- 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.) Monstrous.
#8.) The Musuem: Deadly Exhibits.
#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.) Monstrous.
#8.) The Musuem: Deadly Exhibits.
#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.”)
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- 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
- 5,988
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!
First time I'm posting here since 2018, wanted to put my thoughts down so far. Instead of ranking, which creates too much oppurtunity for change, I thought I'd categorize them based on how much I like them. Since 2018, I've done a like of more regional, local haunts and I think what I expect from Universal has changed since then. Overall, I don't rank years or anything like that since I prefer to remember individual experiences down the road.
Houses
Houses I Know I like:
Insidious: The Further-I can't stand these movies, but the engineering design/scare design for this house is top knotch. It feels like going into a nightmare, and is probably top 2 in terms of intensity of HHN houses since I've been going.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire-I did not enjoy the 2019 house, but this was a better experience all around. It "feels" more like a haunted house than a walkthrough attractive, the cast is doing great, and I just enjoy walking through it.
Goblin's Feast-The only original I'm consistently up on this year. It's not particularly scare, but the vibes and general feeling of fun I have walking through counteract that. This is the kind of thing I enjoy from HHN, great sites, unique vibes, and a sort of escalating progression that's easy to understand.
Houses I think I like:
Museum: Deadly Exhibits-A lot more folk horror than I anticipated (I barely pay attention to blurbs beforehand since I think the house should be able to be understood without supplementary material), but I like folk horror so that's fine with me! I know many are down with this, but it stands out compared to other things this year that I enjoy walking through it more than some (most, idk?)other houses.
Major Sweets Candy Factory- There's some interesting things involving some of the Candy aspects in here, and the tight quarters of the new layout add a sense of intensity I wasn't expecting in this house. The "Candy" aspects comes and goes though, and it has some tonal shifts and "generic haunt" isms that keep me from fully enjoying it.
Houses I'm Mixed on:
Slaughter Sinema 2- First one was one of my favorites, but this one isn't doing it for me. I think it's more of a me thing, since "random theme hodgepodge" is a common thing I've experienced outside of HHN. Really the only thing that I can point to outside of any personal preference is that the booholes here seem a little obvious (which is true of most of these but this is the one I think about it the most in). Most likely this one is lower just because of my change in haunt preferences.
Monstrous: The Monsters of Latin America- Again, this is one that isn't really jelling with me the more I think about it. Having 3 monsters to me makes it feel like the house is constantly restarting, which made it feel less immersive for me. Also, and this is a lame nitpick I know, but I liked that Chupacaubra was entirely in Spanish because it really enhanced the feeling of a new environment. This is not all in Spanish, which makes it feel a little sillier, "hauntier", and less immersive.
Houses I don't Like:
Triplets of Terror- Outside of the larger sets, This one feels like a haunt that could be anywhere. I know there's some more advanced story work going on here, but I really don't have any interest about what's going on here. Oh well.
Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines- I never liked the shouting the story method at you as you walk through version of storytelling, and I'm getting dimishing returns from each monster house. My main sticking point though is one rather large personal gripe that I can't get out of my head-outside of Bride (who didn't really have any characterization in the film), these women versions of the monsters just seem to be "male version but now they're female". In She Wolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, and the assortment of Mummy movies that have a female mummy, they have different personalities and goals than their male counters. I find Dracula's Daughter, in particular, to be a much more interesting character than Dracula, and this house just kind of throughs all that out for "Evil Generic Female Vampire". Again, this is probably more of a me thing, but it's what I think.
Houses I don't feel comfortable with forming a concrete opinion on yet-
A Moderate Volume Place- I only did this once, was not in the best mood either, so don't feel comfortable assessing it. It was louder than I expected, and I think my expectations were thrown off, so I look forward to another run to get a better feel.
Scarezones
Scarezone I like:
Torture Faire- I dig the vibes, love the most and the sense that something is always going on while at the same time not forcing the momentum of the rest of the zone to stop while something is going on.
