The Howl 2024
The little sister of Tulleys Shocktoberfest, has really come of age recently and is easily chasing at the heels of its big brother down South. In the last few years the addition of new mazes such as Howl Valley High have helped the event stand on its own two feet, and the recent extension of the event into a new entrance plaza have really opened the whole site up to more entertainment with a new bar area, better food options and a whole street team of roaming actors .
We won't go into each maze specifically, but we really aren't sure what the performance director must have been drinking. But it would seem that all rules were off when it came to creating physical gut wrenching scares. The actors were climbing, swinging, jumping and generally causing an utter nuisance of themselves throughout each of the mazes. But this was most noticeable in The Shed and Squealers Yard. For two mazes that have been around since the event first opened - it is amazing that they can still pack such a magnificent punch, and our whole group screamed and yelled throughout all the mazes. Later on, at the end of the night, a couple of the team did the mazes again as a small group of 2 and they were just slaughtered by the actors. We really cant praise them enough.
Then there is the new maze. When we walked in the large first room we couldn't help but break out in a huge grin. Clearly the maze has been built around a massive central atrium and the actors were as mad as the other mazes. But the size and height of this room meant they were swinging above our heads, jumping from scaffold to scaffold, and leaping off some of the trashed vehicles in the room.
We all got multiple attacks from every actor - who were all clearly giving 150% to get a good reaction. We thought it was just the enthusiasm of staff starting a new shift, but every time we went in we got this same level of insanity. Even with a different crew of actors, everything about Noxious Alley was outstanding and we cant fault it any way. Well done to everyone involved - it truly was a stunning experience.
Outside of the mazes, The Howl always seems to have some incredible live actors and we highly recommend interacting with them throughout. We loved the "fired" Mr Topper arguing with the Doctor behind Noxious, and the conversation with the woman about to change into a big ginger werewolf was hilarious.
Also - like Tulleys - the live entertainment is from a new troupe called Carnevil Cabaret. The shows change throughout the night and we experienced a good mix of fire acts, escapology and an unusual act with small balls (which was better than it sounds!)
All in we had a fantastic time at the Howl. The atmosphere around the park was very friendly and welcoming and then the scare mazes were all genuinely terrifying. What more could anyone ask for?
We won't go into each maze specifically, but we really aren't sure what the performance director must have been drinking. But it would seem that all rules were off when it came to creating physical gut wrenching scares. The actors were climbing, swinging, jumping and generally causing an utter nuisance of themselves throughout each of the mazes. But this was most noticeable in The Shed and Squealers Yard. For two mazes that have been around since the event first opened - it is amazing that they can still pack such a magnificent punch, and our whole group screamed and yelled throughout all the mazes. Later on, at the end of the night, a couple of the team did the mazes again as a small group of 2 and they were just slaughtered by the actors. We really cant praise them enough.
Then there is the new maze. When we walked in the large first room we couldn't help but break out in a huge grin. Clearly the maze has been built around a massive central atrium and the actors were as mad as the other mazes. But the size and height of this room meant they were swinging above our heads, jumping from scaffold to scaffold, and leaping off some of the trashed vehicles in the room.
We all got multiple attacks from every actor - who were all clearly giving 150% to get a good reaction. We thought it was just the enthusiasm of staff starting a new shift, but every time we went in we got this same level of insanity. Even with a different crew of actors, everything about Noxious Alley was outstanding and we cant fault it any way. Well done to everyone involved - it truly was a stunning experience.
Outside of the mazes, The Howl always seems to have some incredible live actors and we highly recommend interacting with them throughout. We loved the "fired" Mr Topper arguing with the Doctor behind Noxious, and the conversation with the woman about to change into a big ginger werewolf was hilarious.
Also - like Tulleys - the live entertainment is from a new troupe called Carnevil Cabaret. The shows change throughout the night and we experienced a good mix of fire acts, escapology and an unusual act with small balls (which was better than it sounds!)
All in we had a fantastic time at the Howl. The atmosphere around the park was very friendly and welcoming and then the scare mazes were all genuinely terrifying. What more could anyone ask for?
The Howl 2023
Following the success of last year's Howl Valley High, the Howl Scream Park is back with a brand new experience for 2023. Full Moon Manor has been built in the space that in the past held The Attic and the Hotel du Basqeurvilles, and certainly shares some of the same DNA as these attractions - ie compared to the grime and gore of The Shed and Squealer's, it is more of a classic haunted house type experience. After a small briefing with an hilarious receptionist, we were invited to take a lift to our rooms, which of course soon ended up kicking us out into our worst nightmares. What then followed was a long walk round the hotel including a couple of staircases - an incredibly fun ballroom scene, and a whole array of lively actors. Scares seemed to come from every angle and the actors certainly knew how to work the space to get the best impact.
The same can be said for Howl Valley High which remains one of the most chaotic (but fun) mazes we experienced this Halloween. The attention to detail throughout all the rooms is amazing, but we rarely had chance to stop and look. The actors were so quick and aggressive in their scares that everyone is our group ended up screaming at times. Having won a SCAR award for best new maze in Halloween 2022, Howl Valley High has lost none of its impact and it is clear the team are keen to retain the award this year. The only thing that can be said of this class of 2023 is that they all deserve an A+ for effort AND attainment! An amazing end of year report all round!
Following the chaos of the first two mazes we thought Toppers Twister would calm us down - but no, the clowns here were just as lively. Although the maze doesn't really do anything new or different, it is a really solid part of the line up and we had some great scares. In fact this can also be said of Red which is probably the "tamest" of the mazes. Now "tame" isn't bad - it's just that the pathways in this attraction are a bit wider and the rooms more open, meaning there were less impact scares. We also found the repetitive snarling of the word "red" throughout, started to lose its impact by the end.
As we walked to the final two attractions on the site, we saw something that we have never seen before - a full chainsaw duel between two roaming actors. As the blades clashed and they revved their engines, we could only observe, as the display of machismo played out whilst the hillbilly woman they were both fighting over, cheered on from the sidelines. This was just one of the many, many character interactions we saw throughout our night, and really added to the overall atmosphere.
After watching the duel - we headed into Squealer's Yard for this years blood letting carnage. Despite being one of the oldest attractions at the event - there were so many great scares throughout this attraction and the actors teased us mercilessly before chasing us out the door.
Our final experience of the night was The Shed. Who would have thought that a maze that first opened when the event was created back in 2015 would be a highlight of our night? We have no idea what they have been feeding the actors in here, but they were outrageous. They used every aspect of the maze to scare us relentless, including hanging off of ceilings, climbing walls and jumping from heights to get the best impact scares they could. By the time we finally got out, our whole group were breathless from all the laughing and screaming.
In summary, the new extended layout with with new bar and catering areas works really well, and the roaming characters around the site all help create an exciting atmosphere. Add this to the incredible mazes and the scares within, and we can easily say this was the best year The Howl has had. Congratulations to everyone involved!
The same can be said for Howl Valley High which remains one of the most chaotic (but fun) mazes we experienced this Halloween. The attention to detail throughout all the rooms is amazing, but we rarely had chance to stop and look. The actors were so quick and aggressive in their scares that everyone is our group ended up screaming at times. Having won a SCAR award for best new maze in Halloween 2022, Howl Valley High has lost none of its impact and it is clear the team are keen to retain the award this year. The only thing that can be said of this class of 2023 is that they all deserve an A+ for effort AND attainment! An amazing end of year report all round!
Following the chaos of the first two mazes we thought Toppers Twister would calm us down - but no, the clowns here were just as lively. Although the maze doesn't really do anything new or different, it is a really solid part of the line up and we had some great scares. In fact this can also be said of Red which is probably the "tamest" of the mazes. Now "tame" isn't bad - it's just that the pathways in this attraction are a bit wider and the rooms more open, meaning there were less impact scares. We also found the repetitive snarling of the word "red" throughout, started to lose its impact by the end.
As we walked to the final two attractions on the site, we saw something that we have never seen before - a full chainsaw duel between two roaming actors. As the blades clashed and they revved their engines, we could only observe, as the display of machismo played out whilst the hillbilly woman they were both fighting over, cheered on from the sidelines. This was just one of the many, many character interactions we saw throughout our night, and really added to the overall atmosphere.
After watching the duel - we headed into Squealer's Yard for this years blood letting carnage. Despite being one of the oldest attractions at the event - there were so many great scares throughout this attraction and the actors teased us mercilessly before chasing us out the door.
Our final experience of the night was The Shed. Who would have thought that a maze that first opened when the event was created back in 2015 would be a highlight of our night? We have no idea what they have been feeding the actors in here, but they were outrageous. They used every aspect of the maze to scare us relentless, including hanging off of ceilings, climbing walls and jumping from heights to get the best impact scares they could. By the time we finally got out, our whole group were breathless from all the laughing and screaming.
In summary, the new extended layout with with new bar and catering areas works really well, and the roaming characters around the site all help create an exciting atmosphere. Add this to the incredible mazes and the scares within, and we can easily say this was the best year The Howl has had. Congratulations to everyone involved!
The Howl 2022
Originally opening as the little brother to Tulleys Farm Shocktoberfest, The Howl has well and truly matured over the past couple of years and has grown into a fully-fledged scream park titan.
This year there is an entirely new layout and entrance with the addition of the Howl Valley High area. This makes a big difference, as it is now easier to navigate the park and the whole event feels more spacious and alive. There was a real sense of energy coming from the live DJ’s and roaming hordes. These roamers were up there with some of the best, playing their own distinct characters with fun and quirky personalities. We encountered everything from possessed girls to a pack of ravenous cheerleaders. However, our personal favourite, wielded a rather aggressive puppet which seemed all too eager to tear us to shreds.
Desperate to relive our school days, we headed straight into the queue for Howl Valley High. It’s rather appropriate that it features an American theme, as these sets wouldn’t look out of place at Busch Gardens or even Halloween Horror Nights. We had a lot of fun interacting with their characters, especially the wannabe prom queen. The standard of acting present in this maze was stellar, with the cast giving their absolute best to catch us off guard.
The Howl have clearly ensured that truancy is not allowed as this maze was really well populated. We were swarmed by lively actors and they didn’t relent until we’d been chased out of the exit. The actors gleefully toyed with us as we bounced from scare to scare, often resulting in some rather humiliating screams. The physicality of the actors was astounding, with students jumping onto walls, lurching over desks and dropping down from cubicles. It was impossible to not only predict where the next scare would come from, but also what form it would take.
