Halloween Horror Nights™ 25

monahanjosh5162@gmail.com

on 10/2/20 - 10:07am

HHN 25!!! HOME RUN! Third year we did an RIP tour, and will never go back!

EmperorSephirothII

on 10/1/20 - 8:56am

After 13 years, I finally made it. I was able to attend my first HHN. Sadly, I was only able to make it for one night. I wish I could have gone more than that, but I had to get back home quickly because I only had a 4 day weekend and it was my Senior Year of college! That being said, I was still able to see everything in one night, thank goodness for the RIP Tour. I hope 1990's era Dr. Jimmy is proud of me... Anyway so what did I think? Well here you go: Jack Presents- Let me just say that I was fanboying through the whole thing. The 8 year old who had wanted to attend HHN ever since he first saw the Caretaker on TV during the Horror Nights Documentary was very satisfied. You can only imagine how happy I was when I was lucky enough to get Dr. Caine to pop out at me during the Screamhouse scene. I quite literally screamed like a little girl... probably not for the reason the scareactors want though...But hey, cut me some slack, he's my favorite icon. The one and only determent this house had for me was the Forsaken scene. Don't get me wrong, I love the Forsaken, but they just had to have the tilted ship scene. As someone who is wheelchair bound for things like this, I really hate when haunts do this kind of thing, because you know what it means? I have to skip the scene, which is never fun. Thankfully they seem to have done away with the duck-down tunnel thing they did for a few years. If they would have included one of those in there I'd be fuming, but the rest of the house was outstanding so I let it slide. Asylum- The first ever HHN house of my life. I loved all the Easter Eggs, like how it was the third house to feature Ultra Violent Comics (and only for 25 cents!) My dad, the poor sap stuck pushing me around all night wants me to let you know he absolutely despised the vortex tunnel, but for what it's worth, I liked it. I enjoyed the 3D effect, but I had to take the glasses off part way in because the Christmas Light room with the glasses on gave me a headache but great house nonetheless. Body Collectors- Shadybrook and Body Collectors in one house? YES PLEASE! Not only were the sets amazing, but I got to experience a house with two of the most infamous HHN franchises ever. I remember one scene where a scareactor on the outside of the asylum was begging for help... and I couldn't help myself but say, sorry man, they're forcing me to move. The bits of lore in this house made me jump for joy. From the baby Jack and Eddie in one of the cells, which I was able to find, to seeing how the Body Collectors are made and of course, the revelations that the assistants were in fact Shadybrook patients that the Collectors took in, I don't know if it was even possible to ask for more in this type of house. Werewolf-Ok, I'm probably going to step on a minefield here but, for those of you who got to see the 2013 version of Werewolf, I really hoped you enjoyed it because this version was a letdown. After all the hype I heard about the 2013 edition, I was excited for this house, only for it to not live up to my expectations. Maybe it was because all the wolves were on a timer or something? I don't know, it just felt like something was off. Though, I still believe it was leagues above the worst house of the year, oh, just you wait for that one. FVJ- As a massive 80's slasher fan, how could I not look forward to this house? Now I get it, people take issue with the number of screens in this house... But I was fine with it for what we got. The fact that the house was split into thirds, one for Jason, one for Freddy and one for the fight was certainly a good idea. As someone who had to skip out on Carnival of Carnage, I never got to experience Dreamwalkers or Camp Blood, so it was nice to get a taste of what those houses were like. One quick anecdote, at the entrance to 1428 Elm Street, I must have happened on a cast change because there was like 8 of those creepy little girls who sing the 1, 2 Freddy's coming for you song and that scared me senseless. My wheelchair was literally surrounded by the kids. Seriously, WHERE DID THEY COME FROM? My Only regret about the house is that I was only able to go in once, so I only got to see the Jason victory ending. As a member of #TeamFreddy, I really wanted to see that ending, but oh well. Run- A gameshow in Hellgate Prison? Where do I sign? I really liked how each country took over sections of the prison and made them into their own spaces. Some personal favorites for me were Japan, Canada and the US (obviously.) I also thought it was nice to see the running scores of how many kills each team got in between all the scenes. The only sad thing is I was unable to go through the house when Eddie was at the end, and I feel jealous for all the people who did. Oh well, at least I got to see the final house in the Disaster queue before it got changed to Fast and Furious. RIP