Top 25 Horror Nights Houses - Orlando

[Hatetofly]

I Know but it is how I felt about both of the Havok houses and I am fine with being in the minority, at least I am consistent, besides I have to keep up my rep as a hater!~
A few houses have won HOTY that I didn't enjoy either, and for me there is more to a great house than the cast.

While I don't agree with how Fade feels on this, I can totally understand where he is at least coming from. Also gotta respect his opinion as he is deeper into the Haunt scene than about 99% of the folks that read these boards.

I will also say that in Havoc Derailed even the cast couldn't save it.

 

[IzzyB]

Well the thing is with houses is that they could be the best thing ever or absolutely terrible in different run throughout. Take silent hill for example, that was one of the scariest houses for me because everybody got me at a time when I was somewhat alone, but everybody I know hates it because it was admirably bland. My point is this is a list based off times spent inside of them, no run through is exactly the same so what might be a crappy house for you might be number one on someone else. Brian thought cabin was iffy while Drew and hate loved it and that's perfectly fine. We all love HHN so much that there are really no wrong answers here...unless you put havoc II at number one

Agreed. We went through a house on the first night when the "bladders" were still working. All of us thought it was awesome. The next night they reduced them to the point you didn't know they were there and everyone else thought it was an awful house. I went thru it later in the season and yep, it sucked. But that one night it was actually pretty good.

 

[MrRoamer]

I will also say that in Havoc Derailed even the cast couldn't save it.

I think the name of Havoc Derailed sums up the house pretty perfectly.

 

[Brian G.]

My top 3 was

3. Fear Factor
2. Cold Blind Terror
1. Reflections of Fear

 

[SeventyOne]

Agreed. We went through a house on the first night when the "bladders" were still working. All of us thought it was awesome. The next night they reduced them to the point you didn't know they were there and everyone else thought it was an awful house. I went thru it later in the season and yep, it sucked. But that one night it was actually pretty good.

But isn't it on Creative to ask questions like, "can this effect last 6 weeks of wear and tear?"? Not to mention, "how will this effect work for a conga line?" Havoc Derailed worked much better going through almost empty and I was constantly moving, but when it was stop and start, the caged characters just looked silly.

 

[Zombie-C]

Makes me wonder is it a harder task to debate what makes a bad house vs a good house. Like Havoc Derailed to me just was bad from design and scare wise. RE for me was a "fun" design and goofy scares but wasn't a terrible house by any means.

Though ROF for me goes from the start of the website's story to the push of this icon all through the park. To leaving the house and having a WTF was that moment.

Good question SeventyOne, They just design it. The wear and tear kind of comes down to the tech team. As they really do work hard every night. They fix anything wrong.

 

[Shucker]

But isn't it on Creative to ask questions like, "can this effect last 6 weeks of wear and tear?"? Not to mention, "how will this effect work for a conga line?" Havoc Derailed worked much better going through almost empty and I was constantly moving, but when it was stop and start, the caged characters just looked silly.

Yeah when I went through it, I didn't think it was terrible. The ending was too open, but I chalked it up to being in the Disaster queue. I thought Afterlife: DV was far worse. For me the 3-D threw me off.

 

[IzzyB]

But isn't it on Creative to ask questions like, "can this effect last 6 weeks of wear and tear?"? Not to mention, "how will this effect work for a conga line?" Havoc Derailed worked much better going through almost empty and I was constantly moving, but when it was stop and start, the caged characters just looked silly.

Agreed. All I was saying is that people are going to like houses differently based on their experience. With something like HHN not all of our experiences are going to be the same. So one person might rank a house much higher because they had some great scares, while someone else might rank it lower because they went thru during shift change and the scares were not there. Or in this case, something was turned on one night and not the next. That is why rankings are so subjective when it comes to something like this and why they are all over the place when you compare one person to the next.

 

[MrRoamer]

You can almost always manage the conga lines, the only times you can't are with new group members that don't understand or the hardcore flashlight nazis.

