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Scarefest 2012 :: Reviews

Right. After the weekends think its about time I wrote some sort of review about Scarefest!

So to start us off...

The general atmosphere. Overall score 5/10

While the usual effort had gone into towers street with the pumpkins and scarecrows and what not it was easy to forget there was evens event going on elsewhere in the park, except for around the mazes there was little sign of any sort of Scarefest decoration, even the barbican was missing the lighting and projections it has had in previously years, and her lady ships garden was also a little generically lit, lacking somewhat in ambiance.

Mazes Overall Score 8/10

The mazes this year were far and away the standout feature of the event! Though not perfect they were some of the strongest scare mazes the park has presented.

TOTT: As always the headline act, and largely unchanged from last year, with the exception of a relocated entrance, the high production value is visible from the start, with an introduction video that gives paranormal activity a run for its money! And the usual dark sinister atmosphere. My only criticism is that the storyline is starting to get a bit tired now, with little of the maze changing from year to year, and even now after 3 years I'm still struggling to understand the relevance of the dining room scene. Though the later parts of the maze were better then in previously years, with much more a sense enclosure and that you are being toyed with. The finale was as good as always with the strobing lights and creepy vampire characters. And the absence of the long exit corridor was a substantial improvement.

Carnival of Screams: For me the weakest of main mazes. Though still a good effort alongside the other mazes. It's new location was far more suitable then x-sector, actually feeling like a real carnival as opposed to an attraction shoehorned into an empty building. The maze itself started with a nicely themed lead in through a yard outside the maze itself, though at times this lead in felt a little to drawn out, but was logistically required to get guests to the main building, The return of the automaton in a case scene was a positive this year, the remainder of the maze was much the same as previously years, with the same effects, and optical illusions, though I was particularly impressed with the trommle tunnel effect, the lack of a real finale was a disappointment, of all the mazes this is the one that I feel needs the most attention before next year if it is to return.

The Sanctuary: The new addition for this year, This maze is one of the best I have come across over the years. The storyline is strong and lends itself well to the developments of SW7. The batching area housed in the conservatory had a definite sense of foreboding, with lots of smiling nurses, and pleasant music. Events take a downturn as soon as you enter the maze though, following an introduction from the fantastic Dr Kelmer the real sanctuary reveals itself, with fantastic theming and acting throughout this maze makes fantastic use of areas of the towers usually closed to the public, taking you into the west wing. The highlight of the maze is the very unusual Marmalisation scene, which is in stark contrast to the rest of the maze, with its bright lighting and clean look. The effects work fantastically, and I found myself genuinely struggling to look away from the screens. From here onwards the tone gets darker and darker, as we are lead down into the depths of the towers. The maze makes fantastic use of a very limited amount of space, splitting corridors in two to allow more circulation space.

Street Theater 8/10

The actors roaming areas of the park as as good as always, with creepy nurses stood around on towers street, and clowns wondering around harassing guests, all drawing attention to the mazes as soon as you walk into the park.
 
I too found Carnival to be SO much better this weekend, aside from the aforementioned frankly appalling acting by the dummy (which only got worse throughout the day), but overall really a solid maze now, just disappointingly still lacking in a finale...

They've clearly tried to make one, by extending the length of the last room with a partition and adding a weird dodgy animatronic clown head which pops up every now and then (the dodgy-ness actually adds to the whole creepiness!). Now, there are tables covered on masks, one of which has a massive cutout in it, and there is definitely a clown mask around available to the actors which looks a bit like those heads - whether this is meant to be a scare I don't know, but it's certainly not one I saw done on any runthroughs I had.

The dummy aside, the other one weak area of the maze for all of us is the leaving the Goalstriker building after the Trommel - it is very apparent, a million times more so in daytime, that you're leaving one building and going into another, and thus that combined with the lack of actor (usually) means that it's a bit of a dead spot...

