Shrewsbury Prison Scream Park Christmas 2018
The Dana Prison in Shrewsbury opened its cells once again for some festive frights. Following the success of the mazes at Halloween, the line up was to include Experimental, House Number 7 and Shrewsbury Meat Market.
We were greeted at the prison and taken directly to our first Maze, Experimental. After a brief introduction we were invited upstairs to the lab to see the experiments of eradicating dreams and nightmares take place. However, not all went to plan and the patients became very agitated. After a first show scene we followed a rope throughout the rest of the attraction in the pitch black, similar to the Halloween show. Throughout the corridors we encountered monstrous inmates screaming and wailing throughout. A nice extra touch for Christmas was an introduction of a shock/spark wall in the finale scene. We had a number of jumps but felt the show needed a slightly more foreboding sound track.
Next up was House Number 7, where we were briefed by an under cover cop to go in and find her partner. So pretending to be carol singers we were invited into this weird family residence. This maze was lots of fun with very actor led scenes using great script work. Each character welcomed us deeper into House Number 7, and after finding out why people had gone missing, we were forced to make a make a swift exit, ably accompanies by a chainsaw wielding maniac!
Shrewsbury Prison Meat Market remained relatively unchanged from Halloween. Once again the actors were fantastic with actor led scenes with double entendres regarding thick sausages and a good bit of rump! After meeting the server and the butcher herself it was time for us to get the chop! The finale Scene wass a fun, disorientating dead end room with a very flesh hungry mutant which had members of the group screaming trying to find the exit. However the lack of audio in this room could be really noticed and we felt that a booming soundtrack would really increase the scare factor.
The time then came to meat the big man himself. Santa’s elf was a lovely, welcoming bundle of joy. A huge contrast to the dirty, foul mouthed Santa whose language was extremely naughty and not nice! It was a fun ending to our experience and well performed. Probably the best Santa visit we have ever visited, even though his choice of gifts were a little x-rated!
Shrewsbury Prison Scream Park offered a fun night with some fun scares. The actors really do make the experience all the more enjoyable, however we do feel that we should explore more of the actual prison during the scare events as they have such a unique location. That being said, the Immersive Events team offer multiple experiences throughout the year from Prison Break games and guided Prison talks so guests can fully immerse themselves behind the prison walls.
We were greeted at the prison and taken directly to our first Maze, Experimental. After a brief introduction we were invited upstairs to the lab to see the experiments of eradicating dreams and nightmares take place. However, not all went to plan and the patients became very agitated. After a first show scene we followed a rope throughout the rest of the attraction in the pitch black, similar to the Halloween show. Throughout the corridors we encountered monstrous inmates screaming and wailing throughout. A nice extra touch for Christmas was an introduction of a shock/spark wall in the finale scene. We had a number of jumps but felt the show needed a slightly more foreboding sound track.
Next up was House Number 7, where we were briefed by an under cover cop to go in and find her partner. So pretending to be carol singers we were invited into this weird family residence. This maze was lots of fun with very actor led scenes using great script work. Each character welcomed us deeper into House Number 7, and after finding out why people had gone missing, we were forced to make a make a swift exit, ably accompanies by a chainsaw wielding maniac!
Shrewsbury Prison Meat Market remained relatively unchanged from Halloween. Once again the actors were fantastic with actor led scenes with double entendres regarding thick sausages and a good bit of rump! After meeting the server and the butcher herself it was time for us to get the chop! The finale Scene wass a fun, disorientating dead end room with a very flesh hungry mutant which had members of the group screaming trying to find the exit. However the lack of audio in this room could be really noticed and we felt that a booming soundtrack would really increase the scare factor.
The time then came to meat the big man himself. Santa’s elf was a lovely, welcoming bundle of joy. A huge contrast to the dirty, foul mouthed Santa whose language was extremely naughty and not nice! It was a fun ending to our experience and well performed. Probably the best Santa visit we have ever visited, even though his choice of gifts were a little x-rated!
Shrewsbury Prison Scream Park offered a fun night with some fun scares. The actors really do make the experience all the more enjoyable, however we do feel that we should explore more of the actual prison during the scare events as they have such a unique location. That being said, the Immersive Events team offer multiple experiences throughout the year from Prison Break games and guided Prison talks so guests can fully immerse themselves behind the prison walls.
