Opening Night and Opening Friday complete! And ain't going again till next Sunday, these 2 days were completely different experiences god lord (both positive and negative). Overall this year was great I feel like it was more consistent (minus 1) compared to last year or even 2022 but had fewer standouts and highs than them as well.
Houses (+Tram): Initial First Impressions
Changed really drastically from Hype to Opening Night to Yesterday. I don't wanna put a definitive pin on where they would place cuz of this heat and almost half the cast for some of these houses were nonexistent. I get it, they have a really good excuse but this just kills some of the house's energy and "stories" for them. I will need more runs to judge but for now, this is the initial ranking
1. A Quiet Place
The stand-out of this year, just like Chucky last year but on a much bigger scale and scary! Not scary scary, but it has some surprises (like Cillian Murphy lol). The Death Angel animatronics were next level! The scale of both them and the sets were super immersive, it felt like an insane Dark Ride and was hitting all throughout. The Quiet aspect of a Quiet place is a fun gimmick in concept but it doesn't really do much in the house, the audio was standard just no music which I think helps the scares when it goes from quiet to LOUD in a second!
2. Monstruos Dos: The Nightmares of Latin America
The Nightmares of Latin America, I am not sure I'm flip-flopping on whether I like Dos or Uno.
This house is being hard carried by El Cucuy and it has the potential to be one of the scariest parts of any Monstruos both years! His new design is just super creepy and all the scenes in the casita and cave had excellent scenery, atmosphere, and scares. However, my gripe that I feel is that this could have just been an El Cucuy house, Charro is fun and his section is actually fleshed out for the 30 seconds we have him, cool ass costume and (insert Peta the horse is here joke). However it's short and Cadejo... dude is just a hallway transition for Cucuy, the puppet doesn't even look like anything from the artwork, very disappointing. Its very uneven but I love El Cucuy's section SO MUCH with El Charro as a bonus. The facade is beautiful and death is once again amazing!
3. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
This is a fun house, all the scenes in this house are very detailed (the Mini Puffs are moving, that is so CUTE! (One was riding a rat XD)) and even tho it isn't scary, there was surprisingly a plentiful of jumpscares making the house feel lively and kinetic. The Ecto was cool! Wish there were more Garraka cuz they only have 2 appearances and one of them is VERY important to the house so it hurts a bit for me if they aren't there. But overall it was a fun house that I thought, was way better than I expected!
4. Insidious: The Further
Feel like this is Unmasked again where it's a good first half, eh middle, and a strong finale. Definitely the scariest house this year, wouldn't say it is scarier than Beyond as I hoped. Scenic tbh I think is on par with Beyond, if not a little more and better consistency with their use of Black walls. They fit here and actually are VERY dark compared to other houses that use them, kept thinking someone would pop up, and nope which adds more suspense and dread, unlike most uses of them.
Its shortcomings however are also similar to Beyond, both did wonders for the recent films (Last Key for Beyond and Red Door for The), every other Demon and Ghost that isn't Red Face gets a cameo, not even a full emphasis on them, just a "aye I remember you" and then back to red face. I think they did better here but it really should have just been the Red Door if they weren't gonna do much with the rest. But the finale is great! Brought me back to 2017!
5. Dead Exposure: Death Valley
This one feels so out of place compared to the rest of the line-up, in a good way. I feel like it could be the Dark Horse of the event given proper staffing and no missing scenes. The Monkeys are a funny way to start off the house that immediately gets scarier and scarier as it goes on. Scenic is a double-edged sword here as I think it's well-themed to the "secret facility" they were going for, but it also results in a lot of this house just being White lol. Pretty good just hoping for a better run.
6. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy of Leatherface
This is one of the houses that suffered from staffing issues in the 3 runs I've done, and I can see its potential tbh, the house is very Gorey, very detailed, and dimly lit in amber to give that horror slaughterhouse vibe! I am waiting for a run where I can see every Leatherface because they all look so cool and a varying levels of intensity. Which, this house isn't scary like Blood Brothers or the 2021 variant, some of the scenes were missing (one got close last night) and overall I HOPE I get a better run because I want to like this one more but for now it's disappointing. The facade is menacing tho!
7. The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy
Holy COW that facade is amazing and makes just hanging in the queue line such a VIBE! I was dancing to Blinding Lights XD. The house itself tho is weird, After Hours Nightmare was more cohesive with just the one album and was a lot more fun with the choice of songs and sets. With one it more in line with Dawn FM and the other still left as a mystery album, this house is just weird in tone and vibe. Not bad weird or good weird, just weird. Like some sections, others eh, but overall it's a middle-of-the-road house that is very much carried by that facade!
8. Terror Tram: Enter the Blumhouse:
I thought they were only gonna give Purgers chainsaws, but then The Grabber, The Butcher, AND The Babyface Killer come out with chainsaws!?! This is already peak, The Megan section is like a showcase of what we could get if she got her own section in a Blumhouse of Horrors, but it wasn't too bad, Freaky and Happy Death Day kinda of get clumped in together, probably the weakest part, but The Black Phone had SO many Grabbers in the span of 5 seconds! they were so aggressive Lol! And The Purge is probably the best well-staffed War of the Worlds area we have had in years, fun actors. No Wolfman, we'll see what happens there but not a bad year for Tram, good actually IMO. I'm not upset we didn't get NOPE.
9. Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines:
I like how they put up signs showing the history of this soundstage. Other than that what happened here? The heat yeah that's one thing, almost every show scene or story beat was completely missing, and if wasn't for the dialogue in those long black hallways I wouldn't have understood the story. Which is funny, RIP Bozo Saskia
.
Which, I ain't even a stickler for Black hallways but why are they even in this one? None of them (yes multiple) have a boo hole so there wouldn't even be a scare in em and become extremely pointless, they just pad out the houses and the actual content of the house is very small and oddly not well lit (sorry Professor). Maybe if I got all the scenes and scares it could be decent but this is the worst Monsters House they've done and a waste of space for a soundstage house. Not even Slash's music was noticeable or memorable enough.
Scarezones:
Not much to say about the scare zones, I like them. Better than the previous 3 years that's for sure. The Skull Lords ceremony was cool but last year's was better. And the chainsaw punkz weren't wearing their jackets which is understandable, their mask are cool but all too similar.
Luchadores wasn't as cool as I think it was trying to be tho the costumes were great and they FINALLY gave it some new music! It fits.
The Murder of Crowz however was great, It was very small, but those 4 (YES 4) ain't crows make their presence known with how massive they are, they can walk fairways in any direction and ADORE the little baby crow in his nest, my baby! They have their own music, the small bit of scenic sets the mood, and the lighting is nice, a surprise standout for sure!
This will change going forward as the heat very much killed half the actors and the vibes of the houses but I hope it improves, Opening Night was a great way to start off but Yesterday Friday was probably one of the worst experiences at Horror Nights I had, at least Insidious and Harry Potter saved the night at the end.
Wait times were good, really good actually, minus Insidious who both nights waited about an hour, but I'm fine thugging out 1 hr after getting no more than 20 mins for the rest of the houses and Tram.
Great Year hope it get better, my condolences to the actors, this Heat Wave was brutal!
