For
years, I’ve followed Halloween Horror Nights from home. As is probably evident from this blog by now,
I love spooky media, theme parks, and themed artistic installations. Horror
Nights definitely fits within the crossover of all those interests. However, circumstances always aligned where I
couldn’t participate in person (and I will forever kick myself for missing
certain years, like the time they had Crimson
Peak as a theme…). FINALLY, however,
things worked out where I just couldn’t pass up actually going.
I’d
been planning a trip to ride Hollywood Drift for months, which kept getting
delayed when the ride was delayed. When
it finally did get a date where it’d be consistently open to the public (as
opposed to non-guaranteed soft openings), it was during Horror Nights. And this year, there were two themes I really wanted: Sinners and Ozzy Osbourne. Yeah, I couldn't pass up one of the greatest movies I've ever seen, and some excellent spooky rock music. When I saw
there was a day-to-night HHN ticket that was only slightly more expensive than
a regular day ticket, I knew what I needed to do.
That
said, given how expensive any ticket
was, I couldn’t also afford the Express Pass.
So, I already knew this was going to be a challenge, even when going on a random Thursday in September (The 17th to be exact; the day after Hollywood Drift's official public debut). I didn’t get to do everything I wanted, but
when writing out my final stats, I got to do most things at least once. So, it’s not the worst. It took a LOT of hustling and planning to get
to that though. I also took very few
pictures, since I was trying to focus on enjoying the night in what limited
time I had. No time for lining up the
perfect frame!
Right
away, when I was allowed entry at 2pm, I went straight to Hollywood Drift. Posted wait was 90 minutes; it ended up
closer to 60 (yay!). It uses the Velocicoaster
style locker system, which is nice. You
put your stuff in one side of the locker, ride the ride, and get to retrieve it
on the other side. Locker size is pretty
generous too: it was able to fit a small backpack, a purse, and drink
cups/water bottles. Also nice is that
they had an attendant handing out locker tickets so you didn’t have to try and
secure your phone on the ride—a convenience that sadly none of the other thrill
rides at Universal Hollywood really have.
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| The coaster goes right over the queue. |
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| This shows more of how the cars rotate into the curve over the escalators. |
I was disappointed
to be assigned the Nissan Skyline car.
Each car has its own controlled-rotation routine to symbolize different
handling, and I’d heard the Skyline was one of the tamer routines. Sure enough it was. It doesn’t rotate on any of the
inversions. The result was a smooth but
moderate ride that had me debating whether Cosmic Rewind was more intense. Rewind lacks inversions, of course, but the
themeing and onboard music really boost the thrill factor and overall quality. Hollywood Drift is themed to filming car stunts on the backlot and, um. Well. The gravel, bare
concrete, and bland walls are accurate
to the theme (special effects would fill in anything else in the actual movie...), but the theme is just not that fun to look at regardless of
accuracy. I couldn't help but notice the themeing similarities to West Coast Racers at Six Flags Magic Mountain, which is a budget presentation. Hollywood Drift's onboard
audio only plays engine noises—ones unique to each car, yes, but engine noises
nonetheless. It feels a waste to have an
audio system and NOT have onboard music.
Why go through all that extra budget and engineering for that?
Still, it was good
enough that immediately afterwards I got in line for another round (posted wait
90, actual wait 45!) and this time politely asked for “anything but the
Skyline” when getting assigned a seat.
This time I got the Toyota Supra.
Now THIS is a thrill coaster! Not
only does it benefit from the whip of being in the back of the train, it has a
wonderfully intense spin routine. You
FLY out of your seat and STAY there, getting flung around in the best way. Floater air, ejector air, hangtime, laterals…it’s
all there. THIS is the X2
successor/Velocicoaster equivalent California needs. Unfortunately, it’s on the same train as
“worse Cosmic Rewind.” I’m still
figuring out where to rank this coaster, because the experience is SO
different, and so much better or worse, depending on which of the four cars you
get. With an intense car, it’s elite. With a mild car…it’s good for introducing
kids to bigger coasters, maybe? But if
you’re going for a milder drifting coaster, Cosmic Rewind absolutely kicks its ass. A coaster with variable intensity for
different guest tolerances could potentially be good, but not with assigned
seating where a coaster enthusiast could get a mild seat and a scared kid could
get an intense one. I think it should
include a system like the Disney California Adventure Ferris Wheel (whatever
new name they’ve changed it to now…), where guests can select the level of
intensity they want.
