Join the club...

Just another person echoing the sentiments of so many others over the past 5 years or so. Think Disney will ever wake up?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christy-heitgerewing/for-the-first-time-in-forever-i-did-not-enjoy-disney-world_b_6261760.html

Weekly Theme Park Roundup

New news in the theme park world is very sparse this week, but we'll try to make do with what we have in this Thanksgiving edition of theme park round up.

Universal Orlando announced today that Mardi gras will take place on Saturday Nights and select Friday and Sunday nights from February 9th-April 18th 2015. No bands have yet to be announced for Mardi Gras, that news likely won't come until the calendar has flipped to January.

Possibly the biggest thing that was kept an eye on this week, and will be the biggest thing into the future is the rapid speed at which King Kong construction is progressing. Just two weeks ago it was nothing but rubble and now he have a building taking shape. Universal does not mess around when building new rides. Of course, this ride is still unannounced, but there hasn't been a single reliable source that hasn't said this will be a King Kong ride so it seems safe to assume. Actually, I can't recall another time in which there was a 100% consensus on what was being built before the announcement. When Transformers was being built some sources were trying to argue it was a Fast and Furious ride among others, and when Diagon Alley was being built, there was a number of different speculations as to what it could go. But with this everyone is in agreement this is a King Kong ride. What people cant agree on is when it will open. Some say Christmas 2015, some say Summer 2016. Anyway, here a couple pictures.

And this one is to get perspective as to where in the park this ride will be located

That should just about do it for this week. Happy Thanksgiving! 305 Days until HHN 25

Top 20 Nostalgia Songs

As you know, I love counting down some of my favorite things. As I was listening to some older songs today, I was thinking of which songs from my middle and early high school years make me feel the most nostalgic. I decided to think of all the songs and rank them, not necessarily in order of how much I like them, but in order of the memories they bring and how much of an impact those songs left on me and how much I remember them from that time. This was the time in my life when I was initially beginning to enjoy listening to music, buying CDs, in the magical days of portable CD players. This list is specifically songs from the five year period from 2003-2007. Here we go

20. It Ends Tonight - All American Rejects
19. The Reason - Hoobastank
18. Vertigo - U2
17. Holiday - Green Day
16. Beverly Hills - Weezer
15. Meant to Live - Switchfoot
14. American Idiot- Green Day
13. I don't Wanna Be - Gavin DeGraw
12. Over my Head - The Fray
11. Apologize - One Republic
10. Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson
9. Here Without you - 3 Doors Down
8. Clocks - Coldplay
7. Mr. Brightside - The Killers
6.  Dirty Little Secret - All American Rejects
5. She Will Be Loved - Maroon 5
4. Sugar, We're Going Down - Fall Out Boy
3. 1985 - Bowling For Soup
2. Ocean Avenue - Yellowcard
1. Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day (What else?)

Weekly Theme Park Round up

Thanksgiving is coming up fast, how in the world is November more than halfway over already? heres a few tidbits of news

The good people behind Halloween Horror Nights have sent out e-mail surveys to everybody they have in their e-mail list AKA anyone who bought a frequent fear ticket this year AKA me. The survey was to get a feeling of what fans would really like to see at the event next year. Judging by the survey some of the ideas being thrown around for potential houses next year include:

American Horror Story
Nightmare on Elm Street
Alfred Hitchcock movies
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Silence of the Lambs

And

Walking Dead for a fourth year (Please god no)

and others who are less likely or less worthy of mention

Also thrown around was the potential for the return of the festival of the dead parade, which hasnt been around since 2006, and the return of all the icons, not just Jack, which includes the Director, Caretaker, storyteller, and Usher.

