Has he told any of you guys what he thinks of the houses
HEREEEE WE GOOOOO!
Remember this was an employee preview, things are likely to change/get better over time. Take everything I say with a grain of salt. Keep in mind that I was not able to make it to American Horror Story or Walking Dead. So I can't say anything about those. Also it's late and I'm going to try to type this fast, so it's probably not perfect.
DON'T READ MY POST if you want to be completely 100% surprised. I'm going to try to stay away from a lot of specifics, but I will be generalizing about certain mazes.
Exorcist: Lets just get the bad out of the way. Exorcist was my least favorite maze tonight. You go through Regans room multiple times, each time things change a little. The rooms with Regan are pretty good, but I didn't actually feel like that much was happening in them with the one exception being the version with the bed shaking everywhere, door slamming open and shut, and pictures on the wall moving. Whenever you're not in Regan's room, you're in a black hallway which always has some kind of demon jump out at you with a strobe light. Murdy mentioned they were inspired by the banned trailer, and you can really see that. Sadly, that's the real problem with the maze, it's just VERY repetitive. If you're not in Regan's room, you're in a black hallway... It's just... kinda meh. Hate to say it.
Krampus: Fantastic maze with amazing costumes. The set pieces are wonderful, the living room scenes feel fully fleshed out. At times you almost feel like you're walking through a real house. So much of this maze is ripped straight from the movie and that is a good thing. The kitchen scene with the gingerbread men seems to be one of those rooms that you will still find new details in on your 3rd and 4th walkthroughs. Great atmosphere overall.
Freddy Vs. Jason: Another great maze. I did it in Orlando last year and this blew that out of the water. There seemed to be tons of scare actors in this maze, and it was great to see so many nods to the classic movies these characters are from. Many instances of Jason and Freddy fighting each other from different sides of the room with you right in the middle. Great effect that was similar to last year's insidious maze where you think you're looking at a wall but the wall fades away and you're left looking at Freddy's nightmarish boiler room while he and Jason continue to fight on. Saw the ending where Jason won. Anyone expecting this to be a main selling point of the maze will be a little disappointed... the ending is contained in one very small section.
Halloween: I know a lot of people loved last years Halloween, but it was one of my least favorite mazes. I'm happy to say that this year's edition blows last year's out of the water. SO MANY of the kills from Halloween 2 made it into this maze. I remember watching Halloween 2 and wondering if they would include the hot tub scene at HHN. To my surprise, they did it... and it's perfect. You really feel like you're walking through the movie with this one. Close to the end of the maze you go into more abstract sections with lots of glowing pumpkin heads placed on the walls. Of course some of the pumpkins are actually scare actors in black suits, it's literally impossible to figure out which ones actors and which ones are just hung on the wall. Very surreal effect that works well. Great job on the house overall.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Another fantastic house that greatly benefits from actually seeing the movies. Letherface's whollllllle family made it out for this one, and the scare actors are great. The father was right at the start of the maze and he was actually saying things to our group. Most of the dialog is playing off a loop, but this guy could say what he wanted. You walk through the BBQ restaurant, the slaughter house, Leatherface's room, and more. It felt very long but in a good way. My favorite scene had to be the one with Grandpa and Chop Top. If you've seen the movies you'll understand when I say "HIT HER GRANDPA!". There is even a moment from TCM2 where you get to see Leatherface's softer side as he tries to give you a leather mask of your own. So Creeeeeeepy! ugggggh! This is another house for the history books.
Terror Tram: This year's route is a little shorter than last year's. They bypass the dirt road on the hill altogether this time. There are however more choke points than last year where they box you in with shipping containers. On the ride over, they show the Hollywood Harry video that was released a couple of weeks ago it really helps set the stage. There were basically clowns everywhere. Which I actually kinda like. My favorite group were the clowns dressed up like firemen.They do a better job this year of actually scaring people because of the closer quarters.
The Purge mega scare zone: This was an interesting concept. The flow is actually very similar to how the terror tram operates... main difference being you don't need to hop on a tram. It's like a typical indoor maze on a lager scale. There is only one entrance and one exit. First area had lots of cages with dead folks inside, broken down cars, and wooden palates. Second area is a church looking area with military type guys popping out of the shadows. Third area opens up and lets you sorta choose the direction you'd like to go, lots of chainsaw dudes and stilt walkers over here. One thing I really like this year is the costumes. They are weird and wacky. Chainsaw men with teddy bears for heads, republicans and democrats with their respective animals for heads, and of course statue of liberty stilt walkers. It's goofy and I like it. Overall a very interesting way to get people to explore that section of the upper lot that was missing last year. This was way better than exterminatorz or corpz.
I'm tired, going to probably try to sleep, but if you have more questions leave them here and I'll try to get back to them. Overall, this years event blew me away. So much better than last year. I'm guessing people are going to love it.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/6XuB8DJ0AI8?feature=oembed