Tom Spindler's Asylum Hill
Having worked at Thorpe Park’s Fright Nights in the past, Student Tom Spindler got the bug for scaring people and decided he wanted to put on a show of his own. Commenting that most theme park attractions catered for a more family friendly audience, Tom wanted to design something darker and edgier. He certainly succeeded!
Asylum Hill opened for just one night in April 2008 and will probably go down in history as one of the most intense attractions ever. Utilising a disused squat, Tom got permission to decorate the place with candles and smoke machines and filled it with actors. When it came for us to enter, we adopted the regular “conga line” formation and plunged into the darkness. Before our eyes had been able to adjust to the light, the first person in the line was physically pulled out of our pack and dragged into the darkness screaming. As we stood calling his name to the door that had been slammed shut between us, other villains descended on the party and picked us off one by one!
This element of the maze was inspired. Being in certain rooms on your own was a really frightening prospect and whenever we bumped into each other around the house we would grab at each other out of desperation before being wrenched apart again! With everyone in different rooms around the house we were pushed/cajoled/shoved around each one discovering some very creepy inmates who had certainly never heard of a “no touching” policy.
Unfortunately one of the women in the group afterwards had a far more uncomfortable experience and was pinned to the bed by a male actor threatening all sorts of violence. This seriously shocked the woman and she came out truly scared and in tears. The team behind the maze stated that they wanted to take people out of their comfort zone but we felt that the suggestion of sexual violence to a woman on her own was a serious mistake.These weren’t your usual haunted attractions actors. The young team of eight broke many boundaries as they pushed themselves onto us, whispered seductively and encouraged actions of a sexual nature. The closeness and the shock of what they were doing were at times terrifying and uncomfortable and this just added to the whole taboo breaking element to the show.
But unfortunately we do think in places it went a little too far. Each of us in turn was subjected to the “back room” – a small room with a bed and little else. Most of us at times were dragged onto the bed and propositioned in any number of ways. As a group of men – most of us got straddled by a warty faced inmate who started whispering sweet nothings in our ears. She was so close to our faces that we could feel her breath and it wouldn’t have taken much for a confused punter to respond to her advances. Most scenes in here ended with her “husband” coming in and finding us and throwing the victim into the en-suite toilet and locking them in – laughing as they banged to be let out.
So all in all, this is a very mixed review. In our group we loved the whole thing – the audacity of grabbing people and making them split up, the non-linear route around the house and the talent and presence of all the actors. We just felt that the sexual violent elements were completely out of place and could have caused a lot of trouble. As most of the tickets were sold to friends and university colleagues we hope the team have got away with it this time and that no-one is intending to claim they were molested or abused. Tom has since said that his future events will tone down some of the elements that we found so shocking this time and we feel that is a very wise decision.
As a one off event, and as guys, we LOVED Asylum Hill. It was an attraction that is very unlikely to return in its original format and we are pleased that we were able to experience it in its raw form. It bodes well for future events by the team, as their passion for the product and desire to do things differently is so clearly evident.
Asylum Hill opened for just one night in April 2008 and will probably go down in history as one of the most intense attractions ever. Utilising a disused squat, Tom got permission to decorate the place with candles and smoke machines and filled it with actors. When it came for us to enter, we adopted the regular “conga line” formation and plunged into the darkness. Before our eyes had been able to adjust to the light, the first person in the line was physically pulled out of our pack and dragged into the darkness screaming. As we stood calling his name to the door that had been slammed shut between us, other villains descended on the party and picked us off one by one!
This element of the maze was inspired. Being in certain rooms on your own was a really frightening prospect and whenever we bumped into each other around the house we would grab at each other out of desperation before being wrenched apart again! With everyone in different rooms around the house we were pushed/cajoled/shoved around each one discovering some very creepy inmates who had certainly never heard of a “no touching” policy.
Unfortunately one of the women in the group afterwards had a far more uncomfortable experience and was pinned to the bed by a male actor threatening all sorts of violence. This seriously shocked the woman and she came out truly scared and in tears. The team behind the maze stated that they wanted to take people out of their comfort zone but we felt that the suggestion of sexual violence to a woman on her own was a serious mistake.These weren’t your usual haunted attractions actors. The young team of eight broke many boundaries as they pushed themselves onto us, whispered seductively and encouraged actions of a sexual nature. The closeness and the shock of what they were doing were at times terrifying and uncomfortable and this just added to the whole taboo breaking element to the show.
But unfortunately we do think in places it went a little too far. Each of us in turn was subjected to the “back room” – a small room with a bed and little else. Most of us at times were dragged onto the bed and propositioned in any number of ways. As a group of men – most of us got straddled by a warty faced inmate who started whispering sweet nothings in our ears. She was so close to our faces that we could feel her breath and it wouldn’t have taken much for a confused punter to respond to her advances. Most scenes in here ended with her “husband” coming in and finding us and throwing the victim into the en-suite toilet and locking them in – laughing as they banged to be let out.
So all in all, this is a very mixed review. In our group we loved the whole thing – the audacity of grabbing people and making them split up, the non-linear route around the house and the talent and presence of all the actors. We just felt that the sexual violent elements were completely out of place and could have caused a lot of trouble. As most of the tickets were sold to friends and university colleagues we hope the team have got away with it this time and that no-one is intending to claim they were molested or abused. Tom has since said that his future events will tone down some of the elements that we found so shocking this time and we feel that is a very wise decision.
As a one off event, and as guys, we LOVED Asylum Hill. It was an attraction that is very unlikely to return in its original format and we are pleased that we were able to experience it in its raw form. It bodes well for future events by the team, as their passion for the product and desire to do things differently is so clearly evident.
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