Fright Night at Museum of East Anglian Life
It’s fair to say the Halloween industry in the UK is booming with more and more attractions opening every year. And they’re opening everywhere, not just the big cities, but in smaller more rural locations too such as the small town of Stowmarket in Suffolk where the museum of East Anglian life has this year launched its first ever fright night. We went along to check it out.
It’s clear from the very start that this event is not going to be a big lavish Halloween festival like many others we visit. Instead it is billed as a scary walk through the dark with frights and the unexpected. We began by entering the museum's shop where we waited for the rest of our group. Fright night operates a timed ticket system with groups of around 8 entering every 15 minutes. During our wait we were entertained by a witch character who kept us laughing and also offered chilling tales of actual ghost sightings within the museum. We did feel the waiting area could have had a little theming in to up the atmosphere, but it wasn’t long before we were led into the maze proper.
The attraction takes place on the museum grounds which are pretty vast and do lend themselves to an event like this. We traversed uneven ground through the trees, darkened bridges over lakes below and several abandoned looking barns. The use of darkness works really well - the outdoor sections are lit purely by tea light candles meaning there are some sections which are very, very dark. We had a couple of moments with actors right next to us who we genuinely couldn’t see. It also makes you question what you can make out in the distance. The barns were also very atmospheric, all housing massive machinery and very dimly lit. Having the genuine museum exhibits in the otherwise empty barns made for an eerie walkthrough.
Onto the scares themselves. The actors we encountered were very good and were clearly putting their all into the experience both scaring but also interacting with what we said. There were certainly a few good jump scares throughout. However we did feel a few more actors wouldn’t have gone a miss. The long walks in the dark were atmospheric but a little disappointing when they didn’t result in an actor scare at the end.
As well as using actors, there are some nice effects being employed with a couple of projection mapping moments making us question if there was an actor or not. Unfortunately some of these did seem a bit glitchy on our run though, turning off just as we got close and killing the effect slightly. We also had a similar glitch in the finale barn which did mean we didn’t get the full effect of the scare.
Something we really liked was the couple of short scenes added throughout. There was a witchhunter style scene in a roundhouse where we were judged as to our paranormal powers, but our favourite came quite near the start when we were invited to a dinner party. The actor here was superb in setting the mood and making us laugh as well as question what was next. A very theatrical and entertaining scene with a great payoff, if a little short. These scenes helped to break up the attraction a little and add a bit more character to the experience.
Sadly the length of the attraction would be our main criticism here. It’s just over too quickly. The marketing for the attraction claimed it would last for around an hour, however walking at a normal pace we completed the route in about half that time. It’s a shame as we really enjoyed what we experienced but were left wanting a little more.
But it’s early days for this new scare event. We were the second group to enter on the first night of the attraction and these things do take time to fine tune. What is there is good and has clearly been created with a lot of passion. From speaking to the organisers it is clear they have plans to return next year with an expanded event and a longer run (this years event is just for 3 nights). We had a good laugh at Fright Night and if you are local to the museum would definitely recommend giving it a visit. It will be great to see what 2019 brings for this fun walkthrough.
It’s clear from the very start that this event is not going to be a big lavish Halloween festival like many others we visit. Instead it is billed as a scary walk through the dark with frights and the unexpected. We began by entering the museum's shop where we waited for the rest of our group. Fright night operates a timed ticket system with groups of around 8 entering every 15 minutes. During our wait we were entertained by a witch character who kept us laughing and also offered chilling tales of actual ghost sightings within the museum. We did feel the waiting area could have had a little theming in to up the atmosphere, but it wasn’t long before we were led into the maze proper.
The attraction takes place on the museum grounds which are pretty vast and do lend themselves to an event like this. We traversed uneven ground through the trees, darkened bridges over lakes below and several abandoned looking barns. The use of darkness works really well - the outdoor sections are lit purely by tea light candles meaning there are some sections which are very, very dark. We had a couple of moments with actors right next to us who we genuinely couldn’t see. It also makes you question what you can make out in the distance. The barns were also very atmospheric, all housing massive machinery and very dimly lit. Having the genuine museum exhibits in the otherwise empty barns made for an eerie walkthrough.
Onto the scares themselves. The actors we encountered were very good and were clearly putting their all into the experience both scaring but also interacting with what we said. There were certainly a few good jump scares throughout. However we did feel a few more actors wouldn’t have gone a miss. The long walks in the dark were atmospheric but a little disappointing when they didn’t result in an actor scare at the end.
As well as using actors, there are some nice effects being employed with a couple of projection mapping moments making us question if there was an actor or not. Unfortunately some of these did seem a bit glitchy on our run though, turning off just as we got close and killing the effect slightly. We also had a similar glitch in the finale barn which did mean we didn’t get the full effect of the scare.
Something we really liked was the couple of short scenes added throughout. There was a witchhunter style scene in a roundhouse where we were judged as to our paranormal powers, but our favourite came quite near the start when we were invited to a dinner party. The actor here was superb in setting the mood and making us laugh as well as question what was next. A very theatrical and entertaining scene with a great payoff, if a little short. These scenes helped to break up the attraction a little and add a bit more character to the experience.
Sadly the length of the attraction would be our main criticism here. It’s just over too quickly. The marketing for the attraction claimed it would last for around an hour, however walking at a normal pace we completed the route in about half that time. It’s a shame as we really enjoyed what we experienced but were left wanting a little more.
But it’s early days for this new scare event. We were the second group to enter on the first night of the attraction and these things do take time to fine tune. What is there is good and has clearly been created with a lot of passion. From speaking to the organisers it is clear they have plans to return next year with an expanded event and a longer run (this years event is just for 3 nights). We had a good laugh at Fright Night and if you are local to the museum would definitely recommend giving it a visit. It will be great to see what 2019 brings for this fun walkthrough.
Links:
Official Website - http://eastanglianlife.org.uk/
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