2013 Review of the Year
Wow - can you believe that another year is over and we are already in 2014? This year is already looking really promising but lets look back on some of the highlights of last year. It was clearly the biggest year we have ever had, with a massive surge in genuine likes and followers through our social media, the highest number of reviews we have ever done, and an ever expanding team to bring you the most accurate and honest reviews available. In fact we are proud to say that we covered every scare event in the UK last year and plan to do exactly the same in 2014 and beyond!
So starting off with the out of season events, it was an interesting year for some of the independent production companies, who all produced new and exciting events. More is More moved their Halloween event Evil Rising underground, staging The Hole in the abandoned and atmospheric Drakelow Tunnels. The event returned through the year in a number of different formats, which have all lead to the brand new Evil Rising event this year where players will get the chance to win £1,313 if they complete all the tasks in the game! Kernow Scare Attractions built a very impressive touring maze, Carni-Hell, which appeared at a number of high profile festivals around the country. New company Massacre Productions debuted their first scare attraction Syndrome and ScareCorp unveiled The Haunting. Both attractions were great first efforts from enthusiastic new talent and we look forward to seeing what they come up with this year.
GNG - a key player in the "out of season" scare maze scene had an unfortunate year with a number of unavoidable issues including a near riot at Cusworth Hall, budget restraints at Nightmare Circus and a complete loss of their venue for Leeds Fright Nights - a brand new joint production that was going to create the UK's first big indoor scream park. With a lacklustre Ravenwood Manor event earlier in the year, we know that the team are pushing to put the disappointments of last year behind them and come back in 2014 with a bang!
On the permanent front - there was quite a lot of change at the Dungeon attractions. York flooded in 2012 and finally reopened this year with a new and improved show, while the London Dungeon made the drastic move of relocating the whole attraction to a brand new venue in the County Hall. We were granted the last ever tour of the old venue and the first tour of the new one and we were generally impressed, although we do find the new venue can get quite crowded at times and the special effects on the boat ride are hit and miss as to whether they will be working when you visit! The new venues ushered in a new branding for all the Dungeon attractions and during the year we saw Blackpool Tower and Edinburgh Dungeon going through their transition phases from old to new.
2013 seemed to be a year for overnight scare events including The Vigil at ScareCON (see below), Camp Fear at Yorkshire Scare Grounds, Psychotel, Alton Towers scare rooms, Blair Witch Overnight at Thorpe Park and Horror Camp Live by AtmosFEAR. Some of the more shocking aspects of this event (sexual references and use of sex toys) were then taken to extreme levels in Scare Kingdom's Pyschomanteum attraction at Halloween. In a master of advertising this event was branded the "sickest attraction in the UK" by The Sun newspaper. Continuing down this theme, it will be interesting to see how extreme they continue to be with their new for 2014 production - SnuffHouse.
Last year also saw a number of events in unusual places - including the top of the O2 dome in London. The Climb of the Cursed was more impressive for the views and the climb than for the scares but it was definitely something unique and different. Over at another dome - we were stalked through the dark by tree monsters at the Eden Project We also experienced several exciting events in old historic buildings including the terrifying Fort Amherst Halloween Horrors (still one of the most intense attractions we have visited), The Creep in a fort on New Brighton seafront and Scarenation in an old Victorian factory full of ancient machinery.
Of course we don't just love static scare attractions, and this year we managed to catch up on a number of different horror events including Wolfmen by the team behind Zombie Boot Camp as well as Zombie Earth and Zombie Shoot Out at YSG. We visited the new "Asylum" version of the classic 2.8 Hours Later and the incredibly themed Zombie Blitz 1940 by Apocalypse events in London. At the Secret Underground Bunker we returned to The Last Survivors which is now an Airsoft shooting style event while Zombiexperience have launched a new Airsoft venture which will see them expand to a number of new venues around the UK in 2014.
