Pre-2016 HHN Hollywood Reviews?

[DTH]

HHN 2011 - Opening Night, September 23rd, 2011

Got to the park an hour early, first time I've ever managed that. Line for parking was at a moderate level and we parked in Curious George. We made our way to the top and exited out towards City Walk which felt unusually crowded but then I remembered it's a Friday night. Went down to the shop outside of the entrance and looked around - - didn't find any merchandise worth buying so we headed on over passed the rotating globe. Walked all the way to the left of security check for the shortest line. Pretty heavy crowds trying to get in as the whole entrance area was full of people. They then - - OPENED THE GATES!

SCREAM
Not much going on here. There were lines to take pictures with the go-gos (who honestly weren't that creative looking in comparison to all the years prior but I don't think people are looking for creativity in half naked women who dance). Ghostface was being more of a statue than a scarer. I remember when the statue in 08 and 09 did just a tad bit MORE running around but I guess they limited them ever since. The park hadn't officially opened yet so I guess I shouldn't judge it 100% but I have a feeling that's what it was all night. Basically nothing was going on in comparison to prior years and there was absolutely no set design and no other scareactors running around, which I distinctly remember in all the other years because I always got a good scare or two before I even made it towards the shops. I don't even feel right rating it but since I'm pretty positive it's the final product, I just have to. I don't think I even remember any fog other than the tad coming from the go-go stations and plus since it was the day time still, the lighting on the walls was barely showing. EH.
7.0 out of 10 'C'-

KLOWNZ
Couldn't see anything going on during the Opening Scaramonies but I could hear it. Klownz made their way through and terrorized the hell out of everyone. They did a pretty rocking job this year. I returned one more time later in the night and they were too spaced out from one another for it to feel like a dangerous area so no scares came to me later in the night but they got me good when coming in a few times. Actually, there were screams in the air walking in and then when coming back later, it was oddly SILENT. But I give them credit for the awesome scares once it started.
9.0 out of 10

THE STARWAY
Made our way all the way down the escalators. Right off the bat, I don't dig the escalator music. The Starway is usually one of my favorite parts of HHN and this felt too different in a way that doesn't feel like HHN. The music wasn't horror enough and Alice sounded like he just read off a paper for the first time and recorded it. I believe Ghouls Gone Wild was playing while going down and when coming back up, it was I'll Bite Your Face Off. Something about Alice's voice when singing feels horror-hokey to me and it's really upbeat instrumentals just don't sound horror. Eh, whateva.

THE REAPERS
What's there to say? The scareactors were interactive, luckily and there was a decent amount of them but scenic wise, it was flat. But not as flat as the Scream SZ, thank God, as there was a pretty good amount of fog choking the air. The costumes were okay also but nothing stand out. Unfortunately, this would be the last scarezone I'd make it through.
8.0 out of 10

JURASSIC PARK IN THE DARK
We were still waiting to meet up with some friends so we hit Jurassic Park in the mean time since it had 0 wait. As always, the ride is awesome, especially at night. The "Welcome to the Jungle" thing took me by surprise because I totally forgot about it. The music was playing nice and loud this year. Exited the gift shop and met up with the friends so it was time for our first maze!

ALICE COOPER: WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE
Automatic walk on for us, luckily. The maze was more dark than I anticipated, which was nice but it didn't work on an HHN quality-level for me but with that said, it was still quite good. The beginning of the maze did nothing for me but I suppose like a true nightmare, the deeper we went in, the scarier and more twisted it got. I LOVED the dolls/bodies you had to push out of the way with light up eyes. I hope those can maintain themselves until the end of the season. A lot of the scenes seemed to just randomly transition and so a lot of the different settings seem like a meshed blur so it's hard for me to remember the specifics of anything. There was some really great surprises at the end, animatronic/puppeteer-wise that both times SCARED THE poop OUT OF ME as the first one literally popped out of the darkness and the other was still one second and came alive the next. Great ending to the maze but I feel the beginning was a little weak and the story needed work for those who don't know WTMN could understand. My friends liked it as well but just weren't sure what was going on story-wise.

Queue Immersion/Facade: 7. The line should be fixed so those coming early in the night can just walk straight through the JP area. I dig the placement of the facade and the lighting. The music wasn't scary enough though.
Set Design: 8. It looked like a really good Knotts maze but it didn't have that "movie set" feel Universal is known for.
Sound Design: 8. The horror soundtrack of the songs worked pretty well.
Scareactor Design: 8. I personally hate everyone having the black eye make up but if we're ignoring that, the scareactors looked cool.
Scares: 8. First half I didn't get many scares but the second half was definitely the best.
Animatronic/Puppeteering: 10. They definitely made me jump and go "WHOA!" then made me run in the other direction. Black Widow moment was pretty freaky and the snake surprised me the most.
Length: 10. Actually a REALLY great length for this maze and it ended just when I felt like it should've.
Fun: 10. Very fun maze, we all had fun going through this one and looking at everything.
Story: 8. Story might be hard for those to follow who don't know what the maze is about and the scene transitions through stuff in blurs. I'll have to try and pay more attention to but since it IS a nightmare, I guess it's not that big of a deal.
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 8. Exceeded my expectations and gave me some good jolts!
85 out of 100 'B'

 

[DTH]

THE REVENGE OF THE MUMMY
Hit this as it claimed to be a 5 minute wait when in reality it was a walk on. Sat in the front, had an awesome time and I feel it really fits the spirit of Halloween. There was one funny part where he does his little speech before you blast off and then we just sat there for like 5 seconds... it was really anti-climactic haha. But seriously, how come they still haven't fixed that last room? Also, the ride operators weren't cheering us on as hard as they usually are.

HOSTEL: HUNTING SEASON
Line said 5 minutes but it was stretched out pretty far but at least it really was 5 minutes as time seemed to be going by way too quickly (it was 8 already). I had my friend say the password to the Russian girls outside and they told her to come back after we come out and she'll have something for her. Neat little touch to enhance the experience. We enter the maze and we're getting the tail end of scares or the scares seem a bit oddly timed or there were just scareactors wandering in their space. It wasn't until about half way through that things started to pick up. My favorite part is the Mrs. Bathory scene - - just sick! The girl with the sawed in half head was great but we didn't see any scare associated with it in the whole thirty seconds we were walking through that room because things were stalling (this occurred alot throughout the night - - people were CONSTANTLY stopping). The maze has its moments but it's too victim-centric, I think even more so than Saw. At points, it just seemed like a gross out maze instead of a scare maze. It was fun to pretend and try to help the victims but there weren't many scares coming in our direction. I wish this would've been a bit more amped, more directed towards the guests instead of killings happening to the victims and more of a story that was clear - - were we guests examining the warehouse or were we victims? At times it felt like both. However, the last room totally caught me off guard (hmmmm... I'm starting to sense a pattern here in last rooms this year...) and had me screaming out of the maze. Scarewise, WTMN wins the lower lot war but Hostel felt like a full, more distinguishable experience and wins by just a tiny few points for it's totally morbid imagery. However, I really felt like the set design was lacking in here. A lot of bare walls and rooms.

Queue Immersion/Facade: 10. AWESOME facade. Love the smoke billowing out of the top. The girls interacting was interesting too. There was also some sound bytes playing.
Set Design: 7. Walls and rooms felt very plain at some points.
Sound Design: 8. I suppose it was okay, would've liked something moodier and scarier.
Scareactor Design: 9. For the killers in this maze, it'd be a 5 at the most but since a lot of the scareactors here were victims, it jumps up a lot of points because they were all hidden well within the wreckage of body parts.
Scares: 8. First half felt very off and we got the tail end of a scare or two. Second half picked up but it seemed a lot of the clients were too focused on their victims.
Animatronic/Puppeteering: 8. Wasn't expecting that.
Length: 10. Great length for this type of maze. It ended just when I wanted it to.
Fun: 10. Had a lot of fun trying to help out the victims and the scareactors seemed very into it, which boosted the points up a lot.
Story: 8. I didn't know if I was a client myself or a victim but for a "walking through a warehouse of horrors" idea, I suppose it did it's purpose.
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 8. Idea was okay and it was pretty much what I expected. A lot of gory elements but I feel it was more about being "fucked up" instead of being scary. But a lot of good original moments.
86 out of 100 'B'

THE SIMPSONS RIDE
Went back up the Starway to go towards Terror Tram but then decided to hit The Simpsons Ride since it said 25 minute wait and figured that'd be the shortest the line would get for the night. It was around 8:30 so I figured we still had some time. Luckily, the line was only 15. Still no Treehouse of Horror clips. Lame!

TERROR TRAM: SCREAM 4 YOUR LIFE
Walked over to Terror Tram at about 9 and the line to get on this thing was beyond horrible. SO MANY zig zags when it wasn't even necessary because they weren't full, we just kept constantly moving until we finally made it to the front and it took about 45 minutes to do. It was so annoying, especially when the line was backed up all the way to the escalators. Glad I had some in queue entertainment at least with the videos on the screen but they replay too quick for me. We jumped on the Terror Tram and things already seemed a little less amped than previous years as there wasn't much scary music or video design that was impressive. We were off and the video is basically just a rehash of everything you just saw in line in regards to Stab 8. The video is a big important part of the Terror Tram experience and it just didn't deliver. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why Ghostface wanted to kill us - - he just wanted to. And that was honestly where things started to go downhill, theme-wise...

We jump off the tram into Whoville to be attacked. They re-used the same tactic as last year, which was fantastic and very effective. But just because it works well doesn't mean to keep redoing it in future years! And then - - TRAFFIC JAM. Ghostface is terrorizing the Bates Motel and there seems to be many of them and they're doing some good scaring but - - we're stuck and slowly moving to try and enter the little maze set up in the parking lot, which I had a feeling from the start would be a bad idea traffic-wise. We go through and it's basically the sheet maze but just a chainlink fence and less decorations. Ghostface got us good a couple times but there's no ENVIRONMENT and the theme isn't SELLING that this is indeed Stab 8. How a chainlink fence maze is Stab 8 being filmed is beyond me.

We make our way up the hill. MANY and I mean MANY of bushmen wandering around and working their way into the scenery. Top of the hill, through the burning shack and toward the Psycho House. This is the only spot you'll see Norman. There was some other random stuff going on with people getting their faces ripped off and what not but I wasn't sure what that all had to do with. I think it might've been the Woodstock film but I can't remember the specifics of it since there wasn't too much going on other than face ripping. Now the best part of the TT this year is the War of the Worlds set. The zombies got us good quite a few times in this year. Still a lot of Ghostfaces running around but once again, I have to ask myself, what does this have to do with not only Scream 4 but also Stab 8? There are no links or connections to either franchise other than Ghostface himself and there is NO Stab-A-Thon set up anywhere, making the experience an empty ended one and makes it feel incomplete. I would have loved to see something actually Scream 4 or even Stab related but neither happened not even in the returning back to the station video. It's kinda just - - people get killed, moving on and you're back to the theme park.

So with that said, a big waste of potential on the Scream department; they basically just bought the rights for the Ghostface costume and went wild with it. You can hear audio clips while entering under the Studio Tour sign and there's some quotes written on the walls in the Stab 8 mini-maze but this is so un-Scream related, it's not even funny. However, at least the theme fits with the experience and it carries it through to the end - - it's just underwhelming and quite frankly disappointing because so much more could've been done with this and instead, it seems there wasn't enough passion from the creators in the source material to try and make it thrive or to rely on it. So Scream at HHN this year = a giant dud. Total waste and they DID NOT do it justice but it's still better than last year's Terror Tram but it definitely doesn't rank up with the best. Luckily, they skipped The Mummy tunnel this year.