Review - Shrewsbury Prison Scream Park 2018
This is Immersive Event’s fourth year of scare entertainment. 2015 and 2016 saw zombie survival events and 2017’s immersive scream park linked together with the individual zombie events. However for this year, IME have launched a more traditional scream park, with six separate and differently themed mazes. How would they fare with a step away from zombies? We went along to the preview night to find out!
After a swift entrance (and a shot of tequila to steady our nerves!) we couldn't decide what to do first. The prison site was fairly free flow, in that guests could choose the order in which they do the mazes. We actually experienced some of the mazes twice, but this was a one off as a wristband system was being used, however only a handful of the mazes actually marked our bands!
Phantom Finders – the story for this maze was pretty ambiguous. We were greeted by an actor who introduced themselves as a member of the Phantom Finders crew (a nod to TV shows such as Most Haunted) and explained his crew were filming, however he seemed remarkably unfazed that his crew members had disappeared. Even the guests we were with commented that the story left them confused and they didn’t quite understand what we were doing there. Even so, the finale was very effective, with some clever misdirection.
The Cell was a very simple strobe maze, which allowed the actors inside to shine. They really made the most of their environment, even though strobe mazes are a very demanding work environment. Although the maze was relatively short, we had some good scares and it was one of our highlights of the night.
Next we did Jamboree Encore, a rehash of 2017’s Jamboree maze. It was clear that the maze had been given some investment and TLC and was all the better for it. We were impressed with the batching actor and the digital H&S briefing, it was also a lovely surprise for the crawl space to have a padded foam floor! Jamboree was deceptive, with a large amount in a small space, as the footprint compared to 2017 has actually been halved. There were some good physical effects, and the young team were full of energy, however it lacked and real finale and left us walking out of the exit asking if it had finished.
Shrewsbury Meat Market was a very compact maze in what was the prison’s walk in fridges. This and The Cell were by far the strongest mazes of the night. Although this attraction only had four small maze elements, the actors were on form. The actress in the first room was great, getting the line between humour and discomfort just right. The finale really stood out, with only one actor and a small room, we were still running for the exit!
Experimental had a very promising concept – a lab working to help visitors combat their nightmares. We were impressed with the theatrical first scene, which left us genuinely scratching our heads! However, unfortunately after this, the quality of the maze dipped. A rope maze didn't seem to be the right fit for the theme of the maze, it should have been more sensory, with lots of sounds, smells and very enthusiastic actors. Unfortunately we only encountered two actors after the opening scene, making Experimental, the weakest maze of the event.
House Number Seven was our final maze of the night, although overall the maze was more theatrical than scary, all of the actors gave very convincing performances and we admired some of the props and sets throughout, which were more detailed than we have seen before from IME.
Although the site had 150 visitors that night, we barely saw any guests outside of our party. That’s a unique feature of the prison site, due to the sheer size of the site it never feels crowded.
Shrewsbury Prison Scream Park is very good value for money, with 6 mazes for £20pp. The Scream Park was a definite improvement on their 2017 event, overall we enjoyed ourselves but felt some of the mazes needed some small changes to deliver the best possible experience for guests.
This is Immersive Event’s fourth year of scare entertainment. 2015 and 2016 saw zombie survival events and 2017’s immersive scream park linked together with the individual zombie events. However for this year, IME have launched a more traditional scream park, with six separate and differently themed mazes. How would they fare with a step away from zombies? We went along to the preview night to find out!
After a swift entrance (and a shot of tequila to steady our nerves!) we couldn't decide what to do first. The prison site was fairly free flow, in that guests could choose the order in which they do the mazes. We actually experienced some of the mazes twice, but this was a one off as a wristband system was being used, however only a handful of the mazes actually marked our bands!
Phantom Finders – the story for this maze was pretty ambiguous. We were greeted by an actor who introduced themselves as a member of the Phantom Finders crew (a nod to TV shows such as Most Haunted) and explained his crew were filming, however he seemed remarkably unfazed that his crew members had disappeared. Even the guests we were with commented that the story left them confused and they didn’t quite understand what we were doing there. Even so, the finale was very effective, with some clever misdirection.
The Cell was a very simple strobe maze, which allowed the actors inside to shine. They really made the most of their environment, even though strobe mazes are a very demanding work environment. Although the maze was relatively short, we had some good scares and it was one of our highlights of the night.