One last thing I
also have to praise about this coaster is the seats. I need to emphasize that these are the roomiest, most comfortable coaster
seats and trains I’ve ever
encountered. I was wearing a long, multi-layered gothic gown, and had zero issues whatsoever entering or exiting the
train. Not that more cramped trains have
ever dissuaded me from going on coasters while in fancy dress before, but I do have to praise this as the most
convenient if you also want to do that.
Oh, and what about
the noise factor, where neighborhoods around Universal tried to complain? This is the most disconcertingly whisper-quiet roller coaster I have ever
encountered. It flies above you in the
queue and you don’t hear it. It was made
to be compatible with an actual filming lot and it SHOWS. It’s actually disappointingly quiet; I didn’t really consider how much sound factored into finding outdoor
coasters intense before. This doesn’t
have the intimidating roar on the track, or the click of a lift hill, or the
screams of riders that can help build anticipation. It sounds like nothing. You can’t tell it
exists without looking at it. Those neighborhood
complaints are baseless.
Hollywood
Drift:
Overall Rating: 8/10, my enjoyment
really depends on the car. It’s 10/10 in
a thrill car.
Thrill Level: 6/10 for the Skyline,
10/10 for the Supra
Recommendation: MUST DO. Also I NEED to ride the other two cars to see
how their routines compare.
I knew from my
research that early access to the houses was going to be vital to seeing some
that I really wanted, so after that I had to forego a trip on the Studio Tour
(first sacrifice of the day) to line up for a house. I went with Sinners first, since it opened
slightly earlier (early open times are staggered) and was also on the upper lot
where I already was. There was already a
fairly long line waiting for it to open.
Still, we were all let in slightly before the posted opening time.
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| Sinners marquee. The last time I was at Universal Hollywood, this was the year-round The Walking Dead house. |
Sinners is a work of
ART. It truly brings the movie to life
and feels like stepping on to the set.
The glowing eye effect is very impressive and effective in person. It's amazing that the makeup and effects team figured out how to make that practical for live theater, given the contacts used for that effect in the film blinded the actors while they were in. This year, HHN on both coasts seems to be
using scents to enhance the houses, and Sinners in Hollywood smells like fresh-cut wood, fitting the
construction of Club Juke. Casting was
incredibly spot-on for character appearances.
The only downside of
Sinners is the way you get somewhat rushed through the house. I know they have to keep things moving, but
several scenes are storytelling theatrical pieces and it was easy to get rushed
past seeing all or part of them. The
scene where Vampire-Mary threatens the guests and Smoke rushes in to fight her
off and discover his brother’s body was a major victim of this. I had to purposely slow down to avoid being
rushed entirely past this room without seeing any of the scene, as I entered
during a reset. The big two-story battle
scene is also easy to get rushed past while missing many characters, but at
least in this case I think it might be intentional for repeat guests to see
different characters each time. At least
I did get to see the “flying Remmick” (the one that lifts up to
the ceiling)—the wires are of course very easy to see in person, but it is impressive to see stunts incorporated into a house.
It was also here
that I first noticed that I have surprisingly little jumpscare reaction
in-person. For this house, though, I
initially wrote it off because of which
characters there are to jumpscare you.
Oh nooo, Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld rushing at you? As vampires?
What a terrible fate. Some of the Remmicks I saw were better
looking than the one in the film too!
Indeed, between the prestigious source material and the good looking
vampires, I’d rate this house as not very scary (but in a good way!). Then again, as a horror fan I have a
different definition of scary than the average person, and the vampires were
not the true horror in Sinners
anyways.
