Halloween Nights - Europa Park 2015
Europa Parks Horror Nights event is back for its 9th season with now two prestigious SCAR awards under their belts. With more attractions than ever and their first ever up-charge escape game attraction, we were more than eager to fly to Germany and visit this high octane, adrenalin fuelled, shot drinking event.
The Cave was the first attraction on our list when entering Horror Nights. As we ventured through a real forest of trees we entered the rather brightly light cave. The Caves stand out positive is its simple yet extremely effective theming, not at any point did we think we were in a marque. The walls, floor, ceiling were all carved and shaped and textured to feel like you were in a real cave. Throughout our journey we came face to face to some extremely obscure creatures which timed some great scares. Huge hands and heads jumping at you from all angles made the Cave an unusual yet fun attraction.
The Big Shoe Casino appears to be a standard clown maze, however the casino has some dark secrets. The attraction starts off in an extremely fun a roudy casino for clowns, the laughs in here out-way the scares with some great interaction with the multiple clowns gambling and drinking. The group then were split up through separate doors. The scene with the two routes was occupied from the craziest and funniest clown we have ever encountered, his rendition of ‘All that Jazz’ was phenomenal and demanded an applause. The rest of the maze had a great contrast of scenes of dark dingy alleys with ‘dirty’ clowns to the brightest finale we have seen in a long time. Big Shoe casino housed some of the livelier actors of the whole Horror Nights and we were picked on and made to go alone on numerous visits. Hats off to the Big Shoe Clowns.
The Curse of the Mummy used the route of our previous favourite maze ‘Dead Inside’. The new theme fit well with the use of Poseidon’s (Water ride) queue line areas. We had some great impact scares from Mummy’s and explorers but unfortunately some areas fell a little flat. The length of the maze is impressive compared to others but some areas needed more action. Although the animatronic ending using a Mummy’s coffin made for a fun ending.
Labor is a returning maze from last years event and has remained untouched. This medical facility tests on zombies and lets you get up, close and personal with their boisterous test subjects. However as the attraction goes on, we enter the basement where all hell breaks loose with zombies attacking from all angles. This maze similarly to last year has a great use of trip switches that change lighting and sound to coincide with the actors scare, giving you a triple whammy of terror!
Nightmare Escape is also a returning maze from last year. This years incarnation had a few subtle scene changes, some for the better but some for the worse. This years outdoor scene wasn’t as impressive as last years Nightgrabber forest section which was really unfortunate as that was lasts year best place for scares, however changes inside the attraction made up for this. The use of a projection scare was rather impressive and gave a great scare as a screaming girl would come hurtling towards the group.
The Mansion was the parks first attempt at an extra up-charge attraction. The attraction cost 20 Euros and was around a 20 minute experience made up of rooms in which we had to play games to escape. The theming was extremely smart and we could truly believe we were a part of the crazed millionairs game within his beautiful mansion. Some of the games did seem too difficult and we believe we were made to actually loose the games to keep the story continuing. Although we thought this may be irritating, it actually did make for an impressive narrative (although we had a little trouble with the language barrier). One huge positive for the Mansion was the use of the planted actors. Members of our group were pulled away and sacrificed and each planted actor played their roles so well, we didn’t spot them at all. We enjoyed the Mansion and after speaking with Marc Terenzi (Pop-star, Maze designer) we understand next years Mansion will be far crazier than this years, and in English!
Scare-Zones (K-CAM street, Excavation, Nightgrabber forest) The free flow scare zones of Europa Park Horror Nights are sometimes where you can find your biggest scares. All three scare zones have their own unique theme and feel and the attractions liveliest actors. What makes Horror Nights amazing is the use of roaming actors everywhere! Not just in mazes and Scare zones. This reviewer was attacked by three chainsaw wielding maniacs as soon as we entered through the Horror Nights gate setting the bar high for the rest of the night.
Europa Park Horror nights have so much on offer that keep you blood pumping until midnight. Not only does the event offer world class scare mazes, scare zones, night rides and roaming actors. But also boasts an amazing ice show, dance show and a performance from Leon Fuller who sings the events rock soundtrack. Europa Park once again managed to deliver and live up to its Scar Award of best international scare event.