Next we did Jamboree Encore, a rehash of 2017’s Jamboree maze. It was clear that the maze had been given some investment and TLC and was all the better for it. We were impressed with the batching actor and the digital H&S briefing, it was also a lovely surprise for the crawl space to have a padded foam floor! Jamboree was deceptive, with a large amount in a small space, as the footprint compared to 2017 has actually been halved. There were some good physical effects, and the young team were full of energy, however it lacked and real finale and left us walking out of the exit asking if it had finished.
Shrewsbury Meat Market was a very compact maze in what was the prison’s walk in fridges. This and The Cell were by far the strongest mazes of the night. Although this attraction only had four small maze elements, the actors were on form. The actress in the first room was great, getting the line between humour and discomfort just right. The finale really stood out, with only one actor and a small room, we were still running for the exit!
Experimental had a very promising concept – a lab working to help visitors combat their nightmares. We were impressed with the theatrical first scene, which left us genuinely scratching our heads! However, unfortunately after this, the quality of the maze dipped. A rope maze didn't seem to be the right fit for the theme of the maze, it should have been more sensory, with lots of sounds, smells and very enthusiastic actors. Unfortunately we only encountered two actors after the opening scene, making Experimental, the weakest maze of the event.
House Number Seven was our final maze of the night, although overall the maze was more theatrical than scary, all of the actors gave very convincing performances and we admired some of the props and sets throughout, which were more detailed than we have seen before from IME.
Although the site had 150 visitors that night, we barely saw any guests outside of our party. That’s a unique feature of the prison site, due to the sheer size of the site it never feels crowded.
Shrewsbury Prison Scream Park is very good value for money, with 6 mazes for £20pp. The Scream Park was a definite improvement on their 2017 event, overall we enjoyed ourselves but felt some of the mazes needed some small changes to deliver the best possible experience for guests.
Review - Shrewsbury Scream Park 2017
Immersive Events at Dana Prison Immersive events are back this Halloween with the third instalment of their zombie apocalypse lock down story. This time round, they have marketed this year’s event as a scream park as opposed to one long immersive story.
We had three mazes to explore and was anxious to get locked into the foreboding prison gates.
Shrewsbury Prison Scream Park works slightly different to other scream parks. You must arrive between 7pm and 8pm and once you are in, you are in for the duration of the night! We arrived at the Prison and were told to pick up a mattress, choose a cell, and set up base. We were granted access to The Wreck (the bar), a wing and our cells. Although this was a nice touch to start the event with our own cell, we did not actually return and felt a few scares in a prison cell went a miss.
After a drink at the bar, it was time for our briefing from the general, explaining we needed to show our worth to him to be welcome within his sanctum. It was a great way to welcome us to the event, however many of the team didn’t quite understand that we are now 20 years later in the story ark since their ‘Lockdown’ event, luckily this reviewer did his homework.
Over the next few hours, we explored the three scare mazes along with a few extras. First maze, The Butchery explored the kitchen areas of the Dana prison, we were introduced to the cook and her assistants in a much-bloodied room with limbs everywhere, and something tells us this butchery prefers the meat of humans. Although this maze was extremely small, we spent a decent amount of time getting to know the cook who loved to tease us with her decapitated tongue.
The Mero maze was our next attraction. Set 20 years after the original lockdown event, the Mero lab is in a state of disrepair, the virus has swept the area and the lab assistants have lost all hope. The attraction packs a few nice scares and some intense strobe scenes but the real hero of the attraction is the briefing room woman. Each time we have visited the Mero lab, she has delivered the usual boring safety story in such a way, that it has made entertaining and fits in with the actual story being told.
Jamboree was our third attraction, and although it is quite unusual to have a circus themed maze within the prison, it provided the comedy factor for the evening. The smell of popcorn filled the room with circus music playing in the background, and although we did not get any scares from the attraction, we enjoyed watching a terrible knife thrower and getting a fortune told by the gypsy. The highlight of this attraction though was the comedy banter from the comedian at the Jamboree entrance. We were with her for a good ten minutes and there was no dead silence moments, she kept us laughing throughout our whole wait to enter the maze.
Next up was battle archery, an added bonus we were not expecting; this exercise was enjoyable and had the whole team working together to defeat the zombies. We loved the use of real flares and loud firework bangs during this section of the event. At this time, two of our team were marked with a red cross, welcoming them to Sanctum; unfortunately, this reviewer has a crap aim!
