Old HHN Reviews

[pumpkinbot343]

Porting some reviews of some of the older HHN events in USJ since they’re no longer on at that other forum, and that’s forum’s sorta closed anyway now. None of these reviews are from me specifically.

Starting with the 2015 event. Sourced from here by a poster named “Invader Butters”:

Well hello all you wonderful people.
I see that this section is flourishing with content. Though I can understand why there is not alot of information about Halloween Horror Nights in Japan, as it is very far away. I could have filled up this post with very's in that last sentence. Well because of luck, yours truly has been blessed with the pleasure of experiencing Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Japan. Let me first tell you, Halloween Horror Nights is not a separately ticketed event like it is state side. And the haunted houses open at the spooky time of NOON! Why is this? Well when your target audience and population mostly rides trains to your theme park and the trains stop running at midnight, that means the park closes earlier. If you want to see all of the included with the cost of a ticket into a day of USJ you got to get to the park early. "Why is that?", you ask yourself unsure of what answer you might get in return as a voice in your head might reply back with some inane retort like "WERE OUT OF PUNCH.". But, I'm getting ahead of myself the reason is that on peak days and for one key attraction you need a 'return time' which you might have to wait an hour just to get a return time at 8 am only to find that you will have to stay in the park till closing to do it. What attraction should garner such a wait? Well I'm glad you asked Biohazard: The Real which not only is deserved of the wait but is a tour-de-force of excitement. But I'll get back to that later.
So this year at Halloween Horror Nights their are four Haunted Houses Chucky's Horror Factory 2, Alien Vs Predator, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Biohazard: The Real 3.
So let me start off with the familiar
Alien Vs Predator
So there really is no backstory on this haunted house from what I can tell you wander into a Weyland-Yutani research lab that has been over run by Xenomorphs and Predators. They were operating on Predators so maybe they released them? This maze hearkened back to what was experienced at Orlando last year, people getting attacked and dragged away, Predators uncloaking and scaring you, bending over and going though a tunnel with an Alien at your feet, and Alien puppets. But the ending had a Predator hacking away on a Robotic Alien Queen which was a sight to be seen!
A Nightmare On Elm Street
I have to start this off by saying in Japan they know this movie as "The Night Killer". Before you go into the house you are paired off into groups of 6-8 and told to hold on to a rope. In a perfect world you won't run into the group infront of you because you are pulsed through the house. Freddy shows up and speaks in English. Tell you "Welcome to his world" and "No running in the halls". There is one particular moment in this haunt that I thought was pulled off really well. You pass what looks like a cell and the wall cracks open from freddy's piercing glove it scratches the room following the group until gets to the end of the wall and freddy pops out right next to it. Good setup, a very showy haunted house.
Chucky's Horror Factory 2
This maze starts off with you entering an abandoned factory where they produce "good guy" dolls, a bum sees the line and regales the yard of the curse of Chucky, I think my Japanese is pretty poor. As you enter the factory it is clear that Chucky is in control, they use small dolls, actors in suits, and even actors with small puppets attacking them as the puppet is attached to their hair. The house slowly devolves into a more generic factory setting where these factory workers have victims that they are ripping the legs off of and keeping chained up for dissection. With Chucky popping up here and there. Then you get to a part where an actor tells you to get into a room. There is an actor frantically trying to get our small group of 20-25 people out of this room, screaming that (I think) "Chucky is coming" the lights go out and suddenly there is a man with a chainsaw in the room and in the back of the room Chucky is riding on the shoulders of someone. Chucky has a chainsaw in his hands as well and cuts the man's head off. It was one of the greatest endings to a haunted house I have ever seen in my life.
Biohazard: The Real 3
Why is it the real 3? Because its the third time they've done it and boy oh boy, do they do it well. First you wait in a stairwell that visually tells you you just got out of the raccoon city subway. You are given a mask that tells your vitals and ammo, a umbrella arm band, and a gun. You are lead by a member of Umbrella (SO YOU ARE THE BAD GUY) to find a T-cell canister. You have to shot of real zombies, Lickers ( that slide about on the floor), Tyrants, even Nemesis shows up as an "end boss" delivering his one line "STARS!". It was something that has to be seen to be believed.
Ok so this where it gets good, not only do they have haunted houses and one extreme house (that I haven't mentioned) they change some of the rides around and make them horror versions I could write about them or you could kinda see it in a video I did on it, which includes the zombie scare zones
A day at universal studios japan during Halloween Horror Nights
Tell me what you think!

