Alton Towers Scarefest - 2007
Alton Towers Mazes: One Week Later
It’s amazing how much things can change in a week. We recently went back to Alton Towers and saw the Scarefest attractions in a whole new light!
Like any professional production, there are going to be teething troubles and often it takes a few nights for those problems to be identified and corrected.
Many people argue that things should be ready on opening night but in the real world this never happens. Successful West End shows run for 2 or 3 weeks in preview before the critics are allowed to see them. Alton never got this – by the end of their first evening, reports about what worked and what didn’t were flying around the internet damning the attractions before many people had even had the chance to make their own minds up. We ourselves were quite harsh about Terror of the Terrors calling it weak and not worthy of its 5 pumpkin rating.
The biggest issue around all the mazes at the start seemed to be capacity. The first weekend reported over 2 hours queues for some of the attractions and serious problems with scripts and scares. Fortunately for us – Alton have listened to the comments made by people and have worked hard over the last week to try and correct some of the faults. We visited them all gain this week with high hopes.
Terror of The Towers
In our previous review we made it quite clear that we were really disappointed with this maze. It looked beautiful, it had clever special effects and the acting talent were fun but we just didn’t feel that the whole package was scary. In fact on our first visit we had more “scares” in Haunted Hollow than we did in the Towers!
Fortunately this has been rectified in places and throughout the kitchen and labyrinth scenes there were quite a few “attacks” that had the group screaming to get away. Unfortunately in the scripted kitchen section this is a bit off putting as people end up looking around as opposed to listening to the actor telling the story.
The attraction then continues at a stop start pace which in our opinion, still kills the pacing of the story. Apart from the occasional “in your face “comment from an actor, the static commentary scenes just aren’t scary. During all our visits we found people laughing or looking confused or even straining to hear what was being said over the surrounding noise as opposed to cowering in fright.
And then on to the final room. This scene is just too large to be manned by just one person – however big he might be! As the final scare and the big crescendo ending, the whole thing falls flat and leaves people wanting more
We must be clear here – we don’t dislike TOTT, it is extremely well done and creates a great atmosphere of dread. It just isn’t scary and doesn’t deserve to be advertised as the 5 pumpkin (i.e. the most scary) attraction on the resort!
We believe that more actors will be going into the attraction later in the week, which should help to increase the scare factor, and we look forward to seeing what effect this has. In our personal opinion, we would cut the scripted monologues, keep the momentum (and capacity) up by keeping people moving at all times, and go for more short sharp scares. The actors could still tell the attractions story but as snappier dialogue directed at guests as they walk by? “What are you doing in the freezer?” “Come back here, the master needs feeding” etc
With that and more sudden scares along the way, Terror of the Towers could be as fantastic as it was back in 2003!
Room 13
Our last review of Room 13 stated that although it was fast and brutal in places – it lacked the sheer intensity of the 2006 version. Well what a difference a few days makes! Room 13 has now become a non-stop sensory assault that provides a short sharp adrenalin shot from beginning to end. Even though the scripted piece in the middle has remained, the constant attacks by the previous rooms occupant, left everyone screaming for more!
The maze feels like it is populated by a dozen or so actors and it is a credit to the infrastructure design that only 5 actors are able to get around behind the scenes so much and pop up in unexpected places!
Other design touches have been made including a roof on the original bedroom and more obstacles in the garden room to pull people closer to the actors in the story.
As we have said before – we found 2006 to be an incredible maze and the 07 versions certainly matches it for scares and intensity. Although both years’ stories are tied together via a new video feature near the beginning, the clown and nanny scenes seem slightly out of place compared to the darkness around the rest of the maze.
Also interesting to note is that the attraction now operates double batching. This means that there are 2 groups in at any one time. It’s quite funny while standing in the opening bedroom scene to hear what’s going on later in the maze including character shouts, bangs and guest screams. Some people may consider this off-putting but it is unavoidable due to the size of the conference room and the twisty route of the maze. We found it just heightened the tension and created more fear of the unknown for our group!
Field of 1000 screams
Not a lot has changed in the field. The story and effects play out as originally planned and it’s still a tense nerve-wracking experience that builds to an OTT finale. Again without giving too much away the final building has taken a bit of a pounding and we found it hard to see through some of the windows due to masking tape repairs!
Even so a very critical element of the show has been delayed by the postal strikes and has now arrived at the resort. Some final tweaks will be made over the next few days to incorporate this into the storyline. Don’t forget to look for an in-depth article after the event explaining exactly what it was like to be a zombie for the night!
Haunted Hollow Live
We first experienced this at Dusk where we found it fun and just a little spooky. This time we strolled down the Hollow in full night time and the eerie lights, the talented actors and the spooky atmosphere had quite a few people screaming at different times. With at least a week of the event set after the end of British Summer time – this walkway should not be missed as it will get extremely dark down there!
As you can see – Alton have listened to comments from people and have applied changed where need and where possible. Granted the whole of Terror of TheTowers can’t be rewritten overnight but the fact that the creative team are prepared to listen bodes extremely well for future incarnations of the event.
