Road to Hell by Heart of England Horror
With so many restrictions up and down the country due to the the Coronavirus pandemic, it was obvious that smart attraction owners and operators would have to find a new and potentially safer way to scare. After all - locking people in their car and restricting contact between staff and guests has to be a pretty extreme way to make people safe, but would it actually be scary enough? We went along to Road to Hell by Heart of England Horror to find out.
The event itself is set in the grounds of the Heart of England Conference Centre in Coventry, and had been co created by Scare Projects - the team behind Birmingham Scare Gardens, Area 51 special effects specialists, and the conference Centre themselves (who are no strangers to Halloween seeing as they usually host a massive Halloween part each year which always includes a trailer ride into the woodlands.)
Once checked in we were given a link to a YouTube channel to provide a suitable spooky background atmosphere, when pumped through our speakers, as well as several simple instructions. These included - drive at a max of 5 mph. Stop at all barriers and turn off your engine once stopped. With just a simple "good luck" ringing in our ears we headed down the trail.
The journey itself took us round the lake and through some of the very dark woodland on the site, and from beginning to end we were genuinely nervous as to what we would experience. As we approached the first stop sign, we turned the engine off and the area was plunged into darkness, as our headlights went off. At this point we were attacked from multiple sides as creatures banged on the windows, shook the car and generally taunted us mercilessly. We thought we would feel safe in our own car but it was somehow even more terrifying. We were trapped, and surrounded by monsters, and even by the time we finished our first scene our car was covered in "blood" and ooze!
The route also took us through some "internal sections" which had been cleverly dressed to make it look like we were inside a slaughterhouse or a farm, and in these sections the actors were able to grab the car, try to get the doors open and push machetes etc through any open windows. Clearly we were on the menu and these hungry hillbillies were baying for blood!
Later on, scenes included a very impressive post apocalyptic tank style machine with a flame thrower, other vehicles interacting with us, and even a great distraction scene involving a decoy that had us wondering if it was real or not.
Finally, with a car covered in blood and crap (but sensibly nothing on the drivers front window so the driver could see clearly) we approached a decontamination centre, where we received a very personal soapy wash down from a very attentive washer woman. The use of a soapy pressure washer across the whole car, actually meant we left cleaner than we arrived and negated any weird explanations to police on the drive home!
All in - as you can see (or hear) in the video below - we had a truly horrifying time. The whole event was well organised, fun from beginning to end and most importantly - genuinely terrifying. All the actors were lively and enthusiastic as we went through and the mix of scares and jumps were very impressive indeed. It will be interesting to see what happens when Covid disappers in the future, as we think there is genuinely a place for drive thru events such as this and we cant wait to plan another journey on this appropriately named Road To Hell (and we weren't even playing Christ Rea!)
Finally - if you do visit - there is a chance to get some food or drink either before or after the experience and although this reviewer was driving the rest of the team definitely needed a stiff drink to calm their nerves!
The event itself is set in the grounds of the Heart of England Conference Centre in Coventry, and had been co created by Scare Projects - the team behind Birmingham Scare Gardens, Area 51 special effects specialists, and the conference Centre themselves (who are no strangers to Halloween seeing as they usually host a massive Halloween part each year which always includes a trailer ride into the woodlands.)
Once checked in we were given a link to a YouTube channel to provide a suitable spooky background atmosphere, when pumped through our speakers, as well as several simple instructions. These included - drive at a max of 5 mph. Stop at all barriers and turn off your engine once stopped. With just a simple "good luck" ringing in our ears we headed down the trail.
The journey itself took us round the lake and through some of the very dark woodland on the site, and from beginning to end we were genuinely nervous as to what we would experience. As we approached the first stop sign, we turned the engine off and the area was plunged into darkness, as our headlights went off. At this point we were attacked from multiple sides as creatures banged on the windows, shook the car and generally taunted us mercilessly. We thought we would feel safe in our own car but it was somehow even more terrifying. We were trapped, and surrounded by monsters, and even by the time we finished our first scene our car was covered in "blood" and ooze!
The route also took us through some "internal sections" which had been cleverly dressed to make it look like we were inside a slaughterhouse or a farm, and in these sections the actors were able to grab the car, try to get the doors open and push machetes etc through any open windows. Clearly we were on the menu and these hungry hillbillies were baying for blood!
Later on, scenes included a very impressive post apocalyptic tank style machine with a flame thrower, other vehicles interacting with us, and even a great distraction scene involving a decoy that had us wondering if it was real or not.
Finally, with a car covered in blood and crap (but sensibly nothing on the drivers front window so the driver could see clearly) we approached a decontamination centre, where we received a very personal soapy wash down from a very attentive washer woman. The use of a soapy pressure washer across the whole car, actually meant we left cleaner than we arrived and negated any weird explanations to police on the drive home!
All in - as you can see (or hear) in the video below - we had a truly horrifying time. The whole event was well organised, fun from beginning to end and most importantly - genuinely terrifying. All the actors were lively and enthusiastic as we went through and the mix of scares and jumps were very impressive indeed. It will be interesting to see what happens when Covid disappers in the future, as we think there is genuinely a place for drive thru events such as this and we cant wait to plan another journey on this appropriately named Road To Hell (and we weren't even playing Christ Rea!)
Finally - if you do visit - there is a chance to get some food or drink either before or after the experience and although this reviewer was driving the rest of the team definitely needed a stiff drink to calm their nerves!
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