Terror Island 2023
Terror Island is back for 2023, and has expanded across more of the Blackgang Chine site. Whereas in previous years, the whole event was held at the top end of the park, new areas and rides have now been opened for guests. This in itself is a smart move as there are always people who want to enjoy the late night rides and atmosphere - without scaring themselves in the mazes!
Between the mazes and the rides, a new entertainment hub has been created that featured live bands and a DJ throughout the night. The atmosphere from this entertainment was incredible, and with the bar and food offering close by, it was great to just hang around and chill for the evening. But of course we were there for the mazes, so we started off with the new for 2022 attraction - Blind Alley.
Now of course we could be churlish and say that hooded mazes have been done plenty of times before, but this attraction pulls off the whole experience with particular flair. The actors and the scares were great fun throughout, and we loved the "surprise" way we were hooded at the start. We must also mention the finale that had us all wobbling on our feet. Our only criticism? Despite being a fantastic speech - the opening monologue seemed to go on too long, meaning that Blind Alley easily had the longest queue of the night.
The next returning attraction was Amphibious: Dark Light which was populated by some of the wildest creatures ever. Scares seemed to come from every direction in this maze, and although the laser and fog sea/swamp section has been removed - we had some incredible impact scares throughout.
The final returning attraction was Blood Shed which has seen a major revamp for 2023. Firstly the route has been reversed meaning that guests are effectively heading up through the attraction. The route though has no impact on the actors who were as large and intimidating as ever - Terror Island have clearly put their biggest actors in this maze, and they all did a great job of scaring us from start to finish.
Finally, Hexcavtion has been replaced by a brand new maze - The Summoning. Like Blood Shed - the main route has been turned around, but a number of new scenes and effects have been added as evil nuns and devil worshiping creatures attacked us. Everything about this maze worked perfectly and we had an incredible run through that left us gasping for air when we escaped. Well done to all the creative team for coming up with something so fun and scary - it was a real highlight of the night.
One last thing that we need to mention is that in 2022 - there was an insistence that all guest walked through the mazes with hands on shoulders at all times. This really has become a quite tired trope of scare attractions, and we are pleased to report that for this year, Terror Island have dropped this requirement - and instead just ask guests to stay together at all times. This one simple change made all the mazes that much more enjoyable, and we are so glad this restriction has finally been lifted.
Obviously, outside the mazes were a number of roaming actors, as well as fire performers and the previously mentioned bands and bars, which all helped to make a true festival vibe across the site. All in - with the changes to thee mazes, the expanded layout and the quality scares throughout the night - this was easily the best version of Terror Island we have experienced, and we cant wait to return next year!
Between the mazes and the rides, a new entertainment hub has been created that featured live bands and a DJ throughout the night. The atmosphere from this entertainment was incredible, and with the bar and food offering close by, it was great to just hang around and chill for the evening. But of course we were there for the mazes, so we started off with the new for 2022 attraction - Blind Alley.
Now of course we could be churlish and say that hooded mazes have been done plenty of times before, but this attraction pulls off the whole experience with particular flair. The actors and the scares were great fun throughout, and we loved the "surprise" way we were hooded at the start. We must also mention the finale that had us all wobbling on our feet. Our only criticism? Despite being a fantastic speech - the opening monologue seemed to go on too long, meaning that Blind Alley easily had the longest queue of the night.
The next returning attraction was Amphibious: Dark Light which was populated by some of the wildest creatures ever. Scares seemed to come from every direction in this maze, and although the laser and fog sea/swamp section has been removed - we had some incredible impact scares throughout.
The final returning attraction was Blood Shed which has seen a major revamp for 2023. Firstly the route has been reversed meaning that guests are effectively heading up through the attraction. The route though has no impact on the actors who were as large and intimidating as ever - Terror Island have clearly put their biggest actors in this maze, and they all did a great job of scaring us from start to finish.
Finally, Hexcavtion has been replaced by a brand new maze - The Summoning. Like Blood Shed - the main route has been turned around, but a number of new scenes and effects have been added as evil nuns and devil worshiping creatures attacked us. Everything about this maze worked perfectly and we had an incredible run through that left us gasping for air when we escaped. Well done to all the creative team for coming up with something so fun and scary - it was a real highlight of the night.