My personal opinion? I see no way a parade could work its way through the super congested streets of HHN anymore, so thats more of a pipe dream than anything. I expect all the icons, not just Jack will in fact return, the question is in what capacity? will they all be together in one collaborative house (very likely), each get their own house (Very unlikely), or only be included in the scare zones? (Mildly likely.) Of all the above properties mentioned if I had to venture a guess as to which ones we see next year American Horror Story and Nightmare on Elm Street would be my top guesses. Silence of the Lambs and Hitchcock seem pretty unlikely to me and TCM is possible, but time will tell. I also unfortunately do expect the Walking Dead to return for a fourth year. It has increased attendance and revenue so much at HHN it would be a bad business decision not to bring it back, as much as I dont want it. \

Thats it for this week, 312 days until HHN 25

Weekly Theme Park Roundup

It was a pretty quiet week Post-HHN on the theme park front, with now major announcements, but a few events are on the horizon short term for this week

One week from today on November 17th, One Direction will perform live from Universal to debut their new album. Since they will be performing in Citywalk, a ticket to the park is not needed to see the performance, and it is open to the public. They are sure to draw a huge crowd and I plan on staying far away.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party began this past weekend reminding everyone that in this day and age there is literally no break from a holiday from September-April. Its goes straight from Halloween to Christmas to Valentines Day to Easter. The event sold out both nights of opening weekend.

After a long construction time, the new Cabana Bay Bridge finally opened at Universal this week. Guests staying at the Cabana Bay Hotel will now be able to walk to the Universal Parks rather than having to wait for a bus.

And finally, this mans account of what it is like working at Disney World has gone somewhat viral among theme park fans. Although this account is hardly breaking news and there are a ton of grammatical errors, it is still worth a read.

http://fyeahjonathanlewis.tumblr.com/post/101770982830/what-it-was-really-like-working-at-walt-disney-world

Also, a little more HHN. While a full video of this years Bill and Ted has not found the light of day, a short one minute montage of the show did make it was to YouTube. Even though its just one minute long, I feel the video does a really good job of capturing the spirit of the show

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oASD7RMg3lc

That's it for this week, 319 days until HHN 25

Weekly Theme Park roundup

Now that HHN is over, I need to find something to write about for this blog, so starting today, and every Monday through the end of July (When HHN season officially kicks back into full gear)  will just do a weekly roundup of the latest theme park news and rumors, with an emphasis on any HHN news that will pop up sporadically for the next few months.

To start, another bit of news for HHN 25 has quietly circulated among the die hards Well the news of Jack returning was huge news that not only resonated with the die-hard fans of the event, but also the casual goers, this news has flown under the radar the past couple days among the hardcore fans. That news is that the actor who played Bill in Bill and Ted will not be returning next year and he will be passing the torch onto a new actor to take his place. This is really said news for me and many others. Well the same two people have obviously not played Bill and Ted since the beginning (I believe there has been 3 separate Bills and 4 teds in 24 years) it has been the same pair since I have been going in 2010 and its brutally hard to imagine watching someone else play the part when I have connected so much with the current two actors. This is not a confirmed thing, just a circulating rumor for the time being, hopefully he will end up coming back.

The final part of the major citywalk expansion, Cowfish, finally opened to the public yesterday, to huge fanfare. This was definitely the most anticipated of all the new restaurants, but I am not as pumped for it. Its a burgers and sushi place, and since I like neither, I probably will not eat there. The inside decor looks pretty amazing though, so its worth a look anyway.

Finally, the Nascar Grille Restaurant at citywalk officially closed its doors forever Sunday. No replacement has been announced but the hot rumor is a NBC themed sports bar, which would be pretty cool.

That's all for this week. 326 days until HHN 25

Final HHN House Count

Its over. 28 night, 26 of which I attended, and its all over. I can honestly say this year will forever stand as being super special to me. I dont want to say I was falling out of love for the event the past two years, but I certainly didnt have the strong emotions toward it that I did this year. 2012s legacy will forever be remembered by me as a not very good year with a couple great houses that saved it from being a disastrous year. 2013 will be remembered as a year with 3 incredible houses and a bunch of average ones, and also for the year where the Red Sox won the world series which ate away at a lot of my usual HHN time. 2014 will always be remembered as a special year to me. I sit here at 3:00 AM, (thank god for the time change or it would be 4:00) and still cant sleep because of the emotional high and excitement of how amazing the last Bill and Ted was, mixed at the same time with depression that its actually over, and I am just not ready for it to be. Tomorrow will be tough as I will feel the need out of habit around 5:00 to get ready for HHN and instead will have to sit bored at home the whole night. There are a few reaosns for why this year will forever be rememered as special to me

1. The fact I had my liscense and a car this year, rather than having to bike or walk every night. This made me feel like I had more freedom and also driving around town at 3:00 am every night became very fun, relaxing, and therapeutic. Those 3Am car rides will now be no more.

