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