During my first ever trip to Halloween Horror Nights (HHN), I was part of a private RIP tour. This was an excellent way to enjoy the event and now I’m officially pampered regarding HHN, but that is my issue. During the RIP tour, I enjoyed a buffet at Café La Bamba. Following that, I enjoyed the Beetlejuice and Haunting of Hill House mazes/houses. There was an excursion to shoot some aliens at MIB: Alien Attack because during an RIP tour, you can also enjoy some of the attractions with front of line access.

Following my poor score result on that ride, we started venturing to houses in that back area. We did visit the Welcome to sCarey:Horror in the Heartland house. This is the house that you could see the façade from the extended queue of the MIB attraction well before HHN season started. Carey, Ohio is a recurring setting for HHN as it is the hometown of one of the creators of Halloween Horror Nights, and so this setting is used as a nod to their origins.

This house is an amalgamation of many of the previous Carey themed houses and scare zones. Some of previous houses/mazes referenced are Hive, Legendary Truth-The Wyandot Estate, H.R. Bloodengutz Presents- Holidays of Horror, and Slaughter Cinema. If you are a veteran of HHN then you will appreciate the horror nostalgia. As a HHH rookie, I knew the original properties but had trouble appreciating the house.

In my opinion, this would be the house to skip if you need to do so during your time at HHN. As a beginner, I got a little confused with the overall plot. This took away from my enjoyment of this house. My more veteran HHN friends thought this house was better than I did. There were some excellent scares. As you can see from the “Unmasking Tour” photos from my friend Kimmie Caputzal, there is a lot going on in this house. If you are unfamiliar with an unmasking tour, it is a daytime paid tour to see inside some of the houses with the lights on.

If this is the worst house this year, then that should tell you it is a solid house line-up this season.

In fairness, this is not a bad house. It is just less well done than the other houses which are all at least good to excellent. On a scale of 1-10, I would give it a 5.5 but most of the HHN houses are at least 8s.

Of course, I am a rookie attending in person but have edited and written about houses from many previous years. When you come to HHN, may you enjoy all the houses and rate them yourself.