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Scarefest 2015

ThemeParkJack

TS Member
So Scarefest 2014 has come to and end. I know its early but i thought we might aswell start the ball rolling on what expectations or changes to Scarefest 2015 you'd like to see.
 
What would we like to see?

Parkwide theming.
A variety of different lighting colours and techniques.
Roaming actors.
Different music on the rides.
6 mazes.
3 scare zones.

That alright, Towers?
 
Really???

The park shut just over an hour ago and besides, we all know that what we want and what we get are two different things.
In previous years it has been done earlier, as when the line-up is announced for one year people have speculated for the next. So yes, really.
 
To be fair, Universal are already hyping Horror Nights 25! Screamscape got a memory stick with some promotional images on.
 
Things Id love to see:

ToTT
A CHANGE! For the love of god, either get rid of this tired old, boring maze or give it a massive refresh. It has lost all impact and become a pastiche of itself by being the same year in year out. It really needs some attention, and urgently. Id like a cohesive story to come back, and Id love a change to the finale, while the strobe maze is pretty epic its lost its wow factor.

Sanctuary
Im not fussed either way. But again it needs a change, it should get rid of Kelman, one character shouldnt be a maze. I like some of the technology and scenes behind it, but it again has become stagnant.

Zombies / Scary Tales
Can stay, they arent brilliant but they serve a decent purpose and chomp through crowds.

NEW: Blood Bayou
Build overlooking the lake (similar to CoS location), a part indoor / outdoor maze. Greeted by a disturbing slow jazz music theme you queue with fog over the lake area. You are met by a tarot card reader who gives one of the group 'the mark' with blood on their face - only Mama Bayou can save them.
You enter a series of down and out New Orleans venues, old jazz bars, closed hotels, the VooDoo man warning not to go further, his 'spirits' accompany this area. Next you meet the plant heavy Bayou area, where semi-transformed creatures harass you - including one man more crocodile than man.
You find the home of Mama Bayou whose helper points you to the door, via the crawl hole.
Mama Bayou welcomes you, telling you that you deserve to be on your knees. She is sat high above you on a throne, asking for the chosen one. The chosen one is put in a cage in the corner of the room (the room is surrounded by curtains).
She begins to chant a spell, the lights go out, rain starts, there is lightening (via strobes). The lights return all red and blue, Mama Bayou is stood above you many feet tall (her throne hid stilts) her face disfigured (she put a mask on in the dark).
Its revealed the person in the cage has been killed, a mutilated body is in the cage* (a quick prop switch).
The curtains have been pulled back in the storm to reveal a small army of monsters brought my Mama Bayou one behind each person of the group, who she screams to attack - you are then chased out of the room... into the Bayou Bar - a temporary New Orleans drinking establishment.
* - the person is switched out, but can observe the finale. They also get a set of madi-gras beads to wear, so others in the park know who has been a chosen one.

NEW: Forbidden Valley Scare Zone
Underneath the world famous Nemesis and close to Nemesis:Sub Terror there has been a devout group, trying to perform the ritual to being the Nemesis monster back. You'll find Phalanx Researchers in Hazmat Suits, Monk Style worshipers, Inured Phalanx staff and also (in a tent finale) some human / nemesis hybrid creatures.

NEW: Murderers Mayhem
A family halloween twist on Marauders Mayhem, need a couple of lights and some material, you get this:



--
P.s - Towers - I am available for consultancy on scare events should you want my assistance.
 
As much as we all want a refreshed event with updated mazes and loads more on park themeing, until Merlin get a kick up the arse with budgets it's not going to happen.

For 2015, I can see ToTT, The Sanctuary and Zombies remaining the same, with Scary Tales possibly returning as a fully fledged maze.
 
Changes to both TotT and The Sanctuary are essential along with a new maze to get it back to three. If we have the same two mazes again with no third then I am not paying to do them.

All comes down to what budget they are allocated though.

