PNE/Playland Haunt Review

I went to the PNE last night and checked out the haunted house ScreamWorks has created there. It has been changed quite a bit since last year. The haunt is set up as "two haunts in one" meaning there are two different themes. The first is a traditional haunted house style exploring different rooms of a house, including a kitchen with hot and cold running blood. Aside from 2 or three times an actor popped out from a drop-panel and a shaking coffin, there weren't really many startles. There were several areas in a row where I kept waiting for something to happen and it didn't. I don't believe that there needs to be a startle in every room when a room acts to build suspense/fear or when it's detailed enough to appreciate the set alone. These rooms were overly bright and fairly boring. The second part of the haunt began with a series of dark corridors where you had to feel your way through. Normally these can be very scary, since you never know when and where something will startle you, unfortunately, not much did and I couldn't hear any soundtrack that could have helped to heighten my apprehension. The one truly scary room came at the end: a square room, lit by a slowly flashing strobe light. All around the walls of the room were various figures, and no obvious door. People are forced to enter the room with their senses confused by the strobe and surrounded by figures, some of which come at you. I hope that they can put some more time into adding some better scares before they reopen for Fright Nights.

Homeless for 2008

Things have fallen through with the museum for this year despite some really solid ideas. It's looking like Sean and I will be concentrating on creating some (hopeful) award-winning costumes as well as touring around to some of the local haunts.