Scarezone I think I like:
Demon Queens- I like the case here, not sure what's going on but there's more to see than Zodiac last year, so, cool.
Scarezones I'm Mixed On:
Zombies in the Bayou- It's Zombies, and I don't really like Zombies. Sets are nice.
Scarezones I don't like:
Enter the Blumhouse-Would've been cooler if it was just one big house (like the Scarecrow Barn from 2022) with the people in it. It also would be a pun, and I like puns.
Duality of Fear-Should not Count as a Scarezone
Overall, about the spread I normally get in terms of quantity. Excited to see how these things changes as my expectations readjust and I get some more runs in.
Houses
Houses I Know I like:
Insidious: The Further-I can't stand these movies, but the engineering design/scare design for this house is top knotch. It feels like going into a nightmare, and is probably top 2 in terms of intensity of HHN houses since I've been going.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire-I did not enjoy the 2019 house, but this was a better experience all around. It "feels" more like a haunted house than a walkthrough attractive, the cast is doing great, and I just enjoy walking through it.
Goblin's Feast-The only original I'm consistently up on this year. It's not particularly scare, but the vibes and general feeling of fun I have walking through counteract that. This is the kind of thing I enjoy from HHN, great sites, unique vibes, and a sort of escalating progression that's easy to understand.
Houses I think I like:
Museum: Deadly Exhibits-A lot more folk horror than I anticipated (I barely pay attention to blurbs beforehand since I think the house should be able to be understood without supplementary material), but I like folk horror so that's fine with me! I know many are down with this, but it stands out compared to other things this year that I enjoy walking through it more than some (most, idk?)other houses.
Major Sweets Candy Factory- There's some interesting things involving some of the Candy aspects in here, and the tight quarters of the new layout add a sense of intensity I wasn't expecting in this house. The "Candy" aspects comes and goes though, and it has some tonal shifts and "generic haunt" isms that keep me from fully enjoying it.
Houses I'm Mixed on:
Slaughter Sinema 2- First one was one of my favorites, but this one isn't doing it for me. I think it's more of a me thing, since "random theme hodgepodge" is a common thing I've experienced outside of HHN. Really the only thing that I can point to outside of any personal preference is that the booholes here seem a little obvious (which is true of most of these but this is the one I think about it the most in). Most likely this one is lower just because of my change in haunt preferences.
Monstrous: The Monsters of Latin America- Again, this is one that isn't really jelling with me the more I think about it. Having 3 monsters to me makes it feel like the house is constantly restarting, which made it feel less immersive for me. Also, and this is a lame nitpick I know, but I liked that Chupacaubra was entirely in Spanish because it really enhanced the feeling of a new environment. This is not all in Spanish, which makes it feel a little sillier, "hauntier", and less immersive.
Houses I don't Like:
Triplets of Terror- Outside of the larger sets, This one feels like a haunt that could be anywhere. I know there's some more advanced story work going on here, but I really don't have any interest about what's going on here. Oh well.
Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines- I never liked the shouting the story method at you as you walk through version of storytelling, and I'm getting dimishing returns from each monster house. My main sticking point though is one rather large personal gripe that I can't get out of my head-outside of Bride (who didn't really have any characterization in the film), these women versions of the monsters just seem to be "male version but now they're female". In She Wolf of London, Dracula's Daughter, and the assortment of Mummy movies that have a female mummy, they have different personalities and goals than their male counters. I find Dracula's Daughter, in particular, to be a much more interesting character than Dracula, and this house just kind of throughs all that out for "Evil Generic Female Vampire". Again, this is probably more of a me thing, but it's what I think.
Houses I don't feel comfortable with forming a concrete opinion on yet-
A Moderate Volume Place- I only did this once, was not in the best mood either, so don't feel comfortable assessing it. It was louder than I expected, and I think my expectations were thrown off, so I look forward to another run to get a better feel.
Scarezones
Scarezone I like:
Torture Faire- I dig the vibes, love the most and the sense that something is always going on while at the same time not forcing the momentum of the rest of the zone to stop while something is going on.
