HHN 23: Resident Evil: Escape From Raccoon City

[Drew]

Its in the same location as last year.

Interesting.

 

[neoshinok]

They confirmed it on Twitter too.

I doubt it's gonna be a room that remains paused at all times. I would guess that they're gonna be paused, and suddenly become un-paused for a great scare. I really like the idea.

This may have been reported already, but after hearing everyone complain about a stale 'pause' room, they did have a live scareactor in the room last night.

 

[Lucky Planet]

This may have been reported already, but after hearing everyone complain about a stale 'pause' room, they did have a live scareactor in the room last night.

Yeah I noticed that too, I Was glad they did

 

[Felipe]

This may have been reported already, but after hearing everyone complain about a stale 'pause' room, they did have a live scareactor in the room last night.

That's great to hear :thumbs:

 

[SeventyOne]

This may have been reported already, but after hearing everyone complain about a stale 'pause' room, they did have a live scareactor in the room last night.

Saw this last night--it ruins the joke, and without a "boo hole" to pop out of, not an effective scare. Takes a half point away from the house for me.

 

[Shucker]

I thought the pause room was pretty cool and very well themed. Its such a small room that its not a big loss losing a scare there (IMO). I mean 4 steps and you are out of the room, its that small.

 

[MrRoamer]

I saw the actor in there on Thursday night and agree it kind of breaks the room for little chance if any of a scare.

 

[Felipe]

I didn't see an actor this Saturday :shrug: and I tried to walk slowly and look closely, too.

I actually haven't gotten many scares in this house :shrug:

 

[John321]

This house doesn't really deliver scares, but amazing sets. I think they added a couple actors in the house.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Saw this last night--it ruins the joke, and without a "boo hole" to pop out of, not an effective scare. Takes a half point away from the house for me.

I saw the actor in there on Thursday night and agree it kind of breaks the room for little chance if any of a scare.

Well the house is not very scary as it is, I kind of disagree and I think the paused room was a waste of a room. I mean, yes I get the joke, but it doesn't really amuse me. I didn't really like the idea of Paused room, it is not an idea that translated well.

They should have had two actors instead of two puppets. When I heard about the paused room I thought it would be something like the actors in this room would stop moving for some time and then start moving again.
they could have had an actor as Leon and someone as a zombie, two actors that would could look up to and see them freeze in place. it would have been a lot better


Ironically enough, this is exactly what the actor that was added to this room is doing.
He walks around and when he hears the "paused game" sound he stops moving, Which I liked a lot.
It was funny and cool to see the guy stop moving and then start moving after a while.

 

[Felipe]

Yeah, I was expecting the paused room to pause and un-pause, so that was a bit of a let down. But the theming and attention to detail makes up for it a bit. Excellent sets / theming all around in the houses this year.

 

[Clive]

Yeah, I was expecting the paused room to pause and un-pause, so that was a bit of a let down. But the theming and attention to detail makes up for it a bit. Excellent sets / theming all around in the houses this year.

Sheer detail does not make a good house, and certainly not a scary one. Resident Evil is a laughably awful haunted house, as is Afterlife and debatably HAVOC.

 

[Shucker]

I would disagree that sheer detail does not make a good house. Don't get me wrong I don't think RE was the best house, but it was pretty cool because of the detail. Your right there was not a ton of scares though, but I enjoyed all the sets, including the pause room. If scares are all you want then maybe they should just have a pitch black house that you have to get through with people jumping out at you.

 

[l-m-f-a-o]

Resident Evil was one of my favorite houses just because i thought it was super cool! I didnt get scared but like once, But the house looked so awesome to me.

 

[Clive]

I would disagree that sheer detail does not make a good house. Don't get me wrong I don't think RE was the best house, but it was pretty cool because of the detail. Your right there was not a ton of scares though, but I enjoyed all the sets, including the pause room. If scares are all you want then maybe they should just have a pitch black house that you have to get through with people jumping out at you.

It's a haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights, not a walk-through for eye candy. The point is to be scary. It wasn't scary, even remotely. It doesn't take its source material seriously and portrays them like cartoons.

 

[Shucker]

The whole event is supposed to be eye-candy. Its what separates it from home town haunted houses. I get it that it wasn't that scary, but every house will have its own level of scariness.

 

[Clive]

The whole event is supposed to be eye-candy. Its what separates it from home town haunted houses. I get it that it wasn't that scary, but every house will have its own level of scariness.

The point of the event is to elevate the typical haunted house to immersive worlds with movie-quality sets and effects - this typically includes eye candy, but it still has to be scary. They don't just create the scary sets for you to enjoy the details, they're supposed to put you in a time and place to trick you into being terrified by what's happening around you. The sets of Resident Evil weren't even movie quality; they were laughably random, haphazard, and inconsequential. Many pieces and sets were drawn from Silent Hill the previous year. New costumes looked like upper grade Spirit Halloween costumes (here's looking at you, Nemesis). It wasn't scary, it barely tried to be scary - this house's level of scariness was "pretty close to zero." That isn't something to strive for, that's simply not the purpose of a haunted attraction at Halloween Horror Nights.

 

[Felipe]

Sheer detail does not make a good house, and certainly not a scary one. Resident Evil is a laughably awful haunted house, as is Afterlife and debatably HAVOC.

Well, I said the great theming makes up for it a bit, talking about my letdown with that scene. But in general, I agree that theming on its own does not make a hit haunted house, although it really heightens the experience.

Afterlife and HAVOC comments are for another thread, but I'll just say that my latest run through HAVOC was quite good. I jumped a few times, even in the first half, which had nothing going on during my other runs earlier in the event. HAVOC was my most improved from my first to my latest visit.

For Resident Evil or for any of them, timing is so key for scares, too.

 

[Lucky Planet]

I would disagree that sheer detail does not make a good house. Don't get me wrong I don't think RE was the best house, but it was pretty cool because of the detail. Your right there was not a ton of scares though, but I enjoyed all the sets, including the pause room. If scares are all you want then maybe they should just have a pitch black house that you have to get through with people jumping out at you.

The whole event is supposed to be eye-candy. Its what separates it from home town haunted houses. I get it that it wasn't that scary, but every house will have its own level of scariness.

If that is the case then Universal needs to stop calling them Haunted houses and call them what they are, Detailed "movie-like" sets. They also need to stop hiring actors to scare and they should hire people to talk back to you, Make it some sort of "live Theater" like experience
They need to stop advertising this event as a Haunted house horror event and start advertising it as a type of Live show houses with detailed sets. A walking movie set or something.

I mean, I'm just saying, If the sets are more important than the scares then they need to change the way they advertise their houses and the event. This house could have been perfect to have had actors with speaking roles or something like that.

Also, If the sets are what matters they should stop letting people in in a conga line and they should let people in groups or something. Resident Evil was not really a "haunted House" It was more like visiting the sets of a movie

 

[Shucker]

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.