JT3000

Returned to HHN last night. Enjoyed myself a lot more than my first visit. Overall park atmosphere has improved a hundred fold from opening night. Most of the houses have improved as well, but they still have plenty of room for further improvement. I was disappointed with Die-In, my previous favorite, but I guess no two trips through are alike. I'll blame it on bad timing. One big difference between this visit and my first is the amount of backtracking I did. Since most of the good houses are in the same place (the soundstages) it really pays to mix things up a little. It also forces you to go through the scarezones more than once, which helps ease the sense of dead space. I also got to the park late. Your first impression will be much, much more impressive if you wait until night falls and the Horror Comes Home area is in full effect. I would recommend anyone with an Express pass to not rush getting to the park. One of the key additions to HHN is the presence of Robosaurus. A throwback to the early days of HHN, this thing is fun to watch, even if it's showing it's age. The show really adds to the atmosphere of Deadtropolis, moreseo than I thought it would. I strolled through the area at least 3 times, in large part to this show. I can't imagine going back and not seeing it there (which will unfortunately be the case, unless they add him to more dates.) Another fun little feature that was just added is a photo-op booth at the exit of the soundstage houses. You can get your photo taken with the various icon characters here. Add this to Horror Comes Home and you have no reason to pester scarezone scareactors for photos.

What makes you so sure of this? The videos say "banned" on them. This was obviously done to hype the Director's horrifying actions. I think if they intended to put viewable videos in those spots, they would have.

^ At least we knew those would open. These, who knows? Just looks like a tease at the moment.

^ Van Helsing is nothing like a normal HHN house.

Site Update!: The '06 drawer has been revealed and you can now make the Caretaker personally call someone, among other things. EDIT: The video in the '06 drawer is filmed almost entirely inside the haunted houses. If you haven't been to the event yet, watch at your own discretion.

It's been 6:30 since last year.

Uhh... wow...

They seem to decide on a whim when they want to open the park, which drives me nuts. The official opening time used to be 7:00, but it was changed to 6:30 because they were consistently letting people in early. Well, this year, we got to the park gates just before 6:00 so we would be one of the first people in the park. Unfortunately for us, the gates were open and there was already a gaggle of people inside. For anyone making any plans that revolve around being there when the gates open... don't. Next thing you know, the official start time will be moved to 6:00 and they'll start letting people into the park at 4:00.

Hmm... This happens to be my 2nd favorite B&T behind last year's. They're on a roll, IMO.

You're not getting your money's worth if you miss any of the three soundstage houses (ScreamHouse, Die-In, PsychoScareapy.) After that, I would recommend either Run or PsychoPath. The other two can be skipped easily, especially if you have to choose betwen them and watching Bill & Ted.

When the Cubans invaded.

One room? That happened in EVERY room in Run. I also remember when it took about a half an hour to get out of Horror Nights Nightmares.

Approximately zero seconds. It's a neverending conga-line.

You're in for a surprise.

Eddie is Jack's little brother. He fits into the maze because... well... he's supposed to be it's main character. It's loosely based on Hostel, it isn't ABOUT Hostel. Go look at the 2001 drawer on the site or click the chainsaw blade on the RUN page for more information.

Personally, I was really disappointed in the event's scare factor more than anything, but it was opening night and I still expect the cast to improve over time. All three soundstage houses look great thematically and just ooze with potential. Now it's up to the talent to fulfill it. RUN would be a solid house with a few tweaks (like EDDIE!!!) The others were a pretty big letdown, with People Under the Stairs and Dungeon of Terror being downright awful. PsychoPath, while short, can still be salvaged. Pretend there's only five houses and it's not a bad event. My main complaint is the lack of scarezones. There's only three, with NONE of them being in the back half of the park. The street atmosphere is just as bad as HHN 14's because of this. One of the scarezones, Blood Masquerade, is out of the way of everything, which doesn't help. The shows are pretty good, although the lagoon show is boring as hell. Don't wait up for it. It might as well be considered atmosphere rather than an organized show. I would have much rather seen a parade.

Jack is at the very end. He's in a straight jacket and has pulled most of his hair out. He's also standing in a dark corner. That might be why you missed him.

^ The Ring portion of the house consists of a hallway and then an office building of some sort (lots of strobe.) Didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. A well scene would have made more sense, especially since the website hinted there would be one.

So you would be able to explain all the weird crap that goes on in PsychoPath had you not been told the concept? I find that very hard to believe. I could name many other examples of houses with indecernable themes from the past. Luckily, I read their descriptions first.

Have you bothered to read the website? I went last night. I'm not going to type up a large review, but here's my house ratings: All Night Die-In - 5 stars Scream House - 5 stars Psycho Scareapy - 3 stars (Fantastic sets, but really lackluster cast) PsychoPath - 3 stars Run - 2 stars (Capable of being good, but they really need to fix their heavy traffic issues) Dungeon of Terror - I'm not sure I can rate this one. It's purposely made to look bizarre and extremely cheap, which just isn't my thing. Others may enjoy it though. PUTS - 1 star (What a waste of wood and plastic. The "throw away house" in every imaginable way.)

You could have used the other thread.

Two new production die-ries.

Do you have X-ray vision?

Welcome to Promo Photo Bonanza, I'll be your host.

That's the point. Would you rather have oodles of people converging in the same place?