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Halloween Horror Nights 34 (UOR) - Reviews, Photos, & Videos

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian G.
  • Start date Start date Thursday at 11:48 AM
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ThemeParks4Life

ThemeParks4Life

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Joined
Nov 15, 2012
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4,539
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  • Saturday at 10:31 AM
  • #21
Still need to do El Artista tonight but prelim rankings:

1. Terrifier (I am SHOCKED)
2. Wyatt Sicks
3. Jason Universe
4. Dolls
5. Fallout
6. Galkn
7. Hatchet and Chains
8. Five Nights at Freddy’s
9. Grave of Flesh

It’s already off to a strong start, and I wouldn’t give any house lower than a 7. The lagoon show was good, but I was a little surprised there was no IP inclusion. I might do Nightmare Fuel tonight.
 
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DeliciousOatmeal

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  • Saturday at 4:18 PM
  • #22
Spoiler Warning: I’ll be talking about details from each house below.

I went to Premium Scream Night, here’s my thoughts:

I’ll get to my reviews of the houses below, but I want to start with my review of the night as a whole. I had a really good time overall, but there were a few moments throughout the night where I got a bit frustrated and it did bring the experience down a bit.

While I knew that capacity was higher than last year and expected slightly longer lines, I think inconsistent operations with the pulsing inflated the wait times much further than they should have been. I was able to finish all the houses by 1am, but on a normal night with Express I’m usually finished and out of the park by 11. Granted, I made the mistake of starting with the houses at the front of the park. The app showed the waits for the houses in the back as 5 minutes each for the first couple hours of the event. I’d like to know if people who started there had a better/easier night. I would normally have started there, but given what was promised I had not put any energy into planning or strategizing as I had thought it wouldn’t matter.

It certainly wasn’t a bad experience overall (the storm was rough but that’s nobody’s fault), but knowing how much I had paid for it when Express provides a comparable experience made me feel like I had been ripped off a bit. The pulsing wasn’t worth it for me (with one exception, see my review of Dolls below) and I think if they had operated the houses normally, waits would have been significantly shorter.

Now, onto my review of the houses and zones:

This is an amazing year for me. Even the worst house is still better than average, and the best houses are some of the greatest ever done. One huge plus is that the actors were getting VERY close this year. The cast throughout the park is so aggressive and energetic, they’re incredible. Huge props to everyone involved. The zones are equally high in quality. I skipped last year but from what I’ve heard this is an impressive step up. My rankings may change as I give it more thought but these are my initial impressions.

1. El Artista
• This may be my favorite, FAVORITE house I’ve ever experienced at HHN. Everything about it feels perfect to me and suits my taste exactly. The haunted manor setting is so perfectly executed. I especially loved how at times you could see other parts of the house through a window, it really created a sense that this mansion was a real place you were exploring rather than a walkthrough attraction. The surreal and unsettling artwork also gave this an atmosphere that set it apart from a typical “haunted house” theme. It’s more spooky than it is scary, but personally I care more about atmosphere than jump scares.

2. Gálkn
• This house also had a beautiful setting, and the theme is really unique. I loved the designs of the creatures, and the finale was really cool and unexpected. I wish it had been a bit colder inside to really sell the setting, but that’s not something that impacted my overall enjoyment.

3. Hatchet & Chains
• Really excellent set design with some cool effects. I loved the concept of the train station effect, but I think the execution could have had a little more attention to detail. The projection in this effect has no breaks between train cars - it’s just one endless car. It’s such a small detail but I found it distracting (nobody else in my group noticed or cared lol). Really great use of puppets throughout as well.

