Review - Scare Me Halloween 2018
It’s mid September and one of Europe's first Halloween events of the year, has already started in the Netherlands. Scare Me is back for their seventh outing (unlike most attractions Scare Me also opens for periods outside of Halloween), this time offering a new haunted house and a new escape room. But was it just as good as the last edition? Of course we went along to find out!
When we entered the building it pretty much looked like not much has changed. But as we started to walk around we noticed there were a couple of things missing. The shops stands are gone and you can’t enter the church anymore with out a ticket as a new attraction has replaced the gaming room from last year.
The Mansion - one of our favourites from before, has been taken over and changed into a hotel. The whole attraction has been renewed with a completely new route through the building. We loved everything about this updated shown and the team have really upped their game. It was even better than the mansion was before, with the addition of loads of new scare effects that had people running out the door!
The Asylum and Zombie Terror haven't really changed a lot. A few small tweaks and surprises have been added but they are predominately the same fun attractions from before - The Asylum is still a hooded maze and Zombie Terror the zombie hunting game.
New for this year is The Church, the second escape room like addition to the event. Just like Pirates Adventure (which has also returned with a few surprises), The Church is more of a challenging puzzle as opposed to full on scare attraction, but adds another diverse activity for anyone attending the event.
So all in - we absolutely enjoyed this seventh edition of Scare Me, and the team behind it have really added some fun and new scary elements across all the attractions. The show runs weekends until October 6th and can be found just 20 minutes outside of Amsterdam. If you can - we would definitely recommend a visit!
When we entered the building it pretty much looked like not much has changed. But as we started to walk around we noticed there were a couple of things missing. The shops stands are gone and you can’t enter the church anymore with out a ticket as a new attraction has replaced the gaming room from last year.
The Mansion - one of our favourites from before, has been taken over and changed into a hotel. The whole attraction has been renewed with a completely new route through the building. We loved everything about this updated shown and the team have really upped their game. It was even better than the mansion was before, with the addition of loads of new scare effects that had people running out the door!
The Asylum and Zombie Terror haven't really changed a lot. A few small tweaks and surprises have been added but they are predominately the same fun attractions from before - The Asylum is still a hooded maze and Zombie Terror the zombie hunting game.
New for this year is The Church, the second escape room like addition to the event. Just like Pirates Adventure (which has also returned with a few surprises), The Church is more of a challenging puzzle as opposed to full on scare attraction, but adds another diverse activity for anyone attending the event.
So all in - we absolutely enjoyed this seventh edition of Scare Me, and the team behind it have really added some fun and new scary elements across all the attractions. The show runs weekends until October 6th and can be found just 20 minutes outside of Amsterdam. If you can - we would definitely recommend a visit!
Review - Scare Me - Spring 2018
It’s the end of March and there is nowhere else in the Netherlands to get a scare fix. It's a good job that Scare Me in Almere regularly opens out of season as well as during Halloween. Therefore, this Spring sees the 6th version of the show in just a few years.
First off, there are some minor changes between the 5th and 6th edition. When you enter the building hall where Scare Me is located, it feels the same as before with the two large show piece facades of The Mansion and The Pirates Adventure. The bar and side stalls have been moved around but the rest is exactly the same. Asylum is still a hooded maze with a preshow and The Pirates Adventure is still the same escape room like haunted house.
The Mansion has seen some changes with the introduction of some scare buttons, which help make the scares a little bit more intense.
The biggest changes have been made to Zombie Terror, which has been completely relocated. The waiting line is still in the same place, but instead of playing the zombie survival game outside, it is now in a building on the opposite side of the street. By adding more effects to the area and building it more as a maze, it has completely renewed the experience.
Overall Scare Me 6.0 was exactly what we expected it to be. Generally the same as previous shows with a couple of small extra’s. The actors, make-up and decoration where all as great as last time, and by adding the new effects and the new location for Zombie Terror it has helped to improve the event. If you are in the Netherlands over the next two weeks give, Scare Me a visit if you need your scare fix.
First off, there are some minor changes between the 5th and 6th edition. When you enter the building hall where Scare Me is located, it feels the same as before with the two large show piece facades of The Mansion and The Pirates Adventure. The bar and side stalls have been moved around but the rest is exactly the same. Asylum is still a hooded maze with a preshow and The Pirates Adventure is still the same escape room like haunted house.
The Mansion has seen some changes with the introduction of some scare buttons, which help make the scares a little bit more intense.