Sinners:
Overall Rating:
10/10, a beautiful work of art, I loved it
Scariness Level: 1/10 (Hot vampires,
mild jumpscares)
Signature Scent: freshly cut wood (like
for construction)
Recommendation: YES
Next I had to haul
ass down to the Lower Lot—not an easy feat, and definitely a design challenge
for anyone attempting Hollywood HHN—in order to get to Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of
Darkness. It ALREADY had a massive line. I’d say “oh at least waiting isn’t too bad,
they’re playing music I like” (as of course the queue plays Ozzy’s albums) but
the speakers weren’t synced properly, so different speakers were playing
different tracks at the same time to rather unpleasant effect. One of the tracks in the playlist is “Hellraiser,” a collaboration
between Ozzy and Lemmy from Motorhead for the third Hellraiser film. That film also is represented at this HHN, in the house on the upper lot! Despite
waiting an hour for it at early entry, I still got a shorter wait than most
people for this. It gets some of the
most extreme waits, and I can see why.
It is an absolutely beautiful
tribute to the life and musical output of Ozzy Osbourne and therefore has
pretty wide appeal. “Haunted House” and
“tasteful memorial” might not seem like they’d go together, but in this case
they absolutely do.
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| Facade for Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness |
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| Projected logo on the wall; photo taken later in the night while queuing for Revenge of the Mummy. |
The house borrows
heavily from Ozzy’s music video and album cover imagery. Of special note is Bark at the Moon, whose
mad scientist AND wolf man (well, I think he looks more like a sloth, but the
title clearly establishes him as a wolf) characters both feature prominently
here. Of course there’s also two
prominent train scenes, to go with Crazy Train.
The goofy dragon from Ozzy’s shoulder tattoo (easily seen on the Speak of
the Devil album cover) also gets an animatronic jumpscare from under Bat-Demon-Ozzy’s
throne, which is designed after the one from his final concert. The real show piece though, which Orlando’s
version only got in projection form, is the massive bat animatronic that
presents the wolf man’s decapitated head as a trophy! The rest of the wolf man’s corpse is at the giant bat's feet beneath the railing, a detail you can see in person but that
isn’t readily visible in most video footage I’ve seen so far. Obviously, this is an inversion of the
infamous bat-biting incident.
The overall design
and imagery of the house is beautiful old-school metal and gothic. It’s not scary, per se, despite the piles of
skulls. It’s Frankenstein/Dracula/Wolf
Man type stuff (indeed according to a video of a backstage tour, at least one
prop from Van Helsing made it into
the house), classic Halloween and pretty family-friendly. In general it would fit right in with
Darkmoor at Epic Universe, so of course I love
it. (Too bad this is the closest we currently have to Darkmoor on the West
Coast…) This house also had a noticeable
scent throughout: spicy men’s cologne,
which was very pleasant. The soundtrack
is an awesome medley of music from throughout Ozzy’s solo
career. The jumpscare monsters tend
towards the goofy in both design and “scares.” Many will put up the “metal horns” hand
gesture during scares—it’s deliberately fun and silly. Although, I have to give props to the
bat cultist actors in the throne room scene, they got me one after the other!
Oddly I didn’t seem
to get any of the intended finale jumpscares after the throne room; not sure if
I just had bad timing or if they were short staffed. I only barely got a glimpse of the wolf man
in the Bark at the Moon scene too, when he finished scaring the group in front
of me. Much like with Sinners, it kind
of felt like I was being rushed through the house by the staff; if I hadn’t
deliberately slowed down in some places, I would’ve missed intentional
theatrical elements like the front of the Crazy Train appearing and ramming a
barrier, or the dragon appearing under the throne.
Also, speaking of
jumpscares… once again I didn’t really have much reaction, just freezing in
place and going “oh!” at most. In this
case, I initially wrote it off as the fact that this is a fun house, not a
scary one.
