As you may have saw, I was able to attend the HHN23 Media Preview event last Tuesday. I left off in part 1 where we were on our way to The Walking Dead house. This is where things got fun. They had us all head outside for transportation to the parade building. You may remember previously how excited I was to finally step inside of SS33, now I’m walking around backstage and no one said a word about having cameras or anything of the sort to the media. Having known quite a few people that work at the park, taking pictures of ANYTHING backstage is not only frowned upon, but a punishable offense, typically termination. So now you have the media backstage with all of their camera gear and no one saying anything about not taking pictures.
The Walking Dead Facade (Very dark)
Right around the corner overhead appears to be my first REAL look at the Hogwarts Express tracks, but I don’t want to bore you with that or push my luck for that matter. We line up below the tracks to hop on a bus that will take us to the other side of the park for The Walking Dead. I make it on the first bus and sadly there wasn’t a movie for the ride, heck, they could have shown the recently released HHN commercial on board, but the screens were blank. We finally pull up right in front of the house to an instantly recognizable scene from the show. I exited the bus directly into the arena from Woodbury. Fire and walkers are immediately apparent. Thankfully, the bleachers are empty, so I’m not walker bait yet.
Photo Credit: HorrorNights.be
Strangely enough, the self proclaimed wikileaks of HHN news isn’t going to do a scene for scene spoiler for the house. Although I’m somewhat confident with my writing, I don’t want to ruin the experience. No one likes the jerk who read the book before he watched the movie. They just ruin everything. I’ll just stick to my thoughts and opinions. The two times I’ve been through this house were amazing. I’m a big fan of The Walking Dead and was pleased with the house last year which covered season 1 and touched on season 2. I believe most will agree that season 2 and 3 are where the real “meat” is for the show. Just as you would expect, this year’s house picks up right where last years house left off. Because of the amount of content this house covers, it is clear in my mind that this year’s experience is MUCH better.
I will say that the most notable thing missing from last year’s house was character presence. There is good news, they heard us loud and clear. While not every character will appear in the house, you do get to see a couple main characters throughout the maze.
Photo Credit: HorrorNights.be
If spoilers are your thing, I did post my dark, non night vision walk through video on youtube for your viewing pleasure. Check it out here.
Next up, opening night on the 20th. I’ll be at the media event live tweeting the entire thing. If I get a decent cell signal, I might even try to live stream it, not sure why the park doesn’t do that in the first place (hint hint) but be sure to follow me on twitter @hhnrumors and I’ll let ya know how it goes down.
