Opening Weekend review!

[giant4203]

So here's my review after the Employee preview and the first weekend of the event:

Before I get to the houses, I would like to say this year is a HUGE improvement over last year. I only used my frequent fear 4 times last year, because well, it was an awful event. The last night I was there I took a survey, and surprisingly, everything I addressed in the survey, was fixed/worked on this year. I saw far fewer masks (which I think are a cheap cop out when makeup will suffice 80% of the time, houses seemed well staffed (for the most part), official street scare zones were back. This year just felt a lot more cohesive and put together. Still, they are using too many outside IP's, however they are really good this year (for the most part). Now to the reviews.

Resident Evil: As a fan of the game, I was really excited for this one, and they gave it a good show. My personal wish was I wish they would have used RE4 as their basis, but that's just me and I don't factor that into any enjoyment of the house. Creative use of scenes, some very creative scares. Costumes were well done. The house felt like it was in complete chaos (like it should have). The pause room was cool, however I kind of wish they worked in the use of live actors in a different position, making it so the room can pause and unpause for good scare opportunities. 7/10

Havoc: The original Havoc was one of my favorite houses of all time, so I was excited to see this house. It's a good house, just not as intense as I feel like it should be. Partially, it's because many of the actors aren't able to get up close and personal. Also, many in the casts don't have that crazy DoW energy level yet that makes Havoc amazing. I know keeping that kind of energy is extremely hard, but it has to be there or the house doesn't work. Hopefully my ranking of this house will improve with the run. 5/10

The Walking Dead: This house was a huge improvement over last year, but that's not hard to accomplish. Great sets in here, felt a lot more like The Walking Dead this time around. Didn't receive any scares in here. They didn't allow for good hiding spots for the actors most of the time. This is another house that has to ramp up the energy. 5/10

La Llorna: This house is beautiful. Creative scares in here for many of the actors. Need to dial down the fog in the transition room...felt like I was drowning in fog fluid. All in all, great ghost house. I hope every year they do an Urban Legend house like this. 8/10

Afterlife: I do love 3D houses, and this one I think is one of the best 3D houses they've done in a while. Very disorienting, good scares. Had to take my glasses off halfway through just so I could see where I was going (and so the actors had an opportunity to scare me. 7/10

Evil Dead: So, this house was amazing. The sets were amazing (I love the buildup of the first three rooms...the pages to the logo to the main room with him reading from the Necronomicon. GREAT scares in here. Felt like I was in the movie. Makeup/prosthetics were incredible. The raining blood scene, the actor coming out there gave me the best scare of my life. They SOLD the performance of the abomination. I have never actually been terrified in a house before, until now. In that moment I felt like if I promised to be a better person God would strike him down and have a cupcake waiting for me at the exit of the house to help me feel better LOL. BRAVO to you, sir/madam (came out of there right before 11 on Saturday. If anyone knows this person, pass along my gratitude). That one scare made this my favorite house of the run, and perhaps of all time. 10/10

Cabin in the Woods: Another great house, sets were spot on. Scares coming at you from everywhere. Costumes were spot on. I wish there were more actors in the elevator scene (did I miss a big to do in the elevator lobby?) The final few rooms going by the broken elevators was an amazing, intense way to end the house. 9/10

American Werewolf in London: Words cannot express how much I love this house. Perfect movie to house transfer. The puppets were MINDBLOWING (and caused me to hit walls/jump over my friend at several points). Great visuals and effects in here. You can tell this was A&D's baby this year. Fantastic house. One of the best Horror Nights has ever seen. 10/10

So rankings as of now:

1. American Werewolf (Tie)

1. Evil Dead (tie)

3. Cabin in the Woods

4. La Llorna

5. Resident Evil

6. Afterlife

7. Havoc

8. Walking Dead

Extremely solid event this year. Didn't get to experience much of the streets, but what I saw, I really liked (added more ambiance/cohesiveness to the event) Loved the Walker Bomb

[Cinderelly115]

So... I completely agree with you with your rankings.. except switch RE and TWD I also wish I had seen you jump and get scared.. that would have made my year!

[giant4203]

So... I completely agree with you with your rankings.. except switch RE and TWD I also wish I had seen you jump and get scared.. that would have made my year!

I almost pulled a Liz and crawled out of the room! teeheehee

[Cinderelly115]

That.. happened once... and that was because I had two guys who were 8 feet coming at me from both sides. I would have loved to see you crawl out of a room

[giant4203]

So updates:

Havoc, energy is way up!!! Keep it up! Now havoc is at a 7/10.

Rocky Horror is just fantastic. It's the must see show this year! 10/10

Bill and Ted, not a great year but not an awful year. The bashes at Disney were the funniest thing. Dancing is spot on...love the opening number with the Horror Icon ladies...most creative costumes since the story book characters back in 2007. 6/10

Also, favorite house is officially American Werewolf...continues to make me jump all over the place every time I go through

[Cody]

We're always pulling off the crazy scares in AWIL. Our cast's performer of the week (bus victim A) scared a group of 6 guys so badly that two of them fell to the ground hugging and one fell into the shopping trolley and couldn't get out.