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Halloween Horror Nights 29 (UO): Reviews & Photos

I just realized I never gave my rankings for this year so here is my list from best to worst (which was written at 1:00 AM cuz I can't sleep so excuse any spelling errors, I'm tired lol)
HOUSES:

YETI: TERROR OF THE YUKON:
This is by far my favorite house I've ever done (having only been going since HHN28) and I love it with all my being. From the moment you see the facade, it's gorgeous, atmospheric, eerie, cinematic, and everything I love about HHN. The costumes were the perfect mix of scary and campy and I was able to fully understand what was going on during the house despite its chaotic nature. I did this house the most times out of all of them that year (7 total, impressive for the time), and I found I was always finding new things to love about the house. I have heard some complaints about timing issues, however I never experienced this in any substantial amount (except for the heart-rip scare, I did rarely get that). The tension throughout the house is constantly being increased and it really feels like there is a Yeti at every corner. All-in-all, great house.
9.5/10

GRAVEYARD GAMES: This house seems to be a fan favorite in recent years and honestly, I can see why. The facade in on par with Yeti's in creating an atmosphere and it is perfectly eerie throughout. I love love love how they created a story to go along with this house and the set design throughout blew me away with every walkthrough. I honestly can't say anything about this house that hasn't been said already, but this house would be at my number 1 spot if Yeti didn't just barely take that spot instead.
9.49/10

HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES: Probably one of my favorite IP houses next to Poltergeist, this house blew me away. After going through Blumhouse 2, I had set my expectations very low for the MiB tent and not only did this house meet my expectations, it blew them out of the water. The facade is probably one of my favorites ever and the energy of this house just felt so trashy in all the best ways. Despite not being a huge fan of the film, I found myself falling in love with this house every time I walked through it. My only complaint is that I felt the section at the end where you went through the tunnels (catacombs?) before Dr. Satan's lair felt a tad too long.
9/10

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS: I have yet to meet a person who actively disliked this house. Every single set of this house was beautiful and I honestly adored walking through these films and near these characters that I have grown to love. My only complaints with this house would be that I experienced some timing errors, especially in Wolfman, Hunchback, and Frankenstein's section. Additionally, the house kind of lost some energy in the final few rooms (immediately following Frankenstein).
9/10

GHOSTBUSTERS: This house makes me glad I made this list so long after the event happened, because after going through Ghostbusters...not a fan. However, having time to reflect on it and watch back walkthroughs of the house, I can honestly appreciate just how much effort went into every bit of this house. The costumes were super fun and the sets were well-crafter. I feel that if I were to place any sort of complaint on this house, it is that the finale of the house with the Stay Puff is anti-climatic. But all in all, great house!
8.5/10

US: Okay, I know this wasn't at the top of many people's lists and I completely get it but something about this house just got to me. I felt like for the most part, the sets were super well done with only some of them feeling cheap (The boardwalk to name one). The actors for this house were spot on though and I didn't experience many issues with timing throughout. I feel this house really captured the eerie sense of Jordan Peele's film and having the facade appear again except changed to show the future like the film did was brilliant and a great callback to the movie. Like I said, I just wish this house had some more effort put into some of the sets, and I also wish some of the scares had been better placed.
7.5/10

DEPTHS OF FEAR: This house was so fun to go through personally that I didn't even mind the design of the Mouthbrooders. It had great scares and I felt the actors really didn't hold anything back. My complaint with this house falls on the fact that the story of it didn't make much sense to me until I read what it was. I didn't understand where I was or what was going on really, despite the alarms blaring and the captain literally saying "Get to the escape pod". But this house was just...fun. I loved it.
7/10

NIGHTINGALES: BLOOD PIT: This house scared me the most out of all ten this year. The Nightingale designs, in my opinion, looked better and scarier than the originals and the actors were the most aggressive in this house. However, I felt that going through it, I wasn't quite sure where I was or what was happening, it was almost too much chaos for the small space it occupied. In positive news though, this house did feel a lot like a maze which really made it eerie in a strange way as I wasn't sure where I was.
6/10

STRANGER THINGS 2: I liked Stranger Things and I liked this house. I really did like this house. However, despite the gorgeous sets, casting, scares, puppets, and costuming...this house just didn't click for me in the same way the others did. However, props to it for having tons of memorable scenes.
5.5/10

KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE: I really wanted to love this house. This film is one of my all time favorites and after disliking the scarezone from last year, I found myself hoping that this year would change that. And I continued to think that after I stepped into the alleyway scene, thinking that this house looked gorgeous and fun. However, after the alleyway scene, the house fell off. Despite the wacky colors and crazy creative sets, it somehow just felt bland and I found myself getting bored in this house. I do give props to the costume designers though and for that giant Klownzilla.
2.5/10

SCAREZONES:

VANITY BALL:
This is my all time favorite scarezone by far. It gave us some positive queer representation at the event which I adored, especially since they treated the topic of ball culture with a sense of appreciation and respect instead of making fun of it. The scareactors of this zone really focused on interactions than scares, but it worked in my opinion. I found myself sitting in that zone for hours just taking in the absolute god-tier aura of it. I cannot express in words how much I adore this scarezone guys. I love it. I could make being a Vanity Ball stan my entire personality.
11/10

ZOMBIELAND: I know a lot of people weren't fond of this zone and I can see why, I felt the space they had was far too large for the space needed. The scarezone could have worked better if they had decreased the size of it. However, this scarezone was just dumb fun and that's what I love when I go into HHN scarezones. The actors seemed to love it and the interactivity of this zone was super impressive.
8/10

ANARCHADE: I loved the costume design and set design for this zone but it all-in-all just fell flat for me. I really have nothing else to say about it.
6/10

VIKINGS UNDEAD: It may have been that I was in this zone during inactive times but it felt like the scareactors clung to the walls and didn't do much. The few times I went through it where the scareactors were really going though was super fun, and the actors were super aggressive. I feel like they may have been told to tone it down though since Central Park gets pretty dark and they didn't want any possible injuries.
5/10

ROB ZOMBIE: HELLBILLY DELUXE: This zone made my uncomfortable but not in a good way. It wasn't fun, the sets and costumes were bland and uninspired, and I found myself wanting to leave the zone as soon as I entered it. I've already discussed in length why this zone made me so uncomfortable though so I won't be doing it again. It gets one point for the pyrotechnics.
1/10

SHOWS:

ACADEMY OF VILLAINS:
I love dancing and seeing these guys perform was amazing. I was able to follow their storyline and every sequence was really fun and highly energetic. Additionally, the individual sections were super fun to watch and I'm impressed those performers did that multiple times a night. I would like another dance troupe to eventually make their way to HHN to replace AoV, since they won't be returning (and for good reason).
8/10

MARATHON OF MAYHEM: I like these kinda watershows and I loved the projections throughout that helped build on the atmosphere, but I found that I had no drive to see this again after seeing it once. I'm not sure exactly why but maybe HHN30's speculated watershow will hit different for me.
5/10

Overall, this event was really fun! I would have liked some more work put into the scarezones but all-in-all it was extremely enjoyable. It also gave me my favorite house and scarezone.
 
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