Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/6520315/final-girl-the-haunting-of-creech-manor

Designer: A. J. Porfirio
Publisher: Van Ryder Games
Artist: Tyler Johnson

For context, I have played this game both as it comes in the box, and I’ve played through all lore book scenarios meaning I’ve played every killer at every location. I’ll only be talking about Poltergeist and Creech Manor here though. For thoughts on the lore book and my overall killer, location, and box rankings, scroll to the bottom.

1) I prefer the killer over the location, and I know many people will disagree.

2) Success in this one is significantly dependent on luck. You can’t attack or defeat Poltergeist, so the goal here is to search the item decks to find Carolyn and rescue her. Truthfully, I set up the item decks to be a little easier than the rules call for which may be why I like this one more than most people.

3) This box gets quite a few criticisms because of the running around and searching you have to do, but when you face a strong killer, you basically have to do the same in search of a weapon. I appreciate that Poltergeist is unique and that you can’t kill her, so your strategy has to be different, and I find that fun and interesting. I also think she’s a neat character to play on other maps; she’s pretty universal and because you don’t kill her, you just get to explore the locations and try to survive.

4) Creech Manor for me is just okay. The rooms are quite small so spacing is awkward and moving around in it can be tight (especially with The Birds). There are some one-way doorways that are neat and thematic. The major difficulty with this one is getting to the exit spaces. There are so many levels and rooms in the house and only certain ones connect, so finding a valid path out and back in can be tricky.

Totally unrelated but every time I play this one (or even just Poltergeist or Creech Manor), I think about Scooby Doo on Zombie Island when Daphne says, “Who opened a window?!” If you know, you know. If you don’t, go watch the movie. It’s fabulous.

Thoughts on lore book: 9.5/10. Each killer and final girl has a great story, and the scenarios are very creative. There are lots of combinations to try providing a lot of replayability and the chance to purposely experiment with certain pairs of locations and killers. There are a few small, annoying errors, though, which is why I can’t give it a 10 (things like typos, slightly incorrect/not matching card names, etc.).

Killer Ranking (from favorite to least favorite): Dr. Fright, Poltergeist, Geppetto, Hans, The Birds (vignette), Inkanyamba

Location Ranking (from favorite to least favorite): Maple Lane, Carnival of Blood, Camp Happy Trails (but close third), Creech Manor, Sacred Groves

Box Ranking (from favorite to least favorite): Frightmare on Maple Lane, Carnage at the Carnival, The Haunting of Creech Manor, The Happy Trails Horror, Terror from Above (vignette), Slaughter in the Groves