The biggest changes have been made to Zombie Terror, which has been completely relocated. The waiting line is still in the same place, but instead of playing the zombie survival game outside, it is now in a building on the opposite side of the street. By adding more effects to the area and building it more as a maze, it has completely renewed the experience.
Overall Scare Me 6.0 was exactly what we expected it to be. Generally the same as previous shows with a couple of small extra’s. The actors, make-up and decoration where all as great as last time, and by adding the new effects and the new location for Zombie Terror it has helped to improve the event. If you are in the Netherlands over the next two weeks give, Scare Me a visit if you need your scare fix.
Review - Scare Me 2017
Over the last few years, The Netherlands has seen a real increase in the number of scare events across the country. These events range from large corporate theme parks such as Walibi Holland, through to smaller, more independent events such as Horror Zone and Horror Nights NL (which is currently on hiatus for 2017)
The interesting thing, is that many of these events run outside of the traditional Halloween October period, and so on a warm September night, we found ourselves at our first Halloween event of the 2017 season – Scare Me in Almere – a short drive from Amsterdam.
As we pulled up at the venue – there was nothing that indicated that 4 scare attractions were waiting for us. Despite a few signs posting the way into what looked like disused unit on an industrial estate – there was nothing that screamed Halloween at us. Which is why we were so shocked when we stepped inside and discovered the incredible design and well themed event venue ahead of us.
The event consists of two traditional scare attractions, an outdoor zombie tag experience and a room escape adventure, alongside refreshments, vendor stands and some roaming characters. Despite being opening night (and therefore a low initial turnout) the atmosphere within the giant hall was impressive, with incredible maze facades and atmospheric lighting throughout. In fact the level of detail in these sets would put some theme parks to shame – we loved the little touches such as the stained glass windows featuring horror movie icons, or the interaction of the attraction hosts with the guests as they passed. So far - so impressive - but what would the attractions be like?
First up we experienced The Pirate Adventure - a room escape style attraction which involved a number of different puzzles as we passed through a pirate ship – tormented by dastardly pirates. Unfortunately this dialogue heavy show just passed over the head of this non Dutch speaking reviewer and although we didn’t understand a lot of the jokes and references we were able to play along with the games. Clearly a lot of effort had gone into making this show look authentic and each room and scenario was impressively created . We would have loved to have been able to understand more of it though.
Asylum was like two mazes put together to create one. The first half was quite a traditional scare attraction, with the second half a very long “rope and hood” style experience. In between there was an unusual (and genuinely worrying) torture scene that left us lying prone on a dentist style chair while the crazy doctor experimented on us with electric and probes. It sounds terrifying as it was – especially when the electric shock tool came out! So with three different disparate elements to this attraction, it shouldn’t necessarily have worked but we really enjoyed it. The mix of close up scares, theatrical performances and lots of scares during the blind section, all combined to make a strong attraction from beginning to end. Our only concern? it needed more sound/music to create a chaotic atmosphere. With our eyes covered, our sense of hearing was heightened, so it would have been nice to have had a soundtrack that disoriented us even more.
Zombie Terror - Armed with a gun and a torch we were quickly dispatched into a wasteland of crashed vehicles and abandoned cars, with the aim of recovering some “diamonds” that had been scattered around. Sounds easy, but they forgot to warn us about the hordes of fast moving zombies also in the area, and we spent the rest of the time ducking diving and shooting – trying to avoid getting “tagged” (and therefore out of the game) by one of the zombies. The attraction was great fun and included some really amusing touches such as the zombie mother pushing an empty pram and a 6 foot bloke running around in a big fluffy pink dressing gown!
We saved The Mansion for last and we are so glad we did. This was the one attraction that was the closest to a standard scare event and had multiple jumps and scares throughout all the rooms. Invited inside to see what the strange occurrences were in the house. we were treated to an incredible opening scare that genuinely put us on edge before descending deep into the heart of the mystery. Scene after scene threw different combination of monsters, along with some unusual scares and effects. This mixed up the style and flow of the maze meaning that The Mansion stayed fresh from beginning end. Another small observation – like the Asylum – is that we would have loved to have heard a louder soundtrack or some music in the house to accentuate the action. It all just seemed quite mellow in comparison – which is a shame as the scares were excellent.
All four attractions showcased some incredibly enthusiastic actors and it was only after failing to understand the Dutch language in the room escape that we actually asked if the actors could speak in English. This of course being Holland where everybody speaks English, was no problem for the actors in the slightest, but we do have to really thank for them for making the effort.
