Universal clearly thought AoV was more popular than it actually is. Not really sure how they got that idea, but they clearly did. HHN desperately needs a proper replacement for B&T.
Yes!! They're no a Cirque show by any means. And the entertainment value is just not there. Give them a small stage and be done with it. Those who want to see it can go until they're bored and leave.
I went for the first time ever Saturday night. It was hot as heck and I was pretty scared and nervous going into these as I'm usually not a horror movie watcher.
Our first house was Dead Exposure... and it was terrible. Easily the most downright terrifying house because I couldn't see a THING. It was all just dark and loud noises. I ended up closing my eyes to walk through most of it because I couldn't see anyway and the sounds were all too much. If you're going to skip one, skip this.
After my brother convinced me that's not the norm for HHN, we did slaughterhouse which was much better because at least I could see what was happening. I was stressed during it but I felt I got through it much better.
We went to Stranger Things next and I was very excited for this one. We waited two hours and it was completely worth it. As a new fan of the show I can't say enough about this one. I felt I was truly walking in that house.
After that, the posted time for Scary Tales was 60, and Poltergeist 90. Well, we were on scary tales within 25 mins and Poltergeist right after around the same half hour mark. These were both well done, and I felt more comfortable getting through these the more I did.
Carnival was next, with a posted wait of 80. There was some technical issues which delayed it a bit, but we waited 45 minutes. Aside from Stranger Things this was our longest wait of the night. Also very well done I thought and pretty scary.
To my surprise I actually went and upgraded to a Fear Pass. I will come back a few times for Stranger Things alone, and I wouldn't be against getting in the other 4 I missed. We also didn't spend much time in the scare zones so I would want to check those out more. I really did much better than I was expecting and was a bit proud of myself, not gonna lie.
Here's my initial impressions and rankings of the houses. I've only done each of these once but I plan on going to at least two more evenings. First thing I will say is that the set design is pretty much phenomenal throughout. It's so good that it's somewhat ironic to me that the same company that (IMO rightfully) gets criticized for heavy reliance on screens also produces TEN of these amazingly detailed houses that are only open for just under two months. Nearly every one of these almost could be a permanent attraction.
1. Scary Tales - Incredible set design, creativity, and originality throughout.
2. Poltergeist - Way better and creepier than I was expecting, IMO one of the best IP houses ever.
3. Carnival Graveyard - again, incredible detail and very creative. And really long?
4. Slaughter Sinema - same.
5. Stranger Things - probably the one everyone is most curious about, so I will go in-depth. It was very cool to see the detailed sets from the show and an incredible job was done getting scareactors that look like the real characters (though apparently this means they are scarce and you may only see some of them in your walkthrough). That alone makes this worthy, if you're a fan of the series. However, it is a little awkward, and doesn't quite work as a house. The show itself is not really that scary, so I was expecting this, but it is perhaps the tamest house I've ever seen at HHN, probably intentionally. From what I have heard, Netflix didn't want the main characters to do any jumpscares, which is understandable, but they could have also had some shady government people and people in hazmat suits for additional jump scares. The demogorgon appears too many times and is the only real scare, and it's appearances are a little awkward, because normally scareactors are given a place to hide or retreat to, but the demogorgon just continues to stand there awkwardly after the scare. Even the audio volume of the house was lower than the typical "ear splitting loud" that the HHN houses normally have.
6. Seeds of Extinction - VERY creative concept here and as usual, very rich and detailed set design. Something feels a little off though and I can't quite put my finger on what.
7. Halloween 4 - Typically I find houses that have only one main monster or "villain" to be repetitive and this is no exception.
8. Blumhouse - This was the only house I thought was downright bad. How many people actually saw Happy Death Day? I didn't, and the premise of the house relies very heavily on having seen the film to make any sense of it. So to me it was just a confusing concept with very non-scary baby masks jumping out at me. And then you have the Purge... again... yawn.
I didn't do Trick R Treat or Dead Exposure yet.
I was never a fan of Bill & Ted so I don't care that it's gone, and I haven't yet watched Academy of Villains.
I'm very interested in your thoughts on Dead Exposure. It was my first HHN house ever and I'm fairly confident that it was one of the worst ones ever made, too.
I just got back from Universal Studios Horror Nights yesterday. I’m surprised at how good the Poltergeist House is. Definitely my favorite maze for this year.
You said it was "downright terrifying," so your use of words like "terrible" and "worst" confuses me. Is that good "worst" or bad "worst?" As a vet of 18 years who wants to get scared but also appreciates set design, it's a below average house by current standards, but they've done far worse. Of course, your first is always special. My very first house would be completely forgettable had it not been my first, but they managed to scare me nonstop because of that.
I won't go into my full impressions until I've done every house, but I enjoyed a majority of what I've seen so far.
If you didn't want scares Dead was not a good choice to do first. It was designed to scare and push your buttons and it does. The monkey room is a bit lighter now so you can see. Friday I couldn't see a thing, Saturday was just miserable but Sunday was such a relief with lower crowds and better operations. Glad you upgraded, sounds like you are getting the addiction.
I would gladly trade "Horrors of Blu-ray Marketing" for Hollywood's Universal Monsters maze* or literally anything else. Given the quality of the mazes I've seen online and the overall theme of this year (80s), it feels really out of place and disappointing.
*I guess Orlando's equivalent is Slaughter Sinema?
It’s 65° in there and with all of the wind and rain you’d think those scareactors would be freezing but they actually sweat during each of their sets. Truth.
I was there about 5:30pm Saturday. For someone pretty nervous about going it definitely wasn't a good choice for the first one :/ We thought it would be one of the "easiest" but it was anything but. The monkey screeches in the pitch black dark were awful.
Worst as in there was nothing visually to look at. 90% of the house seemed to be in the dark. I legitimately think some lights were not working when we went because all I saw was some strobs at the end with a few zombies popping out. Really no jump scares. Virtually no set design from what I could tell. Being in the dark and the loud sounds made it scary, but I wouldn't call it a good house unless you like walking around in the dark not knowing what's around you.
I personally enjoyed the ones I could actually see. Carnival and Scary Tales were both very intricate while also being scary.
What is Dead Exposure based on?
It's inspired by 28 Days Later and similar films. Virus turns people into (fast) zombies, zombies take over city, etc. It's just called Dead Exposure because the original house had a photographer character that tied into a game they held based around that year's backstory.
I finally got through Scary Tales last night and was thoroughly disappointed. Very weak run-through with seemingly half the actors and effects missing. Hopefully it was an aberration, because I was most looking forward to this one. Poltergeist and Seeds of Extinction are my top two so far. I'll probably go more in-depth after Friday.
I thought the original was incredible with the strobes. Does this year’s use strobes?
How long does it take to get through the houses? For example, the videos I have seen for Halloween 4 is about 5 minutes? Do you really wait in like for over an hour for a 5 minute walk through?
Depending on how quickly you and the people in front of you decide to walk, yes.