I went solo to Scary Farm last night and I still had a great time! Didn't get the lantern so I will probably get it on my next visit. Here are my thoughts:
Finally had the chance to check out then Legacy store. It is easily on-par with HHN Orlando's tribute stores. I will go to Orlando in mid-October, but do I dare say that, from the few bits I've seen of Orlando's tribute store this year, this looks better? They went above and beyond way more than I thought. Very well-designed store.
Before I talk about the mazes, I want to talk about my gameplan. I went pretty much what I said I would do, though in the moment of a brainfart I forgot about Origins and went straight to Room 13 after hitting Grimoire first. Probably would've done Origins first had I gone back, but my gameplan went really well! I am now a firm believer in Grimoire first, then working clockwise saving the backstage mazes for the end. Got the four done in less than 40 min! Admittedly it started off a little rough at first. Grimoire had a delayed opened and the longest I waited was Room 13 at 45 min. Everything else had a wait for 15 minutes or less. As the night progressed, the waits were shorter and managed to see all 10 mazes and the Hanging with about an hour to spare! Okay, now to the mazes in order of which I accomplished:
The Grimoire: Only saw this once last year so it still was fairly fresh for me. I read a post that apparently people were rushing through and there wasn't a preshow? Well I think I may potentially have the answer as to why. I think we were like the fifth or sixth group that was let in first and after the little show as over, when they were trying to rush people through, one guy tripped and fell pretty bad over the camp fire. I think I saw the same guy from a distance later in the night so I think he was fine. But one of the campers had to break character to get one of the ops. Awkward situation but I'm glad he's apparently okay. Well anyway, I got some really good jumps in here. Not to mention the maze is well-designed. Very creative.
Room 13: Really liked this. Cast was great and that balcony scene was really cool. It was the kind of scene that used a visual trick that HHN Orlando has done several times that I wish Hollywood would pick up. Anyway this was cool and I liked this. The excelsior room at the end was pretty cool as well.
Cinema Slasher: Afterwards I got my coffee boost so I decided to wait in line for this to kill a little time to finish my coffee. This is very much a worthy successor to dark ride. I was a little afraid it would feel too familiar using inspiration from Trick or Treat and Slaughterhouse, both are mazes which I grew tired of. I'm pleased to say that this felt very fresh and very impressive. I got some great scares in here as the talent was once again on a roll! The Camp Gonnagetcha area was the most visually impressive scene I've seen KSF do in a long time. That section felt like a somewhat lower budget HHN Orlando house and I mean that in a good way. I was getting some Dead Man's Pier vibes in there. Once again, Jon Cooke strikes gold. Easily my favorite.
Mesmer: While beautiful scenically, I'm just gonna say it: I think this maze is a little overhyped. I never seem to get a great runthrough of this. Eh, it's fine. At least it looks cool
Origins: Still my favorite of the repeats. Got an okay runthrough but still think this maze rocks on its set design.
Bloodline: Much,
much better without the guns. I could actually stop and admire the scenic. Another maze where the talent was great. Aside from the very first room, they basically kept the whole maze the same as it was just without the guns. It really needs to be tweaked for just a regular maze. The pacing and soundbites made it clear this was a shooting maze without the guns. Hope they tweak that.
Dark Entities: I'm ready for this to leave but I got the best runthrough I've had in a while. It was in pretty good shape for its last year.
Wax Works: I liked it. Great runthrough. That's all.
Depths: Again, final year and unfortunately the boat stopped rocking.
Got a decent runthrough otherwise.
The Chilling Chambers: The first room in the mortuary was another visually impressive scene. It was unapologetically for KSF fans. I love how the classics were all represented, but I was a little confused what maze the Club Chupacabra was. Was that a maze from the 90's I don't know about? Anyway it felt like a smaller-scale HHN Orlando anniversary house. Very detailed and very
long. What a well-done tribute to KSF.
The Hanging: Well, this show is exactly what you expect. Kinda shocked at some of the stuff they got away with, especially the uncensored f-bombs. I am glad it's back though. Loved how they mocked the bag policy and no-boo necklace.
Overall a very well-put together 50th anniversary celebration. This is probably the best year I've seen in years with the talent. The Monsters this year have been
really good in my experience last night and I even got better scares from them than at HHN! Without the use of audio triggers! I really,
really enjoyed KSF this year and can't wait to go back! Do I dare say I had more fun at KSF this year than HHN?