Screamfest Burton
In 2012, the directors of the National Forest Adventure Park in Burton met Andrew Porter at ScareCON, and within a few months, their first collaboration - Slasher was born. A year later the team worked together to bring two brand new attractions to the park, and in doing so Nocturnal and Soul Seekers were born. Now in its third year as the re-branded Screamfest, the event has chance to take a breath as the line up for 2014 remains pretty much unchanged but has had some tweaking around the edges.r
Now that people know the "secret" of Nocturnal it is much easier to write about it. Themed (on the outside) around a lively nightclub, the attraction soon takes us through a meat processing plant, run by vampires, where we are on the menu! The show starts with an amazing opening scene which still has the power to excite and scare even knowing what is about to happen. The rest of the attraction remains unchanged from 2013 but the actors seemed so much livelier than previously. Scare after scare kept coming, and by the time the chainsaw was fired, up this reviewer had had more than enough and was racing for the door.
Soul Seekers was one of our favourite mazes of 2013 and we were looking forward to getting back inside the elaborately themed rooms of this stately hotel. Unfortunately an abundance of theatrical smog in the opening scene rendered a lot of the appearing/disappearing tricks obsolete, which is a shame as it is such a powerful introduction to the maze. The rest of the show was punchy as before, with a number of great scares from some interesting hiding places throughout, including the return of the very dark section that just left us feeling our way around. Despite the gripe about the opening scene, Soul Seekers remains a very impressive scare attraction that wouldn't be out of place in a large theme park.
Slasher also remains mostly unchanged, but some of the issues about capacity have been addressed by adding a second execution room. Once through the opening scene - the attraction remains short sharp and focussed. Compared to Nocturnal and Soul Seekers, Slasher is quite a short little maze but contains some exciting scares and tactics that generally left us jumping in fright. In future it would be nice to see a bit more of Slasher with new rooms based around the extended back story that we know the designers have created.
The corn field attraction at the park has always been the weakest of the four main shows, partly due to its split nature trailer ride/corn field but also because it is harder to get close impact scares in a big empty field. This year the attraction batched far too slowly, so by the time we got on the trailer we were anxious for the frights to start. Unlike previously - NOTHING happened to us on the ride and it was purely a means to get people to the start of the cornfield. It would have been more efficient just to let us walk there!
Once in the corn itself, the theme of a school for naughty children slightly went awry with scenes including a guillotine, a chain saw etc, but we all had some efficient scares in the darkness. The use of some indoor sections along the way work well and all in - the experience had us laughing and jumping in equal measure (once inside the corn)
Once in the corn itself, the theme of a school for naughty children slightly went awry with scenes including a guillotine, a chain saw etc, but we all had some efficient scares in the darkness. The use of some indoor sections along the way work well and all in - the experience had us laughing and jumping in equal measure (once inside the corn)
When summing up the night, the first thing that has to be commented on is the atmosphere around the park. With a new scare zone filled with thousands of scarecrows, through to the roaming characters and freak show entertainment, it felt like the park had made more effort to create a scream park atmosphere as opposed to just a collection of mazes linked via several paths. With catering outlets and the new zombie paintball shooting arcade as well, there seemed to be more to do when not waiting in line for an attraction.
But talking of lines, on the night we visited the park was exceptionally busy with long queues for every attraction and more people buzzing around than previously. This huge number of guests is a sign that the park is becoming successful but just heralds a fundamental flaw - that the batching, and/or maze capacity, is not sufficient for the crowds. All three maze attractions have an elaborate opening scene which brilliantly sets up the background story but unfortunately slows down throughput. If the park is going to continue to pull in the crowds then we hate to say it but these long introductions will need to be cut down significantly. Also - we desperately feel another trailer needs to be added to the hay-ride to ensure the queue keeps moving
These niggles aside - it is clear that Screamfest Burton is a park heading for greatness. Once the few capacity issues are ironed out it will be interesting to see how they grow and expand more in the future.
But talking of lines, on the night we visited the park was exceptionally busy with long queues for every attraction and more people buzzing around than previously. This huge number of guests is a sign that the park is becoming successful but just heralds a fundamental flaw - that the batching, and/or maze capacity, is not sufficient for the crowds. All three maze attractions have an elaborate opening scene which brilliantly sets up the background story but unfortunately slows down throughput. If the park is going to continue to pull in the crowds then we hate to say it but these long introductions will need to be cut down significantly. Also - we desperately feel another trailer needs to be added to the hay-ride to ensure the queue keeps moving
These niggles aside - it is clear that Screamfest Burton is a park heading for greatness. Once the few capacity issues are ironed out it will be interesting to see how they grow and expand more in the future.
Links
Our review of 2013 including the debut of Nocturnal and Soul Seekers - click here
Our review of 2012 including the debut of Slasher click here
For booking and more information - visit the official website here
Our review of 2012 including the debut of Slasher click here
For booking and more information - visit the official website here
You Review
Have you also visited this or any other attractions recently? - tell us what you thought here
With Screamfest I didn't know what exactly to expect. If it was going to be not scary, cheesy, a little scary, etc... but when I got there my expectations were blown away.
When I first got there one of the actors started following behind me, literally as I just come through the entrance. Me - being the scaredycat I am - was running away! I started on children of the corn, which did have a very long queue. Roughly 30 - 40 minutes maybe? (totally worth it though!) I won't tell you what exactly happens out there, let's just say I was screaming and running like mad haha! It took about 20 minutes to complete as a group.
Then I did soul seekers, which personally I found to be the scariest one. Absolutely confusing as a lot of it is in the pitch black where you can't see a thing. Really, really creepy and jumpy though.
Then I visited Nocturnal, which (whilst I was waiting in the queue!) somehow I got cornered by a clown. He wouldn't let me past, I was trapped! Scary, haha! Nocturnal was really creepy (I'm basically repeating myself!)
Saved Slasher to last, it was definitely the shortest queue time and also the shortest attraction there. Definitely not the least scariest though! Was really terrifying and had me running and screaming out the exit.
Overall I totally 100% loved everything there, the staff were really friendly and nice and the prices for drinks were reasonable. The queues were all about 20 - 40 minutes long (bar slasher) but the attractions are totally worth the wait. Will hopefully be visiting again next year. :)
When I first got there one of the actors started following behind me, literally as I just come through the entrance. Me - being the scaredycat I am - was running away! I started on children of the corn, which did have a very long queue. Roughly 30 - 40 minutes maybe? (totally worth it though!) I won't tell you what exactly happens out there, let's just say I was screaming and running like mad haha! It took about 20 minutes to complete as a group.
Then I did soul seekers, which personally I found to be the scariest one. Absolutely confusing as a lot of it is in the pitch black where you can't see a thing. Really, really creepy and jumpy though.
Then I visited Nocturnal, which (whilst I was waiting in the queue!) somehow I got cornered by a clown. He wouldn't let me past, I was trapped! Scary, haha! Nocturnal was really creepy (I'm basically repeating myself!)
Saved Slasher to last, it was definitely the shortest queue time and also the shortest attraction there. Definitely not the least scariest though! Was really terrifying and had me running and screaming out the exit.
Overall I totally 100% loved everything there, the staff were really friendly and nice and the prices for drinks were reasonable. The queues were all about 20 - 40 minutes long (bar slasher) but the attractions are totally worth the wait. Will hopefully be visiting again next year. :)
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