Hello once again as we continue our discussion of this year's Halloween Horror Nights for my Fright Nights 2019 celebration page. Last time, we ranked the ten haunted mazes and now we shall take a look at the five scare zones on offer. QUICK NOTE: Academy of Villains is a show and though on the cover pic for this entry, it will not be discussed here. Though an honorable mention of another show will be covered below.
These scare zones will be ranked by a few things: Immersion, The Acting, and the overall Theme and as before, we'll go favorite to least favorite.
1.) Vanity Ball
The horror genre rarely seems to capitalize on the real life terror of plastic surgery or hospitals these days. Just think of all the creative scenarios you could do with that and 'Vanity Ball' is a great example of showing off just how horrifying it can be. The overall narrative tells of a facility that performs grotesque and violent plastic surgery on their patients, under the thought process that pain is beauty and beauty is subjective. A very active zone, with the best overall makeup and costume design, aggressive and fun actors, and even a runway modeling show with music and an announcer. A fun and unique scare zone and my overall favorite this year.
2.) Rob Zombie's Hellbilly Deluxe
As far as theming is concerned, Rob Zombie took the cake this year with his house and this zone, based upon his first solo album. Various scenes from his most famous music videos are on display as the album is played in its entirety if one were to stick around long enough. What keeps it from my number one spot is the actors who seem a bit lackluster or very timid compared to 'Vanity Ball'. You expect Rob Zombie actors to be these wild madmen but aside from the occasional dirty look and jump scare moments they provided little to the environment. Still the overall feeling that you're in the world of the singer's music is more than enough to warrant the high spot.
3.) Anarch-CADE
This one is right up my alley. An 80's inspired scare zone with killer video game characters with neon & fog surrounding you. Sadly, it seems 'Anar-cade' is struggling with its narrative. The area is nice to look at but when you see these women on stilts with glowing nun-chucks and some neon light covered goons with chainsaws, it feels incoherent and noisy. Still the visuals do give it that extra bump on the list so the style was there at least. I will say that they could use this theme for a future maze to great effect.
I honestly didn't know what to expect with 'Vikings' as like the ones above the idea is solid enough to make a good fit for a horror movie. Even without the supernatural elements, the Vikings were a vicious people and translating that carnage into a horror scenario should be perfect. Sadly, this was a pretty lackluster experience for me personally. I have heard many varying stories from other guests about this as well, with some who like myself just didn't see many actors or any interactions with the gory props and overall environment. Others have said that later in the night, the zone is more lively but I can't give a personal ranking based on what others saw. I saw some of the cheapest gore props of the event, annoying sound effects such as over the top screaming, and one actor who was in full costume talking to another Universal employee. I just didn't see the good stuff I guess.
4.) Vikings Undead
I honestly didn't know what to expect with 'Vikings' as like the ones above the idea is solid enough to make a good fit for a horror movie. Even without the supernatural elements, the Vikings were a vicious people and translating that carnage into a horror scenario should be perfect. Sadly, this was a pretty lackluster experience for me personally. I have heard many varying stories from other guests about this as well, with some who like myself just didn't see many actors or any interactions with the gory props and overall environment. Others have said that later in the night, the zone is more lively but I can't give a personal ranking based on what others saw. I saw some of the cheapest gore props of the event, annoying sound effects such as over the top screaming, and one actor who was in full costume talking to another Universal employee. I just didn't see the good stuff I guess.
5.) Zombieland 2
While it was an overall faithful adaptation of the 2009 horror comedy, 'Zombieland 2' was by far the weakest zone this year. The zombie actors performed well enough but I felt an overall lack of effort went into this one. It feels more like a last minute cross promotion with the upcoming sequel than a fully realized scare zone.
HONORABLE MENTION: Marathon of Mayhem
The main highlight of the whole HHN even was the spectacular new water show 'Marathon of Mayhem'. A combination of laser lights, water effects, and projections the show covers the main horror houses while combining an awesome 80's theme to everything. This is one show that will hopefully come back again but let's just hope they decide to put in special seating for the guests next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment