Defex 2.0: Definitely interesting. A shell of the original defex but a worthy successor for the modern day. My biggest complaint is that it completely disregarded what made the first Defex special. It wasn’t just a toy factory gone bad. It was a functioning factory making horrific doll creations. Think Sid from Toy Story but at factory level. The original defex was intense, loud, and in your face. I’ll also add the sets for this house ranged from amazing to flat walls with toys stapled to them. The actors did good and the costumes, masks, and makeup looked great as well. I’ll finish with saying the saving grace for this house was that it used old sets from Depths of Darkness which used old sets from the original Defex….full circle I guess.
Silver Scream Studios: Directors Cut: When I first heard whispers of an anniversary maze I didn’t believe it but here it is! Truly the biggest shock and surprise of the night. They genuinely changed this house. Each room had noticeable changes to the layout and space to accommodate for the throwbacks. I recognized all of old houses (some being extreme deep cuts to SCarowinds history). By far the highlight of the season.
Other Houses: Tooth Fairy, Paranormal Inc., and Slaughterhouse all remained good to great. Tooth Fairy had the most notable changes with maybe a little more than a third of the maze being different or redone in some way. Paranormal was noticeably brighter which was nice to appreciate the sets. Slaughterhouse remains a perfect example of a slaughterhouse style maze even if it is long in the tooth.
The Conjuring: This is great. Costumes were spectacular actors were going hard at their roles, sets were great, effects were great. Not really any notes. To nitpick I would have preferred to this be an actual house instead of the haunted house/escape room/live theater hybrid thing it is. I could easily see it becoming that in the future with little work required so I’ll hold out hope.
Glitch: Oh boy. Something had to be a bummer. This is by far the biggest waste of time and money of the year. Sure bloodyard was old but this was not the solution. The intricate and beautiful graffiti on the shipping containers has been covered up with an ugly blue paint. I see what they were going for but it fumbles hard. The costumes are good, but not enough to save the surrounding environment. I would have preferred keeping bloodyard one more year and take the time and money spent on glitch and put that into Defex 2.0.
I’ll finish by saying the merch (I actually bought several pieces), food, and atmosphere were also great. Staffing was consistent. It’s almost like the park realized this is their money maker event and decided to actually try with it for the first time in forever. Can’t wait for some repeat visits.
Silver Scream Studios: Directors Cut: When I first heard whispers of an anniversary maze I didn’t believe it but here it is! Truly the biggest shock and surprise of the night. They genuinely changed this house. Each room had noticeable changes to the layout and space to accommodate for the throwbacks. I recognized all of old houses (some being extreme deep cuts to SCarowinds history). By far the highlight of the season.
Other Houses: Tooth Fairy, Paranormal Inc., and Slaughterhouse all remained good to great. Tooth Fairy had the most notable changes with maybe a little more than a third of the maze being different or redone in some way. Paranormal was noticeably brighter which was nice to appreciate the sets. Slaughterhouse remains a perfect example of a slaughterhouse style maze even if it is long in the tooth.
The Conjuring: This is great. Costumes were spectacular actors were going hard at their roles, sets were great, effects were great. Not really any notes. To nitpick I would have preferred to this be an actual house instead of the haunted house/escape room/live theater hybrid thing it is. I could easily see it becoming that in the future with little work required so I’ll hold out hope.
Glitch: Oh boy. Something had to be a bummer. This is by far the biggest waste of time and money of the year. Sure bloodyard was old but this was not the solution. The intricate and beautiful graffiti on the shipping containers has been covered up with an ugly blue paint. I see what they were going for but it fumbles hard. The costumes are good, but not enough to save the surrounding environment. I would have preferred keeping bloodyard one more year and take the time and money spent on glitch and put that into Defex 2.0.
I’ll finish by saying the merch (I actually bought several pieces), food, and atmosphere were also great. Staffing was consistent. It’s almost like the park realized this is their money maker event and decided to actually try with it for the first time in forever. Can’t wait for some repeat visits.