Queue Immersion/Facade: 10. No facade to speak of as this doesn't apply here but the queue was selling the idea that there were 4 films being filmed on the backlot. And I guess I'll add that the tour guide helped sell it pretty well too.
Set Design: 7. It starts at a 5 automatically (like the HoH will too) but not many changes other than the chainlink fence maze which felt pretty barebones at points.
Sound Design: 9. A lot of sound bytes from Scream 4 in the Stab area that I appreciated but it still didn't help the barely-there theme or story.
Scareactor Design: 9. I dug the chainsaw drill team in the beginning along with the other monsters, including Ghostface, in which a lot of them were actually pretty tall and daunting. Zombies were pretty cool too.
Scares: 9. Got a lot of scares here this year in the WOTW area.
Animatronic/Puppeteering: 5. There were some wheelchair gags in the WOTW area.
Length: 10. Terror Tram was a good length this year with going around the Bates Motel, on the side of it and THEN into the mini maze, even though the mini maze wasn't anything special.
Fun: 10. Terror Tram is always fun and a great experience to be on the backlot.
Story: 6. There wasn't really a story and everything was leading to something that never happens. And then once it's over, it's like "who cares?"
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 10. I love Scream, there ain't no way around it and even though the films themselves were represented ZERO, I still loved to see Ghostface running around everywhere.
85 out of 100 'B'-
[Wow, I was trying my absolute hardest to be optimistic for this because it was Scream bahahaha]

 

[DTH]

FLINSTONES BBQ
Everyone was hungry so we made our way to Flinstones BBQ because I had never eaten there before. On the way over, my whole group sees Jamie Kennedy playing baskeyball but I totally walked passed him and didn't see. Oh well. Ordered the rips and it surprisingly was done rather quick but the food was a bit cold and a bit overpriced. The bones just felt off the meat and not in a tender, "oh it's delicious" kinda way because the meat was still tough. It was okay but I don't plan on eating there again for the ribs, although the burgers looked good.

LA LLORONA: VILLA DE ALMAS PERDIDAS
Got in line at 10:45 and the wait said 55 minutes. It was true to it's word. It stretched on for freakin' days all the way back around the Curious George playset. There was even more line hidden in places that thankfully we didn't have to go through. The first half of the queue seemed nice and quick - - it's not until the actual bar sets up for Shrek that things become an incredibly slow moving queue. This is where you can actually hear the narration from the old man or old lady telling the story. If you can't hear it, just look at the banners on the side of the queue as it's going word for word from that.

We make it to the facade at about 11:35. Quite a few people had the FOTL passes, so the effort to limit their usage this year, as far as I could tell, did absolutely nothing. If anything, it made the lines worse because every line we went through, there were people who had the lanyards around their neck waiting with us. So instead of them just quickly going on through as they should be, they're standing in lines for their second go around making the lines even longer. KNEW this would be a bad idea. Anywho, the facade is freakin' gorgeous and the well with fog brewing out was a nice touch.

Entering the maze, I already got a quick few scares. It had some of the most amazing sets that HHN has ever done and that was apparent very quickly. Not only that, it had some pretty great scares to back it up. It almost seemed the first 1/4 of the maze was all statue scares though. Oh well. I can honestly say I loved EVERY room in this maze. The only room that I think that didn't have a scare was the river scene. Everything else chilled me to the bone. There's also a good moment in the pitch black scene that had everyone freaking the hell out. My favorite moment has to be that final scene though - - WHOA.

Queue Immersion/Facade: 10. Storytelling, good mood setting music and great lighting that was kinda aquatic in color. And the facade - - WOW. My favorite, definitely.
Set Design: 10. Once again, WOW. Every room was AMAZING.
Sound Design: 9. Very creepy atmosphere thanks to the music. It didn't try to overdo it or make it too fast.
Scareactor Design: 9. Every one in here was beyond creepy.
Scares: 10. Scares were a bit low in the middle but dear God, when the scares came, they were CREEPY.
Animatronic/Puppeteering: 10. It was repurposed but the use of it was brilliant.
Length: 10. Great length, felt a bit longer than other years in this location but it probably wasn't. The story wrapped up nicely for what it was.
Fun: 10. Lots of fun going through this one and there was a good creepy vibe throughout that kept me on my toes.
Story: 10. From beginning to end, it told a story and followed it through.
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 9. Was happy to see La Llorona finally get amped up to maze status and pull it off with flying colors.
97 out of 10 'A'

THE WOLFMAN: CURSE OF TABOT HALL
Exited from there and ran over to The Wolfman. Line said 20 minutes so we figured it wasn't that bad for it being 11:50. We make it in in about 15 minutes. I don't know if I should even waste my time talking about this as they made ZERO effort to even try and recreate The Wolfman movie. There were wolfmen in there but that's where it stops. Oh and a few Gollum creatures. But other than that, I had no idea what the other monsters were. There were a lot of good scares and alot of my friends actually enjoyed this more than the others but seriously, for me, this was utter nonsense. Chucky and Vampyre worked because they used their environment to benefit the story. The setting for this had nothing to do with The Wolfman and there were scenes that were clearly a big what?! like Chucky for example. They made no effort to cover that up at all, in fact, the dolls in the cabinet were lit. I liked the victims at the end but damn, this was far from being anything like the Wolfman, it's such a damn shame. Although I got my scares, it felt like an empty experience and almost a waste of time.

Queue Immersion/Facade: 5. It gets a 5 automatically for being permanent and always looking nice but other than that, it didn't do anything on the outside or inside to show that this is Wolfman other than the banner.
Set Design: 5. Automatic once again but honestly, they did NOTHING set-wise to make it more like the Wolfman.
Sound Design: 10. Actually quite a lot of sound bytes from the film.
Scareactor Design: 8. I guess they were okay...
Scares: 8. Some good scares in here.
Animatronic/Puppeteering: 5. The usual stuff that's usually in the HoH.
Length: 5. Automatic 5 for it being permanently long but the length didn't suit the maze and any portions that could've actually felt Wolfman like were very small.
Fun: 10. I like the HoH, what can I say.
Story: 0. None, absolutely nothing you could follow that the sets would be able to convey other than maybe some sound design elements that helped. Just random wolfmen everywhere.
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 5. HoH I dig and I'm glad the Wolfman finally came but I hate the way they did it.
61 out of 100. 'D' -

 

[DTH]

THE THING: ASSIMILATION
It was 12:20 when we jumped in line. I looked over into Zombieville and didn't hear any screaming come from the area, nor did I see any monsters. There was fog and lighting but I don't know what was going over there. Same with Freakz. So I didn't feel compelled to run down there to check it out, plus The Thing said an hour wait and we were trying to hit the 1:30 of Bill and Ted (seriously, not having a show after hours REALLY tampers plans). Also, HOTC was still 70 minutes and absolutely none of us wanted to wait for a repeat we all thought was barely okay last year so we hit The Thing as our last maze of the night!

The line was moving fast, thankfully and it wasn't until I got onto the other side of the wait that I realized, it was only going to be about 30 minutes at the most of a wait. SCORE. Now, the facade looked cool but on the side, there were still those trash bag like material on the side. Darn. And you know what's funny? The outside of the maze is colder than the inside. I think all of the cool air must've been sucked out because it was actually warm in the maze like it was with all the others. So I'm sad to say, Murdy's effort to bring Antarctica to us in a maze experience just fell flat.

Entering the maze, things seemed a bit bare. I don't know, I was expecting more design. Also let me say, there are WAY TOO MANY FREAKING HANGING DOWN PLASTIC KITCHEN THINGS OR WHATEVER THEY'RE CALLED. I thought regular threads hanging down were annoying but these plastic ones - - UGH. Anywho, the first scare seemed misplaced but all the scares after that were BEYOND hard hitting and they all got me GOOD. And I mean, had me screaming "OH farfanoogin" at every turn. But something felt missing... and that was story. I didn't really know what was going on throughout. I've seen the original so I know the jist of it but there's nothing that indicates where the story is going or where it's at. There was some evolution of the creatures but for the most part, they stayed the same as far as scareactors go. So the story and the design of the maze just didn't do anything for me but this was DEFINITELY the scariest maze of the night with ALOT of scare moments I didn't expect whatsoever.

And once again, it was the final two rooms that had me screaming out of the maze. So let's just say - - you'll be very glad to hear that Universal has gone animatronic/puppeteering in pretty much every maze this year and they save the good ones for the final moments and that's not just for The Thing but as I said, EVERY maze (you'll catch on after the first two mazes you go through). And they always come from an unexpected place so they make for the BEST scares that have you RUNNING out because 1) out of nowhere 2) weren't expecting to see something of that magnitude. GREAT scary maze but selling the environment and set design and even some story just wasn't working very well.

Queue Immersion/Facade: 9. The queue doesn't fit the area but the entire queue was chilly and the facade is awesome. Trash bag material on the side still bugs me though.
Set Design: 7. Actually was very bare for the most part and the random snow plow room or whatever vehicle that was, was a wasted room for a good scare. Also a pointless dark hallway.
Sound Design: 9. No original theme playing! Boo! But the sound of cold air was pretty creepy and when the monsters came out, the sound was really startling.
Scareactor Design: 10. Yes, they looked like a praying mantis but it was better than nothing. I wonder how uncomfortable it was to wear those things...
Scares: 10. Hardest hitting scares - - some of the hardest hitting HHN has ever done. The last two surprised the living poop out of me, along with a couple of good ones in the middle.
Animatronic/Puppeteering: 10. AMAZING.
Length: 9. As said, two rooms felt pretty useless.
Fun: 10. Loved going through this maze.
Story: 8. Didn't really know what was going on and I think that might've been on purpose in effort not to ruin the movie. Would like to go through this again after I've seen the new movie to see if there's more of a correlation.
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 10. Love the Thing and highly anticipating the prequel and I love the idea of this being a maze.
92 out of 100. 'A'-

BILL AND TED
After that, it was 1 and we had 30 minutes to kill so we ran over to Bill and Ted which already had a huge wait, so luckily we got there early. We sat down and they had basically a bunch of stupid youtube videos playing. I immediately thought this was a very cheap road to go down for pre-show entertainment. However, once the show started, it was very good but I felt like some of the characters weren't popular enough (like seriously, Arthur?). It was funny, had it's good dance numbers but let's talk about what's important - - Bill and Ted are barely in the show this year. Barely any lines and there are entire segments they are missing from the show. However, it's still funny and I'm actually kinda surprised the material went to where it did as far as it's plot (a few groups of people actually walked out once it was revealed). I also thought the music choices were good as the last 2 previous years, I felt the songs weren't popular enough to get the attention they did. Also, LOTS of fire effects but there was no loud bang at the end that usually shakes the entire room. Oh well.
9.0 out of 10 'A'-

CLOSING & LEAVING
As we were exiting, there was no chainsaw chase out. It was about 2:20 so I don't know where they all disappeared to as where previous years, I remember coming out of the Bill and Ted show and the scareactors would still be hanging around. But those were also weekdays and closing time was 1 so maybe they left around 2. Got home at around 3:45 and it was a great night, all in all.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I'll be back to the event later in the year. Although, I don't think this year is worthy of that but I already made the plans. Now let me explain why I don't think it was worthy - - the event was very half and half. The only maze that I felt gave the all around amazing HHN quality that I was expecting was La Llorona. As said, The Thing delivered the scares but it seemed very bare other than that. Hostel felt pretty bare as well in set design and scare design. WTMN was bare in story elements. Terror Tram basically had no story or the little one it did was open ended or it just "didn't get to it." And the Wolfman - - okay, seriously, WTF was that?