4. Dolls
• This was the only house of the night that was properly pulsed, meaning my friend and I were completely alone through our run. We never even caught up to the group in front of us. I have to admit, this made the house WAY scarier than it would have been and was easily the scariest house of the night for me. It was super unnerving to be surrounded by all the dolls, since we were alone it really felt like there were a ton more characters in here than the other houses. I got one really great scare where a doll ran up behind me quickly, which never would have been possible in normal operations. The set design and costumes are really amazing too, they nailed the sense of scale. Only one screen seemed kind of out of place. I also wish the facade was a bit more detailed, it’s a shame that it’s really quite flat. A life-sized dollhouse facade would have been much more impressive.

5. Five Nights at Freddy’s
• I’m really shocked to be ranking this as highly as I am. As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of the IP, I had low expectations going in, but the amount of care and detail put into this house won me over. The very first scene was everything I imagine a FNAF fan would dream of. This is a very puppet/animatronic heavy house, and as such it’s going to be very prone to technical issues. I wish a few more effects had been working as intended, but for the most part everything was running great.

6. Fallout
• As my most anticipated IP ever, I truly loved this house. Don’t let it’s lower ranking fool you, it’s still a great house, probably the best you could hope for from an IP that’s incredibly difficult to condense into one house. I’m really satisfied with what we got, though it honestly could have leaned more into the humor and wacky tone at some moments. I know it’s based on the show so it focused on recreating specific moments, but the games are known for environmental storytelling, and the house could have made better use of that style of vignette. The tease at the end has me so excited for next year, if they plan on bringing it back. A New Vegas house would be an actual dream come true.

7. Jason
• Easily the best house that’s been in the F&F space, and there’s no contest. They really nailed the summer camp aesthetic, though it did get a bit repetitive. I also wasn’t a fan of the long hallway at the end, it felt like it went on forever and was an anticlimactic ending. Still had a good time inside.

8. Terrifier
• Gore usually doesn’t do much for me, so this wasn’t my favorite. I’m a much bigger fan of eerie and unnerving horror than of pure shock value body horror, but I’ll admit that a lot of care was put into this one. The smell in the bathroom scene was nauseating and I had to hold my breath, so I didn’t love that part. I chose the wet path at the end, which didn’t bother me since it was still storming outside and I was already soaked lol. You definitely get pretty wet, warm water pours on you from above, but it’s not enough to soak your shoes. If you go on a normal night you should dry off pretty quickly.

9. WWE
• There’s a huge amount of detail in here and a ton of what are clearly Easter eggs and references for fans, but as someone who doesn’t know a single thing about WWE, I was confused from start to finish. I had fun but I can’t say I really enjoyed it to its fullest. Without knowing the source material it felt really disjointed and incoherent, but was still high quality.

10. Grave of Flesh
• This was the only house I felt a little disappointed in, though don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it. The designs of the puppets and costumes were awesome, but it was incredibly repetitive and felt underbaked or rushed. There’s a lot of ideas in here that seem like if they had been developed further, they could have been something incredible and unique. I LOVED the idea that the underworld is this liminal, MC Escher-esque hellscape, rather than the typical pits of fire and such. I just wish they had played with the sense of space more, it doesn’t feel like the concept was explored to its fullest. Aside from a couple of cool scenes, the rest of the house ends up being a bunch of dirt tunnels, which wasn’t too exciting.

Zones:
1. The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane
• I love this scare zone so much. It has a classic Halloween vibe that I think is so necessary for this event. It’s awesome that they tried to create a narrative within a zone, with the children becoming more cat-like as you approach the house. However, I did walk through the zone the wrong way, so I didn’t really experience this effect to its fullest. I also thought that the full cat costumes were really silly, but it works in a campy fun kind of way, and the actors were bringing the perfect energy and sass to make this zone fun.

2. Masquerade: Dance with Death
• This zone was really beautiful. It actually reminded me a lot of Phantom of the Opera with the big chandelier set piece. I think the soundtrack was a bit too upbeat to fit the creepy atmosphere though.

3. Origins of Horror
• Really good for an entrance zone, I actually really liked that there are some big props that block the path a bit. It creates more of a closed in feel in places that this area typically lacks.