One last thing that we need to mention is that in 2022 - there was an insistence that all guest walked through the mazes with hands on shoulders at all times. This really has become a quite tired trope of scare attractions, and we are pleased to report that for this year, Terror Island have dropped this requirement - and instead just ask guests to stay together at all times. This one simple change made all the mazes that much more enjoyable, and we are so glad this restriction has finally been lifted.
Obviously, outside the mazes were a number of roaming actors, as well as fire performers and the previously mentioned bands and bars, which all helped to make a true festival vibe across the site. All in - with the changes to thee mazes, the expanded layout and the quality scares throughout the night - this was easily the best version of Terror Island we have experienced, and we cant wait to return next year!
Terror Island 2022
We were lucky when we arrived at Terror Island this year. We collected our tickets and then headed into the main hub, only to be greeted by a character break out before the mazes opened. We don't understand why more events don't do something like this, as it is a great way to introduce the scares coming up, as well giving the actors chance for a quick run around before being placed into their hiding places in the dark!
Once the actors had all been rounded up and sent back to their respective mazes we got in line for our first attraction - The Blood Shed. Utilising a new entrance from the middle plaza in the park, this maze has remained unchanged for 2022. Saying that, it is still the goriest of the four attractions with guests having to navigate a murderous bunch of smugglers with a strange penchant for blood. The actors in this maze were some of the most aggressive of the night and managed to elicit a lot of screams out of our group.
Our next maze was Amphibious which has had a big UV makeover into Amphibious: Dark Light. The maze itself was extremely lively with some very loud scares and some sudden appearances throughout. Fortunately we were at the front of our group as the most of the scares seem to be timed as people entered the room, meaning some of those at the back would miss them. The costumes and makeup in this maze were some of the strongest with a number of human/fish hybrid creatures looking stunning in the UV light.
New for 2022 is Blind Alley, a hooded maze based in an unusual hospital. We think we have made it very clear that we now expect hooded mazes to do something unique and special, and although a lot of the experience was generic, we loved the "surprise element" when we finally got to the Doctor. We don't want to spoil it, but it genuinely left us staggering, wishing we had something more solid to hang on to!
Our final maze was the re-branded Hexcvation. Although the main maze sections remained the same as 2021, the attraction has seen a new story makeover and an evil new villain in the finale. The maze was as tight and claustrophobic as we remembered with a number of fun jump scares from lively actors. Sadly due to an issue with the batch in front of us - we ended up out sync, with only half the group getting the big finale (the others were stuck in the tunnel) This was disappointing, although not necessarily the park's fault - the slightly lubricated group in front of us took too long at the Claustrophobia Tunnel (some of them even refusing to go in). But apart from that we had a great experience.
Across all four of the mazes we had a fantastic mix of scares, laughs and elaborate set pieces, with some really lively characters in detailed masks and costumes. Fortunately there weren't too many "script scenes" as the background music throughout was very loud, and sometimes made it harder to hear an intro speech (we noticed this most on Blind Alley where we struggled to hear the first actor as they were competing with the background music. We know it's an AtmosFEAR Entertainments staple of scare maze design, but a few notches down on the volume switch would work wonders!)
Another unfortunate thing on our visit, was the absolute insistence on hands and shoulders through the mazes. Sure, this is fine in a linear maze where everyone needs to walk in line, but all these mazes (except Blind Alley) use tricks that make it difficult for this to be kept up at times. Trying to keep hands on shoulders whilst going upstairs, ducking or crawling is impossible and several times we were asked to line up on a wall or go in a different direction. In two of our mazes we were paired up with some other guests who tried to stick to this rule and it took us out of the experience as we tried to tell them to relax and not hold so tight. Maybe they were just terrified to let us go, but the actors sometimes insisted on telling us to put hands back on shoulders. We understand that the logic behind this is to keep the groups together, but this practice has been pretty much dropped across most other scare attractions, and there there are other ways to do this by relying on the actors to direct their scares to keep people moving forward.
So with that gripe out of the way, we still had an amazing time at Terror Island. All the scares, sounds, roaming characters, rides, food and bar etc all added up to create an incredible atmosphere. It's amazing that the whole event is really only three years old yet still manages to scare us each year. If you haven't visited it already then you need to book yourself a ferry to the Isle of Wight right now - we guarantee you'll have a great time!