The Cave was the first attraction on our list when entering Horror Nights. As we ventured through a real forest of trees we entered the rather brightly light cave. The Caves stand out positive is its simple yet extremely effective theming, not at any point did we think we were in a marque. The walls, floor, ceiling were all carved and shaped and textured to feel like you were in a real cave. Throughout our journey we came face to face to some extremely obscure creatures which timed some great scares. Huge hands and heads jumping at you from all angles made the Cave an unusual yet fun attraction.
The Big Shoe Casino appears to be a standard clown maze, however the casino has some dark secrets. The attraction starts off in an extremely fun a roudy casino for clowns, the laughs in here out-way the scares with some great interaction with the multiple clowns gambling and drinking. The group then were split up through separate doors. The scene with the two routes was occupied from the craziest and funniest clown we have ever encountered, his rendition of ‘All that Jazz’ was phenomenal and demanded an applause. The rest of the maze had a great contrast of scenes of dark dingy alleys with ‘dirty’ clowns to the brightest finale we have seen in a long time. Big Shoe casino housed some of the livelier actors of the whole Horror Nights and we were picked on and made to go alone on numerous visits. Hats off to the Big Shoe Clowns.
The Curse of the Mummy used the route of our previous favourite maze ‘Dead Inside’. The new theme fit well with the use of Poseidon’s (Water ride) queue line areas. We had some great impact scares from Mummy’s and explorers but unfortunately some areas fell a little flat. The length of the maze is impressive compared to others but some areas needed more action. Although the animatronic ending using a Mummy’s coffin made for a fun ending.
Labor is a returning maze from last years event and has remained untouched. This medical facility tests on zombies and lets you get up, close and personal with their boisterous test subjects. However as the attraction goes on, we enter the basement where all hell breaks loose with zombies attacking from all angles. This maze similarly to last year has a great use of trip switches that change lighting and sound to coincide with the actors scare, giving you a triple whammy of terror!
Nightmare Escape is also a returning maze from last year. This years incarnation had a few subtle scene changes, some for the better but some for the worse. This years outdoor scene wasn’t as impressive as last years Nightgrabber forest section which was really unfortunate as that was lasts year best place for scares, however changes inside the attraction made up for this. The use of a projection scare was rather impressive and gave a great scare as a screaming girl would come hurtling towards the group.
The Mansion was the parks first attempt at an extra up-charge attraction. The attraction cost 20 Euros and was around a 20 minute experience made up of rooms in which we had to play games to escape. The theming was extremely smart and we could truly believe we were a part of the crazed millionairs game within his beautiful mansion. Some of the games did seem too difficult and we believe we were made to actually loose the games to keep the story continuing. Although we thought this may be irritating, it actually did make for an impressive narrative (although we had a little trouble with the language barrier). One huge positive for the Mansion was the use of the planted actors. Members of our group were pulled away and sacrificed and each planted actor played their roles so well, we didn’t spot them at all. We enjoyed the Mansion and after speaking with Marc Terenzi (Pop-star, Maze designer) we understand next years Mansion will be far crazier than this years, and in English!
Scare-Zones (K-CAM street, Excavation, Nightgrabber forest) The free flow scare zones of Europa Park Horror Nights are sometimes where you can find your biggest scares. All three scare zones have their own unique theme and feel and the attractions liveliest actors. What makes Horror Nights amazing is the use of roaming actors everywhere! Not just in mazes and Scare zones. This reviewer was attacked by three chainsaw wielding maniacs as soon as we entered through the Horror Nights gate setting the bar high for the rest of the night.
Europa Park Horror nights have so much on offer that keep you blood pumping until midnight. Not only does the event offer world class scare mazes, scare zones, night rides and roaming actors. But also boasts an amazing ice show, dance show and a performance from Leon Fuller who sings the events rock soundtrack. Europa Park once again managed to deliver and live up to its Scar Award of best international scare event.
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