At HHE, a performance bell-curve has traditionally been apparent between the non-Challenge Trail attractions, with a handful of stand-out portrayals, a wide swath of moderate/adquate characterizations, and a few, thoroughly unconvincing outliers. THIS year, however, in the most substantial shift that I can remember, the bell curve has both condensed and transitioned significantly along the X Axis. In other words, the variability of performance has shrunk and increased the median significantly. In even simpler terms : the cast was fantastic.
HHE has always boasted a much higher-than-average percentage of interactive cast members, and prolonged interactions (the Trail is built upon them after all), but that number has grown even larger. Fortunately, the quality of nearly every one of them has also improved. Its an embarrassment of riches this season, truthfully, and attempting to isolate specific stand-out performance is a bit overwhelming.
Excluding the gate-keepers and roving entertainer (to be discussed in Customer Service), a hilariously depraved conversation with a pharmacist is easily the most memorable experience for us from Legends, though the half-dozen persistent grumblers and shriekers (foremost the “Dental Gal”) from the attraction’s outdoor segment were the hands-down creepiest of the lot. I developed an emotional attachment to John Cough-ee, an enthusiastic bearded beastman with the sniffles. I intend to nurse him back to health and then release him into the wild.
In The Doll Factory, it’s impossible to ignore the lasting emotional scarring generated by the pair of actors in the last room. The Barber certainly skated the subjective line of “too far”, though never crossed it, and generated a hilariously-shocking situation for his chosen client. A real eye for style, that one.
The Challenge Trail annually features some of the best cast performances, but there is a definite argument to be made this year. Still, that possible usurpation is mostly due to improved competition, not sagging Trail performances. The actor portraying the first Challengeer is always a group-favorite, no matter the face he wears, even if this season’s “speech impediment” was more than a bit inconvenient. The last or penultimate (depending on how one wishes to categorize things – see below) demon was also entertainingly sinister, and being chided by a pun-a-holic, dreadlocked gardener made the night much more colorful, despite a few comedically-cynical groans.
However, the creepiest and most convincingly-acted role easily belonged to a dual-personality-equipped Challengeer. Crossing between over-bearing grump and playfully delightful sweetheart seemed effortless for the actress and an otherwise-uninspired Challenge was rendered wholly enjoyable due solely to her performance.
The Trail performer that our team appreciated the most, overall, may have (the margins are so slim here) been one of a much more jovial disposition. The Country Cousin who served as the buffer between the Trail and reality (in both directions) was a friendly, song-and-dancing country gal who saw us properly equipped to survive our foray into the deep woods and then share in our triumph as we retreated back to the main concourse. She had a few hiccups to deal with during our time together, but she remained sweet-as-pie, without battin’ a southern-fried eyelash.
As for the less-talkative cast members, the Trail Zombies did a good job of staying in character as they chased, flag-molested, and snarled at our procession. A legitimate (accidental) head-butt to one of these undead stalwarts didn’t even break his stride, let alone his character. Lots of haunted attractions claim to be “real haunted” every year, but does Haunted Hills Estate stand alone as the only haunt to feature a real zombie?
If forced to nitpick, I suppose wouldn’t have minded a few more zombies on the trail and a couple more actors tucked into the two houses, but that is far from necessity. All three attractions felt pretty solidly-stocked the night we were present.
This exceedingly (unnecessarily?) long category write-up gives some examples of stand-out performances, but, as I said at the beginning, there really weren’t ANY poor displays. Every actor really gave a noteworthy showing. Were some better than others; could some performances use improvement? Of course, but the cast as a whole really impressed us this year and represented The Estate the best of any ensemble we’ve seen there.
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