HHN Hollywood Speculation/News - 2013

[BJBARBOSA]

I've been a multi night pass holder for HHN since 2007..

All opening nights have been pretty rough but none have been this bad.

Most of the mazes took a while to get out of with barely any scares happening inside.

It sucks having to take a seperate tram to get to walking dead and black sabbath.. If those don't improve by next week I won't waste time getting on the tram to them.. Didn't even bother with terror tram as that's been the same since 2006..

The biggest let down was the main reason I go to HHN.. Bill and Ted! It was one of the worst shows I have had to sit through.. even worse than 2009!!! Sadly it was equivalent to The Hanging at Knotts.

Hopefully all the mazes just need to get their timings right.. Sadly Bill and Ted is beyond satving this season, it is so bad! Its time for a new writer and director next year.

This review is based off being happily intoxicated and not waiting in any lines.. How was your night?

 

[Jon Fu]

I had a surprisingly fun night, but I could see some of the frustration about this year's event.

Wait times for Black Sabbath and Waling Dead ballooned up to 120 minutes, and the two separate tram rides probably caused some unnecessary confusion. Having said that, I was really awestruck having the ability to walk on Universal's metropolitan sets and thought whatever tram ride was worth it for that perk alone.

Mazes were all fine (Terror Tram was still enjoyable, despite being the same for quite a number of years), and Bill and Ted was slightly worse off than usual. I've been hearing very mixed views from employee preview night, but Friday's show was surprisingly a hit amongst audience members. Plenty of laughter. I couldn't follow what was going on (the plot is...well, was there one?), but enjoyed myself nonetheless. I never walk into Bill and Ted expecting a plot, but more so a series of skits tied to together and I think that helped with my overall enjoyment.

 

[David]

Loved the event last night, did the lower lot first then made my way up. We managed to get a ton of good footage from the mazes and the back lot so should be able to start editing it this week. 

Rating out of 10 in order of the mazes we attended:

Black Sabbath 13: 8/10

TWD No safe Haven: 9/10

Insidious: Into the Further: 10/10 my favorite attraction of the night for it's detail  and scares.

Evil Dead Book of the Dead: 9/10

Terror Tram: 7/10 A high mark than last year as there were more set ups and structures to walk through.

El Cucuy The Boogeyman: 6/10 Very disappointed with this one. I wanted to like it but it didn't scare and I could barely hear the narration by Danny Trejo. I was hoping it would have the impact La Llorona had from years past.

Monsters remix: Resurrection: 5/10 Not much has really changed a part from the additions of the Face off Bride and Frankenstein monster and the contest winning design.

Scare Zones out of 5:

The Purge: 3/5 It was alright but the highlight was that the leader prep school kid was played by the actual guy from the movie.

Curse of Chucky: 2/5: Walked through it and was not scary at all.

Cirque Du Klownz: 4/5 Now this to me was the highlight scarezone, the European design for the klownz were fantastic and it even made me jump when I wasn't paying attention.

Even though the event had some downers for me it had some major hitters for mazes as well. To walk around the famous Universal sets made my fan boy squeal and overall it was incredibly enjoyable. I'll  definitely will be coming back in October to attend again.

 

[Jon Fu]

By the way, I totally screwed up my game plan. I ended up doing Terror Tram first, following by the Lower Lot in its entirety, than El Cucuy and Monster's Remix with Bill and Ted topping things up.

 

[TSTLSOOM]

Yay! He wasn't present for preview night and people were hoping they'd get the puppet in somewhere. Fantastic!

he was there for preview night. probably at the end of the night though, since i saw him after i left monsters remix

 

[Alexshow.]

Oh dare i need to say. chuckster called jon fat in the scarezone.

 

[TSTLSOOM]

you have to remember guys, the park always plans from the year before. i think the fact that HHN started a week early came up on everyone faster than expected.

 

[BruceTheShark]

The actual guy from The Purge was working?

 

[David]

The actual guy from The Purge was working?

Yup my friend work with him on The Purge and pointed him out after I said he looks just like the guy from the film.

 

[Ryan]

From the sounds of if, they weren't able to save Bill & Ted. Such a shame.

The event's first night is getting mediocre reviews from all over, and while actual guests seemed to overall enjoy the mazes, they were very unhappy about the tram rides to the metro lot. Universal basically refused to confuse people with the prospect on two trams on all publicity/park maps. So you can imagine the chaos on the lower lot with tons of angry guests wondering why they had to wait in a 20 minute line to wait in two 100 minute lines.

This year is the guinea pig... it's gonna be tough.

 

[Jon Fu]

By all means, when you compare this year's Bill and Ted to last year's performance, the difference in script is striking.

As for the guest complaints about the metropolitan sets - that's a shame. I could see myself getting very fed up waiting in two queues for a span of over two hours. That's really mediocre.

I guess the concept was flawed to begin with. It took me 10 minutes to find Black Sabbath, and that was with a Front of Line pass. The entire area was unmapped, which may have been a poor choice.

 

[Allen The Actor]

I obviously didn't go or am going, but from the looks of it, I would've made a separate insert on the map that showed the backlot and metropolitan sets and black sabbath, etc, to ease the confusion. Wouldn't have been difficult to accomplish....

 

[Aaron]

The actual guy from The Purge was working?

Rhys Wakefield wasn't there to play the Polite Stranger. The guy who was there was the same guy who played the Ring Master last year and the second one later in the night is a friend of mine. 

 

[eas014]

Any tips on first time goers? This will be my first time going to HHN. Not sure what to expect.

 

[David]

Any tips on first time goers? This will be my first time going to HHN. Not sure what to expect.

Hit the lower lot first and head straight for the back lot tram. Do Black Sabbath first then The Walking Dead. Opening nights times got to around 160 minutes. Then come back and do Insidious and Evil dead. Proceed to the upper lot and hit the Terror Tram, go straight from there to El Cucuy and then finally to Monsters remix.

 

[k_peek_2000]

Last night was probably the roughest opening night I've ever been to. El Cucuy and Black Sabbath are definitely in need of some work. The Walking Dead was amazing, but I think that is solely due to the fact that it was being overseen adjacent to Orlando's which also is pretty massive. Evil Dead was satisfying but the lighting needs adjustment. I couldn't even see the iconic cabin! It was like a black wall windows. Remix is Remix, it's a fun, quick overlay to HoH. Insidious was pretty decent as well. I didn't even go through Terror Tram, maybe next time I will. The street monsters were great in The Purge and Chucky, had some problems with the Walkers on the backlot who were literally shoving me outside of the Metro set area so they could stand around and talk like they were when I first entered that area.

 

[David]

Rhys Wakefield wasn't there to play the Polite Stranger. The guy who was there was the same guy who played the Ring Master last year and the second one later in the night is a friend of mine. 

Yeah your right turns out he was joking, the only reason I believed was because I know Leigh Whannel one night is going to play Specs, so it was possible other actors from the properties would participate.

 

[Jon Fu]

Photos and commentary on this year's Terror Tram: http://insideuniversal.net/2013/09/terror-tram-invaded-by-the-walking-dead-2013/

 

[eas014]

Hit the lower lot first and head straight for the back lot tram. Do Black Sabbath first then The Walking Dead. Opening nights times got to around 160 minutes. Then come back and do Insidious and Evil dead. Proceed to the upper lot and hit the Terror Tram, go straight from there to El Cucuy and then finally to Monsters remix.

Thank you are the mazes scarier than house of horrors?!

 

[Alexshow.]

Thank you are the mazes scarier than house of horrors?!

Yep.