Ozzy
Osbourne: Prince of Darkness
Overall Rating: 10/10 More memorials
should involve being tastefully jumpscared by effigies of the deceased
Scariness Level: 2/10 (I have to give
SOME props to how relentless the bats were)
Signature Scent: Spicy men’s cologne
(maybe patchouli based?)
Recommendation: Competing with Sinners for "best house of the year" for me, so YES
The
Ozzy house spits you out right at the entrance to Transformers the Ride, which
was a complete walk-on, so I took that for a spin. Although the screens are getting a bit fuzzy
and the glasses are annoying to wear, it’s still a solid ride. It’s not new, so I won’t rate it here. After that I wanted to see if Revenge of the
Mummy was open, since I love that coaster, but alas it was having technical
difficulties. Due to being right near it
on the lower lot, I therefore went to the next house: Dead Deader Deadest.
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| Queue signage for Dead Deader Deadest (it reuses the Jurassic World queue). |
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| Dead Deader Deadest facade. |
This
was my first original house concept of the night. The
plot, from what I could discern, was that a funeral home already known for
malpractice (given the news radio clips playing at the entrance) has things go
even more awry when their embalming fluid (that’s radioactive? Magical?) causes
the bodies to reanimate.
This
one had a VERY strong scent of roses
in the funeral home chapel. I assume
this is supposed to be from all the flower displays one generally sees in a
funeral home. Although it was a bit
overpowering and sickly-sweet, I’m quite thankful for this choice compared with
what they could’ve gone with for a
house filled with cadavers. With fans in
Orlando complaining about the rotten smells the East Coast chose for their
houses… yeah, I’ll take the overpowering roses over corpse smell.
In
general this house had a bit of a sensory theme going on, first with the rose
scent, then with the AC cranked up in the cold storage sections, and then the
heater turned up in the crematory area.
This
one really didn’t capture much of my interest; the whole zombie concept felt a
bit generic and an easy way to probably reuse a bunch of other effects or props
the team had lying around. My mom (yes, my mom went along to Horror Nights--and she's a roller coaster enthusiast too) did praise the realism of one effect where a
fresh corpse starts to sit up, at least.
Apparently the characters in this backstory connect to an ongoing
storyline from past Horror Nights original houses, so perhaps I would’ve found
this more interesting if I had attended previous events.
This did have
noticeably more jumpscares, and more intense ones, than either Sinners or Ozzy,
however. And I still didn’t have much of
a reaction. It was here that it started
to dawn on me that I don’t have much of a
jumpscare reaction in person. Maybe
the popularity of screamer pranks on the internet for a while trained me to not
react, or to temper my reaction to avoid “feeding the trolls.” I actually felt kind of bad, because the
actors were clearly giving their all, and I’d just sort of freeze in place!
Dead
Deader Deadest
Overall Rating:
6/10, objectively a solid house but subjectively not as interesting to me
Scariness Level: 5/10 I don’t
personally find corpses all that scary, but this is noticeably more
graphic/gory and with more intense and frequent jumpscares than the previous
houses
Signature Scent: Roses
Recommendation: If you have time or the
wait is short, or if you’re a fan of the established ongoing backstory and want
the next installment
By this point I was
getting really hungry, and disappointed that The Mummy was STILL not back up
from its technical difficulties. Based
on prior research it seemed like Toadstool Café was one of the few decent
options available on the Lower Lot, so I headed over to
Hollywood’s sadly abridged Super Nintendo Land.
I saw Mario Kart was a walk-on, so I gave that a spin before picking up
food. I have to say, although the rest
of the land was obviously inferior, I think I might’ve liked Hollywood’s Mario
Kart itself a little better than the Orlando version. Both versions need a MUCH better explanation
for how to play the game, though. I
still don’t know quite what you’re supposed to do with the VR during the ride.
