Halloween Haunt Fest - Review
A lot has been said about Halloween Haunt Fest since its preview last week, and not all the comments have been very kind. Granted, it was clearly a case of over promising and under delivering, but is this event the unrelenting “shit storm“ that people have been claiming it is? The answer is a definitive NO
The site itself is quite large, and the layout allows for a good number of fairground rides, a quality range of food options down the centralised "street" and a gathering of four scare attractions clustered around the central courtyard. Sadly because the site is on quite a defined slope, the mazes have all had to be built on platforms to allow there to be a flat surface for the marquees. This alone must have cost a fortune and of course creates a potential health and safety issue as people go up and down potentially slippery ramps and steps. It also means for a brand new site – none of the mazes are wheelchair accessible.
Alongside the maze marquees, there is a beer tent with a stage that has some amazing performers such as Funny Bones the sword swallower and the insane Devils Lantern fire show that remains the most impressive fire act we have ever seen.
So, the four mazes all had some strong parts but also were completely lacking in others. For example, in Texas Chainsaw Massacre we loved the use of the iconic silver sliding door from the movie. The problem was this was only visible to the first few people in the group as the rest were still making their way up the stairs. Between rooms we could see into other scenes, because only a small piece of hessian cloth was covering the boo holes and cut-throughs. This is easily fixable but was off putting on the night.
With Eden we loved the sets and alien designs but without any intro or story briefing we had no idea what was going on. Some better actor training wouldn’t go amiss here too as we had a lot of the “help” me and “get out” tropes that we all know are a solid no no in any scare attraction!
The strongest maze was easily Witches (it has a much longer name than that, but people only ever refer to it as the witch maze,) This maze was dark and claustrophobic with a great central room akin to Doom Town at Tulleys. Being able to see other groups traverse the attraction is great fun, and the actors were doing their best scare everyone. Sadly, the big finale fell flat because the side of the marquee was wide open and we could see the fairground rides outside. It just ruined the immersion in what was clearly designed to be a fairly impactful finale.
And finally, we must cover Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey. When this maze was announced we were all really excited to see how they would pull this off, but sadly the storytelling and clever concept just failed in its execution. A lack of mics on the actors ruined the plot point about cutting from movie 1 to movie 2 and just made the maze confusing. Yes, there were some fun jump scares, and the masks were straight out the movie, but for a maze to be based on such a universally panned movie, the approach should have been very tongue in check, and would have worked a treat. Instead, it turned into a non-ironic scare maze that just left us confused as to what was happening.
Outside of the mazes, the street team were fantastic. Especially on preview night when the Witches maze wasn’t operational for most of the night, so they were just released into the wild to have fun with the public.
So, in summary, we had a fun time – but it really wasn’t the polished experience we were promised. Since preview nights we have heard much more positive feedback, so we hope the team have turned it around. Opening a scream park of this magnitude is no easy task and the team should be commended for their bravery in even attempting it. We sincerely hope that the adage of “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” will prevail here, and the team will bounce back from opening night seatbacks and become the force in scare events we all wanted them to be.
The site itself is quite large, and the layout allows for a good number of fairground rides, a quality range of food options down the centralised "street" and a gathering of four scare attractions clustered around the central courtyard. Sadly because the site is on quite a defined slope, the mazes have all had to be built on platforms to allow there to be a flat surface for the marquees. This alone must have cost a fortune and of course creates a potential health and safety issue as people go up and down potentially slippery ramps and steps. It also means for a brand new site – none of the mazes are wheelchair accessible.
Alongside the maze marquees, there is a beer tent with a stage that has some amazing performers such as Funny Bones the sword swallower and the insane Devils Lantern fire show that remains the most impressive fire act we have ever seen.
So, the four mazes all had some strong parts but also were completely lacking in others. For example, in Texas Chainsaw Massacre we loved the use of the iconic silver sliding door from the movie. The problem was this was only visible to the first few people in the group as the rest were still making their way up the stairs. Between rooms we could see into other scenes, because only a small piece of hessian cloth was covering the boo holes and cut-throughs. This is easily fixable but was off putting on the night.
With Eden we loved the sets and alien designs but without any intro or story briefing we had no idea what was going on. Some better actor training wouldn’t go amiss here too as we had a lot of the “help” me and “get out” tropes that we all know are a solid no no in any scare attraction!
