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Grave of Flesh (HHN 34)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian G.
  • Start date Start date Jun 26, 2025
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Kichkinet85

Kichkinet85

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  • Aug 30, 2025
  • #81
Sorry for the double post, but here is my review.

The facade was beautiful.

The cemetery gates with the caretaker SA who comes out

However, the story was confusing to me and my group, and the SA need to be more intense.
 
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johnathanm

johnathanm

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  • Sep 1, 2025
  • #82
Sort of sad at the reception for this one. I think it creates a great sense of dread and has potential to be one of the most intense houses this year, but I admit the muddled story hurts this one a bit.

Would love a synopsis if someone figures it out:

Have we fallen into the grave like the main character in the podcast, we are consumed, and then our soul travels through levels of purgatory/the underworld?
 
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Dragontrainer2

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  • Sep 1, 2025
  • #83
Wasn’t the biggest fan of this house the first 3 nights but I ran it 2 times last night and those scareactors were on another level! They added a bunch of scares and new scare tactics. Hope they continue on this path because this could be a riser although the story is a bit rugged
 
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jarmor

jarmor

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  • Sep 2, 2025
  • #84
WTF was this house lol lol. It's just. . . well, WTF lol.
 
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Tobias

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  • Sep 2, 2025
  • #85
This is one of those houses where I can see the scares improving and this'll be a good rush of a house to go through, since while the sets are neat and all, like others have mentioned the story just gets lost in translation. The one scene which sticks out to me is...

The room with all the white sheets and the monster up on a platform in a white robe/apron who's literally having a Marilyn Monroe moment with the wind. Don't get me wrong, the scene is pretty neat, but it feels like a non-sequitur compared to the caverns and MC Esher staircases.
 
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Timchat2

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  • Sep 9, 2025
  • #86
The term gets thrown around a bit, but "Lovecraftian" seems to be the aim with the inscrutable nature of the house. It livens up what might have been a somewhat repetitive concept otherwise so I appreciated Grave of Flesh more than I expected.
 
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Midnight Detective

Midnight Detective

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  • Sep 27, 2025
  • #87
I'm starting to think there was a fear of committing to a story here because between the:
-description
-podcast
-the house itself
There's overlap but they all tell very different stories.

Seeing a video made some of the story beats make more since but even then I'm not sure why there's antagonistic humans/corpses/spirts in addition to the other monsters?
 
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Lucky Planet

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  • Sep 27, 2025
  • #88
Midnight Detective said:
I'm starting to think there was a fear of committing to a story here because between the:
-description
-podcast
-the house itself
There's overlap but they all tell very different stories.

Seeing a video made some of the story beats make more since but even then I'm not sure why there's antagonistic humans/corpses/spirts in addition to the other monsters?
Click to expand...

revenants?
 
Chumpieboy

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  • Sep 28, 2025
  • #89
All of y’all were right about this house. It’s not obvious what the story is or why transitions to certain locations were made. Shouldn’t need external media or YT videos to explain your story. Woof. 0/10. One and done.
 
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TheCodeMan95

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  • Sep 28, 2025
  • #90
Chumpieboy said:
All of y’all were right about this house. It’s not obvious what the story is or why transitions to certain locations were made. Shouldn’t need external media or YT videos to explain your story. Woof. 0/10. One and done.
Click to expand...
This is the first house we've only done oncr since we've been attending.

And we had unlimited express both nights lol
 
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Midnight Detective

Midnight Detective

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  • Sep 29, 2025
  • #91
Lucky Planet said:
revenants?
Click to expand...
I thought they were other bodies/spirits going through the "process" you are but they all seem to be attackers and not victims with the exception of one scareactor in the beginning

Chumpieboy said:
All of y’all were right about this house. It’s not obvious what the story is or why transitions to certain locations were made. Shouldn’t need external media or YT videos to explain your story. Woof. 0/10. One and done.
Click to expand...
I am yet again begging Universal for signs outside the houses like they have in Crooked Lane

Every single year I end up having to give people I go with an elevator pitch for the like half the houses.

Except not this one because I'm still not sure what's going on
 
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GA-MBIT

GA-MBIT

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  • Wednesday at 10:26 PM
  • #92
I totally get the negative reception to this house. It is very weird. I love it.


It starts off incredibly strong with a towering graveyard facade. Creeping atmospheric vibes leading into an almost pitch-dark room, with the major setpiece being your own burial site above your head. I love how tall the scene is. The grave hole itself is just slightly too high up. It ends up leaving your peripheral vision completely. It's only the dripping of water and the lack of other visuals that lead your eye up that direction. What a great scene. I love the Poltergeist-esque fresh dirt scenes that follow too; those always hit for me, and it wouldn't feel like a proper Graveyard house without at least a couple rooms like that.

The rest of the house proceeds to send you through an afterlife that is increasingly incomprehensible. This is not heaven or hell, or anything that simple. These are layers and spaces too obtuse and monolithic to parse. These are spaces formed adjacent to ... gods, maybe? But they're never seen. Maybe that's not it. Maybe these are the result of primordial forces or entities, or ... maybe not. Where is this?

Some layers are more structured like ruins, as if there is history here. But whatever civilization was here certainly wasn't human, and none of the glyphs or symbols are recognizable. Sometimes the scenes incorporate technology, but it's certainly not like any technology you've ever seen. You don't know the point of these vats or discs, seemingly made of human and animal parts. They are almost incidental as you walk through each room.

Other layers are entirely abstracted. Escher-esque staircases, tall blank stone walls. Monolithic structures with no understandable purpose. Human figures trapped within, ... or maybe formed out of this stone labyrinth's walls.

Meanwhile, Flesheaters never cease to attack at any opportunity they can. Despite how strange and complex the rooms get, the monsters and narrative remain as simple as they began. Death was not the end. Flesheaters are after you. Run.


I totally get just being confused or bored by this house's design. I don't expect many people to connect with this one like I have. But I really love how this house uses it's bare premise as a trojan horse, carrying a Lovecraftian madness house within. The house begins in the real human world, and as you delve deeper into the pit, you find worlds that mortals could never possibly comprehend. That's crazy cool to me.

It reminds me a lot of HHN31's Decendants of Destruction. On one level, DoD was a prequel to Seeds of Extinction following the humans of NYC being trapped in their own subway systems and going insane; but on a deeper level, DoD was actually a crazy attempt at making the HHN-equivalent of All Tomorrow's. A sci-fi horror speculative evolution house showing how these trapped humans evolved over the course of millions of years into terrifying bioluminescent mole creatures, portrayed using the same format as Michael Myers jumpscaring you with a knife next door.

I love how bold both of these houses are. They will never be the most popular, and they certainly aren't the best of their respective events. But I legitimately really do have a ton of fondness and passion for how they push the limits of the haunt attraction format. I also just think the houses are fun as regular haunts too! The sets are cool and detailed, and the casts have only gotten more intense as the run progresses.

This post is a bit more indulgent than some others I've made regarding HHN over the years, but I wanted to get across exactly why I love a house that ... seems to be generally panned by those who experience it. :nervous: A totally valid response! But one I couldn't disagree on more.
 
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PenguinCowboy

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  • Thursday at 7:57 AM
  • #93
GA-MBIT said:
I totally get the negative reception to this house. It is very weird. I love it.


It starts off incredibly strong with a towering graveyard facade. Creeping atmospheric vibes leading into an almost pitch-dark room, with the major setpiece being your own burial site above your head. I love how tall the scene is. The grave hole itself is just slightly too high up. It ends up leaving your peripheral vision completely. It's only the dripping of water and the lack of other visuals that lead your eye up that direction. What a great scene. I love the Poltergeist-esque fresh dirt scenes that follow too; those always hit for me, and it wouldn't feel like a proper Graveyard house without at least a couple rooms like that.

The rest of the house proceeds to send you through an afterlife that is increasingly incomprehensible. This is not heaven or hell, or anything that simple. These are layers and spaces too obtuse and monolithic to parse. These are spaces formed adjacent to ... gods, maybe? But they're never seen. Maybe that's not it. Maybe these are the result of primordial forces or entities, or ... maybe not. Where is this?

Some layers are more structured like ruins, as if there is history here. But whatever civilization was here certainly wasn't human, and none of the glyphs or symbols are recognizable. Sometimes the scenes incorporate technology, but it's certainly not like any technology you've ever seen. You don't know the point of these vats or discs, seemingly made of human and animal parts. They are almost incidental as you walk through each room.

Other layers are entirely abstracted. Escher-esque staircases, tall blank stone walls. Monolithic structures with no understandable purpose. Human figures trapped within, ... or maybe formed out of this stone labyrinth's walls.

Meanwhile, Flesheaters never cease to attack at any opportunity they can. Despite how strange and complex the rooms get, the monsters and narrative remain as simple as they began. Death was not the end. Flesheaters are after you. Run.


I totally get just being confused or bored by this house's design. I don't expect many people to connect with this one like I have. But I really love how this house uses it's bare premise as a trojan horse, carrying a Lovecraftian madness house within. The house begins in the real human world, and as you delve deeper into the pit, you find worlds that mortals could never possibly comprehend. That's crazy cool to me.

It reminds me a lot of HHN31's Decendants of Destruction. On one level, DoD was a prequel to Seeds of Extinction following the humans of NYC being trapped in their own subway systems and going insane; but on a deeper level, DoD was actually a crazy attempt at making the HHN-equivalent of All Tomorrow's. A sci-fi horror speculative evolution house showing how these trapped humans evolved over the course of millions of years into terrifying bioluminescent mole creatures, portrayed using the same format as Michael Myers jumpscaring you with a knife next door.

I love how bold both of these houses are. They will never be the most popular, and they certainly aren't the best of their respective events. But I legitimately really do have a ton of fondness and passion for how they push the limits of the haunt attraction format. I also just think the houses are fun as regular haunts too! The sets are cool and detailed, and the casts have only gotten more intense as the run progresses.

This post is a bit more indulgent than some others I've made regarding HHN over the years, but I wanted to get across exactly why I love a house that ... seems to be generally panned by those who experience it. :nervous: A totally valid response! But one I couldn't disagree on more.
Click to expand...
I do have to say, your eloquence here certainly makes more plain what I truly believe now they were going for here, and has definitely helped me understand that the point was we were never supposed to understand.

My biggest issue is it feels the most "Designed by committee" of houses in a year where there were more clear narrative flows abounding, but truthfully the lack of clear narrative and more of a "vibes over story" thing is probably what they intended with this one. I do think however when stacked against other originals which seemingly told a more traditional beginning/middle/end story (even if it took a couple viewings to fully grasp it) this confusion does unfortunately play as very one note and directionless.

But I do really appreciate your thoughts here, it definitely has made me reexamine what I experienced with this one!
 
Last edited: Thursday at 1:21 PM
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Timchat2

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  • Thursday at 4:09 PM
  • #94
The sparky bone grinder machine(?) partway through is one of my favorite things at this year's event. I'm not sure what's happening there exactly but I like it.
 
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Legacy

Legacy

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  • Thursday at 4:56 PM
  • #95
My dream houses are always dictated by incoherence. I love concepts that create unease by just leaning into WTF. It’s one of the reasons Grave was so high in my initial interest. What it actually needed was MORE incoherence. Because the aesthetic is so samey throughout, it makes the weird, individual set pieces harder to identify. That creates more puzzlement than unease.
 
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Circ

Circ

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  • Thursday at 5:03 PM
  • #96
Timchat2 said:
The sparky bone grinder machine(?) partway through is one of my favorite things at this year's event. I'm not sure what's happening there exactly but I like it.
Click to expand...
It's a little worrying to get between, and I like set design like that!
 
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GA-MBIT

GA-MBIT

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  • Thursday at 5:27 PM
  • #97
PenguinCowboy said:
I do have to say, your eloquence here certainly makes more plain what I truly believe now they were going for here, and has definitely helped me understand that the point was we were never supposed to understand.

My biggest issue is it feels the most "Designed by committee" of houses in a year where there were more clear narrative flows abounding, but truthfully the lack of clear narrative and more of a "vibes over story" thing is probably what they intended with this one. I do think however when stacked against other originals which seemingly told a more traditional beginning/middle/end story (even if it took a couple viewings to fully grasp it) this confusion does unfortunately play as very one note and directionless.

