horror – Brent's Crossroads

That is a good question.

I’ve written dark fiction and horror for thirteen years. In that span, I have written or co-written over thirteen novels, and I’ve had more than thirty stories featured in different anthologies and eZines. I wear metal band shirts and horror gear constantly. If you came to my office, you’d see how much I love the horror genre (and Star Wars).

But, I’m more than that.

This may seem strange to most people, but I am also a huge Disney fan. I proudly wear my Disney Adult membership on my sleeve. I also like to travel and cruise. I want nothing more than to be on a ship in the middle of the ocean or docked in a foreign port. I may like the dark and scary things, but I’ll visit a Disney park or a beach anytime.

So why have I started this extremely time-consuming venture along with a full-time job and trying to write the next novel?

Honestly, I love to create. My mind is constantly in motion with new ideas and new plans for things. The fiction has gotten me so far, but my creative spirit wanted the space to spread its wings. This is where the Crossroads comes in. The Crossroads is where I can let my creative spirit fly without the constraints and trappings of genre fiction writing. I get to flex my creative muscles in the non-fiction arena while sharing my experiences and thoughts about where I’ve been and where I’m going.

And about what’s up in my Disney lifestyle.

Bringing the Crossroads to life is a massive undertaking, and I’ve struggled with the project. I knew that, going in, I’d have to spread myself thin between my job, home life, writing, new YouTube channel, Crossroads, and all the social media accounts I hadn’t paid attention to before. Now, I have TikTok, Instagram, and Threads. Instead of one Facebook page, there are two. I have to plan in advance what I’m working on for which site every day. Some get posts daily, and others only once or twice a week. I still have to plot how everything drops and spaces out. I feel like I have two full-time jobs!

But that’s okay because I’m doing what I love. Maybe I can do this as my only job, along with fiction writing. One can dream, can’t they?

I want to thank you for stopping by the Crossroads for this little chat. Today, I felt like taking a short break from the Disney news and travel reports to speak with you about the why. I imagine some folks wondered what the fresh Hell had gotten into me, so I wanted to let you in on the thought process. This wasn’t some mid-life crisis move but instead an expansion of the hobbies I love mixed with my desire to always be creating.

If you should feel like supporting any of the socials, YouTube channel, or fiction, thank you. I’ll post links below. I create these projects to share my love of the world and the fantastic things we have in it and take it for granted. Look outside the window, and instead of watching the world go by, go out and experience all our planet and cultures have to offer. That, my friends, is the best advice I can give you.

As always, thanks for stopping by and meeting me here on the Crossroads,

Brent

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Good afternoon! Welcome back to Brent’s Crossroads, and thanks for coming along on the journey. This fall, I hit both Walt Disney World’s Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Universal Studios Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights 33. I will discuss Mickey’s Not So Scary next week, but now it’s time for the real scares.

Besides traveling and being a Disney Adult, I am also a dark fiction writer and a huge horror genre fan. Attending Halloween Horror Nights is something I’ve dreamed of experiencing. I was not disappointed. The event spans the main park area and features ten houses, five scare zones, a live stage show, and lots of food and drinks created for the festivities. The houses and scare zones are a mix of original concepts and IP (intellectual property) themes. Lastly, it wouldn’t be a huge even like this without plenty of exclusive merchandise. Now, I want to run through the houses and scare zones with how I ranked them. The placement is NOT a slight against the team members or scare actors- they were all fantastic and worked their asses off to scare the crap out of everybody. The ranking is based on concept and if the design worked or not.

And now, the rankings…

10) The Museum: Deadly Exhibits- The theme of this house was that an ancient cursed artifact has gone on display in a museum and causes all the employees and exhibits to rot and mutate. I wasn’t big on the theme or the way the sets looked. This appeared to be the one with the least budget amount.

9) Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodline- Great set pieces, but a lackluster story. I’m not sure if the right amount of scare actors were on duty when we went through, because I questioned why the house protagonist is the one jumping out at me all the time. I expected more from a battle between Van Helsing’s daughter and the Bride of Frankenstein versus Dracula’s daughter. This should’ve been a homerun, but fell short.

8) Major Sweet’s Candy Factory- This house was based on a previous scare zone. The house had some annoying PA announcements you were forced to loudly listen to before you entered the door, and the story didn’t do anything for me. Kids on a school fieldtrip eat the candy and turn into little murderous brats who kill the adults. The brutal kill scenes were very good, but the story felt boring.

7) Goblin’s Feast- Tour a goblin kitchen and home where human is on the menu. The house had some nice set pieces, but didn’t strike as anything special.

6) Triplets of Terror- Follow the triplets as they murder people while they celebrate a birthday. The house isn’t bad, but when you get to the middle you ‘step’ into a true-crime podcast, it loses the story flow. I would’ve preferred the house stay focused on the killing spree and not the publicity the murders brought about.

5) A Quiet Place- Great sets with amazing props for the monsters, but the only thing that jumps out at you are the survivors jump scaring you to be quiet while they make a ton of noise to alert the creatures. I also wish it had something to tie to A Quiet Place: Day One.

4) Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America- This house was based on Latin American legendary monsters. The sets were great, and scenes nice and gory. I got jump scared good in this one.

3) Slaughter Sinema 2- This house was a trip through horror movies being shown at the Carey Drive-In. The movie themes and sets were top-notch with some very graphic scenes. I also have to give props to the designers for the shark animatronic and walking through the dude’s split in half body.

2) Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire- This house surprised me. I fully expected to hate this house since I wasn’t a fan of the movie, but I loved it. It wasn’t a scary house, but the sets and effects were all great fun. Slimer and Ecto-1 won the house for me.

1) Insidious: The Further- I was very excited for this house when it was announced, and it didn’t disappoint. I love the film series, and being able to explore the Further made for a really fantastic house. The rooms were creepy and moody with the best scare actor placement in the whole park. The Black Bride was played perfectly by the actors and scared the hell out of people. This was also voted the best house for 2024, and it earned it.

Now for the Scare Zones…

5) Demon Queens- Walked through and didn’t even notice.

4) Duality of Fear- Like the zone above.

3) Swamp of the Undead- This one tried. You could tell the Scare Zones seemed mailed-in this year with all the money going into Epic Universe. Great sets, and the zombies looked good shambling around in the fog.

2) Enter the Blumhouse- This zone was based on Blumhouse films such as The Black Phone, Megan, Freaky, and The Purge. Nice idea, but it was essentially a photo-op area. Most of the main characters were on stages you couldn’t get on, and they didn’t come down. The only actors milling around the zone were Purge actors.

1) Torture Faire- A fine faire based on death and torment. Great sets and great actor interaction around the zone.

Overall, I loved HHN, and I want to go back every year now. The experience is worth it, and I highly recommend going at least once if you love horror. For more travel shenanigans follow me over on TikTok @brent.abell and follow here! Subscribe or like!

Well, back to working on the next book and planning for the next trip!

Later,

Brent