I liked Dracula but I felt like they didn't have to work near as hard as we did. They had the most elaborate set and one of the best built sets to work with. Cleaver, and Saw especially had to work so much harder for our scares and in such revolutionary and groundbreaking houses. Oh, and Saw nor Cleaver had AC, and I can only think of 3 nights the whole year were our house was comfortable, I'm sure Cleaver was quite similar.
I just wish this would have been taken into consideration more when people would vote and when House of the Year and Week were taken into consideration. I definitely think Cleaver deserved HOTW over a certain house in a Sprung Tent and I'm still baffled as to how we were such a crowd favorite yet the fans seem to hate the both of us. My assumption is that everyone hates our location and there for goes into our houses negatively.
I can appreciate an actor's hard work in any of those 2 houses, but unfortunately the 2 suffered due to some big negatives.
Compared to houses in the past, I actually thought Saw was fine in it's location. The problem was that you had to go at the right time for the house's effect to really work. If you got to experience it with everything going off, it was an A+ house. If you didn't, it was around a C. When I went thru the first time, every trap was set off, we saw a "crowd plant" get yanked away by a pig, and everyone was in your face. The last few times, some of the actors were still going 100%, but the traps were either not going off or I just missed it, essentially becoming a trap scene with a pig in every room.
With Cleaver, a lot were going to love it or hate it because of it's satirical attempt instead of crazed cannibalistic maniac scares. Nothing against the actors, but if the average joes wants to be scared and instead finds a tongue in cheek house, they aren't going to be satisfied. I did appreciate the house's take on "horror" but still found it to be around a B-. Mmmmm, Sausages!
Chucky was another "hit or miss". Personally, it sorta went down my list. The novelty of a "demented funhouse" got old for me. Also, the scares got redundant. I can't really fault the actors on that one as they had to go with the recordings of "Charles Lee Ray" but I know I was going to hear "You are dead!" at least 4 times in that house each time I went thru. On a side note (and totally unrelated to the review), I thought it was really freakin pathetic how the guests literally disrespected the house and would just steal/rip off crap off the walls. The "Inflatable Clown Hall" wasn't as effective as the first night because most of them had been beaten up by drunkards (safe assumption). Even a few of the clowns had taped since their noses were ripped off. Anywho, C is for Chucky.
Believe it or not, The Spawning grew on me. It's still low on my list, but it's around a C- now. The last time I went thru, the actors gave it thier all (Espicially the one by the eggs who went all SpiderMan on the chainlink fence. A+ for you, bro). The house did have potential, but I think it fell more flat then U.C. anticipated. I honestly was expecting some mangled body parts and the "Skulders" to be feasting on a few deceased corpses.
This slowly turned into a final review so this is part 1. Ill finish the 2nd half tomorrow of my Top 4 houses.