Top 25 Horror Nights Houses - Orlando

[Cole]

I agree with the list so far but I did however love the chucky cast, those monkeys were relentless

 

[RogueAntilles]

Like I said different strokes. I respect everyone's opinion. It's a fun discussion.

I went through Havoc Derailed 6x. Each time the scareactors were on point. I also went through with several different groups of friends. They felt the same way. Cool concept and claustrophobic.

The first Havoc was a left over Spawning set with each scareactor jumping out of a boo hole sticking their tongue out, "Blaahhh I'm bad ass and crazy". Close boo door.

Winter's Night to me was a gorgeous house with weakest actors I've ever seen. Where was everyone? I don't pay to go to HHN to traverse a museum. That's not top list material... to me.

Recently compiled a list of my top 25 houses.

Here's 25-21
21. Frankenstein: Creation of the Damned
22. Nevermore: The Madness of Poe
23. The Wolfman
24. H.R. Blood'n Guts Presents Holidays of Horror
25. Dead Exposure

 

[IzzyB]

IMHO, that should never happen

Happened last year to us. We went thru La Lorna (sp?) and it was awful, hardly any actors the whole first half of the house. We all hated the house and then later we all went back thru it and it was MUCH better after that first time thru.

 

[MrRoamer]

Happened last year to us. We went thru La Lorna (sp?) and it was awful, hardly any actors the whole first half of the house.

Same thing happened to us, it had started raining and we were right there so we decided to go in. We were the only people in the house and practically no one came after us, half of the actors we saw before they saw us. I think we actually startled one of the actors, he looked pretty surprised when we turned the corner.

 

[Zombie-C]

It's a shame that happens. No cross talk between ops. To us actors it's funny cause we have no clue if anybody is in the house or not. Until were spotted like a raccoon.

Top 25-21
25. Havoc: Dogs of War
24. Catacombs: Black Death Rising
23. Walking Dead: No safe Haven
22. Scary Tales: Once upon a nightmare
21. Nevermore: The Madness of Poe

 

[Brian G.]

Here's 20-16

http://orlandounited.com/2014/08/top-25-halloween-horror-nights-houses-of-the-past-12-years/2/

 

[SeventyOne]

I can't find fault with 22 - 25. Solid, good for that year houses that have proven memorable, but that still aren't "top 15" level.

Strongly disagree with Gothic tho. The scale is off because, as HateToFly says, it was the star in an otherwise weak year, but I still think the innovative sets, flying gargoyles and level of detail make it a top 10 house at least.

 

[RogueAntilles]

My top 25 list is on my tablet so I'll have to post my 20-16 when I get home. I must say I wasn't really with you guys on 25-21 but I can def agree with most of these.

Couldn't agree more with Hatetofly on Nightingales. Like Winter's Night, great sets with weak ass scares and too many cool scenes that I would easily miss without multiple visits. I went through Nightingales 5x. I saw the soldier rip 1 & 1/2x.

Besides that good stuff guys.

 

[Zombie-C]

Bravo to you guys! I kept feeling like I wanted to keep reading till I got to number 1.

20. The Thing (HHN21) - While most don't like it. I overall found it fun. Had a blast working a few days as well.
19. Gothic - I call it the look around house. Amazing what they built but as far as scares....meh
18. Nightingales: Blood Prey - Every time I had fun going through despite a few effects slow to turn around.
17. Body Collectors: Collections of the Past - Great sets,scares and the ending gave me a rather haunting feeling.
16. The Hallow - A true history of what Halloween is. Plus the BM effect.

 

[RogueAntilles]

Top Houses 20-16 cont.

20. The Forsaken - Great set design/Atmosphere. Scares got better and better each run through. Loved the end in the tilted ship.

19. Gothic - A shining light in a year of lame houses. Brought me back a little to Castle Vampyr. The part with the giant Gargoyle walking out behind the draps got me good.

18. All Night Die-In Take 2 - Great follow up to the original. Good selection of flicks used. Scares were solid. Better than the poor man's Die-In.. Silver Screams. Blah.

17. The In-Between - Short but easily one of the scariest houses ever made. Consistent, inventive best use of 3D out of any house.

16. Scary Tales 2 - 2nd house I ever traversed. I was 13. Scared the B-Jesus out of me. 3 little pigs chasing my family out of the house never got old.

Zombie-C I agree with you on The Thing 2011. It's not on my top list but I don't see what everyone didn't like about it. The Thing Assimilation was a bunch of lifeless puppets with military dudes staring at you. Watch out for the dog hand puppet!

 

[MrRoamer]

Totally agree with you guys on everything 20-16 except Nightingales. The set was cool but like HTF said, I didn't see any of the gags in my repeat trips and felt that it was a little flat.

Scary Tales and Body Collectors are two of my favorite repeat house themes and they worked some serious magic in the Popeye queue.

