So the night started out odd. The entrance wasn't dressed up yet and overall there was a feeling of unpolished. Like, "oh crap preview night already?! Okay come on in!" We were all told to be understanding, more than usual, that this was a groundbreaking and different year for HHN and a lot of the kinks need to be fixed.
With that in mind, I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of it. The entire presentation felt familiar, but also slightly different. Sure enough, around 7:05 the announcement for Purge was announced as the scareactors took their place... and we were OFF.
Immediately I headed down to the lower lot, and zoomed to make that sharp right at Transformers for the Backlot Express. During the busier nights this corner here will be bottleneck central: it's smack dab next to both the exits for Transformers and Evil Dead. Be warned. However, the studio tour staff they hired especially for the event have things down to a T. You'll descend downwards and walk straight down the Universal front lot, peaking into some soundstages. Climbing a staircase, you'll immediately hit the tram loading area... and things are FAST.
The tram experience is very redundant to Terror Tram (even the tour guides repeat a lot of the same lines/jokes), and is only a few minutes in length. Sure enough, JUST like Terror Tram, you stop just in time to watch the walkers get into place. There, the backlot experience starts. Unfortunately you aren't dispatched onto New York Street, but the adjacent metro set. Most of it is set behind it, in an area full of crates, but you reach a city square and it's pretty cool/spectacular. Almost it's own maze since it's not exactly free range. After that, you reach another part of the backlot where the buildings eerily glow light in the windows... it's pretty awesome. There you can either turn left for Black Sabbath, or keep going for Walking Dead. We'll talk about the latter first.
Walking Dead: No Safe Haven is pretty identical to the one in Florida. The forced perspective of the prison and its tower are slightly ruined by the backlot sets around it, but it's no matter. You walk inside the prison and the themeing is top-notch. It certainly felt more focused than the maze from last year, that's for damn sure. Some great walker effects, but the common theme tonight is: Murdy just doesn't know how to end a maze, and it ends rather anti-climatically with a pointless outdoor scene.
Now time for Black Sabbath! I walked straight onto Walking Dead... but Black Sabbath... woof. This maze was its own worst enemy. The heavy metal band and 3D combined to hype it up immensely, and attracted the crowds. This was on everybody's minds as "must-do". Unfortunately, the 3D limits the capacity. It's very disorienting and handing out the cardboard frames delays things, so crowds were gigantic... they swelled up to 80 minutes while everything else hovered around 20. Luckily I hit it and only waited about 15 minutes. (longest wait of the night for me!)
Naturally, it was similar to Alice Cooper Goes to Hell from last year and all the other 3D mazes from Horror Nights past. Except this one is in a soundstage! So it's going to be AWESOME! Right? Think again.
It's pretty much as if they went inside 747, and erected the usual black tent in it. The fact that it's a soundstage is barely glimpsed upon outside of well, waiting outside of it. They do some really cool 3D effects on the scareactors and there's some fantastic visuals that compliment the dizzying nature of it all. And of course, the music... but nothing truly gels. There's a theme in there somewhere... but you can't find it. That and: it's super short. It ends when you think it's just taking a break, and the ending is literally exiting the maze tent in the middle of the brightly lit soundstage and walking alongside the tent while some scareactors take advantage of the fact that you're disoriented by your 3D glasses. It was a massive embarrassing letdown, especially since Alice Cooper was my favorite from last year. Hopefully they fix the ending problems and the line length problems after the first week, because yeesh.
After Black Sabbath, there's a straight line leading to a dead end. Nearby are portable restrooms (the nice kind studios provide, not port-a-potties), and starting Friday I believe there will be a food truck just across from Walking Dead. I have no idea what they'll be selling, I guess they'll find out Friday night. On your left there's a junction point with the London facades that is the tram pick up. It quickly dispatches you right onto the lower lot.
I ran upstairs, grabbed some comp food (gotta love preview night's free food!) and dashed over to El Cucuy. The entrance is the arch next to the UP tower, and the queue is over the fountain, but it was a walk-on. And I don't mean "conga line walk on", I mean, "me and three other people" walk on. It was literally an empty maze. And that bites, because it was the best, most creative one at the event. You enter a faux theater with people literally dying in their seats... a fake, crappy film is playing and it's a shame you can't stick around. From there you "enter" the movie of sorts and live the story of the Boogeyman and follow him back to his creepy lair. Some of the effects are simply incredible, the ideas are actually pretty terrifying, the creature himself is scary as hell and still there's a great sense of humor to it all. And, on top of it all, it was a nice, long maze which is shocking considering what little area it takes up. The only negative is that the narration doesn't really sync up well, but it's a misnomer. This one is a don't miss, and I hope it grows to have an amazing following this year.
Next was Terror Tram. Oh, Terror Tram. There's not much I can say about this one. You get out, and there's guys with chainsaws. Then a virtual repeat of the prison stuff from the No Safe Haven maze for a brief minute. Then you walk and there's some distinct references to the show... you walk up the hill and there's some fun noise scares. An opportunity for a photo op at the Psycho house off to the side... and then the War of the Worlds set walkthrough. A couple more references to Walking Dead... more chainsaws and it's over. What can you say? That's Terror Tram. The most interesting part, easily, was getting off and seeing the entire side of the Gibson gone and the interior just waiting to be demolished.
So then it was time for Bill & Ted. Already things were off to an odd start, the monitors in the queue were glowing as if a preshow was soon to take place... but nothing did. Soon we got our answer as before the performance started, the VP of entertainment greeted us and let us all know that the show just wasn't as ready as it usually is by now this year. (explaining the lack of a pre-show) Apparently the version was still very rough, and he kindly asked us to dissuade from saying anything specific on twitter/facebook/whatever. So I'll be vague: yeah, it was in semi-rough shape. But a lot of it was surprisingly very much intact. It's the usual: some jokes hit, some jokes miss. (the beginning had some spot-on, hilarious meta jokes that I really hope stay in) We were laughing and we were baffled, but it was overall a decently good time. What I do hope is that there are some plot rewrites, as that seemed to be really weak... but maybe that's just compared to last year, which was fantastic, even on preview night! And I don't think it will ever beat that one. That said, I'm going to be sure to check out the show later on this or next month to see what changes have taken place.
Rushed down to the lower lot to do the last two mazes. Insidious gets an A-plus for presentation. As soon as you reach the house, there are actors presented as paranormal investigators outside just murmuring to themselves. They don't scare, and I'm not sure if you could talk to them, but I was astounded at that awesome detail. Soon you enter inside and the attention to detail keeps on giving. You really feel like you're in this haunted, suburban home and it's just awesomely done. The effects are freaking cool, and there's some great humor to be had as well. I've never seen the movies, but this is the first Horror Nights maze which made me WANT to see the movie. Also: it's really, really long. The longest maze in the event for sure. Number two behind El Cucuy.
Evil Dead was presented well, and had the tone down. There was a supremely annoying water-based scare that annoyed me more than anything else. The scares are well positioned and it had some very cool sets. I really have not much else to say about this maze, other than again: the ending was anti-climatic yet again.