4. Toxic Twenties
• I love the aesthetic of this zone, but I think it lacks some villain characters. It’s all victim characters, so it is kind of missing a scare factor.

Others:
Mel’s Die-In
• This is a great addition, it really brings some life (or death?) to this corner. The makeup wasn’t the style I was expecting but it’s definitely fun.

Club Horror
• …What? This is the biggest weak point this year. Who is this for? It’s a lose-lose scenario. Either A) nobody likes it enough to spend any time there and you end up with an awkward DJ set that has no crowd (this was the case on Premium night), or B) it’s actually popular and people hang out here, creating a huge road block in an area that’s notoriously problematic for being a huge bottleneck. I have a feeling this area is going to be a massive issue on crowded nights.
 
Last edited: Saturday at 4:26 PM
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krazyhorrorkid

krazyhorrorkid

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  • Saturday at 6:16 PM
  • #23
Holy Moly what a damn year….

RANKINGS
El Artista
Dolls
Galkn
Five Nights At Freddy’s
Terrifier
Jason Universe
Wyatt
Grave of Flesh
Fallout
Hatchet and Chains

Come back of the century. The best year I’ve gone through between now and 2017. A&D eat your cake, you deserve it.

El Artista is the best house I’ve ever seen and now sits on the throne on top of my favorite houses.
Galkn is super fun with scares, sets, and that ONE scene.
Dolls runs for me were very intense and reminds me of what I feel old school Originals were like. Also very quotable.
All the IPS this year are great to fantastic, not one of them is bad.

Will be back many many times this year and hungry for more.

P.s. got to see Ramón in front of us during our Wyatt run. Made the night very special.
 
Last edited: Saturday at 7:10 PM
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Delexies

Delexies

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  • Saturday at 8:50 PM
  • #24
DeliciousOatmeal said:
Spoiler Warning: I’ll be talking about details from each house below.

I went to Premium Scream Night, here’s my thoughts:

I’ll get to my reviews of the houses below, but I want to start with my review of the night as a whole. I had a really good time overall, but there were a few moments throughout the night where I got a bit frustrated and it did bring the experience down a bit.

While I knew that capacity was higher than last year and expected slightly longer lines, I think inconsistent operations with the pulsing inflated the wait times much further than they should have been. I was able to finish all the houses by 1am, but on a normal night with Express I’m usually finished and out of the park by 11. Granted, I made the mistake of starting with the houses at the front of the park. The app showed the waits for the houses in the back as 5 minutes each for the first couple hours of the event. I’d like to know if people who started there had a better/easier night. I would normally have started there, but given what was promised I had not put any energy into planning or strategizing as I had thought it wouldn’t matter.

It certainly wasn’t a bad experience overall (the storm was rough but that’s nobody’s fault), but knowing how much I had paid for it when Express provides a comparable experience made me feel like I had been ripped off a bit. The pulsing wasn’t worth it for me (with one exception, see my review of Dolls below) and I think if they had operated the houses normally, waits would have been significantly shorter.

Now, onto my review of the houses and zones:

This is an amazing year for me. Even the worst house is still better than average, and the best houses are some of the greatest ever done. One huge plus is that the actors were getting VERY close this year. The cast throughout the park is so aggressive and energetic, they’re incredible. Huge props to everyone involved. The zones are equally high in quality. I skipped last year but from what I’ve heard this is an impressive step up. My rankings may change as I give it more thought but these are my initial impressions.

1. El Artista
• This may be my favorite, FAVORITE house I’ve ever experienced at HHN. Everything about it feels perfect to me and suits my taste exactly. The haunted manor setting is so perfectly executed. I especially loved how at times you could see other parts of the house through a window, it really created a sense that this mansion was a real place you were exploring rather than a walkthrough attraction. The surreal and unsettling artwork also gave this an atmosphere that set it apart from a typical “haunted house” theme. It’s more spooky than it is scary, but personally I care more about atmosphere than jump scares.

