Just got back from Florida today, so writing up my review after attending 4 long nights. Overall, I feel comfortable saying this is the weakest HHN since I started attending in 2014. Based on this thread, I knew to keep my expectations in check and go in with an open mind, and while there weren't any downright awful houses in the lineup, the bottom half of my ranking all had issues that severely hindered their experiences. I have never given six houses below an 8/10 in my time attending the event, and unfortunately my top houses this year are nowhere near GOAT status. House ranking below.
10. Triplets of Terror (5/10, 2 runs): Oof, what a confusing mess. During my first run, I was too focused on trying to follow the house's story without focusing on the actors, which was easy to do when the vast majority have awkward boo holes and don't get close to the guest path. The second time, I simply gave up on figuring out the story and once again had no fear walking through the house, reinforcing it as the weakest of the year. The house feels too contained and made no use of being in a soundstage.
9. The Museum: Deadly Exhibits (6.5/10, 3 runs): My rating may be a little harsh, but the house primarily suffers from boring creature design and victim scares. The cast definitely gave an effort, and my second run on Saturday particularly had a good energy to it. My run on the final night was understaffed and only exaggerated the house's weak spots. The set design was pretty good, and I like the concept. I had a good time with this house, especially since the wait was always short, but it definitely won't be remembered too fondly.
8. Goblin's Feast (6.5/10, 2 runs): This is probably my biggest disappointment of the event. It felt like a comedy house desperately trying to be serious, and while I liked the goblin designs, they were repetitive in a few rooms and too bulky for the cast to really shine.
7. Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America (7/10, 3 runs): I really like this house until the second half when actors sparse out and puppets/practical effects become the focus. While impressive, they end the house on a pretty boring note, but I can appreciate this in service of the story. The casts were consistently aggressive, and my run on the final night was intense during the first half.
6. Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodines (7/10, 2 runs): I liked this slightly more than last year's Paris house, but IMO we have reached the point where the Monsters need to rest for a few years. The cast does a decent job despite some weird boo holes placements (and two bungee scares close to each other), but there are too many characters in a jumbled story to comprehend what's happening and why each monster is present. A few rooms had cool sets, but it was the most physically contained Monsters house in the current series which I didn't expect.
5. Major Sweets Candy Factory (7.5/10, 3 runs): This house grew on my over my trip, and the final night actually had a fully staffed cast, which bumped my rating up half a point thanks to getting unexpected scares. Unlike Goblin's Feast, it blends comedy with a dark subject matter well with effective, if not somewhat unremarkable, scares. It was a little short and probably would've benefited from a better location with another room or two (*cough* SS24 instead of Triplets), but this felt close to being strong on the whole.
4. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (8/10, 4 runs): Holy hell, I did not expect to like this house as much as I did. This was the only house I did every single night of the trip thanks to fairly reasonable waits. It has a fun energy with quite a few good scares, and of course the set design is magnificent. My run on Saturday night was severely understaffed, but aside from that run I caught pretty much every actor. As meh as the new Ghostbusters films are, I would not mind another house if it's as good as this.
3. Slaughter Sinema 2 (8/10, 3 runs): While it's definitely a step down from the first SS, there were some great rooms in here, including Mardi Grad Murders, Killer Kringles, and Hatchet and Chains. The last few rooms (Zyborgs especially) ended it on a fairly weak note, and I probably would've given this a higher rating if the rooms were more consistent.
2. A Quiet Place (8.5/10, 3 runs): Thank god this house actually worked. The soundscape was absolutely perfect with great puppets and a good cast. While the scares were hit or miss due to the puppets being visible in darkness, the house was always fun and eerie to go through.
1. Insidious: The Further (9/10, 2 runs): As someone who wasn't too big on 2015's Insidious or its Horrors of Blumhouse inclusion, this house was SCARY. AS. HELL. On both my runs through this house, I muttered "F*** this" no less than five times each. It had such an anxiety inducing environment with an unpredictable cast. There were often actors you never saw coming (hello first mannequin room). My favorite scare of the event was the one right after you enter the facade because I didn't see that my first time and set a good/bad omen for the fun about to come. It's probably a good thing I only went through this twice due to the long waits because good Lord it was terrifying. The only thing keeping this from GOAT status is that the sets were merely backgrounds to the scares.
The zones were pretty unremarkable with Duality of Fear being an absolute joke, but at least I got a photo with M3GAN. I didn't see Nightmare Fuel as I'm fairly meh on the show's previous iterations and wanted to do other things with my time.