Once recovered, we decided to head on down to Squealers Yard which is one of the most intricately designed attractions at The Howl, with a mixture of indoor and outdoor sections. We proceeded through grisly butcher’s shops, meat processing rooms and cattle pens before eventually arriving in the slaughter chamber. All in, it’s an incredibly immersive attraction, making the most of its gruesome premise with some truly disturbing sights, sounds and smells. The scares came thick and fast throughout our visit.
The Shed is a classic at The Howl of the Howl which is usually packed to the brim with actors. This year was no different. In fact, we’d argue that were even more actors than usual, meaning that we found ourselves under constant attack by the relentless creatures that lurked inside The Shed. The actors were working in perfect tandem striking one after the other, giving us little time to recover from the scares.
Our next attraction, Red, was one of the most beautiful and atmospheric mazes at The Howl, taking place inside Granny’s cabin in the middle of the woods. The sets are impressively creepy, and the layout is confusing, looping around and taking groups on what feels like an epic journey. Every turn we took led to us being ambushed by an army of hooded figures viciously wielding axes. They blended well into the scenery and often appeared from nowhere. Red stands out in the line-up of The Howl in the way it twists a classic fairy-tale into something much darker.
We then moved onto Toppers Twister, which has remained a staple at The Howl for some time. Fortunately, it’s wackiness and cheeky personality hasn’t faded. The actors were the real stars of the show here, providing hilarious off the cuff comments that caught us off guard. Whilst most clown mazes don’t tend to pack in the scares, these clowns were lively, popping out of nowhere with a variety of different humorous scares. We even found ourselves to be the target of the joke multiple times, with one clown mimicking our screams after a successful attack. Toppers Twister is a classic at The Howl.
Our final attraction for the evening was The Attic which is absolutely beautiful, with multi-level sets. It is genuinely atmospheric and immersive, building a great deal of tension thanks to the haunting surroundings. The actors in this attraction seemed to take a different approach to the others. Whilst we had some fun jump scares, we found the cast of The Attic seemed to like playing with us. Often, we’d catch deliberate glimpses of them before they ran off to hide somewhere unseen. The eventual jump scare that resulted was that much more impactful thanks to this ominous approach to scares. Our run through The Attic was yet again an absolute delight, with scares aplenty!
What can we say about our evening at The Howl? It’s always been a highlight of our scare season, but this year it really has upped the game. All of the mazes were packed with actors who knew how to get a good scare. To put it bluntly, The Howl is a fantastic event which should be on any scare enthusiasts ‘to do’ list. Miss out on The Howl at your own peril.
This year there is an entirely new layout and entrance with the addition of the Howl Valley High area. This makes a big difference, as it is now easier to navigate the park and the whole event feels more spacious and alive. There was a real sense of energy coming from the live DJ’s and roaming hordes. These roamers were up there with some of the best, playing their own distinct characters with fun and quirky personalities. We encountered everything from possessed girls to a pack of ravenous cheerleaders. However, our personal favourite, wielded a rather aggressive puppet which seemed all too eager to tear us to shreds.
Desperate to relive our school days, we headed straight into the queue for Howl Valley High. It’s rather appropriate that it features an American theme, as these sets wouldn’t look out of place at Busch Gardens or even Halloween Horror Nights. We had a lot of fun interacting with their characters, especially the wannabe prom queen. The standard of acting present in this maze was stellar, with the cast giving their absolute best to catch us off guard.
The Howl have clearly ensured that truancy is not allowed as this maze was really well populated. We were swarmed by lively actors and they didn’t relent until we’d been chased out of the exit. The actors gleefully toyed with us as we bounced from scare to scare, often resulting in some rather humiliating screams. The physicality of the actors was astounding, with students jumping onto walls, lurching over desks and dropping down from cubicles. It was impossible to not only predict where the next scare would come from, but also what form it would take.
Once recovered, we decided to head on down to Squealers Yard which is one of the most intricately designed attractions at The Howl, with a mixture of indoor and outdoor sections. We proceeded through grisly butcher’s shops, meat processing rooms and cattle pens before eventually arriving in the slaughter chamber. All in, it’s an incredibly immersive attraction, making the most of its gruesome premise with some truly disturbing sights, sounds and smells. The scares came thick and fast throughout our visit.
The Shed is a classic at The Howl of the Howl which is usually packed to the brim with actors. This year was no different. In fact, we’d argue that were even more actors than usual, meaning that we found ourselves under constant attack by the relentless creatures that lurked inside The Shed. The actors were working in perfect tandem striking one after the other, giving us little time to recover from the scares.
Our next attraction, Red, was one of the most beautiful and atmospheric mazes at The Howl, taking place inside Granny’s cabin in the middle of the woods. The sets are impressively creepy, and the layout is confusing, looping around and taking groups on what feels like an epic journey. Every turn we took led to us being ambushed by an army of hooded figures viciously wielding axes. They blended well into the scenery and often appeared from nowhere. Red stands out in the line-up of The Howl in the way it twists a classic fairy-tale into something much darker.
We then moved onto Toppers Twister, which has remained a staple at The Howl for some time. Fortunately, it’s wackiness and cheeky personality hasn’t faded. The actors were the real stars of the show here, providing hilarious off the cuff comments that caught us off guard. Whilst most clown mazes don’t tend to pack in the scares, these clowns were lively, popping out of nowhere with a variety of different humorous scares. We even found ourselves to be the target of the joke multiple times, with one clown mimicking our screams after a successful attack. Toppers Twister is a classic at The Howl.
Our final attraction for the evening was The Attic which is absolutely beautiful, with multi-level sets. It is genuinely atmospheric and immersive, building a great deal of tension thanks to the haunting surroundings. The actors in this attraction seemed to take a different approach to the others. Whilst we had some fun jump scares, we found the cast of The Attic seemed to like playing with us. Often, we’d catch deliberate glimpses of them before they ran off to hide somewhere unseen. The eventual jump scare that resulted was that much more impactful thanks to this ominous approach to scares. Our run through The Attic was yet again an absolute delight, with scares aplenty!
What can we say about our evening at The Howl? It’s always been a highlight of our scare season, but this year it really has upped the game. All of the mazes were packed with actors who knew how to get a good scare. To put it bluntly, The Howl is a fantastic event which should be on any scare enthusiasts ‘to do’ list. Miss out on The Howl at your own peril.
The Howl is always so much fun that we always choose to visit twice (or more) each year, and with it being one of the more local scream parks, our choice of place to spend Halloween each year. We love The Howl so much that we didn't really think it was possible for the event to get even better, and yet in 2022, it did! The announcement of a 6th maze alongside an appearance from the Circus of Horrors made me giddy.
Upon arrival, I got the immediate feeling that The Howl is slowly transforming into its big sister, Shocktoberfest. I mean, it always felt like that, but this year, more than ever, with the addition of the Circus of Horrors and the expansion of the scream park grounds, it was even more apparent.
As always, the street theatre team were incredible, and since we came dressed up on both days we went (yep, even in the rain on Halloween) we got some really fun and memorable interactions with the street theatre actors, as well as the ones inside the attractions! This is something I find immeasurably charming about both The Howl and Shocktoberfest. How they manage to find such quick-witted and wonderful actors for these events will never cease to amaze me.
We started out with Squealer's Yard, since it tends to be the busiest maze later in the night, and on both dates we visited, ended up on a solo run through, which, if you know Squealer's Yard, you will know the prospect alone of entering without a group is rather intimidating! The attraction was so quiet on our second visit that we were treated to what essentially became a preshow in the first room, which was both terrifying and highly entertaining to see so many of the actors come together right at the start and perform such a scene.
The Shed was intense both times we visited, and despite having been through the attraction countless times now, we will never quite get over how it always manages to seem as though it's crawling with creatures at every turn, or how it's somehow better than The Cellar at Shocktoberfest. There's always something in The Shed that's not what we were expecting, and this year, it was an actor hanging upside down from one of the walls and grasping at shrieking guests!
Red seems to get better every year, and this year was no exception. The makeup on the actors in here is a real treat if you get the opportunity to admire it for a moment. Grandma was crazier than ever, and on Halloween, the actor who followed us all the way out of the maze, repeating nothing but the word “Flyyyy!” in an extremely creepy voice, will stay with us for years to come.
The Attic was a little sparse on actors during our first visit, but fantastic regardless. Then on our second visit on Halloween, there were actors everywhere! The actor who followed me through several corridors chanting “Yummy bunny” at my backpack (a voodoo bunny plushie bag) only to disappear and promptly return with a bunny of their own to shove in my face created yet another memorable moment for the year.
We didn't know what to expect with Howl Valley High with it being a new maze for the year. I didn't want to get my hopes up because I'm not much of a fan of high school horror, but once again, The Howl hit it out of the park! The theming was wonderful, the actors were numerous and intense, and the whole thing felt fantastic. It certainly seemed quite original, and we loved it so much that on our second visit, we chose to save it as our second-to-last attraction.
With both of us absolutely adoring creepy clowns, we, of course, had to save Topper's Twister until last, and, as always, it didn't let us down, not even on Halloween when some kids without maze passes broke in and ran through, pushing past our group. The actor playing the donkey clown this year was a highlight on both visits! Especially on Halloween when we were followed for what seemed like forever by the creepy character. It's a character we really let our guard down around as well because the way the actor played him, he seemed harmless and innocent enough at first, but the longer we ignored (and laughed) at his antics, the more terrifying he became!
And then there's the Circus of Horrors. What. A. TREAT! The show was so good that we watched it 3 times on both of our visits. Having seen the UK touring Circus of Horrors shows along with the unit at Shocktoberfest before, we knew it would be a blast, but neither of us were expecting it to be as spectacular as it was. We made the assumption that, with Circus of Horrors in Blackpool and still at Shocktoberfest, the version of the show at The Howl would be significantly reduced in size and wow factor, but once again, we were proved wrong. So wrong in fact, that the version of the Circus of Horrors at The Howl became one of our favourite versions of a Circus of Horrors show that we've ever seen!