Once the actors had all been rounded up and sent back to their respective mazes we got in line for our first attraction - The Blood Shed. Utilising a new entrance from the middle plaza in the park, this maze has remained unchanged for 2022. Saying that, it is still the goriest of the four attractions with guests having to navigate a murderous bunch of smugglers with a strange penchant for blood. The actors in this maze were some of the most aggressive of the night and managed to elicit a lot of screams out of our group.
Our next maze was Amphibious which has had a big UV makeover into Amphibious: Dark Light. The maze itself was extremely lively with some very loud scares and some sudden appearances throughout. Fortunately we were at the front of our group as the most of the scares seem to be timed as people entered the room, meaning some of those at the back would miss them. The costumes and makeup in this maze were some of the strongest with a number of human/fish hybrid creatures looking stunning in the UV light.
New for 2022 is Blind Alley, a hooded maze based in an unusual hospital. We think we have made it very clear that we now expect hooded mazes to do something unique and special, and although a lot of the experience was generic, we loved the "surprise element" when we finally got to the Doctor. We don't want to spoil it, but it genuinely left us staggering, wishing we had something more solid to hang on to!
Our final maze was the re-branded Hexcvation. Although the main maze sections remained the same as 2021, the attraction has seen a new story makeover and an evil new villain in the finale. The maze was as tight and claustrophobic as we remembered with a number of fun jump scares from lively actors. Sadly due to an issue with the batch in front of us - we ended up out sync, with only half the group getting the big finale (the others were stuck in the tunnel) This was disappointing, although not necessarily the park's fault - the slightly lubricated group in front of us took too long at the Claustrophobia Tunnel (some of them even refusing to go in). But apart from that we had a great experience.
Across all four of the mazes we had a fantastic mix of scares, laughs and elaborate set pieces, with some really lively characters in detailed masks and costumes. Fortunately there weren't too many "script scenes" as the background music throughout was very loud, and sometimes made it harder to hear an intro speech (we noticed this most on Blind Alley where we struggled to hear the first actor as they were competing with the background music. We know it's an AtmosFEAR Entertainments staple of scare maze design, but a few notches down on the volume switch would work wonders!)
Another unfortunate thing on our visit, was the absolute insistence on hands and shoulders through the mazes. Sure, this is fine in a linear maze where everyone needs to walk in line, but all these mazes (except Blind Alley) use tricks that make it difficult for this to be kept up at times. Trying to keep hands on shoulders whilst going upstairs, ducking or crawling is impossible and several times we were asked to line up on a wall or go in a different direction. In two of our mazes we were paired up with some other guests who tried to stick to this rule and it took us out of the experience as we tried to tell them to relax and not hold so tight. Maybe they were just terrified to let us go, but the actors sometimes insisted on telling us to put hands back on shoulders. We understand that the logic behind this is to keep the groups together, but this practice has been pretty much dropped across most other scare attractions, and there there are other ways to do this by relying on the actors to direct their scares to keep people moving forward.
So with that gripe out of the way, we still had an amazing time at Terror Island. All the scares, sounds, roaming characters, rides, food and bar etc all added up to create an incredible atmosphere. It's amazing that the whole event is really only three years old yet still manages to scare us each year. If you haven't visited it already then you need to book yourself a ferry to the Isle of Wight right now - we guarantee you'll have a great time!
Terror Island 2021
It's very rare to go to a scare event where you cant decide which is the best and which is the weakest maze. But after a night at Terror Island, and following a lot of discussion between the team we are still so completely undecided as to which maze at the event is the best - they are all EQUALLY as amazing as each other!
Which is no mean feat in it's own right, as each visit through each maze brought an insane levels of scares and confusion. Everything from the sets, through to the actors and the timings of their attacks, brought an assured scariness that we would expect from a team that have been doing this for years.
As it is - the mazes were designed by AtmosFEAR Scare Entertainment in 2019, but the team at Blackgang Chine, have opened and staffed these mazes completely independently for 2021. So yes, they had a great foundation to start from - but the fact this year's event feels stronger than the debut year, is a real credit to the passion and enthusiasm of the team for their event.
The three mazes are very different in their own right - Hexcavation is very tight and claustrophic, with crawl spaces and a tightly packed corridors. Amphibious relies on multiple scares throughout the beautifully themed rooms (especially in the water swamp section where the actors seemed to just loom over us out of the "water",) and Blood Shed involved some up close scares alongside some tongue in cheek humour, as the cannibalistic family hunted us through the shed. Each maze was perfectly brought to life by an enthusiastic cast, who were relentlessly vocal and physical throughout. They also taunted us mercilessly at the start of the event as we waited for the mazes to open!