So I don't know, let's just say it wasn't HHN's best year and for all the tight ends Universal was cutting with money, I really don't see where it all went and came to the conclusion that yes, in the end, it was all just a money grab. Everything just felt more bare or lacking than the other years or maybe they just spread out the budget a bit too much. If they have to cut back down to 5 mazes than so be it because there were way too many empty walls in The Thing and Hostel. It just felt like a lot was missing and I don't think I'll be going to another opening night in the near future because I have a feeling that from guest feedback this weekend, they'll need to add a lot to satisfy everyone. I heard a quite few people walking around saying, "this year sucks" and it really got me sad but at times, I almost wanted to agree but La Llorona and the extreme scares in The Thing saved it for me. And they didn't whatsoever resolve anything with the line issues as they attempted to and it wasn't even a sell out night.

And I never thought I would miss the Western scarezone so much - - all the walk around areas were just so plain (although a random Ghostface is hiding in some places every once and awhile). And that even goes for the Scarezones that did exist that I saw; nothing set wise in Scream or Reapers; and Baker & London street are just at the wrong ends of the park that don't make it convenient enough for me to experience. I'll try my best to make it over on those two streets my next go around.

In my opinion, as of right now, this ranks just a tad bit over '07 but it still didn't do as great as '08, '09 or '10. But I don't want to pass final judgment yet - - it was opening weekend and I have a feeling they're going to amp it up this upcoming week or two... hopefully. No final grade for the event itself, as for the fun level, it was at a 10 (how could it not be?) but quality-wise, I'm gonna wait for the next trip before I do that because I really don't feel like I even saw the final product.

From least to greatest:
The Wolfman
Terror Tram (tie)
Alice Cooper (tie)
Hostel
The Thing
La Llorona

 

[pumpkinbot343]

It’s a really bizarre choice by whoever was in charge in Hollywood to base one of their mazes on a property that already came out a year before, let alone one that like the Freddy and Jason remakes was not viewed favorably.

 

[pumpkinbot343]

The problem with having a HHN be based mostly on IPs is how you view the IP and how it translates. 2011’s lineup encapsulates it perfectly for me. I like Scream… but having be the theme for an outdoors tram experience was flawed from the beginning. Hostel seemed like a Saw reject back then, now I have absolutely zero interest in torture porn films. I’ve tried to get into Alice Cooper, but the only song I’ve enjoyed so far is Feed my Frankenstein. If I ever watch any version of the Thing, it would NOT be the remake. The best looking out of all 2011 was definitely La Llorona- the semi original maze of the year.

 

[pumpkinbot343]

The video they had for the Terror Tram with Ghostface along with the fake trailers I guess were played in the queue.

 

[DTH]

[Looks like I did a follow up review for 2011]
HHNH: 10/20/11

Got to the park at about 7:20ish. Immediately hit Terror Tram. NO WAIT. Literally walked on. Awesomeness. My thoughts remain the same on the story element on the tram and how it could've been pulled off better on the route. Getting rid of the mini maze also seems like a mistake as well. As much of a traffic jam it created, it at least TRIED to accomplish a Stab 8 set or Stabathon or whatever it was going for. Now it's just Ghostface at the Bates Motel. I don't think I even heard the soundbytes in this area from Scream 4 that used to be playing. One thing that was really bugging me though was pretty much EVERY blackout (are they considered blackouts when it's the Terror Tram? haha) was yelling every 10 seconds "no flash!" I could've sworn TT was the only place where flash and sticking around to take pictures was acceptable. Whatever the change may be now is diminishing some of the fun of this attraction.

Repeatability: 3 [Nothing epic as it should've been; feels very stale; loss of mini maze loses a bit of potential variety. Nothing felt worth seeing again since last time since there was no - -]
Improvement: 0 [Nothing was tweaked to the form of positivity as I was lead to believe. It was simply TT without the mini maze.]
Downfalls: - 3 [Taking away the mini maze, once again, bad decision. The theme was flat before but now it's not represented at all in any shape or fashion on the route, making everything set up useless. I don't know what the situation was with it or why it had to go but at least move it elsewhere.]
Repeat worth total: 0 points

Right after, we head down the escalators to hit Alice Cooper. Ran into a 5 minute line, but no worries. It was still before 8 and everything down there was still very empty. And as last time (I was with different people), I had to explain who Alice Cooper was, which then also brought up the question, "so... why give him a maze?" Entered the maze and the energy was picked up in the beginning of the maze in comparison to last time. The scares started right off and I was very glad about that since before I didn't get anything out of it until about more than half way. Let me just say the scareactors were on their freakin' GAME tonight. Just on fire and working it. They really caught their groove since the first night I came. This is what I expected to see on my first trip. Best cast award goes to these fellows.

Repeatability: 10 [Caught a lot of new details that made it seem more like an HHN maze to me this time - - as you may remember, I said it kinda just felt like a really good Knotts maze before - - but this time I took extra note to soak everything in. The scares, sets, music - - everything. Huge repeat value as I got something completely different than I did the first time.
Improvement: 8 [Entire first half of the maze was better. The stilt guys were EVERYWHERE. I thought there was only one but there were at least 5 toying with us in the French Revolution scene and then a few more that just popped out at the most random moments of the maze. And the ending sequences are still intense from the asylum and on. Not more so than before, but it stayed at the same level with some extra tweaks so it gets bonus points for that. Oh and got a GREAT scare in the Ethyl room, I didn't even know there was a scareactor in that room until this walkthrough! Didn't see 'em in videos or hear about 'em or nothing. Their boohole and that moment totally caught me by surprise.]
Downfall: 0. [Absolutely nothing. Nothing but add ons for this trip through and it actually BOOSTED up the rating above Hostel for me for the entire event this year - - my new least from greatest list will be up at the end.]
Repeat Worth Total: 18

Wandered on over to Hostel and waited about 5 minutes. The Slovakian girls were literally at the door of the maze this time which was interesting. I told my friends to say the codename and they did. The girls wanted them to repeat it again but my friends chickened out, thinking that I was trying to trick them into getting targeted by the monsters or something. While going through, once again, the entire first half is devoid of scares. Last time I gave the benefit of the doubt that I just missed them but I didn't see anything going on. Half way through the maze, I saw there was some cast switching going on so I figured maybe that's why the first half was missing some slack. Second half, from the Mrs. Bathory scene on, picked up a bit but nothing substantial. The guys with the scissors overhead were less fiesty this time around. A notable scareactor is the guy in the locker room with the gun - - truly this guy must be insane or something because he pulls off his role so well. Other than that, everything felt very flat or that we missed something but I'm PRETTY sure it was because of the cast switch and jumping right in might be a task. However, the maze in general I started to like less as all I could think was Saw this time and I tried my hardest not to but that's truly what it felt like to me. Oh and sadly the dog scene at the end did nothing for me this time. They're actually a bit hard to see since they're at waist level-ish.

Repeatability: 7 [I guess it was cool to see it at a lower hype level than I saw it before so than I could concentrate on the maze itself instead of performances. Unfortunately, doing that just made me see Saw more. Still very grotesque for me though which had me in awe of all the gruesome detail]
Improvements: 5 [Locker room guy's performances really blew it away for me, plus I got the locker room scare this time, which made me happy but I missed quite a few more but it all kinda evens out.]
Downfall: -5 [Cast switches or empty rooms right as I was going through. This was a bit unavoidable so I can't really blame anyone for this but for the experience as a whole, it wasn't as top notch as last time. It just sucks for the two times I was in this maze, I never got to see the whole thing ON.]
Repeat Worth Total: 7

Hit Jurassic Park then Mummy and went back up the escalator. HOTC said a 5 minute wait while everything else had about 20 or 30 so I thought it would be the best moment. Finally got to walk through Freakz and I honestly don't remember much. I don't think I was targeted once while going through. While I'm on that subject, I was targeted only once through Zombieville but I at least saw them interacting with other guests. I didn't get much out of the Zombieville set either as I think Freakz looks a lot more cool. However, scares were around me more in Zombieville so it edges out the competition. With that said, my fav scarezone still has to be Klownz. Got targeted a thousand times while going through there but it also helps it's an area I ended up going through more than half a dozen times. Anywho, the line for HOTC turned out to really be 20. Decided to go without the 3D glasses this time and I'm glad I did, got to focus on a lot of the detail. A group of fun guys was behind us in line and we let 'em go in front so we can watch them get scared - - it was great. I didn't go through this on opening night so I'll rate it in comparison with last year. Still, the first 1/3 of the maze is so boring. The Murder Ride is just endless walls with no scares in them. That was my main complaint last year. Also, this maze doesn't illicit a feeling of fear within me still but at least this time it got more startles. Tiny was going NUTS on those stilts. He was ALL around that room which is much more than I saw him do last year. A lot of the cast was very into it too, however, I would've lived and never were to have cared much if this weren't to have returned - - even though it was better for me this year.

Repeatability: 4 [The maze is only decent to me - - it just doesn't blow me away like something of the caliber like The Thing or La Llorona. Experience being a bit more amped helped things but I was bored of the scenery.]
Improvements: 8 [Got more scares this time, felt more energy.]
Downfall: -3 [Just not my favorite maze and it just doesn't have enough scares in the first third.]
Repeat Total Worth: 8

 

[DTH]

FINALLY tried Doc Brown's chicken after more than half a decade! It was pretty good for theme park food. Right after, headed to La Llorona since it only had a 15 minute wait. Got in line, it was more like 10. The queue for the maze really sets things up nicely and I have to say, this maze was SCARIER than it was when I went through it before. The creepy element was still there but the scares were just much harder and really shaking. I went in through the maze AGAIN later on in the night and we were getting the tail end of stuff but it STILL is pretty damn creepy. Even the La Llorona at the exit made me jump back pretty good even though I'm used to the scare being there! Also didn't help that my group was fast pacing it out the maze instead of just soaking it all in the second time around, which I realize is probably the only benefit of conga line style when you're with a bunch of scaredy cats.

Repeatability: 10 [Amazing environments to be in awe of. Creepiest vibe I think I've ever had in a maze other than TCM. Almost felt like my first time through again.]
Improvements: 10 [Everything was amped up more than it was before. Two major things that made it extra creepy and gave me extra scares: 1) Picture frame. I had no idea the first time going through that this was a scrim. This time, I'm going through and I'm looking at the picture and I see La Llorona giving me the SCARIEST LOOK ever from behind it. Then the lights dim - - then BAM - she pops out. It was like a triple scare! You see her, she disappears and it's creepy and then she jumps out of the frame. Holy crap! 2) The last scene of the bed, the grim reaper popped out! I hadn't seen that in any of the videos before and this was totally new to me and caught me off gaurd so good. Another really great creepy effect is right before the scare in the river, you can see La Llorona kinda just hovering over in the corner. She lights up and then goes dark and then on the opposite side, a live actor of La Llorona pops out. Freakin' AWESOME.
Downfall: 1 [The dark room's door was WIDE open, making it bright and there was no scareactor in there on the first trip. On the second trip, luckily it was closed and luckily someone in there was doing something other than feathering people. So one bad thing got made up for; plus the graveyard stilt walker wasn't doing the pedal scare either time I went through, which disappointed me because that was one of my biggest scares on the first time I went through opening night.]
Total Repeat Points: 19 [Fun fact, even with the repeats of some mazes, since I've only gone through them all once each year, the HHN maze I've gone through the most other than the HoH is La Llorona with a total of 3 times in this season since we did it twice tonight (I know, that sounds like nothing but I just realized it!)]