2. Gálkn
• This house also had a beautiful setting, and the theme is really unique. I loved the designs of the creatures, and the finale was really cool and unexpected. I wish it had been a bit colder inside to really sell the setting, but that’s not something that impacted my overall enjoyment.

3. Hatchet & Chains
• Really excellent set design with some cool effects. I loved the concept of the train station effect, but I think the execution could have had a little more attention to detail. The projection in this effect has no breaks between train cars - it’s just one endless car. It’s such a small detail but I found it distracting (nobody else in my group noticed or cared lol). Really great use of puppets throughout as well.

4. Dolls
• This was the only house of the night that was properly pulsed, meaning my friend and I were completely alone through our run. We never even caught up to the group in front of us. I have to admit, this made the house WAY scarier than it would have been and was easily the scariest house of the night for me. It was super unnerving to be surrounded by all the dolls, since we were alone it really felt like there were a ton more characters in here than the other houses. I got one really great scare where a doll ran up behind me quickly, which never would have been possible in normal operations. The set design and costumes are really amazing too, they nailed the sense of scale. Only one screen seemed kind of out of place. I also wish the facade was a bit more detailed, it’s a shame that it’s really quite flat. A life-sized dollhouse facade would have been much more impressive.

5. Five Nights at Freddy’s
• I’m really shocked to be ranking this as highly as I am. As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of the IP, I had low expectations going in, but the amount of care and detail put into this house won me over. The very first scene was everything I imagine a FNAF fan would dream of. This is a very puppet/animatronic heavy house, and as such it’s going to be very prone to technical issues. I wish a few more effects had been working as intended, but for the most part everything was running great.

6. Fallout
• As my most anticipated IP ever, I truly loved this house. Don’t let it’s lower ranking fool you, it’s still a great house, probably the best you could hope for from an IP that’s incredibly difficult to condense into one house. I’m really satisfied with what we got, though it honestly could have leaned more into the humor and wacky tone at some moments. I know it’s based on the show so it focused on recreating specific moments, but the games are known for environmental storytelling, and the house could have made better use of that style of vignette. The tease at the end has me so excited for next year, if they plan on bringing it back. A New Vegas house would be an actual dream come true.

7. Jason
• Easily the best house that’s been in the F&F space, and there’s no contest. They really nailed the summer camp aesthetic, though it did get a bit repetitive. I also wasn’t a fan of the long hallway at the end, it felt like it went on forever and was an anticlimactic ending. Still had a good time inside.

8. Terrifier
• Gore usually doesn’t do much for me, so this wasn’t my favorite. I’m a much bigger fan of eerie and unnerving horror than of pure shock value body horror, but I’ll admit that a lot of care was put into this one. The smell in the bathroom scene was nauseating and I had to hold my breath, so I didn’t love that part. I chose the wet path at the end, which didn’t bother me since it was still storming outside and I was already soaked lol. You definitely get pretty wet, warm water pours on you from above, but it’s not enough to soak your shoes. If you go on a normal night you should dry off pretty quickly.

9. WWE
• There’s a huge amount of detail in here and a ton of what are clearly Easter eggs and references for fans, but as someone who doesn’t know a single thing about WWE, I was confused from start to finish. I had fun but I can’t say I really enjoyed it to its fullest. Without knowing the source material it felt really disjointed and incoherent, but was still high quality.

10. Grave of Flesh
• This was the only house I felt a little disappointed in, though don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it. The designs of the puppets and costumes were awesome, but it was incredibly repetitive and felt underbaked or rushed. There’s a lot of ideas in here that seem like if they had been developed further, they could have been something incredible and unique. I LOVED the idea that the underworld is this liminal, MC Escher-esque hellscape, rather than the typical pits of fire and such. I just wish they had played with the sense of space more, it doesn’t feel like the concept was explored to its fullest. Aside from a couple of cool scenes, the rest of the house ends up being a bunch of dirt tunnels, which wasn’t too exciting.

