We’re 14 days away from Opening Scaremonies which means it’s almost SHOWTIME (said in Beetlejuice voice). It’s been a crazy couple year, with last year’s event being cancelled it seems like Universal and the Creative Team are going all out. There are themed booths popping up everywhere in the park. Past icons are coming back, there will be a themed Icon bar and we have not one but TWO stores!!
Now I know none of this information will be new and I know it’s a tad late to be putting this out but oh well. As you know Dan and I work in the Film Industry so we’re pretty busy but this year we’re going to attempt to do some videos for our trip. Which I am very excited for, we usually are only there for a few days but this year we’re taking an entire week and we’re doing Universal and Disney. You can hear all about it here, but I’ll also touch on it in this blog. I’m going to cover the event, some of the merch we’ve seen and also talk about our plans and out house rankings before we experience them. Without further ado let’s get to the fun stuff.
Houses
No surprise we’re getting 10 houses again this year (pretty sure that will be consistent unless they throw in a surprise house one year) but this year the Original Concept (OG) houses outnumber the Intellectual Property (IP) houses, 6 to 4. The first house announcement we got came all the way back on March 5th and it was Beetlejuice. Fans have been asking for this house for a while and they’re prayers have finally been answered. Now some lucky guests did get to experience this house last year. It was one of 3 houses that Universal opened up to daytime guests, you can see it for yourself here. Last year the 3 house that were opened up did have plexiglass throughout the to keep the scareactors and the guests safe, so far we haven’t heard if the plexiglass will be back this year but as or right now it seems like it won’t. If you’re a fan of Beetlejuice I think you’ll really enjoy this house. If it’s anything like Ghostbusters last year it will be an entertaining house and feel like you stepped right into the movie.
The next house announcement we got arrived on July 8th and was Netflix Haunting of Hill House. It’s no surprise that we are getting another Netflix property this year, at HHN28 they had Stranger Things season 1, HHN29 we got Stranger Things seasons 2 & 3. With everything being delayed with season 4 of Stranger Things you knew they wouldn’t be making a return at this years event. But there is no shortage of spooky things on Netflix and Haunting of Hill House fits perfectly with the event. I am very interested to see how they do some of the scares in this house, we know that the Tall Man, Bent Neck Lady and the Ghost in the basement will all be making an appearance. The latter of the two aren’t that hard to pull off but if you’ve seen the show or if you haven’t the Tall Man floats instead of walking. I am very interested in seeing how they pull that off. I have seen some pictures of the façade as well as some of the rooms in the house and it looks hauntingly beautiful.
The third announcement from Halloween Horror Nights came on July 18th was a double feature; Universal Monsters The Bride of Frankenstein Lives and 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM). I am very excited for the Bride house, HHN29 did Universal Classic Monsters house and it was amazing! So I expect this one to be on that same level. The story is that the Bride is trying to bring her love back to life and she is using blood from Dracula’s wives to make it happen. Like Beetlejuice this house was also opened to daytime guests last year and you can watch a walkthrough of it here.
Now I will be honest with you I am not looking forward to TCM house one bit, I can deal with chainsaws in the streets of the event but in the houses is another story. I will most likely go through this house the way I went through House of 1000 Corpses the first time, with my eyes closed! I know I know that is no way to experience the house but, that is the only way I (Eden) will be able to make it through lol. I have only seen one of the remakes of TCM and it is not my favorite but because I want to be able to make it through all 10 houses I am hoping I can work up the courage to get through this one.
After these four house announcements things were pretty quiet after that, they had released Single Night Tickets and the R.I.P & Unmasking Tours. But it wasn’t until August 5th that they dropped all the Rush of Fear Passes, they are multi-night tickets for the event, all of which you can purchase here. Also on August 5th they announced HHN Icons Captured house. This being the 30th year they are bringing back a lot of fan favorites, and the biggest way is with Icons. This house is pretty much a love letter if you will to the HHN Icons, guests will get to come face to face with these demented, twisted fiends. In ready the description of the house, which can be found here (insert link to website) one Icon will reign supreme at the end of the house and it will change, so you will defiantly want to make sure that you do multiple walkthroughs of this house.