After that, we went to Wolfman. I don't know, what's there to say?
Repeatability: 5 [Luckily, the HOH is naturally a good maze. As an overlay, not many points.]
Improvements: 4 [Going through, a LOT of the Terror Tram cast went into this maze! It was awesome being randomly scared by bushman. Also, got a good scare from Gollum at the end of the maze who comes out of the tiniest crevis in a wall]
Downfall: 0 [Well, nothing really other than the obvious of it not being a good overlay.]
Total Repeat Points: 9

Right after, hit up the Thing. While in line, I so happened to be standing right next to the one and only Freak! He joined our group for this maze and for when we repeated La Llorona. Got to chat it up with him in the 30 minute wait advertised as 45. Seriously, such a cool dude and I'm glad I bumped into him. We compared notes on what we hit throughout the night, talked about ideas and some rumors of what's in store for the future. Just a really good lucky surprise and coincidence; a HHN miracle, if you will. Great to talk to a fellow fan about the event (since the girls I was with tonight don't necessarily GET IT on that type of level) who I can tell is passionate about all things Haunt. Truly a cool guy that I can honestly say it was a pleasure to meet and I would say I'm very lucky to have met him by chance tonight. As for the maze, once again - - all the air is being poured out into the queue (also, there's a little TV now set up playing the trailer over and over... why not use the projection like they did back for F13 in 07 & 08?) The temp inside had cooled down by a BIT and moreso towards the end but it's still not quite there. I'm not sure if they ever will get there but I can say the use of using up all that space for the units was probably a waste. The first scare is now a guy on the platform, who I truly didn't expect to see there. The first creature scare though is in the worst spot of the room. You could see it scare other people at least 3 or 4 times until it's your turn. This time, I also noticed an actual person in the body of The Thing being assimilated on the table. Must be a boring job since all he does is just lay there, haha. There was an extra scare actor or two that I noticed that was doing a fantastic job. Still though, the maze suffers from hallways and hallways of blank walls! Watching the movie (and going through a maze like Fallout Shelter) makes you wish they would put up some shelves, as you see in every hall of the movie.

Repeatability: 10 (The maze still has the most startling scares with the most surprising creatures that never fail to get me. Always fun to see people's reactions to some of the more intense stuff.)
Improvements: 8 (New actors in new places and they had their roles more fine tuned than before when I first went because back than they were more blocky with their movements which is understandable because they have those crazy suits on. Also, the scares were repeated at a much quicker rate so everyone in the room got them, which is a good thing since we conga lined most of the way and saw most of the scares before they happened, but at LEAST we got attacked ourselves, which is preferred than getting a tail end and never seeing it happen again.)
Downfall: 0 (Nothing that I can think of that would negate this experience.)

At this point, got some Cinnabon and sat around. We had thirty minutes to kill until Bill and Ted. La Llorona's wait went down to 5 minutes so we did it again with Freak. Afterwards, Freak went off to hit HOTC for his last maze of the night while I took my group to see Bill and Ted. LOTS of changes this year and I think many were for the better - - the show is still freakin' hilarious and I don't get a lot of the complaints. I would say it's on par with the other golden years - - it's just lacking Bill and Ted throughout who kinda just stand around (playing Tron in the background or sitting down watching girls dance haha). My friend got a lapdance from Thor, which made her first time ever to HHN more the better. Truly a classic moment. Wish I had my camera out! One odd thing that was happening though was towards the end of the show, everyone in my section started moving around and sitting somewhere else. Then the staff of the show all had concerned looks on their face while pointing up. I was concerned that it had something to do with the show but apparently it was a GIANT spider coming down towards the crowd. We were all directed to not go under it and I don't blame 'em for the worry - - that thing looked HUGE and poisonous. As we were leaving, which was only about 1:15, the chainsaw chaseout guys marched back in so we didn't get to experience that, which is a shame.

All in all, a great night at Universal BUT I gotta say this is more of a one time experience for me. I'm glad I went twice THIS year to find that out though. I'll now go back to my normal routine of going once near the end of the run as things are just a lot smoother and fine tuned (unless a Scream or Evil Dead maze comes... those are my only two exceptions). Pretty much the ONLY MAJOR downfalls were Terror Tram and Hostel, but Hostel I can't say it was necessarily their fault for that happening. My opinion on this being somewhere in the middle of the best years remains and most of my maze picks kinda fall in the same order.

From least to greatest (for tonight):
Hostel
The Wolfman
House of 1000 Corpses
Alice Cooper
The Thing
La Llorona

From least to greatest (for event as a whole):
The Wolfman
House of 1000 Corpses
Hostel
Alice Cooper
The Thing
La Llorona

Best years, in order: 08, 09, 10, 11, 07

 

[pumpkinbot343]

Shameless plug for myself, I’m currently doing a project where I will try to list most of the music from HHN Hollywood events. Did 2006, still trying to work out 07 and 08; it’s surprisingly more of a hassle than I originally thought.

 

[DTH]

2012
Prologue
Arriving there, there was something in the air that just said, "this one's gonna be good." I tried to lower the anticipation. Keep myself at bay. Calm the expectations. But it's Universal - naturally for HHN, you just EXPECT something grand. And it's never until the end of the night, you can truly give an answer to that: did this year meet or exceed expecations or did it fall below the standard? Let's get started... and find out.

Prior to the Madness & Opening Scaramonies
Since we were an hour and a half early, we wanted to get some rides in so we didn't have to think about them later in the night. We ran down to the lower lot and hit the Mummy and Transformers (but you don't wanna know about that... so I'll carry on). By the time we finished with that, it was already 6 and we made our way back out the gates as things got set up. 6:30, they started to let the people in for the opening scaramonies. We got stuck by the Pizza Hut and the photo place, which I thought was a decent enough spot. However, after 30 long agonizing minutes, the scaramonies began... not only can you not see squat back there but the sound is practically mute. If you wanna hear and see this little mini-show, be among the nerds and get to the very front. Luckily, I saw the show on YouTube prior and I can say it's AWESOME. The story and everything works really well. And I'm glad to say, although a bit loosely, the event has returned to THEME.

Klownz
I'm very tired of clowns. Like... really. I can't even say much about it. These guys are energetic and going crazy but I'm just so sick of 'em at this point with the same dang music, same dang props and same dang characters in their regular location. It's a good zone but it shouldn't be the central scarezone like NY Street needs to be and definitely not 3 years in a row and if it is, it NEEDS to be changed up significantly. Unfortunately, as bored with this as I am, this wasn't the worst zone... we'll get to that later.
7.5 out of 10 'C'

La Llorona: The Child Hunter
We instantly made our way to La Llorona, simply to get it out of the way since it was the only repeat. I asked my girlfriend before we got to the park which maze she would think would be the best, and she named this maze simply because it was SO good last year and it'd be hard to top it. As true as that may be, I still thought: "Ha, what an odd choice." And quite honestly, she wasn't very far off. We waited in line for 10 minutes and at approximately 7:10 PM (I'm gonna tell you how long I waited for each maze and tell you exactly when I went in the maze, just for "quality purposes"), we entered this BEAST. It starts off fairly the same... but right after the church, I noticed things were tweaked, chopped and twisted from before. Some scenes I liked from before are missing, and some scenes I hated are missing as well. It's a very equal balance and for that, it's hard to decide: "was it better than last year?" It's a very odd tie, with only my personal bias of "I've seen this before" bringing this maze down a couple of points. Had this very exact maze been presented this year for the first time, I think I would've been more receptive to it. But let's talk about the differences (without ruining anything, ofcourse). The ending is the part with the most obvious difference to it. In case you were wondering, yes, they keep the girl being eaten, it's just now in a different spot. Only now, that seems to be THE THING (*wink, wink*) this maze focuses on toward the end. It's seriously scary and my mouth dropped, and a lot of "WHOA'S" or "OH MY GOD'S" were said. I have to go through it again, but I think I MAY prefer this version to the original even though I'm giving this one a lower score as I'm looking at from the scope of things offered at the event this year (in other words, a 10 for TCM: Back in Business is different than a 10 for Saw). Still a DAMN good maze and honestly, one of this year's best over some of the new offerings.

Queue/Facade: 9. Same thing as last year for the facade, but the queue is now missing the story boards that said what the old man... or woman, was saying in the opening narration. This isn't a very big deal breaker, but in case you couldn't hear or understand him/her, these were great ways to get a full understanding of the story. Gotta take away a point for that.
Set Design: 10. Again, very beautiful maze and the new scenes look great, too.
Sound Design: 10. Very creepy sounds in here, which work to the overall tone of the maze.
Scareactor Design: 8. The new or tweaked scareactors weren't that great. And La Llorona is a fairly basic looking villain, so eh.
Scares: 9. Still lots of scares to be had in here. All the new ones got me, unless I caught the end of it or saw it behind me. However, the predictability factor was a problem since I've been through the original maze 3 times before.
Special Prop/Set: 10. Yup, lots of crazy poop to see in here.
Immersion: 8. This one isn't very fair, simply because I was looking for the differences and that took me out of the maze.
Fun: 10. The differences were fun to spot for a major fan and being scared by stuff old or new is a great treat.
Story: 8. The storyboards in the queue missing takes away the point. And even though I do know the story, I'm just a little perplexed with the route they decided to go with the ending. It's cool for me, but it seemed it focused on the more uh... monstery side of things instead of the ghostly side of things. It doesn't need explaining, but I think there should've been some type of... set up to unexpectedly expect that, if you catch my drift.
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 8. This actually felt like a worthy repeat with a lot new to say and kept the original VERY creepy tone of the original maze. I still say this is a must see and one of the best this year has to offer.
90 out of 100 'A'-

Starway
After that, ran to the starway. Thank GOD it's back to normal. I missed it and the "Nights with Alice Cooper" thing just didn't work for it. I noticed a little "radio trailer" for Silent Hill: Revelations. It sounded quite silly only hearing it...

Silent Hill (Scarezone)
I have to say...... this is the worst excuse for a scarezone I've ever seen. I saw maybe 3 nurses and a stiltsman and that's it. No fog and pretty much just the sirens blaring (which got ANNOYING after being down there for more than 10 minutes). I didn't see anybody running or hear any screaming. Thank you Transformers... because of you... the lower lot is dead.
No grade for this one. Ghostface's voice: "FAIL"

Welcome to Silent Hill (Maze)
Told the mailman the secret codeword for tonight, "Alessa" and he just stared at me and kept walking. I figured he'd listen to my girlfriend, so she said it when we were further up the queue. Still nothing. Just ignored us both times. Almost looked like he didn't know why we were calling out to him with the name Alessa. Oh well. Had a very quick 5 minute wait and got in at 7:25 PM. I don't know WTF was going on in here, but whatever it was, something tells me it was all according to normal, and I have to say the maze was very damn WEAK. There was hardly ANY scares. I got scared ONCE by Pyramid Head in some random spot. And there's like 5 of him in the maze and I don't reckon seeing him ever with a weapon. The main problem with this maze is it's very Knotts-like stance with the scares and having people stand about trying to scare you instead of the usual "set scares" that Universal usually does. I think the one time I was scared by Pyramid Head was because I got used to all the monsters standing around, then he just happened to be the ONE time something hit a switch and the strobe lights flashed. That's a bit of an exaggeration... there's more than just one "set scare," but it was all fairly underwhelming so that's just what my memory tells me. It's such a shame because there were a lot of really good looking sets but on the other side, there were a lot of just dark looking rooms and chainlink fences. This was honestly the only maze I was thoroughly DISSAPOINTED by and could not believe how below average it was. I really hope this improves on my second trip.

Queue/Facade: 5. There is HARDLY a facade other than the sign, some greenery and a car. I don't know, I just think something more creative could've been done.
Set Design: 7. As said before, lots of good sets and a lot of just "bleh" ones.
Sound Design: 6. I can barely remember.
Scareactor Design: 10. Okay, at least this was good. Everyone looked great.
Scares: 3. Yeah... it was just whatever. I hardly jumped and I was only tense walking through in the beginning and that's because of basic conditioning telling me to feel scared because I'm entering a maze.
Special Prop/Set: 3. Basic hanging bodies and such.
Immersion: 6. Some moments I really felt into it (just seldomly) but there was one part that TOTALLY threw me out. As just said prior, the hanging bodies section is in between a chainlink fence area. What a HORRIBLE area to put hanging bodies. Everyone IMMEDIATELY dodged the bodies and walked directly into the fence on accident.
Fun: 8. Yeah, sure, it was fun, I'll give it that.
Story: 5. I honestly don't know what was going on, at all, but it seemed fairly basic with just walking through the city, although I'm not exactly sure if that's what was going on.
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 7. I think this is a good property and I think it has potential and I was really rooting for it, but it just all fell apart and nobody really seemed into it (both scareactors and guests walking through), but it's opening night so I'll cut it some slack, plus I think going into the video game world is surely different.
60 out of 100 'D'

 

[DTH]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Saw is the Law
Waited 5 minutes and got in at 7:40 PM. Believe it or not, I only thought of the TCM maze from 07/08 ONCE and that was during the dinner scene. Everything else didn't seem too rehashed. There's some really cool bits in here if you're a fan of the movie and recognizable scenes that'll make you happy. A few many blank walls but it's a house so... I guess I forgive a tad. My one sadness is the girl on the hook wasn't real. I'm sure they could've pulled it off SOME WAY. However, I did get a scare in that room. Anyway, in the beginning, 2 or 3 scares happened behind me but I know people screamed LOUD when they happened. They seemed fairly good too from what I could tell. And lemme say the chainsaw noises were at a great level and are just as good as having the actual chainsaw there. They REALLY startled me when they happened. The guy playing the Hitchhiker did an amazing job. I wonder if he kept at that level all night. I liked when the maze started to head outside, because that seemed different. However, I totally did not see Franklin's death or any scene associated to it. Where the hell was it? Anyway, I love the broom attack. So funny in the movie and funny here. As a fan of the movie, I can say the film was finely represented, but obviously, "Back in Business" from 07/08 is just better however this maze is still pretty strong, it just doesn't have enough new or unique scares.

Queue/Facade: 8. The opening narration & the lightbulbs both play just before you enter the house. Just what I wanted! However, it should've been the graveyard as the first scene. That would've fit PERFECT. The house looks fine but not having the graveyard first is really a missing opportunity...
Set Design: 8. A lot of blank walls in the house but the gas station seemed fairly detailed.
Sound Design: 10. Even though the movie is kinda oddly quiet, this maze seemed to have some really creepy music in it. I'm not entirely sure if it's all from the movie but it did lend itself to make the house have a creepier feel. Also, the chainsaw noises were nice and loud, just as they should be.
Scareactor Design: 9. They captured the look of Leatherface quite well but something somewhere felt off but I can't remember exactly what right now...
Scares: 9. I know they were there because I saw them happen after I left the room, but the ones that actually happened to me were great, too. This was actually a much more agressive maze than I thought it'd be.
Special Prop/Set: 8. The lame hanging girl on the meathook counts. Also, lots of victims being cut into. It all counts. Plus you got the stuff in the gas station cookin' and what not.
Immersion: 9. There were times where I really felt like I was in the movie. Only time I got thrown genuinely out of the maze for an entire scene was the dining room, because I had a "Back in Business" flashback.
Fun: 10. Yes, loved going through this maze!
Story: 10. Easy story to follow. Can't get more simple than that.
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 10. I just loved, loved, loved this maze and I think it'll only get better with time.
91 out of 100 'A' -

Jurassic Park In the Dark
It was ungodly hot so we needed to get a quick fix. We literally walked on and sat in the back. Apparently though, they didn't drain the water a bit or stop all the falling water bits so we got a little more wet then we wished but it was still fine. Major downer: the car didn't fall down the building! Now the bad thing is, the music inside was EAR NUMBINGLY loud. It needs to be turned WAY down. And yeah, still nothing new added to the ride.

Terror Tram: Invaded by the Walking Dead
I honestly believe the TT is the centerpiece of HHN Hollywood so it's always important to me that it be GOOD. I loved Bunny Slipper Girl just walking about of the entrance. She ACTUALLY looked like a little kid. Do we need to call CPS? First thing off the bat I noticed while in line though... the commercial had begun. That's all the queue was: a giant commercial for season 3. That REALLY bummed me out. But, if we're not kidding ourselves, this is usual, it's just on years prior, they were more tactful with their promotions. Eventually, I thought it was fine though because I figured, well, if it's the regular Studio Tour being taken over, that's excusable. However, getting onto the tram (which was at 8:25 PM after about a 10 minute walk on... haha), that wasn't really the case. The story kinda just says, "zombies started in Atlanta... now they're here too." Uh... 'k. Boring, but okay. The tour guide didn't even attempt to sell it as anything else. Almost literally, "there's zombies up ahead, now get off." Thankfully, that's the end of the disappointment. LET ME TELL YOU, this is the best TT in 2 years; IT'S BACK. About damn time they got it right after Chucky and Scream. Practically all of Whoville is blocked off, so don't expect to see much of it. Also, there's no "mini maze" in front of Bates Motel. Just a gate there to confine the space, which works fine. The camping ground was good too. There was a zombie just chewing on a body, deep into the scene, and not scaring anybody. It was weird but... cool at the same time, because it just added to the feel of a zombie attack. The hill was the only dud. EVERYTHING ELSE is damn good. But going up the hill (no bushmen this year, just military looking dudes) was almost a bore. Also, the burning shack is gone. There's another little "mini" area of sorts, which is a barn, close by though. This is where I started to think, "agh, this is gonna get kinda repetitive with the maze" and it DOES, BUT, I honestly didn't mind that much. However, I do think, overall, they should've done one or the other instead of both. I love that there's survivors everywhere. Some are killing, some are attacking you, and some are playing out a scene trying to contain the walkers. This is the type of stuff that's been missing from the TT for awhile that I missed. The line for the Bates Motel photo op was long. I like the new route going into the WotW set, although nothing drastic, but it was different enough to say it's different. WotW felt the same as usual, to be honest, haha, just this time it fit into the scheme of things. Got back on the tram, and again, commercialization. So TT is good this year, they just need to work on making the story to it better.

Queue/Facade: 6. On one hand, you have a queue that sets up zero story, but the video on the tram was edited together nicely explaining everything.
Set Design: 10. Lots of sets or confining the spaces this year, which really helped matters.
Sound Design: 10. I love the Walking Dead theme. And just random noises of zombies eating people. So great.
Scareactor Design: 7. EEEEEEK. Forgot about this. Alot of the zombies just have the look of "slap, slap" with a brush of red paint. Not that many detailed looking zombies but in the low light, it's hard to tell. Looking closer though, it's a bit disappointing. Don't let this discourage you on how the walkers look in the actual maze though...
Scares: 8. I got some good scares on here this year, actually! I mean, it's not a very SCARY experience, but the tension built nicely because it felt like a real invasion at points.
Special Prop/Set: 10. So many dead bodies littered around and being eaten into with people cut in half and such. Plus some of the new sets. Ya gotta dig it.
Immersion: 10. Like I said, felt like a real invasion. Forget the tram stuff and just think of the actual route and you're immersed pretty well.
Fun: 10. Had lots of fun on this TT because I felt invested in the invasion.
Story: 9. Like I said, forget the commercial stuff. The story is simply "INVASION!" And if you think of it like that, it's good enough.
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 10. I'm just so glad they tried DAMN hard to make TT work this year. I don't know WTF was going on the last two years but it's finally good again and I'm so happy.
90 out of 100 'A'

Witches
I didn't see any witches, per se, however, about 3 or 4 bald guys ran at me from one end of the street all the way to the other end where I was and scared the crap out of me because they were so aggressive. Probably the best SZ this year but I think a bit more could've been done.
8.8 out of 10. 'B'+

 

[DTH]

Alice Cooper Goes to Hell 3D
Waited 80 minutes (*) for this sucker and got in at 10:30. The facade is whatever. I love the skeleton though. Entering, right away, it's obvious the 3D is great. I was VERY impressed with how the 3D looked in the maze. There were parts that were blowing my mind (random rockwork looked real, the freakin' bricks). And like a lot of reviews said from preview night, the maze is basically really good to look at but low on scares. The maze just isn't necessarily scary because of its brightness. However, it is fun.

Queue/Facade: 5. Ehhhhhhhh. Still no music playing on the backside of the building. That REALLY bugs me.
Set Design: 10. Wow, wow, wow. Not even just the 3D, there's a lot of really cool rooms. I honestly didn't like the Gates of Hell scene. It looked oddly glowy, but there's plenty of stuff in this maze to make up for it, for me.
Sound Design: 9. Horrorfied rock songs. Actually... most of the songs sounded untampered with, but it all seemed to fit. Also, the sound triggers were really booming and startled me even if I was a room away.
Scareactor Design: 6. Meh, could be scarier things running around.
Scares: 7. However, the damn sound triggers, like I said before, would make me jump from an entire room away. That put me on edge a bit, and there were SOME scares and good jump moments (the hoarder room ones are gooooood).
Special Prop/Set: 10. There's actually a crap load of stuff in this maze that's either a special prop or set piece. Gotta give credit when credit is due!
Immersion: 10. I actually felt quite into this world as I was going through it. Can't really remember a time where I realized I was a maze until I got out of it, obviously.
Fun: 10. I enjoyed going through this one and seeing people react to stuff so easily.
Story: 8. I guess.
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 9. This was pretty much what I thought it'd be. I like WTMN more because that maze was actually darker in tone and had more of a creep factor (even though that maze is hardly scary too). But this maze was just very bright and almost happy.
84 out of 100 'B'-

Toyz
Stopped to eat those tacos from the truck outside of ACGTH. They were quite good. Anyway, we got targeted three times going through. Looking around, I didn't care much about anything though. The scareactors looked great but there's a certain something missing... Should've been just... more. I don't know how to explain it...
7.8 out of 10 'C'+

Universal Monster Remix
I should note,at this time of the night, I looked at the wait board and it said Transformers was 160 minutes. Yes, 2 hours and 40 minutes. Do it EARLY if you have to (lower lot still has short waits for the first hour, including Transformers). Anyway, walk on to this at 10:58. And W...T...F. This was just horrid. I didn't hear a single person scream in that damn thing. This absolutely WEIRD idea was just as poorly executed ALTHOUGH not as poorly executed as it could've been. The first half to the stairs is fairly the same. Then as you get up the stairs, there's more set pieces and stuff. But honestly, that stuff just seems like it should be there already, almost like the raptors added at the end on JP in the Dark. And again... the music... ugh... made everything so UNSCARY. No sense of dread, no build up, no scare worked and just... wow. Just bad. In the Wolfman woods, there was like 4 Wolfman jumping out at once and THAT was cool but everything else... Frankenstein's lab. Just... facepalm. DJ Franky is an actual DJ. I wanted to cry for what Universal has done to their own beloved monsters. Although, I won't lie... I had fun, but only because I was laughing at how stupid it all was. Easily the worst HHN maze I've been through. Unless you like dubstep music, or want to see such an atrocity in person (which counts for something, seriously lol) just skip it I was really hoping I'd be wrong about this one