Disaster, you will be missed. I’m kind of sad I never got to ride it… Purge- Alright, bit of a controversial take but I actually liked the Purge house. Yes, I know, we were supposed to get a Scream house, (Not to be confused with Screamhouse) but for what it’s worth, the cast did a great job in this house. Although, I will admit, it was kind of fun going through the house and seeing all the Scream sets and getting a laugh out of them, all the while I could hear my aunt in the background going, “What the hell? This wasn’t in the movie.” Ah, I wonder what it must feel like sometimes to be blissfully ignorant… Insidious- I seem to remember hearing a story about how one of the show directors for HHN refused to step foot in this house even with the lights on and no scareactors inside because it scared them that much. Well, while I can’t speak for any time where no actors are inside it, I can say that when the house is up and running such fears are certainly warranted. As a fan of the franchise, this house had everything you could ever want. It also helped that the summer prior to the event, I went to see Insidious 3 in theaters with my aunt (who I ended up bringing to the event.) It was fun forcing her to keep her eyes open every time the lights went out in the movie to make sure she would be prepared for some of the stuff she would see in the house. Ironically, big props to the actor playing The Man Who Can’t Breathe the time we went through because his scare sent her about 5 feet in the air. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it. I am also not afraid to say that in the Lipstick-Face Demon’s room where Tiptoe Through the Tulips was playing, I danced my way through that room… well as much as you can do so while sitting down anyway… TWD- Ugh, Okay, let’s get this out of the way first. I have a pathological hatred of The Walking Dead. Seriously, zombie stuff is overrated, I’m so glad the show is going to be done after this year. What sucks even more is that I had promised my aunt prior to the event that if TWD was announced I would sit through all the seasons of the show to catch up because that’s her favorite show. Let’s just say, that was a couple days of my life I’ll never be able to get back. Even worse, the house was terrible. Although I have to admit, the Walkers in a hot tub scene was so bad it was funny. One effect that does get a thumbs up from me was the girl who got separated from her party so she pushes her way past you in line only to be eaten by zombies a few seconds later. JUSTICE! I won’t spend time reviewing the Scarezones because I didn’t get to spend much time in them, aside from Icons which I spent a couple hours in waiting for the RIP check in time. I spent most of the time fanboying over the Caretaker (and Cindy too!) Although there are two particular scareactors in the streets that get a special shout out from me. One of them goes to one of the Ushers in the Icon’s zone who scared my aunt so bad my father had to pry her off my mother’s back. It’s even funnier considering that I saw this particular scareactor walk right up behind her right before it happened and I didn’t say anything because…yeah… Anyway, she got of got revenge on me when we went through this zone again with the tour (after the sun went down) and the Usher got me with his flashlight. Don’t know if it was the same cast though. Another honorable mention goes to one particular female chainsaw scareactor who somehow seemed to be stalking us throughout the park the whole night and gravitated towards my aunt every single time she saw us. At one point she went up right next to her and asked, “Am I making you nervous?” before revving up the chainsaw, thus causing her to scream, “Get away from me,” before collapsing into a ball on the ground. To both her and the Usher, I must say you did your job well because she says she still has nightmares of you to this very day. Let that be a lesson children, never wear bright white clothes to Horror Nights, that’s like tattooing SCARE MY ASS on your chest for all to see. Finally, I want to give a special shoutout to our RIP Tour guide Doug, not only did he indulge my HHN geekiness the whole night, but he went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that I got to see everything over the course of the night, from pointing out all the easter eggs in the scarezones, he even helped me find Fear’s lantern in Evil’s Roots but, for those of you who have ever gone on one of those tours, you know how they say that if you get separated from the group you’re on your own? Well, he paid extra care to make sure I always had a clear path ahead, even if it meant stopping the rest of the group to do so, it was a pretty busy night, maybe because it was Columbus Day weekend? Either way, I think paying such extra attention to one member of the tour is something the guides aren’t supposed to do, but I just want him to know, in case he ever sees this, that his actions were very much appreciated. You certainly made my first ever experience at HHN one to remember.