It has been a while since I went to HHN on opening night, and I gotta say this easily overthrows 2022, so it's making me reevaluate my years rankin' lol. And to add to it, this has easily got to be one of the best nights of Halloween Horror Nights I have ever had, the whole night went smoothly and there were some good surprises along the way.
Houses & Terror Tram this year were all SOLID, I can't say any of them were duds but some had problems while others didn't, in order I did them:
Stranger Things 4:
This is probably the house that rivals Orlando in grand-esque sets, that said, the scenes they chose felt random, Out of the ones they chose, only the beginning in Eddie's Trailer, Eleven vs. One, and Vecna's Realm were the major scene from the series, everything else just... there, grand there, but there, unironically my favorite set piece was the Creel Houses (yes the flat facade) with how much was in front of it and another lesson in how lighting makes all the difference. It's also kinda short, probably because of all the big sets, but that's something you'll notice
The Exorcist Believer:
The new thing for this house was themed black walls!! Like you can't tell me these aren't just black walls with tons of slashes of red paint XD. That said, this was pretty solid. It wasn't just repeating the same sets like the OG Exorcist was, and had the connection not been there you could convince me it was a solid original about demonic possession, the look of the demon is also really cool, Like Freak said, the facade inside reminded me of Chupacadra I kid you not and... I am not sure if it was the house itself or that the queue line was right above a sewage system, but this house STANK
, probably the most of the houses. Also, I like how this house throws you right into Holidayz
Holidayz in Hell:
The first run it was on par with 2019's but after a 2nd run it's easily better than 2019's!! This is more like Halloween than Killer Klowns (last year's repeats) where there were improvements to the house rather than downgrades, the house was also darker thanks to the tent and a lot more foggy near the back half lol. All the actors were having fun with this goofy premise and I know a lot of you here don't like dubstep but that is easily the highlight of the house for me, especially the Halloween section with "Halloween Night" playing, overall a fun houses that improves upon it's previous iteration deserving the repeat role this year
Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count
Far from being the scariest, this is the Funnest, Funniest, MOST Impressive fun house I have ever seen. The Chucky animatronics alone carry this house but even the set pieces they are in help play up their antics. Nice to see inclusions like Glen/Glennda/GG in there and the screens actually worked helping the Meta aspect of the house work. And as we know Chucky's little potty mouth is in full effect here, at the front of the facade and all through the house, after years of asking for a proper Chucky house, they HARD delivered with this one!
Universal Monsters: Unmasked
After what everyone said saying it's the black wall house this year (which it sadly is) I was still surprised because the scene they did were still super good! Some of them were just really impressive, mainly the hunchback's scenes as well as the piano-playing Phantom, the easy highlights. However after that strong first half, it kinda falls off, the black walls section is dedicated to Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde who looks like Fluffy from The Crate in Creepshow, and Invisible Man shouldn't have even been promoted when the Red Death (that one really caught me off guard, love that he was in here) has 2 sections with him Strong first half then kinda falls flat near the end but a fun finale
Terror Tram: The Exterminatorz
Bugzzzz, Larry Larva is a great new Terror Tram host, he has such a fun sense of humor, and like Hollywood Harry was everywhere on the tram, My favorite part is always the beginning with the Chainsaws, and after that, it is all the same just with bugzz and a lot of comedic moments, I like the demented rendition of Isty Bisty Spider playing all through-out and the mini maze, in the end, was just ok, probably the best one they've done but ok. The NOPE part like last year, was amazing again.
Monstrous: The Monsters of Latin America
I probably need a better run but for what we saw it was great. One thing I will note is that Tlahuelpuchi and Lechuza's Sections feel short while El Silbon has the rest of the house to play with, was kind of disappointing to see that but their sections were the scarier parts since they had all the scares, El Silbon was missing a few so like I said, hope to get a better run when I go back. Like Scarecrow last year, it's the best facade this year with the amount of detail on this facade and throughout the whole house!! La Muerte is similar to the Abuela from last year's La Llorona, narrating all throughout the house, and that is great to hear. Love the house just need to get a better run so it's not as amazing as I think it could be.
Evil Dead Rise
I thought it wouldn't be a problem but it is hard not to see what was Horror Hotel with many of the sets feeling similar, that said, This house feels darker, grimmer, and scarier than Horror Hotel and I think that is what will carry it for most, especially if you didn't do Horror Hotel last year
The Last of Us
WOW is this house stellar! it felt like a grim adventure. Every time a Clicker had a scare they would pop up but then a gunshot would be heard and they went back into their hide hole, that was such a clever way of resetting a scare! The sets would either be grand or tight and a few of them you can't believe fit in the Mummy Venue which now just adds to that venue's history. The scenes with Joel and Ellie were all great and the preshow on the facade just adds to it, it's also bigger in person! Definitely worth the 140 mins that was actually 30 mins, which speaking of operations:
Ok so, tbh, I don't know if it's just this forum's pessimism or what but the amount of Fear Mongering for operations on Opening Night was insane, This will probably be the most chill night for the event but everyone saying the operations were horrible I just don't understand. Had Frequent Fear so didn't necessarily have to do everything that night but was able to do all the houses by 10pm with General Stand-by and still had time to catch a show of the Purge and Blumhouse but didn't because I chose Pizza Fries and JW instead, which were good. The most I waited last night was 45 minutes for Evil Dead, the worst line was Monstrous because of that gap that had to be cut off since it connected to another pathway but it was still only 40 mins. Also, a lot of the wait times were overbloated or in TLOU case comically overbloated where it was posted at 140 mins when in reality it was only 30. A proper plan with Early Entry made it possible which, Early Entry itself was nowhere near as bad as people are exaggerating. Now yes if you did TLOU first you probably got the worst of it but being able to do 3 houses (essentially 5 if you get to H-Lot before 7) was way better than doing only 1 (The Weeknd) last year because everyone had access and slammed them. For 10 dollars to hard cut wait times I'll take it, it's still going to get crowded as the case with HHN but compared to big years like 2019 and 2022 I saw the difference. So Operations weren't horrible, (at least not Thursdays, I will probably retract my statement when Saturday rolls around
)
But overall this has got to be one of the best nights of HHN I have ever done and it's only the first night, I can't wait to see how things go over the coming season.
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