Halloween Horror Nights - Universal Studios Hollywood

[mudger]

Just got back from USHH last night. I must say that I have a bit of a mixed review for them.

 

First off, the mazes (2 of them) and overall theming of the park was fantastic, dare I say BETTER than Knotts. Universal took it beyond smoke and dark places and actually made a unified scare zone.

 

The Terror Tram was by far the best thing they had which is no surprise. But with a 110 minute wait an hour after the park opens it just kills all the joy. I was constanlty pushing just to walk around the park and they easily sold too many tickets. I know they are trying to make a good buck but they should moderate their ticket sales for everyones enjoyment.

 

The Asylum was very well done but would have been 10 times better if they had people go in groups like most houses. The crowd and line was so long that they just had people streaming in and it really took away from the experience. I missed at least two or three scares because five people in front of me were getting hit with it all.

 

Jurassic park in the dark was good in the beginning but once we got inside you can't see anything, not even the raptors. Still fun.

 

Did not even think about waiting 80 min. for the mummy lol

 

skipped most of the shows and just decided to hit the scarezones, all very well done.

 

Overall. Like almost all reviews, I think Universal has the ability to take Knotts title as the premiere haunt. They do need at LEAST two more houses and a little more scare actors, crowd control also. If they can get those down then Knotts has a lot to worry about.

[Gnome]

^ A couple of more mazes would more then likely help spread people around the park so they aren't all concentrated to very few areas of the park. And those scare zones were pretty cool as well. Though I never got to the lower lot so I never got to see half of them. Come to think of it I haven't been to the lower lot since like in 2000 or something! I will have to hit that up next time.

[brianfuchs]

The lower level didn't have any scarezones, just the rides and a couple of random scareactors.

 

As for the earlier comment about the conga line of people in the Asylum, if they pulsed the groups, the 100 minutes wait would jump to 200 minutes. That's just the unfortunate side-effect of having oversold events.

[Chase]

The lower level didn't have any scarezones, just the rides and a couple of random scareactors.

 

As for the earlier comment about the conga line of people in the Asylum, if they pulsed the groups, the 100 minutes wait would jump to 200 minutes. That's just the unfortunate side-effect of having oversold events.

200 Minutes?

[mitchelljd]

yeah, well i kinda think the park for halloween was planned from florida.

 

so.... I hope they have someone reading these boards and take notes.

[Jew]

^Nope.

 

I'm sure they used some of the resources/knowledge/etc. that comes from 16 years of doing HHN in Florida, but it was definitely not "plannned from Florida."

[mudger]

i will be attending Knotts Scary Farm tonight. I will have a full review (with ratings) posted tomorrow

 

Knotts vs. HHN

 

 

Knotts is gonna win but by how much?

[CoasterGoblin]

Went to Knott's twice so far this season.. still debating on whether or not $39 is worth the money for what Universal has to offer. I'm really curious but I feel like after I hit the Terror Tram and The Asylum there won't be anything else to do. I had an annual pass so I'm familiar with all their rides and the special shows sound like they are duds.

 

I wish they had more compelling reasons to go!!!

[Gnome]

I really like Universal's event more then Knotts. It was just much more fun imo.

[CoasterGoblin]

Didn't get to go.. when I tried to buy tickets online Friday evening for Saturday night they were sold out! Hopefully they will have the Terror Tram next year as it was what I was looking forward to the most.

[Jew]

Lots of cool characters who were obviously having a great time with the crowd and it was nice to see the characters using environment effects and power tools to scare instead of the typical "shaker cans" you find at other similar haunts.

 

Maybe something changed from opening night to last Friday, but I saw shaker mugs (seriously...these things were giant shaker cans with handles attached) EVERYWHERE on the streets. And they weren't even using them very well.

[CoasterGoblin]

I'm not too sure why there is such a focus on whether or not shaker cans are used.. but either way the last few years I've been to Halloween Haunt I haven't noticed many shaker cans (if any) except on the Mine Ride and maybe the Log Ride.

[twisted_propaganda]

I went Friday the 27th, the longest line we waited in was the Asylum maze. That was a whopping 25 mins long. [:

 

Jurassic Park in the Dark was the highlight of the night, right after the Terror Tram, which kinda sucked because I had a terrible case of scarers going after the people right in front of me. And they stop suddenly, and you bump into them, people get pissed, and everyone just keeps waddling through.