It’s amazing how much things can change in a week. We recently went back to Alton Towers and saw the Scarefest attractions in a whole new light!
Like any professional production, there are going to be teething troubles and often it takes a few nights for those problems to be identified and corrected.
Many people argue that things should be ready on opening night but in the real world this never happens. Successful West End shows run for 2 or 3 weeks in preview before the critics are allowed to see them. Alton never got this – by the end of their first evening, reports about what worked and what didn’t were flying around the internet damning the attractions before many people had even had the chance to make their own minds up. We ourselves were quite harsh about Terror of the Terrors calling it weak and not worthy of its 5 pumpkin rating.
The biggest issue around all the mazes at the start seemed to be capacity. The first weekend reported over 2 hours queues for some of the attractions and serious problems with scripts and scares. Fortunately for us – Alton have listened to the comments made by people and have worked hard over the last week to try and correct some of the faults. We visited them all gain this week with high hopes.
Terror of The Towers
In our previous review we made it quite clear that we were really disappointed with this maze. It looked beautiful, it had clever special effects and the acting talent were fun but we just didn’t feel that the whole package was scary. In fact on our first visit we had more “scares” in Haunted Hollow than we did in the Towers!
Fortunately this has been rectified in places and throughout the kitchen and labyrinth scenes there were quite a few “attacks” that had the group screaming to get away. Unfortunately in the scripted kitchen section this is a bit off putting as people end up looking around as opposed to listening to the actor telling the story.
The attraction then continues at a stop start pace which in our opinion, still kills the pacing of the story. Apart from the occasional “in your face “comment from an actor, the static commentary scenes just aren’t scary. During all our visits we found people laughing or looking confused or even straining to hear what was being said over the surrounding noise as opposed to cowering in fright.
And then on to the final room. This scene is just too large to be manned by just one person – however big he might be! As the final scare and the big crescendo ending, the whole thing falls flat and leaves people wanting more
We must be clear here – we don’t dislike TOTT, it is extremely well done and creates a great atmosphere of dread. It just isn’t scary and doesn’t deserve to be advertised as the 5 pumpkin (i.e. the most scary) attraction on the resort!
We believe that more actors will be going into the attraction later in the week, which should help to increase the scare factor, and we look forward to seeing what effect this has. In our personal opinion, we would cut the scripted monologues, keep the momentum (and capacity) up by keeping people moving at all times, and go for more short sharp scares. The actors could still tell the attractions story but as snappier dialogue directed at guests as they walk by? “What are you doing in the freezer?” “Come back here, the master needs feeding” etc
With that and more sudden scares along the way, Terror of the Towers could be as fantastic as it was back in 2003!
Room 13
Our last review of Room 13 stated that although it was fast and brutal in places – it lacked the sheer intensity of the 2006 version. Well what a difference a few days makes! Room 13 has now become a non-stop sensory assault that provides a short sharp adrenalin shot from beginning to end. Even though the scripted piece in the middle has remained, the constant attacks by the previous rooms occupant, left everyone screaming for more!
The maze feels like it is populated by a dozen or so actors and it is a credit to the infrastructure design that only 5 actors are able to get around behind the scenes so much and pop up in unexpected places!
Other design touches have been made including a roof on the original bedroom and more obstacles in the garden room to pull people closer to the actors in the story.
As we have said before – we found 2006 to be an incredible maze and the 07 versions certainly matches it for scares and intensity. Although both years’ stories are tied together via a new video feature near the beginning, the clown and nanny scenes seem slightly out of place compared to the darkness around the rest of the maze.
Also interesting to note is that the attraction now operates double batching. This means that there are 2 groups in at any one time. It’s quite funny while standing in the opening bedroom scene to hear what’s going on later in the maze including character shouts, bangs and guest screams. Some people may consider this off-putting but it is unavoidable due to the size of the conference room and the twisty route of the maze. We found it just heightened the tension and created more fear of the unknown for our group!
Field of 1000 screams
Not a lot has changed in the field. The story and effects play out as originally planned and it’s still a tense nerve-wracking experience that builds to an OTT finale. Again without giving too much away the final building has taken a bit of a pounding and we found it hard to see through some of the windows due to masking tape repairs!
Even so a very critical element of the show has been delayed by the postal strikes and has now arrived at the resort. Some final tweaks will be made over the next few days to incorporate this into the storyline. Don’t forget to look for an in-depth article after the event explaining exactly what it was like to be a zombie for the night!
Haunted Hollow Live
We first experienced this at Dusk where we found it fun and just a little spooky. This time we strolled down the Hollow in full night time and the eerie lights, the talented actors and the spooky atmosphere had quite a few people screaming at different times. With at least a week of the event set after the end of British Summer time – this walkway should not be missed as it will get extremely dark down there!
As you can see – Alton have listened to comments from people and have applied changed where need and where possible. Granted the whole of Terror of TheTowers can’t be rewritten overnight but the fact that the creative team are prepared to listen bodes extremely well for future incarnations of the event.
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