Really enjoyed this - it's sitting comfortably at my #4. Never experienced the original, so can't speak for whatever it's better or not nearly as good. It's a simple premise executed well, though I maybe would've appreciated just a smidge more of a frame story -- who's running this cinema, for example? Silver Screams has Usher, All Night Die-In has The Director, HR Bloodengutz had the titular character, Cinema Slasher over at Knott's has their own take on an usher... wouldn't need to be a big through-line or anything, maybe just a screen or something in that first antechamber with some VO in the last hallway.
The scenes themselves were fairly hit or miss, which is par for the course for these kinds of houses. Liked more than I was underwhelmed by!
- Mardi Gras Murders rules, could totally see this being expanded into a full house or zone. It's a cramped space that they made feel huge, which made for surprisingly in-your-face scares from the jesters.
- Heavy Metal Hell 3D was fine to good. One cast had a third rocker hidden past the main vignette that displayed the exact sort of aggression Orlando actors are often missing. When they weren't there, the scene lagged.
- I've seen Horror Nights do the messed up Christmas thing before, and this was fine. Santa and Mrs. Claus were great at the fast resets and full thrusts. Never saw the Toothy Fairy in a hat -- I mean elf after the first night, which means the rest of the scene is just a display.
- Zombie Clowns feels like it didn't take its premise far enough, but the scares were very good. One cast is definitely beating the other in terms of intensity and fast resets. If you get that one, you're in for a treat despite the generic visuals.
- Blood and Chum was delightful, and the puppet looked great. Loved all the great scenic on the ceiling that's easy to miss -- and that otter! They're setting the damsel/swimmer up to fail, however -- given the nature of her appearance, I totally understand she's launching in and out of that hide as quickly as possible, but it's so fast and brief that it doesn't register who she is or what's happening (made worse by the fact you haven't seen the shark yet). They should've put her on a platform across from the shark to react to, like the main punk rocker in Heavy Metal. Reuse a Dead Man's Pier diving costume for her existing hide.
- Demon Bounty Hunters was a lot of fun. Really impressive effect with the demon wrangling, and the other cowboy/demon performers were killing it. No idea why it smells like sunscreen when you get in there, though -- am I missing something?
- Mummy Strippers was fine. It's not scary, and it felt weird to linger in there to appreciate the details and/or performances. The scare pop mummy could be hitting harder.
- Zyborgs is recently impressive scenically and I loved the look of the costumes, though they look like hell for the performers! The scares are hit or miss because of that, I suspect, but I did get some solid pops in here.