Halloween Hocus Pocus at Chessington - 2012 Review
Chessington World of Adventures is not the first place you think of visiting when looking to be scared, but over recent years the park have added a number of attractions that have pushed the boundaries of what can be done in, what is predominantly,a children's park.
In 2011 we visited the park twice - first to experience Twilight Zone - a new temporary attraction to celebrate 21 years of the Vampire roller-coaster and then again at Halloween to try out The Krypt - you can read our reviews of this on the links below.
This year, the park has pared down its maze offerring with just two attractions. Hocus Pocus Hall: Bewitched and the new maze Vampire: The Haunting in the Hollows
Hocus Pocus Hall: Bewitched
In previous years Hocus Pocus Hall: Bewitched has been like a junior scare attraction with some genuine jumps along the way as witches and goblins would make sudden appearances around every corner. This year any allusion to the attraction being scary has gone and instead all the character interactions are script based monologues to help the story. Saying that, the characters were doing a good job of involving the smaller children in the group who were genuinely enchanted by the story line The only startle scares in the whole attraction were from a couple of animatronic goblins in the mirror maze finale.
Vampire: The Haunting in The Hollows
The Haunting in the Hollows starts out quite similar to the previous existing Black Forest Walk, in that guests interact with live actors in a well themed outdoor environment. The tension was darker than previous attractions though as talk soon turned to people being drained of blood by the evil Count Dracula!
Before long we are face to face with one of the Count's victims and despite the "surprise " being signposted well ahead of it happening, the lighting and sound effects made many of our group jump in fright!
As the story continued through more scenes, the tension mounted and the mood got darker. Before long we were ushered into a final room which managed to throw a number of good scare tactics at us with sudden appearances, blinding lights, impenetrable fog and some actors who were just on the right side of terrifying. Leading the group, it was almost impossible to work out where to walk and it was a great relief to emerge back into the daylight at the end!
The interesting thing about Haunting in The Hollows is that the finale is actually pretty scary. We stood for a while watching people come out and everyone seemed to be loving it but we did see a few smaller children whose parents had clearly not read the warning signs!
Before long we are face to face with one of the Count's victims and despite the "surprise " being signposted well ahead of it happening, the lighting and sound effects made many of our group jump in fright!
As the story continued through more scenes, the tension mounted and the mood got darker. Before long we were ushered into a final room which managed to throw a number of good scare tactics at us with sudden appearances, blinding lights, impenetrable fog and some actors who were just on the right side of terrifying. Leading the group, it was almost impossible to work out where to walk and it was a great relief to emerge back into the daylight at the end!
The interesting thing about Haunting in The Hollows is that the finale is actually pretty scary. We stood for a while watching people come out and everyone seemed to be loving it but we did see a few smaller children whose parents had clearly not read the warning signs!
The scares in Haunting in the Hollows are some of the highest Chessington have ever done, yet Hocus Pocus Hall felt really restrained and non scary this year. Was there a reason for this? While talking to the entertainments manager we found out that the park had deliberately taken the scares out of Hocus Pocus to focus on a good solid family show that younger kids could enjoy. But they knew that this would alienate the younger teenage audience (the ones who are too young to visit the extreme mazes at Thorpe Park.) Therefore the Hollows was designed as a "young adults" style show - with plenty of scares and sustained tension but none of the violence and blood of a full adult show. With that in mind, the maze is a perfect fit for the park.
Links
2011 ScareTOUR review of Hocus Pocus
Spring 2011 review of Twilight Zone
Official Chessington World of Adventures website - www.chessington.com
Spring 2011 review of Twilight Zone
Official Chessington World of Adventures website - www.chessington.com
You Review
Haunting of the Hollows - a very theatrical piece with some brilliant actors catering for both the young and old. Much better than the year before there was a lot for this attraction to give to the public. The first story and the story ahead of you was a very classic tale of Van Helsing and Dracula but very well told by villagers along the way and the characters themselves. I saw a lot of crying and scared children especially in the final tent which was filled with so much smoke it was nearly impossible to see with people jumping out at you. It was a great ending to an attraction made for the slightly younger that could still deliver to an older audience
Hocus Pocus Hall Bewitched - this attraction was very poor this year. Witches in were telling stories that were basically an edited version of Harry Potter and I even heard a remark from a small child that they was bored. Hence I will say no more about it than it needs a lot of work.
Hocus Pocus Hall Bewitched - this attraction was very poor this year. Witches in were telling stories that were basically an edited version of Harry Potter and I even heard a remark from a small child that they was bored. Hence I will say no more about it than it needs a lot of work.
You Review
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