2. Having my brother working HHN meant going to visit him at work every night, which was always a nice mid-night break to visit him for a bit.

3. The explosion of twitter and the event taking over twitter. Meeting new people and interacting with people that love the event as much as I do was a blast.

4. Halloween and Dollhouse of the Damned. Seriously two incredible houses that will forever be missed.

5. Bill and Ted: Every year I love Bill and Ted but this years show was special. It was by far the best one of the five years I attended, no contest.

Theres so much more that made this year special that I cant put into words. This year did not have the most incredible houses, aside from the top two, or scarezones, but it was just special. Thanks for the memories.

Finally, onto the final house counts. I finished this year at 180, much higher than 131 in 2012 and 141 last year. I was able to go through my beloved Dollhouse twice tonight, putting it at 35, which is a new record for me for a single house, surpassing Saws N Steams 34 in 2011. Honestly a record I thought would never be broken.

Roanoke: 21
Dollhouse: 35
Halloween: 25
Giggle and Gore: 31
Dracula Untold: 20
Alien Vs Predator: 19
Walking Dead: 12
From Dusk Till Dawn: 17

Bill and Ted 17

327 days until HHN 25. Jack is back.

BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and all HHN fans heads explode

With just two days left of HHN 24, a media member for Universal Orlando received a mysterious package this morning, and what was inside was a video that confirmed something all HHN fans wanted to hear:


for the first time since 2007, for the 25th Anniversary next year

JACK IS COMING BACK!!!!

https://twitter.com/skubersky/status/528183561325912065

This is amazing news, however some not so amazing news was also revealed in that video. It revealed that opening night for HHN 25 will be September 25th, not September 18th. By pushing opening night back to the 25th it means the event will be cut from 28 nights to 24. This makes absolutely no sense to me, as HHN is guaranteed to set attendance records next year and cutting four nights of the event will only make matters worse. Maybe its just a tease and they will reveal later on opening night actually will be on the 18th like it should be, but for now that is a bit of a tough pill to swallow.

Todays HHN Video

With just three nights of my 5th year of HHN left, Id thought Id go with a throwback for a video for today. This was the video that played on the arch at the entrance of the park as you walked into HHN during 2010. I remember watching this video as I was about the walk into HHN for the very first time ever and the feelings I felt of excitement, anticipation, and even a tiny bit scared I will never forget. Years later and I am a die hard HHN and go every night.

Last night in fact I surpassed 150 houses for the year, the first time I did that since 2011. As big of an HHN fan as I am I cant claim the #1 fan title (probably not even top 20 for that matter.) When I boasted on twitter last night that I had made it to 150, someone I know took the opportunity to let me know how far behind I was

https://twitter.com/PWT101/status/527642663429079040

Oh well, but anyway, back to the video for this week and the premise of it. Again this was the video that played as you entered the park during HHN in 2010. 2010 was the 20th anniversary of the event, so they brought back all the "icons" of years past. Icons are the "hosts" of a certain HHN year, the most popular one being Jack the Clown. The icons in the video talking are:

The Usher (2009)
The Storyteller (2005)
The Director (2003)
The Caretaker (2002)
Jack the Clown (2000, 2001, 2004, 2007)

The icon for this HHN was FEAR himself. The premise of the video is that all the previous icons were actually working for FEAR to harness screams so he could be powerful enough to be brought to life, and now he finally is. This video is basically them introducing FEAR for the first time. Here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8saXQx7TOys

And a bonus video because Im in a nostalgic mood now. Heres a personal walk-through with the creative director of HHN through the first HHN house I ever went through, Hallowed Past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awpa_gjy9tk

