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UK Scare Attractions Reports

Tulleys Shocktoberfest Review 23:

I'm not even going to write an intro because i have been reviewing this attraction for a LONGG time. My first visit was in 2012 to put that into perspective. I have to say that things have certainly progressed since, what was a small niche industry has suddenly ballooned into a giant feast of attractions. Tulleys kind of in ways shows that progression. It was considered large back in 2012, even with 6 mazes that were shorter than they are now.

Creepy Cottage:
I actually still really like this one. I have been going through it for over a decade, but since it has seen some upgrades, and stands out from the rest of the haunts. It has a small cast, and a small size, but it has a brilliant design that allows the small cast to really be able to reappear as they please.

Hayride:
Man this was SO funny. The "you know what's it like to be married to a man who comes once a year!" line. I really enjoyed the new layout, and the overall restructure of this complete classic. The naughty humour mixed with some silly props (the spider) just make it a good laugh.

Hell-Ements/Cellar
I feel both of these could do with some changes. I appreciate both though. Hell-Ements was revolutionary in 2011 and the first of its kind. Hooded mazes literally started with Hell-Ements, and some ideas like the wind tunnel and fire section are really good. It just has aged a lot, and hooded mazes are very hard to batch correctly. Cellar is a similar story, a good maze that has just aged a little badly. I feel like a lot of the maze's sections are just outclassed by other Tulleys Mazes.
Both i think should be replaced/changed next year.

Doom/Wastelands.
I'm gonna lump these together because both kick a lot of ass. Wastelands is my favourite maze on park, its long, intense, and has good pacing. Doom Toom has some of the best sets on the planet for a maze, laced with references and easter eggs. Nevermind the hoard of actors.

Coven/Chop Shop:
I'm gonna lump these together because my opinions on them are similar. Both have their flaws and are not perfect, but both are really good attractions. Coven has some cool sets with neat ideas like the swamp and finale. Chop Shop is fast loud fun.

Electrick:
I had a very good runthrough this. With its set and actors i would probably place it as the scariest maze of Tulleys. Its pretty brutal.
 
Been meaning to post a review of this, but 2 weeks in Costa Rica got in the way. We did Horror at Hinchingbrooke House this year and really didn't know what to expect, what we certainly didn't expect was one hour-long horror maze through different themes (as opposed to multiple smaller ones). It's actually nuts, just one thing after the other with little reprieve in between. I thought it was going to be a little thing, or maybe a couple of small mazes.

We also did Port Aventura's offering this year. I was originally a little disappointed as we started with their oldest maze 'Horror in Texas' which felt a bit basic, I was worried that was going to be the whole day, it wasn't. They have La Isla Maldita now, which takes up the entirety of the water park. This one is a little different, with up to a 2 hour queue to get in (and a fastpass option, which we did...). There's a DJ, JetSki displays, the walkthrough is about 5x as long as any other maze in the park and it even has its own catering. It's nuts, but for goodness sake BUY THE FASTPASS!
 
Tonkso said:
Been meaning to post a review of this, but 2 weeks in Costa Rica got in the way. We did Horror at Hinchingbrooke House this year and really didn't know what to expect, what we certainly didn't expect was one hour-long horror maze through different themes (as opposed to multiple smaller ones). It's actually nuts, just one thing after the other with little reprieve in between. I thought it was going to be a little thing, or maybe a couple of small mazes.

We also did Port Aventura's offering this year. I was originally a little disappointed as we started with their oldest maze 'Horror in Texas' which felt a bit basic, I was worried that was going to be the whole day, it wasn't. They have La Isla Maldita now, which takes up the entirety of the water park. This one is a little different, with up to a 2 hour queue to get in (and a fastpass option, which we did...). There's a DJ, JetSki displays, the walkthrough is about 5x as long as any other maze in the park and it even has its own catering. It's nuts, but for goodness sake BUY THE FASTPASS!
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In PortAventura, La Isla Maldita is the only scare maze that is worth it, the rest of them are very short and repetitive. If you come to Spain in Halloween season I recommend Horrorland, it has great scare mazes.

Returning to the initial topic, this year we were in the UK for Halloween for the first time. I really liked "Survival Games" in Thorpe Park and also all the Alton Towers mazes, especially "The Invitation", which I think is very interesting although I know there are people who don't like it at all. 😅
 
while I did do Fright Nights this year we weren't able to do any mazes due to leaving the booking too late. Me and my non-enthusiast friends all collectively decided that we would book mazes on the day if the vibes were good, but on the day when we were all having a good time we realised that wasn't the best course of action and all mazes had completely sold out. Shame because one of my friends was very excited for Stitches, and I was excited for Survival Games, but we now know better for next year. Other than that we had an excellent time despite very long queues, watched the show near Stealth, got an intense front row night ride on Swarm in pouring rain, and my fastest ever ride on Nemesis Inferno before ending it with the Crows scare zone.