But I do really appreciate your thoughts here, it definitely has made me reexamine what I experienced with this one!
Click to expand...
Legacy said:
My dream houses are always dictated by incoherence. I love concepts that create unease by just leaning into WTF. It’s one of the reasons Grave was so high in my initial interest. What it actually needed was MORE incoherence. Because the aesthetic is so samey throughout, it makes the weird, individual set pieces harder to identify. That creates more puzzlement than unease.
Click to expand...
If there is a chink in the armor, it's definitely that the "incomprehensible realms" that this house sets out to portray can be ... still kinda comprehensible. They're certainly all weird, but I don't think that's quite enough to sell this idea entirely.

If there was a much clearer distinction between leaving the fresh dirt-style graveyard rooms towards the beginning of the house and entering into the complete unknown, I believe the house would be far more effective at getting it's identity across. As it stands, the gross cacoon rooms that currently act as that transition just don't serve the larger whole very well. They're still a little too fresh-dirt themed, and don't tie in much with the unknown. My only guess is that those are the Flesheaters' eggs, and the house is trying to introduce them as threats, cause I believe it's just other corpses before that point. But maybe I'm just totally seeing shadows on the wall and the designers were trying for something entirely different. Regardless, a clearer transition would serve the haunt format better.

I love the abstract monumentalist places that Grave reaches by the very end, but it overall could've gone far more alien than it actually does.
 
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hunnylvr

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  • Today at 2:04 PM
  • #98
While I also appreciate the eloquence of your take on this, Gambit, I still really can't get into this house at all. I agree the very beginning is cool when you look up and see those other graves at the top.. but after that, for us, it's simply boring. None of the four of us have gotten a single good scare in there (even with one of the four being the often terrified one). We just walk out scratching our heads with a "what the hell was that?" look on all our faces. We tried again with this last Thursday as it was a walk on, but the result was the same. I think we're pretty much done with this one. I'm glad some are enjoying it though!
 
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Midnight Detective

Midnight Detective

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  • Today at 3:17 PM
  • #99
Timchat2 said:
The term gets thrown around a bit, but "Lovecraftian" seems to be the aim with the inscrutable nature of the house. It livens up what might have been a somewhat repetitive concept otherwise so I appreciated Grave of Flesh more than I expected.
Click to expand...
Not to beat a dead horse and repeat talking points but coming back to this after the excellent points made below - the Flesheaters remind me a lot of the Hounds of Tindalos

"They can materialize through any corner if it is fairly sharp—120° or less. When a Hound is about to manifest, it materializes first as smoke pouring from the corner, and finally the head emerges followed by the body. It is said that once a human becomes known to one of these creatures, a Hound of Tindalos will pursue the victim through anything to reach its quarry."

Where the house lost me was in my assumption that as the environment became more foreign and unknowable (and likely hostile) so would the threat. Instead I think the idea was creating a terror that no matter how alien things get, no matter how lost or confused you are, the Flesheaters will find and consume you.

GA-MBIT said:
If there is a chink in the armor, it's definitely that the "incomprehensible realms" that this house sets out to portray can be ... still kinda comprehensible. They're certainly all weird, but I don't think that's quite enough to sell this idea entirely.

If there was a much clearer distinction between leaving the fresh dirt-style graveyard rooms towards the beginning of the house and entering into the complete unknown, I believe the house would be far more effective at getting it's identity across...
Click to expand...
GA-MBIT said:
Regardless, a clearer transition would serve the haunt format better.

I love the abstract monumentalist places that Grave reaches by the very end, but it overall could've gone far more alien than it actually does.
Click to expand...
Legacy said:
I love concepts that create unease by just leaning into WTF. It’s one of the reasons Grave was so high in my initial interest. What it actually needed was MORE incoherence. Because the aesthetic is so samey throughout, it makes the weird, individual set pieces harder to identify. That creates more puzzlement than unease.
Click to expand...

I think this is a spot on "fix"
(I hate to use that term. By no means do I think I could do a better job).

In the stairway room when the Flesheater comes out it clicked that were being pursued no matter where we go. I would have loved for the feeling to be carried into some absolutely insane or unpredictable environments.
 
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