MonsterCon is a huge downgrade from condemned. Similar level of bad to Fear.
MonsterCon
- Thread starter Apollo
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I don't think it's F.E.A.R.-level bad if only because it has a clear, coherent, conveyed theme. I didn't walk through completely baffled—I understood what I was looking at every step of the way.
That said, I do think it's a VERY notable downgrade from Condemned and the design is nowhere near pre-21 Haunt levels. I don't think it's BAD, just not great.
Give me MonsterCon over anything I've seen my two nights at BGW HOS so far this year. I'd put MonsterCon above some of the lesser BGT houses too. It's near the bottom of recent KD houses, but that's still not BAD in my opinion.
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That said, I do think it's a VERY notable downgrade from Condemned and the design is nowhere near pre-21 Haunt levels. I don't think it's BAD, just not great.
Give me MonsterCon over anything I've seen my two nights at BGW HOS so far this year. I'd put MonsterCon above some of the lesser BGT houses too. It's near the bottom of recent KD houses, but that's still not BAD in my opinion.
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I thought it was a lot of fun. It wasn't super sophisticated, but there was a clear story and the actors were killing it. Plus, it was hilarious.
I thought it was a fairly nice house with great story telling and lots of actors. Setup feels a little temporary but it's forgivable given the theme of the house which would be a temporary venue. I also liked that there were a few examples of actual movie looking props included. I do wonder if maybe there are plans for this area in the future that caused them to go with this style house instead of a more complex longer lasting one.
there’s a xenomorph as a prop therefore the house is goated thank you for your time
That was my first impression but after thinking on it I assume that the risk of a guests being mistaken as a park employee and either doing something to another guests that the park would be blamed for gaining access to a restricted area was deemed to high to justify doing it.
Yeah I prefer condemned. All I could think about walking through was that I was inside of a bunch of curtains with props in them versus the inside of a creepy hotel. I did think the hallway sequence with projections on the sheets in front of you was cool.
For me, in-house, the materials read as cheap, but I don't think the materials are the actual problem, I think it's the (lack of) sophistication of their use.
Curtain areas of houses can be GREAT—see BGW's Bitten. The front half of Con is full of curtains, but you basically never walk directly next to them and they all appear to be largely a single layer dividing walls. This means that, for most of their expanse, they're completely ineffective at concealing actors.
If the curtains were used cleverly to enhance the house, I'd have no objection. I agree that they're a huge part of conventions and using them is 100% on theme.
Pitch: In one of the segments of the house where a single curtain wall divides two areas of guest path through the house, double the thickness of the curtain wall. Use a series of air cannons inside the cavity between the two curtain walls to make the curtains "pop" open/forward at random intervals. The constant, random movement, sound, and puffs of air generated provide a sense of chaos to the environment—offering distractions for the actors in these areas to work off. This pitch requires zero staff beyond setup and just the addition of a few more curtain walls and air cannons. Cheap, simple, and it makes the curtain walls provide something to the house.
Another: Use an area of curtain wall as a surface to project story content on elaborating on what is actually going so wrong at this Con. If the story is that the monster costumes are all posessed and murdering everyone, "through the curtain," in shadow, we should see a monster silhouette come alive and attack someone. This would provide story content and more effective distraction for actors to work off of. If something like this sounds too elaborate for KD, I'd say that KD is falling behind the times. This effect would take a few minutes with a camera, two actors, a little time in Premier to edit the video down to the silhouette, and a projector. This is easy, easy stuff and other regional, non-upcharge-event parks in the chain (Dorney) are pulling off far more sophisticated effects already.
Also, more broadly, I'd also just like to see other segments of the curtain walls directly along guest paths doubled up to provide boo holes for actors. Popping through a curtain is one of the easiest startle scares in the book. The house just needs to be structured to allow for it.
Cheap, rudimentary materials are fine in a house. I'd even argue that KD actually did well to pick a theme that matches their apparent budget for this year. That said, it's all about how you use these materials.
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This was my original reaction too, but I’ve been thinking about the final room of MonsterCon and have a different opinion now. The last room is a detailed “set” from the made-up “Slaughter House” film, and it shows that there’s a way that MonsterCon could have been rich with detail. Make the first few scenes look like a typical convention (merch, curtains, props, etc.) but then make the rest of the house like you’re walking through “sets” for different fake movies from different horror genres. If the budget existed, this would have been way more fun, interesting, and (most importantly) immersive.
If the budget truly didn’t allow for a house like that, then a straight up convention theme like we got was a smart choice. But like @Zachary said, there are still plenty of opportunities to fill the house with sophisticated scares even on a tight budget — with some creativity. Hell, I think the $200 haunted house I built for my fraternity’s philanthropy event back in college (using tricks I learned from Haunt) had more hiding places and surprises.
In any case, KD’s biggest mistake was replacing Condemned with this house and not FEAR. I assume they didn’t want to rip out a fairly new house while keeping Condemned, which debuted during Obama’s first term (seriously). But they should have had the awareness/humility to realize FEAR is a dud and brings the event down. MonsterCon would have been a welcome improvement over FEAR had that been what it replaced, and I think we would all be singing a different tune right now if that’s what they did.
I actually preferred F.E.A.R. over Monstercon. Out of all the houses I walked through last night F.E.A.R. was my favorite and the scariest which is a complete 360 from previous years.
It's a testament to just how hard F.E.A.R.'s cast is working. They were really giving it their all on Friday. Unfortunately, in that house, to deliver anything, the cast really has to go as hard as possible. Same is going to be true for Con. In these houses where the cast just has to stand about in plain view, they have to be "on," in-character, and acting 100% of the time—not to mention how much harder it is to get a scare in that environment.
KD really does have some of the best casts I've ever experienced. Seeing them manage to pull off scares in some of these new—I believe objectively poorly designed—houses really highlights that.
KD really does have some of the best casts I've ever experienced. Seeing them manage to pull off scares in some of these new—I believe objectively poorly designed—houses really highlights that.
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