I will say I think I preferred it when the Crows were free-roaming actors throughout the whole park, but them getting their own scare zone is something I can respect. But I wish Swarm Invasion returned. Despite our lack of scare maze our day was very enjoyable, made far better by the company of friends.

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Same can't be said for Tulley's Shocktober Fest. Been visiting every year since 2018 but in my opinion 2023 has been their weakest ever year. Did every maze except Coven and Hell-ements and found that none of the scares were... scary. It's cool how the mazes clearly have so much effort put into them visual-wise but the actors just weren't doing it for me. They didn't get close enough, and most of the scares were someone waving their hand in your face which is something I got used to pretty quickly. Maybe I am just 'used to' Tulley's and need to try something new outside of it, because Fright Nights and Tulley's are really the only scare events I go to. Perhaps 2024 is the year for trying to get out more. I don't think I will return to Tulley's in 2024, as I felt like 2022 also lacked in terms of scare factor. For a quality scare attraction you really need both a good set and a good set of actors, you can't have either one or the other.

Circus was great though. I think someone's arse got stapled. That was funny.
 
I had a similar epiphany with Tulleys last year, been going every year since 2016 and while fantastic it’s the same thing every time. I just can’t face handing over seventy quid to go through The Cellar, Chop Shop, Cottage, Hellements, Coven, Island/Colony and the clown one for an eighth time, I know these mazes like the back of my hand now. Why are mazes going up to ten seasons and sometimes more without replacement? What other Halloween event does this? It’s so odd. I love the event and have an amazing night every time, like Rob said the detail and theming in the mazes is just phenomenal. My plan is to miss it for a few years and come back with a new enthusiasm (and hopefully experience some new mazes).

I also know what you mean about becoming desensitised to the UK scares. Tulleys is one note, just the hand waves and grunts. The Thorpe ones where it’s an actor running round the room banging the walls I also find a bit boring. I think my main issue is a lot of actors don’t look or act like a certain character or horror trope. If you lined up the entire cast of Tulleys you’d see a lot of nondescript rags and face paint. One of my favourite Thorpe mazes was My Bloody Valentine as the threat of a man in a gas mask, boiler suit with an axe was so heavy as you went round the maze. It created genuine tension. I love the doll scene in Trailers for the same reason. I wish more of the scare actors dressed as actual things people find scary.
 
Benenen said:
I had a similar epiphany with Tulleys last year, been going every year since 2016 and while fantastic it’s the same thing every time. I just can’t face handing over seventy quid to go through The Cellar, Chop Shop, Cottage, Hellements, Coven, Island/Colony and the clown one for an eighth time, I know these mazes like the back of my hand now. Why are mazes going up to ten seasons and sometimes more without replacement? What other Halloween event does this? It’s so odd. I love the event and have an amazing night every time, like Rob said the detail and theming in the mazes is just phenomenal. My plan is to miss it for a few years and come back with a new enthusiasm (and hopefully experience some new mazes).

I also know what you mean about becoming desensitised to the UK scares. Tulleys is one note, just the hand waves and grunts. The Thorpe ones where it’s an actor running round the room banging the walls I also find a bit boring. I think my main issue is a lot of actors don’t look or act like a certain character or horror trope. If you lined up the entire cast of Tulleys you’d see a lot of nondescript rags and face paint. One of my favourite Thorpe mazes was My Bloody Valentine as the threat of a man in a gas mask, boiler suit with an axe was so heavy as you went round the maze. It created genuine tension. I love the doll scene in Trailers for the same reason. I wish more of the scare actors dressed as actual things people find scary.
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If you have ten mazes and work on a complete overhaul of one each year, I guess that means you'll have each maze for 10 years?

I love the event, however I've only done it three times.

Perhaps give the sister event a go for a couple of years if you haven't already, it's on a smaller scale, much smaller, but still a damn good event.
 
Just did Thorpe Park Fright Nights and I have some thoughts.

First off I would like comment that I had a good night and the staff were nice but the mazes were a little hit and miss.

Survival Games:
I experienced no separation this year, there was about 10 other guests in sight in the first corridor once you’ve been grabbed. They are batching groups of 25 when the queue was 10 minutes on a Monday..

The actors inside were low energy, I didn’t even touch the crawl section, neither did I really have an actual encounter with an actor that wasn’t just them staring as they seemed tired. I had absolutely 0 scares in here and even the finale I left slowly walking out.

Stitches:
This was brilliant! Costumes were creepy and the maze was eerie, actors all delivered great energy and scares. Good maze length and theming. My favourite maze at FN

Trailers:
Not the biggest fan of Trailers but the actors were brilliant and kind of made it. Each room was well populated, the energy levels were high, and overall we all left impressed. Not the scariest but it was a very high energy enjoyable run.

Deadbeat:
Just kind of OK on this one. I feel like it lacks something. I find plot a little confusing and I feel like I didn’t really understand what was going on? Some good actors but i wasn’t overly keen on the maze itself.

The Crows!
Please for the love of god make this a proper maze! My group loved this and wanted more, they can make such a brilliant maze with this.
 
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