From the clowns terrorising the audience as they entered the tent to the different acts performing various versions of the show throughout the night, it was just mindblowing every time. The character of Iktus Diktus, the sword-swallowing (among other things) clown was particularly special. It's difficult to put into words everything that made this mini Circus of Horrors show as spectacular as it was, but the fact that we watched it 6 times and would happily have seen it many more should speak volumes about how entertaining it was.
The Howl still has a very special place in our hearts, and there's nowhere we'd rather celebrate Halloween.
Upon arrival, I got the immediate feeling that The Howl is slowly transforming into its big sister, Shocktoberfest. I mean, it always felt like that, but this year, more than ever, with the addition of the Circus of Horrors and the expansion of the scream park grounds, it was even more apparent.
As always, the street theatre team were incredible, and since we came dressed up on both days we went (yep, even in the rain on Halloween) we got some really fun and memorable interactions with the street theatre actors, as well as the ones inside the attractions! This is something I find immeasurably charming about both The Howl and Shocktoberfest. How they manage to find such quick-witted and wonderful actors for these events will never cease to amaze me.
We started out with Squealer's Yard, since it tends to be the busiest maze later in the night, and on both dates we visited, ended up on a solo run through, which, if you know Squealer's Yard, you will know the prospect alone of entering without a group is rather intimidating! The attraction was so quiet on our second visit that we were treated to what essentially became a preshow in the first room, which was both terrifying and highly entertaining to see so many of the actors come together right at the start and perform such a scene.
The Shed was intense both times we visited, and despite having been through the attraction countless times now, we will never quite get over how it always manages to seem as though it's crawling with creatures at every turn, or how it's somehow better than The Cellar at Shocktoberfest. There's always something in The Shed that's not what we were expecting, and this year, it was an actor hanging upside down from one of the walls and grasping at shrieking guests!
Red seems to get better every year, and this year was no exception. The makeup on the actors in here is a real treat if you get the opportunity to admire it for a moment. Grandma was crazier than ever, and on Halloween, the actor who followed us all the way out of the maze, repeating nothing but the word “Flyyyy!” in an extremely creepy voice, will stay with us for years to come.
The Attic was a little sparse on actors during our first visit, but fantastic regardless. Then on our second visit on Halloween, there were actors everywhere! The actor who followed me through several corridors chanting “Yummy bunny” at my backpack (a voodoo bunny plushie bag) only to disappear and promptly return with a bunny of their own to shove in my face created yet another memorable moment for the year.
We didn't know what to expect with Howl Valley High with it being a new maze for the year. I didn't want to get my hopes up because I'm not much of a fan of high school horror, but once again, The Howl hit it out of the park! The theming was wonderful, the actors were numerous and intense, and the whole thing felt fantastic. It certainly seemed quite original, and we loved it so much that on our second visit, we chose to save it as our second-to-last attraction.
With both of us absolutely adoring creepy clowns, we, of course, had to save Topper's Twister until last, and, as always, it didn't let us down, not even on Halloween when some kids without maze passes broke in and ran through, pushing past our group. The actor playing the donkey clown this year was a highlight on both visits! Especially on Halloween when we were followed for what seemed like forever by the creepy character. It's a character we really let our guard down around as well because the way the actor played him, he seemed harmless and innocent enough at first, but the longer we ignored (and laughed) at his antics, the more terrifying he became!
And then there's the Circus of Horrors. What. A. TREAT! The show was so good that we watched it 3 times on both of our visits. Having seen the UK touring Circus of Horrors shows along with the unit at Shocktoberfest before, we knew it would be a blast, but neither of us were expecting it to be as spectacular as it was. We made the assumption that, with Circus of Horrors in Blackpool and still at Shocktoberfest, the version of the show at The Howl would be significantly reduced in size and wow factor, but once again, we were proved wrong. So wrong in fact, that the version of the Circus of Horrors at The Howl became one of our favourite versions of a Circus of Horrors show that we've ever seen!
From the clowns terrorising the audience as they entered the tent to the different acts performing various versions of the show throughout the night, it was just mindblowing every time. The character of Iktus Diktus, the sword-swallowing (among other things) clown was particularly special. It's difficult to put into words everything that made this mini Circus of Horrors show as spectacular as it was, but the fact that we watched it 6 times and would happily have seen it many more should speak volumes about how entertaining it was.
The Howl still has a very special place in our hearts, and there's nowhere we'd rather celebrate Halloween.
The Howl 2021
In the past, The Howl has always been slightly overshadowed by its big brother down South, but the event has always deserved to stand on its own feet. Despite sharing a lot of the DNA of Tulleys Shocktoberfest, it really does have its own feel, and has a unique set of attractions and scares.
No more so than the opening ceremony, where our ghost host summoned the casts of each of the mazes into the main hub for one quick scare before the mazes open. As well as providing great street theatre for the guests – this must be great fun for the actors as they are able to get several screams before the attractions even open!
Our first maze choice of the night was pretty deliberate. We headed straight to Squealers Yard before the crowds got too busy. We have experienced this maze multiple times, and it works so much better as a small group. As it was – we entered as a group of 4 and were terrorised throughout.
Our next stop was the extremely well themed The Shed, which has remained pretty much unchanged since it first opened. This sounds like a bad thing – but when a maze is so relentlessly scary it doesn’t matter. The actors seemed to appear from everywhere during this maze and didn’t seem to be afraid to climb on the scenery to get better scares. We had some great jumps throughout this maze despite doing it so many times in the past.
Extending the overall werewolf theme – we were surprised at how open and different the attraction Red was. Instead of basic dark corridors, there were multiple large open spaces where we could potentially see and anticipate what was coming next. The actors were relentless throughout and we must commend the actor after the wolf head puppet who made great use of the distraction scare as we tried to avoid the werewolf's teeth!
In comparison to recent years – Toppers Twister sadly seemed a bit subdued. We have been terrified in this maze in the past and although we had some great scares, it didn’t feel as intense as we remember. It wasn't a bad run at all - but wasn't up to the intensity of the other 4 attractions this year.
Finally. our last maze was The Attic, which is a beautifully themed experience that gave us multiple scares from beginning to end. The actors seemed to be everywhere and the whole team had a number of jump scares throughout the maze.
All in we had a great time at The Howl and enjoyed the mix of scares in the mazes, as well as the atmosphere created by the characters around the park. Although it is effectively a “Tulleys" park, the attraction really has carved out its own niche and we loved every minute of our visit.
No more so than the opening ceremony, where our ghost host summoned the casts of each of the mazes into the main hub for one quick scare before the mazes open. As well as providing great street theatre for the guests – this must be great fun for the actors as they are able to get several screams before the attractions even open!
Our first maze choice of the night was pretty deliberate. We headed straight to Squealers Yard before the crowds got too busy. We have experienced this maze multiple times, and it works so much better as a small group. As it was – we entered as a group of 4 and were terrorised throughout.
Our next stop was the extremely well themed The Shed, which has remained pretty much unchanged since it first opened. This sounds like a bad thing – but when a maze is so relentlessly scary it doesn’t matter. The actors seemed to appear from everywhere during this maze and didn’t seem to be afraid to climb on the scenery to get better scares. We had some great jumps throughout this maze despite doing it so many times in the past.
Extending the overall werewolf theme – we were surprised at how open and different the attraction Red was. Instead of basic dark corridors, there were multiple large open spaces where we could potentially see and anticipate what was coming next. The actors were relentless throughout and we must commend the actor after the wolf head puppet who made great use of the distraction scare as we tried to avoid the werewolf's teeth!
In comparison to recent years – Toppers Twister sadly seemed a bit subdued. We have been terrified in this maze in the past and although we had some great scares, it didn’t feel as intense as we remember. It wasn't a bad run at all - but wasn't up to the intensity of the other 4 attractions this year.
Finally. our last maze was The Attic, which is a beautifully themed experience that gave us multiple scares from beginning to end. The actors seemed to be everywhere and the whole team had a number of jump scares throughout the maze.
All in we had a great time at The Howl and enjoyed the mix of scares in the mazes, as well as the atmosphere created by the characters around the park. Although it is effectively a “Tulleys" park, the attraction really has carved out its own niche and we loved every minute of our visit.
The Howl is one of our local scream parks, and one we often visit multiple times throughout October because it's so much fun, this year was no different. Despite the lineup remaining the same, all of the mazes on offer at The Howl were still highly entertaining with the actors inside giving it their all on what was a very busy Halloween night.
Arriving as the event opened, we headed to The Shed first, since it's always been our least favourite of the attractions there. That's not to say we dislike it, it's just we prefer mazes where the actors are able to be more vocal with their interactions. Once inside, we were seemingly mobbed by creatures as the actors moved about the maze pulling off scares in multiple locations effortlessly. It's hard not to be impressed when the same actor manages to scare a group more than 3 times in the space of a few seconds. It wound up being the most intense run we've ever had in there with us barely getting a chance to breathe as the actors came at us from all directions.
Next, we headed to Red. This year, a photo booth has been added to the queue line, which seemed to make things move more slowly, however, it still didn't take that long to enter the attraction. Once again, the actors inside were numerous, aggressive (in the best possible way), and very energetic, with grandma being a stand-out character. We weren't sure if our memories failed us, but we thought we remembered Red being longer in previous years. It all seemed to be over very quickly and lacked any sort of ending.
Saving our favourite three mazes until last, we decided to jump into the queue for The Attic, only to find ourselves tormented by some of the fantastic street performance team, who entertained us during what seemed like a fairly short wait. Once it was our turn, we were somewhat unsettled to be joined by a group of very rowdy lads who seemed as though they had a little too much to drink. My dad even whispered to me, “I would rather just wait than go in with those guys.” Much to our relief, a member of staff let the group in and then turned to us to say “Don't worry. I won't send you in with them.” And with a reassuring smile on his face, turned to his colleague and said that he was going to follow behind the group to keep an eye on them. This is something we wish had happened so many times in the past at various attractions across the country since it's never fun being forced to share your experience with people who are there to cause trouble. We've had many a great maze ruined by other guests, so this was a breath of fresh air to see staff taking the matter so seriously. On top of that, it meant we then got to enter the attraction with only one other guest in our group, leading to an absolutely terrifying experience.