The event has live music and a DJ that rotate through the night and a series of dangerous stunts and circus acts are played out on the lawn area (just be careful about you might get yourself volunteered for!) Food and catering options include include a cocktail bar serving cocktails made with local Isle of Wight Gin, and a catering stand selling the likes of loaded fries, nachos etc. There are also a couple of rides open for those wanting to brave them in the dark!
It's not difficult to see that we had an absolute blast at this years event, and we are sure the public will love it as much as we did when it opens this week. It really is rare for us to visit an attraction, or write any sort of review without some sort of constructive comment for balanced reporting, but we can genuinely say, hand on heart - that Terror Island is the perfect little scare event. Yes it might be inconveniently located on an Island, but the ferries are plentiful, and we don't regret a single penny we spent traveling to this incredibly terrifying event.
Which is no mean feat in it's own right, as each visit through each maze brought an insane levels of scares and confusion. Everything from the sets, through to the actors and the timings of their attacks, brought an assured scariness that we would expect from a team that have been doing this for years.
As it is - the mazes were designed by AtmosFEAR Scare Entertainment in 2019, but the team at Blackgang Chine, have opened and staffed these mazes completely independently for 2021. So yes, they had a great foundation to start from - but the fact this year's event feels stronger than the debut year, is a real credit to the passion and enthusiasm of the team for their event.
The three mazes are very different in their own right - Hexcavation is very tight and claustrophic, with crawl spaces and a tightly packed corridors. Amphibious relies on multiple scares throughout the beautifully themed rooms (especially in the water swamp section where the actors seemed to just loom over us out of the "water",) and Blood Shed involved some up close scares alongside some tongue in cheek humour, as the cannibalistic family hunted us through the shed. Each maze was perfectly brought to life by an enthusiastic cast, who were relentlessly vocal and physical throughout. They also taunted us mercilessly at the start of the event as we waited for the mazes to open!
The event has live music and a DJ that rotate through the night and a series of dangerous stunts and circus acts are played out on the lawn area (just be careful about you might get yourself volunteered for!) Food and catering options include include a cocktail bar serving cocktails made with local Isle of Wight Gin, and a catering stand selling the likes of loaded fries, nachos etc. There are also a couple of rides open for those wanting to brave them in the dark!
It's not difficult to see that we had an absolute blast at this years event, and we are sure the public will love it as much as we did when it opens this week. It really is rare for us to visit an attraction, or write any sort of review without some sort of constructive comment for balanced reporting, but we can genuinely say, hand on heart - that Terror Island is the perfect little scare event. Yes it might be inconveniently located on an Island, but the ferries are plentiful, and we don't regret a single penny we spent traveling to this incredibly terrifying event.
Terror Island 2019
Blackgang Chine is a family amusement park located on the south of the Isle of Wight. Last year they entered the Halloween market with the debut event - Wicked Nights, but for 2019 they have taken an even bigger jump, and re-branded to Terror Island, with the addition of three brand new mazes from AtmosFEAR Scare Entertainment.
The Terror Island complex is located at the back of the park and is easily accessible by its own entrance. It generally uses buildings not open to the regular theme park user, in addition to several rides such as the Cliffhanger roller coaster and the WaterForce water slide.
Once through the main gates, it is clear that a lot of effort has been spent in making the central area welcoming and well themed. Dramatic lighting accentuates all the buildings, and empty spaces are randomly punctuated by bursts of flame. The main hub has a food and drink hatch (we can highly recommend the nachos) as well as a covered sitting area where resident DJs play high energy music to keep the atmosphere electric. From this main area it is easy to access the main three attractions.
We started with Hexcavation, which has a dark, urban explorer/archaeology vibe, as we investigated a dark and foreboding temple. The pictures below show how detailed the main facade is for this maze, and the attention to detail continues inside. The actors in here were pretty relentless and managed to scan us multiple times as we ducked and crawled our way round. Interestingly - outside the maze there was a test tunnel to see if guests were able to squeeze through or not. This was a great idea as we have had instances in the past where someone of a certain size has been unable to squeeze through certain elements.
As we reached the end of the attraction we were asked to take a seat and keep out feet tucked in, which immediately brought to mind the tactic that is used for many of the Dungeon ghost shows. As the lights plunged into darkness we expected a sudden appearance by a solo actor, so was very surprised to see such a multi actor attack!