House Count After Week Six of HHN

This is officially the best HHN ever. I have never enjoyed myself more than I have over the past month. Not that this is the best Halloween Horror Nights in terms of the event itself. In that regard, as Ive said many times HHN has never been nearly as good since the amazing year of 2011. But just in terms of how much fun Ive had this was far and away the best HHN ever. In fact, this was one of the most fun months of my life period. In past years I have spent many nights at HHN doing my own thing by myself, and the occasional night with my dad or other friends. The truth is I love spending time at the parks by myself because I can go at my own fast pace and not have to compromise what I want to do. This year however, I have had the privilege of meeting  great new people and  over the course of the month that love HHN and go almost every night just as I do. Its been so much fun getting to know new people and being able to enjoy HHN in new ways. Interacting with them on twitter about HHN and "inside jokes" about things such as Bill and Ted quotes have been a blast as well. I am so sad to see it go this year, unlike in past years where I was so worn out and exhausted by night after night that I was kind of ready for the end, this year I wish it could go on for another month. I know come sunday, I will be super depressed. But until then, still four more nights to enjoy, plus my absolute favorite event of the year, the final Bill and Ted of the year! Its hard for me to put into words about the last Bill and Ted, so heres a copy and paste about what someone else said

The final Bill & Ted show will be the best of the year, by far. Every serious HHN fan will be in attendance. The show is about double the normal length, their will be extra jokes, the audience will shout the lines, so on. It's how most fans say farewell to each year's event.

For me its such a bittersweet thing. Its such a blast and theres so much energy in the building for that last Bill and Ted. Like I said, its my favorite hour of the entire year, and I just love being around hundreds of other people who love HHN as much as I do. But then as soon as its over that means HHN is over too, so its super bittersweet. And then the countdown begins to what should be an amazing year next year, the 25th anniversary year!

Roanoke: 16
Dollhouse: 26
Halloween: 22
Giggles and Gore: 26
Dracula Untold: 17
Alien Vs Predator: 15
Walking Dead: 9
From Dusk Till Dawn: 13

Bill and Ted: 14

Total Houses: 144

This is now officially my second highest house count ever. surpassing 2012's total of 131 and 2013's total of 141. Unfortunately I wont come close, nor will I probably ever to surpassing 2011's total of 226. The event is simply too busy and popular at this point to ever be able to pull that off again. 

Top 10 HHN Houses of All Time

Its Saturday night which means my express pass is not valid, so I went in at 5:45, did 5 houses, and left by 6:30 when the crowds were starting to get bad. Now I am sitting here watching one of my all time favorite horror movies (Scream), enjoying pumpkin cheesecake, with the windows open in this beautiful weather. Have I mentioned this is my favorite time of the year? Since the rest of the night wont be spent at HHN I felt it was a good night to put together my top HHN houses in the 5 years I have attended. I have been through 39 HHN Houses, and these are the best of the best of those 39.

10. Nightingales (2011): The premise of this house puts you right in the heart of World War One, and the nurses tasked with caring for the soldiers have turned into banshees and are now terrorizing the battlegrounds. This house had a lot of great effects, including one of the most memorable ever where it looked like a solider was being ripped in half right in front of your eyes.  heres a youtube link to a short look of what the house was like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlIm6b5bl6I

9. Evil Dead (2013): One of very few HHN houses ever that legitimately gave me the creeps every time I went through it. Based off the movie about four friends who travel to a cabin in the woods and open a book containing evil spirits that turns them into devil possessed demons. There are very very few HHN houses that a desensitized jaded person like me would consider scary, but this was one of them. The scene that sticks in your head the most is the scene through the cellar with dead cats hanging from the ceiling

The stroll through the forest was a highlight as well

And a full walkthrough video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCrp7QnBJic

8. House of Horrors (2012): In a very disappointing year, this is one of two houses that saved it from being a completely bad year. This house is memorable to me for its meteoric rise, as I hated this house after opening weekend, having it dead last in my rankings, and by the end of the event loved it so much that here it finds itself in my top 10. The premise is that you are walking through all the classic horror movies (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman etc.) in "black and white." the whole house was not but flashing strobe lights against blacklit masks and props. A simple technique, and scary. Unfortunately, due to the extremely dark nature of the house, its practically impossible to film it or get decent pictures, but someone did try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEJ5Rsww7VI

7. An American Werewolf in London (2013): On the HHN forums website for die hard fans of the event, this was recently declared the 2nd best HHN house of all time. I personally find the house to be slightly overrated, but its still an incredible house. Based off the classic movie, the house featured amazingly well done, and scary, animatronic werewolves.

