Back home after another HHN season.
We adore the whole event so it pains me to even say we didn’t love it this year. Still had huge amounts of fun and did enjoy a lot of it. Everyone who knows me knows I do love getting scared and getting frights so always enjoy that aspect. But something was missing this year. Anyway, for what it’s worth here’s our thoughts.
HOUSES
Dead Waters.........Outstanding house of the year. Detail and theme were top notch and fabulous scares made this the most enjoyable house we went through. Loved the sloping floors, just a little added detail we liked. 10/10
Scarecrow........this was the house we had heard most about in advance this year. We really enjoyed it and thought it was so well done. Some good scares and thought it would be our favourite. It wasn't, but it was up at the top. 9/10
Hive........Very dark and very loud. Didn't see much except the SA eyes at times. Theme didn't thrill us. 6/10
Blum house.............short house but we liked it. Especially the Insidious part. But kinda forgettable, nothing really stood out as amazing. 6/10
Ash vs Evil Dead............stupid. We made ourselves aware of this well before we saw the house and were so disappointed. Poorly executed and a shame for real fans of the show. SA did their best. This has to be the worst planned house position wise ever in the history of HHN. This house we only did once. 2/10
AHS.........This was a good one. Really good. Still think last years house was slightly better but we enjoyed it a lot and I got a few good scares in this one. 9/10
Shining..........One of our favourite movies so expected a lot. We kinda got that, but it missed in bits. Danny was missing from more of it. But, loved most of it especially the bar scene towards the end. Very atmospheric when entering which we loved, really captured the feel of the movie. 9/10
Fallen..........another we expected more from. We had been told to look above us, and it was impressive, but a kind of same old theme with this one.....didn't spark for us, but did get a couple of scares as always. 4/10
Saw...........awful. 1/10
SCARE ZONES.......
Some outdid some of the houses this year. Some.
Alien Invasion..........truly awful........where are the scares?? There just wasn't any. This is such a small zone but was done so much better last year. Costumes were good as always, but really??? Didn't see the point of this at all.
Purge........been done to death. Didn't get one scare in this zone at all. At one point we were walking with a friend and didn't realise it was a scare zone. Very poor.
Altars of Horror..........liked this one. The Insidious lipstick lady was so good.........she knew her targets.......SA here were so good especially the Shining Twins. Loved them.
Festival of the Deadliest..........this area is always a good zone.......no exception this year, SA top notch and knew how to interact with everyone. Got lots of good pictures here.
Trick 'R' Treat..........This by far was the best scare zone this year. It was even impressive during the day. Pumpkins all around made it so pretty, but at nights added to the zone. SA here are among the best there are.......interaction and frights were fabulous. If they did this with every scare zone it would be phenomenal.
Chainsaw clowns are past their sell by date. They do have some fun ones that stand out and show some personality, but generally they're just loud. Teen girls love em though.
Academy of Villains............sadly we only saw the altered and much reduced show this year due to the large stage being damaged by Irma. It was still fun, but you could tell it was supposed to be so much grander. Shame. Still amazing to watch the talent though.
Bill and Ted............No. sorry, just didn't work for us again. I honestly think the last time we enjoyed this was 2008, maybe 2010. But, last years have been awful. We do get the theme and content, but it's just not funny. And it used to be. Never a favourite show but one we enjoyed first few years. I'm glad it's going.
Atmosphere in the park is always fun. We buy the Rush of Fear with EP tickets so can go many nights while we are there, I think 10 nights is what is available. We like to spend a few hours every night we go rather than spend a full night doing everything, not our thing at all.
The Rush of Fear ticket with EP this year for 2 of us was $657.98. It's still a decent price for the amount of nights you can go.
Overall, this, for us, has been the weakest HHN since we started going in 07, we are relative newbies compared to some who have been going much longer, but have seen some magnificent years.
TM friends seem to agree if this is your first HHN you'll probably love it. But they're hearing a lot of the same thing from folks like us, just something missing. As I said above, I hate saying anything negative as they put so much into the event, but SA were mostly excellent as always.
There's always next year...........maybe Halloween will be back..........