HHN 23: Resident Evil: Escape From Raccoon City

[Clive]

I'm not saying they shouldn't be scary, but I don't get the notion that a house sucks just because I didn't get scared in it. I personally think sets are more important than scares because scares are cheap. Shinny pennies over this way, then have someone jump out and yell boo. Yeah that is fun, but my point is you can get that in every town in October. What separates HHN is the scale and sets. Everyone has their own opinions, I personally don't judge a house by how many people jump out and scream at me, but I do judge it on the sets. Once the event starts they can always add more actors, but its harder to make the sets more impressive.

Haunted Mansion has the word haunted in it, and its not really scary.

It's become clear that you attend Halloween Horror Nights for reasons that are not intended for its core audience, that is, to be scared in an immersive environment. As such, I'm going to have to agree to disagree with you. Enjoy your sets.

And by the way - a house isn't bad because *I* personally didn't get scared. A house is bad when the scare design is poor. Resident Evil's is VERY poor.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I'm not saying they shouldn't be scary, but I don't get the notion that a house sucks just because I didn't get scared in it. I personally think sets are more important than scares because scares are cheap. Shinny pennies over this way, then have someone jump out and yell boo. Yeah that is fun, but my point is you can get that in every town in October. What separates HHN is the scale and sets. Everyone has their own opinions, I personally don't judge a house by how many people jump out and scream at me, but I do judge it on the sets. Once the event starts they can always add more actors, but its harder to make the sets more impressive.

Haunted Mansion has the word haunted in it, and its not really scary.

Fallow already said it best, (It's not because I didn't get scared)
Resident Evil as a house is not very good. Sure you could film a commercial in that house But If the sets are what matter then people could just go visit the sets and walk around them. no conga line, no rushing. If we are supposed to appreciate the sets, then Universal should just stop getting actors and let people go inside the house all together and take pics. Like if they were in a museum...
I'm just saying. Both Nightingales, Dracula, Poe, Frankenstein, they all had great sets, but they had good scares too. There was a nice balance between the two. The sets were detailed but they were small enough to be able to scare you. I think that's what's missing, there is no balance here,

 

[Shucker]

I agree the house wasn't that scary, but in my opinion it was still a good house because the sets were cool. All good that you guys didn't like the flow or didn't get scared, my point was its not always about the scares. But its a useless debate, everyone has their own opinions.

 

[Clive]

I agree the house wasn't that scary, but in my opinion it was still a good house because the sets were cool. All good that you guys didn't like the flow or didn't get scared, my point was its not always about the scares. But its a useless debate, everyone has their own opinions.

Okay, I know I said I was done but I will say this - for most people, it is about the scares. Most people don't come to the event to look at pretty sets. If that's fun for you, then great, genuinely. But for the rest of us, it's Halloween Horror Nights. It's supposed to be scary. Again, it's not about us specifically not getting scared - the conga line often necessitates one not getting targeted. The importance comes in the scare design - the types of scares, where they're placed, how they're executed. Scare design overall (event-wide) was frankly piss poor, but some of the worst of it was in Resident Evil and Afterlife. Most of the characters literally do not have hiding places, they were just out in the open. And frankly, I found only two of the sets impressive - the opening space and the finale. Everything else was sheet metal, recycled storefronts, and a laundromat. That's not impressive to me. Throw in the awful costumes and you have yourself a pretty crappy house with a whole lotta hype attached.

You're entitled to your opinion, but objectively, Resident Evil's scare design was not well thought out and is overall quite poor. Sets alone do not make a good haunted house. They just don't - they can make a good walk-through, but not a haunted house. The best houses at Halloween Horror Nights have great sets AND great scares - see Dracula, Frankenstein, Body Collectors (both of em), Scary Tales 3, Psychoscareapy (all but the final one), Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dreamwalkers, etc... even houses with boring/awful sets can be saved by great scares (see HAVOC). But sets alone do not make a good haunted house.

 

[Shucker]

Yes that is exactly what I have said, I come to only look at the pretty sets and pretty flowers and that is all.

 

[SeventyOne]

During the backstage tour, I saw two ideal scare locations in this house [SPOILER, duh] ... the cooler in the pizza shop and and washing machine across from the dog. Sadly, I've yet to see either used in practice. I'd think they'd go a decent way in making the house "scarier" (which I agree it needs).

