Twisted Attractions Terror Park
Twisted Attractions seem to have continually gone from strength to strength, each year expanding and offering a new product. An independent production company going from a small maze to a scream park in three years is outstanding growth. Would Twisted Terror Farm live up to the standard Twisted have become known for? We went along to the press night to find out!
On arrival it is a walk down a muddy path to the entrance of the scream park – to be expected on a farm, but the mud might cause some issues by Halloween! After entering, it’s straight to the main plaza with a fire pit, fun fair, bar and food stalls. This was a really nice area with a good atmosphere, roaming actors and reasonably priced food. Live music in the bar was a great touch, although we didn’t get to see them performing, it should have a good atmosphere.
The first maze of the night was Miss Pigott’s Pie Factory, after an actor explaining they were having some issues and a brief queue we were inside. The theming inside was great, very similar to the style and quality of The Dungeons. The actress playing Miss Piggott was one of the strongest actors we met, she didn’t miss a beat, interacted with guests, had the whole group in stitches while still being suitable creepy. This continued with her “son” in the next scene, however then we left the maze to walk outside before entering the next section. This became a pattern throughout the night and was disappointing – so much effort had been put in the first section building an atmosphere and as soon as you stepped outside, it was completely lost.The second section was very disorientating, due to the huge amount of smoke! However it didn’t rebuild the atmosphere of the first section us walking out the exit.
Our second maze was House of Insomnia. This had a fantastic log cabin façade, complete with animal pelts and bull horns! Having a health and safety briefing from a member of the Twisted Team rather than an actor took away from the experience slightly. The theming in the first section was great and the sets were very well thought out, allowing actors to use misdirection scares and trap guests in a room as the exit wasn’t very clear. The surprise in the middle of the maze was genius – we’d never seen a feature like that in a maze before, it surprised everyone and was great fun.
House of Insomnia seemed a very long maze, it must have been between 10 and 15 minutes. We reached an area that seemed like the finale, and were instructed to wait which really built the tension and put us on edge. This was when actors ran into the room and starting putting bags over everyone’s heads – this was totally unexpected and took us by surprise. We were then told to put one hand on a rope, one on a shoulder and start walking. This section went on for too long with little happening, after a while of walking aimlessly round a field, we began to notice that the bags didn’t smell very pleasant! We were told to take our bags off and run, though there wasn’t really anything to run from! This area seemed a little sparse, we walked through the woods, then we heard the actor sadly struggling to start his chainsaw. It does happen time from time, chainsaws can be a little temperamental, especially when they’re being revved a lot. He did manage to get it running, however two chainsaw endings seemed a little repetitive.
Destruction: Zombie Hayride was by far the weakest attraction of the night. The pyro by the entrance was great, but could have been better used inside the attraction. The actor at the start was good, he delivered the health and safety briefing in character and got everyone in the group laughing at the same time. The hayride itself seemed very sparse, it was hard to tell if the first section was meant to be part of the attraction as it consisted of driving past cars that were clearly still in use. Credit to the actors working the attraction, they were full of energy, jumping on and off the trailer
Having a few post apocalyptic scenes for the trailer to drive past, such as survivors fighting zombies, or a horde attacking prey would have been more effective than long, sparse periods between actors. It didn’t feel that Destruction really added anything to the Farm, it almost felt like a last minute addition.
Priory Fields promised a lot and didn’t quite live up to it. It was a huge space and the actors were dotted through, leaving lots of periods of walking through the corn just waiting for something to happen. The actors inside the maze weren’t hugely enthusiastic and left us feeling slightly underwhelmed. Hearing another chainsaw at the exit left one reviewer frustrated, as using a chainsaw at the ending of three out of four attractions, this ending had become repetitive and any novelty had worn off.
One small thing that would really help would be a few signposts directing to the different attractions, as they were dotted around the site. We visited a few days before the Farm officially opened to the public, so hopefully these will be added in the next few days.
All of the staff we encountered were courteous and friendly. It was difficult conditions for the roaming actors (muddy,cold and rainy) but they were relentless and full of energy for the whole night. Unfortunately Dr. Hade’s Fear Theatre was unavailable on the preview night, hopefully it should be up and running in time for opening night on the 21st.
Sadly the mazes at the Fear Farm, although they are a solid product, don’t quite match the quality and standard of scare maze that Twisted have become known for. It feels almost like Twisted have taken on too much slightly too soon, they make some fantastic mazes and it seems that moving them to Lower Drayton Farm has watered them down slightly.
