Halloween Horror Nights Review

[Scuttle]

Overall I liked it a lot. Not my favorite in the past 5 years, but still good. The walking dead theming I thought was pretty solid. Mark it here La Llorona is the sleeper of all the houses. and

Now for all you HP nuts HHN this year gives great backstage views of the Hogwarts Express track, and yes they were working on it at 1:00am.

Small update from the preview and I'm sure some things will be tweaked, but for the preview it was very well done.

 

[Bairstow]

So is La Llorona a direct transplant from the Hollywood version?

 

[JT3000]

So is La Llorona a direct transplant from the Hollywood version?

It's not a carbon copy according to those who've seen it.

 

[ishmael0316]

La Llorona was indeed amazing. Such great theming and awesome story line. I also enjoyed Cabin in the Woods and Afterlife. I though that Evil Dead was pretty good for what it was, the new movie, take it or leave it. American Werewolf in London was amazing! It even had a tardis and a Mickey Mouse in it. MY biggest disappointment was Resident Evil. The scenery was great but the actors really did nothing to sell it. Walking Dead was good. Nothing compares to actually standing next to the head aquariums. Overall great time! Going back tonight!

 

[danpam1024]

First year I can't go . I LOVE the Walking Dead . Maybe I'll just charge it and worry about it later

 

[71jason]

First impressions of houses, from best to worst (rough order):

• American Werewolf in London: Flat-out amazing. Immersive sets, clever effects, freakishly true to the movie. Strong contender for best house ever.
  
• Cabin in the Woods. Not a huge fan of the movie, but this house captures the best parts of it. Amazing array of creatures in the second half.
  
• La Llorona: The impressive sets make up for the average to slightly above average scares.
• Evil Dead: Starts slow--three different introduction rooms. But once it gets going, truly creepy, closely replicating scenes from the movie in ways I didn't think could be done in real life. Left me wanting another room or two, which is good.
  
• The Walking Dead: Sets actually look like things we've seen on TV this year, and definitely feel the increased length. Scares could be stronger, but still, 10x better than last year's.
• Resident Evil: Not a gamer, so not sure how true it is the source material, but interesting sets, some really well-done creatures, finale room is incredible. A couple unexpected scares, as well.
• Havoc 2: Like the original, a strong cast. Not much else, but sometimes you don't need gimmicks, old-fashioned distract and scare gets the job done. A solid, if hardly original, house.
• Afterlife: The one misstep for me. Queue and opening scene (describing a 1937 serial killer) seem incongruous with the flashy light rave that follows. Like going through Pirates queue and loading dock, only to find yourself riding Space Mountain. Felt very derivative from The In-Between, but that house did it all better. I did like the demon scene, but overall felt like a wasted opportunity.

 

[draybook]

We're looking forward to this on Friday night as it will be our first time. On top of that I'm a huge Walking Dead fan!!

 

[BuddyThomas]

We're looking forward to this on Friday night as it will be our first time. On top of that I'm a huge Walking Dead fan!!

We went the first night and it was MOBBED!!!!! We had express passes and still waited in every line for 30 minutes or more. They have clearly decided that greed is good and have not capped the number of express passes they are selling. At some points in the night, it was so crowded that we could only shuffle down the streets. The houses were great but I was not expecting the crazy crowd level here. Also, I should add that you have to practically be a competitive athlete to get to and from these houses. They are so far away from the park and the line snakes for what feels like miles, coming and going. Even if you somehow do not have insane crowds like we did, you will be walking miles and miles and miles. Wear VERY comfortable shoes or prepare to suffer.

 

[Bairstow]

So were you able to do them all?

 

[BuddyThomas]

So were you able to do them all?

We were able to do them all, but just barely. Honestly, it was not the most pleasant experience we ever had. After waiting in each line for 30 minutes or more, they literally rush you through the houses like you are cattle going to the slaughter. If you slow down to look at something, a monitor screams at you to keep moving. So with express pass, at least on opening night, you are waiting 30 to 45 minutes or more for a 3 to 5 minute attraction. By the end of the night we were very cranky and our feet were falling off. Luckily, there is a Fat Tuesday's right outside the park entrance and several 190 Octanes eased the pain just fine before the boat back to the hotel.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Haha, I started my night with a 190 Octane.