:)
 
Like mentioned above TOTT needs a whole new theme. The Sanctuary needs a whole new revamp or needs to be removed and replaced by a new maze.

Scary Tales and Zombies to return.

Two or three new family shows with a new stage to replace the Trick or Treat stage.

Street entertainment to continue, The Alton Ancestors to stay, maybe some more expansion on street entertainment too. Maybe get the Wraiths back out as a cheap fix for example.

It would be great to see a third maze added to the park too, with one of the three mazes free, preferably TOTT.

It will be very interesting to see what they do next year. I'm worried too. The event has got to a point now where really the whole event needs to be bulldozed and started over. TOTT is stale. The Sanctuary is predictable. Zombies is outdated and not very Towers. Family entertainment is stale, and even outdated, again it's not very Towers. That leaves us with what, street entertainment and coloured lights (which should be improved next year anyway). It's a shame how backwards Scarefest has gone over the years. Really feel for ents when it comes to Scarefest.
 
The problem you have is this year has been Towers most successful event. Guests are lapping up Scarefest and when you compare Thorpes social media Lambasting, to mostly great reviews at Towers, Scarefest seems to be doing well.

Which isn't a great incentive for Merlin to provide more money for the event.
 
I went through The Sanctuary a few times this year, constantly spotting out different things that could be changed! I personally think they need to revamp it, because it is defiantly getting stale the way it is.
 
The problem you have is this year has been Towers most successful event. Guests are lapping up Scarefest and when you compare Thorpes social media Lambasting, to mostly great reviews at Towers, Scarefest seems to be doing well.

Which isn't a great incentive for Merlin to provide more money for the event.

I think the big difference between the bad reviews of Thorpe's Fright Nights this year and Alton's Scarefest is queue management. The free scare zones are slightly higher capacity than the mazes, meaning wait times are minimised. By making the mazes paid tickets only, less people will do it, keeping demand lower and making it simpler to have timed ticketing, then by using timed tickets, queues are kept short and predictable. Alton Towers also provided lots of free family entertainment with several shows in Fountain Square, the Alton Ancestors and plenty of theming on Towers Street.

Whereas Thorpe's answer to queues is to sell FastTrack, making the regular queues even longer, then with FastTrack sold out people complain about the long waits. They should have done same as AT and made some mazes paid/FastTrack only and others standby queue only. It was also reported there is almost no park-wide theming at Thorpe, whereas at least AT themes Towers Street and Fountain Square well.

I don't see the budget being cut at AT due to it being popular, but I don't think they will add another free maze, I expect the free offerings to remain being the less intense scares and the family stuff, then they may change the mazes but the charges will remain.

It is also worth noting that Chessington's Halloween stuff has been very well reviewed for the second year in a row.
 
I'd like to see Zombies be scrapped, along with ToTT if I am completely honest. Zombies I find un-original, boring and just a complete waste of time. Seriously, I see no point in chucking however much they do chuck at it, for a less than 2 minute walk-through, which has no originality, and is completely boring in my opinion. Whereas Scary Tales, was original, and I actually enjoyed it far more than what I did with Zombies this year.

ToTT is just way too predictable now. I'd of much rathered them of scrapped ToTT over Carnival last year, and just had Sanctuary following ToTT's route. At least then, you're getting rid of a predictable maze (ToTT), and changing up another at the same time, by using a new layout, and keeping the attraction (Carnival) that everyone seemed to love.

If you consider the usual maze cycle, it normally is every 2 years a new maze is introduced. Boiler in 08, Carnival in 10, Sanctuary in 12, and 14 SHOULD of been a new maze, but because there was no new maze, they now have a real issue on their hands. Next year, with budgets most likely staying similar, they have the choice of scrapping ToTT or scrapping Sanctuary, but at the same time need to address new family shows & entertainment too, as well as considering to scrap Zombies, and change up Scary Tales ever so slightly. Oh, and also update park theming and lights. Not too much needed then;) Every show & attraction is now, completely stale, apart from Scary Tales, but that is only because it's new.