Queue/Facade: 1. Nothin' but a little banner and nothing to signify really that this is a... monster party of sorts.
Set Design: 6. Automatic 5 for it being the HoH but only a tad bit of some of the sets were reworked a bit.
Sound Design: 7. *chuckles* Sure.
Scareactor Design: 6. The new monsters looked funky to me. When the regular monsters popped out, things felt normal again.
Scares: 2. 2 points for the Wolfmen.
Special Prop/Set: 8. Okay, there was lots of new props added in here... but nothing significant to change the feel of the maze. Like I said, they all seemed like they should be there regularly. Why isn't this open during regular hours again?
Immersion: 0. Buahahaha. C'mon.
Fun: 5. Sure. Sure.
Story: 0. SO WHAT WAS GOING ON HERE?
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 2. New props gets a point. And 1 point out of pity.
37 out of 10 'F'-

The Walking Dead: Dead Inside
Waited 80 minutes (**) and went through at 12:30. Right off the bat, this maze got intense. There's a lot of bare walls but not even 1/10 into the maze, I didn't even care. This felt REAL. This felt INTENSE. This was an action, thriller, horror film and I had to escape. But the deeper you go in, you realize THERE IS NO ESCAPE. What a damn good maze and definitely the best this year. Firstly, I loved walking through a lot of the recognizable scenes (I totally don't remember seeing the store from episode 2 though... hm). Not only that, the scares in this one are just AMAZING. Obviously, there's a lot going on in this maze and a lot to be distracted by. One second you're looking at a tank and the next, someone's about to bite into your freakin' face. There's so many iconic scenes in this maze, I'd literally have to go scene by scene, but you don't want that. Let's just say, there's no weak points in this maze (okay, let's just not count the random dark room). This is probably the most epic in scope of an HHN maze since... sheesh, ever. It travels a lot of ground, experiences a lot of moments and has so many monsters inside, you don't know where to turn. I'm not saying it's the best maze ever, that'd be a long shot, but the pure excitement and adrenaline that ran through me while in this maze is something that's hard to come by. It's not the average, slow and creepy maze. You walk in and it's just GO, GO, GO! Scare after scare after scare. Job damn well done. Magic was created in there tonight.

Queue/Facade: 10. MASSIVE. I've never seen a maze facade that big.
Set Design: 9. Some blank spots but I can totally forgive that.
Sound Design: 10. THE WALKING DEAD THEME! AAAAH!! So perfect.
Scareactor Design: 10. Now THESE zombies looked freakin awesome and real. That's what I'm talkin' bout!
Scares: 10. 10. 10. 10. Scare in every damn corner.
Special Prop/Set: 10. One word: Tank. There's so much more, too.
Immersion: 10. I felt like I was freakin' IN IT, man.
Fun: 10. Oh God, yes.
Story: 10. Who cares. GO GO GO! But seriously... like the Terror Tram. "Invasion... now go."
Personal Bias Bonus Points: 10. I loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. To the point where it's unexplainable in a review. I get jazzed up just thinking about it.
99 out of 100 'A'+

 

[DTH]

Bill and Ted
The early reviews for this were a bit exaggerated. IT IS a good show though, but not PERFECT. We caught the 1:35 AM show that so happened to start at 1:50 AM really (***). There's still SO MUCH to be tweaked out. Blocking was a bit sloppy, dialogue was fudged occasionally, tech cues almost went horribly awry and some jokes just didn't land. Although, I can't imagine a lot changing with this show. But let's get to the main thing here: it's apparent the writers either 1) read our reviews or 2) know what's wrong with their show. A few things happened here that we've been BEGGING for: to tie the show more into the movies, to make the show more Halloween oriented (opening number), and to have actual rock music in the damn show. All three of these things happened! The rock music is 80s style and is actually the finale, themed to Rock of Ages (which bombed, so uh...??? haha). My only MAJOR gripe is the pop music finale. Most of the songs feel either too early this year or just flat out SUCK. There's a problem when One Direction and Carly Rae Jepsen come on and they're NOT being killed, instead being taken seriously as actual hits. UGH. Anyway... so many great bits in the show this year. This probably is the second best year. I still say 08 is the best but this comes damn close. The Hunger Games is perfect and lends itself to many great moments. They actually use the screens above to enhance and tell a lot of story elements, also. And the pyro... they damn near blow the house down. My crowd wasn't super into it, sadly, but the performers gave a helluva show. Can't wait to see this much more smoothed out later in the run.
9.7 out of 10 'A'

Line/Show Control
As you might have noticed, there's been a few of ***** in the review. This is where I'll address why... line and show control were absolutely HORRIBLE tonight. Seriously, I hate bringing this up because I know they're busting their asses but it MUST be said. The La Llorona line I was in literally should've been a walk on but stretched to 10 minutes for no good reason. Silent Hill, UMR, JP and TCM went smoothly though. Everything else was just a PAIN in everyone in the line's ass. I'm a very patient person but I was tested tonight with how ridiculous things became in these lines tonight.
* Alice Cooper Goes to Hell. Electronic wait board said 40 minutes. We get there and the manual wait board says 60 minutes. No big deal. However, the line is actually 80 minutes. The first initial switchbacks moved slow but were fine. Once we got toward the front, we saw the problem: film crews stopping in front of the facade and just taking freakin' pictures and video, not letting anyone go. I think a full 10 minutes went by where we didn't move because of that nonsense. Then there were just random stretches where no one would go through. Must've been celebs closing the place down or I don't freakin' know what but the line should have not taken that long.
** Walking Dead, same issue, only worse. Electronic wait board said 30. Manual wait board said 30. The line even LOOKS short. Yet it moves... unbearably... slow. 80 minute wait. Expecting 30 minutes but waiting almost triple that is just maddening. Again, we get closer to the front, and things just stop for long stretches at a time. I came last year to opening night and this never happened. We were going to hit the 12:20 Bill and Ted. Got in line at 11:10 thinking we'd have quite a lot of time to spare. Turns out, we miss the show by 10 minutes and now have an entire hour to spare just waiting for the 1:35 show... which leads me to...
*** That Bill and Ted show didn't even let people IN until 1:35. The pre-show "Fail" video, which has absolutely NOTHING to do with ANYTHING, starts at 1:45 and lasts for 5 minutes. Meaning, our show is running an entire 15 minutes late!
This was just the most sloppily handled line and show control night I've ever experienced at Universal. Usually they are top of things so well, but I finally witnessed what other people complained about. Even though I did get through ALL the mazes, I can totally see how one might make a slight detour for 10 minutes and then miss 2 or 3 mazes because Universal isn't putting up the right wait times or line control doesn't know what the hell they're doing. This even happened at Transformers earlier in the day, before HHN even started. The single rider line, which was at the second steps, took 40 minutes because instead of picking out people from single rider whenever there was 2 empty seats, they'd go into the regular line screaming for "PARTY OF TWO?!" Seriously?!!?!?! But it's okay, set backs are expected, I'm just so glad we got through everything but the right damn times on the board would've really eased everything. Going into an 80 minute line, expecting it to be 80 minutes, standing for 80 minutes and then going in after 80 minutes is much better than going into a 15 minute looking line, expecting it to be shorter, standing for 25 minutes realizing it might actually be 50 minutes, then realizing it's going to be even longer, and going in after 80 minutes. That messes with people psychologically!!! Anyway... enough of the complain corner.

Outro
I say this is a REALLY good year. Better than last year, definitely. I say it's on par with 09 (perfectly tied with it, in my eyes actually). BUT, nothing compares to the epicness of 08 or the super intense mazes of 10. It has one AMAZING maze, finally a GREAT TT again, a genius Bill and Ted, a worthy repeat and plenty more. This is definitely not a year to miss!

Years (from top to bottom): 08, 10, 09/12, 11, 07
Terror Trams: 08, 09, 12, 07, 11, 10
Mazes: Walking Dead, TCM, La Llorona, ACGTH, Silent Hill, UMR
Bill and Teds: 08, 12, 07, 11, 10, 09

 

[DTH]

2012: Round 2

AHHHHHH last night was SO good. Definitely better than my opening night visit, which was already pretty top notch. Scareactors were on their freakin GAME (except for ONE maze). Let's get to it.

Arrival

Heading through City Walk, we got into the park at 6:40 (twenty minutes through City Walk is what happens when you're with a group of 8, haha). As we entered, there was barely a little crowd gathered at the scaramonies area. My friend got there a bit before us and got to the early entrance line for Transformers. He was let in at 6:35, so by the time we go there, we already missed the line by about 5 minutes. VERY LUCKILY, scaramonies started a whole 20 minutes early and we met up with him on the lower lot.

Silent Hill (scarezone)

I take back a lot of the things I said in my first review. This zone is VERY minimal but I think they did a GREAT job for what and who they had. There were maybe 5 or 6 scareactors in that spot but they were attacking everybody! When I got there, the zone was still located at the bottom of the escalators instead of moved to the back of the maze.

Welcome to Silent Hill (maze)

It was only 6:55 or so with a literal walk on. Entered and the maze was already completely different from my mediocre experience opening night. The talent was getting us in every direction! Had so much fun in this maze, I was really impressed with the improvement. Couldn't believe they had gone from practically 50% to a full 98% in terms of how good that maze could probably be. It made all the difference in the world. Only thing lacking at that point was the lack of different monsters and environments. Hats off to these fellas for most improvement, by far! The creature within the fences who's wrapped up like a mummy (haha, total newb to the series to not know his name) gave me a good tortured scream as we passed... kinda freaked me out haha. The Pyramid Heads in this maze were ferocious and nearly made my friend fall over, who usually doesn't scare easy. Such a great memory. I even like the Robbie the Rabbit scare at the end, as he came at us for a hug. Very cute and creepy, just like he should be! As we exited, we all got dang near stabbed in the face by those fiesty nurses. Good job, ladies, you were rocking it! And amazing work to the whole crew!

Repeatability: 8 [This maze felt very fresh going through it, even though I've watched it a dozen times. It's environments, although fairly boring, are forgettable and therefore, easy to walk back into and be like "aaaah, this seems new" haha]

Improvement: 10 [Most improved maze, by far.]

Downfalls: 0 [Nothing but improvements for this maze, which is very good.]

Transformers

Right after Silent Hill, went straight to Transformers. Another LITERAL WALK ON. Gotta freakin' love it. Our group had a whole car to ourselves, even. 4 extra seats. That's how empty it was down there.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

After Transformers, ran up the steps for TCM (I need to remember to enter into JP and just duck under the ropes to the TCM queue), and came to another LITERAL WALK ON. Man, I love 1) Thursdays 2) being on the lower lot during the first hour. This maze improved a tad, as I already thought it was strong last time as well. Main difference is I caught two of the scares I missed the first go around at the beginning of the maze. Also, in the diner scene (minor spoiler) the girl tied down wasn't tied down at all! She lunged at me with her hands and SCARED THE poop OUT OF ME. Very simple and yet, VERY EFFECTIVE. (end minor spoiler) My one sadness was the outside of the BBQ shop wasn't foggy, just dark. However, it was so dark, I couldn't see a damn thing. Mixed with fog, that would've been lovely. Oh and I finally saw Franklin! Why are there 2 wheelchairs in his scene though? And why isn't he being brutally murdered?! And again, all the cast was on their game. However, they were targeting pretty much the group in front of us and behind us, but we still got some decent scares.

Repeatability: 4 [After 2 other years with TCM, and even though this one feel tonally different, I don't care much to just go through this one over and over again]

Improvement: 5 [Got my few extra scares I didn't get the last time, so that was good ]

Downfalls: -3 [Missing the fog, some scares were mis-timed]

The Mummy

After, hit the Mummy. Another literal walk on. At this point, it was like 7:40 and still having walk ons was pretty dang cool. However, ALL OF THE ANIMATRONICS WERE BROKEN! Every last one of them! No skeletons moving, no hands reaching from the ceiling, no Imohtep chanting, NOTHING! Oh well.