 

[April]

During the backstage tour, I saw two ideal scare locations in this house [SPOILER, duh] ... the cooler in the pizza shop and and washing machine across from the dog. Sadly, I've yet to see either used in practice. I'd think they'd go a decent way in making the house "scarier" (which I agree it needs).

They did have someone in the cooler for the first week or two. I know one night I walked through and they were working on it, then another night the effect went off and someone came out right after the cooler. Since then, I have not seen anyone.

 

[John321]

For people (Fallow) saying this house is horrible, that's your own opinion. HHN likes to immerse you in the environment, if you have played the game that's exactly what they did and they achieved it. Scares in this house, not that many I will agree. This house reminds me of HR Bloodngutz, funny/detailed yet not scary and HR is on my top 5 favorite houses since I've beet attending in 06. For the comment about making the costumes/makeup look "cartoony" and "from Spirit Halloween" that was the idea!!! In the video game the costumes are not HD perfect quality, they're a bit cheesy. The makeup in the house, you'll notice brighter color, why? because they want it simulated to be pixelated just like the video game. They wanted this house to mimic the game and they did just that and they did it perfect.

 

[Octobers Fade]

During the backstage tour, I saw two ideal scare locations in this house [SPOILER, duh] ... the cooler in the pizza shop and and washing machine across from the dog. Sadly, I've yet to see either used in practice. I'd think they'd go a decent way in making the house "scarier" (which I agree it needs).

That is one of the problems with doing the tour, they tell you all this neat stuff and then, because of over crowding, lack of actors, and poor timing you never get to see it.
In three nights I never seen anyone in the Dryer gag and only saw the Cooler once.
To me the house was beyond lame and the video game people were so out of place it was distracting. And not even close to anything scary going on in there. And the dirty faced (yeah the make up line was really obvious) zombie at the beginning was beyond sad.

 

[Shucker]

So do the washing machines open? When I walked by them I was waiting for someone to pop out, but never happened.

 

[Octobers Fade]

So do the washing machines open? When I walked by them I was waiting for someone to pop out, but never happened.

Spoiler:
The third dryer (its most always the third) was the boo hole.


ps what happened to the spoiler tag?

 

[Lucky Planet]

For people (Fallow) saying this house is horrible, that's your own opinion. HHN likes to immerse you in the environment, if you have played the game that's exactly what they did and they achieved it. Scares in this house, not that many I will agree. This house reminds me of HR Bloodngutz, funny/detailed yet not scary and HR is on my top 5 favorite houses since I've beet attending in 06. For the comment about making the costumes/makeup look "cartoony" and "from Spirit Halloween" that was the idea!!! In the video game the costumes are not HD perfect quality, they're a bit cheesy. The makeup in the house, you'll notice brighter color, why? because they want it simulated to be pixelated just like the video game. They wanted this house to mimic the game and they did just that and they did it perfect.

Okay, if that was the case, If this was the funny house, the joke house of the year. then WHY didn't they Advertize it like that?????? That's what I don't get at all. The trailer for this house had it as a serious scary house. Nowhere was it ever advertized by them as the funny house. I do not remember that at all.
Now, You could say that because this was made from a video game, the funny aspect could be implied or obvious, But this is not a funny game, AT ALL. This is a serious game about zombies. What I am trying to say is that just because this is a video game it doesn't make it cheesy and funny. The games are very tense and scary. Many people were scared when playing against Nemesis.

If this house was supposed to be the funny one, it would have really helped if they said so, because everyone would be going expecting a funny house. I Don't even hate the house as much as other people do. But I was really really disappointed when I saw this for the first time. Specially since they got it so right at HHN Japan, I expected the costumes to look at least as good as theirs....

Spoiler:
The third dryer (its most always the third) was the boo hole.


ps what happened to the spoiler tag?

I have never seen anyone in that third dryer. It's always only the dog.... I had no idea that was supposed to be a boo hole....wow.

 

[April]

Went through the house during the first set of the night and there was someone or something in the pizza shop cooler but nothing happened.

 

[John321]

Okay, if that was the case, If this was the funny house, the joke house of the year. then WHY didn't they Advertize it like that?????? That's what I don't get at all. The trailer for this house had it as a serious scary house. Nowhere was it ever advertized by them as the funny house. I do not remember that at all.
Now, You could say that because this was made from a video game, the funny aspect could be implied or obvious, But this is not a funny game, AT ALL. This is a serious game about zombies. What I am trying to say is that just because this is a video game it doesn't make it cheesy and funny. The games are very tense and scary. Many people were scared when playing against Nemesis.