 

[Cole]

solid list although I feel there is a disconnect in some parts like drew never going through scary tales II or Brian in dead scilence. Solo lists are a must

 

[Clive]

Ehhh. Scary Tales 2 over Scary Tales 3? I mean, I suppose Scary Tales 3 could show up later, but 2 is put before many superior houses... just watching the Art of the Scare DVD reveals the construction of the maze was pretty simplistic relative to house design from 2004 onward. Feels like it's in there just to have an older house in the lineup.

Also have to lament the feeling that Dead End is gonna be snubbed, given how Gothic is being billed as the only bright spot of 2012 (I preferred Dead End considerably - one of my all-time favorites).

 

[RogueAntilles]

Ehhh. Scary Tales 2 over Scary Tales 3? I mean, I suppose Scary Tales 3 could show up later, but 2 is put before many superior houses... just watching the Art of the Scare DVD reveals the construction of the maze was pretty simplistic relative to house design from 2004 onward. Feels like it's in there just to have an older house in the lineup.

Also have to lament the feeling that Dead End is gonna be snubbed, given how Gothic is being billed as the only bright spot of 2012 (I preferred Dead End considerably - one of my all-time favorites).

Did you go through Scary Tales 2? Scary Tales 3 is better and is my top 10 but still 2 was a good use the venue plus great scareactors.

Dead End was a lame version of Dead Silence and Screamhouse. To me.

 

[Brian G.]

Ehhh. Scary Tales 2 over Scary Tales 3? I mean, I suppose Scary Tales 3 could show up later, but 2 is put before many superior houses... just watching the Art of the Scare DVD reveals the construction of the maze was pretty simplistic relative to house design from 2004 onward. Feels like it's in there just to have an older house in the lineup.

Also have to lament the feeling that Dead End is gonna be snubbed, given how Gothic is being billed as the only bright spot of 2012 (I preferred Dead End considerably - one of my all-time favorites).

I can assure you that nothing was put in this list just for balancing.

 

[Cole]

Dead End was a lame version of Dead Silence and Screamhouse. To me.

Definitely agree there. Dead end had so much potential and while it was awesome in terms of effects and scope, I feel like it was missing a clear backstory. I know there was a very elaborate one but it wasn't really publicly shown. Basically the most I got out of everything was "this house has spooky spooks...oooh!!!" I know a house doesn't have to have a book style backstory but with this house I knew there was one and I completely missed it, for that alone it remains the second best of 22

 

[Clive]

Did you go through Scary Tales 2? Scary Tales 3 is better and is my top 10 but still 2 was a good use the venue plus great scareactors.

Dead End was a lame version of Dead Silence and Screamhouse. To me.

No, I didn't. Glad we can agree Scary Tales 3 is better - I hope OU acknowledges this by putting it higher on the list, where it deserves to be - but good use of the venue doesn't really mean much to me when you're putting all houses against each other. You barely judge the best Jaws queue houses against a soundstage maze since they're rarely as elaborate - but naturally exceptions happen. I understand this is arguably an exception, but again, going off the Art of the Scare DVD (the thing that's designed to make it look as good as possible), Scary Tales 2 comes off as extremely rudimentary. Most house designs from that era weren't particularly elaborate (Screamhouse seemed to be the exception). By 2004 we saw the consistent crazy elaborate houses.

I can assure you that nothing was put in this list just for balancing.

Fair enough - we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one then.

EDIT: RE: DEAD END: I think ya'll are crazy -- Dead End was clear and away the top house that year. Innovative design, tangible atmosphere, great variety of scenes, two great casts... it played like The Haunted Mansion for adults, it was everything The Legendary Truth Wyandot Estate should've been. Plot matters less to me unless it's clear there's supposed to be one - while Dead End had an intriguing backstory, it didn't really try to have a linear narrative, rather an experiential one (again, similar to pre-Depp Pirates or Haunted Mansion). Your guys' lukewarm reception to it confuses me all the more, but, they're your opinions.

 

[Cole]

I guess it does have an old Disneyland "your story is what you want it to be" type of feel but when they'res obviously a story behind it it becomes distracting to me. Gothic is a prime example where the story doesn't matter. All you have to know is "at night the gargoyles come alive" so I don't care. But dead end had all these hints towards a girl who broke her neck, the house model and a Pervy photographer that took pictures of the corpses....what happened here? My overall point is that if your gonna have a big story built in your head, share it. I'd like to know the mystery behind this haunted house rather than wonder what the hell happened to it. Confusing as hell

 

[RogueAntilles]

No, I didn't.

Thats all I needed to hear :happy:

Watching a video and being there in the flesh are two completely different things. Whatever age you were at during HHN 2002 I promise you Scary Tales II would stick with you.

 

[MrRoamer]

Agreed the two best houses that year were scary tales 2 and psychoscarapy. I honestly don't remember dead end at all