This is the only returning house this year, and I love Killer Klowns From Outer Space. When I think B-movie, I think KKFOS, so I was stoked to see this house return. Walking through it, I had the same giant smile on my face that I had a few years ago and enjoyed pretty much every minute of it.
I do have to say, though, it felt a little different this time around. The house felt longer, but it also felt like there were a lot more empty hallways. Either way, I still love walking through scenes from this movie. The human puppet scene is always creepy in the best way. I love it because it brings such an unsettling vibe to an otherwise joyful movie.
And I will always love the “Another door?? Another door?? Another door??” bit. It never gets old.
All that said, this house is still extremely fun and definitely enjoyable. However, if you’ve seen it before, you’ve basically seen it this time. Don’t miss another house just to do this one again.
Dead, Deader, Deadest
This is a sequel house to one of Universal’s original properties, continuing the story of Universal Horror Hotel, and it’s a gruesome one. This time, you’re entering the Deville Family Funeral Home. There’s a fake drug that is supposedly meant to restore a corpse without embalming it, but things obviously go horribly wrong and the drug begins reanimating the dead.
This house has some really good scares that genuinely caught me off guard. The story is easy to follow, and even the smells throughout the house are incredibly thematic. There’s also an AC room in this house, so on a hot California night, I’m definitely not going to complain about that.
This house is fun. I actually debated putting it above Killer Klowns From Outer Space, but ultimately landed just below it. If this line is around 45 minutes, I think that’s the perfect wait.
Killcenera
I’ve grown to really love the Mexican folklore houses over the years, so when Monstruos last year seemed like it might be the end of an era, I was pretty disappointed.
When it was announced that the Mexican Heritage houses were coming back, I was very excited. And the story behind this house sounded intriguing, so I went into it with pretty high expectations.
Unfortunately, I think I may have set the bar a little too high.
By no means is Killcenera a bad house. There are a ton of great little details, the monsters look fantastic, and the main character, Lola, is both tragic and scary. There’s also a story here that’s fairly easy to follow, along with a ton of references to Hispanic culture. The problem for me is that there’s almost too much to look at.
When you’re walking through these rooms, you can’t exactly stop and take in the scenery, so I constantly felt like there was something I was missing. Oddly enough, I think this house would benefit a lot from a second walkthrough. The problem is that I’m not sure I could justify waiting more than 30 minutes just to go through it again.
I really love the Monstruos houses, so part of me went in expecting that same level of experience. It’s not that Killcenera didn’t reach that level, it just felt like there was too much happening for me to fully take in during one walkthrough.
Evil Dead Burn
I love the Evil Dead franchise, but I never really thought about how it would work as a Horror Nights house. This house takes you through the events of Evil Dead Burn in mostly chronological order. In some cases, that type of structure translates really well to HHN, but in this case, I don’t think it fully worked.
There were definitely some scenes that translated well, like the car crash at the beginning, but there was a lot in this house that didn’t really work for me. Many of the scares happened in large, open rooms where the scare actors felt like they were half a mile away.
I think Evil Dead has the potential to be genuinely terrifying, so I just wish they had cranked the scares up a little more, especially considering this was in the same location as the Insidious house, which absolutely bombarded you with scares. They tried to bring some of that intensity toward the end of the house, but I think the spaces were simply too open for too long. Some tighter rooms would’ve done wonders here.
Stranger Things 5
Lastly, we have Stranger Things.
I have to say, I’m not exactly sad to see the end of Stranger Things at HHN. This is the final season of a show that I couldn’t even bring myself to finish, so this house already lacked a personal connection for me.
From a scare-factor perspective, this house also has the disadvantage of relying heavily on people as characters, which is usually less scary to me than monsters.
There was one Dustin scare actor who jumped out at me, and I actually got excited because they looked like a really convincing Dustin. But outside of moments like that, most of the scares come from Demogorgons, Vecna, and animatronics.
The house tells the story well, but with so many empty rooms, it felt like there was a lot more they could’ve done. There are a few large scenes that are genuinely impressive, but the overall house was a bit of a letdown for me.
This is the only house this year that I would recommend skipping if you’re really crunched for time. Every other house is at least worth checking out, but this one mostly just gave me and the person I was with a new inside joke.
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