Great review by you both👍🏼Thank You! Truly loved Tom’s facial expressions when Annie was giving her list😂

Second… thanks guys for your honest review. It helps the rest of us who are investing serious money, travel and time.

Thank you Ann and Tom for the preview

Annie your reviews are always fantastic, loved hearing your thoughts!

I replayed the game right before going and the house confused me soo much.Why base a house around a 2-3 hour section of the game?

Great reviews with multiple perspectives. Since Tom is a Disney guy its also good to hear his thoughts from a non universal fanboy perspective.

It was great meeting the other night! Im glad you enjoyed your night!

Will you be going to Knott’s Scary Farm? Would be interesting to hear the difference.

I've gone 2 nights and have done most of the houses twice now and personally my ranking is closer to Anne's 🤷‍♂️

Going in two weeks. Doing the behind the screams first day, second day RIP. Was looking forward to the Exorcist but now, not so much.

Can’t agree enough with Annie about Chucky!

I feel most IP houses are all about the member berries. If the IP doesn't resonate with you then the house will feel much weaker.

Houses were liked in order with 1 being the best and 10 being the worst 1: The last of 2: Universal monsters unmasked 3: Yeti campground kills 4: Stranger Things 4 5: Blood moon dark offerings 6: Dueling Dragons 7: The darkest deal 8: Dr. Oddfellows 9: Exorcist believer 10: Chucky ultimate kill count

We did Annie and Tom to team up for reviews more often

Agree with Tom dueling dragons was mind blowing!!! Even if you have no idea about the roller coaster it’s easy to understand and appreciate

Others may be doing honest reveals but i value users the most

I disagree somewhat with this review this year, I think this is an amazing year in regards to the scare zones and houses, just like Tom never played the last of us video game I have never seen Stranger Things so it wasn’t high on my list but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good house. Everyone was completely into it this year and Nightmare Fuel Revenge Dream was amazing this year best one yet. One criticism this year is the lack of food booths, there are quite a few less this year which are making the lines insane they definitely need to fix it. Also I do think Tom likes Disney more, that’s why Annie does most of the Universal News stories in the park, but he does still like Universal so like anyone else can have an opinion, as echoed in a lot of comments Universal has been kicking butt and beating Disney at every turn recently and with Epic opening up Universal clearly is in a position to be on top. There is a reason HHN Orlando is the #1 horror destination in the entire world and this year definitely shows why that is so far, best opening weekend I have been too in years and can’t wait to see how it improves more since Universal really does take feedback to heart for horror nights and will change things if needed

Im surprised they arnt playing music where you are standing

1. Dueling Dragons A double scare in the dragon room! 2. Universal Monsters Phantom of the opera, and that hunchback scare! 3. Darkest Deal Amazing original concept, I wish I could just hang out in that house. Cool devil costumes and I love the era and on stage scenes. 4. Stranger Things 4 Def a museum house but so well done! I loved season 4 and therefore adored this house. The vecna wall, come on! So good. 5. Dr Oddfellow Felt like a classic haunt, in the best way. Reminded me of old school HOS a little bit. 6. Yeti Honestly was hard to put this this far down on the list because I adore Sasquatch so much. But imo there’s so many detailed, great houses this year. When I learned the backstory of the house, I just loved that it was a momma squatch protecting her baby squatch! 7. Blood moon dark offerings The bell tower was cool af, love the use of the height of the soundstages. 8. Chucky Like you said, that animatronic was WILD. 9. Last of us I was not a fan of the movements of the scares and I’m not sure if that was just our cast for that run or if it has to do with the game. 10. Exorcist Maybe I missed it but I wanted someone levitating off a bed and I did not see that. This was actually the house I was going in the event looking forward to and it ended up at the bottom. 🤣

All hail the queen.

1) Dueling Dragons 2)Monsters 3)Odfellow

Saying some house are so bad they should not exist? That is pretty harsh Tom. It is the first weekend. The house can take a little time to get into the swing of things.. Tom is just getting so cranky and complainy, I cannot even watch him anymore. He obviously does not like Universal... wait no, he doesn't like anything (except Disney Japan). I am sorry Tom, please try to find some joy in life your again.

8 of the houses were strong this year and everyone has them in a different order. chucky had the weakest set, weakest scares, too many screens, and the FF que did not do it any favors. ST4 was disappointing, vecna face mask was cool but the rest needs work, the clock room is low quality, too many mannequins, and there’s too few scares

I agree with Tom that this year doesn't feel as "big" as some previous years. Last year was the 31st, so it tied into Halloween being October 31st. Very classic Halloween. Still some things I like this year. I honestly can't rate all 10 houses because to me the IP and original houses are apples and oranges. I can only rank the top 5 IP and top 5 original in order. The Exorcist being based on something that hasn't even come out yet is a big miss.

