HHN Hollywood Trip Report(cause my camera phone sucks!)

[the ghost]

I attended HHN Hollywood on Friday for first time ever. I had a totally amazing time. Also just as a general rule my reviews will differ from many peoples opinions as all of the houses were new to me seeing as this was the first time I have been to USH in about 8 years. I have no reason to comment about the houses being the same or anything like that.

 

Nightmare on Elm Street was the only house we missed due to time constraints, and had my friends not wanted to hit Simpson's and Jurassic park we would have had time, so as a general rule try to avoid rides if you have ridden them as it is possible to visit every house if done right.

 

Also I will post all spoilers in forms of quotes, but there are parts I just need to mention because it was so awesome.

 

We entered the park at about 7:20 or 7:30 after waiting in a fairly long security line, however it moved fairly quickly. We first entered into Nightmarez, which I do not consider a real scare zone. There was a Freddy Krueger on the fountain that was cool and startled a few people and there were go go dancers... that was about it. We then walked through Clownz for the first time of the night... These guys delivered. They were crazy, energetic, and terrifying.

 

I found out via Horror Nights twitter that Corpses would open later in the evening due to the Eyegore Awards, and this was helpful information as that was the maze we planned to hit first. I recommend hitting Jason first on your way to Corpses.

 

Friday the 13th: Kill Jason Kill

10/10

This house is very well done and captured a lot of the intensity of the new movie VERY well. There were some awesome tricks played and some very original scares that were not even used in the film. Jason is everywhere and is ready to stalk and scare... and he is damn scary.

The que is very well done with Jason's mother telling the story of how her son drowned and how his spirit remained at the camp. You then went into the woods where the first scene of the movie was replicated well involving the bear trap and the struggling girl hung in her sleeping bag over a camp fire. We got our first awesome house scare here when Jason came from no where out of the woods scaring us. The next few rooms were more woods and Jasons house, where the infamous hockey masked Killer continued stalking us. The final scenes were a dimly lit walkthrough of Jason's caverns from the movie. He was everywhere and this maze used the distract and scare strategy perfectly. He came out of doors, windows, and sometimes no one even knew where he came from, but he was there... just as startling as ever.

 

Also at the end of the house there is a door to the left of the exit, after you have technically left the house but before you are back onto the main midway. We assumed the maze was over, but a machete wielding Jason ran out of the door and got our entire group. These were some damn impressive and aggressive scareactors!

 

WE then went on the simpson's ride, which had a 15 minute wait.

 

Then we went on the Terror Tram: Chuckys revenge.

The video was great and clever and was funny. The walk through itself ranged from awesome to strange.

7/10

The chainsaw soldiers were great at the beginning! They did not break formation until people starting to walk toward them, and they began to charge the crowd. This was kind of repetitive though, but it was not a very long walk into the next area... the shining star of the tram. The Bates motel crew was awesome this year. Normans and Mrs. Bates' everywhere. They came out of door, from behind cars and slammed on windows. This was not particularly scary for me(I got a few jump scares) but the cast here was awesome and really into scaring and were having a good time stalking people. A Mrs. Bates in from of me was chasing some kid throughout the entire area and he though she was done, but she came back with friends and he was triple teamed. Then things went a bit downhill. There was a relatively large empty uphill forest area. The few scaractors in here were relatively good, but it felt strange to go from the high intensity of the bates motel crowd to some woods with like 4 or 5 scaractors in the entire area. Then the La Lorena area was weird as well. She just wasnt that scary, and they took out the sheet maze, so it was disappointing that they took that out. I have never been through it myself, but that always looked like a cool part of the tram.

 

The mutant area was pretty cool though with some really high energy cast as well as some cool costumes and some very talented stiltwalkers. Then came a very cool part IMO that served as a good ending. You had to walk between to tram vehicles. There was not a large space around them and the guests were at the mercy of the chainsaw wielding monsters.

 

Then we went and did Jurassic Park which was fun, but it seems they should do a little more as some areas seem like a good place to scare.

 

Saw was semi disappointing.

7/10

It was a cool house, but the water was annoying as they used too much and the smells were kind of a bit much. Also there were some scare that could be missed rather easily, and we got stuck in this one. The cast here really tried though. The sets were all very deatailed, but I never felt like I was a victim. I wanted it to feel like I was more part of Jigsaws game than just walking through it, but the effects were pretty awesome such as the cold room with the frozen chick. Supposedly similar to last year... I don't know. I am a huge SAW fan and while I did feel it was a good haunted house I just didn't feel like I was in Jigsaws's crazy psychologically warped puzzles.

 

I have a question on this one though. Towards the end there was a body that was wither decapitated or cut in half... I cant remember. It was lying on the floor and it suddenly jerked towards us scaring everyone. It also served as a distraction for a pig scare so we were double teamed. Is this a scaractor somehow or a very impressive prop? I think its a prop, but my friend said it was a little person scaractor.

Bill and Ted was very entertaining and much better than the hanging... and there were seats. Yay!

9/10 fun show.

 

Finally we waited 60 minutes for the incredible

HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES: IN ZOMBIEVISION 3D

11/10

 

The scariest among the scary and the best of the best at HHN!

The rooms were all stunning. You entered Spaulding, where the scent of fried chicken filled the air, just like in the movie. Killer Carl came out of nowhere in his giant headed costume and scared us all, as did the captain spauldings. Then we went into the murder ride where there were actual props from the movie, which made this really cool... the Ed Geinn in the murder ride segment was part of the real murder ride. Then the Dr Satan part was well done. WE then entered the firefly residence where the actors were on their game. The scarecrow thing got us as well as the thing buy the door. THe house was filled with characters from the film including Tiny(another awesome stiltwalker) Baby, and Otis!

 

Now for the scariest part of HHN! PERIOD!

The body rooms leading to Dr Satans lair was the scariest thing ever. You had to push bodies out of your way and scareactors literally came out of the walls on all sides. This was the scariest and most intense room of the event, and I would be amazed if Orlando has anything to compete for the scares in this area. People did not want to contine and a girl was forced into tears near us. The cast here was crazy aggressive and the scares were everywhere... This maze is (I will almost put money on this) the best house on wither coast... it is also the most terrifying maze ever despite being in 3d. This one was AMAZING

 

WE ended the night with a 5 minute wait for Vampyre.

 

7/10 No spoiler here. They essentially amped up house of horrors as they do every year. This house was full of vamps, and although they essentially did nothing to the facade scares were abundant and fun. There were so many vampires that this maze is actually IMO as good as saw this year. Tons of fun and tons of scares! Had this maze had better theming inside despite being the HOH it would be an 8, but theming and props brought this one down... especially the Chucky's toyshop part, but not really universals fault as there is not too much that can be done here.

 

Scare zone ranking from best to worst (not including nightmarez!)

 

1.Clownz

2.Lunaticz

3.Freakz

4. La Lorena

5. Freakz

 

Also as an ending note chainsaw chase out was an awesome way to end the event! Great idea universal as it is such an intense ending to an already intense night. Already cant wait for next year!