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Scarefest 2014

Going back to the Scary Tales discussion of characters/story. For me the issue lies in the description:

altontowers.com said:
Once upon a time there was a tortured mind, which in the darkness was left to unwind. Re-writing stories to make nightmares come true, the only character missing…is you!

Now, if we were to have a more generic description along the lines of:

Imagination's Mind said:
In the forest of Obscurus is where you'll find, what really happened after "Once Upon A Time". Where characters sacrificed their twisted requests, in return for happily ever afters which caused them unrest. For in this kingdom where no clock doth chime, are tortured beings wanting you in their rhyme.

Because after all, we all deserve to live our happily ever after...don't we?

Ok, so that is really off the top of my head but, something loose like that gives us enough to understand what it's about but doesn't set us up for a story/central character development which I feel Scary Tale's actual description sadly implies. It should be far more generic than it currently is, I just feel the description lets it down massively.

Who is this tortured mind? For me, it sounds like this is a physical being and not something metaphorical. This is where the problem lies, people are expecting to find out more about this tortured mind and what they are causing to happen within. For the average guest, they would expect to see the "tortured mind" as a character. I think the implementation of the "tortured mind" character could work, with literally short phrases and lines to deliver which make us instantly think "Ahh ok, so this is their gaff that we're intruding in and now they want us to become part of it". It really wouldn't be an issue.

Alton's Scare Mazes are basically free-flow outdoor mazes, so short line delivery could easily work. I'm not talking dialogue after dialogue but lines which make us think "Ahhh I get it this is that and that is this". For the fact it was put together VERY quickly, I think they did rather well...but, I just wish there was some more thought and cohesion. Scary Tales is a rather specific theme which needs more structure than Zombies does or scare zone with an IP.

I would change the music theme too. Keep the current one for the outside but inside have something different. To be honest, I'd use some like this within the "zone" and plus, it has a nice nod to Carnival Of Screams but also creates more tension which towers scare zones tend to aim towards.

In short, changed description, rich and developing soundtrack and less boo's with more quick delivery of lines or certain words to give a loose theme a bit of substance.
 
Very nicely put there! However, what you said about having different music outside and inside the zone, I would've thought that would be quite difficult. I think because of outside the zone and inside are both outdoors, the different music would overlap, and sound horrid. Obviously this wouldn't be so much of an issue if the zone was indoors, but that completely defeats the object of a scare zone, more so than it already is.
 
OH @Imagination I could not agree with you more, that's a perfect soundtrack to it, and I like the one they have anyway.

You seem to grasp what I am saying totally. It is suggested it's based around tales, that there's a central character, and it feeds you through like a maze.

The only guy who really said anything went on about crunching up bones and stuff and I thought, of what relevance is that to this "story" exactly, where is the context, why are you here, and why do you look like you took a wrong turn out of the sanctuary?

Once you have a theme of Scary Tales, it's really rather easy IMO to create very sinister versions of fairytale characters that are easy to identify with - they did the hard part already, coming up with the idea, building the darn thing, the easy bit is giving some people some relevant lines to say and a bit more of a flow.

It just didn't make sense. It's like the two pig dudes at the end I thought, 3 little pigs? Well. There's 2, and one looks like a bouncer, and I had to walk over some wet straw to get out. Irritating, not scary. Wet shoes.

Why not have people learn where to stand to create illusions in the mirror room and create confusion scares?

How about "statues" within the story context?

One or two really intimidating lines that leave you thinking, ooooh, that is so-and-so character that's been dragged into this nether fairy tale world.

I was listening out for this kind of thing, and trying to make sense of it, I really think this has potential to be developed into something very different and rather disturbing, but as it is, it's not really very coherent at all.
 
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*facepalm*

(also, while I'm being pedantic, Earth should be capitalised)
 
Yay that's both scare zone signs that have spelling errors! Well done Alton Towers, you're great at this!!

:)
 
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@Rob so true lololol!! I was so tempted to write about it, but then thought NO, the typo fairies come and mess your post up, and alas, they got you instead.
 