Terror Tram

I hate to brag, but another walk on (not literally though, had to wait for the next tram). I imagined something hectic since everyone was making their way to it first. The tram host sold the story a bit better than our opening night host. Once we got off, the insanity began. I dig going around the motel a bit more than through it. Makes the tram feel longer. However, they need more open space for going around the turn because it still causes a traffic jam. We actually got MANY ferocious scares at the Bates Motel. Things were looking very positive at this point. We got up the hill and it was pretty much dead. I think there was only one scareactor there. Then, things picked up again at the camper. My new favorite part is the walkers trapped in the cages. With perfect timing, 2 or 3 walkers were pulling on their gate and simultaneously, they all pushed them open and attacked us! Then heading through the fence to WOTW, LOTS of scareactors jumping over. They were doing great. But after that, a dud. There were barely ANY walkers in the WOTW set. That was SO disappointing. I think maybe 1 or 2 in the barn also. However, two of our friends got chased at two different points during this tram, so that was fun to see. This is definitely miles better than last year, but what the hell was up with the emptiness of the WOTW part?

Repeatability: 6 [Very good tram, lots of new sets and such to see.]

Improvement: 2 [uh, not much actually other than little tiny things not even worth mentioning]

Downfalls: -5 [Very dead WOTW scene dang near ruined it]

Alice Cooper Goes to Hell

We were STARVING at this point but with AC having a 15 minute line, we couldn't pass it up. Opening night, we waited 80 minutes and I was not about to endure that wait for this disappointing maze. This time, the maze was even more disappointing. I'm so sad to say, everyone was a bit sluggish. None of the scares hit. None of the scareactors were using their triggers. Literally, I don't think I even heard one. Nothing in this maze was working. The visuals are still great and I think the sets are still pretty impressive but the talent is just so... bleh. Even the Lust girls were mute the entire time through. However, I did notice that blank room after the gates of hell scene people were mentioning. Um... yeah, what's up with that? lol oh and the liposuction water squirt is just beyond annoying -- got squirted a mondo amount! I really don't know what was going on in here tonight but it made me very sad. I think most of my group forgot we even did this maze, as nobody really even mentioned it again later in the night. So with this experience combined with my first one, Alice Cooper falls very short this year and is probably my new second to least favorite maze, as Silent Hill now takes its spot.

Repeatability: 0 [This sounds harsh, but I never wanna go in this maze again.]

Improvement: 1 [um... the hell room was actually cold this time...........]

Downfalls: -8 [All the big and small things I loved about this maze are now gone. Such a shame]

Mels Diner

At around 8:45, we finally decided to stop for dinner. We chose Mels Diner since Doc Browns Chicken wasn't open. Seriously, WTF?! Anyway, got some chicken tenders with chili cheese fries. VERY YUMMY. Also got my collectible sipper. They were having a buy 2, get 1 free deal. Since '09 on their final week, it was usually buy one, get one free, but I guess good things can't last forever. Ate in the courtyard between Toyz and Witches. We pushed our two tables together and took some time to relax and just relish in the thought of everything we got done so far in such little time. We honestly could've probably had everything done by 10, but we like to space out our night. So knowing the lines would be short, we sat here for maybe 45 minutes trying to kill some time.

 

[DTH]

La Llorona

Got in line at 9:05 for an expected 55 minute wait. It was dead on with the time, as we got in at 10. VERY GOOD work, Universal. And to mention, my expected 15 minute wait for AC was 15 minutes as well. And later in the night, the 75 minute wait for TWD was that much time as well. So other than the walk ons which said they were longer wait times, no misdirection or miscalculations this time! YAAAAY. Anyway, the maze is still amazing. It's aggressive, bone chilling and has haunting imagery that I'll remember for years. At this point, my girlfriend and I went to the back of the group just to watch our friends get scared. So much fun. This maze will go down in HHN history as one of the greats.

Repeatability: 6 [i don't wanna be that guy but... I could do it for another year with 50% changes again!]

Improvement: 3 [Nothing much more from my opening night visit.]

Downfalls: -2 [Didn't get the picture scare, which is one of my favorites]

Universal Monster Remix

At 10:10, we decided to hit UMR. Literal walk on. We walked on so fast, my group didn't even realize we actually walked into the maze yet. And as expected, they danced their way through the maze. The only people who liked it were my 2 friends in the back, who seemed to get the bulk of the scares. They actually said it was their favorite of the night, and it was obvious because they were screaming LOUD! Everyone else thought it was stupid lol

Repeatability: 0 [Please, never again]

Improvement: 0 [Nothing new, that I can remember, only things lessened]

Downfalls: -5 [Less Wolfmen in the Wolfmen room, but I can't complain too much about a possible shift change/schedule thing. However, the go-go was just standing around and DJ Franky didn't seem into it. Everyone else was on fire though.]

The Walking Dead

MAJOR, MAJOR, MAJOR PROPS to the zombie in the van out front. This is what went down: we're walking to the maze and a hand/foot prop falls by our feet. We all stop, "huh?" Then SLIDING IN under the van door is the zombie, grabbing the prop and chewing on it and scaring the poop out of us. Make our way through and every scare is just as aggressive as I remember, if not more aggressive. This maze really stepped it up, even though they were already leaps and bounds above the other ones. I think I got the scare in every single room, it was perfect. (minor spoiler) One scare that REALLY got me was the guy behind the window in the "God Forgive Us" scene. You know, he's just pounding on the glass, doesn't seem very useful other than a distraction for what's coming from the left. But just as we're exiting from that room, he POPS OUT from a random side door, which I've never heard of, known about or seen in any of the videos. GOT ME GOOD. (end minor spoiler) This time around, I also got to appreciate the length of the maze. It feels very long despite that feeling of adrenaline that makes it seem like we're running through it. I also hear a lot of the walkers from Terror Tram are located to the maze on early TT closure nights, which is a great way to populate the maze! Another great part is the barn, all the zombies popping out at different angles, areas and places, it's just beyond scary getting pinballed all the way out of the maze. The talent in here just amazes me.

Repeatability: 10 [*Thor voice* ANOTHA!]

Improvement: 5 [Physically, I didn't see any improvements but talent-wise, they went from scorching hot, to BLAZING HOT!]

Downfalls: 0 [Just good all around]

Bill and Ted

Had 50 minutes to spare until the 12:30 Bill and Ted so we sat over there early. Our friends saved our spots as my girlfriend and I ran off to get some tacos and refill our sipper (from the one in front of Cinnabon and the girl working there was really nice and helpful -- she needs a raise!). We come back to the line and our friends are already inside. So, inside before the actual show time and starting the show ON TIME? Wow, complete opposite experience from opening night. I like the new additions/replacements but at this point, I figured some things would be cut out to thin down the run time of the show. It's still WAY too long. For example, do we really need the Ted thunder-buddy song? Or any of the Men In Black stuff? Unfortunately, my audience was dead as a doornail. Often, I'd be the only one clapping along when they wanted you to. And is the Magic Mike girl a plant or not?! The girl on opening night was very rowdy, but the girl today was totally embarassed! Anyway, really good show and is always the perfect way to end the night. OH! And for freakin' ONCE, I caught the Chainsaw Chase Out! About dang time.

Queue Entertainment

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HEARING MY CRIES! For the last 2 or 3 years, I've been begging them to bring this back, now half of the damn queues have something to entertain us with. Silent Hill has a trailer playing on the escalator wall (might be more, I only walked passed it really quick), La Llorona not only has the old man/woman telling the story but also the La Llorona diaries playing on a (one little) TV and The Walking Dead has a huge projection showing clips from the show on the side of the building. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. But um... make sure all this stuff is there OPENING NIGHT also, but good job with improving on all that stuff.

Overall

I really enjoyed this trip, and much more than my opening night trip. The last Thursday of the month is just my absolute favorite day to attend and I will never miss it! Cheap, low lines and smoothed out scares. Thinking back on it, I only waited in TWO lines the whole night. Freakin' wow.

Revised --

Years (from top to bottom): 08, 10, 12, 09, 11, 07

Terror Trams: 08, 09, 12, 07, 11, 10

Mazes: Walking Dead, La Llorona, TCM, Silent Hill, ACGTH, UMR

Bill and Teds: 08, 12, 07, 11, 10, 09

It felt wrong at first, but it's so right. I moved 12 up above 09 on the years part. I really do think this year edges it out for having 4 great quality mazes, a great TT and a great B&T show.

Walking Dead remains the top dog. I gotta hand it to La Llorona, for being a repeat, it sure is one intense maze so I gotta edge it out over TCM. Silent Hill proved itself while ACGTH showed it's true colors. UMR is still crap, but at least it's slightly fun crap.

 

[pumpkinbot343]

Luckily, I saw the show on YouTube prior and I can say it's AWESOME. The story and everything works really well. And I'm glad to say, although a bit loosely, the event has returned to THEME.

Hmmm?

I miss that one review that compared the Hollywood and Orlando events that year. Apparently the problem with the Walking Dead houses was that the walkers didn’t really act like walkers- very uncharacteristic behavior. Which, for an event which goes for high level immersion, is kinda a problem.

 

[DTH]

Hmmm?

I miss that one review that compared the Hollywood and Orlando events that year. Apparently the problem with the Walking Dead houses was that the walkers didn’t really act like walkers- very uncharacteristic behavior. Which, for an event which goes for high level immersion, is kinda a problem.

Eh, I thought it was fine for HHN. They have to pop out of their boo holes and reset -- which requires a fast pop and return for startle-sake and repeat for the next group -- not lumber around slow-like. Just the nature of the event. I remember reading that critique also and while it is true, I can suspend belief just enough.

 

[DTH]

INTRO
I was looking forward to this year probably more than any other year. Evil Dead finally comes to Horror Nights! Insidious! El Cucuy! The return of the Walking Dead! Backlot scarezone! Soundstage maze! Chucky returns! The potential was ripe for a classic year that would go down in history.............................

*DEEP VOICE* Or so he thought...............

PRIOR TO THE MADNESS
At about 6, we headed towards the far side of the security checks to be quickly wanded. Once passed that, I saw the EARLY ENTRY line. We quickly went over and lined up in front of Waterworld. By 6:15, we were already in NY Street. The people in charge were trying to pump up the crowd. Quick funny story: the people next to us were looking for a guy named Rob, standing on shoulders and waving into the crowd to get him to come over and it took about 20 minutes for him to finally catch up, so when he finally did, the whole crowd started chanting "ROB, ROB, ROB!" It was funny... I sense you didn't laugh. Maybe you had to be there... At 6:30, I saw the regular entrants make their way to the barricades in front of the fire cannons for the opening scaramonies. I saw the opening scaramonies on youtube and was greatly let down by it, so I had no desire to see that in person and am SO GLAD I went with the early access route because somehow, someway, that's what people went to first. As oppose to other years, the lower lot mazes (Evil Dead and Insidious) actually had fairly short wait times while the upper lot had long wait times at the beginning of the night, and the backlot mazes were JAMMED ALL NIGHT right after the first 20 minutes of the event -- which I'm not even sure how that's possible since it's WAAAAAY deep in the park. If there's one thing you take away from this review, is DO EARLY ACCESS, DO EARLY ACCESS, DO EARLY ACCESS and DO THE BACKLOT MAZES FIRST, DO THE BACKLOT MAZES FIRST, DO THE BACKLOT MAZES FIRST. At 6:30, THEY LET US LOOSE. We then rushed... to the lower lot.

