I kinda dropped off the face of the earth after ghostbusters got announced so this announcement season has been such a blur lmao, i genuinely forgot there was even one left to announce before today lol. Needless to say I have a lot to yap about.
1.) Monstruos 2 - Monstruos 1 was a big favorite in my group, it was the very last house we did on our last night there 3 minutes before official closing, so we have high expectations for this one to meet, but I believe they have something here, they haven't fumbled it yet. That said, I really hope the key art gets touched up for the actual event, and it really shouldve at least been called Monstruos Dos if not something more creative to be more fitting of a title to the anthology format.
2.) The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy - It seems to be an unpopular opinion now, but I still really loved what they did with The Weeknd in 2022 on both coasts. Was it the best house of all time? No, but the atmosphere is something you really don't get from this event much, and it's a vibe I've wanted to recapture ever since. That said I'm also a big fan of his music, and 2022 was the one year I've actually been able to make it out to Orlando, so obvious bias.
3.) Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines - Only real criticism, don't like the name, too generic, just call it Scream Queenz again. That said, super fun concept to me, I'm glad we're seeing more of the Bride of Frankenstein Lives timeline and I'm doubly glad that this isn't just Bride and Van Helsing vs Dracula's Daughter, as much as that would have been fine, having the full assortment from the scarezone just feels right, and being in a soundstage let alone *the* soundstage used for much of Bride of Frankenstein sets my hopes high.
4.) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Legacy of Leatherface - Leatherface is still probably my favorite horror fella, so the fact that this isn't a repeat of the first movie is enough for me to be satisfied here, I like that its mostly original, and I like that we're basically getting the Leatherface sampler when we've gotten one version for so long. That said, this will probably smell too bad for me to do it much and that bums me out, I absolutely could not handle the smells in Exorcist last year. Either way, given this proves they have at least partial rights to the imagery, I better see a fully fledged TCM 2 maze next time we inevitably see this series again.
5.) A Quiet Place - Dunno how to feel about this still. The few crumbs we've heard about unique design elements excites my designer brain big time, but when this got announced I felt a lot of nothing, and for the most part thats still lingering there. This is a good location for it, I'll give them that, I just didn't care for the movie and it's hard for me to care here, not bad though, glad its new IP, technically the only entirely new IP we have this year unless you wanna make a long shot for m3gan on terror tram and I guess frozen empire, in a way.
6.) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Again, don't know how to feel, I would've preferred them taking another shot at GB 1 and 2, or even a smattering of Afterlife with the new increased budget and increased freedom for animated effects we've seen following 2023, but like, this isnt offensive or anything, its fine. We haven't gotten a full wintery house since 2016 with Krampus so I hope they lean hard into that, it's out in a tent so I don't expect any of those actual chilly rooms but who knows, I hope they have them at least. Kinda just feels like a strange choice more than a bad one, could be a sleeper?
7.) Dead Exposure: Death Valley - When this was announced I was honestly looking forward to it a lot, but as time has gone on its just gotten more and more overshadowed, and I'm just not as excited for the premise as I initially was, this is maybe the first case where I wouldve actually prefered a straight adaptation of the Orlando house over something original. The fact I straight up forgot the name and had to look it up again cuz I kept thinking it was Patient Zero probably doesn't help that sentiment. This could have been and imo should have been Exterminatorz. The usage of AI in the promo art is also just disgusting to me and massively turned me off from this house in general, obviously no dig on the artists and performers who have and will work on it and will give it their all, it was just such a bad first impression.
8.) Insidious: The Further - I have no vendetta against Insidious as a concept, but my god this feels so cynical. It's bad enough to have a fourth iteration on this concept in a span of 10 years, but the fact that these houses are actively decreasing in quality over time as the movies themselves also do really gives me nothing to be excited about here. Even the title itself feels like someone just didn't have time for this, we went from Into, Return to, and Beyond the Further, to just The Further. The title itself is a literal step back from the previous iteration lol. If it turns out to be as scary as 2015s was I'll be happy but as it stands this house has a lot to prove to justify it being a good choice over something like FNAF as the house-based blumhouse rep of the year.