Lastly, it was time to go back to The Wreck for another beer and food. We finished our food and it was time for the general to give us his verdict. All marked players joined sanctuary whilst us losers were left on a wing to receive a barrage of abuse by the General to end the evening.
Shrewsbury Prison Scream Park was overall an enjoyable night, although it was a little rough around the edges on opening night. We enjoyed the concept of an overall theme for the evening but felt it was sometimes lost on members of the team who had not visited their previous events. Butchery was a little too short but the overall acting quality all round made it up.
Immersive events do exactly what their name states, immerse you. Once you enter the prison gates, throughout your entire stay, you are immersed in your surrounding and not a single actor drops character throughout the whole evening. A special mention must go to the character of ‘Fudge’ a young boy who was born in the prison during their ‘breeding programme’ who made the evening extremely fun, getting himself into all kinds of mischief to keep us entertained.
We had a great evening at the Dana Prison. However, we feel the marketing and the event is slightly confused in its execution. By limiting the theme to the continuing story of Lockdown, the full show only really makes sense to someone who has done other parts of the event in the past. If the team want to open the attraction up to more visitors then the story needs to be accessible to all guests and not just those who are returning. Also, it’s not clear that what people are entering is a whole 2-hour immersive experience as opposed to a scream park with different mazes. Regardless – we had a great time and look forward to getting locked up again soon!
We had three mazes to explore and was anxious to get locked into the foreboding prison gates.
Shrewsbury Prison Scream Park works slightly different to other scream parks. You must arrive between 7pm and 8pm and once you are in, you are in for the duration of the night! We arrived at the Prison and were told to pick up a mattress, choose a cell, and set up base. We were granted access to The Wreck (the bar), a wing and our cells. Although this was a nice touch to start the event with our own cell, we did not actually return and felt a few scares in a prison cell went a miss.
After a drink at the bar, it was time for our briefing from the general, explaining we needed to show our worth to him to be welcome within his sanctum. It was a great way to welcome us to the event, however many of the team didn’t quite understand that we are now 20 years later in the story ark since their ‘Lockdown’ event, luckily this reviewer did his homework.
Over the next few hours, we explored the three scare mazes along with a few extras. First maze, The Butchery explored the kitchen areas of the Dana prison, we were introduced to the cook and her assistants in a much-bloodied room with limbs everywhere, and something tells us this butchery prefers the meat of humans. Although this maze was extremely small, we spent a decent amount of time getting to know the cook who loved to tease us with her decapitated tongue.
The Mero maze was our next attraction. Set 20 years after the original lockdown event, the Mero lab is in a state of disrepair, the virus has swept the area and the lab assistants have lost all hope. The attraction packs a few nice scares and some intense strobe scenes but the real hero of the attraction is the briefing room woman. Each time we have visited the Mero lab, she has delivered the usual boring safety story in such a way, that it has made entertaining and fits in with the actual story being told.
Jamboree was our third attraction, and although it is quite unusual to have a circus themed maze within the prison, it provided the comedy factor for the evening. The smell of popcorn filled the room with circus music playing in the background, and although we did not get any scares from the attraction, we enjoyed watching a terrible knife thrower and getting a fortune told by the gypsy. The highlight of this attraction though was the comedy banter from the comedian at the Jamboree entrance. We were with her for a good ten minutes and there was no dead silence moments, she kept us laughing throughout our whole wait to enter the maze.
Next up was battle archery, an added bonus we were not expecting; this exercise was enjoyable and had the whole team working together to defeat the zombies. We loved the use of real flares and loud firework bangs during this section of the event. At this time, two of our team were marked with a red cross, welcoming them to Sanctum; unfortunately, this reviewer has a crap aim!
Lastly, it was time to go back to The Wreck for another beer and food. We finished our food and it was time for the general to give us his verdict. All marked players joined sanctuary whilst us losers were left on a wing to receive a barrage of abuse by the General to end the evening.
Shrewsbury Prison Scream Park was overall an enjoyable night, although it was a little rough around the edges on opening night. We enjoyed the concept of an overall theme for the evening but felt it was sometimes lost on members of the team who had not visited their previous events. Butchery was a little too short but the overall acting quality all round made it up.