The strongest maze was easily Witches (it has a much longer name than that, but people only ever refer to it as the witch maze,) This maze was dark and claustrophobic with a great central room akin to Doom Town at Tulleys. Being able to see other groups traverse the attraction is great fun, and the actors were doing their best scare everyone. Sadly, the big finale fell flat because the side of the marquee was wide open and we could see the fairground rides outside. It just ruined the immersion in what was clearly designed to be a fairly impactful finale.
And finally, we must cover Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey. When this maze was announced we were all really excited to see how they would pull this off, but sadly the storytelling and clever concept just failed in its execution. A lack of mics on the actors ruined the plot point about cutting from movie 1 to movie 2 and just made the maze confusing. Yes, there were some fun jump scares, and the masks were straight out the movie, but for a maze to be based on such a universally panned movie, the approach should have been very tongue in check, and would have worked a treat. Instead, it turned into a non-ironic scare maze that just left us confused as to what was happening.
Outside of the mazes, the street team were fantastic. Especially on preview night when the Witches maze wasn’t operational for most of the night, so they were just released into the wild to have fun with the public.
So, in summary, we had a fun time – but it really wasn’t the polished experience we were promised. Since preview nights we have heard much more positive feedback, so we hope the team have turned it around. Opening a scream park of this magnitude is no easy task and the team should be commended for their bravery in even attempting it. We sincerely hope that the adage of “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” will prevail here, and the team will bounce back from opening night seatbacks and become the force in scare events we all wanted them to be.
Visited on a Sunday night, had multiple runs in all mazes as it was very quiet. I also noticed most visitors left quite quickly, they did not hang around. Texas chain saw - the dinner party set looked fantastic and the actress had her head rammed into the table by Leatherface. It all looked very realistic. I think Texas chainsaw was my favorite. Pooh bear - not a scary maze but was funny when the police shone a torch in my face and got me with a surprise mini jump scare. Eden - not scary, felt like Laser Quest without any laser shooting, Eden would benefit from more smoke and being darker inside. Witches maze, I was not sure when to stop and watch or keep walking. Firebreather was amazing, great job, roaming actors were all brilliant. I think this event seems to be more of an experience event than an out and out scary event, certainly the mazes are not tight enclosed corridors. It is all too brightly lit so there is no buildup of suspense of walking in the dark. I guess my only point of real concern is the STAIRS going up and down ALL of the mazes, that's just a hazard, I do not know of any other scare maze in the UK which uses so many entrance and exit stairs. a Disabled person would struggle to attend this event. It is also quite likely someone will trip or fall down the stairs so i am surprised they had a Health and Safety sign off for a SCARE event. they can have all the IP they want but if someone gets a head and neck injury falling down those stairs they will end up in court. I appreciate they made great effort and built the sets on stilts on the hill as you pointed out in your review video but reality is someone will fall. Anyway I had a good night but I think Halloween Haunt Fest could have serious problems if anyone falls down the stairs, no actor can chase anyone outside of a maze or out of a maze there so that is 1 scare that will never happen there!
was it value for money?? I would say NO. Because 4 mazes at the highest price point they are charging for what are very quick mazes to get through kind of doesn't make sense I am afraid.
also having the 4 mazes so close together was odd, usually mazes are spread around a park so everyone can walk around and debrief, chill out, get some food and drink, i think that annoyed a lot of the vloggers, everyones used to walking around randomly across a scare park. The fairground rides were totally empty, never used even once as far as I could tell. They also have competition from The Howl which is only 25 minutes drive away. It was good to see a new event in a year where there seem to be less events overall but im not totally seeing how these guys are going to make a return on their investment at the moment.
Would you visit again another year?
Yes
Email (required for verification and prize notification)
[email protected]
was it value for money?? I would say NO. Because 4 mazes at the highest price point they are charging for what are very quick mazes to get through kind of doesn't make sense I am afraid.
also having the 4 mazes so close together was odd, usually mazes are spread around a park so everyone can walk around and debrief, chill out, get some food and drink, i think that annoyed a lot of the vloggers, everyones used to walking around randomly across a scare park. The fairground rides were totally empty, never used even once as far as I could tell. They also have competition from The Howl which is only 25 minutes drive away. It was good to see a new event in a year where there seem to be less events overall but im not totally seeing how these guys are going to make a return on their investment at the moment.
Would you visit again another year?
Yes
Email (required for verification and prize notification)
[email protected]
Links:
Official website
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