STARWAY
Down the Starway they were playing Black Sabbath. From what I could tell, it seemed like "God Is Dead?" was just on a loop the entire time as that's the only song I heard going down and coming back up later. The Rude Starway Voice has been tweaked this year, so be sure to listen. There were some beautiful views, and from a few points, we could see the fog rising from the metropolitan sets. Oooooh, here we go!

SCARECROWS
Or not. I don't know what was worse... Silent Hill's scarezone or this. I'm going to have to edge it to this, because stilt people just don't scare me. Even though their costumes WERE pretty creepy. I just feel so sorry for the lower lot... it gets no creepy love. I mean... c'mon now. Last year, I understood because of Transformers, but the hype for that has died down (the longest I saw the line for that all night was 50 minutes). So what's the excuse this year? I'm sure there's a reason, but I can't think of anything that would warrant 5 stiltwalkers and "Scarecrowz" in writing being projected onto the ground. For such a creepy idea, this was the most bland scarezone I've probably ever been through. Anyway, props to the stiltwalkers for trying, God knows they were going after everyone they could and bending down to get into faces, but I don't think I heard one scream down there. Sorry guys, but this was a --
2.9 out of 10 'F'

WALKING DEAD: DEAD ON ARRIVAL (scarezone)
I thought the tram would be by the old Backdraft queue but apparently it's way passed Evil Dead's exit. We might as well have walked the rest of the way, the tram was so damn far. We boarded the tram and then clips for Walking Dead come on. No story trying to be sold here. However, once we got off the tram... we knew it was about to get awesome. The fog was blowing in the air and the walkers were already on display, just waiting for us like the dinner bell was rung.

As we made our way through the storage bins, there were more and more walkers. This zone was LOADED with them and they were all scaring on a veteran level. I was highly impressed by what they could do in such a tight and confined space. However, the scarezone is very narrow. It's more like a scare path. Think the Terror Tram path as for how wide this ever gets. As for the food vendors and such, other than a popcorn stand, I didn't see them. I envisioned this big and grand, almost like a Town Square area, but this was VERY small & short.

Even with that in mind, this was easily the best scarezone HHN has done since Welcome to Hell in 2009. The tank, broken cars, dead bodies littered about, tall buildings, and everything totally immersed me into a zombie apocalypse.
10 out of 10 'A'

BLACK SABBATH: 13 3D
Advertised Wait: 15 minutes
Actual Wait: 10 minutes
Entered the Maze at: 7:00 PM

Time for the first maze! After hearing lines for this got super long on employee preview night, we hit this first and we're so glad we did. I looked at the wait time board and this and Walking Dead were both 2 hours and 30 minutes at different points after about 10 PM. As we were waiting in line, the "Rob" guy I was talking about exits the maze and was like "I'm ROB! I'm ROB!" as his friends cheered him on -- still. What made this even funnier is... we had all forgot who Rob was and then remembered, and was like "that was so half an hour ago" lol.

After a small wait, we entered the mini facade and then saw the big facade (that's a first). At this point... I really don't know what to say about the maze. It was simply just... not scary. Even when the scareactors did try, none of the scares landed. And I'll tell you what I believe to be the main reason... the music was too dang loud. Blasting Sabbath's songs seems like an obvious given, but it never lent itself to a creepy environment. I never gained fear and there never was a startle to release it. We did get the tail-end of some scares, but from what I saw of them, they were nothing special. And the triggers that were being used were being drowned out by the loud music.

This truly did not feel like a soundstage maze and it didn't even seem warranted to have been in there. There's no scenes where the vertical space is used, which I figured would be the best part about a soundstage maze. Walking Dead utilizes vertical space a few times and that was in a tent!

So what happened here? Another thing that didn't lend any scares my way... the maze is so God awfully bright. Literally the brightest maze I've ever been through. As for the 3D... nothing was great about it. Alice Cooper Goes to Hell last year was definitely better in the 3D department and it definitely wasn't as dang bright, and at least I felt that one trying to scare. This one seemed like a walk through the park at some points. It just didn't land... let alone take off.

OH, and I did not see any 3D video scare that was promised. I was in the room where it was supposed to happen but all I saw was a bright light go off and that was it. Grrrr......... P.S. did I mention there's TWO Saw traps, unaltered, literally right next to each other in the maze? Look out for the frozen lady and the head in a cube trap if you want to be flashbacked to 2009. Jigsaw really needs to get those patented

Queue/Facade - 10. Two facades, sort of. The second one is obviously much more grand and includes a scare.
Set Design - 7. I want to at least say this maze "looked good" but I'd be lying. Nothing stood out to me as amazing set-wise. And since lighting and the paint and such is included in the set, I have to dock this some points. I probably should dock it even more, but I'm feeling nice.
Sound Design - 3. Worst sound mix in an HHN maze ever. Music was too loud.
Scareactor Design - 7. Decent, Halloween maze fare. Nothing stands out though.
Special Props & Design - 5.
Immersion - 4. I was fully aware I was in a maze since I was getting no scares and had to force myself to try and find something else good about it.
Length - 10. Really great length! I loved how long it was.
Scare Level - 2.
Fun Level - 0.
Story Comprehension - 4. I wasn't sure what was going on... at all, but I can somewhat stitch things together, but this just felt very random.
Personal Bias Bonus Points - 10. I'm giving this 10 because the other points are so unbelievably low. Now, this is my first soundstage maze, so that was fun. If it weren't for either of those, and since I never wanted another "rocker maze," this would've had way lower points.
62 out of 100. 'D'-

 

[DTH]

WALKING DEAD: NO SAFE HAVEN (maze)
Advertised Wait: 10 minutes
Actual Wait: Walk On
Entered the Maze At: 7:03 PM

Right off the bat, things kick off with the walkers within the facade. All the walkers were aggressive and really going at it. Who trains and manages these guys? Amazing work.

Tonally, this maze feels much darker and grittier, which makes it more prime to be a maze than season 1 & season 2's maze last year - except last year was less repetitive set-wise. Much like last year, it really feels like every corner there's a walker popping out to come chomp off your face. There were a FEW dead spots but I think it was just odd timing. With this maze fully ON, I'm sure it would be one of the best mazes in HHN history. However, since it was "slightly off", right now it's just "pretty good." I'll just crack it up to "opening night kinks that need to be worked out" and I'm very excited to see this maze on my next trip as I just KNOW this maze will knock it out of the park later in the run.

The sets in here were just astounding. C-Block used vertical space by having jail cells going high up, so they took full advantage of the space given to fully immerse the guest. Unfortunately, this was another "dead zone" I went through, but at least it was amazing to look at. THE SCARE OF THE NIGHT goes to the hallway I was walking down and I could see a sillouhette at the end of the hall. "Is that... no, it can't be." As I get closer, I realize it is, and before I could think to run, a zombie horde lights up and charges us. That was freaking AWESOME.

I loved the set of the Governer's room, but again, another dead zone. I heard there was a brilliantly designed scare in here and I purposely slowed down to make sure it would happen, and NOTHING! I did see the daughter, but that's all there was to that scene? Scare intervals need to be much tighter.

Queue/Facade - 10. Not as big or epic as last year's, but still pretty awesome, especially with the scares in it.
Set Design - 10. C-block, helicopter room, the small details of carnage in almost every square inch. Just wow. You could go through it a dozen times and still not catch everything.
Sound Design - 6. Nothing stand out, but it was pretty cool. I like the Lori room with the phone ringing and the baby crying... very creepy
Scareactor Design - 9. I kinda wish there was a way to make the backpacks on the Micchone's pets less visable though.
Special Props & Design - 9. Helicopter! Also, that horde!
Immersion - 10. I was totally feeling what the characters must've felt on the show. Room after room, another horror as they just try to survive to find a "safe haven."
Length - 10. This goes along with immersion, the helplessness of this maze being dark and never ending was pretty awesome.
Scare Level - 8. This would be a 10 if the maze was fully on, but the maze was still very great.
Fun Level - 10.
Story Comprehension - 10.
Personal Bias Bonus Points - 0. Very great maze technically as you can see from the scores, but another maze WAS better, so I'm zeroing this out in points so that other maze can come out on top, plus I feel this percentage is where this maze belongs instead of wilding out into the extra credit atmosphere. It may beat that other maze on my next visit, but for now --
92 out of 100 'A'-

TRANSFORMERS
Time On: 7:22 PM
Took a quick ride on this.

INSIDIOUS
Advertised Wait: 10 Minutes
Actual Wait: 5 minutes
In the Maze At: 7:33 PM

Universal has started this thing called "scare patrol." You'll notice them in all the lower lot and backlot queues. They hold signs and try to pump up the crowd and give away prizes for doing a good job. I do respect the decision to try and do something for entertainment while in queue and I think their hearts were in the right place, but their big yellow shirts and happy demeanor kinda made me forget I was about to go into a scary maze. To try and counter this, they do things like "oh, don't go in there, it's haunted yo! I never seen anyone come out alive!" I think if they fit the theme instead of just looking like employees, it'd be much better. This needs to be worked on a bit more.

I really did not expect to walk into this maze and be BLOWN THE HELL AWAY. Right away, it's very creepy and it utilizes all of the prime moments from the first film. All of the cast was super charged and going crazy, and scare intervals were very tight so we never missed a scare. The cast truly ROCKED IT. The Darth Maul in the seance room was going freakin' crazy, on top of the table and attacking everyone in the room. I never saw him come out for his trigger scare, that's how hard he was going after people to make sure they felt threatened. Major kudos to that guy. But why the dummies for this scene? It really ruined the realism.

Speaking of Darth Maul, he is OVERLY represented in this maze as the villain. Just everywhere for the first half, even in scenes I don't remember him being in in the movie, but eh, what do I know. The old ladies were also very hardcore in their scare tactics, jumping out of pictures and what not.

One of my favorite moments is the Further. Super dark and foggy with ghosts everywhere. One of the few times that the "which one is real?" scare tactic has worked on me. I honestly think this section could've been longer as it worked really well, but I won't dock it points for that since it was very effective in its quick space.

Then it was onto Chapter II and just like I thought, only 2 or 3 scenes were used from that movie. But here's my major gripe about that... they didn't represent those scenes to their full potential (the bedroom scene with poorly placed static dummies was nowhere near as good as it could be) and they MISSED, COMPLETELY GLOSSED OVER what would have been the best scene in the maze (the scene in the movie where he walks through the sheeted people standing up).

The mother ghosts did very well in their scares though, so at least that's a plus. One of them looked EXACTLY like the girl from the movie and she had the mannerisms down perfectly. After those quick scenes, the maze is over and some of it feels like a missed opportunity. The first 3/4 was awesome, the final 1/4 was very okay. I loved this maze, best of the night, BY FAR!!!!

Queue/Facade: 7. Love the music and Elise talking.
Set Design - 8. Usually I'd dock a maze for too many blank walls, but since it's the Further and it's supposed to represent darkness, it's all cool here.
Sound Design - 10.
Scareactor Design - 8. Darth Maul is Darth Maul, but everyone else was fairly scary.
Special Props & Design - 8.
Immersion - 10.
Length - 10. Great length. I wish they would've used more scenes from Insidious 2 though.
Scare Level - 10. They got me in every room. That usually never happens.
Fun Level - 10.
Story Comprehension - 10.
Personal Bias Bonus Points - 5. I'm very glad Insidious had its time to shine and show that paranormal mazes can knock it out of the park, but this isn't anything more than an 'A' maze, without the plus. Perhaps next time it can go into extra credit territory.
96 out of 100 'A'

THE MUMMY
Advertised Wait: 10 minutes
Actual Wait: Walk On
On Ride At: 7:43 PM
Did a very quick ride on this.