Zones:
1. The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane
• I love this scare zone so much. It has a classic Halloween vibe that I think is so necessary for this event. It’s awesome that they tried to create a narrative within a zone, with the children becoming more cat-like as you approach the house. However, I did walk through the zone the wrong way, so I didn’t really experience this effect to its fullest. I also thought that the full cat costumes were really silly, but it works in a campy fun kind of way, and the actors were bringing the perfect energy and sass to make this zone fun.

2. Masquerade: Dance with Death
• This zone was really beautiful. It actually reminded me a lot of Phantom of the Opera with the big chandelier set piece. I think the soundtrack was a bit too upbeat to fit the creepy atmosphere though.

3. Origins of Horror
• Really good for an entrance zone, I actually really liked that there are some big props that block the path a bit. It creates more of a closed in feel in places that this area typically lacks.

4. Toxic Twenties
• I love the aesthetic of this zone, but I think it lacks some villain characters. It’s all victim characters, so it is kind of missing a scare factor.

Others:
Mel’s Die-In
• This is a great addition, it really brings some life (or death?) to this corner. The makeup wasn’t the style I was expecting but it’s definitely fun.

Club Horror
• …What? This is the biggest weak point this year. Who is this for? It’s a lose-lose scenario. Either A) nobody likes it enough to spend any time there and you end up with an awkward DJ set that has no crowd (this was the case on Premium night), or B) it’s actually popular and people hang out here, creating a huge road block in an area that’s notoriously problematic for being a huge bottleneck. I have a feeling this area is going to be a massive issue on crowded nights.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the rundown and reviews. So my wife really wants to check out the fallout house, she is gets spooked pretty well with most haunted houses, but was hoping it’s like a 3/10or 4/10 on scare factor.
On a scale of 1-10 on fear/scare factor would you give the fallout house?
 
Grabnar

Grabnar

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  • Saturday at 10:21 PM
  • #25
Delexies said:
Thanks for the rundown and reviews. So my wife really wants to check out the fallout house, she is gets spooked pretty well with most haunted houses, but was hoping it’s like a 3/10or 4/10 on scare factor.
On a scale of 1-10 on fear/scare factor would you give the fallout house?
Click to expand...
Not my original post but it’s one of the less spooky this year, definitely more on the “you’re just walking through a show” houses they’ve done.

I’ll add if your wife is ok with wearing earplugs it really cuts the jump scare factor by like 30-40% on most of the houses.
 
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DeliciousOatmeal

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  • Saturday at 10:24 PM
  • #26
Delexies said:
Thanks for the rundown and reviews. So my wife really wants to check out the fallout house, she is gets spooked pretty well with most haunted houses, but was hoping it’s like a 3/10or 4/10 on scare factor.
On a scale of 1-10 on fear/scare factor would you give the fallout house?
Click to expand...
It’s hard for me to give it a ranking since I’m not easily scared, but to me it’s certainly less scary than the other houses. The people jumping out at you are mostly just regular humans, main characters from the show, or some people wearing power armor. It was more cool than it was scary, in my opinion.
 
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Delexies

Delexies

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  • Saturday at 10:58 PM
  • #27
DeliciousOatmeal said:
It’s hard for me to give it a ranking since I’m not easily scared, but to me it’s certainly less scary than the other houses. The people jumping out at you are mostly just regular humans, main characters from the show, or some people wearing power armor. It was more cool than it was scary, in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Sweet sounds like we’re booking our flights then! Thanks
 
Kichkinet85

Kichkinet85

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  • Yesterday at 10:52 AM
  • #28
The AAP tables this year are helpful like last year but the new set up is a pain. The table by MIB is still there and works well. However, the table has changed at the front of the park and is now at the back hub area. This is a pain. They should’ve kept it where it was last year (by minion blast). It’s a pain having to walk back there to get a time. And once you are back there you at the house so might as well just go to the house attendant. They need to fix this.
 