Can you imagine any scare actor in a UK maze going to that effort?
We really weren’t sure what to expect from Scare Me before we turned up. We hadn’t seen any pictures or videos from previous events so we were genuinely blown away at the artistic design and set work throughout. Everyone involved should be commended on the professional and level of quality for the whole event. So if you are in Holland in the run up to Halloween – do try and get out to Scare Me - you won't regret it!
The interesting thing, is that many of these events run outside of the traditional Halloween October period, and so on a warm September night, we found ourselves at our first Halloween event of the 2017 season – Scare Me in Almere – a short drive from Amsterdam.
As we pulled up at the venue – there was nothing that indicated that 4 scare attractions were waiting for us. Despite a few signs posting the way into what looked like disused unit on an industrial estate – there was nothing that screamed Halloween at us. Which is why we were so shocked when we stepped inside and discovered the incredible design and well themed event venue ahead of us.
The event consists of two traditional scare attractions, an outdoor zombie tag experience and a room escape adventure, alongside refreshments, vendor stands and some roaming characters. Despite being opening night (and therefore a low initial turnout) the atmosphere within the giant hall was impressive, with incredible maze facades and atmospheric lighting throughout. In fact the level of detail in these sets would put some theme parks to shame – we loved the little touches such as the stained glass windows featuring horror movie icons, or the interaction of the attraction hosts with the guests as they passed. So far - so impressive - but what would the attractions be like?
First up we experienced The Pirate Adventure - a room escape style attraction which involved a number of different puzzles as we passed through a pirate ship – tormented by dastardly pirates. Unfortunately this dialogue heavy show just passed over the head of this non Dutch speaking reviewer and although we didn’t understand a lot of the jokes and references we were able to play along with the games. Clearly a lot of effort had gone into making this show look authentic and each room and scenario was impressively created . We would have loved to have been able to understand more of it though.
Asylum was like two mazes put together to create one. The first half was quite a traditional scare attraction, with the second half a very long “rope and hood” style experience. In between there was an unusual (and genuinely worrying) torture scene that left us lying prone on a dentist style chair while the crazy doctor experimented on us with electric and probes. It sounds terrifying as it was – especially when the electric shock tool came out! So with three different disparate elements to this attraction, it shouldn’t necessarily have worked but we really enjoyed it. The mix of close up scares, theatrical performances and lots of scares during the blind section, all combined to make a strong attraction from beginning to end. Our only concern? it needed more sound/music to create a chaotic atmosphere. With our eyes covered, our sense of hearing was heightened, so it would have been nice to have had a soundtrack that disoriented us even more.
Zombie Terror - Armed with a gun and a torch we were quickly dispatched into a wasteland of crashed vehicles and abandoned cars, with the aim of recovering some “diamonds” that had been scattered around. Sounds easy, but they forgot to warn us about the hordes of fast moving zombies also in the area, and we spent the rest of the time ducking diving and shooting – trying to avoid getting “tagged” (and therefore out of the game) by one of the zombies. The attraction was great fun and included some really amusing touches such as the zombie mother pushing an empty pram and a 6 foot bloke running around in a big fluffy pink dressing gown!
We saved The Mansion for last and we are so glad we did. This was the one attraction that was the closest to a standard scare event and had multiple jumps and scares throughout all the rooms. Invited inside to see what the strange occurrences were in the house. we were treated to an incredible opening scare that genuinely put us on edge before descending deep into the heart of the mystery. Scene after scene threw different combination of monsters, along with some unusual scares and effects. This mixed up the style and flow of the maze meaning that The Mansion stayed fresh from beginning end. Another small observation – like the Asylum – is that we would have loved to have heard a louder soundtrack or some music in the house to accentuate the action. It all just seemed quite mellow in comparison – which is a shame as the scares were excellent.
All four attractions showcased some incredibly enthusiastic actors and it was only after failing to understand the Dutch language in the room escape that we actually asked if the actors could speak in English. This of course being Holland where everybody speaks English, was no problem for the actors in the slightest, but we do have to really thank for them for making the effort.
Can you imagine any scare actor in a UK maze going to that effort?
We really weren’t sure what to expect from Scare Me before we turned up. We hadn’t seen any pictures or videos from previous events so we were genuinely blown away at the artistic design and set work throughout. Everyone involved should be commended on the professional and level of quality for the whole event. So if you are in Holland in the run up to Halloween – do try and get out to Scare Me - you won't regret it!
Links:
Official Website - www.scare-me.nl/
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