Death Water Bayou
- Thread starter ParkFans Knowledge Base
- Start date
I know my opinion probably is controversial, but I was very disappointed in this house. I am hopeful that it will improve over time, but I also think there are some fundamental problems.
The first half of the house just felt like Circo with some skeletons and flowers. Most notably, the mannequin room was exactly the same, except that the suits were brightly colored and the faces were skeletons. Similarly, the portals were the same, except that they had replaced the chairs with flowers.
There we’re only two rooms that really worked for me, both of which were in the second half of the house: the bayou room (a cool effect using lasers and fog) and the hanging voodoo doll room (the actress was great and was reacting to people moving the dolls out of the way). Neither scared me, but I don’t think that was either necessary or the intent. They were well-executed environmental, placemaking rooms, which are critical to good storytelling and the overall effectiveness of the house.
Given that this maze is based on a fantastic Tampa house, perhaps my expectations were too high. Regardless, despite having many props, this maze completely failed to have any coherent story. It all just felt like random voodoo-inspired decorations; it wasn’t clear why things were located where they were. No obvious storyline seemed to be driving the design other than, “throw funeral/voodoo/bayou stuff on the walls.”
I do think there were some specific rooms that can easily be improved by dialogue. As the actors develop their roles, I think they have the ability to provide narratives that explain the individual rooms, if not the overall story of the house.
The first half of the house just felt like Circo with some skeletons and flowers. Most notably, the mannequin room was exactly the same, except that the suits were brightly colored and the faces were skeletons. Similarly, the portals were the same, except that they had replaced the chairs with flowers.
There we’re only two rooms that really worked for me, both of which were in the second half of the house: the bayou room (a cool effect using lasers and fog) and the hanging voodoo doll room (the actress was great and was reacting to people moving the dolls out of the way). Neither scared me, but I don’t think that was either necessary or the intent. They were well-executed environmental, placemaking rooms, which are critical to good storytelling and the overall effectiveness of the house.
Given that this maze is based on a fantastic Tampa house, perhaps my expectations were too high. Regardless, despite having many props, this maze completely failed to have any coherent story. It all just felt like random voodoo-inspired decorations; it wasn’t clear why things were located where they were. No obvious storyline seemed to be driving the design other than, “throw funeral/voodoo/bayou stuff on the walls.”
I do think there were some specific rooms that can easily be improved by dialogue. As the actors develop their roles, I think they have the ability to provide narratives that explain the individual rooms, if not the overall story of the house.
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