9.) Horrors of Blumhouse: This is the one and only maze I can say im truly meh on. My opinion might change, since as of right now I've only seen The Black Phone and havent gotten around to Freaky, but this really isn't doing it for me yet. Freaky seems really fun, but I'm mostly worried about how they'll handle Black Phone, since it could very easily be exorcist 2.0 with a repeat of the same basement intermixed with black hallways with the grabber jumping out at you. I could be wrong, but I think Hollywood's aversion to do more theatrical show scenes will make this maze suffer.
8.) Halloween: Good ol mikey. I'll admit, this should probably be higher. Michael is probably my all time favorite slasher, and growing up a few minutes away from South Pas with a lot of older adult acquaintences having connections to the original film, it always holds a place in my heart. Not to mention Michael Myers Comes Home was technically my first maze ever if you don't count terror tram in 2013, since I was too scared to do anything else and missed out on 2014, so thats kinda doubly a reason this maze should be more exciting for me. Granted, I am still very very excited for it, this might be the highest budget version of the original film we've seen adapted into a maze yet, and thats really exciting to me. I think its just between everything else coming this year, and the fact I get to see orlando's this year too, it falls a bit behind for me.
7.) Killer Klowns: Ah klowns, my beloved klowns. I feel really bad putting this as low as it is, but my bias for this year is heavily skewed towards things I haven't seen before, so it ended up falling a bit to the wayside. Despite that, I know for a fact I'm gonna have a lot of fun here. This was my favorite maze of 2019 by far, and I'm sure seeing them back will be a treat. Granted, this isnt the original-sequel that was assumed early on, and I would have probably preferred that, but assuming we have a few new scenes and everything spruced up a little with the higher budget, I think I'll live.
6.) The Weeknd: This is another one I'm a little ashamed of putting so low, but to be honest, I think I'm just more excited for the orlando version. I don't know why exactly, but when i think of "The Weeknd house" the first one that comes to mind is the orlando one to me, I guess maybe since they might be similar my brain just goes to the one on the trip I'll be taking first, but I could really use some info on how these two coasts separate this house from each other before I start to get excited.
5.) La Llorona: A repeat, but one from before my time. My first year was 2013, so I missed coming face to face with the weeping woman by a mere 12 months, but I'm certainly happy that I finally get the chance now. To be honest, it's still a little bit middle of the road for me, but I think that might just be due to how excited I am for certain other things. Location also really helps boost this one for me, since placing this among the Dia de los Muertos plaze and El Plueblo Del Terror makes for a really nice compact mini-land mashing folklore and tradition, and that kind of cohesion is just something you really don't see often. Feels really special.
4.) Universal Monsters Legends Collide: I really struggled not putting this higher, but a few other things took my attention a bit. Every single Monsters maze on this coast has been an easy top tier from the start, and to be honest I really don't expect this one to be any different. I would not be remotely surprised if this maze shoots up the ranks and trumps some of my higher spots (lookin at you, Terror Tram), but for now this is landing a little bit in the mid range. To be entirely honest, I feel like wolf man needs a bit of a rest in these mazes, but dracula and mummy have been severely underutilized, and that kinda keeps things on track for me. Similarly, the fact that this is a part 2 to orlando's story tells me that they're really trying to ramp up their storytelling even beyond Bride, which to me was maybe a pinnacle for telling a comprehensive story in a Horror Nights maze, so that's pretty exciting.
3.) Terror Tram: Featuring Nope and Us (and Hollywood Harry): I know, I know. I'm really playing with the fires of disappointment here, it's tram, and tram is always tram. But, I really love Nope. I saw it opening weekend and ever since, it's been festering rent free in my head. Now, I have no idea how theyre gonna pull this off, since Nope in itself seems like it would be unadaptable to this kind of format, and my greatest fear is that they just won't even try, and they'll say "you got to walk on the Jupiters Claim sets, thats your Nope part" and sure, getting to walk those sets with my own two feet is probably gonna be a joy, but I really hope they push it further. To be honest I think this is kind of a doomed position, since at this point with how I feel about the movie, anything short of being literally sucked into the sky would probably be a disappointment. Oh well, i like hollywood harry and Us well enough.
2.) Scarecrow the Reaping: This maze has a few things going for it that make me super biased towards it. Number 1, I'm a total sucker for outdoorsy farm horror, a lot of what we've seen just in terms of visuals honestly strikes me as pretty similar to a treatment for a home haunt I made that never came to pass. Number 2, hearing about this one's reputation years back in orlando, and not being able to make it out there up until this year, I can't even fault them for a reuse of a theme, I'm just happy to get a crumb of orlando's past on this coast. Hopefully it lives up.
1.) Universal's Horror Hotel: Once again, my bias shows itself. Similar to scarecrow, I've got a bit of a history with hotel themed haunts in my personal life. However, my anticipation for this isn't pure nostalgia, similar to what I said elsewhere, this is one of the first mazes in a long time at hollywood thats felt truly original. Granted, the feeling I have now is very similar to what I felt back when Pandora's Box was announced for the first time. The vague title and sparse details really let anticipation get a bit out of control, and while I didn't hate it, I was a bit disappointed, and I really don't wanna repeat that. Despite that though, I've got a bit of faith here. Plus it's technically similar to a soundstage house so it's got that going for it I guess.