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The Halloween Season is officially here. On the west coast we're starting off with Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood. Over the weekend we enjoyed two evenings at the event, the first during media/fan preview night and the second on Sunday night using our Frequent Fear Passes. 

We'll start off with saying that in our opinion, this is a VERY strong year for the event. One of the main reasons is that it seems they've actually learned how to have fun. More on that below. Let's get to it. 
Written by Gregg Condon
Our media night started right at park opening as we made our way all the way from the entry plaza to the backlot. 

On Sunday we used our Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood Survival Guide utilizing early entry and no express passes with some success. Make sure you check it out prior to heading to the event. 

We stopped by the Universal Store to check out some of the amazing merchandise. They've really upgraded their merchandise game this year.
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Slideshow of some of the awesome merchandise
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The amount of mazes available for Early Entry is kind of insane, and is all of them except 2 (and Walking Dead)
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Quickly pointed out that Ghostbusters is not on this, but still some amazing artwork.
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Let's go to the mall!!! Today!!!
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Scoops Ahoy, wouldn't mind if this was a permanent addition
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Waffle Sundae 
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These Universal Monster murals by Tristan Eaton are seriously amazing. We love, love, love them so much. 
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So let's get on with our maze reviews. We'll preface with this ... we think that overall this is one of the best line-up's of mazes in HHN Hollywood history, if not the best ever. There is a great mix of horror, comedy, pop culture, IP's and great scenery. 

We'd been considering getting the frequent fear for years and are very glad this is the year we finally did. 

​Let's head into the mazes!! 
Stranger Things
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We are huge fans of the show, in fact, after Season 3 we re-watched all 3 seasons again. And even enjoyed Season 2 (that this maze is based off of) more than the first time. So we were pretty excited about this maze. 

Unfortunately the maze didn't really translate from screen to maze. 
The maze suffered from a lot of duplication of scares, with Demigorgon's, Demidogs at pretty much every turn surrounded by a lot of black walls. 

The maze started off strong however.

One of our biggest concerns was the scene depicted in the artwork for the maze not being included in the maze itself. Not sure if the budget was smaller this year due to all of the other IP and extra mazes. 

We're very much hoping this one improves over the next few weeks as it's a great IP, a popular IP and we'd love to see it back in the years to come. But with it being a very strong year, something has to be last, and sadly it's this one. 
House of 1000 Corpses
House of 1000 Corpses sufferers from being compared to the amazing 3D maze that was at HHN previously, and it's really not fair. Because this maze is great fun. 
The talent in here is fantastic and really understands the source material. 
Curse of Pandora's Box
The first of the original mazes for 2019 this maze has some amazing scenes, amazing talent and a great score. Also, probably our favorite opening scene of any maze at the event. 
Lots of props from last years Universal Monsters and House of Horrors in here, which we absolutely don't have an issue with. Just a fun maze that has a high repeat factor. 
Us
I'll be honest, I didn't really find Us, the movie, to be scary. Disturbing, absolutely. Interesting story, for sure. Amazing directing and acting, without a doubt!! 
The maze however, probably had the most amount of "scares" and creepiness. We absolutely loved this. Not only did it tell the story of the film, not only did it capture without flaw the feel of the film, but the talent really seemed to enjoy bringing these characters to life. It was just great. 
Frankenstein meets the Wolfman
A continuation of last years amazing Universal Monsters maze, this one definitely takes a more Gothic feel than last years maze, but is still just as great on the characters, talent, scenes and scares. 
The music definitely sets this one apart and is just such a part of the legacy of these two characters. 
Holidayz in Hell
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Our absolute favorite scare zone at this event last year, and maybe one of our favorite of the entire year, this year it was brought to life as a maze. And it didn't disappoint AT ALL. 

So much so, somebody (me) forgot to hit record when we got in the maze, so sadly no video. But seriously, check this one out. The line has been very manageable during our first two visits. Not to be missed. 
Creepshow
I'm a HUGE fan of the original two Creepshow movies, they were kind of my first foray into horror when I was growing up. So I had really high expectations for this maze. And I absolutely LOVED it. 
It really is kind of a love letter to the films with a bit from the upcoming series thrown in. And if the walk-through is any indication, the new series will definitely capture the look and feel of the source material. Can't wait to see the show and go through this maze again. 
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Remember when I said at the beginning that Universal finally figured out how to have "fun" with their mazes? Well they did. It's no coincidence that our top two mazes of this year are based on 80's horror comedy movies (and one pure comedy if we're being honest). 
Are you going to get huge scares in this maze? Probably not. But you're going to have fun. And the talent in the maze knows it. You always know when the scare-actors at any event know they've got a good time going on, and it definitely shows in this one. 
Ghostbusters
That leaves our absolute favorite maze of Halloween Horror Nights 2019. And that's Ghostbusters. To say that we were all looking forward to this maze would be an understatement. And that's usually when a maze doesn't live up to expectations. That's not the case with this one at all. 
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This maze isn't exactly a literal retelling of the film, and has some typical HHN effects, but it has so much more than that. It has a lot of dedicated talent, some really cool effects and again, just a lot of fun. 
Well that wraps it up for this HHN Hollywood update. Since we have Frequent Fear so we'll be back a few more times including one night for the amazing Chainsaw Chaseout. 

Be sure to share your thoughts on the event below. We'd love to hear what your rankings are. 
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