30 Days of Halloween Horror Nights: What’s Your All-Time Least Favorite House?
While movie tie-in houses are a common occurrence at Halloween Horror Nights, this one never made any sense. From the time it was announced, the idea of a house based around the film “Doomsday” just felt like a forced idea: as though the Universal Pictures Corporate Office called and said, “Hey, this movie needs a marketing push. Add it to HHN.”
If you’re unfamiliar with the movie, here’s a brief synopsis: In the near future, a deadly plague breaks out in the British Isles, resulting in an enormous part of the country being put under quarantine. Years later, a special team is sent into the quarantine zone to search for a cure.
That’s right, it’s an action movie. And, while the film does feature a band of post-apocalyptic cannibals, they’re closer to “The Road Warrior” than “Apocalypse: City of Cannibals.”
So, how was the actual house? In a word: unremarkable. No offense to the scareactors, but the house wasn’t scary. Your mileage may vary, but here’s my opinion:
For me, a “haunted house” has to have a sense of danger. Think of a haunted house as a starring role in your very own horror movie: you are the next victim and your end could come at any time. That isn’t a scareactor, it IS a maniac with a butcher knife! Or Dracula himself. Or an interdimensional demon. That’s why we jump and scream and startle: these creatures are real, and they will kill you!
Action movies don’t have the same emotional connection. They’re often built around a seemingly-impervious hero: someone who shrugs off bullets, walks away from fiery car crashes, leaps out of planes without a parachute. These films lack the feeling of vulnerability because you know that the star will not, and cannot, die.
When I walked through “Doomsday,” I wasn’t in a horror movie, I was in an action movie.
As with any year of Halloween Horror Nights, there is inevitably a house or scarezone that just don’t “work.” HHN 18 was, in my opinion, one of the finest years in the event’s history. There were a lot of things that worked, and worked well, which just made the failure of “Doomsday” stand out even more.
What was your least-favorite HHN house, and why? Leave us a comment on Facebook!
Photos by HHN Yearbook.