We went last night and are headed back tonight and tomorrow. We had made reservations at the APH early entry but ended up going to the Finnegan's area stay and scream instead. At 5:45 we were escorted from that area to The Shining queue, and they started letting us in right at 6. We went straight from there to Dead Waters, then from there to The Fallen, finishing up those three houses right as the main entrance crowd started making their way in.
From there we rode The Mummy, then caught the first showing of Bill and Ted, which was awesome--it was the best B&T show we've seen at HHN, which makes it all the more sad that it's leaving after this year.
After that we used our express passes to make our way through the other 6 houses and briefly passed through each scare zone, before going through The Shining a 2nd time with express pass right before closing time.
Early impressions of the nine houses (best to worst):
1a. (Tie) American Horror Story -- best IP house for 2nd straight year. I think last year's was a little better and more evenly spaced between the seasons (this felt like 1/2 Asylum, 1/3 Coven, and 1/6 Roanoke), but we will go through multiple more times this trip.
1b & 1c. Dead Waters and The Hive (best original houses). Incredible set design, effects, and well-timed scareactors. I loved the 80s synth vibe of The Hive. *Note: The Hive is a sprung tent and very dark, so it's essential to visit this house after dark or else your eyes won't adjust and you won't be able to see hardly anything.
4. Ash vs. Evil Dead - I don't know how much people who haven't watched the series will enjoy it, but it was great. We binged the 2 seasons for HHN homework, and it really paid off. Not super scary, but a lot of fun and well done.
5. The Shining - OK/decent. I think it was hurt by the fact that I had VERY high expectations for the house. This movie was made to be a HHN house. Fans of the movie will be satisfied by the homages, but I felt like they really blew it with the twins/bleeding elevator scenes - won't go into detail and spoil it, but I was expecting something far more amazing. The bathroom scene and labyrinth scenes were well done.
6/7. Saw/Scarecrow. Both were decent, but didn't blow me away and I felt were a step below the top 5. Of note, EVERYONE seems to have loved Scarecrow -- I keep hearing others in the crowds praising it, and everyone on the Facebook HHN group seems to think it was the best. Maybe we just had bad timing with the scares -- will see if we have a better experience tonight.
8. Blumhouse. Felt rushed: Sinister and Purge are literally two small rooms apiece, then you move into Insidious, which was better, but basically a shorter and inferior version of the Insidious house they did 2-3 years ago (one of my all time favorite HHN houses). Would have been much better if they'd just focused on one series, or made it a longer house (like AHS).
9. The Fallen. Not impressed at all. Cheesy, cheap fake looking monster outfits, and the "amazing" aerial stunts were 2 actors at the end of the house--won't spoil anything. Maybe the house will improve with time and tweaking as the season progresses.
1-7 were all good-to-great, only the last 2 do I think were below par.
Tonight we plan to revisit our favorites and give Scarecrow another shot, but overall take a slower pace and really take in the event and scare zones.
No schumigirl sightings yet this year, but we'll keep an eye out for you!
