There are some scene spoilers in this review.
Despite really enjoying the film, this had been very low on my anticipated list since before it was announced. I just kinda instantly knew exactly how it was gonna go, because it felt like a repeat of what happened with
The Last of Us. I figured I'd take advantage of early night short lines before it ends up as the consistent 120+ minute wait-time monster it'll no doubt become through the event run.
And, at least for myself, I was right. This house suffers from all of the same issues as 2023's
The Last of Us. A lack of rich atmosphere or engaging story-telling, resulted from an over-zealousness and shackled attachment to book-reporting lesser adaptations of iconic scenes and IP characters from the original source. It's all the things you could want from a
Sinners house, spat right back at you, and in only the most literal of ways. When asked how to portray one of the most striking and original cinematic sequences in recent memory, it provides a big and relatively bare room with a single performer pretending to play the guitar and projections on the wall above him, dancing to a canned backing track.
But really, everything that I would want from a
Sinners house was done years before
Sinners existed. It was called
The Darkest Deal, and it was one of the boldest, most interesting houses I've ever seen the event teams pull off. It is a definitional all-timer house; alive in its' rustic dusty atmosphere, shockingly clear in its' complicated narrative beats, hard hitting and intentional in its' scare placement and execution, and efficient enough in its' design to fit all of this within an Old Sprung.
Just as
The Last of Us just ended up being "We've got
Seeds of Extinction at home", this feels very much the same to me. Instead of taking the lessons from previously incredible haunts inspired by the source material, it goes its' own uninteresting way, and ends up feeling rather voiceless and empty.
But ... I've heard many people say that they greatly enjoyed this house. Many have placed it at the very top of their lists, and I can't imagine it won't see some of the longest wait times of the run regardless. While this one didn't do very much for me, I have no doubt that those who are already beyond excited for the IP will be satisfied with this. I am very glad to hear that it is resonating, especially among much bigger fans of
Sinners than I am. That is strictly a good thing, and I'd be very glad to hear that someone came out of this one with a different reaction than I did.
While I believe the design here is significantly more dull than similar originals, or some of the best IP houses, I do want to clarify that
Sinners is far from a bad house. This is not
Museum or
Chucky or
Spirits of the Coven. Its' issues land it far more towards mediocre and forgettable for me than uniquely bad. It did have opportunities to be more than what it is, design-wise, that I don't believe it took. Now it's up to the casts to pull it through with pure intensity.
Maybe it will click for me with future runs, but right now, I'm just not very antsy to jump back into that headliner-tier length queue for what this house offers me.