House Count After Week Two of HHN

Just home from the end of night six and week two of HHN and I have to say that I am loving it this year so much!! definitely way more enjoyable than the last two years, still not quite up to 2011 standards, but this year is so fantastic all around. The last two years there would be several years where I would just leave early but so far this year Ive stayed till closing every night because I wanted to keep hitting more houses. There was a random rain shower at 10:45 tonight and I got absolutely drenched but I pulled through and stuck it out through midnight, soaking wet. It was kind of fun actually, so heres the house counts after two weeks.

Roanoke: 4
Dollhouse of the Damned: 7
Halloween: 4
Giggles and Gore: 10
Dracula Untold: 6
Alien Vs Predator: 5
Walking Dead: 4
From Dusk Till Dawn: 4

Bill and Ted: 5

Total Houses: 44

HHN 24 Review

It is hard to believe that another year of Halloween Horror Nights is here again! I wait ten and a half months for this ad every year during opening weekend its like a special reunion with a close friend you haven’t seen in forever. The first time through every house you are on an adrenaline high and just so ecstatic to be going through HHN house again, which is why I reserve judgment and reviewing the event until four or five nights have passed and I have been through every house multiple times. It really isn’t possible to properly review the event until you have been through every house at least 2-3 times because its impossible to see everything a house has to offer in one walkthrough. Now that I have had that opportunity, here is my review of each house, ranked 1-8.

1.  Halloween: The moment I heard this iconic horror movie would be turned into a house, I was ecstatic. I knew it would be a fantastic house, and it did not disappoint at all. This house literally scene by scene takes you through the entire movie, with the iconic creepy music from the movie playing in the background the whole way. This house is perfect and every time Michael Myers jumped out at me I jumped a little, that mask is terrifying. 5 Stars

In the closet scene, Freddy Kruegers sweater makes an appearance.

Which ones are a real person and which ones are just dolls?

     2. Dollhouse of the Damned: This is absolutely, without a doubt, the most creepy, unnerving, unsettling house I have ever been through at HHN. The premise is a little confusing, but basically it’s a dollhouse where some of the dolls went bad and tortured the other dolls and now it’s like a run-down abandoned toy factory. There really is no other word to describe this house than plain old creepy, which is perfect for a haunted house. 5 Stars 

3.Giggles and Gore: One of the real surprises of the year. I was not anticipating loving this house for two reasons. First, it’s the disaster queue house, which is traditionally one of the weaker house. The disaster queue house, has never cracked my top three (until now.) second, it’s a clown house, and clown houses are one of the most cliché types of haunted house imaginable. However, leave it up to the geniuses at HHN to come up with a completely fresh and new take on clown houses. The story of this house is that basically people are forced to become clowns against their will, and this house takes you through the factory as you see the clowns being made. There are so many great visual effects in this house, and just like Dollhouse, this one is very creepy as well.  5 Stars

One great visual gag, is the clown in the making with his eyes forced open forced to watch Woody Woodpecker

And of course the most famous HHN character ever, Jack the Clown, needs a spot in a clown house

The entrance to this house is one of the most elaborate ever for a disaster queue house

4.Alien Vs Predator:  This seems to be one of the most polarizing houses this year. I have seen many people have it as their number one and claim it one of the best houses ever and I have seen many put it at the bottom of their list questioning what the hype was about. For me it sticks right in the middle, but there is not much that separates it from any of the top 3. This is a house with incredible sets, with some of the most unbelievable special effects I have ever seen in a HHN house and the alien and predator costumes are terrifying and outstanding. One problem: the house is incredibly dependent on timing. If you have bad timing, you could miss all the effects and therefore not like the house. So its hit or miss, which means it sticks in the middle.  4.5 Stars