I just felt a couple scenes in this house sometimes fell flat, which is why I have it a little lower than most people.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUN0KLaV0mQ

6. Dead End (2012): This was basically The Haunted Mansion in Haunted house form. Nothing more than an old run down house haunted by ghosts. Such a simple, even cliche idea, yet the house was so perfect in every way. This house is also memorable for being my favorite entrance for an HHN house ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSruI5akjm0

5. Dollhouse of the Damned (2014): I know the last few weeks I have been saying this may be my favorite house ever, but the last few days of this house have left me feeling just a tad soured of it. If only the actors inside this house were a little more aggressive it would have stayed at 1 or 2 all time, but since a lot of the actors in the house are too timid it knocks it down a bit. still, the overall creepiness level of this house and the great different environments you go through still have it in my top five all time. Ive already posted plenty of pictures and a video of this house so I wont post any more.

4. Saws N Steam (2011): This house, along with Evil Dead earlier, are the only two houses ever that I myself personally found scary to go through. The premise was that in this utopian society the elite have resorted to killing other humans and harvesting their blood for water. It was far and away the goriest HHN house I have ever been through, and thats what makes it so memorable, and why its so high on my all time list. It was also the last house ever to be built in the Jaws queue before Jaws was demolished.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP0QVZsGoxk

3. Halloween (2014): So Halloween has reclaimed its spot as my number one house this year, and also has been introduced to a spot in my top 3 favorite houses all time. Again, Ive talked about this house a lot, and posted pictures and videos already so I wont do more.

2. Cabin in the Woods (2013): This is my favorite horror movie of the past ten years, and the very first time I ever saw it I knew that it would be a perfect movie to recreate a house off of. The house did not disappoint in perfectly recreating everything from the movie, including the iconic elevator scene. The transition from the cabin to the underground lab was done seamlessly and made for great variation in atmospheres in the house. As close to perfect as you can get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nUH2fc01gY

1. Catacombs (2010): The second HHN house I ever went through. The adrenaline and excitement I had walking through this house lit the fuse on the passion and addiction I have for HHN to this day. It is solely responsible for my love of HHN today, and for that reason it will always be number one. The premise is you are being taken down to the catacombs where the dead infected from the "black death" were buried, and they have come back to life. Unfortunately, there is no pictures or videos that exist of this awesome house, it exists now, only in my memory. A search returned this one lone picture

and this ridiculously dark video where you can not see a darn thing, but at least maybe you can get a sense of the house from the sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wDJZUIv7V0

Read My Twitter!

Even though I give my house counts and a few videos on this blog, every night at HHN I give a couple thoughts and share some pictures on my twitter, which is here

https://twitter.com/skiege/with_replies

Go back to September 17th to see all my tweets about HHN since the event started (theres quite a few non HHN tweets in that time as well) and I will continue to tweet about my nights at HHN through next Saturday November 1st

More HHN Videos

a few New HHN videos from this years event for your viewing pleasure are coming your way tonight, because I am bored and feel like sharing them.

