Shoutout to
@HORRORable Commenter for running into me at the Metro set restrooms! Cool to run into someone from here!
Bare in mind that my style is slightly more partial to scenic and effects than scares, though scares are still pretty important in my book. With that said, here's my straight-to-the point review of everything in order of what I've done (Note this review may contain moderate spoilers):
Ghostbusters: Love GB. Probably my favorite horror comedy ever. Yes, I consider it a horror comedy. It's more heavy on comedy than horror, but I still consider it so....but ANYWAY, this was my most-anticipated. I managed to get two run-throughs of it. First one wasn't so hot. Missed all of the scares. I will say the effects were cool and I loved that you went inside the Containment chamber. I liked that the giant Gozer dogs were scaring within the context of the environment and not in a black hallway. That was always my biggest peeve about the "wolf" scares and they resolved that this year. There were some black hallways, but they made sense. It wasn't super-annoying. I was bummed to not see the Gozer temple in the house or Vigo the Carpathian, but I liked it. My first runthrough was a C, but after my second runthrough, it's a low B. Cool effects, but light on scares.
Grade: B-
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman: This house was also high up on my anticipation list as I LOVED Monsters last year. I will say this was probably scarier than Monsters. The scenic was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The "Vs" scares were on-point. Also liked there were very few "black wall" transitions. Excellent maze. Also one of the more aesthetically pleasing mazes they've ever done. Not surprising for a gothic theme.
Grade: A+
Creepshow: Love the original movie. Wow, they really did this IP justice! The facade for the "birthday cake" house was extremely immersive; heck the whole maze was super immersive! The transitions were tastefully done with the comic book covers as that's what they should've done with TrT last year. If they did that last year for TrT, I would've enjoyed that house a whole lot more. The scenic was VERY well-done (Loved the lady looking through the glass on the door to the kitchen) and the scareactors....omy word the scareactors were AGGRESSIVE. Probably the most intense house so far. Well done Murdy. You didn't mess this property up. Black wall transitions were so few and far in-between I barely noticed.
Grade: A+
Killer Klowns from Outer Space: This wasn't quite as high on my anticipation list, but this was a surprise to be sure! Loved the little mini show with the farmer guy looking for his dog. Man, this maze felt too good. The set design was so immersive and so grand, it didn't not feel like a Mummy venue house
at all until the very end with the black walls (Which I didn't mind); plus the layout made it feel more spacious as opposed to the usual "zig zag to the back" that the layout generally is for that venue. The cotton candy room and the shadow puppet scenes were so grand in scale, they clearly pushed the limits of the scale for the Mummy venue. Great scares in here! Klowns looked awesome....I wish I could say more, but I REALLY loved this house! They clearly cared about this IP and it shows. Well done.
Grade: A+
The Curse of Pandora's Box: Wait time was a little slow due to the preshow, but I think it's worth it. The store you enter was really neat. Clearly some re-used props from UM last year in there. Now, this maze has been getting a TON of hate. I can see why, but surprisingly, I really liked this house...probably more than I should. Yeah, it's story is disjointed and it's a ton of black walls and some reused sets in here, but you know what? I actually liked this house! It's our answer to "the In-Between". It's a more intense maze that takes place into a void of evil, so the story/setting is broad enough to allow for an effective budget maze. The Medusa scene was pretty cool! I loved the lighting effect on there. Overall, I think this might be the most under-appreciated maze of the event. Not my favorite, but it's not terrible. I think it's worth checking out. It did remind me of the older Knott's 3D mazes, but actually good.
Grade: B-
House of 1000 Corpses: Probably the least-anticipated as I've already seen the one from '10/'11, so I kinda knew what to expect. While the original one took some creative liberties to appease the 3D aesthetic, this one was slightly less colorful and more gritty. It definitely had the HHN-of-old feel like TCM and the old slasher houses. Heck the house reminded me a lot of TCM. While there are a few black walls that were annoying, I did enjoy this. Better than Halloween 4. As expected, not as good as the first version, but not awful. Some good scsares.
Overall: C+
Holidayz In Hell: Though a little short, they managed to pack a LOT into this tight venue. It's quite impressive. They really pushed the limits on how tight they can make the rooms. Aside from the annoying black hallway with the leprechaun (Don't know why they can't ever have any scenic in that long transition hallway), it's a very well-done maze! The Halloween scene was my favorite. Scenic was awesome, scareactors were intense. Glad they chose to do this. I'm not big on Figure, but I liked it regardless.
Overall: A
Us: This maze is the underdog of the event. Wow, this was great! This was really low on my anticipation list as I expected this to be a last-minute blackwallapalooza. Not the case, AT ALL. Transitions were smooth as butter and the scenic was so well done and so immersive. Scares were
very intense and well-crafted. I really liked how there were several rooms that were actual full rooms; like, they went all-out by putting in a hard ceiling and flooring. I really wish more houses had this. I felt like I was actually there and didn't feel like I was in a house. The car effect was great and so was the ending. The cast who did the creepy walk that the tethered mother does were on-point! While not really "scary" it was very unsettling. It added a lot to the maze. Second most intense of the vent for me.
Overall: A
Stranger Things: This maze really got dumped on by everybody. I do agree with everyone here that it was the weakest maze. I went in with abysmal expectations expecting nothing but black walls. Scenic was actually really good. The creature effects, I felt, were really neat. Scares were weak. That's the biggest thing holding me back from liking this. They clearly threw some money into this, but it felt like it was designed as scares being an afterthought. Oh well. It was okay. Good scenic, good effects, but lame scares. Still liked it slightly more than last year's house though.
Overall: C
What do I think of 2019? I dare say I like it as much of 2016, if not slightly more. More diverse themes, scarezones were great (Finally good music in Toxxxic Tunnel. Awesome design for Demons of the East. All Hallow's Evil an intense gauntlet), scenic was great....I just loved this year. While there were black walls, I've kinda accepted that some black walls here and there are just that way it's going to be. For the most part, the black walls didn't feel like lazy budget-cutting. 8 times out of 10, they were done effectively. So yeah, can't wait to go back!