Immersive events do exactly what their name states, immerse you. Once you enter the prison gates, throughout your entire stay, you are immersed in your surrounding and not a single actor drops character throughout the whole evening. A special mention must go to the character of ‘Fudge’ a young boy who was born in the prison during their ‘breeding programme’ who made the evening extremely fun, getting himself into all kinds of mischief to keep us entertained.
We had a great evening at the Dana Prison. However, we feel the marketing and the event is slightly confused in its execution. By limiting the theme to the continuing story of Lockdown, the full show only really makes sense to someone who has done other parts of the event in the past. If the team want to open the attraction up to more visitors then the story needs to be accessible to all guests and not just those who are returning. Also, it’s not clear that what people are entering is a whole 2-hour immersive experience as opposed to a scream park with different mazes. Regardless – we had a great time and look forward to getting locked up again soon!
Review - Immersive Events - Mero Scare Maze
The Dana Prison is Shrewsbury is now home to multiple activities, from scare events, cell escape games, live music nights and now Battle Archery! The ScareTOUR team were invited to test our skills on the Dana’s trial evening. Upon entering the Dana Prison we were explained that we have Battle Archery, the Mero Scare Maze along with a fully licensed bar to entertain us for the evening. The team decided that Battle Archery was our first point of call.
After being escorted within the labyrinth of the prison to the training room, we were given our initial safety training and briefing. Once teams were picked and we enjoyed a little bit of target practice, it was time to put our new skills to the test. Although Battle Archery isn’t quite a scare attraction, we did enjoy a game of ‘Zombie’. Three members of the Immersive Events team were the zombies and we had to shoot them before they turned us into zombies. This game was incredible fun and it just goes to show that after this initial trial evening, the team most definitely implement their new archery equipment into one of their scare events.
Mero scare maze is a 5-7 minute long mini scare maze that is often the finale to the prison's Lockdown and Sanitorium events. This evening in question, Mero was the star attraction. We entered the labs and instantly noticed a slight difference to our first visit, it was much much darker! Within the waiting room we were greeted by the lab host who was once again perfect for her role. Whilst explaining the back story of the lab she slipped in the rules and safety aspects of the maze making the rules and regulations feel fresh and natural as opposed to being just thrust down our throats. The maze was relatively unchanged from our first visit in October 2016 and once again the star features of this attraction was most definitely the actors and secret passages. The actors were extremely energetic and were not afraid to get up, close and personal. The maze gave a huge sense of panic and danger with multiple test subjects coming to attack us.
This ‘trial’ evening for the Battle Archery was received extremely well by us and all the othercustomers throughout the evening. The Dana is a fantastic location for multiple events, and to be able to top it off with a refreshing drink from the bar inside a real prison canteen is always a bonus. We look forward to seeing where the Immersive Events team go with their new event.
After being escorted within the labyrinth of the prison to the training room, we were given our initial safety training and briefing. Once teams were picked and we enjoyed a little bit of target practice, it was time to put our new skills to the test. Although Battle Archery isn’t quite a scare attraction, we did enjoy a game of ‘Zombie’. Three members of the Immersive Events team were the zombies and we had to shoot them before they turned us into zombies. This game was incredible fun and it just goes to show that after this initial trial evening, the team most definitely implement their new archery equipment into one of their scare events.
Mero scare maze is a 5-7 minute long mini scare maze that is often the finale to the prison's Lockdown and Sanitorium events. This evening in question, Mero was the star attraction. We entered the labs and instantly noticed a slight difference to our first visit, it was much much darker! Within the waiting room we were greeted by the lab host who was once again perfect for her role. Whilst explaining the back story of the lab she slipped in the rules and safety aspects of the maze making the rules and regulations feel fresh and natural as opposed to being just thrust down our throats. The maze was relatively unchanged from our first visit in October 2016 and once again the star features of this attraction was most definitely the actors and secret passages. The actors were extremely energetic and were not afraid to get up, close and personal. The maze gave a huge sense of panic and danger with multiple test subjects coming to attack us.
This ‘trial’ evening for the Battle Archery was received extremely well by us and all the othercustomers throughout the evening. The Dana is a fantastic location for multiple events, and to be able to top it off with a refreshing drink from the bar inside a real prison canteen is always a bonus. We look forward to seeing where the Immersive Events team go with their new event.
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Links:
Official Website: http://www.imevents.global/
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