In the theme parks, Halloween dominated the line up over October with the film production company Lionsgate, taking over Thorpe Park and bringing new mazes based on some iconic horror movies. With the Asylum finally leaving in 2014 - it will be interesting to see which new films are included in this year's line up. Up at Alton Towers - the Sanctuary was opened at the start of the season as a pre-story to the not yet operating Smiler roller coaster. With a few changes from its 2012 debut, The Sanctuary was a massive hit with fans but unfortunately was unceremoniously closed for the summer to allow the new ride to take the limelight (if it would actually open!) When the maze returned at Halloween it was strangely included as a pay extra maze alongside Terror of the Towers, leaving the Carnival of Screams as the only free maze for the park. This did mean that the Carnival could get some new theming and effects which helped breathe life into what had become a fairly dull maze, while over at the Zombies scarezone, an impressive cast kept us on our toes every time we went through! Chessington World of Adventures surprised us with the truly scary Haunting in the Hollows and the magical makeover of Hocus Pocus Hall. Merlin's other main attraction - Warwick Castle created a number of impressive shows including the baffling "how did they do that" Seance and the terrifying The Curse of Henry Black.
Some of the smaller theme parks around the UK also joined in, with the Frightwater Valley event running for longer than before and PrimEVIL returning to Norfolk Dinosaur Park with a number of new mazes. New in the East Anglia region was Pleasurewood Chills that followed the launch of the "UK's scariest ride" in the summer with a brand new Halloween event. Over in Wales, Oakwood joined the Halloween party after a few years away and created the Theatre of Nightmares - a new adult only show involving live reptiles, while a slightly smaller Curse of Black Scream returned to Adventure Island in Southend. Xtreme Scream Park also came back for a second year and several of the mazes and attractions had improved since they were first introduced in 2012.
Obviously the big rush of events came during the Halloween season which started with the launch of the Morgue Live - a very impressive first event in the centre of Birmingham, which attracted good reviews and very long queues. This was the start of the biggest review period ever for us at ScareTOUR, and as our talented review team grew we were able to visit events up and down the country. This year we managed to visit some really new and different events including Terror Fest, Farm of Terror, Nevendon Manor, Bolsover castle, Toy Terror, Mission of Fear, Fright Site, Terror Tours, Oxford Castle, White Post Farm and Stockeld park. Many of these events have never been reviewed before and we thank them for the support and hospitality they showed us during our visits.
Of course - we have a number of major events that we visit each year without miss and these included a very impressive Tulleys Shocktoberfest, Dr Fright's Halloween Horror Nights which had really stepped up a level this year and Broadwitch Hauntfest which gave us some really different and exciting scares (especially the Willy Wonka themed corn maze!). Scare Kingdom impressed this year with the beautifully designed Manormortis and the shocking Pyschomanteurm. Over in Yorkshire - York Maze created an impressive event with an underlying story linking all the mazes while Yorkshire Scare Grounds gambled with an alien theme which didn't quite have the power of last year's zombies. Also in Yorkshire, the team from Primrose Unknown Projects created The Barn at Woolley Edge October Screams, which impressed every member of our review team who visited.
One of our highlights of 2012 was the revamped Screamfest Burton and this year saw two brand new mazes created by Andrew Porter. Nocturnal brought vampires to a very unusual setting and Soul Seekers was one of the most cohesive, well themed and original events we experienced in 2013. Another favourite of recent years has been Hop Farm Freak Week but, unfortunately the event didn't return this year. Fortunately, their main creative director - Tom Swift, took many of his concepts and ideas and created two exceptional mazes - The Hatch in Harlow and the confusing, astounding and down right scary Pitch Black in Kent. Meanwhile, over in Essex, Cursed moved to a new home in Basildon and the ghosts returned to the bus museum for the Castle Point Ghost Tours.
Talking of buses - we experienced both versions of the icionic Necrobus tours around London and Edinburgh.The show remains entertaining and fun despite being featured and criticised strongly on a Channel 4 business help documentary. While in Edinburgh, we attended a number of different ghost walks and tours and 2013 saw us visit loads more around the country including Chilling Chester and All Hallows in York.
Theatrically - the Circus of Horrors finished off one tour and started another with their recent shows being a month long weekend residency in London. We have also tried to remain cultured and have seen a number of horror themed plays including Let the Right One In, the ghost stories of MR James and Ghost Hunter by Theatre of the Damned. 2014 sees the return of Andy Nyman's Ghost Stories to London's West End and he exclusively revealed at ScareCON - that there are some new surprises hidden in the reworked show!
