HHN 2012 review

Halloween Horror Nights has passed the halfway point, with fourteen nights down, and eleven to go. I never judge the event or review it until I have done all the houses, and seen the shows several times, as they change throughout the course of the event, and my opinions on certain things after the first week, are often completely different by the end of the fourth week, and this year is no different. Ill rank my houses in order of 1-7, then say a few things about the house, what I liked, and what I didnt.

1. Dead End: A perfect example of my opinion changing, this house was ranked fifth out of seventh a couple weeks ago, but I have fallen in love with it. The facade would rank as my number one favorite facade since I began attending the event in 2010, and its not even close. The conservatory scene is my favorite HHN scene of the year this year, and the effects are stunning. I love the effect of the ghost walking up the stairs right as you walk into the house, I love how they did the vortex tunnel, and I love the music that plays throughout the house. The library scene is pretty cool, my only gripe about this house, and there seems to be one house every year where I think this, is that it ended so abruptly. There was no real finale or sense of finishing, it just ended. Thats not enough to move it from number one though.

2. Penn and Teller: This house was my number one for the first couple weeks, but Ive gotten a tad bored with it. Its still plenty fun to go through though, and I dont foresee it falling anymore in the standings. I love the puking guy before you enter the house, and I think the highlights of the house are the opening casino scene, and the light scene is incredible. The backstage scene with the pigeons I think is what officially made me fall in love with this house, and the Buffet scene and finale are also fun. My gripes are the hotel scene is way to empty, and the chapel scene is set up in a bad way, as you can see the actors long before they get a chance to scare you.

3. House of Horrors: After the first weekend, this house was dead last in my rankings, and I even declared this was the worst house at HHN since I started going. Since then, I have absolutely fallen in love with this house. I love the prelude to the house, with the movie posters, and the run down film room. My big gripe is I think the house starts way to slow, I dont like the Wolfman scene, and I dont like the Brides of Dracula scene, but after those first two scenes the house is amazing. The dracula scare is the best of the event this year, the Mummy scene is innovative, I love the creature from the Black Lagoon scene, the phantom of the Opera Scene is eerie, the Frankenstein scene is very cool, and the finale is absolutely incredible. The best finale of the year by far, and maybe the best since ive started going.

4. Gothic: People are going to rip me apart for putting the amazing Gothic in the middle of my rankings. Almost everybody else has this house at number one this year and many proclaim it to be one of the best ever at HHN. Im putting the brakes on that, its still very good, just doesnt do it for me. My huge gripe, is its way to short. I have to think its the shortest house of the year, its the only one that consistently takes less than three minutes to walk through. I do enjoy the chapel scene, but the outside rooftop scene with the flying gargoyle takes to long to reset, Ive seen it less than half of my run throughs. The candle effect, while cool, definitely could have been executed better. The lack of  variety of costumes also hurts. Number four is a good spot to me.

5. The Walking Dead: This house was number two early on, but is the opposite of House of Horrors this year, it has dropped like a rock. It has just become bland to me, part of the house seem empty. there needs to be more people than one in the second part of the barn, the finale scene is set up so awesome, but you hardly ever see any actors in it, which is always a massive dissapointment to me. I enjoy the barn scene, and a couple other cool visuals, but its just become a not so great house to me.

6. Alice Cooper: Welcome to my Nightmare: My bottom two houses this year have been in the bottom half of my ranking from the beginning and have done nothing to make me want to move them up. Alice Cooper is not a bad house, I quite enjoy it, but its just...weird. The Kitchen scene, the stripper mausoleum scene, black widow scene, all cool scenes, but just weird to be mashed together in one house. I reallly enjoy the scene that goes to the song No more mr nice guy, but the Schools out scene was a big dissapointment, no creativity. The finale was really cool, which probably saved it from the bottom.