Mmm at least the typos are themed. I would imagine that its one member of staffs job to do all the signage in a short amount of time. While being creative and clever with graphics. I take my hat off to this person and say the effort into the details of the signs themes around the park throughout the season and park really does show. Keep up the good work!
 
Was there for the last 2 days

How poor, so much so it made me sad.

There were around 6 actors on towers street and then that was it for the rest of the park, There were only around 8 Zombies in the scarezone , the music being piped around was only about 4 songs and you ended up hearing the same things over and over and over again.

Nothing on the rapids like in the last few years, no actors on Duel

The riding in the dark was however amazing and I feel that towers should have more late night openings , however, Scarefest has been decimated by merlins bean counters and we were all very disappointed by it, sadly....
 
I think the Alton Ancestors must have replaced the traffic patrol for SF , which is quite disappointing. At least have them there at the end of the day, with cobwebs on them etc. They haven't had actors in Duel for a number of years now, 2009 IIRC.
 
2010 when Duel live became Skelvin's Haunted Adventure, which quite frankly was rubbish. The first version of Duel Live was the best, 2008.
 
Was there for the last 2 days

How poor, so much so it made me sad.

There were around 6 actors on towers street and then that was it for the rest of the park, There were only around 8 Zombies in the scarezone , the music being piped around was only about 4 songs and you ended up hearing the same things over and over and over again.

Nothing on the rapids like in the last few years, no actors on Duel

The riding in the dark was however amazing and I feel that towers should have more late night openings , however, Scarefest has been decimated by merlins bean counters and we were all very disappointed by it, sadly....

The Alton Ancestors have about 12 actors, and after 12pm they move mostly over to Gloomy Wood until 3pm

Zombies have around 12 actors too but as it's a scarezone it's easier to miss them unlike a maze

I believe the reason there are no skeleton rapids riders is because there are quire a few rapids boats out of action, they couldn't justify leaving a boat out of use and it's not an easy part of the season for restorative maintenance as the techies work 6am to 11pm so during Scarefest they only really have time for essentials.

The soundtrack on TowersStreet has been the same for years, it's about 20 minutes long.

Not saying you shouldn't think Scarefest is naff, the mazes are stale. Just feel you may have hit a duff note on a few things.
 
Can we put an end to this rubbish about if the mazes etc are good enough now?

This is FREE (actually a donation to a local animal charity :) ). It does however have a waiting list of about 24 THOUSAND apparently.

An attraction that really does need a waiver?

http://www.mckameymanor.com/

It's had marines passing out, NO ONE has made it to the end this year, and they refuse to end it until the person is basically "broken".

Here's a scaretours interview:
http://www.scaretouruk.com/intense-attractions---interview-with-creators-of-mckamey-manor.html

Kinda puts Scary Tales and the budget cuts into some perspective.
 
Can we put an end to this rubbish about if the mazes etc are good enough now?

This is FREE (actually a donation to a local animal charity :) ). It does however have a waiting list of about 24 THOUSAND apparently.

An attraction that really does need a waiver?

http://www.mckameymanor.com/

It's had marines passing out, NO ONE has made it to the end this year, and they refuse to end it until the person is basically "broken".

Here's a scaretours interview:
http://www.scaretouruk.com/intense-attractions---interview-with-creators-of-mckamey-manor.html

Kinda puts Scary Tales and the budget cuts into some perspective.
WTF?! That looks like real life torture than a scare experience. Who in their right mind would do such a thing?
 
WTF?! That looks like real life torture than a scare experience. Who in their right mind would do such a thing?

Exactly, you can't really compare this to Scarefest - the two 'events' are completely different and aimed at entirely different audiences.

Plus you may not have to pay to do it but it sounds like they get their money back from charging people to watch the live feed.
 
Exactly, you can't really compare this to Scarefest - the two 'events' are completely different and aimed at entirely different audiences.

Plus you may not have to pay to do it but it sounds like they get their money back from charging people to watch the live feed.

That's true enough.

It goes to show what can be done by basically one person not charging for the event with a 24k person waiting list and some serious imagination though.

This is 1 person, spending their own cash, and creating an event that garners more publicity. Yes, it is extreme, but it is STILL a private house in California.
 
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