We decided to go and grab a coffee for the next queue, and I was delighted to finally have the opportunity to taste my first pumpkin spiced latte of the season from the cafe. We were not so delighted, however, at the new location of the band indoors at the back of the building. In previous years, the placement has been different so that you can hear the band playing from almost anywhere on the farm. This year though, we instead have an outdoor DJ playing some beats, and you could only hear the live band if you were spending time inside the cafe area. Not only did this make it insanely difficult for staff to take food and drink orders with the band playing right next to them, but it also meant that you could no longer hear the band from outside. Listening to the band play while we queue for mazes has always been one of the many things we loved about The Howl over the years. For us, the atmosphere definitely suffered with having to listen to club music from the DJ while queuing instead. It made the event feel less Halloween-y and more like a strange sort of club night. It wasn't enough to spoil anything for us anyhow, just a mild niggle.
With coffees in hand, we headed to the queue for Squealer's Yard. This maze never seems to disappoint, and once again, it blew us away. The actors were numerous and very in your face throughout, leading to a lot of dodging and screaming from the entire group. We were even treated to some incredibly inventive scares that we've never seen anyone perform before in all the times we've visited the attraction, one, in particular, had my dad and I in stitches.
With our love of clowns, we saved Topper's Twister for last. The group we entered with was split up and staggered pretty easily by the devious clowns inside the maze, and once again, we couldn't stop laughing at everything the actors were saying and doing. Unfortunately, Topper himself appeared to be absent, resulting in a finale that consisted of the group just casually walking through the last section without encountering anyone, but it didn't take away too much from the overall enjoyment of this brilliant attraction.
Once we'd completed all the mazes, we decided to have a wander around, wondering what had happened to the usual bonfire and the fire-breathing performer of the past. While we couldn't seem to locate either, we did run into more of the roaming actors, who cornered me and made me feel wonderfully uncomfortable before we left for the night.
All in all, The Howl was brilliant again this year and remains a firm favourite of ours. There's something really special about the actors here. They always seem to be incredibly interactive compared to some other places, and something memorable always happens when we visit.
Arriving as the event opened, we headed to The Shed first, since it's always been our least favourite of the attractions there. That's not to say we dislike it, it's just we prefer mazes where the actors are able to be more vocal with their interactions. Once inside, we were seemingly mobbed by creatures as the actors moved about the maze pulling off scares in multiple locations effortlessly. It's hard not to be impressed when the same actor manages to scare a group more than 3 times in the space of a few seconds. It wound up being the most intense run we've ever had in there with us barely getting a chance to breathe as the actors came at us from all directions.
Next, we headed to Red. This year, a photo booth has been added to the queue line, which seemed to make things move more slowly, however, it still didn't take that long to enter the attraction. Once again, the actors inside were numerous, aggressive (in the best possible way), and very energetic, with grandma being a stand-out character. We weren't sure if our memories failed us, but we thought we remembered Red being longer in previous years. It all seemed to be over very quickly and lacked any sort of ending.
Saving our favourite three mazes until last, we decided to jump into the queue for The Attic, only to find ourselves tormented by some of the fantastic street performance team, who entertained us during what seemed like a fairly short wait. Once it was our turn, we were somewhat unsettled to be joined by a group of very rowdy lads who seemed as though they had a little too much to drink. My dad even whispered to me, “I would rather just wait than go in with those guys.” Much to our relief, a member of staff let the group in and then turned to us to say “Don't worry. I won't send you in with them.” And with a reassuring smile on his face, turned to his colleague and said that he was going to follow behind the group to keep an eye on them. This is something we wish had happened so many times in the past at various attractions across the country since it's never fun being forced to share your experience with people who are there to cause trouble. We've had many a great maze ruined by other guests, so this was a breath of fresh air to see staff taking the matter so seriously. On top of that, it meant we then got to enter the attraction with only one other guest in our group, leading to an absolutely terrifying experience.
We decided to go and grab a coffee for the next queue, and I was delighted to finally have the opportunity to taste my first pumpkin spiced latte of the season from the cafe. We were not so delighted, however, at the new location of the band indoors at the back of the building. In previous years, the placement has been different so that you can hear the band playing from almost anywhere on the farm. This year though, we instead have an outdoor DJ playing some beats, and you could only hear the live band if you were spending time inside the cafe area. Not only did this make it insanely difficult for staff to take food and drink orders with the band playing right next to them, but it also meant that you could no longer hear the band from outside. Listening to the band play while we queue for mazes has always been one of the many things we loved about The Howl over the years. For us, the atmosphere definitely suffered with having to listen to club music from the DJ while queuing instead. It made the event feel less Halloween-y and more like a strange sort of club night. It wasn't enough to spoil anything for us anyhow, just a mild niggle.
With coffees in hand, we headed to the queue for Squealer's Yard. This maze never seems to disappoint, and once again, it blew us away. The actors were numerous and very in your face throughout, leading to a lot of dodging and screaming from the entire group. We were even treated to some incredibly inventive scares that we've never seen anyone perform before in all the times we've visited the attraction, one, in particular, had my dad and I in stitches.
With our love of clowns, we saved Topper's Twister for last. The group we entered with was split up and staggered pretty easily by the devious clowns inside the maze, and once again, we couldn't stop laughing at everything the actors were saying and doing. Unfortunately, Topper himself appeared to be absent, resulting in a finale that consisted of the group just casually walking through the last section without encountering anyone, but it didn't take away too much from the overall enjoyment of this brilliant attraction.
Once we'd completed all the mazes, we decided to have a wander around, wondering what had happened to the usual bonfire and the fire-breathing performer of the past. While we couldn't seem to locate either, we did run into more of the roaming actors, who cornered me and made me feel wonderfully uncomfortable before we left for the night.
All in all, The Howl was brilliant again this year and remains a firm favourite of ours. There's something really special about the actors here. They always seem to be incredibly interactive compared to some other places, and something memorable always happens when we visit.
The Howl 2019
Since its conception, The Howl has been a highlight of the scare season, and with an unchanged line up of 5 mazes, we hoped for great things consistent with our visit last year.
The Shed, described as 'ferocious, feral and frightening' provided our first scares of the evening. The actors within The Shed certainly lived up to the hype, with its creatures within swiping at us from all angles. Without giving away any spoilers, we love the final scare in this maze which features a lesser-expected power tool -delivering a different effect and a refreshing break from a chainsaw!
Toppers Twister was back on form this year and provided an intense and fun experience with each and every clown dishing out some punchy scares. Beginning with a particularly lively curtain section, the maze transitioned into some more personalised scares, crammed with hilarious innuendo which kept giving right until the exit door! Toppers Twister provided us a perfect balance of comedy and scare.
The Attic returned with the evil within once again luring us up the staircase to meet our fate. The attic scene itself, whilst short, still packed a punch with the creatures using the set well and appearing from what felt like nowhere to lurch wildly at our group.
Next up was Red, a nominee for Best Halloween attraction at ScareCON 2019. A twisted tale of Little Red Riding Hood, the maze began with some very energetic red-cloaked figures, hunting down unsuspecting victims at each turn.
Unfortunately, our run through of Red was hampered slightly by the group ahead of us, who had decided slow down significantly and light their way through the maze with a torch. We think this might have impacted on the scares throughout the rest of the attraction as our experience became much less lively from this point and we encountered a few actor resets.
In terms of Red's finale scene, we were sad that the incredible wolf puppet used last year was nowhere to be seen. Whether it no longer resides within the woods, or if we simply missed it, the finale seemed to be lacking without it.
Our favourite maze of the evening goes to Squealers Yard. It offered perhaps the most intense experience, and is certainly not for the faint hearted. From the moment we entered, what felt like tens of actors were intimidating, ferocious and relentless. Notably, the whole group were thrown into panic as half way through the attraction we attempted to find our way through a very smoke filled shipping container - unable to see your hand in front of your face, this simple sensory deprivation effect left us all desperately pawing at thin air for an exit to appear, before thrusting us into the hands of the ruthless hillbillies once again. Squealers Yard was certainly a maze to remember and one that continues to deliver year-on-year.
Suffice to say, we had a great night at The Howl. It's street theatre and live music provided fantastic entertainment (and respite!) from some great mazes, and we felt a really good festival atmosphere throughout. The Howl is definitely worthy of a visit. We look forward to seeing what frights the full moon brings to this event next year!
The Shed, described as 'ferocious, feral and frightening' provided our first scares of the evening. The actors within The Shed certainly lived up to the hype, with its creatures within swiping at us from all angles. Without giving away any spoilers, we love the final scare in this maze which features a lesser-expected power tool -delivering a different effect and a refreshing break from a chainsaw!
Toppers Twister was back on form this year and provided an intense and fun experience with each and every clown dishing out some punchy scares. Beginning with a particularly lively curtain section, the maze transitioned into some more personalised scares, crammed with hilarious innuendo which kept giving right until the exit door! Toppers Twister provided us a perfect balance of comedy and scare.
The Attic returned with the evil within once again luring us up the staircase to meet our fate. The attic scene itself, whilst short, still packed a punch with the creatures using the set well and appearing from what felt like nowhere to lurch wildly at our group.
Next up was Red, a nominee for Best Halloween attraction at ScareCON 2019. A twisted tale of Little Red Riding Hood, the maze began with some very energetic red-cloaked figures, hunting down unsuspecting victims at each turn.
Unfortunately, our run through of Red was hampered slightly by the group ahead of us, who had decided slow down significantly and light their way through the maze with a torch. We think this might have impacted on the scares throughout the rest of the attraction as our experience became much less lively from this point and we encountered a few actor resets.
In terms of Red's finale scene, we were sad that the incredible wolf puppet used last year was nowhere to be seen. Whether it no longer resides within the woods, or if we simply missed it, the finale seemed to be lacking without it.
Our favourite maze of the evening goes to Squealers Yard. It offered perhaps the most intense experience, and is certainly not for the faint hearted. From the moment we entered, what felt like tens of actors were intimidating, ferocious and relentless. Notably, the whole group were thrown into panic as half way through the attraction we attempted to find our way through a very smoke filled shipping container - unable to see your hand in front of your face, this simple sensory deprivation effect left us all desperately pawing at thin air for an exit to appear, before thrusting us into the hands of the ruthless hillbillies once again. Squealers Yard was certainly a maze to remember and one that continues to deliver year-on-year.