And then the following week on August 12th HHN dropped one massive announcement on us…EVERYTHING! The remaining houses and scarezones were all dropped at one time! You and check out the announcement video here. With 3 weeks till the event, it was one hell of a way to get everything out there. The remaining 5 houses were; Welcome to SCarey: Horror in the Heartland, Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin, Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience, Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth & Revenge of the Tooth Fairy.
I am very much looking forward to experiencing Welcome to SCarey: Horror in the Heartland. Throughout the events history many of the scarezones and houses have been set in Carey, Ohio. Which is a real place, one of the event designers of HHN is actually from Carey. Houses such as Slaughter Sinema, The Hive, Leave it to Cleaver & scarezones like Twisted Tradition have all been set in the Town of Carey. This house will be a way if bringing them all together I believe and can’t wait to see what they do! If you would like to learn more about Carey you can read up on it here or you can also check out this video from Expedition Theme Park.
Speaking of Carey, our next house I believe will be is supposed to take place in Carey, OH but I’m not 100% sure, it just feels that way to me. According to the HHN website an evil rot has infested the land and this brings the Pumpkin Lord back. His minions bring sacrifices to help the Pumpkin Lord rise. This house reminds me of the scarezone from HHN28 called Twisted Tradition. It was full of rotting pumpkins and pumpkin creatures roaming the streets. (insert pictures from the scarezone). Dan brought a good point for this house, it might not be full of jump scares like the others, instead the scareactors will be more camouflaged into the sets. Like they were in the Seeds of Extinction house, the house was full of over grown plants and the scareactors would be right next to you but you had no clue because they blended in with the foliage.
Now people had been saying for a while that this next house was confirmed, when it actually hadn’t yet (okay technically it had but not officially yet for this season), but last year Peacock release a video from inside the house. Senior Director of Creative Development, Michael Aiello took a news anchor around and showed them the house, without any scareactors in it, you can check it out here. This house is set in an abandoned theatre where a puppeteer and ballet troupe have been trapped. Will you make it out alive or will you become part of the captive audience stuck there?
Now this next house neither myself or Dan are familiar with; Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth.On the HHN website they don’t have much on this house, so I had to do some sleuthing but Legendary Truth is a paranormal investigative team that was formed by Boris Shuster to investigate the disappearance of patience of Dr. Mary Agana aka Bloody Mary and 2008 event. You can read about them in any of Christopher Ripley’s HHN guides or this website here. Again, this is just another way for HHN to pay homage to past events and also to fans of the event who have been going for a while.
The last house Revenge of the Tooth Fairy was the third house that was opened to daytime guests last year, you can see the walkthrough of it here. Now from what I’ve heard on from people who got to experience the house it was just alright. One of the issues was that you could tell where the scareactor was because of the plexiglass that was placed in the house. The story of this house is a young boy refuses to give his tooth to the tooth fairy so he comes and pretty much kills the boy’s family. This house right now is on closer to the bottom of my list. I won’t complete rule it out until we go through it but it just seems kind of meh to me.
Scarezones
Time for the Scarezones! There will be 5 scarezones again this year and 3 out of the 5 are paying homage to past events. When guests enter the gates of the park, they will be greeted by the 30 Years 30 Fears scarezone. According to the website past creatures will once again be roaming the streets to scare guests. The imagery is a little confusing because at first, I thought this was going to be a zone with the past icons in it but after reading the description I realized that wasn’t so. But I still think every so often we may just catch a glimpse of an Icon, keep your eyes peeled!
The next zone guests will encounter in the New York streets will be Seek & Destroy, an alien cyborg regime has taken over and are using people as fuel. All under the watchful eye of the Controller. Not too sure what to make of this scarezone but again I won’t completely rule it out until we experience it. As guests enter the San Francisco area of the park they will come upon the CryptTV scarezone. There are little stages set up throughout the area for different creatures from this YouTube Channel, if you want to know what to expect you can check out the HHN Prep Playlist that they put together on their YouTube Channel. We have watched these and they are very creepy, they range in length but are all still considered shorts.