And a fair warning
for those eating at Toadstool Café: when they say it’s “Fire Plant Spaghetti,”
it’s not just themed in appearance. It
is SPICY. Which, thankfully, I like spicy foods, but the menu didn’t
specify that it was actually spicy and not just called that for themeing. I
did have heartburn the rest of the night, which is a feat for how often I pile on hot sauce. So, also I guess take the rest of my
report/review with the grain of salt that it was experienced by someone having
some nasty heartburn the whole time. The
spaghetti itself also wasn’t all that great outside of the spice, so I think in
the future I’m either finding a way to bring food from home or trekking out to
CityWalk. Even then, though, Universal
Hollywood is sorely lacking in dining options compared to just about every
other theme park I’ve been to. Not only
does it have few quick service or affordable food locations, but the food at
those locations are worse than equivalent limited selections elsewhere. You know it’s bad when Six Flags parks
absolutely kick Universal’s ass in the food department.
Revenge of The Mummy
FINALLY came back from its downtime, so of course I couldn’t pass up a ride on
USH’s established roller coaster. Old as
it is, this thing is still a great theme-thrill combination. Although Orlando’s version has the better
dark ride portion and queue, I think the coaster section is smoother and
punchier here. Still an A+ ride after
all these years, and I’m glad I took the time out to ride it again.
At that point, I
figured I should get up to the Upper Lot and see more of what was going on up
there. Stranger Things 5 was always a
“priority to skip” for me, as I never watched that series. I tried multiple times, but it just never
clicked with me. I HAVE seen Killer Klowns from Outer Space, but
somehow that maze was competing with Ozzy for “longest lines of the night” by a lot. Trying to budget my
time, I also had to skip it. I enjoyed
the movie, but I’m not exactly the biggest fan of clowns…or klowns, for that
matter.
Time and “franchise
I don’t like” was also the reason I skipped Terror Tram upon reaching the Upper
Lot. Not only did it have a long wait,
but the tour itself is known to be a time sink. This year it’s themed to Terrifier III, with Art the Clown celebrating Christmas in his
murder-y way. I don’t like the Terrifier series, and also really don’t like
celebrating Christmas before November.
Blame Haunted Mansion Holiday for burning me out re: Christmas/horror
crossovers that start WAY too early in the year. (When I heard what the concept
was, I went “not you too, Universal!”)
As much as I wanted to do Terror Tram to see the Psycho set up close… nope, had to make the call that seeing the
rest of the Upper Lot houses was a higher priority.
I picked up a ride
on Harry Potter and the Nonexistent Clearance Envelope on the way to the
Hellraiser and Evil Dead Burn houses, since it was a walk-on wait. Geez, somehow this has even LESS of a
clearance envelope between the ride vehicles and the show elements than the
Orlando version. They must have all clearances dialed in to the centimeter to avoid everything getting kicked. The animatronics, especially the dragon, seem
to be in a bit better shape than Orlando, but the screens are in slightly worse
shape. It’s desperately in need of a
better locker system; you need your phone for the free locker, but there’s no
safe place to stow your phone on the ride.
Unlike Florida’s version, there was no team member at the lockers to
distribute locker tickets to avert this issue.
I also saw the Death
Eaters on the way through here, which was unfortunately pretty much the only
independent scare zone I got to experience due to having to spend so much time
queueing for houses. I’m not really into
Harry Potter, but at least the costumes were cool and it was interesting to see
them occasionally firing firework spell effects off. I like that there was at least an effort to reconcile the theme of a land
with Horror Nights, given HHN’s apparently fraught history with IP holders
(look up what happened when Orlando attempted to host HHN at the IP-heavy
Islands of Adventure!).
Nobody warned me how
FAR the two Upper Lot houses are past Hogsmeade! Even YouTube guides specifically about Horror
Nights barely gave it a passing mention, at best! It is a trek,
and I’d already done quite a bit of walking already! Also frustrating was how much longer the
waits here were than the posted time.
Evil Dead Burn was supposed to be around 30, Hellraiser 60, and both
took MUCH longer than that. If any Express Pass folks showed up, the entire standby line got halted, rather than
trying to stagger them at all. It
horribly dragged out the wait times, in exhausting, boring parking lot areas
too.
