etc., so we were only down for one snack a night. And the night we could've snacked a lot was Thursday, but it had a long period of rain, so we chose to take shelter in Minion Cafe which was a good, tasty choice.
Ops
Ops were totally fine on my end, all the lines seemed to move pretty smoothly in both standby and express, and ops only needed to step in when needed. Great example is waiting in line for Major Sweets on Friday, and two teens thought it would be A-O.K. to rough house and push each other into a nearby trash can. The TM monitoring the line immediately stepped right in and showed the two that if they're gonna' be trash, it gets taken right out. And what made that situation all the better was there was a group of teens in front of me who proceeded to applaud the TM for doing that. Also, I can happily say the walks this year are the best they've ever been. With no more massive hike to and from E.T., and the two new tents being its little courtyard where you can chain both together, it helped a ton!
Memorable Moment
As usual for any year at HHN, there's a bunch of them and this year is no exception. But there is one moment which I really wanna' bring attention to as it's really nice. One of my friends I got to hang out with has worked at the event as a tour guide and is in a wheelchair, so I got to talk with plenty of staff members they know and got some wonderful insights. Something that made both my friend and staff members very happy were how the casts were tackling a rather big complaint from last year, that complaint being that casts weren't really going after folks in wheelchairs etc.
This year is a total 180 on that as the casts in zones and houses were absolutely going after them, much to the delight and surprise of those in the wheelchairs and those pushing them! I was witness to a lot of that, and I got to talking with the nice folks about that and they were super happy about it! They relayed last year was pretty bad, so this year is a massive improvement on getting engaged by the casts. Hilariously, that can either be fantastic or terrible in a house like Insidious because I saw some all-timer scares hitting wheelchairs. (Thankfully the lady I saw in the wheelchair LOVED that, I think her friend pushing the wheelchair liked it as well...once she calmed down. XD ) Either way, massive hat's off to the casts for making sure everyone's involved!
Final Thoughts
While this year might not reach the overall highs of 32 which is still my favorite year, a very strong house line-up, great casts, a fun show a good food still make this a very enjoyable year for me. My Dad and friends really enjoyed this year as well, so a good time was had by all of us!