 

That House of Horrors thing was pathetic, why didn't they just stick with the Van Helsing maze?

 

Overall it was pretty great. I think they need a little more practice in this park to do their own thing, as opposed to following USF.

[mikotorocks714]

Man, all I can say about HHN on October 28th is “WOW!” I had SO much fun, and didn’t really have any trouble seeing a lot of stuff. My wife, cousins, and I arrived at Universal around the afternoon to make sure that we were going to be able to still get tickets before they sold out! Then after that we just ate at Universal then got out to kill some time and get some things from the car, and by a little past 4:00 PM we had already gotten in line for the event. We were actually the first ones to get in line, but then others followed suit.

 

It was really great that we did this, because by 6:00 PM the line for tickets and security check were already long and we sure felt sorry for the people in the back. However, after the security check (which I must say they did a very good job at checking people pretty fast) it seemed like almost everyone was already waiting to enter by 6:44! Well, I’m sure there were more people in the back, but everyone seemed to almost be ready to enter the park right along with us.

 

As soon as we entered the first thing we ran to was the Terror Tram, since I’m sure that the line for this was going to be pretty long by 8:00 (and it was.) However, luckily we got to be the first tram to leave on our journey. And all I can say is WOW! As soon as we got off the tram to explore the first thing that we see are all of the excellent talent RUSH us with their high energy to scare and chainsaws! Now I’m sure that a lot of you think that they have a lot of saws in the park, but seriously they sure do know how to use them on the people that are still freaked out by them (more on this later.) Anyway, I seriously have nothing bad to say about the Terror Tram, the talent was awesome and I wish that it was longer! However, I have nothing bad to say about this. Being an ex Knott’s monster usually no one tries to approach me to scare me since I don’t really get scared, but it was cool knowing that they tried here just like they did at Haunt on Friday were I must admit I did get a good startle in The Asylum (my favorite KSF maze next to The Grudge 2) for not paying attention ha, ha but this is for a KSF review so I’ll write about my adventure at KSF later on.

 

Anyway, after that we went straight to The Asylum which I was also VERY impressed by this maze. It is right up to par with Haunt’s Asylum maze, and since I don’t believe in competition when it comes to Halloween events I will not even dare cross the “which is better” line since they’re both GREAT in their own way. Even though I didn’t get scared here like I did in the KSF Asylum maze, I was still VERY impressed by the talent which they were REALLY into their parts and into the scaring and entertaining aspect.

 

After this we ventured on to the Fear Factor show and well, I must say that some parts were funny but not enough to make me want to see it twice ha, ha. It just seemed like some of the parts in the show didn’t make sense, but I hope that next year things will improve on this or hopefully just bring in another show.

 

Then we went on to see Chucky’s Insult Emporium and well, we didn’t stay to see the beginning of the show since when we walked in the middle of the show (or whatever it was) we just figured that all it was going to be was basically what we were already seeing. And even though it was funny, I figured that it really wasn’t worth wasting our time just seeing Chucky talk while making fun of people. So instead of waiting for the beginning of the next show, I just figured we’d rather spend our time enjoying the other parts of HHN.

 

After that we went to House of Horrors and even though the wait was pretty long, the line seemed to move pretty fast for it having a long wait. And well, to make this short I will just say that I really give the talent props, but it really isn’t something that you HAVE TO see since it seemed pretty weird seeing the theme clash with the characters. Other than that, it was pretty decent, just needs a lot of work. However, I understand that Universal didn’t really have time to plan this event out, since they didn’t think that it would turn out to be such a big success as it turned out to be. So hopefully next year this maze will be better.

 

Anyway, on our way after HOH we went to go see Slaughter World! And wow, I was seriously debating on even going to see this since I thought that it was just going to be the same thing except for a change in script, but I was wrong. The show was REALLY funny, and filled with some great changes. A must see if you have the time on the 31st.

 

After this we went to Back to the Future since we had some time to kill, can you believe that? We even had time to kill! That’s how good of a night it was on the 28th!

 

Anyway, after that we headed on to Carnival of Carnage and man, oh man do I sure hope this show stays for next year since this show was awesome. Those two guys really have a good stage presence and sure do know how to make the crowd have a great time. Well, at least from what I thought.

