The Thirteenth Seance. Review by Michael Bolton
Following the incredible success of Masks. Asylum Hill and Black Cat, Tom Spindler is back for the Halloween season with something truly terrifying and creepy. Located in an old nightclub under London Bridge, the attraction had less of the shock factor of some of Tom's recent productions but still managed to scare and terrify everyone to equal measures:
One of the simple beauties of a Tom Spindler attraction is the incongruosness of the venue and the outside to what lies within. Generally down a quiet road, the entranceway to his attractions really don't give the game away apart from a simple queue line and batcher. "Seance" was no different, and many people walking past were oblivious to the muffled screams coning from within.
Once inside and past the very creepy box office attendant, it was time to explore and see what was waiting for us in the foggy darkness.
As well as being scary, Tom Spindler attractions have a reputation for being quite artistic and this one is no different. Everywhere you look there the attention to detail is evident although sometimes you are so busy being scared that you really dont get chance to take it all in!
So, with a suitably creepy and darkened atmosphere and visitors' nerves already on edge it doesn't take much to push them over, and here the attraction really excels. The actors are fast, nosiy, creepy and very scary (as well as very quiet when they want to sneak up on you). Some just rely on make up but several are in hideous bird beaked masks like something out of a pagan ritual. The actor roles veer between character based vignettes that we witness (let's just say the barefoot mirror crunching scene was a little too uncomfortable to watch!) through to pitch dark scare characters waiting round every corner. And of course, as usual - all bets are off when it comes to "Spindler" actors, so expect all manner of stroking, touching, pushing and playing ! At one point I was actually tied up by a length of cloth held by an actor that I had to try and extract my arm from!
Certainly everyone really enjoyed The 13th Seance, but I had 2 small but niggling criticisms. The first was that I didn't understand the story - maybe I missed it before hand but during the attraction I saw no reference or allusion to the implied seance, which was a shame. The second small criticism is that the attraction sort of fizzled out at the end. One minute I was in a state of fear and anticipation and the next I was stood in the bar looking at other survivors wondering how I had got there! Now of course - this could have been deliberate as a way to show something different and fool our expectations, but I just felt a small let down that I didn't run out the door screaming (Although thinking about it now - I dont think any Spindler attraction has utilised a run out scare - hmm - have we just stumbled upon his trademark design feature?)
These small niggles aside - it's really quite hard to put into words just how scared we were at times in the Seance. Normally I can relax a bit and can sort of expect what may be coming up ahead but Tom manages to surprise and un-nerve around every corner . The attraction certainly elicted a LOT of screams from the pair of us which of course just made the monsters want to scare us more! And of course it REALLY helped that group sizes were kept to a manageable 2 or 3 people only, as this ramped up the tension and created a far more personal experience.
So, once again, Tom has shown what a bright talent he has for these sort of attractions and how he is confident in providing a varying range of scares and themes that differ from what he has done before. We know that he is already working on a brand new show for next year and you can guarantee that I'll happily be one of the first in line to experience it!
The 13th Seance was enjoyed by a group from ScareTOUR who were able to take advantage of our exclusive discounted rate. If you would like to know more about future ScareTOUR events including Tom Spindler's soon to be announced upcoming project, then join us on Facebook or contact us to be added to our mailing list.
One of the simple beauties of a Tom Spindler attraction is the incongruosness of the venue and the outside to what lies within. Generally down a quiet road, the entranceway to his attractions really don't give the game away apart from a simple queue line and batcher. "Seance" was no different, and many people walking past were oblivious to the muffled screams coning from within.
Once inside and past the very creepy box office attendant, it was time to explore and see what was waiting for us in the foggy darkness.
As well as being scary, Tom Spindler attractions have a reputation for being quite artistic and this one is no different. Everywhere you look there the attention to detail is evident although sometimes you are so busy being scared that you really dont get chance to take it all in!
So, with a suitably creepy and darkened atmosphere and visitors' nerves already on edge it doesn't take much to push them over, and here the attraction really excels. The actors are fast, nosiy, creepy and very scary (as well as very quiet when they want to sneak up on you). Some just rely on make up but several are in hideous bird beaked masks like something out of a pagan ritual. The actor roles veer between character based vignettes that we witness (let's just say the barefoot mirror crunching scene was a little too uncomfortable to watch!) through to pitch dark scare characters waiting round every corner. And of course, as usual - all bets are off when it comes to "Spindler" actors, so expect all manner of stroking, touching, pushing and playing ! At one point I was actually tied up by a length of cloth held by an actor that I had to try and extract my arm from!
Certainly everyone really enjoyed The 13th Seance, but I had 2 small but niggling criticisms. The first was that I didn't understand the story - maybe I missed it before hand but during the attraction I saw no reference or allusion to the implied seance, which was a shame. The second small criticism is that the attraction sort of fizzled out at the end. One minute I was in a state of fear and anticipation and the next I was stood in the bar looking at other survivors wondering how I had got there! Now of course - this could have been deliberate as a way to show something different and fool our expectations, but I just felt a small let down that I didn't run out the door screaming (Although thinking about it now - I dont think any Spindler attraction has utilised a run out scare - hmm - have we just stumbled upon his trademark design feature?)
These small niggles aside - it's really quite hard to put into words just how scared we were at times in the Seance. Normally I can relax a bit and can sort of expect what may be coming up ahead but Tom manages to surprise and un-nerve around every corner . The attraction certainly elicted a LOT of screams from the pair of us which of course just made the monsters want to scare us more! And of course it REALLY helped that group sizes were kept to a manageable 2 or 3 people only, as this ramped up the tension and created a far more personal experience.
So, once again, Tom has shown what a bright talent he has for these sort of attractions and how he is confident in providing a varying range of scares and themes that differ from what he has done before. We know that he is already working on a brand new show for next year and you can guarantee that I'll happily be one of the first in line to experience it!
The 13th Seance was enjoyed by a group from ScareTOUR who were able to take advantage of our exclusive discounted rate. If you would like to know more about future ScareTOUR events including Tom Spindler's soon to be announced upcoming project, then join us on Facebook or contact us to be added to our mailing list.