I've never had a TM tell me to keep moving. That seems pretty odd.

And opening night crowds get pretty bad. People have been waiting for this event since Nov. 3rd of last year.

 

[BuddyThomas]

Haha, I started my night with a 190 Octane.

I've never had a TM tell me to keep moving. That seems pretty odd.

And opening night crowds get pretty bad. People have been waiting for this event since Nov. 3rd of last year.

Yep. Understood. When we turned on the hotel tv the morning before the event, they had Good Day Orlando at the park previewing it, and that's when I said "uh oh".

Everyone in the express lines seemed aggravated. I mean, I don't expect to walk right in, but these passers were more than the tickets.

I can't imagine how annoyed non express pass people were.

Again, this was opening might, so the experience may be different going forward.

The houses are great and I hope everyone gets to see them.

 

[Slipknot]

Opening night/weekend. One of the more busier times of HHN. Just be thankful you aren't here October 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 26th. Orange Country public schools are out that Thursday and Friday so four straight nights with kids not having to worry about school the following day...

 

[draybook]

We just went on the 27th and it was amazing. We saw all of the houses and did some rides. We plan on going back next year. One of the workers said Halloween is the best night to come and it's a ghost town that night.

 

[danpam1024]

We just went on the 27th and it was amazing. We saw all of the houses and did some rides. We plan on going back next year. One of the workers said Halloween is the best night to come and it's a ghost town that night.

That doesn't sound right Maybe if it's in the middle of the week???

 

[71jason]

That doesn't sound right Maybe if it's in the middle of the week???

No, generally correct. Keep in mind, anyone with kids in the States is stuck going trick-or-treating on the 31st. Then, if Halloween falls in the middle of the week--it's the middle of the week. If it falls on a Thursday-Saturday, virtually every bar in town throws some kind of Halloween party, often with cash prizes for costumes. And, of course, a lot of private parties as well. Just too much else going on Halloween night.

 

[danpam1024]

Wow! I never thought of it that way!

 

[draybook]

Yeah, the person that told me that was a staffer that waited in line with us for Werewolf in London. He said you could probably do each house 6-10 times by the end of the night.

 

[JT3000]

Halloween is usually pretty dead. This was not the case last year. I think all bets are off this year. However, the fact that it's no longer the last night of the event should keep some regulars away.

 

[Skip]

Very briefly, full reviews eventually --

Evil Dead was my #1. Great sets/costumes, endlessly creepy, talented casts, good mix of show scenes and scares.

Cabin and AWIL were both very solid houses but were overhyped significantly. I don't know why people are praising the latter as the second coming of Christ. The puppets are fantastic, but they aren't very scary after that first run... more just impressive. I dunno, I don't "get" it.

I wanted to love La Llorona more than I did. The masks in many of the scenes are flat out embarrassing. Felt too short, paled in comparison to Hollywood's effort, but taken on its own terms it's pretty good, just not great like I was hoping/expecting.

After those 4... we get into mediocrity to outright failures.

HAVOC was an absolute mess of design. The casts are very capable and doing the best with the little they have. It takes WAY too long to get to the "crash," which is where the actual scaring picks up.

Resident Evil was laughably terrible. As a friend put it, "the actors in there know they're in a $#!t house." Casts barely tried. Sets are generic and mostly reused from Silent Hill. More bland/unscary zombies, the few creatures either weren't scary or looked like rubber Spirit masks.

Afterlife somehow managed to be possibly the worst house I've ever done at HHN in my years of attendance despite having an amazing premise. The plot went off the rails pretty much immediately, the central concept was abandoned, there was no rhyme or reason to any sets, lame scares, a bored cast... just... terrible. Anyone who thought this compared to In-Between needs to get their head examined.

Streets were very uninteresting. The victim attacks were cool, as were the handful of photo ops (deer eater, barn, Michonne's pet, Bicycle Girl). Everything else was generic, repetitive, and very quickly not scary.

Bill & Ted may have been my favorite in my years of going. Surprisingly coherent plot, great character choices/casting, some hilarious jokes (lots of subtle stuff too), incredible choreography... it also helped I had VIP front row-center seating on two of my viewings. The Daft Punk robot twerked on me, it was glorious.