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Tereglith

Tereglith

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  • Yesterday at 12:14 PM
  • #29
Huge, huge improvement over last year. Especially considering it's opening weekend and the scareactors usually aren't quite locked into their rhythms until week 3 or so in my experience. Almost every house felt like it was already on that week 3 level so I'm excited to see how high they can reach from here.

The overall atmosphere throughout the park is also improved so much. You can tell they made a concerted effort to spread life around the streets, with an essentially unbroken chain of cool stuff from Hollywood's excellent Masquerade zone all the way through the Mel's zombies, the delightful return of Ghoulish, the instant all-timer Cat lady zone (which almost feels like an outdoor house), and the return of the Springfield chainsaws. Last year the park felt dead, this year it feels more alive than I've ever seen it.

House rankings:
Loved:

1. El Artista - a true work of art, takes the nonlinear setting thing to a whole new level (literally). Vibes are unbelievable. I can't wait to go back through and soak in all the details.

2. Terrifier - Art is kind of the perfect haunted house villain, he's all physicality and gags. Everything that felt shallow or gratuitous to me in the movies works perfectly in this format. Felt super long too, tons of stuff hanging in your face, exciting use of color and sound especially in the Christmas portion. Wet path was reasonably wet, maybe 2% of a Bilge Rat Barges.

3. Galkn - this really shows the potential of those new tents, expansive place making and a final scene that featured my best scare of the night right after I was gawking at the giant puppet.

4. Dolls - perfectly nasty little house that executes its gimmick to a tee. Toy Story Mania queue for sickos.

Really liked:

5. Hatchet and Chains - I've been watching a lot of Westerns this year and this captures the vibes well. Story is a little muddled but I like the spectral steeds and the train projection.

6. Jason Universe - last house of the night for me. The most successful house I've seen in that location. It does what it says on the tin, there's a shitload of Jason's.

7. Grave of Flesh - I appreciated the creativity and abstraction of this one, it felt like it was aiming for something almost metaphysical by the end despite how intriguingly corporeal the mole ghouls are.

Liked:

8. Fallout - sad to say since I love the show, it did not make the jump to this format very well. The opening scene in the vault works great but it flounders in the wasteland. I was glad the gulper made it in but disappointed not to have Michael Emerson's severed head waved at me, my two pre-registered metrics for satisfaction.

9. WWE - felt like a mediocre original to me, some fun scares with the giant bunny man especially but I never had a single notion of what was going on no matter how many screens they slathered in there.

Did not like:

10. FNAF - bleh

EDIT: On night two I burned my S&S advantage to get through FNAF and it's down at #10 for me, only house I did not like at all and will not do again. The animatronics and enormous puppets are undeniably impressive but they belong at a photo op, not a haunted house where their slow, limited motion and long, long reset times cut against the core appeal of the haunt format. If you have no attachment to the IP (as I don't) there's nothing for you in this one. Very happy to let it soak up crowds for the rest of the season while I never do it again.
 
Last edited: 18 minutes ago
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Kichkinet85

Kichkinet85

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  • Today at 10:13 AM
  • #30
Rankings after going all three nights of opening weekend.

Artista
Gálkn
Jason
Hatchet and Chains
Grave
Terrifier
Dolls
WWE
FNAF
Fallout

Artista is definitely my number 1 and Fallout is definitely 10 for me. 2-4 can be swapped around 5-7 can be swapped and 8-9 can be swamped.
 