Suffice to say, we had a great night at The Howl. It's street theatre and live music provided fantastic entertainment (and respite!) from some great mazes, and we felt a really good festival atmosphere throughout. The Howl is definitely worthy of a visit. We look forward to seeing what frights the full moon brings to this event next year!
Very scary
There's something special about The Howl at Mead Open Farm, being a fairly local scream park to my dad, my little group are sure to visit (often more than once!) every scare season. The atmosphere here is always electric with a live band and some energetic street actors who seem to interact with all the guests effortlessly.
We visited twice this year, on opening night and Halloween and went through the attractions in the same order on both dates.
Beginning with Red, we had a fairly disappointing run through on our first visit with a bit of a train going on as we ran into the back of the group in front of us, we also saw no sign of the iconic wolf puppet which left us feeling a tad disappointed as we left. However, our Halloween run was exceptional with tonnes of actors in the opening sections alone and everyone in there had so much energy. We got to see the big bad wolf this time around as well and were stalked to the exit by actors. We usually go to Red first because in previous years it's been the least exciting of the mazes, but this was run was so intense that we may have to consider changing the order for next year!
Secondly, we went into The Shed, this maze always seems to be more on the high energy side and again, on Halloween the actors in here were giving it their all. It's one of the few mazes I've ever been to where the actors make me genuinely believe they're the creatures they're intended to be. I don't jump very easily, but as always, at least one actor managed to get me in here. You spend a lot of time looking around you wondering where someone will pop out from next.
The Attic was next up and both runs in here were brilliant. The theming inside this attraction is probably the most convincing as it does feel like you've entered a long-abandoned hotel. On our first run the attic scene itself was packed with actors and pretty intense, towards the end we witnessed an effect using a mirror which we've never seen before in previous years! I won't spoil anything, but it worked well and was certainly creepy. On our second run, we encountered an actor at the beginning who gave us a decent bit of dialogue performed very convincingly, it's something we hadn't seen before and added to the overall story of the attraction.
Second to last was Squealer's Yard (we usually leave it until last since it tends to be the most intense attraction, but this year we had decided to leave any clown-themed attractions last anywhere we visited!) We were pleasantly surprised to see the first part of the maze had been changed slightly from last year as we weren't expecting any changes at all, the new version of the opening looked fantastic and was an improvement on the old one.
As always, the actors here were numerous and not afraid to get up close and personal throughout the attraction. It never fails to amaze me how the actors always have something to say to you, whether it be generic creepy lines or more improvised ones based on your appearance! This year we were dressed as various dead-looking creatures and the actors turned their noses up at us in disgust, making comments such as "Eww, dead meat's no good to us! You look wrong so you'll taste wrong, get lost!"
Having been inside this maze plenty of times, we no longer get lost or disorientated in the fog or freaked out by the finale, but nevertheless, we enjoy watching other guests freak out as we giggle our way to the end.
Lastly, we come to Topper's Twister, a maze we've run countless times now but it never fails to be fantastic. As always, the clown actors within were full of energy and we got an incredible amount of up close and personal scares. Our second run topped our first with the clowns getting into our faces even more than usual! My dad said several times he was millimeters from being licked.
I couldn't contain my laughter at the end when the Topper actor picked on the couple in front of us but was soon silenced as things got pretty intimidating. The man in front was left speechless and compliant and when Topper turned to face me afterward I genuinely felt a rush of adrenaline. Often I can look an actor in the eye when they're trying to creep me out whilst I can't help giggling, but when this actor did his thing I, like the guest before me, was stunned into silence and submission by his truly terrifying performance!
There will always be a special place in my heart for The Howl and I would never miss it. Year after year my group get more actor interactions here than any other scream park. With some places I can easily think of things I'd like to see change for next year, but with The Howl, I can't say I'd mind if it always stayed the same, it works and it works wonderfully.
There's something special about The Howl at Mead Open Farm, being a fairly local scream park to my dad, my little group are sure to visit (often more than once!) every scare season. The atmosphere here is always electric with a live band and some energetic street actors who seem to interact with all the guests effortlessly.
We visited twice this year, on opening night and Halloween and went through the attractions in the same order on both dates.
Beginning with Red, we had a fairly disappointing run through on our first visit with a bit of a train going on as we ran into the back of the group in front of us, we also saw no sign of the iconic wolf puppet which left us feeling a tad disappointed as we left. However, our Halloween run was exceptional with tonnes of actors in the opening sections alone and everyone in there had so much energy. We got to see the big bad wolf this time around as well and were stalked to the exit by actors. We usually go to Red first because in previous years it's been the least exciting of the mazes, but this was run was so intense that we may have to consider changing the order for next year!
Secondly, we went into The Shed, this maze always seems to be more on the high energy side and again, on Halloween the actors in here were giving it their all. It's one of the few mazes I've ever been to where the actors make me genuinely believe they're the creatures they're intended to be. I don't jump very easily, but as always, at least one actor managed to get me in here. You spend a lot of time looking around you wondering where someone will pop out from next.
The Attic was next up and both runs in here were brilliant. The theming inside this attraction is probably the most convincing as it does feel like you've entered a long-abandoned hotel. On our first run the attic scene itself was packed with actors and pretty intense, towards the end we witnessed an effect using a mirror which we've never seen before in previous years! I won't spoil anything, but it worked well and was certainly creepy. On our second run, we encountered an actor at the beginning who gave us a decent bit of dialogue performed very convincingly, it's something we hadn't seen before and added to the overall story of the attraction.
Second to last was Squealer's Yard (we usually leave it until last since it tends to be the most intense attraction, but this year we had decided to leave any clown-themed attractions last anywhere we visited!) We were pleasantly surprised to see the first part of the maze had been changed slightly from last year as we weren't expecting any changes at all, the new version of the opening looked fantastic and was an improvement on the old one.
As always, the actors here were numerous and not afraid to get up close and personal throughout the attraction. It never fails to amaze me how the actors always have something to say to you, whether it be generic creepy lines or more improvised ones based on your appearance! This year we were dressed as various dead-looking creatures and the actors turned their noses up at us in disgust, making comments such as "Eww, dead meat's no good to us! You look wrong so you'll taste wrong, get lost!"
Having been inside this maze plenty of times, we no longer get lost or disorientated in the fog or freaked out by the finale, but nevertheless, we enjoy watching other guests freak out as we giggle our way to the end.
Lastly, we come to Topper's Twister, a maze we've run countless times now but it never fails to be fantastic. As always, the clown actors within were full of energy and we got an incredible amount of up close and personal scares. Our second run topped our first with the clowns getting into our faces even more than usual! My dad said several times he was millimeters from being licked.
I couldn't contain my laughter at the end when the Topper actor picked on the couple in front of us but was soon silenced as things got pretty intimidating. The man in front was left speechless and compliant and when Topper turned to face me afterward I genuinely felt a rush of adrenaline. Often I can look an actor in the eye when they're trying to creep me out whilst I can't help giggling, but when this actor did his thing I, like the guest before me, was stunned into silence and submission by his truly terrifying performance!
There will always be a special place in my heart for The Howl and I would never miss it. Year after year my group get more actor interactions here than any other scream park. With some places I can easily think of things I'd like to see change for next year, but with The Howl, I can't say I'd mind if it always stayed the same, it works and it works wonderfully.
The Howl 2018
The Howl has long been one of the highlights of the scare season, with a well rounded lineup of thrilling attractions that never disappoint. This year, they’ve decided to replace House of Hounds and Hotel de Basquervilles with two new mazes, Red and The Attic. Would we survive another year at the mercy of the hounds?
Red - Despite our best efforts to contain our excitement, we ran straight to the first of the two new attractions, Red. This maze takes the spot of the former House of Hounds and retells the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood, albeit in a very twisted fashion. Interestingly, there’s a very strong theatrical tone to this attraction as the narrative was upheld throughout its duration. This unique element kept us hooked and was a nice change from the other more scare focused attractions.
That’s not to say Red lacked scares. From the moment we left the briefing area we were stalked by a vicious red cloaked figure. As we approached Grandma’s hut, we were suddenly entrapped by a hoard of these creatures, thrusting their axes in our faces. We were genuinely taken aback by just how intimidating these actors were. Just walking around them became a game of chicken, as they would often lash out when you least expected it, ensuring everyone in the group got a good scare. Grandma was no different, beckoning the group forward while menacingly waving her axe and berating us for not wiping our shoes.
At this point we believed Red had played it’s cards and shown us everything it had to offer. How wrong we were. Now it wouldn’t be a Red Riding Hood attraction if there wasn’t a decent wolf. After traipsing through a swamp and a couple more shacks it was time for us to meet this beastly creature. Unfortunately for us, we had completely forgotten about the wolf puppet that formerly resided in the House of Hounds. Thankfully we were served a snappy reminder as it lunged towards us, jaws agape. All the while an actor in a physical wolf costume attacked us from the front. This was one finale which definitely had claws! We’re still in shock as to just how well rounded this experience was. It delivered top quality scares, with a hint of theatricality alongside some amazing theming. We certainly rank it as one of the best new attractions in the UK for 2018.
Toppers Twister -It’s a sad fact that every so often, when visiting scare events, you’re going to end up having one of those dreaded ‘bad run-throughs’. While it can be disappointing, it doesn’t automatically make an attraction poor, things just weren’t lined up in your favour. Unfortunately, this was the case during our run-through of Toppers Twister. We are normally a huge fan of this attraction as it has a lot of personality and is normally considerably more intense than other clown haunts. This year however, it fizzled out prematurely after what was a genuinely fun curtains section. It’s a shame as this is where the fun normally begins, with a cast of vibrant and disturbing clowns. While we did enjoy the donkey riding the trike, we didn’t get much interaction from the rest of the cast as they were too busy focusing on specific individuals. This meant the groups inside the attraction ended up bunching together waiting for their turn for a scare, which wasn’t ideal. In the past the actors in the maze have always managed to dish out personalised scares, but have never let this come at the cost of ruining anyone else’s experience. We feel our run-through wasn’t reflective of the overall quality of this maze. The cast appeared enthusiastic, and the maze is as fun as ever. Unfortunately, it would appear we just went through it at the wrong time.