Since it had a
shorter wait, I picked Evil Dead Burn first.
I’d made the effort to see the film before attending HHN, but mom
hadn’t, which meant I at least got to use that wait time to give her a
description of the movie. That turned
out to be a good call, since she told me afterwards that she wouldn't have understood the house without knowing the plot.
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| Evil Dead Burn facade. |
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| The rather impressive animatronic decapitated head at the start of Evil Dead Burn. |
Evil Dead Burn is a
RELENTLESS house. Out of all the ones I
experienced on my trip, this had the most jumpscares, in the closest quarters,
at the fastest pace. It and Hellraiser
feel noticeably smaller scale than the other houses I tried that night (possibly because they’re
in tents in the parking lot?) and this one used those close quarters to up the
ante on the relentlessness. I didn’t get
many direct scares, but it was a pretty constant stream of either the ladies in
front of me, or my mom behind me, getting absolutely got the whole time.
Jumpscare of the night definitely goes to the Joseph in the kitchen
scene, who not only got my mom completely unexpectedly, but had some sort of
water effect that sprayed on top of it!
This house yet again
had a signature scent, a sort of warm
campfire smell. Think woodlands
candle.
Besides the
noticeably small scale (especially compared to footage of Florida’s version),
once again the downside of this house was the rushed pace of the line through
the house, urged on by the non-scare actor team members. Once again I either missed or nearly missed
many theatrical scenes; I almost missed the dog puppet, and only saw Alice in
the bathroom scene and the jackhammer scene, where she cannot be missed (in
other words, I missed ALL of her jumpscares).
Evil
Dead Burn
Overall Rating: 9/10 Relentless house
with close-quarters design and actors giving their all, but incomprehensible to
non-movie fans
Scariness Level: 7/10 I may be mostly
immune to jumpscares but I cannot stress enough how many there are back to back
to back. Fairly gory scenes too,
although less so than the film
Signature Scent: Campfire/woodlands
candle
Recommendation: If you’ve seen the
movie and/or want a crap ton of jumpscares
Since
Hellraiser was right there, I did that one next. I actually watched Hellraiser for the first time in preparation for this, and of
course had the “what do you mean the
first film is a dark romance bodice ripper and the Cenobites barely show up”
realization. The line for the house,
meanwhile, took so long that I could’ve waited to watch the film and part of
the sequels on my phone while I waited.
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| Hellraiser facade showing the Labyrinth and Lament Configuration. Pinhead periodically appeared on the video screen to welcome guests. |
Unfortunately,
I think this extremely long, under-posted wait negatively impacted my
impression of the subsequent house. I
found the design of it underwhelming and a bit annoying; it felt like a lot of
dark generic hallways between the more impressive re-creations of sets from the
films, and throughout most of the house there were dangling chains from the
ceiling that you had to push out of the way.
Clearly the designers were going for a tactile aspect (there is also a
room where you have to push your way through hanging mannequin “bodies”), but
given that you constantly have people in front of you, those chains are
flopping off of them to smack back at you.
It ends up less a “tactile” house and more a “constantly being swatted
with chains” house. I get that the
Cenobites are about pain as pleasure, but this was more of a nuisance.
One
thing that was NOT underwhelming was the actors, and their makeup and
costuming. The Cenobites and Skinless
Frank and Skinless Julia all looked very
impressive and screen accurate. Skinless
Frank got one of the few genuine jumpscares out of me; I was so distracted by
the elaborate “Frank’s Hell” set that I didn’t notice him basically behind
me. And by jumpscare, I mean “I actually
yelped a little,” which, hey! That’s
significant for me, as it turns out!
Also there were nearly as many back-to-back scares as Evil Dead
Burn. They primarily got the people in
front of me, so timing is a part of it.
I
really do wish this house had gotten a better set to go along with the great
makeup, costuming, and performances.