Scarezone I think I like:
Demon Queens- I like the case here, not sure what's going on but there's more to see than Zodiac last year, so, cool.
Scarezones I'm Mixed On:
Zombies in the Bayou- It's Zombies, and I don't really like Zombies. Sets are nice.
Scarezones I don't like:
Enter the Blumhouse-Would've been cooler if it was just one big house (like the Scarecrow Barn from 2022) with the people in it. It also would be a pun, and I like puns.
Duality of Fear-Should not Count as a Scarezone
Overall, about the spread I normally get in terms of quantity. Excited to see how these things changes as my expectations readjust and I get some more runs in.
thanks for mentioning the wheelchair part. One of the reasons we had decided to go on Premium night was that my wife is currently using a wheelchair. I knew I would be the one pushing. I did not know this was a change but i can confirm that many scareactors did get down to her level, got right in her face and that was in the zones as well. It certainly made my wife's night!
- Jul 24, 2018
- 3,995
- 9,327
Our trip is done! Updated ranking:
1. Slaughter Sinema 2 - totally lived up to the hype I had for it, honestly couldn't have been happier with it!
2. Goblin's Feast - this was the biggest surprise for me. Had really no clue what to expect, but it was campy, hilarious and gory. Sets were great as well! This was VERY close to being #1.
3. A Quiet Place - I think they did this just about as well as they possibly could have. The sound design was great, the sets were expansive and the Death Angels were massive.
4. Monstruos - really enjoyed this. The costumes were really cool, as well as the few puppet effects and animatronics.
5. Insidious - may get some hate having this so "low", but I just simply do not get scared in these houses. It's a very well designed house, but the scares that everyone else get just do not happen to me lol
6. Major Sweets - this was fun to walk through, even though I personally wish it was done differently. Undoubtedly the best house in the F&F location.
7. Ghostbusters - 2nd biggest surprise for me, purely because this isn't at the bottom. I could not have cared less about this prior to the event but it's beautiful and a lot of fun.
8. Triplets - probably my biggest disappointment. I was one of the few that was very excited to see this, but it was not what I was expecting. Above all, it is INCREDIBLY short. I was blown away by how quickly it ended.
9. Museum - this was initially at the bottom of my ranking, but we had a good 2nd run. The concept is interesting and the museum setting was cool, but it just felt like not a lot was going on.
10. Eternal Bloodlines - yet another year of the Monsters house not hitting for me. The house looked good and there were some neat effects, but it was just a bit confusing for me and like Museum, it felt like not much was going on.
1. Slaughter Sinema 2 - totally lived up to the hype I had for it, honestly couldn't have been happier with it!
2. Goblin's Feast - this was the biggest surprise for me. Had really no clue what to expect, but it was campy, hilarious and gory. Sets were great as well! This was VERY close to being #1.
3. A Quiet Place - I think they did this just about as well as they possibly could have. The sound design was great, the sets were expansive and the Death Angels were massive.
4. Monstruos - really enjoyed this. The costumes were really cool, as well as the few puppet effects and animatronics.
5. Insidious - may get some hate having this so "low", but I just simply do not get scared in these houses. It's a very well designed house, but the scares that everyone else get just do not happen to me lol
6. Major Sweets - this was fun to walk through, even though I personally wish it was done differently. Undoubtedly the best house in the F&F location.
7. Ghostbusters - 2nd biggest surprise for me, purely because this isn't at the bottom. I could not have cared less about this prior to the event but it's beautiful and a lot of fun.
8. Triplets - probably my biggest disappointment. I was one of the few that was very excited to see this, but it was not what I was expecting. Above all, it is INCREDIBLY short. I was blown away by how quickly it ended.
9. Museum - this was initially at the bottom of my ranking, but we had a good 2nd run. The concept is interesting and the museum setting was cool, but it just felt like not a lot was going on.
10. Eternal Bloodlines - yet another year of the Monsters house not hitting for me. The house looked good and there were some neat effects, but it was just a bit confusing for me and like Museum, it felt like not much was going on.