The Shed - The Shed has been a staple in The Howl line-up since opening. It’s an intense actor filled experience, with plenty of jump scares hidden in all of the junk. We felt the cast was particularly strong this year, with the actors using the space in some creative ways. Scares came from all levels, with some actors hiding under objects, swiping away at our legs. The intensity was through the roof, and the attraction seemed to be absolutely packed with actors. Even the short outdoor section which can sometimes be a dead spot provided us with plenty of scares. However, the lead-up to the finale was where things really heated up. This section can only be described as manic. The creatures were throwing themselves around, making it really difficult to keep track of them. This meant we got multiple scares from the same actors which really impressed us! The finale as always proved to be an absolute laugh, with an untraditional power tool being used to chase us out the exit. Trust us, there are no chainsaws here. The Shed was such an enjoyable attraction, which was absolutely crammed full of scares. While some of the other attractions at The Howl have more original themes, we challenge you to go through The Shed and not come out the other side whimpering.
Squealers Yard - Year after year, Squealers Yard leaves us absolutely speechless. This is one attraction that certainly isn’t for the for the faint of heart, as it leaves hardened reviewers such as ourselves running for the exit. Once again, Squealers Yard is the absolute highlight of the event. The maze is unique, as it blends indoors and outdoors sections with great fluidity. The premise is that you’re journeying through this grimy, meat packing plant and of course, you’re up for the chop!
We absolutely love the ferocity of the actors in this attraction. They always seem to be great at improvisation and are certainly up for some back and forth. This year they seemed particularly nasty, and tormented us throughout the attraction, popping up when we least expected them and giving chase throughout the attraction. What surprised us was the introduction of a second chainsaw in the middle of the experience. While we’re pretty immune to chainsaws nowadays, this one in particular left us shaking. The butcher wielding this chainsaw waved it around with such aggression that came into contact with us multiple times. This actor had such an intimidating prescience that he had us running deeper into the maze as he swiped away at our heels. The attraction kept up the tension and intensity right up through the finale, which once again had us screaming out the exit. We’re all too glad that the camerawoman waiting outside the finale missed our reaction shot as that’s something the world does not need to see! This is one maze that continues to shock us every time we go through it. It’s raw, aggressive and quite frankly terrifying. We hope to see this attraction return for years to come, as it really is the standout attraction of the event.
The Attic -The Attic is the second of the new attractions at The Howl for 2018. Taking the place of Hotel de Basquervilles, The Attic is more of a reinvention of the existing attraction than an entirely new concept. While the Hotel de Basquervilles was arguably one of the tamer experiences at the park, The Attic is quite the opposite, being one of the most jump-scare heavy attractions of the evening! The creatures in this maze were deviously creative with their scares, and made great use of the sets. We found the scares in this attraction to be the most impactful of the line-up with us shamefully recoiling in fear on multiple occasions. Things only got worse when we headed upstairs into the attic itself. This section was relatively short, but packed a punch. This upstairs section was filled with lively actors hurling themselves over the theming to get a good scare. We were only too happy to head back downstairs to safety. Even then, there was still a decent section of the maze still to go. While we we were fans of Hotel de Basquervilles, The Attic is a definite improvement taking a significant step up in scare factor. You better be ready for your trip into The Attic as this one long attraction, with a barrage of actors ready to pounce. Needless to say, we loved every second of it!
2018 is an incredibly strong year for The Howl with two stunning new attractions, that both provide something much needed for the event. The existing mazes are as strong as they’ve ever been and the street theatre continues to be some of the best in the industry. This one scare event that should be at the top of any scare enthusiasts ‘must visit’ list. It has top quality haunts, and you’re always guaranteed a good scare. We absolutely can’t wait to see what awaits The Howl in 2019.
Red - Despite our best efforts to contain our excitement, we ran straight to the first of the two new attractions, Red. This maze takes the spot of the former House of Hounds and retells the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood, albeit in a very twisted fashion. Interestingly, there’s a very strong theatrical tone to this attraction as the narrative was upheld throughout its duration. This unique element kept us hooked and was a nice change from the other more scare focused attractions.
That’s not to say Red lacked scares. From the moment we left the briefing area we were stalked by a vicious red cloaked figure. As we approached Grandma’s hut, we were suddenly entrapped by a hoard of these creatures, thrusting their axes in our faces. We were genuinely taken aback by just how intimidating these actors were. Just walking around them became a game of chicken, as they would often lash out when you least expected it, ensuring everyone in the group got a good scare. Grandma was no different, beckoning the group forward while menacingly waving her axe and berating us for not wiping our shoes.
At this point we believed Red had played it’s cards and shown us everything it had to offer. How wrong we were. Now it wouldn’t be a Red Riding Hood attraction if there wasn’t a decent wolf. After traipsing through a swamp and a couple more shacks it was time for us to meet this beastly creature. Unfortunately for us, we had completely forgotten about the wolf puppet that formerly resided in the House of Hounds. Thankfully we were served a snappy reminder as it lunged towards us, jaws agape. All the while an actor in a physical wolf costume attacked us from the front. This was one finale which definitely had claws! We’re still in shock as to just how well rounded this experience was. It delivered top quality scares, with a hint of theatricality alongside some amazing theming. We certainly rank it as one of the best new attractions in the UK for 2018.
Toppers Twister -It’s a sad fact that every so often, when visiting scare events, you’re going to end up having one of those dreaded ‘bad run-throughs’. While it can be disappointing, it doesn’t automatically make an attraction poor, things just weren’t lined up in your favour. Unfortunately, this was the case during our run-through of Toppers Twister. We are normally a huge fan of this attraction as it has a lot of personality and is normally considerably more intense than other clown haunts. This year however, it fizzled out prematurely after what was a genuinely fun curtains section. It’s a shame as this is where the fun normally begins, with a cast of vibrant and disturbing clowns. While we did enjoy the donkey riding the trike, we didn’t get much interaction from the rest of the cast as they were too busy focusing on specific individuals. This meant the groups inside the attraction ended up bunching together waiting for their turn for a scare, which wasn’t ideal. In the past the actors in the maze have always managed to dish out personalised scares, but have never let this come at the cost of ruining anyone else’s experience. We feel our run-through wasn’t reflective of the overall quality of this maze. The cast appeared enthusiastic, and the maze is as fun as ever. Unfortunately, it would appear we just went through it at the wrong time.
The Shed - The Shed has been a staple in The Howl line-up since opening. It’s an intense actor filled experience, with plenty of jump scares hidden in all of the junk. We felt the cast was particularly strong this year, with the actors using the space in some creative ways. Scares came from all levels, with some actors hiding under objects, swiping away at our legs. The intensity was through the roof, and the attraction seemed to be absolutely packed with actors. Even the short outdoor section which can sometimes be a dead spot provided us with plenty of scares. However, the lead-up to the finale was where things really heated up. This section can only be described as manic. The creatures were throwing themselves around, making it really difficult to keep track of them. This meant we got multiple scares from the same actors which really impressed us! The finale as always proved to be an absolute laugh, with an untraditional power tool being used to chase us out the exit. Trust us, there are no chainsaws here. The Shed was such an enjoyable attraction, which was absolutely crammed full of scares. While some of the other attractions at The Howl have more original themes, we challenge you to go through The Shed and not come out the other side whimpering.
Squealers Yard - Year after year, Squealers Yard leaves us absolutely speechless. This is one attraction that certainly isn’t for the for the faint of heart, as it leaves hardened reviewers such as ourselves running for the exit. Once again, Squealers Yard is the absolute highlight of the event. The maze is unique, as it blends indoors and outdoors sections with great fluidity. The premise is that you’re journeying through this grimy, meat packing plant and of course, you’re up for the chop!
We absolutely love the ferocity of the actors in this attraction. They always seem to be great at improvisation and are certainly up for some back and forth. This year they seemed particularly nasty, and tormented us throughout the attraction, popping up when we least expected them and giving chase throughout the attraction. What surprised us was the introduction of a second chainsaw in the middle of the experience. While we’re pretty immune to chainsaws nowadays, this one in particular left us shaking. The butcher wielding this chainsaw waved it around with such aggression that came into contact with us multiple times. This actor had such an intimidating prescience that he had us running deeper into the maze as he swiped away at our heels. The attraction kept up the tension and intensity right up through the finale, which once again had us screaming out the exit. We’re all too glad that the camerawoman waiting outside the finale missed our reaction shot as that’s something the world does not need to see! This is one maze that continues to shock us every time we go through it. It’s raw, aggressive and quite frankly terrifying. We hope to see this attraction return for years to come, as it really is the standout attraction of the event.
The Attic -The Attic is the second of the new attractions at The Howl for 2018. Taking the place of Hotel de Basquervilles, The Attic is more of a reinvention of the existing attraction than an entirely new concept. While the Hotel de Basquervilles was arguably one of the tamer experiences at the park, The Attic is quite the opposite, being one of the most jump-scare heavy attractions of the evening! The creatures in this maze were deviously creative with their scares, and made great use of the sets. We found the scares in this attraction to be the most impactful of the line-up with us shamefully recoiling in fear on multiple occasions. Things only got worse when we headed upstairs into the attic itself. This section was relatively short, but packed a punch. This upstairs section was filled with lively actors hurling themselves over the theming to get a good scare. We were only too happy to head back downstairs to safety. Even then, there was still a decent section of the maze still to go. While we we were fans of Hotel de Basquervilles, The Attic is a definite improvement taking a significant step up in scare factor. You better be ready for your trip into The Attic as this one long attraction, with a barrage of actors ready to pounce. Needless to say, we loved every second of it!
2018 is an incredibly strong year for The Howl with two stunning new attractions, that both provide something much needed for the event. The existing mazes are as strong as they’ve ever been and the street theatre continues to be some of the best in the industry. This one scare event that should be at the top of any scare enthusiasts ‘must visit’ list. It has top quality haunts, and you’re always guaranteed a good scare. We absolutely can’t wait to see what awaits The Howl in 2019.
The Howl 2018
The Howl, held at Mead Open Farm in Bedfordshire every October since 2015, has developed a reputation as the little brother of its more well-known precursor Tulley’s Shocktoberfest. However, that reputation is doing The Howl a disservice - while it may be geographically smaller than its illustrious sibling, it is certainly not inferior in the fun stakes.