Also, yet again, the fast pace you’re forced to take through the house
makes it easy to miss theatrical set pieces, like Cenobite Channard and The
Engineer’s animatronic/puppet based jumpscares.
Hellraiser
Overall Rating:
6/10 Good makeup, costumes, acting, and scares, but the set design kinda sucked
Scariness Level: 6/10 Not quite as
relentless as Evil Dead Burn, but pretty close
Signature Scent: none? The entry area smelled like warm electronics,
probably because of the screen/projections animating the Lament
Configuration/Labyrinth façade entry, rather than any intentional smell.
Recommendation: If you have time. Or maybe if you’re a diehard fan of the
franchise. My least favorite house of
the night.
That
awful wait for Hellraiser meant that
I’d totally missed my opportunity for Terror Tram and there was barely time to
ensure I’d get one more house in. I
forced my extremely sore feet to trek over to Killcañera, zipping my way
through the Fortnitemares scare zone on the way. I didn’t really get to enjoy or experience
the scare zone, as not only was I in a rush, but also it was EXTREMELY CROWDED. It’s clearly meant to be a dance floor/dance
club but it was so horrifically packed that there was barely room to walk
through! I ended up half-bypassing it in
an attempt to get to my intended house faster.
I
guess this is as good a time as any to bring up another repeated problem from
throughout the night: inadequate signage and directions for non-express pass or
RIP Tour guests. The express/RIP
entrance for every house was very clearly marked everywhere, but the general
admission entrance was a lot harder to spot.
In the case where there were houses with entrances near each other,
things got even messier. Killcañera and
Sinners were essentially next door to each other, and by now had very long
queues that were both spilling out into the street. Even after asking team members, I initially
ended up in the Sinners queue again by accident before figuring out how to
switch to the Killcañera side. Even the
team members were getting confused about which queue was which! At least finally, for possibly
the only time of the night, the wait time
for a house was shorter than posted!
Killcañera
combines two apparent traditions for HHN Hollywood: a house based on Latin
American folklore, and a house with music by the musician Slash. Much like Dead Deader Deadest, this house
also apparently has ties to previous houses, but in this case it was perfectly
understandable as a standalone. Lola was
disfigured in the same fire that killed her parents, leading to ruthless
bullying in school. For her quinceñera,
she’s invited all her bullies…and summoned a bunch of monsters from Latin
American folklore to kill them. This
house is also unique in that it has a portion outdoors.
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| Killcañera facade with Lola performing her theme song from the balcony. |
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| Killcañera facade earlier in the day, before it opened. |
I
got great timing on this one, since I got to see Lola performing her theme song
on the façade of the house as I walked in.
It’s a good theme song; I guess Slash did his job well. Lola herself is a recurring “monster” in the
house, although her backstory is sad enough and her design pretty/not exactly
monstrous enough that your mileage may vary on finding her scary. Like, she’s a bullied teenage girl…who can
summon monsters. I guess that second bit
is the intimidating part. The house has
a variety of elaborate monster designs for the jumpscares, which led me to
realize how few Latin American monsters I apparently know. I did recognize La Llorona, who gets a
cleverly designed outdoor courtyard! I
like the touch that her traditional drownings were adapted for the party theme,
with one guest drowned in the fountain, one in a bowl of food, and one
decapitated body whose head can be found semi-hidden in the agua fresca
dispenser! The scene where El Silbón (I looked up who this was)
rips the spine out of a body Predator-style
was a really cool effect.
I
thought this was a much stronger
non-IP house than Dead Deader Deadest. A
more original, but still easily understandable concept, with cool monster
designs, and good music? Definitely a
win. I think giving the house a
prominent “icon” with Lola also helps establish its unique identity and
prevents the “generic” feel that plagued Dead Deader Deadest. Once again, I know DDD has a backstory
tie-in, but it is not NEARLY as apparent or readily established as Killcañera’s. I think DDD also has an associated character, but they didn't seem to be recurring throughout the house in the same way. The amount of jumpscares were about the same
frequency and intensity as DDD.
