Official HHN 23 Review

Now that I have been through each of the 8 Halloween Horror Nights houses multiple times now, I feel I have enough of a grasp on each of them to finally put together my review. Even in just a short time since opening night, I have changed my mind and moved my rankings around quite a bit, as I have had 3 different houses occupy my #1 slot already, and two different ones occupy my #8 spot.

Looking back to last year, 2 houses received 5 star reviews, 2 four stars, 1 three stars, 1 two stars and 1 one star. In my previous three years of attending the event combined, 8 houses have received five star reviews. Lets see what we have this year: Spoiler Alert: 2013 has the most 5 star reviews of any year I have attended. Here are my rankings with a short review and a couple of pics from each house as well.

1. Cabin in The Woods: Just a fantastic house in every way. This house was number two after opening weekend, but has moved up to number one recently. I loved the movie and I love the house and the progression of it. The house starts in the cabin, then you move to the basement where all the monsters are unleashed. Then you proceed to the underground facility where all hell breaks lose and you encounter all the monsters from the movie, including the merman.

Here is the entrance of the house, which is naturally the entrance to the cabin

Final Review: 5 stars out of 5

2. American Werewolf in London: This house was number one after opening weekend but moves down a spot, but its still an amazing house. This house perfectly replicates the movie, from the woods to the transformation scene, to picadilly square. This house also features incredibly scary animatronic wolves

And a very cool scene through the London Subway

Final Review: 5 stars out of 5

3. Evil Dead: This house also spent a short time as my favorite, but settles in at number 3. Based off the Cult classic movie, this is definitely the goriest house of the year, with twice as much "blood" as the average HHN house. The scene with "raining blood" might just be my favorite scene in all of Halloween Horror nights this year. Other highlights of this house include a terrifying walk through the forest with trees that come to life

And a recreation of the famous scene from the movie with dead cats hanging from the ceiling

Final Review: 5 stars out of 5

4. La Llorona: Based off the popular mexican urban legend based off a mother who drowned her children, and was forced to find them all before she could enter the afterlife. She eventually grew insane and the urban legend is if you misbehave La Llorona will kidnap you and try to pass you off as her child. This house is creepy as hell, which is a great thing in an HHN house. The progression is great, as it starts off simple, then gets more and more disturbing as you move along, finishing with an encounter with La LLorona herself. The entrance to this house is by far the most elaborate ever for a tent house

This scene with kids drowned is very disturbing

The underwater scenes are fun as well

Final Review: 5 stars out of 5

5. Afterlife: This years 3D house has a very interesting premise. The premise is that a serial killer is stalked by his victims in the afterlife. This house is very trippy and disorienting with some nice effects, but the scares fall a little flat. This is the 3rd straight year with a 3D house and I think many are becoming tired of them because this house has received some negative reviews on the message boards, but I personally found it enjoyable. This house also features the return of Ol' sparky from the Pyscoscarepay houses

This headlines scene is also pretty cool

Final Review: 4 stars out of 5

6. Havoc: Derailed: This house was dead last in my rankings after opening week, but has improved big time and has now moved up a couple spots. The concept is that the DOW are being transported in a train when the train crashes and they are unleashed on the public. My biggest gripe with the house is the train part of the house lasts way to long. Its half train, half post crash, when it should have been about 80% post crash. The train scenes suck, but the post crash scenes are great, such as this one.

Final Review: 3 stars out of 5

7. Walking Dead: Last years walking dead house ranked 5th out of 7, and this ones doesnt fare much better. I actually think this years version is better than last years, but not by much. And unlike last year, I am actually a fan of the show now, but I still couldnt get into it. I found most of this house fairly boring with not much going on. There are some cool scenes though, such as the iconic governor head fish tanks

And walking through the prison cell block

Final Review: 2 stars out of 5

8. Resident Evil: For a second straight year Universal brings a video game house to HHN and for a second straight year I hate it. Last years Silent Hill house as dead last in my rankings and this year Resident Evil is the same. There's really no part of this house that sticks out to me but I guess the highlight would be going through the pizza shop

Final review: 1 star out of 5

Overall this is a great year for HHN, with 4 houses that blew me away, and another two that are very good. Only one real dud, compared to 2 last year. Of course the scariest part of HHN is the lines to get into the houses

This is the line for Havoc on opening night, one of the least crowded nights of the year. This wait will be tripled in about three weeks. Even though it looks like a ton of people, that is probably only about a 30-40 minute wait because lines for Haunted house are very fast moving.