If this house was supposed to be the funny one, it would have really helped if they said so, because everyone would be going expecting a funny house. I Don't even hate the house as much as other people do. But I was really really disappointed when I saw this for the first time. Specially since they got it so right at HHN Japan, I expected the costumes to look at least as good as theirs....



I have never seen anyone in that third dryer. It's always only the dog.... I had no idea that was supposed to be a boo hole....wow.

Why would HHN ever advertise a funny/joke house? they make very house seem scary from spoilers. That's what draws people in.

 

[graspthesun]

I wasn't aware the dryers were supposed to be used. I felt up the dryers during the Unmasking Tour and it seemed unlikely that they could really be used. Every time I went through the house, integral actors were missing from certain areas. Once there was nothing for Leon to shoot at and I only saw the dog through the clothes the third time I went through. The dog was obviously being lifted and pushed through by an actor at an unnatural angle even for a super dog to jump through. The actor in the pause room really destroyed the room for me, even though I thought the idea was kind of dumb to begin with. All that being said, the sets were enough to make this my #6 house in rankings this year, because the #7 and #8 weren't scary and had no real sets to speak of.

 

[shiekra38]

I wasn't aware the dryers were supposed to be used. I felt up the dryers during the Unmasking Tour and it seemed unlikely that they could really be used. Every time I went through the house, integral actors were missing from certain areas. Once there was nothing for Leon to shoot at and I only saw the dog through the clothes the third time I went through. The dog was obviously being lifted and pushed through by an actor at an unnatural angle even for a super dog to jump through. The actor in the pause room really destroyed the room for me, even though I thought the idea was kind of dumb to begin with. All that being said, the sets were enough to make this my #6 house in rankings this year, because the #7 and #8 weren't scary and had no real sets to speak of.

The dryers would have been perfect as the misdirection with the dog could have got me good...but nothing

 

[Lucky Planet]

Why would HHN ever advertise a funny/joke house? they make very house seem scary from spoilers. That's what draws people in.

I meant the way they talked about houses like H.R. Bloodengutz presents Holidays of Horror or Leave it to Cleaver. Those houses and their queue videos certainly let you know they were going to be funny houses,
Every year we have a funny/jokesy house, that is no secret. Every year people always ask which one will be the funny house. By now everyone knows, every year they make one house that is lighter than the other houses. Even if the house still has scares, people already know.
The only reason I said that is because some people are trying to defend the house being cheesy by saying that this is supposed to be the "funny" house of the year. And to that I Said, "if this is supposed to be the funny house? why not advertize it that way"

my comment was more of an answer to those people that are saying this is supposed to be the funny house of the year...

 

[Felipe]

Maybe they've switched their yearly humor house for a yearly video game house :shrug:

 

[ChrisM]

See, I respect everyone's opinions. (I've never played the games) But I actually like this house pretty well. Maybe I just had some good run throughs so far, but I've had some good scares. I got the person in the pizza cooler. I did think the dog room could have been done a little bit better, although the dog jumping from the clothes rack did get me the first time. I really like the Gatling gun room, I like the gun shot projection/ strobe effects on the walls. (I'm a sucker for lighting effects). I could appreciate the "game paused" room, I liked it better before they haphazardly put the zombie in there. The green monster gets me every time.
I do think the ending is rather abrupt. I would have liked to see a bit more zombies (eating victims) in a gore filled finale, then the "you're dead part". Overall I feel the house could definitely have used more scare-actors. Art and design needs to be allowed to experiment with design concepts to improve on in the future.

Oh. One thing I do believe they missed the mark on was the utilization of projection. The projection scrim effect from the first room in Evil Dead would have been a great addition in some of the rooms. IMO. Utilizing projections to splice some scenes and surroundings from the video games with live action scares seems like a no brainier to me. For scenes like the pause room, the dog room, helicopter scene. Either using it for misdirection, simulating expanded space, or as a story telling device.

 

[Lucky Planet]

well the house is okay, I don't completely hate it or anything like that. The house is fine to see.

but the one thing I see is that there were so many missed opportunities for scares, or to use the Resident Evil Characters or monsters. Where was Claire? she appears in the shirt for the house but she is nowhere inside.
Why didn't they use the dogs in a better way? why did Nemesis look like the Toxic Avenger? why were the rooms so big and empty?
It's like this house could have been so much better (knowing how well they can do houses)