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SeventyOne

SeventyOne

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  • Today at 11:03 AM
  • #31
SeventyOne said:
The eight houses I saw so far in rough, very changeable order:
  • Artista -- simply a work of art. A classic ghost house perfectly executed. Only downside is the long, convoluted, slow moving queue.
  • Galkn - lot of fun with this one, wide variety of monsters and effects. Most effective use of animation yet, they cracked that. A recurring theme tonight, but very aggressive cast. It feels like restrictions were lifted.
  • Terrifier -- bad movies, great clown-driven funhouse. Still more risqué than I expected. Nice length, ton of scares, another aggressive house. Also saw the walk-around Art, very well done.
  • Dolls -- so much fun, Syd's version of the Toy Story Mania queue. Sleeper candidate that I could easily see taking HotY. Happy to eat crow on this one.
  • Jason -- another one I owe an apology. Nothing new or innovative here, but a small army of large Jasons, all going hard for a scare. This is your counter to any "HHN isn't scary" debates.
  • Fallout -- the opening vault scenes are a perfect haunt, with an aggressive cast. Credit to casting, Lucy is played by such a unique address--she's basically a living Disney princess--I thought she'd be hard to replicate, but they found doppelgangers. The rest of the house plays out more like something from FanFest than a haunt, with some dull spots but still should be satisfying fan service.
  • Hatchet & Chains -- sets are great, monsters didn't fit the theme tho. Also a lot of empty boo holes. Fingers crossed it improves but a bit of a disappointment.
  • Grave of Flesh -- ok opening, but rest feels repetitive, until the end, which is just "huh?" Actors were good, just let down by the sets.
Click to expand...
Follow-up, Wyatt Sicks somewhere in the #3/4 position, with Terrifier probably creeping up to #2. Top 6 very subject to change because these are exceptional houses, and I can only expect them to get better. All would typically be easy top 3 most years. I'd even say any of the 6 would've been my HotY in 2024.

Five Nights at Freddy's has jaw-dropping sets. Fully re-creates a Chuck E Cheese experience. The scares aren't really there, tho, and "haunted restaurant" can't support that many rooms, there's a lot of filler.

All of the zones are great. Mel's Die-In fun. Just an awesome year.
 
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Tereglith

Tereglith

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  • 11 minutes ago
  • #32
Some additional odds and ends after Sunday night:

- Nightmare Fuel is good as always, less magic than ever but more sapphic aerialism and a jacked contortionist. They're giving the people what they want.

- The one weak point this year is the food. I had the Fallout spam and tots which was tasty but obscenely overpriced even with the 20% AP discount. Likewise the Jason spiral sausage, it's a good quick protein hit but shouldn't be that expensive. Nothing else was really calling my name, I actually went out to Citywalk and grabbed an Auntie Anne's pretzel at one point rather than wait for any snacks within the park.

- On the themed cocktail side, Nuka-Cola Dark was... interesting, I appreciate the audacity of springing detectable Fernet-Branca notes on the unsuspecting theme park public. Zazzler in Sting Alley was good if you like a really boozy drink. $11.50 Jai Alai refills at Club Horror are the best beer deal at the event and the best part of that whole "experience".

- Tribute store looks great but has poor crowd flow and the merch wasn't really doing it for me, I didn't even scope out anything I'll want to buy during the 80% off clearance closeout. I'm picky with that stuff though, last year the only thing I bought was the Mel's shirt.

- Dead Coconut Club was bumping, people were actually on the dance floor and the DJ was spinning some great transitions. Very fun theme this year with a lot of clever details, though it doesn't top the B-movie one at 32 for me.

- Overall the wristband system is a big improvement over the old zone queuing, but the way they're pre-loading the houses does make it harder than ever to tour effectively sans express. With the old system, each house was a "soft target" as it opened for the first time, which meant it was often possible to walk on to almost all the soundstage houses in quick succession if you timed things right, because it took a while for substantial waits to accrue outside of the early opening headliners. You could also usually make it back to the tent houses with negligible waits because they didn't have any S&S guests in them. But with them stacking people in every queue before the houses open, those soft targets are gone. I only managed to get through four runs each night before the waits hit a wall around 7:30 (earlier than ever for the wall too), when I used to be able to manage five or six. Not sure how much of it is the logistical change and how much is that it was just really freakin' crowded this weekend though.
 
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