I had the opportunity to attend Premium Scream Night, and then to go again on Friday the 13th. That night I did Stay and Scream in New York and got Insidious done first, then switched Stay and Scream locations (this is doable, though I had to ask the New York folks to let me out and show my ID when I scanned in again to the World Expo location), and did Goblin’s Feast, Eternal Bloodlines, and Slaughter Sinema 2. Finished with Triplets of Terror before the gates opened, and then did all ten houses with Express.
My final count from these trips—I am going to Hollywood but probably not back to Orlando—is as follows:
A Quiet Place (2 runs)
Goblin’s Feast (4 runs)
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (3 runs)
Insidious: The Further (3 runs)
Major Sweets Candy Factory (3 runs)
Monstruous: The Monsters of Latin America (3 runs)
Museum: Deadly Exhibits (2 runs)
Slaughter Sinema 2 (4 runs)
Triplets of Terror (4 runs)
Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines (4 runs)
I did all scare zones multiple times. I did not do Nightmare Fuel, as that is just not for me.
I would put the houses and scare zones into the following tiers (all alphabetical, so not ranked within tiers).
House Top Tier
Goblin’s Feast: Highly entertaining, great visuals, and a fun mix of whimsical and grotesque. As others have said, the vibe of entering an Irish pub from hell, and the comedy of the goblin barkeep welcoming you before you round a corner and realize that you’re the meat is hilarious. Little details like the goblin eating a human leg the way theme park guests eat a turkey leg are very funny, and the house has a great mix of beautiful fantasy village visuals, great and varied creature design, and comedic gore. This is not a scary house but it is a great, campy experience.
Insidious: The Further: Probably the best possible version of an Insidious house, with great use of the various villains from the franchise, aggressive scares, and maximal use of various HHN tricks like misdirects, mirrors, rooms full of mannequins, and so forth. The only house at this year’s event that I think could be deemed actually scary at parts. There is a part with the Bride in Black making surprise appearances that is super effective, and the design of the Lipstick Face Demon (aka Darth Maul) is top notch.
Slaughter Sinema 2: This house is an embrace of campy B movies, and more than any other house, it feels like a shared party—you, the other guests, and the actors are all in on the joke and having fun together. Inevitably some of the sequences are stronger than others—my favorites were Mardi Gras Murders (great idea for a slasher house), Blood & Chum (the shark is amazing), and Heavy Metal Hell in 3D (rocking out with the skeletons is always a blast)—but this is exactly what it should be.
Triplets of Terror: To me, what makes this house work is that it has a kind of melancholic undertone. You see signs at the exterior of child abuse/neglect, you realize that the triplets are trapped in this cycle, and there are moments of poetry like when you walk outside and see snow falling. It is the house’s subtle sympathy for the killers and their working poor origins that most resembles a Rob Zombie vibe. Setting that aside—I appreciate that this is probably overthinking a slasher house—the kills are gory, the vibe is grimy, and I think this delivers.
House Medium Tier
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire: This house is much better than I would have anticipated given that the movie is mediocre, but—like with Exorcist: The Believer—HHN can do wonders even with so-so source material. The variety of monsters is great, Garraka is rendered very effectively, and I appreciate the callbacks to other materials like Slimer, Vigo, etc. Not a scary house but a lot of fun.
Monstruous: The Monsters of Latin America: This version is inferior to the Hollywood edition in my opinion, and it was hard for me at first to get over things like the weird green lighting (as opposed to the earthy catacombs in Hollywood), the more humanoid redesign of Tlahuelpuchi, etc. Still, I think Monstruous features three excellent monsters and lots of impressive special effects. El Silbón is a very effective horror character, and the giant animatronics in here are so cool, no matter how many times you’ve seen them.
Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines: I get all of the criticism for this house, but I still think it does a wonderful job rendering various beautiful gothic sets (tombs, pyramids, gypsy caravans, castles, and so on), showing lots of different neat monsters, and telling a story. Most houses are scenario-based (get out of X evil place), but this one tries to tell a full three act story with a surprisingly gloomy coda. It isn’t fully successful, but I applaud the narrative ambition.
House Low Tier
A Quiet Place: I don’t love the A Quiet Place movies, so although this is a really strong recreation of those films, it doesn’t do a ton for me subjectively. The monsters are really cool and well-rendered, but the house is a bit drab, the quiet gimmick didn’t work for me so well, etc. Very impressive from a production design perspective, but not the most fun for me personally.
Major Sweets Candy Factory: I like how committed to the zany mix of camp and gore this house is, and it definitely has fun visual gags and interactive elements. For me personally, whereas the camp of Goblin’s Feast hits perfectly, Major Sweets felt a bit more annoying or full of random stuff, and I never felt like the house came together into a perfect, cohesive blend. I think it's awesome that other people gel with this one better, and it's my favorite of the Low Tier just because I think it's got a lot of heart and personality.
Museum: Deadly Exhibits: I like the idea of the Rotting Stone infecting the museum, and there are a number of neat visual tricks as the museum comes alive and the Rotting Stone’s influence grows. I do think, though, that this house ultimately feels the most generic of the ten, and the most like a grab bag of elements and ideas.
Scare Zone Top Tier
None—most of them are fine, but none really stand out as exceptional.
Scare Zone Medium Tier
Demon Queens: This zone had the best costumes and the most aggressive scare actors on both of my visits. I expected not to love it given it seemed like a kind of oddball theme—intergalactic demons—but the character design was solid, the props were appropriately SURR3AL, and the actors interacted with me more than anywhere else. I wish that there were more visuals and props.
Enter the Blumhouse: I agree with all of the criticism that this zone is basically a glorified selfie area and a promo for Blumhouse’s IP, but I always found myself enjoying this one (possibly the most of all five). It’s fun to have pictures with the Grabber, Babyface, the Butcher, M3GAN, etc. It is not much more than a fun IP selfie area, but it is fun for what it is.
Swamp of the Undead: The theming and props in the zone are very good, and the fog was so aggressive in here that it achieved the effect of zombies sometimes appearing out of nowhere, which was cool. I wish that the zone had more bayou flavor, and more variety in the types of scare actors. Despite the cool props it felt like a bit of a missed opportunity.
Torture Faire: This is the biggest zone and many of the props are really cool. I would say I’m #TeamSINIST3R so it is always fun to see her. The plague doctors are great. But the zone for me has a bit of an identity crisis—it is supposed to be this Hellraiser-style torture gauntlet, but the Renaissance faire and goofy actors pleading for help gives it a sort of silly tone. I wish it was more one or the other.
Scare Zone Low Tier
Duality of Fear: Of course, the chainsaw horde with nothing else makes this barely a scare zone, as everyone has said. I love the idea of choosing between SINIST3R and SURR3AL, but that concept really does not exist or play out in the zone.