One of our key objectives at ScareTOUR is to unite the scare industry and its fans and over recent years we have organised a number of exclusive visits and behind the scenes tours at events up and down the country including being the only people to visit Cabin in The Woods at Thorpe and Carnival of Screams at Alton. We have also been offered many key discounts, free tickets for readers, competitions and more. We are already working on benefits for 2014 and all details will be posted to the site soon.
As many people will know - the ScareTOUR team also run ScareCON - Europe's biggest convention for the scare attraction industry and 2013 saw our largest year ever. Over 250 industry professionals descended on the Islington Metalworks in London to see trade stands, listen to seminars and attend workshops from the biggest names in the industry. As always, we had the most original and diverse line of guests wanting to share information and help those just starting out in the industry. Despite being a business show, ScareCON is also the social highlight of the scare calendar giving scare industry professionals the chance to let their hair down and mix with their counterparts. The packed daytime schedule was followed by the ScareBall - an evening of drink, food, some very sick entertainment and dancing. Those brave enough to stay on afterwards were treated to an overnight experience, The Vigil, where guests were led to believe they were experiencing real phenomena in a genuinely haunted building. The screams heard throughout the night were genuine and sometimes terrifying and even our cast managed to scare themselves in the darkened building!
Finally - as everyone who has been following us for years will know - we usually finish our review of the year with our "awards" - the personal favourites of Michael - the owner and author of this site. Well this year things are a little different and we can now reveal why:
The one thing that ScareCON has been missing since 2010 is an annual award ceremony where winners AND runners up can cheer on the lucky winners. This year will finally see the award ceremony return to ScareCON as part of the evening entertainment where it belongs. What is most unique and innovative about these awards is that they will be awarded by a judging panel who between them will have visited every single attraction across the UK. Each winner will be judged against strict pre-determined criteria which will mean that a small independent attraction could be judged against a large theme park attraction and still win. Criteria is not based on the number of people who visit, or how many votes a company can ask it's Facebook followers to vote for them, but is a true critical appraisal of one attraction against another. It's an exciting new concept that has been missing from the industry for years.
Full details of the new ScareCON Awards 2014 and the unique new categories will be revealed very soon - keep checking here or on the ScareCON site to see how you can get involved.
So that's it! 2013 is over and 2014 has already started and as you can see we have loads to look forward to already. This is just the tip of the iceberg, so don't forget to keep checking back for all the latest news, exciting exclusives, insightful features and the most comprehensive review directory in the UK. Thanks for all your support - see you at an event soon!
The ScareTOUR team
So starting off with the out of season events, it was an interesting year for some of the independent production companies, who all produced new and exciting events. More is More moved their Halloween event Evil Rising underground, staging The Hole in the abandoned and atmospheric Drakelow Tunnels. The event returned through the year in a number of different formats, which have all lead to the brand new Evil Rising event this year where players will get the chance to win £1,313 if they complete all the tasks in the game! Kernow Scare Attractions built a very impressive touring maze, Carni-Hell, which appeared at a number of high profile festivals around the country. New company Massacre Productions debuted their first scare attraction Syndrome and ScareCorp unveiled The Haunting. Both attractions were great first efforts from enthusiastic new talent and we look forward to seeing what they come up with this year.
GNG - a key player in the "out of season" scare maze scene had an unfortunate year with a number of unavoidable issues including a near riot at Cusworth Hall, budget restraints at Nightmare Circus and a complete loss of their venue for Leeds Fright Nights - a brand new joint production that was going to create the UK's first big indoor scream park. With a lacklustre Ravenwood Manor event earlier in the year, we know that the team are pushing to put the disappointments of last year behind them and come back in 2014 with a bang!
On the permanent front - there was quite a lot of change at the Dungeon attractions. York flooded in 2012 and finally reopened this year with a new and improved show, while the London Dungeon made the drastic move of relocating the whole attraction to a brand new venue in the County Hall. We were granted the last ever tour of the old venue and the first tour of the new one and we were generally impressed, although we do find the new venue can get quite crowded at times and the special effects on the boat ride are hit and miss as to whether they will be working when you visit! The new venues ushered in a new branding for all the Dungeon attractions and during the year we saw Blackpool Tower and Edinburgh Dungeon going through their transition phases from old to new.