5.The Walking Dead: End of the Line: lets hope the title rings true and this really is the end of the Line for the Walking Dead at HHN. This is the 3^rd year for a Walking Dead house at HHN, and while this years is far and away better than the previous two, it still isn’t good enough to crack the top half of my rankings. At this point it is what it is, a zombie house, another cliché in haunted houses. The Show is much more about human interaction than it is about zombies, and therefore it simply doesn’t translate well to a haunted house. I really did enjoy this years house, as evidenced by its pretty high ranking, but I still don’t want it back for a 4^th year. 4 Stars

6.Dracula Untold: Kind of a surprise hit this year, I fully expected to not enjoy this house at all and had almost immediately resigned it to the very bottom of my rankings right away. However, I dd really enjoy this house, so much so that it escapes the bottom two. The sets in this house are beautiful, and I really enjoyed the gothic tone this house took on. Of course, its still not good enough to crack the top 5 so its not without its flaws. The story was sketchy at best, and the scares were minimal. Dracula himself was practically nowhere to be seen also. Still though, number six for this house should be seen as an accomplishment given my expectations. 3.5 Stars

7.  Roanoke: Cannibal Colony: The disappointment of the year. This was one of my most anticipated, as a historical house on the lost colony of Roanoke sounded so promising. Unfortunately, while the house is far from bad, it doesn’t hold up well against the other six houses ahead of it. The house is repetitive, and the music and the lighting in the house was just bizarre. Also, the cannibal idea sounds good on paper, but it makes the actors in the house more focused on eating their prop humans rather than trying to scare the people walking through the house. One great thing about the house is the entrance, one of the most awesome house entrances Ive ever seen at HHN. Another great thing is this the second goriest house Ive ever seen at HHN, only behind Saws N Steam in 2011, which was my favorite house that year. Gore is always a good thing at HHN. 3 Stars

   8. From Dusk Till Dawn: I just really didn’t get this house. It has some neat visuals, but very little scares. It does a good job of recreating the movie, but I could just never get into it. After a second run through it only confirmed my opinion of this being my least favorite house this year. 2 Stars

Bill and Ted: Bill and Ted is back once again. I, as well as many other HHN fans have a special connection to this show, and therefore I could never say anything bad about Bill and Ted. The humor and entertainment this show provided have brought me out of some depressing moods over the years. This years show is one of the funniest since I have started going. As much as I love Bill and Ted, I normally don’t consider it all that funny, just wildly entertaining. This year however, I did actually find many parts hilarious.

Scare Zones: Scare zones are back for the first time since 2011, and while the streets are much better than the past two years, they are still nowhere near as good as the pre-2012 levels. The problem is the daytime parade, which began in 2012. The parade needs space to go through the streets of the park every day, meaning that there can no longer be the big massive props that enhanced scare zones before 2012 when there was no parade. Until Universal commits to just not running the parade during the HHN season, which they should do since I don’t think anyone would be crushed if the silly parade was held off for a month, we are going to continue to get half assed scare zones.

So how does this event hold up compared to past years? Well this year’s house lineup has the depth that last year didn’t have, but not the top end quality. This years top 3 isnt as good as last years top 3, but this years bottom 3 is also much better than last years bottom 3. It still doesn’t have the depth the 2011 lineup had however. 2011 is nearly untouchable in terms of how great the 

house lineup was that year. In terms of house lineup Id rank the years:

1.       2011

2.       2014

3.       2013

4.       2010

5.       2012

But in terms of the overall event (Houses, scare zones, shows, overall ambience) Id rank

1.       2011

2.       2010

3.       2014

4.       2013

5.       2012

Keep tuned to this blog every Sunday night/Monday morning for my updated house count and general observations from the event.

House count After Week 1 of HHN

Two nights of HHN are in the books. I still have not gone through all 8 houses, I still have two that I have yet to experience, so a review will have to wait until next week but I do have a couple of observations.

The amount of houses per year had slowly increased over the years, from 5 in 2002 to 8 in 2007. Since 2007 though, the house count has remained at 8 every year. Its time for Universal to recognize the event has oficially outgrown 8 houses, and a 9th is necessary, maybe even a 10th. Opening weekend, traditionally a non busy weekend, was insane. Every house hit an hour, and many hit 90 minutes. I remember opening weekend in 2011 where many houses were 10 or less all night. The event continues to get more and more popular and Universal needs to adjust.