Killcañera:
Music by Slash
Overall Rating:
10/10 Solid house, no complaints here!
Scariness Level: 4/10; nothing that
bothers me, but there is some moderate gore (especially the spine scene) and
quite a few jumpscares
Signature Scent: none, which feels like
a missed opportunity (note: I found out later the scent is supposed to be roses/flowers, but I didn't smell it at the time)
Recommendation: Definitely!
Killcañera ends with
a bonus mini-house that’s technically counted as a scare zone. El Circo de la Muerte and its side show are a
nice epilogue. Even though it was super
late into the night and the park was nearly closed, the actors were still
giving their all, and the side show mini-house was delightfully un-crowded,
meaning that I had a chance to go through with a decent gap between the people
in front of me and myself. There were
few actors in there, but they all got a chance to shine. It really is a great experience to get to go through
a house without a continuous conga line, although I do wonder how El Circo was
so un-crowded given that basically everyone from Killcañera should’ve been
going through there.
By that point, there
was like 10 minutes before park closing.
I wanted to get at least one more house, and the only one I could get
to before the line cutoff was Sinners, right next door. Thnakfully, that was one of my favorites
anyway, so I was happy to get a second run of it. Surprisingly for the end of the night, I got
a MUCH more intense and, for lack of a better term, “populated” run than I had
at early entry! There seemed to be FAR
more scare actors, and I saw more scares than in my first run. Bert in the forest, Vampire Stack shaking the
door, Remmick in the window (who did get a good yelp out of me, since there had
been no scare in the window my first run), Smoke fighting Remmick in the dawn
forest, and the final Remmick who rushes forward at the end (and has
a mist spray effect) were all “new to me” scares for this. I also got a much clearer look at Pearline
and Joan’s scares in the bar scene. It
was an INCREDIBLE final run of the night.
It did make me
wonder, however, if there is a tradeoff in experience for early entry vs. the
longer lines further into the night.
Since I got the day to night ticket, I got to start entering houses at
5, and the lines were MUCH more manageable…but given how noticeably fewer
actors there were between my start-of-the-night run and the intense final run,
I wonder if more actors are scheduled for later in the night. I suppose makeup-heavy roles would also take
longer to be ready and thus only appear later.
I did notice that Sinners (for the first run) and Ozzy had seemed noticeably
sparser-staffed…and those were the houses I did at early entry. Sinners at end-of-night seemed as packed with
scare actors as Evil Dead and Hellraiser had been.
Regardless of the
number in each house/run, I have to compliment ALL of the actors that I saw
that night. Every single one was excellent. I
felt kinda bad by the end about my lack of reaction, so I made an effort to
scream a little when possible. I’m
probably not the best actress around, but I know it’s meant as a compliment to
them!
Overall, I did enjoy
Horror Nights. I was very let down by
the handling of Express Pass and the poor quality of food, but it was still
great to see this celebration of a genre I enjoy. It was really cool to experience this
different form of themed installation—you get so close to the set pieces
compared to a ride! I knew I needed to go again, especially this year where there are themes I enjoy. I’m not
so sure I’d be as thrilled about another year where it was movies I was less
enthusiastic about. And I needed to get
those other two cars on Hollywood Drift… Keep your eyes peeled for an update!
 |
| At least I got to see the animatronic baby crow on the way out, even though I didn't get to see Murder of Crowz! |
Final
Stats for my first HHN:
Hollywood Drift x2 (Skyline, then Supra)
Sinners x2 (once here, once at end of the night)
Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness x1
Transformers the Ride x1
Dead Deader Deadest x1
Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge x1
Spaghetti Dinner at Toadstool Café
Revenge of the Mummy x1
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey x1
Evil Dead Burn x1
Hellraiser x1
Killcañera x1
Missed (Daytime):
Studio Tour
Secret Life of Pets
Missed (HHN Specific):
Stranger Things 5
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Terror Tram