2013 seemed to be a year for overnight scare events including The Vigil at ScareCON (see below), Camp Fear at Yorkshire Scare Grounds, Psychotel, Alton Towers scare rooms, Blair Witch Overnight at Thorpe Park and Horror Camp Live by AtmosFEAR. Some of the more shocking aspects of this event (sexual references and use of sex toys) were then taken to extreme levels in Scare Kingdom's Pyschomanteum attraction at Halloween. In a master of advertising this event was branded the "sickest attraction in the UK" by The Sun newspaper. Continuing down this theme, it will be interesting to see how extreme they continue to be with their new for 2014 production - SnuffHouse.
Last year also saw a number of events in unusual places - including the top of the O2 dome in London. The Climb of the Cursed was more impressive for the views and the climb than for the scares but it was definitely something unique and different. Over at another dome - we were stalked through the dark by tree monsters at the Eden Project We also experienced several exciting events in old historic buildings including the terrifying Fort Amherst Halloween Horrors (still one of the most intense attractions we have visited), The Creep in a fort on New Brighton seafront and Scarenation in an old Victorian factory full of ancient machinery.
Of course we don't just love static scare attractions, and this year we managed to catch up on a number of different horror events including Wolfmen by the team behind Zombie Boot Camp as well as Zombie Earth and Zombie Shoot Out at YSG. We visited the new "Asylum" version of the classic 2.8 Hours Later and the incredibly themed Zombie Blitz 1940 by Apocalypse events in London. At the Secret Underground Bunker we returned to The Last Survivors which is now an Airsoft shooting style event while Zombiexperience have launched a new Airsoft venture which will see them expand to a number of new venues around the UK in 2014.
In the theme parks, Halloween dominated the line up over October with the film production company Lionsgate, taking over Thorpe Park and bringing new mazes based on some iconic horror movies. With the Asylum finally leaving in 2014 - it will be interesting to see which new films are included in this year's line up. Up at Alton Towers - the Sanctuary was opened at the start of the season as a pre-story to the not yet operating Smiler roller coaster. With a few changes from its 2012 debut, The Sanctuary was a massive hit with fans but unfortunately was unceremoniously closed for the summer to allow the new ride to take the limelight (if it would actually open!) When the maze returned at Halloween it was strangely included as a pay extra maze alongside Terror of the Towers, leaving the Carnival of Screams as the only free maze for the park. This did mean that the Carnival could get some new theming and effects which helped breathe life into what had become a fairly dull maze, while over at the Zombies scarezone, an impressive cast kept us on our toes every time we went through! Chessington World of Adventures surprised us with the truly scary Haunting in the Hollows and the magical makeover of Hocus Pocus Hall. Merlin's other main attraction - Warwick Castle created a number of impressive shows including the baffling "how did they do that" Seance and the terrifying The Curse of Henry Black.
Some of the smaller theme parks around the UK also joined in, with the Frightwater Valley event running for longer than before and PrimEVIL returning to Norfolk Dinosaur Park with a number of new mazes. New in the East Anglia region was Pleasurewood Chills that followed the launch of the "UK's scariest ride" in the summer with a brand new Halloween event. Over in Wales, Oakwood joined the Halloween party after a few years away and created the Theatre of Nightmares - a new adult only show involving live reptiles, while a slightly smaller Curse of Black Scream returned to Adventure Island in Southend. Xtreme Scream Park also came back for a second year and several of the mazes and attractions had improved since they were first introduced in 2012.
Obviously the big rush of events came during the Halloween season which started with the launch of the Morgue Live - a very impressive first event in the centre of Birmingham, which attracted good reviews and very long queues. This was the start of the biggest review period ever for us at ScareTOUR, and as our talented review team grew we were able to visit events up and down the country. This year we managed to visit some really new and different events including Terror Fest, Farm of Terror, Nevendon Manor, Bolsover castle, Toy Terror, Mission of Fear, Fright Site, Terror Tours, Oxford Castle, White Post Farm and Stockeld park. Many of these events have never been reviewed before and we thank them for the support and hospitality they showed us during our visits.
Of course - we have a number of major events that we visit each year without miss and these included a very impressive Tulleys Shocktoberfest, Dr Fright's Halloween Horror Nights which had really stepped up a level this year and Broadwitch Hauntfest which gave us some really different and exciting scares (especially the Willy Wonka themed corn maze!). Scare Kingdom impressed this year with the beautifully designed Manormortis and the shocking Pyschomanteurm. Over in Yorkshire - York Maze created an impressive event with an underlying story linking all the mazes while Yorkshire Scare Grounds gambled with an alien theme which didn't quite have the power of last year's zombies. Also in Yorkshire, the team from Primrose Unknown Projects created The Barn at Woolley Edge October Screams, which impressed every member of our review team who visited.
