Inside Universal Forums

Welcome to the Inside Universal Forums! Register a free account today to become a member. Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members and unlock our forums features!

  • Signing up for a Premium Membership is a donation to help Inside Universal maintain costs and offers an ad-free experience on the forum. Learn more about it here.

Howl-O-Scream 2019

Consensus seems to be that HHN was better the last two years, but this year is an anniversary for HOS and the year before anniversary for HHN. Combine the two and it's not a shock that HOS is getting better reception.
 
Surprised at all the positive reviews, I just went tonight and was really disappointed in comparison to last year. For what's supposed to be the 20th anniversary, this year felt very watered-down, to say the least, nothing at all like a "celebration" of HoS. Wouldn’t be surprised if maybe budgets got cut this year due to Iron Gwazi.

new house "The Residence" was honestly lame and by-the-numbers, plus most of the returning houses from last year were basically neutered. Missing effects from Insomnia that were there last year, no screaming "SIMON SAYS DIE" in slaughterhouse, just little atmospheric things and details gone that really added to my enjoyment of the houses last year. Also, I need to say this, can they please, PLEASE retire Black Spot already. It's always been the weakest in terms of scares and environment and I don't understand why they feel the need to keep returning it every year when it doesn't improve at all. motel and Bayou are really the only two that stay consistently good.

Overall, while it wasn't entirely bad, I've been going every year since 2015 and this is definitely the worst year by far. Sad because I've started preferring HoS to HHN in recent years; i feel there needs to be a big shakeup in offerings next year or maybe i'll just start going to screamageddon instead.
 
Surprised at all the positive reviews, I just went tonight and was really disappointed in comparison to last year. For what's supposed to be the 20th anniversary, this year felt very watered-down, to say the least, nothing at all like a "celebration" of HoS. Wouldn’t be surprised if maybe budgets got cut this year due to Iron Gwazi.

new house "The Residence" was honestly lame and by-the-numbers, plus most of the returning houses from last year were basically neutered. Missing effects from Insomnia that were there last year, no screaming "SIMON SAYS DIE" in slaughterhouse, just little atmospheric things and details gone that really added to my enjoyment of the houses last year. Also, I need to say this, can they please, PLEASE retire Black Spot already. It's always been the weakest in terms of scares and environment and I don't understand why they feel the need to keep returning it every year when it doesn't improve at all. motel and Bayou are really the only two that stay consistently good.

Overall, while it wasn't entirely bad, I've been going every year since 2015 and this is definitely the worst year by far. Sad because I've started preferring HoS to HHN in recent years; i feel there needs to be a big shakeup in offerings next year or maybe i'll just start going to screamageddon instead.
See, I haven’t been as a guest since 2012 so for me this was a completely new experience and I think compared to HHN, it was superior.
 
We went this past Saturday and had a great time (3rd year in a row for us). Motel Hell seemed to be our favorite this year.

With Fright Feast, we were able to do all of the houses, plus another run through Motel Hell and Simon's Slaughterhouse before 8:30 PM.

We had several really great scares from the scarezones. LOVE how their scareactors seem to have a little more free reign there and do things like hide in the trees/bushes and get down on the ground. Plus the bungee scareactors!!
 
Went yesterday, I actually really liked the new house and liked Simon's this year even after thinking it was terrible last year. Black Spot definitely needs to go as it hasn't been good at all since I've been going to the event and I'm sorry to say it, even though bayou is a very good house, I would like to see something new in this spot as this house has been around for a pretty long time now, the overlay of motel was pretty clever though and brought something new to the house so maybe they could do more like that. Insomnia was alright but I feel it was worst than last year, lots of effects missing. Scare zones were great and are definitely better then HHN this year but overall I don't think the house lineup meets HHN at all.


Also I'm still salty about demented dimensions.
 
I'm not going to make it to HoS this year, but do they still use actors as seat-fillers on the rides? Seems like that might be a gimmick Universal could look into for next year.
 
I know this is a 2019 thread but I'm curious as to what they're going to do next year. I could see The Black Spot leaving due to bad rep, Death Water Bayou leaving due to age, or just a new house in that Nairobi pavilion since the event is getting bigger year after year. Can only see them doing one though

I'm not going to make it to HoS this year, but do they still use actors as seat-fillers on the rides? Seems like that might be a gimmick Universal could look into for next year.
They were opening night, not since I've returned though
 
Top