With five Haunts on site, two of which were new for this year, our group was very much looking forward to our visit - and we were not disappointed! Upon arrival the entrance to the farm deposits visitors right in front of the entrance to the attraction’s clown themed maze - so it made sense that this would be the first we’d try.
TOPPER’S TWISTER
A favourite of ours last year, we were pretty excited about our return to the big top. Unfortunately, we think Topper’s Twister may have been the only (minor) disappointment of our trip. It suffered from two major problems - the first was very little difference this year compared with last time around. We understand that’s not an issue for anybody new to The Howl, and the stronger moments still deliver (the neon revolving funhouse tunnel STILL does very strange things to our legs!) but it did diminish the impact somewhat for us repeat visitors.
Sadly, the second issue could cause problems for anybody - it was simply too busy. Perhaps its proximity to the entrance worked against it in this regard, but we seemed to be part of a long unbroken line of visitors that slowly shuffled through the maze. This had an adverse affect on the frights in that it both caused our still very enthusiastic grease-paint wearing tormentors to have to split their attention among too many people at once, and also meant that it was not uncommon to wander into scenes as they were being reset, ruining the surprise.
Topper’s Twister wasn’t bad - it just suffered from poor queueline management. Luckily, this was certainly not the case with the second Haunt on our list...
THE ATTIC
Our first new Haunt, this one takes the place (and uses some of the old scenery of) last year’s Hotel De Basquerville. Tucked away in a hard to spot corner, there was no queue at all and we seemed to be the only visitors once inside the attraction too.
And what an attraction it was! With plenty of clever and committed actors who made sterling use of the various cut-through’s and hiding places to bombard us with frights from all sides, we were cowering long before we got to the ominous staircase to the titular Attic. And it just got worse from there! Arguably our favourite Haunt of the night, this was fantastically themed, and housed with excellent actors.
From here we popped out and made use of the facilities, stocking up on sweets and interacting with the tremendous street actors. Granny was as hilarious as ever, while newcomer Red’s spectacular costume made him an extremely imposing sight indeed.
SQUEALER’S YARD
Despite it being one of the Howl’s busiest nights, the queues were not too long and we waited no longer than 20 minutes to gain entry to any of the Haunts. However, that was still plenty of time for one of the pig-snouted cannibal hillbillies to hit us with an unexpected scare as we waited. It was just the first of many...
One of the longer attractions at The Howl, Squealer’s Yard unwinds over a track that takes you inside and outside, often passing through a number of strategically placed vehicles and trailers. It may be long, but the scares do not let up! Split up early on by a very intimidating redneck, our poor party were besieged time and time again by some very intense actors who took great delight in intimidating us... all to the familiar buzz of chainsaws. Highlights include a smoke filled room which the cannibals within used to great affect, and one last fright which nearly caused a pile-up of desperate runners upon exit.
Another top attraction, and along with The Attic a strong contender for attraction of the night.
THE SHED
If we were hoping for a respite following the terrors of Squealer’s Yard, those hopes were soon dashed. The ‘abandoned-babies-grown-up-evil’ theme of The Shed is one of the more disturbing ones at The Howl, and as with last year, it seems to attract some of the more committed scare actors.
Suffice it to say that these guys make full use of the sets, coming at us from all angles and they seemed to have an unerring ability to detect fear, consistently targeting (and terrorising) the more skittish attendees. Thankfully for the more lily-livered members of our group, it felt a little shorter than some of the other Haunts - or maybe we just ran through faster! Perhaps it wasn’t quite as great as The Attic or Squealer’s Yard, but The Shed was still a very strong attraction - especially when we realised that buzzing sound was not coming from its neighbour...
So four decent to great Haunts down, would the final one keep the run going? Sadly we needed to wait for quite a while to find out...
RED
The longest queue by a considerable margin, the wait to enter The Howl’s second new attraction was LONG. Thankfully some of the patrolling park actors recognised this fact and did their very best to liven up proceedings, often with hilarious results. Upon entry to the attraction we discovered the theme was a kind of twisted fairytale version of Red Riding Hood, complete with shrieking hooded actresses and plenty of Big Bad Wolves. A clever tie-in to the overall theme of the park, this felt very much like the centre-piece of this year’s event, complete with a host of well-used special effects.
From dry-ice pools to inflatable constrictive passages - plus an old favourite prop making a much welcome return - Red packed in plenty of content. Ok, the wolf costumes were a little ropy, but the actors more than made up for it with their attitude and clever positioning.
Ultimately we think maybe it was a little too brightly lit in some places, which probably diminished some of the scares (perhaps they wanted to show off the tremendous production values of the haunt?) but all-in-all, this was another winner and a fine ending to an absolutely fantastic night.
The improvement year-on-year has been astonishing during The Howl’s short lifespan, and we absolutely cannot wait to see what they bring next year.
Shocktoberfest better look over its shoulder - this is one little brother that is threatening to steal the spotlight!
With five Haunts on site, two of which were new for this year, our group was very much looking forward to our visit - and we were not disappointed! Upon arrival the entrance to the farm deposits visitors right in front of the entrance to the attraction’s clown themed maze - so it made sense that this would be the first we’d try.
TOPPER’S TWISTER
A favourite of ours last year, we were pretty excited about our return to the big top. Unfortunately, we think Topper’s Twister may have been the only (minor) disappointment of our trip. It suffered from two major problems - the first was very little difference this year compared with last time around. We understand that’s not an issue for anybody new to The Howl, and the stronger moments still deliver (the neon revolving funhouse tunnel STILL does very strange things to our legs!) but it did diminish the impact somewhat for us repeat visitors.
Sadly, the second issue could cause problems for anybody - it was simply too busy. Perhaps its proximity to the entrance worked against it in this regard, but we seemed to be part of a long unbroken line of visitors that slowly shuffled through the maze. This had an adverse affect on the frights in that it both caused our still very enthusiastic grease-paint wearing tormentors to have to split their attention among too many people at once, and also meant that it was not uncommon to wander into scenes as they were being reset, ruining the surprise.
Topper’s Twister wasn’t bad - it just suffered from poor queueline management. Luckily, this was certainly not the case with the second Haunt on our list...
THE ATTIC
Our first new Haunt, this one takes the place (and uses some of the old scenery of) last year’s Hotel De Basquerville. Tucked away in a hard to spot corner, there was no queue at all and we seemed to be the only visitors once inside the attraction too.
And what an attraction it was! With plenty of clever and committed actors who made sterling use of the various cut-through’s and hiding places to bombard us with frights from all sides, we were cowering long before we got to the ominous staircase to the titular Attic. And it just got worse from there! Arguably our favourite Haunt of the night, this was fantastically themed, and housed with excellent actors.
From here we popped out and made use of the facilities, stocking up on sweets and interacting with the tremendous street actors. Granny was as hilarious as ever, while newcomer Red’s spectacular costume made him an extremely imposing sight indeed.
SQUEALER’S YARD
Despite it being one of the Howl’s busiest nights, the queues were not too long and we waited no longer than 20 minutes to gain entry to any of the Haunts. However, that was still plenty of time for one of the pig-snouted cannibal hillbillies to hit us with an unexpected scare as we waited. It was just the first of many...
One of the longer attractions at The Howl, Squealer’s Yard unwinds over a track that takes you inside and outside, often passing through a number of strategically placed vehicles and trailers. It may be long, but the scares do not let up! Split up early on by a very intimidating redneck, our poor party were besieged time and time again by some very intense actors who took great delight in intimidating us... all to the familiar buzz of chainsaws. Highlights include a smoke filled room which the cannibals within used to great affect, and one last fright which nearly caused a pile-up of desperate runners upon exit.
Another top attraction, and along with The Attic a strong contender for attraction of the night.
THE SHED
If we were hoping for a respite following the terrors of Squealer’s Yard, those hopes were soon dashed. The ‘abandoned-babies-grown-up-evil’ theme of The Shed is one of the more disturbing ones at The Howl, and as with last year, it seems to attract some of the more committed scare actors.
Suffice it to say that these guys make full use of the sets, coming at us from all angles and they seemed to have an unerring ability to detect fear, consistently targeting (and terrorising) the more skittish attendees. Thankfully for the more lily-livered members of our group, it felt a little shorter than some of the other Haunts - or maybe we just ran through faster! Perhaps it wasn’t quite as great as The Attic or Squealer’s Yard, but The Shed was still a very strong attraction - especially when we realised that buzzing sound was not coming from its neighbour...
So four decent to great Haunts down, would the final one keep the run going? Sadly we needed to wait for quite a while to find out...
RED
The longest queue by a considerable margin, the wait to enter The Howl’s second new attraction was LONG. Thankfully some of the patrolling park actors recognised this fact and did their very best to liven up proceedings, often with hilarious results. Upon entry to the attraction we discovered the theme was a kind of twisted fairytale version of Red Riding Hood, complete with shrieking hooded actresses and plenty of Big Bad Wolves. A clever tie-in to the overall theme of the park, this felt very much like the centre-piece of this year’s event, complete with a host of well-used special effects.
From dry-ice pools to inflatable constrictive passages - plus an old favourite prop making a much welcome return - Red packed in plenty of content. Ok, the wolf costumes were a little ropy, but the actors more than made up for it with their attitude and clever positioning.
Ultimately we think maybe it was a little too brightly lit in some places, which probably diminished some of the scares (perhaps they wanted to show off the tremendous production values of the haunt?) but all-in-all, this was another winner and a fine ending to an absolutely fantastic night.
The improvement year-on-year has been astonishing during The Howl’s short lifespan, and we absolutely cannot wait to see what they bring next year.
Shocktoberfest better look over its shoulder - this is one little brother that is threatening to steal the spotlight!
The Howl - 2017
There is an expression – “if it ain't broke, don’t fix it” and that is clearly the mantra that The Howl have adopted for 2017. The event was great fun last year with some amazing mazes, so it was interesting to see that the event has returned this year with the same line up. In fact – apart from the new bar and the change of event name (the Tulleys moniker has been dropped) the park is pretty much unchanged - not that we are complaining!
The 2017 event started with an attempt to claim back the World Record for loudest Howl and once we had successfully entered the record books, the park let out the scare actors from each maze. It was a nice touch as they ran through the audience giving us a taste of what to come.
