Monsters Unchained - Reviews, Photos & Media

[Mad Dog]

I’ve ridden this ride three times and I don’t remember this. Even if that is the only flaw in the ride’s design, it’s still an incredible ride. Hopefully they will fix that in a future refurb!

The only reason I noticed it was because I read about it on these forum threads. I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed it otherwise since the attraction is pretty fast paced. Yeah, finish it somehow if they can without downtime, but no big deal to me. The ride is awesome and scary enough. It scared Alene, and I'm curious if it might be too scary for the girls (12 & 13) when we take them in June. I think the ride is about as perfect as a ride can be. I can understand why the HHN crowd might want closer and scarier, but you have to be careful it's not over the top scary to the general public. If the AA's were closer, it would probably scare and turn off too many people.

 

[MangoDance]

Anybody else just have quotes from the ride playing rent-free in their head?

I think this is the most quotable ride since Pirates of the Caribbean, and I sort of love how cheesy they made Igor, Victoria and Drac; I feel bad the folks who wanted some genuinely scary HHN style ride, but it's so corny and I love it.

 

[Freak]

Anybody else just have quotes from the ride playing rent-free in their head?

I think this is the most quotable ride since Pirates of the Caribbean, and I sort of love how cheesy they made Igor, Victoria and Drac; I feel bad the folks who wanted some genuinely scary HHN style ride, but it's so corny and I love it.

I feel it's fine for a daytime ride for the guests. As long as the monsters are scary that's good enough for me. If anything I was kinda shocked with how much of the horror aspect they got away with for this ride.

FWIW I think the balance between corniness with the characters and the scariness of the monsters would reflect very well for a Ghostbusters dark ride. That's probably why I could easily envision a GB dark ride with the Monsters-quality AAs.

 

[HHN Maddux]

Anybody else just have quotes from the ride playing rent-free in their head?

I think this is the most quotable ride since Pirates of the Caribbean, and I sort of love how cheesy they made Igor, Victoria and Drac; I feel bad the folks who wanted some genuinely scary HHN style ride, but it's so corny and I love it.

Every day it's a different quote for me that just lives rent-free! I do wish the ride was much scarier, but I think (for the most part) they did an excellent job finding a balance between scary and campy.

And to not double-post, from today:

• Escaping Drac down.
• Flying Bride down.
• Falling Bride down.

Everything else, including full A-mode finale Drac, in working order.

 

[HHN Maddux]

Some cool new details I noticed from yesterday's rides:

• At the beginning on Ygor's monitors, if your timing is right with the animation, you may notice Drac manages to get an arm free from the punishment ring. He smiles, looks at Ygor, and in a very creepy moment, looks directly at you through the monitor. That's the primary reason the status monitor in the big room has him flashing red, he's already broken free and is waiting for the right moment.
  
  
• As all the vampires start breaking out, watch the candle trail leading to the Dracula projection. They go out as the bats swoop by!
  
  
• With the first Wolfman animatronic, watch his jaw as you approach him- he's still chewing from feeding on the bride's corpse. That ain't saliva he's spitting on you.
  
  
• Anck-Su-Namun has a snake wrapped around her right arm!
  
  
• In the background screen of the levitating Dracula animatronic, "Do you fear the dark my friends" takes a literal meaning as every snuff of light in that room is being stomped out by brides and bats.
  
  
• The vehicle movement becomes noticeably smoother and more refined in a way when the brides begin getting destroyed by the daylight rings, like Ygor is calming down and regaining control of the unit and situation.

 

[Freak]

Some cool new details I noticed from yesterday's rides:

• At the beginning on Ygor's monitors, if your timing is right with the animation, you may notice Drac manages to get an arm free from the punishment ring. He smiles, looks at Ygor, and in a very creepy moment, looks directly at you through the monitor. That's the primary reason the status monitor in the big room has him flashing red, he's already broken free and is waiting for the right moment.
  
  
• As all the vampires start breaking out, watch the candle trail leading to the Dracula projection. They go out as the bats swoop by!
  
  
• With the first Wolfman animatronic, watch his jaw as you approach him- he's still chewing from feeding on the bride's corpse. That ain't saliva he's spitting on you.
  
  
• Anck-Su-Namun has a snake wrapped around her right arm!
  
  
• In the background screen of the levitating Dracula animatronic, "Do you fear the dark my friends" takes a literal meaning as every snuff of light in that room is being stomped out by brides and bats.
  
  
• The vehicle movement becomes noticeably smoother and more refined in a way when the brides begin getting destroyed by the daylight rings, like Ygor is calming down and regaining control of the unit and situation.

Holy crap those are some amazing details! Just solidifies my opinion that this is the best dark ride ever.

Unfortunately I don’t think I could’ve caught that detail at Igor’s booth at the beginning as it was running in B-Mode and I think they show Igor there.

This ride is so intricately thought-out and genius ride. So many small details you pick up on for each ride!

 

[simon]

First full lights on pov of unchained. Bet you guys gonna love this!

 

[soarinwithmolly]

Super late review! But we finally visited Epic last week (from the UK) and had an absolutely amazing time. (Wanted to post a full park review, but I couldn't see an appropriate thread for /everything/, unless I'm blind).

Monsters was hands-down the best ride of the day, though. We headed straight for Dark Universe upon opening (not early entry), as we assumed everyone would be going for either Ministry or Nintendo, so it was essentially a walk-on. Absolutely exceeded all my expectations - the way they incorporated screens and (super impressive!) AAs so seamlessly was outstanding. To be honest, I haven't seen any of the classic Monsters films (really want to now - keen for recommendations of the best versions!), but they made this attraction super clear story-wise for even complete newbies. Most impressively, it's surprisingly smooth. For reference, I'm in my twenties and went with my parents in their sixties - they can't hack most rides, even on the scale of Hiccups, but they found this one very easy to ride (nothing like FJ, which we all get a little motion sick on!), and were keen to re-ride. We did this 3 times throughout our day! Super impressed with Universal on this one, and totally understanding all of the hype.

 

[Clive]

Super late review! But we finally visited Epic last week (from the UK) and had an absolutely amazing time. (Wanted to post a full park review, but I couldn't see an appropriate thread for /everything/, unless I'm blind).

Monsters was hands-down the best ride of the day, though. We headed straight for Dark Universe upon opening (not early entry), as we assumed everyone would be going for either Ministry or Nintendo, so it was essentially a walk-on. Absolutely exceeded all my expectations - the way they incorporated screens and (super impressive!) AAs so seamlessly was outstanding. To be honest, I haven't seen any of the classic Monsters films (really want to now - keen for recommendations of the best versions!), but they made this attraction super clear story-wise for even complete newbies. Most impressively, it's surprisingly smooth. For reference, I'm in my twenties and went with my parents in their sixties - they can't hack most rides, even on the scale of Hiccups, but they found this one very easy to ride (nothing like FJ, which we all get a little motion sick on!), and were keen to re-ride. We did this 3 times throughout our day! Super impressed with Universal on this one, and totally understanding all of the hype.

The Monster films that hold up the best to modern tastes and expectations, in my opinion, are Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. The original Dracula, Mummy, and Wolfman are each important films with iconic images and various other strengths, particularly the Lugosi and Karloff performances, but they're a bit stiffer overall.

 

[kingcooger]

My wife and I were gifted the complete Universal Monsters box set and I can say that the original Mummy series of films were easily our least favorite

I would add to the list already provided that the 1924 Phantom of the Opera is iconic and the makeup that Chaney performed on himself was insane