Join us as we do our final expedition haunt of the year on Halloween Horror Nights 29 houses
Our final expedition of the year takes us through a look at the houses of Halloween Horror Nights 29.
Sam talks through each house and his experience in each one, ranking them from his least to most favorite.
What did you think of HHN 29 this year? Where does it rank in your list of best years? Let us know in the comments.
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If you haven’t seen the first part of the Expedition Halloween Horror Nights 29, covering scarezones, shows and merchandise click here.
Andy’s house rankings slightly differ from Sam’s…
Check them out below. If you disagree with either of us, let us know.
10. Us. –
I think it’s great to see that for some people this house was their favorite. For me though it just didn’t work as a haunted house. In many walk throughs I’d miss scenes, miss scares or it was just severely under staffed. There were some great looking sets and eerie scenes but it was one house I didn’t mind skipping each night.
I got 5 on it.
9. Stranger Things –
I did enjoy Stranger Things in 2018 and I am a big fan of the show. Season 2 was probably my least favorite out of the 3 seasons and maybe this is why I didn’t enjoy it as much. The house, while long, featured a lot of static scenes, mannequins and puppets. The Demodog’s weren’t quite as menacing as last year’s Demogorgons but I have to say the Mindflayer in the final scene was excellent. Being called a nerd by Erica was always great and they did a good job on casting her.
Watch it nerd.
8. Depths of Fear –
This house had some great potential to be an almost Bioshock-esque underwater intense house. With a great facade and monitors explaining the story it has a great start but fell flat. The costumes for the mouth brooders were a little too large and goofy to be intimidating. As the event went on fewer and fewer of these costumes were seen in the house and replaced by infected workers. It’s a shame when an original doesn’t quite hit the mark but the house did get better towards the end of the event.
Get To The Escape Pods.
7. Killer Klownz from Outer Space –
I loved the Scare zone last year and I did really enjoy the house. It’s just that my top 6 are all pretty close that something had to give. The costumes were great, Klownzilla was awesome and all the great scenes from the movie were in here. I just felt like the Shrek house location did not help this house. I always went through with a smile on the face which is what you want from a house like this. Should it have been in 3D? Maybe. I do wish it had a big tent facade and not a projection though.
What are you gonna do? Knock my block off?
This is where the list gets real tough as they are all great for different reasons.
6. Ghostbusters –
I thought they did a great job of recreating the first Ghostbusters movie and some of the scenes in the house look spectacular. This house on repeat visits just isn’t very scary (except that library monster near the start) which I know the house is not supposed to be. The house does feel a little short and that some things could have been reworked to provide a bigger wow factor like the Stay Puffed man. The house did have some big sets and great actors in but I enjoy the scarier houses and this is why its come in at number 6.
We came, we saw, we kicked its ass.
5. Nightingales Blood Pit –
At the start of this event this house was down near the bottom with Depths of Fear. As the event wore on something seemed to click and the actors really went all in on their roles. Intense, smelly and scary were the words I’d use to describe the house with a real claustrophobic feel to it. A couple of times towards the end of the night we would go through on our own and the actors were probably even more intense getting the scares in from multiple angles and getting very close. I’d say this was one of the loudest houses with a lot happening all at once.
A trip through during the backstage Unmasking The Horror Tour really showed how much love and thought went into nailing the Roman era and cemented my views as this being a great house. It’s a shame it didn’t rank higher but only as the next houses are all so good.
4. House of a 1000 Corpses –
In preparation for the event I watched the film the house was based on for the first time. Let’s just say I did not quite enjoy Rob Zombie’s first movie as much as I would have liked. This led me to having this house as near the bottom of my expectations before the event started. This house goes to show a bad movie doesn’t mean it will be a bad house.
This house absolutely nailed the aesthetic of the movies, the weird transitions and the loud music. The actors fully went in on their characters from the movie and each actor seemed to be having a blast doing it. The location of the house being in the MIB tent didn’t fill me with confidence but I’m glad to say the tent curse has been lifted. The scares in the catacombs section before meeting Dr. Satan were intense and I enjoyed this house way way more than I thought I would.
I’m the one who brings the Christmas candy.
3. Yeti – Terror of the Yukon –
Houses 6-3 were all very close and any one of them could be rearranged in a different order depending on the night. Yeti though was brilliant, offering a beautifully scenic house, giant Yeti’s and new scares. Plus it was nice to have a cold house with Horror Nights being so dang humid this year! Managing to catch each scene in this house it would have been up there in the top 2 but due to it being timing dependent it remains in 3rd. Door Yeti, Hand Yeti and chest bursting Yeti were all great scares and caught a lot of guests by surprise.
The final room in the Yeti den was always intense and felt just like the Swamp Yeti end to Slaughter Sinema last year. Some runs i’d miss nearly every scene but when you got a good run through Yeti was one of the best.
What the hell are those things?
2. Universal Monsters –
This house was close to being my top house as the event wore on. It was fun, intense and visually impressive and only marginally lost out on the number 1 spot. This house was my last run through as the event closed on the final night and what a blast it was. The actors committed to their roles with the Mummy and Wolfman being my personal favorites.
This is what the Universal Dark universe should have been like and not the Tom Cruise version. Offering varied sets with no transitions meant an onslaught of different opportunities for scares which I really enjoyed. The house definitely stayed consistently at the top since the very start of HHN 29 and I hope in the future they do more with these monsters.
Devour them.
1.Graveyard Games –
I think this has been my favorite original house since Scarecrow: The Reaping at HHN 27. A beautiful cemetery facade, an interesting story and intense scares this house had it all. The scene where the lights went out and the dead came alive sent chills down my spine the first time I went through. Spooky. It felt very open in some scenes which really helped the feel of being inside a graveyard at night. The actors provided some great scares, with the two undead staring through the crypts being my personal favorite.
Just before the end after the children playground scene was an actor who would sometimes come rushing out on the floor crawling and I’ve never seen one scare get so many people so much. Kudos to him as this must have been a physically demanding role. I always enjoyed the uneasiness of the dark tunnel with soft walls, it felt reminiscent of the touchy pool noodle black walls from Insidious at 25.
Dork.
There we have it, my list of top 10 houses for Halloween Horror Nights 29.
Any you disagree on? Let me know below and we will see you in the fog next year at Halloween Horror Nights 30th year.
If you want to keep up with any Halloween Horror Nights 30th announcements check Universal’s blog here
