- Apr 21, 2013
- 1,276
- 1,516
Here are my initial, non-spoiler thoughts. Sorry if they come scatter shot…
First - it felt so good to be at HHN again. Being at the gates for opening, the chainsaws revving, Jack announcing the start of the event…all great stuff that got me back into my old spirit.
Beyond that, I was also extremely surprised I was able to get done all 10 houses and 3 rides without express on a Saturday on opening weekend, and left by 1:30.
We got there at 5:45, were let in around 6:15 and we rushed to Hill House. Waited all of 20 min, then following @April advice, we looked for houses with the shortest waits and walked to each.
It seems like Hill House and Beetlejuice were the only two houses all night that hovered around 60+ min consistently after 7:00. If you’re not doing stay and scream, my recommendation is to hit up one of those houses at rope drop, then do the other house closer to the end of the night.
Despite the aforementioned two houses popularity - I can’t tell you how nice it is to not have an IP this year that’s driving people in droves like Walking Dead or Stranger Things. The houses all have mostly even wait times throughout the night and none were unbearable to wait in. I’m SO HAPPY I didn’t buy express with my UFP.
Okay so now some of the bad…
Guys…I’m Mr. Anxiety. I’m all about the safest preventive measures being in place. I’m still extremely disheartened by the lack of indoor mask mandates for the houses….but the vinyl cut the scares for me by about 60% this year. Some houses are better than others (Bride, Wicked Growth) and some are flat out egregious (Tooth Fairy, Beetlejuice), but every time I saw a reflection off the paneling, which happened frequently, I knew to look in that direction for the scare.
The masks on the characters is also kinda hit and miss. Some houses it didn’t effect me much at all (Wicked Growth, Legendary Truth, TCM, Bride - which I actually thought it worked well in given the concept), but ones where it features a face character and they’re wearing a normal cloth mask (pretty much everyone in Icons and Beetlejuice), it really took me out of it. Sadly on this front there’s not much that can be done, and I don’t want to dwell on it too much because I’m very thankful the event is happening and I want the actors to feel safe.
The ask is simple though - remove the vinyl, enforce mask mandates. It will make the event this year infinitely scarier, and I really want it to be because this year is NO SLOUCH (at least from the house perspective) and I wish it could operate at its absolute best. Maybe enough feedback early on will push some changes moving forward.
This leads me to a brief ranking, which will obviously change in future visits. I will write more formal feedback after a couple more run-throughs.
Taking in scares, sets and storytelling, my ranking would be…
MASTERPIECE
1) Wicked Growth
VERY GOOD
2) Legendary Truth
3) Texas Chainsaw
4) Bride of Frankenstein
GOOD
5) Icons
6) Haunting of Hill House
DECENT
7) Puppets
8) Beetlejuice
9) Tooth Fairy
10) Scarey
I really don’t think there’s a bad house this year - but the scarezones may be the weakest I can remember in a while. Search and Destroy is the biggest WTF I’ve had in a long time at HHN. I think the only zone that I thought was legit was Gorewood.
As for Covid - it’s going to be personal preference. I saw a decent amount of people wearing masks in the houses (I personally double masked with 3-ply cloth and an N95…call me neurotic), but then outdoors I didn’t wear a mask at all except when we waited to enter the event.
Overall - I’m very happy - I can’t wait to go back and I’m excited to hear more about what you all think!
First - it felt so good to be at HHN again. Being at the gates for opening, the chainsaws revving, Jack announcing the start of the event…all great stuff that got me back into my old spirit.
Beyond that, I was also extremely surprised I was able to get done all 10 houses and 3 rides without express on a Saturday on opening weekend, and left by 1:30.
We got there at 5:45, were let in around 6:15 and we rushed to Hill House. Waited all of 20 min, then following @April advice, we looked for houses with the shortest waits and walked to each.
It seems like Hill House and Beetlejuice were the only two houses all night that hovered around 60+ min consistently after 7:00. If you’re not doing stay and scream, my recommendation is to hit up one of those houses at rope drop, then do the other house closer to the end of the night.
Despite the aforementioned two houses popularity - I can’t tell you how nice it is to not have an IP this year that’s driving people in droves like Walking Dead or Stranger Things. The houses all have mostly even wait times throughout the night and none were unbearable to wait in. I’m SO HAPPY I didn’t buy express with my UFP.
Okay so now some of the bad…
Guys…I’m Mr. Anxiety. I’m all about the safest preventive measures being in place. I’m still extremely disheartened by the lack of indoor mask mandates for the houses….but the vinyl cut the scares for me by about 60% this year. Some houses are better than others (Bride, Wicked Growth) and some are flat out egregious (Tooth Fairy, Beetlejuice), but every time I saw a reflection off the paneling, which happened frequently, I knew to look in that direction for the scare.
The masks on the characters is also kinda hit and miss. Some houses it didn’t effect me much at all (Wicked Growth, Legendary Truth, TCM, Bride - which I actually thought it worked well in given the concept), but ones where it features a face character and they’re wearing a normal cloth mask (pretty much everyone in Icons and Beetlejuice), it really took me out of it. Sadly on this front there’s not much that can be done, and I don’t want to dwell on it too much because I’m very thankful the event is happening and I want the actors to feel safe.
The ask is simple though - remove the vinyl, enforce mask mandates. It will make the event this year infinitely scarier, and I really want it to be because this year is NO SLOUCH (at least from the house perspective) and I wish it could operate at its absolute best. Maybe enough feedback early on will push some changes moving forward.
This leads me to a brief ranking, which will obviously change in future visits. I will write more formal feedback after a couple more run-throughs.
Taking in scares, sets and storytelling, my ranking would be…
MASTERPIECE
1) Wicked Growth
VERY GOOD
2) Legendary Truth
3) Texas Chainsaw
4) Bride of Frankenstein
GOOD
5) Icons
6) Haunting of Hill House
DECENT
7) Puppets
8) Beetlejuice
9) Tooth Fairy
10) Scarey
I really don’t think there’s a bad house this year - but the scarezones may be the weakest I can remember in a while. Search and Destroy is the biggest WTF I’ve had in a long time at HHN. I think the only zone that I thought was legit was Gorewood.
As for Covid - it’s going to be personal preference. I saw a decent amount of people wearing masks in the houses (I personally double masked with 3-ply cloth and an N95…call me neurotic), but then outdoors I didn’t wear a mask at all except when we waited to enter the event.
Overall - I’m very happy - I can’t wait to go back and I’m excited to hear more about what you all think!
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