With the start of the new Halloween season Universal Studios
kicks it off first with Halloween Horror Nights. I am big in the haunted
attraction industry with designing and building scenes to make sure guests are
getting the best scares for the money. I have been to several of America’s best
haunted attraction over the years. Places like
Phobius Haunted House in St.
Louis, Missouri,
MadWorld in Piedmont, South Carolina,
The Darkness HauntedHouse in St. Louis, Missouri,
Netherworld Haunted House in Atlanta Georgia, and countless other haunted attractions
throughout the East Coast. I look at HHN with a different set of eyes than some
other may see it. I do not normally get scared, I am too busy looking at everything around the scares to notice when someone jumps out at me. All haunts are entertaining.
I have been attending the opening weekend of HHN for a
number of years to avoid the large crowds the closer we get to Halloween. This
year was the first year of a three day opening weekend. This paid off well for
those that chose to arrive on Sunday. The lines were extremely short and stayed
short for most of the night. The longest wait was 45 minutes which is light in
the HHN world.
This review is being done room by room and is in no order
from best to worst. I am not judging the acting abilities due to being the
first week and so that could get into the rhythm of the lines and people. My experiences
through each house was not that got scared or startled but rather their timing
and placement within the maze. All pictures where taken by me.
1.
American Horror Story
The house is set up in three sections for
the series, Season 1 “Murder House”, Season 4 “Freak Show”, and Season 5 “Hotel”.
We start off seeing events that led up to the ghosts being in the house. Each
area of the house is designed and layout in such a way that you feel like you
are there. Look at every turn to see something new including all the major characters.
At the start of each Season you see the video on the wall welcoming you into
the next session. The Freak Show stands out right at the start when you walk
between two carney trailers. There are the iconic large painted banners giving
you the feel. What is a major event is that you get to walk through Twisty’s
bus. It is just Amazing. During the Hotel portion you will see several events that
was in the show. Be careful for actors will step in front of you and you could
run into them. One thing you may not notice is that if you look down to the
floor, you will notice the design of the carpet. If you have not yet been
through the house do so and look down.
2. Tomb of the Ancients
This house is truly one of the best houses
in years. The concept of finding a hidden tomb and walking through it is so
cool. There are a lot of details in the house that you will want to see. There
are a couple of Easter eggs in the house that I will share with you so you can
keep an eye out for. First being shared is a tribute to a music legend that has
recently passed away, it will appear on a wall just before you take a left turn
in purple. The place is full of vines and other things that hang from the
ceiling. Towards the middle you will notice there are thicker vines with large
rings on the end. Pull those and see what happens. The ending to this room is
one of the bests. The room is had a saying, ”44 and no more”, that is just
enough clearance to get a wheelchair through and that’s it. There are plenty of
scares involved. No pictures.
3.
The Exorcist
One of the best horror movie that ever came
from a book. As you see on the movie poster of the Priest standing under the
street lamp in Georgetown, you too will also walk under that light and through
that gate to start your experience. As both the book and movie focuses on a
young girl transformation from healthy to demonic. Designers had their hands building
on a house that will scare you with using just one room. The first look of the
demonic youth, will show you the detail they put into this room. Each of the
rooms inside this house changes and you become part of the act. Your surroundings
change as the demon takes over her. This room will get all of your senses going
with sight, sounds, smells, and touch. It is a great room and I am sure it will
only get better during the season. I look to see this room to return in the
future sometime.
4. Ghost Town: The Curse of Lightning Gulch
This house, I have noticed, is at the
bottom of most people’s rating lists. It is one of US’s original houses with a
ton of story lines and scares. At the start you walk into town seeing a couple
of hanging corpses on the gallows. This room has it all. Death, lots of death
lurking about the house. There is a bordello here and you could be caught in
the middle of a gun fight so be careful. When you reach the large town area
look around to see where the cannon balls fly, just hope it’s not into your
head. This house has weather in it that will surprise you and is different than
any other room. The story closes with a bang. You will enjoy it.
5. Halloween: Hell Comes to Haddonfield
For me the story is stale, the first
Halloween movie is a classic and all the others fall short and only make
themselves worse by trying to find that chemistry. With that being said, this
house picks up where the last house during the HHN 25 left off. You walk
through the closet and you hear gun fire. Was it six shots or five. Not sure,
count the bullet holes in Michael, if he stands there long enough for you to
count. The house walks you through the scenes in the hospital. Everything looks
great and Michael will pop out of nowhere swinging his knife. The highlight in
the movie where the nurse removes her clothes to climb into the hot tub for
most teenage boys, is included in this house. The ending effect to this house
is a great burning effect with glowing embers and smoke.
6. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
This for more me is one of the best houses
this year. This lines up with the movie quit well. The tour begins just like
the five teens on that hot Texas day. You
become the number six person. There are a lot of action that you may miss
because it more of a set of scenes rather than people jumping out at you. Be on
the lookout for each person in the Sawyer family, they are all there. One of
the first kills is in the hallway by the stairs for a lot of people, you will
miss it. There is so much to see and experience in this room, you may want to
see it several times. What makes this room so great also makes it a sad room
for the actors. That reason is that the actors are performing a scene in the
movie and it takes time to do so. You have people rushing to keep the line
moving and get the feeling of being rushed out and missing out on something
that may have taken an hour or so to see. Just take a slow stroll through until
they force you out. It is great to see it. after you exit the house through the broken window like Sally, you may notice a station wagon that was used in a previous HHN. writing still on the window. Great touch.
7. Krampus
This is a good story from Europe that had
been turned into a movie. Although the house could have been better had the
based the house on the Legend rather than the movie, it would have been much
more terrifying. There are so many things to see in this house that it is
crazy. Make sure you keep an eyes glued to the kitchen scene with several gingerbread
men. There is a small army in there running a muck. The fun area is upstairs in
the attack with lots of decorations to look through. See if you can spot the
Mouse t-shirt hanging around. Towards the end when you get to the home of
Krampus, start looking for the snow globes and see if you recognize some of the
houses. It is very well designed layout.
8.
The Walking Dead
There are several people that have given up
on wanting to see this house. It has been use over the past several years. The
bad thing is about the current house is that it is all tightened up and in one
house and not even a large house. All six seasons are in one house. I think it
caused people to hate this house that was once used to bring in more people to
HHN. It came in with a bang that this year it went out with a fart and I hate
to say it. It is one of my favorites over the past years. It was too much with
not enough room to tell the story. It looked like they had just thrown together
a few things and image or two from each season without telling the story. I was
not as good as I had hoped.
9.
Lunatics Playground 3D: You Won’t Stand a Chance
Here is the house that belongs to this year’s
Iconic new host, Chance. I was wanting to see some of the same effects from
last year’s Alice in Wonderland. I did not get what I wanted. There was so many
ways they could have gone. I would have not made it a 3D show rather a kill
fest like the stages in the front were. I hope this doesn’t turn US from using
Chance again, she was a huge hit on her stage. If they need to make a 3D house
again, they should bring back the clowns and make floating 3D effects. No pictures.
Overall the 2016 HHN was a blast, just make
sure you go on the less busy nights. I enjoyed it all for reason other than
being scared. I would enjoy working and being involved in the creating of each
house and seeing it come to life. If anyone knows who I can contact, please let
me know or get us in touch with each other, I would be so happy. There seems
like there has to be a lesser room out of a group of 9 but I think it could
have been closer running without being such a large gap. The design team had a
lot to pull off in just a small amount of time. Just point me into the right
direction.
If anyone knows how I can be added to the media list for next year, please let me know.
