Carl F.
Yelp
Haunting is an art form. Talk to a haunt actor about their character, and they may very well tell you their characters origin and background. Even if they they only speak in guttural sounds, they have a history, and it's that history that puts the character in reality. So when I entered the line for 13th floor this past weekend, I was pleased with the line actors. I love the interaction and the improv riffing that the line actors bring. It's a talent and a gift. The cast: A gentleman specter with an accent who, while not scary per se, worked the crowd well. A clown with cymbals who spoke only in screeches who I had a 5 minute screeching conversation with (yes we understood each other, and we may now be best friends), and a bunny man who who made the rounds interacting with almost everyone. You could see that they believed in, and truly embodied their characters.
Then I entered the haunt itself....
The themes this year were Outcast Carnival and All Hallows Eve.
To say they missed the mark is an unfortunate understatement. Try as I might, I saw no outcast carnival. Nor was there any trace of the evil trick or treating sprites from the site description.
From the beginning, we were immediately greeted with jump scare after jump scare. Characters would jump out, yell "Rah" and reset back into place for the next group. We went through multiple scenes that were the typical run of the mill haunt tropes, a medical area, a swamp (which could've been so much better if the laser/fog swamp effect worked successfully), a tavern of some sort, etc. but none of these areas appeared to add up to any theme, and certainly not the two themes listed on their site. At one point, you come across a giant Pennywise statue holding Georgie from the movie. This certainly falls into the nonsense field as there is no other reference for the film and the is definitely no reason for it other than the owners saying "Hey, look at my big a$$ Pennywise statue".
The Wolfman also makes an appearance in another scene that, though apt for the character, has no purpose or relationship with what the haunt theme is supposed to be. Unless they changed the theme last minute to "Horror Potpourri"
The actors were in short supply at the haunt, leaving the guest to walk through many empty areas that had so much potential. At one point, we walked past several closed caskets up against a wall. Not a single thing happened. They could've easily placed a jump scare, or better yet, had a character coax the guests into, and ultimately through, one of the caskets as a way to enter the next room.
A lot of the animatronics fell flat as well. Either you could plainly see the mechanism behind the effect, or it was of b-movie quality and felt out of place with the otherwise realistic surroundings.
Another issue was crowd control. My group caught up with the group in front of us within five minutes. Midway through the haunt, I looked back and saw at least 20 people behind my group.
This wasn't a individual experience. This was an assembly line. There were no fleshed out characters. There was no improv. There was no story to follow. This was a true missed opportunity.
13th Floor reminded me of the haunted houses from back in the day. Anyone remember Amling's Haunted House from back in the day? Back then, there was nothing like it. It made no sense, and there was no story, but it was dark, and people jumped out, and kids loved it. The problem is that this isn't "back in the day", the patrons aren't 8 year olds, and people jumping out yelling "Rah!" simply doesn't cut it anymore.
Rah.