On arrival it is a walk down a muddy path to the entrance of the scream park – to be expected on a farm, but the mud might cause some issues by Halloween! After entering, it’s straight to the main plaza with a fire pit, fun fair, bar and food stalls. This was a really nice area with a good atmosphere, roaming actors and reasonably priced food. Live music in the bar was a great touch, although we didn’t get to see them performing, it should have a good atmosphere.
The first maze of the night was Miss Pigott’s Pie Factory, after an actor explaining they were having some issues and a brief queue we were inside. The theming inside was great, very similar to the style and quality of The Dungeons. The actress playing Miss Piggott was one of the strongest actors we met, she didn’t miss a beat, interacted with guests, had the whole group in stitches while still being suitable creepy. This continued with her “son” in the next scene, however then we left the maze to walk outside before entering the next section. This became a pattern throughout the night and was disappointing – so much effort had been put in the first section building an atmosphere and as soon as you stepped outside, it was completely lost.The second section was very disorientating, due to the huge amount of smoke! However it didn’t rebuild the atmosphere of the first section us walking out the exit.
Our second maze was House of Insomnia. This had a fantastic log cabin façade, complete with animal pelts and bull horns! Having a health and safety briefing from a member of the Twisted Team rather than an actor took away from the experience slightly. The theming in the first section was great and the sets were very well thought out, allowing actors to use misdirection scares and trap guests in a room as the exit wasn’t very clear. The surprise in the middle of the maze was genius – we’d never seen a feature like that in a maze before, it surprised everyone and was great fun.
House of Insomnia seemed a very long maze, it must have been between 10 and 15 minutes. We reached an area that seemed like the finale, and were instructed to wait which really built the tension and put us on edge. This was when actors ran into the room and starting putting bags over everyone’s heads – this was totally unexpected and took us by surprise. We were then told to put one hand on a rope, one on a shoulder and start walking. This section went on for too long with little happening, after a while of walking aimlessly round a field, we began to notice that the bags didn’t smell very pleasant! We were told to take our bags off and run, though there wasn’t really anything to run from! This area seemed a little sparse, we walked through the woods, then we heard the actor sadly struggling to start his chainsaw. It does happen time from time, chainsaws can be a little temperamental, especially when they’re being revved a lot. He did manage to get it running, however two chainsaw endings seemed a little repetitive.
Destruction: Zombie Hayride was by far the weakest attraction of the night. The pyro by the entrance was great, but could have been better used inside the attraction. The actor at the start was good, he delivered the health and safety briefing in character and got everyone in the group laughing at the same time. The hayride itself seemed very sparse, it was hard to tell if the first section was meant to be part of the attraction as it consisted of driving past cars that were clearly still in use. Credit to the actors working the attraction, they were full of energy, jumping on and off the trailer
Having a few post apocalyptic scenes for the trailer to drive past, such as survivors fighting zombies, or a horde attacking prey would have been more effective than long, sparse periods between actors. It didn’t feel that Destruction really added anything to the Farm, it almost felt like a last minute addition.
Priory Fields promised a lot and didn’t quite live up to it. It was a huge space and the actors were dotted through, leaving lots of periods of walking through the corn just waiting for something to happen. The actors inside the maze weren’t hugely enthusiastic and left us feeling slightly underwhelmed. Hearing another chainsaw at the exit left one reviewer frustrated, as using a chainsaw at the ending of three out of four attractions, this ending had become repetitive and any novelty had worn off.
One small thing that would really help would be a few signposts directing to the different attractions, as they were dotted around the site. We visited a few days before the Farm officially opened to the public, so hopefully these will be added in the next few days.
All of the staff we encountered were courteous and friendly. It was difficult conditions for the roaming actors (muddy,cold and rainy) but they were relentless and full of energy for the whole night. Unfortunately Dr. Hade’s Fear Theatre was unavailable on the preview night, hopefully it should be up and running in time for opening night on the 21st.
Sadly the mazes at the Fear Farm, although they are a solid product, don’t quite match the quality and standard of scare maze that Twisted have become known for. It feels almost like Twisted have taken on too much slightly too soon, they make some fantastic mazes and it seems that moving them to Lower Drayton Farm has watered them down slightly.
Links:
Official Website: www.twistedattractions.co.uk
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