My HHN review - spoilers

[Rip]

First off, in 9 years I've never had a bad time there. My wife replaced my old partner a few years ago and she loves it (she was always either preggers or babysitting before, now they're old enough to stay with grandmom for a few days since we moved several years back).

We arrived on 10/1, checked into HRH, got her AP and picked up all of our tickets/EPs for the trip, and headed over to Margaritaville for Jamaica Mistaka wings and booze until the gates opened.

Once it got dark, we headed over to HHN.

Scare zones - sorry, but the only word I can think of to describe them for this year is, well, "suck". But then again, neither of us get scared easily and I never expect much from these anyway (though last year they were absolutely great, especially the flying monkeys).

Houses - I'll give you my rankings and hers in parentheses.

1. Frankenstein (2) - a very close call between our #1 and #2, but I thought this one was just a bit better. As I said, neither of us scare easily, but this one made her jump at least once the first time through, and I thought the detail here was impressive.

2. Wolfman (1) - great detail, great movie tie-in based on the previews, can't knock it in the least. It just wasn't quite as interesting to me as Frankenstein.

3. Chucky (3) - not being a fan of the movies, we were both very pleasantly surprised with this house. It was very well done and the initial part had me thinking I was drunk 8 hours early.

4. Silver Screams (5) - my only complaint was that I had to go through it multiple times to figure out which movies were what given that they were designed to appear old, but many of them were relatively new ones I had not seen. In some ways, that is a tribute to the creativeness of it.

5. Spawning (4) - cheesy, but I enjoyed it. There isn't really a lot to say about it.

6. Saw (7) - neither of us have ever watched any of the movies, but the house is very well done from what we could tell.

7. Cleaver (6) - cheesy but fun, a bit repetitive.

8. (The screeching hags of) Dracula - great opening scene of the castle and the impaled victims, kinda got jealous of them by mid-way through. ****Spoiler**** there is no DRACULA!!!! It rapidly went from a great opening view to a bunch of fake hallways with really ugly, non-scary women attempting to make you jump and doing a pretty poor job of even that. We were convinced the first one was just a bad run, so we went again, and again, and again......

Then we sobered up and remembered one definition of insanity is repeating the same actions expecting a different result. Don't misunderstand, we both would have rathered 8 houses (1 being "Dracula") than 7, but if you're going to give a house the name of a character, at least put said character in said house. What's worse, I predicted that this one would be the best house of them all, and in 4 trips we never even saw anything remotely resembling Dracula.

Bill and Ted - funny, but honestly not nearly as funny as last year, which wasn't as funny as the year before. I'm not sure if it's lack of better material, or less effort spent on it. Given the survey I was sent yesterday, I have a feeling that they are contemplating scaling down or doing entirely away with the live shows, so it may have actually been less effort.

Had a choice next year between Fantasy Fest in Key West and HHN, but I think we'll end up back here, particularly given that it's going to be #XX.

 

[Metro West]

Good review...thanks for sharing!

 

[Purseval]

Then we sobered up and remembered one definition of insanity is repeating the same actions expecting a different result. Don't misunderstand, we both would have rathered 8 houses (1 being "Dracula") than 7, but if you're going to give a house the name of a character, at least put said character in said house. What's worse, I predicted that this one would be the best house of them all, and in 4 trips we never even saw anything remotely resembling Dracula.

Perhaps you just didn't know where to look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_III_the_Impaler

 

[Rip]

Perhaps you just didn't know where to look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_III_the_Impaler

It's possible, but neither of us actually saw him in 4 trips through.

 

[Jason71]

I totally agree with the OP's top two picks (Wolfman/Frankenstein), although I might switch them. Both have amazing sets, manage to tell a story, and pack in a ton of genuine scares. Been going 9 years now, and two of my all-time favorites.

"Silver Screams" is solid. Nice scares, nice length. Could have been a top house the past couple years, but this is just an outstanding year for houses.

"Chucky" was just alright for me until I realized it's basically a funhouse mirror reflection of "Toy Story Mania" (reduced ot the size of a toy, a balloon room, a green army men room...). I love it when Uni tweaks the competition, and that put the house over for me.

I like "Leave it to Cleaver" but it's definitely more about dark humor than scares. Sort of like "Home for the Holidays" was. Not sure that's what people are looking for, tends to have the shortest lines.

