With Halloween done, time for a final wrap-up. Will return this weekend, but I think it’s fair to say my opinions will not change.
A few general notes. With two exceptions, all houses felt a good length. And in-house Ops were far less intrusive than they have been in years, becoming virtually invisible in houses like Scarecrow and Dead Waters. Big complaints year after year, glad to see them corrected.
The changes at Finns have damaged the social aspect of the event severely. I found myself meeting up with old friends, and meeting new ones, far less than in years past. Actually left the event earlier than I would’ve normally several nights because of that. And the lack of Jello shot girls makes the event less fun. But these are discussions better left to the dedicated Drink Changes thread.
On to my final rankings …
HOUSES
9) Ash v. Evil Dead—Seen only 1 episode, but familiar with Evil Dead. Not a horrible house, just didn’t engage me (or apparently most anyone else). The disconnect between real Bruce Campbell’s voice and the fake Bruce Campbells was just too wide an uncanny valley for me to cross, took me right out of my suspension of disbelief. Was cool to see the cabin again, and there were some cool effects in the back half of the house but ultimately a misfire. And that long walk back was ridiculous, seemed unnecessary—Ops needs to reevaluate placement of houses and pathways.
As an aside, I love dark comedy houses. But all three attempts at IP-driven dark comedy houses (this, P&T, Krampus) haven’t worked for me. May be a lesson there.
8) Fallen—second biggest disappointment of the year. Far too timing-dependent, especially the bungee scares. 45-second resets aren’t viable for a house that needs to push through a thousand or more an hour. Sets kept most actors at a distance, limiting scares. Without wings on the angels, the story makes no sense. And while I hate to call people out like this, a noticeably lackluster cast but for the blacksmith demons. (Also as often as not the house felt understaffed, which probably exacerbated that feeling.) What’s a shame is all those things other than the cast—including the realization dead angels might get the religious nuts in an uproar----should have been recognized and addressed in design phase. This one was just too ambitious for its own good.
7) Jigsaw—Not a fan of IP, but thought the house was well-done for what it was. Too many victim scares, a little too timing dependent (a recurring theme this year) but Saw fans seemed to enjoy it. Felt like a really decent length, too. Was probably doomed to be a middle-of-the-road house, but no one embarrassed themselves here.
6) AHS—still not a fan of the show, or the disjointed “greatest hits” approach of the house, but some good design work on sets and costumes, cast really tried to scare. One Evan Peters look-alike is scary accurate, one of the Kathy Bates is close too. I fear this gets recycled into an AHS mega-house next year as they “Walking Dead” the franchise, but for this year this was fine.
5) Blumhouse—two recycled houses with a third that still feels familiar. <Yawn> And yet … All short hallways with tight turns, quick re-sets, and distraction scares—perfect for the conga line. And actors who brought their A-game from Opening Night on. May replace Havoc as proof concept and set decoration don’t matter, if you have a well-engineered house and a solid cast. Better than it had any right to be. And an interesting façade as well.
4) Shining—A lot works here: the maze façade, the first Shelly Duval, the “All work…” display, the shower scene, the Gold Room. But some things didn’t—the Jack masks primarily, but also the twins, the tricycle scene and the mirror room didn’t really do it for me. The “Here’s Johnny” scene was perfect if you hit it right, but another effect that was slow to reload—missed it more often than I saw it. The elevator impressed me at first but a couple runs in I realized it basically takes up two rooms yet offers no real scares. In other words, the house works better as a recreation of the movie than as a haunt. Was a decent house but felt like it was missing an “X factor” to be in a league with AWiL or the Halloween houses. Perhaps if it had pre-dated those houses I’d be more kind to it.
3) Dead Waters—the riverboat façade was amazing—easily in the running for best ever--the tilted floor was fun, the cast got some good scare (particularly in the woods and under the chicken coop). I appreciated the clever touches, like zombie Mark Twain and the water-spitting gator. But … the house is three or four rooms too short. Without those extra rooms, and with what felt like a sparse number of actors in the first half, it’s just very good, not all-time great.
2) Hive—yeah, I’m shocked too. Was not impressed opening night. But has quietly grown into the best cast this year, dedicated to doing whatever it takes to get a scare. Some interesting effects throughout the house, as well, like the contacts and the spider-crawling baby vamp. I liked how, when the fog and strobe worked, it truly appeared the stilt walker vamp was flying at you. The graveyard scent worked as well. That all said, really needed a queue video (even more than Fallen), and could’ve used a proper façade. My new example of why it pays to go multiple nights thru the event.
1) Scarecrow—everything I said about Blumhouse and Hive applies here as well. Perfectly designed for the event, killer cast. Plus a very effective façade, some innovative tricks (the bird room, the outhouse), a good variety of monsters. What I think I like most about this house is even static props still manage to elicit scares—there’s just a disquieting sense of eeriness throughout the house that makes you jump at anything. That said, would’ve loved to see a raven/crow from the Poe house hiding at the end of the bird room. Never been any competition for #1 spot since for my first run through. Not quite grand/ambitious enough to be GOAT for me, but probably sneaks into the mid- teens in my all-time Top 20.
ZONES
6) Altar of Horrors—Horrible.
[That one-word review required more time, effort and creativity than was put into this zone.]
5) Invasion—biggest disappointment of the event. I expected sci fi icons. I got tired two tired alien clichés, one of them not really period-appropriate, who made zero effort to scare anyone. Saw them chatting up attendants far more than I saw them trying to scare. Plus, as always, area quickly became too busy to walk through without bumping into people. This zone was a misfire in every way, but UOR needs to ditch SF as a zone area.
4) Festival of the Deadliest—really hoping the story on this leaks soon. Floats did not match concept art. Some striking costume designs—though others (mostly anyone not on stilts) were crappy—but no sense of story. Who are these guys? What is the Festival all about? That said, the music and the opening ceremony hint at something far more organized that we almost had. But cast tended to be pretty lackluster, can only judge what we saw, and it was not good.
3) Purge—by default. Not as good as the first zone, IP feels played out after that and being used in two houses. Light-up masks were great, but a lot of the other outfits felt kind of random. The van and cycles are cool in theory, but just seemed to be a cluster on busy nights. Cast was having fun scaring tho, which is more than I can say for the bottom three.
2) Chainsaw Clowns—I know, not a real zone. Still, best scares at the event. The two biggest HHN clichés overcome by a stellar cast. And while I think clowns are overplayed, there’s no question the costumes gave the actors a manic energy they simply lacked as hillbillies or geishas or Mad Max rejects.
1) Trick r Treat—simply perfect. Captured every aspect of the movie, and captured the “spirit” of Halloween as well as any zone ever has. Also a great cast (if not quite clown-great), Has replaced PsychoScarepy as my all-time favorite. Well I think a zone worked fine, would love to see the IP return as a house next year, or whenever the sequel is released.
SHOWS
AoV---better than last year. More “Halloweeny” with its choice of music and the speed-painting segment. Also, to be honest, the show benefits from the shorter 14-minute format. Still nothing I haven’t seen on America’s Got Talent twice a week.
B&T—can’t objectively review. Thought it balanced the nostalgia and the 2017 riffs equally, which was good. Loved that the professional dancers returned. Death and Spicer nailed their roles. Will probably write a longer obit this weekend, but devastated by this show ending.