Once again, the central hub was buzzing with entertainment and the loveable family of hysterical misfits were on hand to entertain the crowds. We still cannot believe that Chastity has not had her baby yet – she either has the gestation period of an elephant, or her brother has been particularly busy again!
The Shed was as mad and crazy as we remembered it last year. The theming throughout is top notch and the actors were vocal and throwing themselves all over the place. In any other scream park, this would be the highlight maze - but that award has to go to the incredible Squealers Yard...
Squealers Yard remains the most intense of the mazes with a genuinely terrifying run through a meat-packaging factory. Every part of this maze is impressive to look at and again was populated by some insane actors who seemed to keep appearing from nowhere. The scares were so intense at times that we even saw a big tough person in front of our group, be brought to his knees by one of the actors!
Toppers Twister is once again populated with clowns but interestingly we seemed to have older and more physical actors than before. These seemed more sinsister than ever, and with the colourful rooms and over sized props, our run through was chaotic, but fun.
House of Hounds was new last year but has retained all the elements that we enjoyed before. The wolves seemed a bit less visible than last year (which works well as they are better when glimpsed briefly). This year also sees the return of the massive werewolf puppet, which unfortunately was a bit too forceful at times and actually knocked one of our group to the floor! We might suggest a little less force in future as the scene actually scared us for the wrong reason – although the rest of the group found it hilarious!
Our last visit of the night was to Hotel de Basquervilles , which although keeping the same theme, felt quite different in experience to last year. The whole vibe was very eerie with some very impressive jump scares throughout.
It is still hard to believe that this is only the third year of the Howl. Many events take years to get to this quality of maze and scares, and for that, The Howl should be commended. Despite losing the brand name this year, it has the fun scary vibes of its older brother Tulleys Shocktoberfest, but stands alone as a unique experience that should not be missed!
The 2017 event started with an attempt to claim back the World Record for loudest Howl and once we had successfully entered the record books, the park let out the scare actors from each maze. It was a nice touch as they ran through the audience giving us a taste of what to come.
Once again, the central hub was buzzing with entertainment and the loveable family of hysterical misfits were on hand to entertain the crowds. We still cannot believe that Chastity has not had her baby yet – she either has the gestation period of an elephant, or her brother has been particularly busy again!
The Shed was as mad and crazy as we remembered it last year. The theming throughout is top notch and the actors were vocal and throwing themselves all over the place. In any other scream park, this would be the highlight maze - but that award has to go to the incredible Squealers Yard...
Squealers Yard remains the most intense of the mazes with a genuinely terrifying run through a meat-packaging factory. Every part of this maze is impressive to look at and again was populated by some insane actors who seemed to keep appearing from nowhere. The scares were so intense at times that we even saw a big tough person in front of our group, be brought to his knees by one of the actors!
Toppers Twister is once again populated with clowns but interestingly we seemed to have older and more physical actors than before. These seemed more sinsister than ever, and with the colourful rooms and over sized props, our run through was chaotic, but fun.
House of Hounds was new last year but has retained all the elements that we enjoyed before. The wolves seemed a bit less visible than last year (which works well as they are better when glimpsed briefly). This year also sees the return of the massive werewolf puppet, which unfortunately was a bit too forceful at times and actually knocked one of our group to the floor! We might suggest a little less force in future as the scene actually scared us for the wrong reason – although the rest of the group found it hilarious!
Our last visit of the night was to Hotel de Basquervilles , which although keeping the same theme, felt quite different in experience to last year. The whole vibe was very eerie with some very impressive jump scares throughout.
It is still hard to believe that this is only the third year of the Howl. Many events take years to get to this quality of maze and scares, and for that, The Howl should be commended. Despite losing the brand name this year, it has the fun scary vibes of its older brother Tulleys Shocktoberfest, but stands alone as a unique experience that should not be missed!
Terrifying
Amazing everyone should go ,street theatre was so funny I loved rufus he literally made my cry with laughter, I'm disabled and still had an amazing time listening to the band and street acts ,did I mention rufus! Lol ( I know , but he is an amazing actor interacted so quickly with your conversation ,love love loved him )
Really good value for money ...so well done
Counting down to next year
Amazing everyone should go ,street theatre was so funny I loved rufus he literally made my cry with laughter, I'm disabled and still had an amazing time listening to the band and street acts ,did I mention rufus! Lol ( I know , but he is an amazing actor interacted so quickly with your conversation ,love love loved him )
Really good value for money ...so well done
Counting down to next year
Tulleys The Howl - 2016
The Howl opened in 2015 as a sister park to the Tulleys Shocktoberfest. In our review we commented that it was like a mini version of the main Crawley park, with most of the attractions being copies of its big brother down south. Well like any younger sibling - eventually it's time to grow up, come out of the shadows and stand on your own two feet. Amazingly - The Howl have managed this in just their second year! With 5 exciting mazes and a truly hysterical family of misfits as roaming characters, the park has a great festival feel and the live music stage in the central marquee keeps the atmosphere high between visiting the main attractions:
The Shed was impressive last year but in 2016, the scares were off the scale. This attraction also seemed to have the most liveliest, agile and 'in your face' creatures of any maze this year. The scares were all perfectly timed and choreographed to get scream after scream after scream, and the actors were relentless! They followed us from room to room, and just seemed to climb over anything in their way. In one stunning scene with the tractor, the lights flashed to reveal 5 of them all ready to pounce on us. Well done to everyone involved in creating this incredible attraction.
Squealers Yard is back for another terrifying trip though a meat packaging factory. Once again the only meat on the menu is of the human kind and we were left to survive for ourselves amongst a twisted family of cannibal creatures. The Yard is a very long maze that mixes indoor and outdoor sections, and the scares never seemed to stop. From the first scene we were split up as a group, and from here on in the actors were really fast, knocking out impact scare after scare, leaving us on edge as we tried to get out. One scene though a smoke filled trailer full of carcasses had us screaming multiple times, as things would suddenly appear out of the fog only do disappear again in a heartbeat. Like last year - it would seem that the creative team put their biggest actors in this maze, and they certainly knew how to menace people.
Toppers Twister is a clown maze set inside a twisted fun house. We love the fact that some of the rooms are big enough for full scale props such as slides, and an effective scare with a clown on a swing. By the end of our run through we had been teased, scared and cajoled by all the clowns, and that was before we even met the evil Mr Topper. Our final encounter as we were chased from the maze was both frightening and funny as he mercilessly teased us as we tried to escape!
House of Hounds is new for this year and is a revamp of The Dark. It follows the same sort of story, but eschews the darkness and sudden werewolf appearances for a lighter and more themed environment. This does cause one small issue - the werewolf costumes that were so effective when seen in brief glimpses when the lights flashed on, are now on full display and lose some of their effectiveness. Saying that though, House of Hounds is still a fun maze, and the finale set piece literally had us tripping over the waist high claustrophobia tunnel to get away from a VERY close encounter with something large!
Our last visit of the night was to Hotel de Basquervilles a re-working of last year's Haunted House. The impressive sets and room detail suited itself better to a hotel environment and the actors throughout were more character driven than the scares of the earlier mazes. Fortunately the maze was so well populated with actors, that we had a number of good jumps throughout.
For an event that is only in it's second year, The Howl has really matured and gave us many good scares across all the attractions. The mazes in their own right, all offer something a bit different to each other and the over-riding werewolf story (along with the roaming characters) creates a fully immersive experience like no other. We highly recommend you check them out this Halloween - just don't upset poor little Chastity - as you can see in our pictures below - she is in rather a sensitive state at the moment!
The Shed was impressive last year but in 2016, the scares were off the scale. This attraction also seemed to have the most liveliest, agile and 'in your face' creatures of any maze this year. The scares were all perfectly timed and choreographed to get scream after scream after scream, and the actors were relentless! They followed us from room to room, and just seemed to climb over anything in their way. In one stunning scene with the tractor, the lights flashed to reveal 5 of them all ready to pounce on us. Well done to everyone involved in creating this incredible attraction.
Squealers Yard is back for another terrifying trip though a meat packaging factory. Once again the only meat on the menu is of the human kind and we were left to survive for ourselves amongst a twisted family of cannibal creatures. The Yard is a very long maze that mixes indoor and outdoor sections, and the scares never seemed to stop. From the first scene we were split up as a group, and from here on in the actors were really fast, knocking out impact scare after scare, leaving us on edge as we tried to get out. One scene though a smoke filled trailer full of carcasses had us screaming multiple times, as things would suddenly appear out of the fog only do disappear again in a heartbeat. Like last year - it would seem that the creative team put their biggest actors in this maze, and they certainly knew how to menace people.
Toppers Twister is a clown maze set inside a twisted fun house. We love the fact that some of the rooms are big enough for full scale props such as slides, and an effective scare with a clown on a swing. By the end of our run through we had been teased, scared and cajoled by all the clowns, and that was before we even met the evil Mr Topper. Our final encounter as we were chased from the maze was both frightening and funny as he mercilessly teased us as we tried to escape!
House of Hounds is new for this year and is a revamp of The Dark. It follows the same sort of story, but eschews the darkness and sudden werewolf appearances for a lighter and more themed environment. This does cause one small issue - the werewolf costumes that were so effective when seen in brief glimpses when the lights flashed on, are now on full display and lose some of their effectiveness. Saying that though, House of Hounds is still a fun maze, and the finale set piece literally had us tripping over the waist high claustrophobia tunnel to get away from a VERY close encounter with something large!
Our last visit of the night was to Hotel de Basquervilles a re-working of last year's Haunted House. The impressive sets and room detail suited itself better to a hotel environment and the actors throughout were more character driven than the scares of the earlier mazes. Fortunately the maze was so well populated with actors, that we had a number of good jumps throughout.
For an event that is only in it's second year, The Howl has really matured and gave us many good scares across all the attractions. The mazes in their own right, all offer something a bit different to each other and the over-riding werewolf story (along with the roaming characters) creates a fully immersive experience like no other. We highly recommend you check them out this Halloween - just don't upset poor little Chastity - as you can see in our pictures below - she is in rather a sensitive state at the moment!
Links:
Official Website: www.halloweenattractions.co.uk/locations/leighton-buzzard/the-howl
ScareTOUR review 2015
ScareTOUR review 2015
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