For those who don't know, every year the Universal Orlando Resort holds a month long Halloween themed even known as Halloween Horror Nights or HHN for short. I finally was able to experience the event and now that I've returned and because it's the Halloween season, I would like to discuss and rank each horror maze. I will go over the scare zones and other miscellaneous aspects of the event at a later time. I will be going from my personal favorite to least favorite this time around from 1 to 9. QUICK NOTE: I was unable to see the 'Stranger Things' maze due to its long waiting times of nearly two hours so I cannot include this one on the list. If any of you got to see it, let me know in the comments below what you thought of it.
1.) Universal Monsters
The classic Universal Monsters have a large spot in my childhood memories, so this one was going to have to live up to a somewhat higher standard for me personally. I'm happy to say that this was by far my favorite of the event this year. Right away, the house gives you that perfect atmosphere you'd expect from the classic films. The outside queue also shows some nice effects and appropriately spooky music to keep you engaged while you wait to enter. The maze was also one of the more genuinely scary of the bunch, with very aggressive actors who grab and claw at you viciously. Overall its very entertaining and one of the few houses I went through multiple times.
2.) House of 1000 Corpses
Rob Zombie's movies are certainly not for everyone and even with horror fans, he is pretty hit or miss. The movie this house was based on might not be perfect, but the house itself is perfectly capturing the movie's atmosphere and has film quality makeup and set design. It goes through some of the most memorable moments from the film and the scare actors inside perform excellently. The sound design was a bit loud at times making it hard to understand some of the spoken dialogue, but overall it's clear that some effort went into this one which bumps it high on my list.
3.) Graveyard Games
The biggest surprise for me this year was 'Graveyard Games'. It was one of the last to be announced before the event begun and very little information was given out about it so it was natural for me to be a bit of a skeptic. It was the last house I attended but its one you should definitely attend first. It was actually a lot darker in tone than I anticipated, with graphic violence and uncomfortable imagery with dead children and the like. Out of all the original houses this one also has the most understandable and straightforward story to it which I won't spoil here. Like Universal Monsters, this was one that got a genuine scare out of me more than once, so why is it not higher? Well the production value can be a bit inconsistent and the scare actors are pretty timid with the exception of one surprise that you'll have to see for yourself.
4.) Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Not the least bit scary, but man is this a fun one. Based on the 1988 horror comedy, this maze captures the spirit of the film with wacky designs and fun little extras throughout. It's the only maze that I know of that you can interact with some of the environment and the Klown actors are really funny here. Plus that rocking theme song always gets me. A lot of negativity has gone towards it for lacking any real horror, but its about as close to a classic funhouse experience as you can get.
5.) Yeti: Terror of the Yukon
A very divisive house this year was 'Yeti' which some cite as one of the worst due to its slow pacing and lack of Yeti, while others praise it's slower more atmospheric build up to the scares. I'm in the latter group as I felt like I was part of the story, as if I was someone sent to rescue these people and coming upon the carnage. It felt very much like John Carpenter's 'The Thing', slowly building up tension until those final rooms when gore and scares just hit you over the head. It was nice to have a house that didn't just have someone jump out every few seconds like others. But I will have to agree that even when it does get to the goods, there is a lack of the monster though some have said he is more frequent during their walkthrough.
6.) Ghostbusters
'Ghostbusters' was another hot topic of debate this year with many arguments over it being either too commercial or not a horror movie. I will not be getting into that this time but I have to say that overall the house itself is pretty disappointing. Not bad but also not that great. It goes through the story beats of the first movie while having some bits and pieces from the sequel/remake here and there. It's one of the most high tech and well designed houses this year I'll give it that but it just felt a little bland for having to wait in line for so long to see it.
7.) Us
I was pretty curious about Jordan Peele's 'Us' becoming a haunted maze this year. The film is set in a normal environment such as a living room or a carnival so making these work as a scary attraction was going to be pretty hard. It wasn't that they didn't succeed with me necessarily, but like 'Ghostbusters' it's a pretty straightforward house that recreates scenes from the it but with little in the way of scares or tension like the movie had. It was far from a bust, but there were so many more interesting houses this year that this one falls pretty flat.
8.) Nightingales: Blood Pit
Sadly, I have never seen the original 'Nightingales' house because it sounds a lot better than this sequel was. Before you even enter the maze, the queue line is pretty unpleasant and not in the way they intended. It smelled like horse manure and the cheap looking torn apart bodies littered throughout makes this all feel so rushed. Then you get into the house itself, and it gets even worse. I'm not against a horror scenario that only relies on bloodshed and gore, but at least try to make it creative which is 'Nightingales' biggest sin. The monsters makeup and masks look much cheaper than the earlier designs I have seen before, the theme of Gladiatorial fighting mixed with blood sucking creatures is hardly there, and the sound effects were too loud and more annoying than scary. This one was pretty bad guys. I can only hope the next sequel will be better.
9.) Depths of Fear
Unlike 'Nightingales', I had high hopes for 'Depths of Fear' as I love the concept. Films like 'Leviathan' & 'Deep Rising' mixed in with a bit of 'Bioshock' hey that doesn't sound bad right? What we really have here though is a cheap 'Alien' ripoff with an underwater theme and one of the worst looking monster costumes I have ever seen. This is Universal for god's sake you'd expect better than this from them. The house itself is also just boring, with generic rusty pipes and steam along with some slime here and there. The acting of the infected crew and some of the gore was nicely implemented but then you just have that goofy monster and just parts where nothing happens. Thankfully the line for this one was short and fast.
Again, sorry I couldn't rank 'Stranger Things' for you guys but let me know if you attended HHN either this year or before. Also let me know what your favorites were and be sure to check back here for my look at this year's Scare Zones. Thanks guys and happy October.
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