Bill and Ted this year is the best since I started going. Half the show is basically spent ripping on Disney, and boy do they deserve it with the year they had. The Frozen parody is comedy gold. Aside from the actors who play Bill and Ted, the most popular actor who is in the show every year is an obese woman, I dont know her name so thats all I can identify her as. Two years ago, her parody of Honey boo boo was spot on, and last year she was hilarious as Paula Deen. This year, she gets  to play Elsa, and hilariously parodies "let it go" into "I let myself go." I, and most of the audience, just lost it.

Now onto the house count. Thank God for my express pass or my house count would be nonexistant.

Roanoke: 0
Dollhouse of the Damned: 2
Halloween: 1
Giggles and Gore: 2
Dracula Untold: 1
Alien Vs Predator: 0
Walking Dead: 1
From Dusk Till Dawn: 1
Bill and Ted: 2

Total Houses: 8

Now the wait till Thursday begins.

Halloween Horror Nights 24 Preview

Well, its that time of year again ! I have been counting down since November 3rd of last year and that countdown has now reached four days. FOUR DAYS! Its hard to believe that in less than 100 hours I will be roaming through those haunted houses, listening to the creepy music and breathing in the delicious fog pumped throughout the whole park. This year promises to be another special year, and heres a quick preview of the 8 haunted houses, ranked in order from my most to least anticipated.

1. Halloween: finally, one of the most iconic and famed horror movies of all time is coming to Halloween Horror Nights! it hard to believe that it took 24 years to get Michael Meyers to Orlando, but it is happening this year, and this is without a doubt the biggest selling card for many people this year. I think I will get goosebumps as I hear that iconic music as Im about to enter the house.

2. Dollhouse of the Damned: This original house will take you through an abandoned toy factory where the dolls have come. This one is going to be the super creepy house of the year and I cant wait.

3. Alien Vs Predator: This movie wasnt a great movie, but it certainly should make for a great haunted house. This is going to be the special effects/technological house of the year, and supposedly some of the effects are going to blow people away with how great they are.

4. Roankoke:Canibal Colony: This house is an alternate take on the lost colony of Roanoke, long story short: They got overtaken by cannibals. This is going to be the gore house of the year, hopefully there will be lots of blood.

5. Giggles and Gore: This house takes you through a factory that produces clowns from normal people. Basically people were forced to become clowns permanently against their will. This house will be the dark humor house of the year.

6. Walking Dead: For the 3rd year in a row the Walking Dead takes one of the 8 house slots in Halloween Horror Nights. I wasnt a big fan of either of the first two, so I am not expecting to love this one either. The only reason this is number six instead of eight is that this is being touted as the longest house in Horror Nights history, which is pretty exciting.

7. Dracula:Untold: This house will be based on the upcoming movie being released in October. After watching the trailer the movie looks like it will suck, and it also looks like more of an action movie, rather than a horror movie, so I could really do without this house. This looks like nothing more than a money grab from Universal to promote their new movie.

8. From Dusk Till Dawn: Two vampire houses this year, why? Ive never seen this movie and I dont really care to. I dont think this house will be terrible, but that doesnt mean Im super excited about them either.

One thing to look forward to this year is the return of scare zones for the first time since 2011! The last two years Universal has experimented with "Street experiences" rather than scare zones, the idea being the actors were free to roam throughout the whole park rather than being confined to a zone. The experiment was met with near universal negativity, as it took away from so much ambience of the event, and left the street without any themes to their actors, they were just random actors in costumes once in awhile. Hearing all the negativity Universal has opted to return to the scare zone format this year. Rejoice!

And of course Bill and Ted will be returning. Recently a five year contract was signed to keep Bill and Ted at Halloween Horror Nights through 2020, which is great news because its impossible to imagine HHN without Bill and Ted. Get ready for another great year and in a couple weeks, a review from me!