Bring back Carnival & Field! :rolleyes::(
 
NEW: Forbidden Valley Scare Zone
Underneath the world famous Nemesis and close to Nemesis:Sub Terror there has been a devout group, trying to perform the ritual to being the Nemesis monster back. You'll find Phalanx Researchers in Hazmat Suits, Monk Style worshipers, Inured Phalanx staff and also (in a tent finale) some human / nemesis hybrid creatures.

NEW: Murderers Mayhem
A family halloween twist on Marauders Mayhem, need a couple of lights and some material, you get this:



If that's the same video you posted last year, that looked epic and SO easy.

Also, the FV scare zone sounds freaking EPIC lol!!!
 
I'd like to see Zombies be scrapped, along with ToTT if I am completely honest. Zombies I find un-original, boring and just a complete waste of time. Seriously, I see no point in chucking however much they do chuck at it, for a less than 2 minute walk-through, which has no originality, and is completely boring in my opinion. Whereas Scary Tales, was original, and I actually enjoyed it far more than what I did with Zombies this year.

ToTT is just way too predictable now. I'd of much rathered them of scrapped ToTT over Carnival last year, and just had Sanctuary following ToTT's route. At least then, you're getting rid of a predictable maze (ToTT), and changing up another at the same time, by using a new layout, and keeping the attraction (Carnival) that everyone seemed to love.

If you consider the usual maze cycle, it normally is every 2 years a new maze is introduced. Boiler in 08, Carnival in 10, Sanctuary in 12, and 14 SHOULD of been a new maze, but because there was no new maze, they now have a real issue on their hands. Next year, with budgets most likely staying similar, they have the choice of scrapping ToTT or scrapping Sanctuary, but at the same time need to address new family shows & entertainment too, as well as considering to scrap Zombies, and change up Scary Tales ever so slightly. Oh, and also update park theming and lights. Not too much needed then;) Every show & attraction is now, completely stale, apart from Scary Tales, but that is only because it's new.

Bring back Carnival & Field! :rolleyes::(
If I'm honest with you Kydog they won't scrap Terror Of The Towers. It's their signature branding which fits perfectly! They could possibly revamp it but as Pete Cliff has stated they won't ever get rid of the iconic branding.
 
I'd like to see Zombies be scrapped, along with ToTT if I am completely honest. Zombies I find un-original, boring and just a complete waste of time. Seriously, I see no point in chucking however much they do chuck at it, for a less than 2 minute walk-through, which has no originality, and is completely boring in my opinion.

The thing with Zombies is that they are something people already are aware of and find scary, there is no set up of the plot needed, people know what a Zombie is.
 
From the Q&A we had with ents, it sounds like none of the present scare mazes/zones are going anywhere. As TotT is the signature attraction, it's inevitable it'll be sticking around. The Sanctuary is being subjected to thoughts and ideas to give it an overhaul in many different aspects, but I highly doubt we'll see any dramatic changes here next year. As jon said, people know what a zombie is and their appeal will secure the future for Zombies next year (which is along the lines of what ents said anyway). Due to the overall positive feedback surrounding Scary Tales, I expect to see that again next year also.
 
The thing with Zombies is that they are something people already are aware of and find scary, there is no set up of the plot needed, people know what a Zombie is.

Do you think they missed a trick here, it's right on Dark Forest, why zombies? Why not a wraith based zone? Zombies are a bit - wow, you're a bloke with make up on shouting boo.

Those wraiths were daaaaaaaaaaaarn creepy man.
 
The thing about the zombies as oppose to any other halloween creature, is that from my experience in ZSZ, I was quite weary of who in the zone was a zombie and who was just a park guest experiencing the attraction. This made it more freaky IMO, as you don't always notice the actors coming up and inevitably jumping out/coming up to you.
 
I hadn't considered that point @Tom.B - it's a very good one, especially in a busy attraction when visitors are dressed up!
 
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