Havoc Derailed was just an incredibly confusing house with caged actors that couldn't do anything or go anywhere. It took me going through it about 3 times to understand the super bright light was supposed to be where the train crashed. The other thing that killed it for me was the way to high audio of screaming... it was like instant headache once you got in there. I think the highlight of the house was all the buttons to push while saying "beep boop boop beep boop"

 

[Vyrus]

My top 3 was

3. Fear Factor
2. Cold Blind Terror
1. Reflections of Fear

Don't forget your #4 People Under the Stairs: Under Construction

 

[MrRoamer]

Top houses are really hard for me but here it goes

6. Leave if to Cleaver
5. Bloodengutz
4. AWiL
3. Evil Dead
2. Psychoscareapy (XIII)
1. Run (HHN XI)

Special Mentions: Doomsday (I think this was first time Jack was in Earthquake) and Bloody Waters, Anxiety in 3-d (X), ScaryTales in general

General Preference of Shows
5. Rocky Horror
4. Carnival of Carnage
3. Death Drums
2. 20 Penny Circus
1. Bill and Ted

 

[Cole]

My top 3 was

3. Fear Factor
2. Cold Blind Terror
1. Reflections of Fear

Spoilers jeez, but I should post my top 5 for fun
5.Dead exposure
4.Silver Screams
3.Gothic
2.HR Bloodngutz
1.AWIL

 

[Vyrus]

My top 5:

TBA :thumbs:

 

[Brian G.]

Guys, we're not there yet. Right now it's discussing our choices from 25-21 and whether you agree or not.

 

[MrRoamer]

Sorry looks like I jumped the gun and started a stampede. :focus:

 

[Octobers Fade]

Agreed. All I was saying is that people are going to like houses differently based on their experience. With something like HHN not all of our experiences are going to be the same. So one person might rank a house much higher because they had some great scares, while someone else might rank it lower because they went thru during shift change and the scares were not there. Or in this case, something was turned on one night and not the next. That is why rankings are so subjective when it comes to something like this and why they are all over the place when you compare one person to the next.

IMHO, that should never happen

- - - Updated - - -

But isn't it on Creative to ask questions like, "can this effect last 6 weeks of wear and tear?"? Not to mention, "how will this effect work for a conga line?" Havoc Derailed worked much better going through almost empty and I was constantly moving, but when it was stop and start, the caged characters just looked silly.

Yes it was better, but my walk through the actors were literally just standing there doing nothing.

 

[Octobers Fade]

Thus why I can't believe people who only go one night to the event.

Why should you have to go more than one night, not everyone is local and it pretty expensive to go.
I know that it is s the way Uni has tried to make it lately. Halloween is a limited shelf life experience, there are other places to see.
Honestly if it wasn't for the fact that I have a crap memory I would be one of the "one and done" crowd also.

 

[MrRoamer]

I'm very interested in seeing the rest of the list. I thought CitW and Winter's Night would be ranked quite a bit higher, when either of these were firing on all cylinders they were pretty amazing. Unfortunately CitW peaked early and the Merman room was pretty lackluster. Winter's Night was without a doubt the most amazingly beautiful house they have ever done, and the entire ambiance was unbelievable.

Intersteller and Creatures! were both not very memorable though.

As to the going more than one night, I think there are a lot of factors with house additions/deletions, shift changes, team makeups, and it is pretty tough for the actors to know the timings and behavior patterns of the houses in the different parts of the event. They haven't put the theory in action at the beginning, once the crowds ramp up they need to adjust to the conga lines, and then by the end it gets draining. Unfortunately, it ends up being a crap-shoot for the one night tickets.

Havoc Derailed completely lost everything going for it once the conga lines got unbearable and they had to remove the air bladders.

 

[Octobers Fade]

While I don't agree with how Fade feels on this, I can totally understand where he is at least coming from. Also gotta respect his opinion as he is deeper into the Haunt scene than about 99% of the folks that read these boards.

I will also say that in Havoc Derailed even the cast couldn't save it.

Sometimes a good cast can save a house, but a bad cast always destroys one.

 

[Vyrus]

I've seen so many houses destroyed by horrible casts... Vampyr: Blood Bath ... Chucky House ..... The Skool ....Cold Blind Terror ...