- Jun 18, 2024
- 80
- 134
I somewhat last minute was able to make plans to attend Premium Scream Night, and thought it was an amazing experience. We got very lucky with the weather - no rain! - and it was amazing how almost every house was a walk-on. (The longest I waited was for A Quiet Place, for about twenty minutes, but that was towards the start of the event and I think, perhaps, they were gearing up.) Food lines could ironically be a bit longer, but not bad at all by normal standards. Basically, this was what was advertised, and I felt very spoiled by the end of the night. I spent a good amount of time in all of the scare zones, did all but two of the houses twice, did the tribute store, stopped at four or five food booths, visited Diagon Alley, and had time to spare before the end of the night. Awesome!
In case anyone wants a longer (non-spoiler) rundown...
Houses: All in all, a very satisfying group. As most others are saying, Insidious: The Further is probably the highlight - well done, scary, creative flow, basically everything that an Insidious anthology house should do, they nailed. In terms of the other IPs, I thought Eternal Bloodlines had a lot of the classic sets and creatures you want, so I was quite satisfied, though you might argue the narrative is a bit choppy; Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was not scary but was a lot of fun, and more impressive than I expected given the movie was just okay for me; A Quiet Place had very cool/impressive creatures though the IP is not my favorite so it did less for me (and the quiet thing did not really register for me). My favorite original was Goblin's Feast, which was as hilarious and gory as anticipated, with tons of great creature designs. Slaughter Sinema 2 had some excellent scenes and just feels like a party while you are going through it. I also liked Triplets of Terror quite a lot, grungy and mean as it should be. Monstruous was an incredible house in Hollywood and many of the great elements were carried over to the Orlando iteration, but I think the house worked better in Hollywood; perhaps the sound stage or the lighting made the vibe feel less distinct. Major Sweets has some good comedy and a surprising amount of gore, though the factory setting is a bit visually drab and some of the goofy stuff did not work as much for me (personal, since I loved all the goofy stuff in Goblin's). The Museum was cool and had a neat central idea but arguably one of the more repetitive houses. A number of the houses were really great, and none were bad.
Scare Zones: Overall pretty solid, but mixed. Duality of Fear is a cool idea and the design of SINIST3R and SURR3AL is very Cenobite-like, which is neat, but the "choose your path" idea did not really materialize, I think, and so it felt a bit like a generic chainsaw zone. Swamp of the Undead has great set pieces but I do wish there was more variety in the scare actors. Demon Queens is a bit sparse but the costume designs are very cool, and I (subjectively) had some of my best scare actor interactions there. Torture Faire is probably the best of the bunch objectively, with a stage show, the biggest number and variety of scare actors, and cool set pieces. For me, the biggest surprise was Blumhouse; although it is essentially a very small photo op area like people have predicted, I had a lot of fun with that (and my best pic of the night was the Happy Death Day killer).
Show: I did not make time for Nightmare Fuel, but I did overhear someone saying in line that it had a great plot, and when someone asked what the plot was, the response was "lots of T&A." So there you go.
Food: I tried a few of the food items - the Red Door from the Insidious food booth, the falafel from Twilight Tavern, the rocks from hell from Slaughter Sinema 2, etc. All were fine, and it is nice to see so many vegetarian-friendly options.
Tribute Store: The theme this year was just not for me - it's still fun to walk through, but not really all that aesthetically pleasing.
In case anyone wants a longer (non-spoiler) rundown...
Houses: All in all, a very satisfying group. As most others are saying, Insidious: The Further is probably the highlight - well done, scary, creative flow, basically everything that an Insidious anthology house should do, they nailed. In terms of the other IPs, I thought Eternal Bloodlines had a lot of the classic sets and creatures you want, so I was quite satisfied, though you might argue the narrative is a bit choppy; Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was not scary but was a lot of fun, and more impressive than I expected given the movie was just okay for me; A Quiet Place had very cool/impressive creatures though the IP is not my favorite so it did less for me (and the quiet thing did not really register for me). My favorite original was Goblin's Feast, which was as hilarious and gory as anticipated, with tons of great creature designs. Slaughter Sinema 2 had some excellent scenes and just feels like a party while you are going through it. I also liked Triplets of Terror quite a lot, grungy and mean as it should be. Monstruous was an incredible house in Hollywood and many of the great elements were carried over to the Orlando iteration, but I think the house worked better in Hollywood; perhaps the sound stage or the lighting made the vibe feel less distinct. Major Sweets has some good comedy and a surprising amount of gore, though the factory setting is a bit visually drab and some of the goofy stuff did not work as much for me (personal, since I loved all the goofy stuff in Goblin's). The Museum was cool and had a neat central idea but arguably one of the more repetitive houses. A number of the houses were really great, and none were bad.
Scare Zones: Overall pretty solid, but mixed. Duality of Fear is a cool idea and the design of SINIST3R and SURR3AL is very Cenobite-like, which is neat, but the "choose your path" idea did not really materialize, I think, and so it felt a bit like a generic chainsaw zone. Swamp of the Undead has great set pieces but I do wish there was more variety in the scare actors. Demon Queens is a bit sparse but the costume designs are very cool, and I (subjectively) had some of my best scare actor interactions there. Torture Faire is probably the best of the bunch objectively, with a stage show, the biggest number and variety of scare actors, and cool set pieces. For me, the biggest surprise was Blumhouse; although it is essentially a very small photo op area like people have predicted, I had a lot of fun with that (and my best pic of the night was the Happy Death Day killer).
Show: I did not make time for Nightmare Fuel, but I did overhear someone saying in line that it had a great plot, and when someone asked what the plot was, the response was "lots of T&A." So there you go.
Food: I tried a few of the food items - the Red Door from the Insidious food booth, the falafel from Twilight Tavern, the rocks from hell from Slaughter Sinema 2, etc. All were fine, and it is nice to see so many vegetarian-friendly options.
Tribute Store: The theme this year was just not for me - it's still fun to walk through, but not really all that aesthetically pleasing.