First up, I have shared the highlights of my favorite HHN house this year already, Dollhouse of the Damned, here are the highlights of my 2nd and 3rd favorites, Halloween, and Giggles and Gore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9MHg0B8Heg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-oUSUVSoNc

Also, here is a great look at the Purge scarezone that inhabits New York Street every night during HHN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjcaQNMFdv0

Finally, here is a look at the Bayou of Blood scarezone in central park


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYwaUtmNgn8

House Count After Week Five of HHN

19 nights down, only 9 to go. And once again I have to say this years event just keeps getting better and better for me, and I keep having more and more fun over each passing night. The last three years by this point I was feeling worn down, ready for the end to get here, and start to enjoy things a little less. But this year has just been so much fun. First of all, I have to say the top 2 houses this year continue to amaze me more and more. Dollhouse of the Damned is solidly my second favorite house of all time, and Halloween has settled in at my number four best house of all time That means two houses from this years batch are in my top four all time. Also, From Dusk Till Dawn, while still my least favorite house this year, is really starting to grow on me. I have moved it out of my bottom five all time, which means no houses this year now reside in my bottom five all time. The Scare zones this year are a lot of fun to spend time in as well, espeically faceoff. Bill and Ted continues to be a blast and is officially my favorite my favorite Bill and Ted in my five years of attending. I got the opportunity to get my picture taken with "Elsa" from the frozen skit after one of the shows this weekend, and it was another memorable moment in a very memorable year.

Finally, all the great new people Ive met and spent time with has added even more to this great year. I have simply never had so much enthusiasm left for HHN after 19 nights. Its going to be harder than ever to let it go this year, but at least there still nine nights left to enjoy.

This weeks video comes from the Halloween house. This is a video of the projection video that plays on the facade right before you go into the house. Its the little touches and details like this that make HHN the best Halloween event in the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DQuM7G8R4M

A couple other notes, this has been a weird year in terms of crowds. In past years, there would be nights where it was really slow and all houses had 45 minutes or less waits, and then crazy busy nights where every house had 120 waits or longer. When the traditionally slow nights such as opening night were much busier than usual this year,  many people panicked at how insane the crowds would get this year. But now we are in the peak point of the event, and shockingly there were hardly any 120 minute waits to be found. Last night, Saturday night, many houses topped off at 75 minutes. It looks like this year the crowds are a lot more spread around evenly rather than having slow nights and crazy nights. 


And now finally, the house counts:
Roanoke: 12
Dollhouse: 20
Halloween: 16
Giggles and Gore: 20
Dracula Untold: 13
Alien Vs Predator: 12
Walking Dead: 7
Dusk Till Dawn: 10

Bill and Ted: 12

Total Houses: 110

House Count After Week 4 of HHN

HHN is officially halfway in the books. 14 Nights down, 14 to go. It was another really fun weekend at HHN, as I continue to enjoy this year more and more with every passing night. Last night was a shortened night for me, as I didnt get in until 10:30 and I was already exhausted. I only hit up two houses and Bill and Ted before calling it a night. I did from Dusk Till Dawn, and every time I go through this house I continue to feel justified in ranking it dead last this year. Dusk Till Dawn is definitely my second least favorite HHN house ever. Only the joke of a house that was Resident Evil last year is worse. The other house I did was Dollhouse of the Damned, of course because I cant skip that house even for one night. I continue to be in love with this house, but am still not ready to make the official proclamation of it being my favorite house ever, so for another week Catacombs from 2010 will retain that title. Here's a video of some of the highlights from Dollhouse, simply an amazing house.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=encPNY3TYdM

Onto the house counts

Roanoke: 7
Dollhouse of the Damned: 14
Halloween: 11
Giggles and Gore: 14
Dracula Untold: 10
Alien Vs Predator: 7
Walking Dead: 5
Dusk Till Dawn: 7

Bill and Ted: 9

Total Houses: 75

Bill and Ted top 5 best moments

2014 is my fifth year attending Halloween Horror Nights, so its also my fifth Bill and Ted Show. I thought today it would be a good idea to pick my favorite Bill and Ted scenes over the five years Ive attended. I decided choosing the best scene from each of the five years and ranking them.

5. 2013 Opening dance scene: 2013 was an all around solid show but it was really the only one of the five that didnt have a "stand out" skit. so instead I chose the opening dance number, which was by far the best of the 5 years Ive attended. For once they decided to go for a horror theme for the opening dance, as the usual half naked women were all wearing masks of Chucky, Jason, Freddy Etc. Its the only time in five years where Bill and Ted has actually somewhat incorporated a halloween theme.