 

After that we headed downstairs to go on Jurassic Park since the wait was only 15 minutes (from what I remember,) it was cool but nothing really different, since to me it didn’t even seem dark enough (go figure.) This can be skipped if you’d like.

 

We didn’t get to see The Mutaytor show all the way through since we got to see a good amount of it by just walking around the area, but from what I saw it looked pretty cool. We did stand around to see a little of the beginning, but since it was an outside show where everyone could see we just figured we’d see it while walking around, heh. It was cool though!

 

Anyway, this is starting to get pretty long so I’m just going to add what we got to see and a few last comments on what I thought about HHN.

 

Things we got to see:

 

1. Terror Tram.

2. The Asylum 2 times.

3. Fear Factor Live.

4. Some of Chucky’s Insult Emporium by choice.

5. Slaughter World.

6. Jurassic Park.

7. House of Horrors.

8. Some of The Mutaytor by choice.

9. Scare zones.

 

Oh, yeah we didn’t do The Mummy since the line was CRAZY LONG, but we didn’t mind skipping this.

 

Scare zones: Man, I just want to end this by saying that the Chainsaw Brigade crew was SO full of energy. Everywhere I went they were there, even in the queue lines doing an awesome job freaking people out. They were even near the escalators scaring people, and always running around non stop chasing a freaked out guest.

 

Now I know that some of you had said that there is enough chainsaws at HHN, but from what I saw I have to admit that they make it work extremely well. Now keep in mind that this is just my opinion, since I really think they did a great job. This one African American Chainsaw Brigade member was one of the very best, there was nowhere I did not see this guy running around at full speed chasing someone or receiving high fives and pats on the shoulder for doing such an awesome job. These dudes were even still scaring at 2:00 AM! All of the scare zone talent was actually, well from what I saw.

 

Everyone in the scare zones did an awesome job, not just the Chainsaw Brigade crew, everyone one was equally good at doing their job while looking like they had never ending energy while doing this.

 

All in all, I just hope that next year will be even better than this year! Because I sure did have a blast at HHN and did not feel that it was a flop. This was my first time ever coming to HHN and I had so much fun, I can’t wait for next year!

 

Besides all this, I just want to say that I think all of the Halloween events should not even be in competition with each other. Sure people will have favorites, but I personally don’t have any since I think that anything that has to do with scaring people while doing a good job at it deserves equal praise.

 

I’m a loyal Halloween Haunt ex monster and to me Halloween Haunt will always be my home, but I love EVERY Halloween event equally just as long as they remember that it’s all about having fun while scaring people and giving them what they paid for. And well, HHN sure did a good job at it, and it sure made me miss scaring people.

 

Say no to Halloween event competition!

 

Thanks for taking your time in reading this!

[P!glet]

HHN was great....

SlaughterWorld was hilarious, the end is the best part!

Asylum was also great, love the way that they even created smells to go with the environment...also loved the way that no one was really noticing that they were walking through dirty chonies!! lol

and i also loved the way that once the crowd entered the park, walked through the dense fog, not expecting much, only to see a line of chainsaw-wielding pigmask dudes running full speed at you...lol the crowd started to run back lol XD

But, it was really small for as many people that went, i dont think Universal was thinking that it would turn out so big! Next year it should be awesome tho, they wont be afraid to spend more money and add some more things to the event now that they know the impact... and hey...maybe they could start using a couple soundstages in the backlot for some really cool haunted houses!....(crosses fingers)

anyways...it is a MUST SEE!!!

[SharkTums]

Yup, great event!

 

Looking forward to next years already!

[mikotorocks714]

HHN was great....

SlaughterWorld was hilarious, the end is the best part!

Asylum was also great, love the way that they even created smells to go with the environment...also loved the way that no one was really noticing that they were walking through dirty chonies!! lol

and i also loved the way that once the crowd entered the park, walked through the dense fog, not expecting much, only to see a line of chainsaw-wielding pigmask dudes running full speed at you...lol the crowd started to run back lol XD

But, it was really small for as many people that went, i dont think Universal was thinking that it would turn out so big! Next year it should be awesome tho, they wont be afraid to spend more money and add some more things to the event now that they know the impact... and hey...maybe they could start using a couple soundstages in the backlot for some really cool haunted houses!....(crosses fingers)

anyways...it is a MUST SEE!!!

 

Same here, I can't wait!