 

[pumpkinbot343]

Another one from the same poster as above:

Hello all you wonderful people and greetings from the land of the rising sun. Please take this review with a grain of salt, as it does take a lot to startle me in haunted houses and similar situations. After six years in the industry, it tends to do that to you. But regardless, I was there at USJ for the first day of the event and it was Uber fun. I arrived at noon to the park, by this time the timed entry tickets had been given out roughly 3-4 hours before hand which meant, I was not going to do the Exorcist or Nightmare on Elm Street on my first visit to HHN. These tickets are free but they go fast and you need them to see everything at hhn. Somethings to remember about this event, the indoor scary stuff starts at noon, the rides if they change switch around 6, the scarezones start at 6, and the park closes at 9 or 10. I first jumped in line to see Chucky's Horror Factory 3.

It was a returning haunt from last year with a couple of minor changes. After passing under a welcome sign you are in the main lobby of what looks like "The Good Guy" toy factory. A victim emerges while your waiting in line to warn you not to go in that it's dangerous. You are then are put into a small group, yes the pulse you through the house, passed broken toy boxes. A wall of them almost falls on you before chucky in his doll visage pops out them. The next room appears to be an office room, the main static feature in the room is a staff worker whose body is slumped over a desk, a chainsaw stuck where his head should be. Staff workers pop out of doors with Chucky attached to their head. As they shake their head trying to get him off. You go down a hallway that has posters of the previous child play films. Some of the are drop down windows with chucky behind them. Then you go into a new yorkish decrepted alleyway. Filled with what I could only assume is Chucky's converts that are working at the factory. They have greyed overalls and gas masks. They hide behind the doors the line the alleyway waiting for anyone to come by. The next room is all Chucky's converts, whom I will refer to as CC's from here on out. Please don't confused with the pizza place. There are body parts hanging from the wall and victims inside this room. One is tied down to a chair and one of CC's, I hope your not thinking about pizza, takes a chainsaw to her leg claiming it for himself. They use their tools to bang and frighten the passers through. The next room is covered in what feels like doll fur and stuffing as you walk over it you the wall next to you comes alive and someone trapped in the wall reaches out for you. The next room finds you back with the CC's in a freezer they are keeping the bodies frozen for what reason? To eat them? To use them for an elborate game of Jenga? I'm not to sure but there's a lot of intestines in your face that you have to knock out of your way. You see a room with doll cases, housing semi-humanoid creatures in them, some have hands were their feet should be. This is all fine and dandy until a couple of them come alive and charge at you in their cases. The room slopes down and it seems like you are in a maintance shaft with chucky laughing at you as you duck to go through. Then the CC's push you though into a room that has a victim in it. He is banging on the only exit out. The group gets locked in the victim walks behind a wall and a rear projection shows him and a girl attacked by Chucky, literally cut in half. Then Chucky comes riding on someones back and cuts their head off, sending you out the door into the sunlight.



After that I headed over to see that "Tatatri" the Living Doll haunted house. The wait was 100 minutes. Why is this? If you said "Do...do..do they pulse the house?" YOU'D be right! There are three entrances for this house. I assume its pretty much the same in all them. Your group is given a rope which it's your goal to hold onto the entire time. You walk up to traditional Japanese house with a door handle. I was leading the group and I was tasked with opening the door as soon as you open the door a freaked out gentleman startles you and says well alot of things my Japanese wasn't good enough to catch it all something about dolls and how you shouldn't look at one directly in the eyes. Well he gives one person in the group a slip of paper. No one wanted it, guess who got it. GIVE IT TO THE GAIJIN IN THE FRONT. From what I understand, you don't want to be the one with this. You are put into the next room which features women praying at a shrine and a crap ton of dolls staring you down. One of the women pops up to startle you and you continue over a bridge passing by the dolls that are eyeing you down. You make it to another room and you pass an empty room on your right a woman who is guesturing shhhh pops out in the front of the room and pushes you back into that empty room on your right. She closes the doors and tries to get the group to be quiet. Pass the doors, you see the shadow and hear the footsteps of a spooky figure as he scrapes his hands along the door. He passes by the room and the woman seems happy. He then busts open the door and a cutrain opens revealing the next room you are suppose to journey through. You are in a room with a MOTHER LOAD of dolls and a doll in the center with a cerimonial rag put over its eyes. This is the one your suppose to avoid any eye contact with, ok check. The doll rises up out of it's resting place revealing its eyes. The room goes dark and the lights come back on revealing a scareactor that chases you out the room. You can see the sunlight you've almost made it out of the house. The wall opens in front of you and a ghost makes one last swipe at you as you leave.