7. Silent Hill: wow, apart from the first couple days where House of Horrors was dead last, this has been dead last since, and I dont see any way it moves up. This house is set up so poorly its a shame. The first scene with the monsters put me in a dissapointed mood already. They had no place to hide, a lackluster start, this was followed by a guy writhing in a bed, weird, and not scary. This was followed by a long hallway of lockers with no scareactors, just an annoying air effect. After this the house does get better, but by this point im so disconnected I dont care anymore. The highlight of the house is billed as Pyramid Head, but again, his placement was executed so poorly Ive only seen him 2 or 3 times out of my so far ten walk thorughs. I feel bad for the people that pay a lot of money and only get to go through the houses once a year and miss stuff like that.

Roaming Hordes: I didnt really go into this with an open mind, I wanted scare zones, and I already had in mind I would not like this. But I have been pleasently surprised. It is pretty cool to walk into a certain area and not know which horde your going to run into, which brings an element of surprise to the event, avoiding it from becoming stale for people like me who go every night. the actors themselves are really working it, Ive never seen the street actors so agressive as they are this year. Their ability to go anywhere is kind of a thin line for me, sometimes its cool, and funny, other times its annoying. There are certain places I just want to sit and not be bothered or worried about a scareactor coming at me, but this year there is nowhere to go where that can happen, apart from the bathroom. I have for the most part really enjoyed this experiment, I think it was executed very well, but with that said, I want scarezones back next year.

Bill and Ted: Im biased towards Bill and Ted. It is my absolute favorite part of HHN, I enjoy watching this show more than I enjoy the houses even, plus you dont have to wait in line! I sometimes see the show up to three times a night. That said, I love this years show as I do every year. The highlight this year would have to be Magic Mike, but the Honey Boo Boo skit is a close runner up.

The crowds: Wow, I thought maybe I was imagining things and maybe it wasnt more crowded this year than usual, but after reading the forums Im not the only one who realizes the crowds this year are insane!  Nights that last year were drawing 30-45 minute waits are drawing 60-75 minute waits this year. and nights that were drawing 60-75 minute waits last year are drawing 90-120 minut waits this year. This upcoming week is known as "hell" week. Most people think the last week of the even would be busiest, but its actually the second to last week. I would not be surprised to see 3, maybe even four hour wait by Friday this week. This is really all you need to know about the crowds this year; Last year I did not have an express pass and I went through the 8 different houses a total of 226 times. This year I do have an express pass and I have made it through the houses a total of 69 times. Since were about halfway through Im on pace for about a total count of 135, almost one hundred less than last year. The biggest reason for the drop off is that most years by 1AM most everyone had left and you could walk in any house with no wait the last hour, not so this year, even as late as 1:45 this year waits have been at about 20 minutes. After a lot of thought I think there are a number of factors that contribute to the busyness this year.

1. Only seven houses: Obviously cutting down from 8 houses to 7 houses is going to make the lines longer, its basic math.

2. The Walking Dead: This is the biggest reason. I cant believe how many people this year Ive heard say theyve never been to HHN before, but decided to come this year because they love the Walking Dead. This is apparent in the line for the Walking Dead house always being at least 30 minutes longer than every other house.

3. Construction: This doesnt make it busier, but its the reason why the whole park has been a major cluster of people this year. With so much construction theres a lot less space for all the people to walk, its been a major headache trying to get around the park this year.

Overall: Of the 3 years I have attended so far, this is the worst. I think the house lineup is actually stronger overall than it was in 2010, but the crowds, combined with the lack of scarezones, and lack of a theme, make me say that overall 2010 was an event year. This year doesnt even touch last year, as im told by many long timer HHN goers that last years house lineup was the best ever, and its certainly the best in the three years Ive been going.

Dead End as my number one favorite this year probably ranks as my number three favorite all time.
Last years number one Saws N Steam is still my number two favorite ever.
2010's number one Catacombs is still my favorite house Ive ever been through.

I wouldnt put any other house this year in my all time top 5