Haunted Horror at York maze - 2007
After a successful maize maze season, the York Maze likes to go out with a bang and for 2 nights in September they host their annual Haunted Horror Maze.
The concept is very simple - wait until its really dark, don’t turn any lights on, have 30 or so roaming scare actors and then throw groups of people in to find their way out!
Unfortunately finding your way out isn’t as simple. The maze is actually the largest maize maze in the world and covers two whole fields. This would be confusing during daylight, but when we went through it was dark. We mean REALLY dark. We mean not being able to see the person 2 or 3 feet in front of you dark!
The only real light came from strobe and fog filled tunnel entrance, which was really disorientating. Add in the chilling themes from Halloween and the Exorcist that the sinister DJs kept playing made an exciting start to a really fun if terrifying evening.
Once through the tunnel and realising how dark it is, the last thing you want is some maniac with a chainsaw or a demented Freddy Kruger leaping out from the stalks and scaring the **** out of you!
The actors are a mix of volunteers and professional scarers hired from the local York Dungeon, but all know how to use the darkness to scare everyone effectively. Unfortunately sometimes due to the size of the maze, it felt a little under populated at times with a few long stretches with no monsters seen at all. Even so we usually found that just as we let out guard down and started to get complacent something would appear from nowhere and scare us again!
Even without the direct attacks it was very spooky walking through the tall maize stalks hearing distant screams, chainsaws and shouting coming from nearby and not knowing whether to go that way or head off in a different direction!
The site being so big meant that you infrequently bumped into other groups and were only able to see the odd flicker of torch light over the field. We found that too many people congregated around the torch lit middle section as this was where the two chain saw freaks tended to stay. So instead of true heart pounding surprise people were waiting for them to return. This area was the only people dense area and would have benefited from less action to disperse them and to create more thrill and suspense.
One funny thing we saw was what we called a real “Scooby Doo moment”. As we walked down a pathway we heard a chainsaw to the left and saw a line of girls run across the intersecting pathway in front of us to get away. Once out of sight we immediately heard a chainsaw to the right and saw the same group running back the other way!
The site was very easy to find and well signposted from nearby roads and had enough facilities to keep people busy while waiting their turn (bbq, refreshments, gift shop and beach volleyball)
The whole evening was truly terrifying, tense and fun especially when you found yourself lost in a real dark corner hearing noises around you but not being able to see anything or know which way to turn. We will definitely be popping down next year as the owners have hinted at a much bigger and scarier event and we cant wait. We wish them good luck with this improved haunt for 2008.
The concept is very simple - wait until its really dark, don’t turn any lights on, have 30 or so roaming scare actors and then throw groups of people in to find their way out!
Unfortunately finding your way out isn’t as simple. The maze is actually the largest maize maze in the world and covers two whole fields. This would be confusing during daylight, but when we went through it was dark. We mean REALLY dark. We mean not being able to see the person 2 or 3 feet in front of you dark!
The only real light came from strobe and fog filled tunnel entrance, which was really disorientating. Add in the chilling themes from Halloween and the Exorcist that the sinister DJs kept playing made an exciting start to a really fun if terrifying evening.
Once through the tunnel and realising how dark it is, the last thing you want is some maniac with a chainsaw or a demented Freddy Kruger leaping out from the stalks and scaring the **** out of you!
The actors are a mix of volunteers and professional scarers hired from the local York Dungeon, but all know how to use the darkness to scare everyone effectively. Unfortunately sometimes due to the size of the maze, it felt a little under populated at times with a few long stretches with no monsters seen at all. Even so we usually found that just as we let out guard down and started to get complacent something would appear from nowhere and scare us again!
Even without the direct attacks it was very spooky walking through the tall maize stalks hearing distant screams, chainsaws and shouting coming from nearby and not knowing whether to go that way or head off in a different direction!
The site being so big meant that you infrequently bumped into other groups and were only able to see the odd flicker of torch light over the field. We found that too many people congregated around the torch lit middle section as this was where the two chain saw freaks tended to stay. So instead of true heart pounding surprise people were waiting for them to return. This area was the only people dense area and would have benefited from less action to disperse them and to create more thrill and suspense.
One funny thing we saw was what we called a real “Scooby Doo moment”. As we walked down a pathway we heard a chainsaw to the left and saw a line of girls run across the intersecting pathway in front of us to get away. Once out of sight we immediately heard a chainsaw to the right and saw the same group running back the other way!
The site was very easy to find and well signposted from nearby roads and had enough facilities to keep people busy while waiting their turn (bbq, refreshments, gift shop and beach volleyball)
The whole evening was truly terrifying, tense and fun especially when you found yourself lost in a real dark corner hearing noises around you but not being able to see anything or know which way to turn. We will definitely be popping down next year as the owners have hinted at a much bigger and scarier event and we cant wait. We wish them good luck with this improved haunt for 2008.
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