RE: Howl-O-Scream 2017
I think Deadline suffers greatly from its size and the quality of the hiding spaces. They could staff it with thirty people and you might only see five. It's difficult for the actors in that maze to scare and reset at a decent pace. Dropdoors for instance, are very heavy, but ideally those people should be scaring maybe every fifth guest walking by.
Also, whenever there are large backstage areas, actors tend to gravitate towards those hiding spaces if allowed. It's much more comfortable for most people to have a barrier and/or hiding spot versus being out in the open.
On the flip side, Catacombs can easily make six actors seem like twenty actors. In some cases, one person can scare at three positions without once moving from their spot. This is due to the very small location and the tight weaving layout. This convenient scare benefit is probably part of the reason that you no longer see any costume variation in Catacombs, because this would give away the fact that you are seeing the same person twice and cheapen the overall look of the maze.
Now that we know some of the challenges of casting a maze, I would love it if FrostBite could get a proper balance of atmospheric and startle performers. Atmospheric actors can also scare people, but they usually remain in one place to further convey a story (a barker at a circus). Both are very important, but the atmospheric actors are usually forgotten at BGW after a maze's first season (see Bitten, 13, Fear Fair, etc.) I suspect Circo Sinistro to be the next to fall into the pit of the generic, but I hope I am wrong, as that house has so much more potential.