Our next maze was Amphibious which was beautifully themed around a sunken ship. The opening monologue suffered from AtmosFEAR's insistence on playing loud music at full pelt whilst an actor is forced to shout to be heard. It's a simple thing to fix and something we saw a lot of this year. Once inside we were attacked by different sea creatures which was completely different to just having snarling scare actors popping out. Each new scene and scare left us smiling to ourselves, while we externally screamed and jumped. We must also mention a very popular swamp affect as first seen in the Witches at Tulleys. This effect had become a bit commonplace so it was brilliant to see it in a different colour. The bright blue of the laser, genuinely conjured up images of water, and we loved the way the scare actors emerged through the beam as if they had just surfaced from the depths. It was a really nice effect and fitted the story perfectly.
The final maze was called The Blood Shed and features a pretty standard bunch of carnivorous residents trying to make dinner of our limbs. Although nothing original - this maze stood out due to the detailed theming - especially as most of the walls and rooms were genuine brick walls in the old mill. The actors were totally engaged throughout, and we also loved how they all seemed to get multiple scares across the group, making us feel that the acting cast was much bigger then it really was.
One thing we must point out is that we visited on a Tuesday at 6pm, and the park was so quite that at times we felt like the only people in there. Which is such a shame, as the product is very strong and deserves to be seen by many more people. We hope this is just a timing issue, and the event is hugely popular this year. We cant wait to see what they come up with going forward, as this is definitely an event to look out for.
The Terror Island complex is located at the back of the park and is easily accessible by its own entrance. It generally uses buildings not open to the regular theme park user, in addition to several rides such as the Cliffhanger roller coaster and the WaterForce water slide.
Once through the main gates, it is clear that a lot of effort has been spent in making the central area welcoming and well themed. Dramatic lighting accentuates all the buildings, and empty spaces are randomly punctuated by bursts of flame. The main hub has a food and drink hatch (we can highly recommend the nachos) as well as a covered sitting area where resident DJs play high energy music to keep the atmosphere electric. From this main area it is easy to access the main three attractions.
We started with Hexcavation, which has a dark, urban explorer/archaeology vibe, as we investigated a dark and foreboding temple. The pictures below show how detailed the main facade is for this maze, and the attention to detail continues inside. The actors in here were pretty relentless and managed to scan us multiple times as we ducked and crawled our way round. Interestingly - outside the maze there was a test tunnel to see if guests were able to squeeze through or not. This was a great idea as we have had instances in the past where someone of a certain size has been unable to squeeze through certain elements.
As we reached the end of the attraction we were asked to take a seat and keep out feet tucked in, which immediately brought to mind the tactic that is used for many of the Dungeon ghost shows. As the lights plunged into darkness we expected a sudden appearance by a solo actor, so was very surprised to see such a multi actor attack!
Our next maze was Amphibious which was beautifully themed around a sunken ship. The opening monologue suffered from AtmosFEAR's insistence on playing loud music at full pelt whilst an actor is forced to shout to be heard. It's a simple thing to fix and something we saw a lot of this year. Once inside we were attacked by different sea creatures which was completely different to just having snarling scare actors popping out. Each new scene and scare left us smiling to ourselves, while we externally screamed and jumped. We must also mention a very popular swamp affect as first seen in the Witches at Tulleys. This effect had become a bit commonplace so it was brilliant to see it in a different colour. The bright blue of the laser, genuinely conjured up images of water, and we loved the way the scare actors emerged through the beam as if they had just surfaced from the depths. It was a really nice effect and fitted the story perfectly.
The final maze was called The Blood Shed and features a pretty standard bunch of carnivorous residents trying to make dinner of our limbs. Although nothing original - this maze stood out due to the detailed theming - especially as most of the walls and rooms were genuine brick walls in the old mill. The actors were totally engaged throughout, and we also loved how they all seemed to get multiple scares across the group, making us feel that the acting cast was much bigger then it really was.
One thing we must point out is that we visited on a Tuesday at 6pm, and the park was so quite that at times we felt like the only people in there. Which is such a shame, as the product is very strong and deserves to be seen by many more people. We hope this is just a timing issue, and the event is hugely popular this year. We cant wait to see what they come up with going forward, as this is definitely an event to look out for.
Links:
Terror Island website
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