4. 2011 Conan O Brien the Barbarian: This is one is mostly memorable for the actor who played the Barbarian, who was known for improving his lines every show, leading to a different scene practically every time. The scene morphed conan O brian and Conan the Barbarian into one person, who meets Nicki Minaj with hilarious results.

3. 2012 Magic Mike: Everyone remembers the movie magic Mike, about a male stripper. Well in this Bill and Ted skit Magic Mike is an obese magician, but the planted "audience" members think they are going to see the stripper, so they end up heckling him, when Magic Mike gets frustrated, he gives in and reverts to the stripper routine, again with hilarious results.

2. 2010 Twilight and the Count: the twilight skit for the 2010 show stole the show. Edward and Jacob are finally making bella choose between the two of them. She exclaims "I choose a vampire!" Edward screams "Yes!" when Bella says "No not you" when suddenly this guy appears and Bella starts making out with him

After the makeout session, he turns to a jealous Jacob and Edward and exclaims "This show was brought to you by the Letters F and U!"

1. 2014: Elsa lets herself go
Luckily there is an audio clip of this on youtube, so i will just present it. An obese Elsa comes out and  first Parodies "do you wanna build a snowman?" into "do you wanna eat a snowcone?"followed by "let it go" into "I let myself go." I never heard a crowd cheer after a skit the way they do after this skit every. single. time. its gold.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onGzITjonHU

HHN House Count After Week 3

Its only October 5th and I had to wear a heavy sweatshirt to HHN tonight! I loved it! we are now 10 nights into HHN 2014 with 18 to go and I have a major update in my rankings.

As much as I adore Halloween I have thought hard and after many run throughs have made the decision that Dollhouse of the Damned is now my undisputed favorite house this year, but it may be even more than that. I never in my  life thought that I would even think about replacing my number one favorite house of all time, Catacombs in 2010. That was the second HHN house I ever went through, and was the house that I solely tribute to getting me hooked on HHN. But I love DOTD so much that I think it may just be my favorite house ever. Not one single scene in this house falls flat, every single scene is an A+. The ballerina, the crib room, the ventriloquist scene, bodies in the wall, its all perfection. For now I have it at number two, but by the end of this year I will make the determination on whether or not catacombs will actually be dethroned.

When I made my initial ranking I said this years house lineup doesnt have the top end quality that last years lineup did, but had better depth. By that I meant this years top 3 wasnt as good as last years top 3. I now retract that statement. My top 3 of Dollhouse, Halloween, and Giggles and Gore is just as good as last years top 3, just in different ways. While last years top 3 earned their high ranking with jaw dropping sets and props and mind blowing special effects, the top three this year earn the high ranking by just being plain creepy and scary, at times downright terrifying. Its more of an old school year, as the top 3 this year wont blow you away with effects, but will certainly make you squirm with their scare tactics and gore. The closet scene in Halloween may be the single most terrifying scene Ive ever encountered in 5 years at HHN. every time I go through it I get nervous. The claustrophobic nature of it, the flickering lights, the lightbulb above ferociously shaking back and forth, and then "BOOM!" theres Michael Myers slamming the door with a very very loud thud with his face in your face, butcher knife in hand. An incredible scene.

Even though I have been posting my house counts here for the past few years I dont feel like Ive fully explained my rationale behind it.
http://www.horrornightnightmares.com/forums/index.php/topic/4193-hhn-24-house-and-show-counts/
That is a link to a thread where all fans of HHN can post and update their house counts for the year. For me a lot of the lure of HHN is that I consider it a game or a challenge of "how high can I get my house count?" Unfortunately Ive never even come close to topping the supreme HHN fans, who routinely top 200 per year, but its still fun for me to see how high i can get. So now here finally is my updated house count after week 3.

Roanoke: 6
Dollhouse of the Damned: 10
Halloween: 7
Giggles and Gore: 12
Dracula Untold: 9
Alien Vs Predator: 6
Walking Dead: 5
From Dusk Till Dawn: 5

Bill and Ted: 7

Total Houses: 60

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.