Only saw the first Saw movie, not a fan, but I have to admit the house captured the "feel" of the movie well. I'm told those are actual movie props in there. Enough unique things going on that I enjoyed it.

I don't hate "Dracula" as much as everyone else--the sets are amazing--but very few scares. And I've been through 3 times and can't recall seeing anyone other than his brides. A reveal of the Count at the end (maybe like Satan in "Demon Cantina"?) would have helped.

"Spawning" is mediocre. Creatures have never really worked for me, and there's not much of a story or set-up here. Hardly the worst house ever, but the worst this year.

Agreed the scare zones are pretty useless this year. I thought Bill & Ted was the best in a couple years (best since the one with Lex Luthor), but they really had to struggle to find pop culture touchstones this year. Sat through RHPS with friends last night--just ugh. Dr. Frankenfurter was good, rest of the cast was not.

 

[Jason71]

Went Thursday/Sunday, a couple more random thoughts:

• Sundays are much busier than Thursdays
• Perhaps in response to guest complaints, finally saw two posible "Draculas"--one in the first room, in cape and what looked like red armor, the other in the last room, looking like Nosfaratu. Still not a great house.
• Saw seems to be the most popular; inexplicably, Silver Screams seems to be the least popular (20 minute waits when every other house was at least 45)
• Early entry through IoA has been fairly useless. Althought they are supposed to open the gates at 5:45, has been closer to 6--only to find out they opened the main gates at 6 as well.
• Not opening Rockit during HHN is probably the most unpopular theme park decision since the closing of the Adventurers Club.

 

[*LittleMermaid*]

I personally love the Dracula house and went through it twice. It is tied for my favorite along with Frankenstein. I saw Dracula in a cape the first time around but not the second time.

 

[patster734]

That's a pretty interesting observation on Dracula. We went through it 4 times last Thursday and Friday and I remember just 4 locations where a male scareactor could be, and that was not always: In the statue room, a male scareactor would sometimes lunge out of the wall on the right; In the coffin room, a male scareactor would sometimes jump up from behind a coffin on the right, although said coffin would prevent him from getting close; Renfield was usually hanging out in his lair, but was easy to miss as his lair had two openings seperated by a very large column; and I did see the Nosferatu looking vampire at the end, but only once. Also, I had heard that dracula was suppose to be sitting in the chair by the entrance, but he was never there when we went through.

 

[RACEFAN9]

We were there Thursday and Sunday.This year was alful compared to last year.Loved Wolfman,dracula and Frankenstein the best.The other houses was lame.Scare zones was just o.k.We had such a blast last year that this year year was a let down.Hope next year will be better.

 

[patster734]

We were there Thursday and Sunday.This year was alful compared to last year.Loved Wolfman,dracula and Frankenstein the best.The other houses was lame.Scare zones was just o.k.We had such a blast last year that this year year was a let down.Hope next year will be better.

We were there Thursday and Friday, and Silver Screams was much better on Friday. We saw a lot more scareactors in that house on Friday than we did on Thursday. I was disappointed with it on Thursday, but it redeemed itself on Friday.

 

[inkkognito]

I think they totally cut out the Drac that was supposed to be at the entrance.

Usually the soundstages are my favorite houses, but this year the sprungs and queues have given them a run for their money. I know Wolfman is supposed to be the "big" house this year, but it's hit or miss if you happen to see the scenes, especially the one at the end. We went through literally six times without seeing it at the beginning of the season. I enjoy the other two soundstages houses...all three are so rich in detail and you get good scares if the timing is right.

Saw has totally redeemed the bad reputation of the Jaws queue house. That's another one where timing is very important, but I pretty much know the timing and can pace myself to see most or all of the traps. I hated Cleaver at first, but now it has totally grown on me. I just changed the way I look at it, and now we've gone through there so many times that Sam Meetz is like, "What? You again?" Cleaver is even my laptop wallpaper for the season.

I think Silver Screams is very underrated. So many people don't even know the backstory, so it doesn't make as much sense to them. Universal really fell down on the job with the event icon this year in favor of emphasizing the movies. I mean, come on! The Usher should at least be in an ad!

I like the Chucky house, but then again I like Chucky. I was big on Spawning earlier in the year, but the number of scares seems to have gone down. It's sort of like Dead Exposure in the same location last year...great at the begnning, "meh" by the end. Ironically, Doomsday was where Cleaver is now, and I hated that one too...by the end, just like Cleaver it became one of my faves.