As guests enter the Central Park area of the park, they will come to Gorewood Forest, this zone is a call back to a past Icon of the event, the Terra Queen. The year she appeared she vowed to return in 15 years. One year late but whose counting! The Terra Queen and other creature from Terra Cruentus will be roaming the street looking for more sacrifices. If you are lucky enough to make it out of the Gorewood forest you will land yourself in; Lights, Camera, Hacktion: Eddie’s Revenge. I feel fans of the event are very excited for this scarezone. Some backstory in case you don’t know, Eddie was supposed to be the Icon of the event for HHN XI but after the attacks on the World Trade Center they pulled Eddie from the event and brough back Jack. Eddie has appeared in houses at the event but this year they are giving Eddie his due and giving him his own scarezone. I am probably most excited for this scarezone, we have seen pictures and there are mini stages set up throughout the area and they are either from past houses or past scarezones. Again, they are playing off the 30 Years 30 Fears theme and bringing back some of fans favorite things of past events.
Shows
Now some things came out during quarantine and Universal rightfully cut ties with the dance troupe Academy of Villains. But we are still getting 2 shows this year; they have made a new lagoon show, Marathon of Mayhem: Carnage Factory. HHN29 they premiered the first lagoon show for the event and it was cool. They projected clips on water, there were lasers and music that went along with the houses of the event that year. I am excited to see how they change it up and it ties in with the event. The second show will take place at the Fear Factory stage and is called Halloween Nightmare Fuel. Not much is known about it but according to the website guests will experience fire, pyro and ariel performers. Sounds like it will be entertaining, we will defiantly check it out at least once.
They haven’t released food and drinks yet, there are plenty of themed booths set up though. Which I am pretty excited about there seem to be more booths this year and they are themed to match the houses which I have never seen them do before. There have been some merch previews with each of the house announcements but there is still more to come but I think we won’t see it until the event opens. The façade of the Tribute Store is up and I have seen online that Team Members will get a sneak peak of it Thursday, August 26th. But if you’re at the parks you can make your way over to the Lost Continent in Islands of Adventure and shop some of the merch at the All Hallows Eve Store that they opened up, it’s pretty much a mini–Tribute Store. They don’t have all the merch but they have some and they are also selling coffee and art from local artists which is really cool. You can see a walkthrough of the store here from Tim Tracker.
Now that we have covered everything that is coming to the event let’s talk about out trip! Like I said this is the first year we’re going for a full week, will arrive on the 18th and be there until the 26th. I am very excited we will both have wrapped on our current shows the day before we head out. This is also the first year that we’re going to do an Unmasking the Horror Tour, which for those who don’t know is a daytime/lights on tour of the houses. You can choose either a 3-house tour or a 6-house tour, you don’t get to pick which houses but that doesn’t really matter. I think it’s awesome that they do these because it gives guests the opportunity to see the amazing amount of work that goes into making these houses. We will also be sprinkling in some days at Disney as well as checking out their Halloween After Hours Event Boo Bash. Like I said we’re going to try our hand at making vlogs of this trip but also take the time to really enjoy out time there.
Let’s do our house rankings for before!
House Rankings (before)
Dan’s House Rankings:
- Puppet Theatre
- Welcome to SCarey
- Beetlejuice
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- HHN Icons
- Haunting of Hill House
- Wicked Growth
- Bride of Frankenstein
- Revenge of the Tooth Fairy
- Case Files Unearthed
Eden’s House Rankings:
- Welcome to SCarey: Horror in the Heartland
- The Bride of Frankenstein Lives
- Beetlejuice
- Haunting of Hill House
- The Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin
- HHN Icons Captured
- Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience
- Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth
- Revenge of The Tooth Fairy
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Don’t forget to check back for a breakdown of how are trip went and how we rank the houses after experiencing the. So crazy that the event is just around the corner, I can almost smell the fog!
The Halloween Corner 