One of our highlights of 2012 was the revamped Screamfest Burton and this year saw two brand new mazes created by Andrew Porter. Nocturnal brought vampires to a very unusual setting and Soul Seekers was one of the most cohesive, well themed and original events we experienced in 2013. Another favourite of recent years has been Hop Farm Freak Week but, unfortunately the event didn't return this year. Fortunately, their main creative director - Tom Swift, took many of his concepts and ideas and created two exceptional mazes - The Hatch in Harlow and the confusing, astounding and down right scary Pitch Black in Kent. Meanwhile, over in Essex, Cursed moved to a new home in Basildon and the ghosts returned to the bus museum for the Castle Point Ghost Tours.
Talking of buses - we experienced both versions of the icionic Necrobus tours around London and Edinburgh.The show remains entertaining and fun despite being featured and criticised strongly on a Channel 4 business help documentary. While in Edinburgh, we attended a number of different ghost walks and tours and 2013 saw us visit loads more around the country including Chilling Chester and All Hallows in York.
Theatrically - the Circus of Horrors finished off one tour and started another with their recent shows being a month long weekend residency in London. We have also tried to remain cultured and have seen a number of horror themed plays including Let the Right One In, the ghost stories of MR James and Ghost Hunter by Theatre of the Damned. 2014 sees the return of Andy Nyman's Ghost Stories to London's West End and he exclusively revealed at ScareCON - that there are some new surprises hidden in the reworked show!
One of our key objectives at ScareTOUR is to unite the scare industry and its fans and over recent years we have organised a number of exclusive visits and behind the scenes tours at events up and down the country including being the only people to visit Cabin in The Woods at Thorpe and Carnival of Screams at Alton. We have also been offered many key discounts, free tickets for readers, competitions and more. We are already working on benefits for 2014 and all details will be posted to the site soon.
As many people will know - the ScareTOUR team also run ScareCON - Europe's biggest convention for the scare attraction industry and 2013 saw our largest year ever. Over 250 industry professionals descended on the Islington Metalworks in London to see trade stands, listen to seminars and attend workshops from the biggest names in the industry. As always, we had the most original and diverse line of guests wanting to share information and help those just starting out in the industry. Despite being a business show, ScareCON is also the social highlight of the scare calendar giving scare industry professionals the chance to let their hair down and mix with their counterparts. The packed daytime schedule was followed by the ScareBall - an evening of drink, food, some very sick entertainment and dancing. Those brave enough to stay on afterwards were treated to an overnight experience, The Vigil, where guests were led to believe they were experiencing real phenomena in a genuinely haunted building. The screams heard throughout the night were genuine and sometimes terrifying and even our cast managed to scare themselves in the darkened building!
Finally - as everyone who has been following us for years will know - we usually finish our review of the year with our "awards" - the personal favourites of Michael - the owner and author of this site. Well this year things are a little different and we can now reveal why:
The one thing that ScareCON has been missing since 2010 is an annual award ceremony where winners AND runners up can cheer on the lucky winners. This year will finally see the award ceremony return to ScareCON as part of the evening entertainment where it belongs. What is most unique and innovative about these awards is that they will be awarded by a judging panel who between them will have visited every single attraction across the UK. Each winner will be judged against strict pre-determined criteria which will mean that a small independent attraction could be judged against a large theme park attraction and still win. Criteria is not based on the number of people who visit, or how many votes a company can ask it's Facebook followers to vote for them, but is a true critical appraisal of one attraction against another. It's an exciting new concept that has been missing from the industry for years.
Full details of the new ScareCON Awards 2014 and the unique new categories will be revealed very soon - keep checking here or on the ScareCON site to see how you can get involved.
So that's it! 2013 is over and 2014 has already started and as you can see we have loads to look forward to already. This is just the tip of the iceberg, so don't forget to keep checking back for all the latest news, exciting exclusives, insightful features and the most comprehensive review directory in the UK. Thanks for all your support - see you at an event soon!
The ScareTOUR team
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