Here are my final thoughts and rankins of the houses and events.
1. Halloween
Start to finish awesome. So many scares. Favorite parts are the kitchen and closet scenes. IDK how they could have made it better. Up there with some of the best. And I hope this use of a really tight, confined, and winding house layout is put to good use next year.
2. AVP
The puppets were really cool and with the right timing it can have some really good scares. One that really got me good was the guy with the face hugger coming out the window and then the predator coming out right after. My only problem with the house was that there were some dead spots that could have used an extra alien or predator.
3. Walking Dead
This house was good and very consistent. With all the actors in there you were bound to get a scare from somewhere. My favorite scene was the lightning storm forest.
4. Giggles and Gore
This house could either be good or bad depending on timing and cast. I noticed one cast was better than the other. The one with the bigger chainsaw guy was the superior squad. I wish the discarded were more scary. My favorite clown was the one with the tophat. I also like that they regularly switch scare locations to keep it fresh. Ive seen said clown in the last room, and in two different locations by the meat grinder.
5. Dollhouse
I loved this house. The reason its lower is that I never got that many scares except from the ballerinas. They were so good and that was my favorite room. I like disturbing houses that make you feel uneasy so I hope they have more houses like this going foreward.
6. Roanoake
Cool sets, but it had its problems. Half the actors seemed like they were there just to populate the house and not scare. I think the house picks up in the second half starting when the girl with the sicle and the guy overhead come at you.
7. Dracula
Started off bad but then got better. at worst it was a nice looking house with no scares, and on a good run though it had a few good ones to dish out. Very timing dependent and I feel sometimes the actors waited way too long to reset and come back out. One time though I believe i missed seeing half the actors, weather it be bad timing or cast change.
8. FDTD
Like Dracula some impressive sets but very timing dependent and not too heavy on the scares. I felt the first half of the house was lacking but picked up once you get into the catacombs. One time was just bad luck on my part because there were two maintenance crews in there with a ton of lights fixing one of the stripper areas and the pool table completely ruining both of those scenes.
I felt none of the houses were flat out bad but the top 5 being really good and the bottom 3 being ok to mediocre.
I liked all the scarezones but I never seem to get any scares in them. I feel like masquerade could have benefited from being in a more serious location and a few more objects for the actors to hide behind.
Bill and Ted was great as well.
Overall a very solid year for me and I am looking forward to next year already.