Is your review of a media tour? Curious as I did not hear that mentioned. I understand RIP is available to non-media, but if you had a media tour.. how different is the media tour RIP it to what us regular people can buy as a RIP tour? You said you went through houses multiple times which I don’t think is part of a RIP tour for purchase. Thanks!

Yes @Tom, I've noticed that there are ...some... who seem to be trying to use the 'Honest Review' as well.

I feel like some things at the event this year are a little too high concept and therefore executed poorly

David S Pumpkins

Tom, Annie may be the "Universal" person but your picks seem to be slightly more in tune with the other fan sites so far. Then again, there's not nearly as much consensus as there was the past few years (especially last year when most lists were very similar). It seems those that are fairly consistently in the upper part of lists are Dueling Dragons, Stranger Things and Monsters: Unmasked. (Looking at your Top 3s: Tom matched 2, Annie matched 1.) At the bottom are usually Exorcist, Bloodmoon and Darkest Deal (once again: 2 for Tom, 1 for Annie). But even those last two have appearances higher up on some lists. Oddfellow's is the only one that seems to appear in the middle section on the vast majority of lists. It's feeling like the one that is in the slot "just before" the best houses. The other three seem to be the most divisive, with Chucky scraping rock bottom on quite a few lists, but in the Top 3 of several others. Yeti is another one really low or really high, probably due to the humor factor. The Last of Us does seem to be affected by whether people played and/or saw it beforehand. Having played it and watched the series, I can't imagine wanting to walk through it. I think Tom's Walking Dead comparison is apt. What's scary about zombies or clickers or bloaters is them actually attacking you, which isn't going to happen in a haunted house. If they aren't trying to chomp on your face, then where's the scares?

I haven't been through them yet, but I have watched video of them. Just by that, I'm going to say that Dueling Dragons looks best and Chucky looks the worst. I grew up with Chucky, so I was hopeful. I never got to ride Dueling Dragons, but the set design is very cool.

Never watched these folks before but you can tell from the comments that there are Disney folks on here, living in the past, and they are with Tom. Lots of sniveling hate and jealousy from Disney folks today. We understand, believe me. Sad to be on a Disney sinking ship while Universal sails it’s success at serving guests right passed you. It’s impossible to keep defending Disney today without looking very sad.

I find it so weird that Tom pretends to be "an '80s kid" when he wasn't even born until 1988 or 1989 and would have zero recollection of that decade.

Yes Tom yes!!! Thank you for putting Last of Us at the very bottom!!!! The setting is literally something we've seen hundreds and hundreds of times and I'm done with it. Not to mention post apocalyptic settings aren't my favorite thing ever. I must say though, as an actual horror scare house, it was far more scary and actual horror based that what the actual game was, and that's saying something. Dueling Dragons was absolutely the best house for me. So much love went into that house and it clearly shows. Love the choose your ending as well.

Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. Just experience the mazes urself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this vid. Though I never been to Universal, yet, I am curious to HHN. Thanks Tom & Annie I really enjoyed the review. 😁 I agree The Last of us seem like TWD. So, I may like it. One day I may do Universal. I like the explanation of the reasoning of Tom's pick of #1. I have a feeling that Universal listens when Toms speaks, better than, you know. 😉

Sadly I can’t attend but I had absolutely no interest in the last of us or stranger things. Monsters and dueling dragons looks the most interesting.

I do worry about Universal watering down the scare-factor of HHN in an attempt to attract a wider demographic - a creeping reliance on popular IPs and promotional houses is taking away the event’s edge IMO.

I mean I love you guys but I disagree with the rankings 😂😂😂😂

Unfortunately, I think HHN has become predictably unpredictable. Same scare zone looks and same houses with different names. Not sure how to fix this but they need to flip the switch and become the innovators that they are. Dead coconut club and tribute store was a good start but now getting old. Maybe all the “ influencers” have over done thing with content but we need more, different, out side the box thinking.

Dueling Dragons was the worst.

1.The Exorcist 2.Unmasked 3.Stranger things 4.Yeti 5The last of us 6.Dual Dragon 7.Bloodmoon 8.Dr.Oddfellow 9.Chucky 10.The Darkest Deal

The sets are amazing but the scares are all the same. Repetitive and predictable. Knott’s scare actors have more organic interactions with guests. Each monster creates a backstory. Universal has the same jump scares in each room, in each maze. No variation.

Looks like a pretty weak year, tbh. Last of Us looked very underwhelming, and Exorcist looked about as good as the new movie is bound to be 🤢

Tom, you come across like you really wanted to hate this. Really throwing cold water on everything like you don’t want to support Universal. You a big Disney guy? You come across prejudiced to dislike and pretty whiny. That’s why I’m guessing you may be a big Disney fan. Disney has been getting their butt handed to them by Universal for 5 years now and it’s just getting worse and worse for Disney.