However, my mega love must go to the barker character at the beginning, I will NEVER get tired of seeing that belly button (surely it's going to increase in diameter by several centimetres by the end of the event?!) and love the fact that he's starting to play with the poem occasionally - "What does fate have in store for you? I don't know, I haven't a clue... Mmm, does my belly button smell of poo?!" (followed by offering his finger to some screaming women to smell, protesting "What? Everyone poos! Especially YOU *singles out member of group*)

Also "What was once the Carnival Of Dreams, fallen on hard times, and some grisly crimes...and even worse rhymes! now the Carnival of Screams"... Perhaps a nod to the fact that it's not the most inspiring piece of poetry to have to keep reciting :p

However, overall a massive improvement on last week and a big congrats to the whole team working on it for SQUEEZING so much more potential out of it :D
 
I'm clearly the only one who found the "marmalisation room" to be the worst part of The Sanctury, then?
To me, it was a tacky mess that seemed like a left over from Carnival.

What would I do to change it? The set itself is fine, but rather than coloured LEDs behind the sheets, I would have blindingly bright strobes. Then change the audio to uncomfortably loud white noise, and you have simple sensory deprevation. Much more effective than failing to achieve sensory overload (which I'm guessing was the intention).

Maybe the walls could start far apart, and slowly close in on your group as well, just for good measure.
 
Never been to scarefest, but always fancied the "Field of 100 screams" maze near the hotels. What happened to it?

:)
 
Dave's Review of Scarefest

The Mazes

Terror of the Towers: What Lies Beneath

Essentially the same maze as last year, this does for regular visitors make for a slightly stale experience however, i find it hard to be overly critical when the likes of Thorpe have used the same mazes for over 7 years. They have it seems improved upon the acting of last year, with some actors actually talking to you and giving a suggestion of what is going on ("their waiting for you downstairs, its a feast and your bringing the meat"). This does add something to the whole experience and so i can say that there is a small level of improvement over last year. Also the strobe maze is better sequenced this year and it is better for not having the exit corridor as part of the maze.

Overall as always a strong maze, its just ready for the next step (8/10)

Carnival of Screams

This is a tricky maze to rate really, last years Carnival was really poor but 2010 was amazing, so where to put this years incarnation? The first scenes are a massive improvement on both years. The Barker is really good at setting up the scene and using the outside section really helps add atmosphere (especially at night). The Living dummy is thankfully back but it suffers from being in such a small room so riders are much closer than in 2010 and therefore able to see the flaws in the mask better (also during the day there is massive light leak in this area).

The next outdoor scene and corridor look nice but are a little weak, especially in the day when there is bags of light leak apparent. But things improve massively in the next few scenes where the uneven floor and the coloured arches leading into the mirror maze really make you feel like you are in an evil fun-house.

The dot room never seems to work anymore as the dot person keeps leaving the scene so you see them before hand and the fact their face isn't black and dotty makes them easy to see. The Puppet scene also never works because the actor in there never seems to play the scene correctly and doesn't get the big scare.

The "bags of fun" is as good as ever but the cage scene is weak before leading into the finale. This is where what has been upto know a good maze with some decent scares goes tits-up. There is no finale, a room with a few props and a clown stood looking at me does not even come close to the amazingness of the Gorilla finale of 2010.

Overall a decent maze let down by some scenes not used to potential and no finale (6/10)

The Sanctuary

I have reviewed this before and it just keeps getting better and better :)

The conservatory has a very "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" lobby feel to it with the pleasant music that actually feels ominous. The video is a great introduction with Dr Kelman giving you a run-down of what the Ministry of Joy and The Sanctuary are about. The batching staff are all in character and i love the caged door with the Red/ Green light system.

Meeting Dr Kelman in the first scene is really fun, the actor who plays Dr Kelman is the stand-out performer for Scarefest this year and really is very creepy as the Doctor. He further adds to the story and really acts his socks off. You then enter the first scene which is a HUGE room (Music room for those interested) where a TV appears to explode (good affect). You begin to meet some patients and then some of the staff in the kitchen scene, who seem as mad as the patients.

The ward is a stand-out scene to me, the actors make good use of the draped curtains for some classic jump scares and the lights going out before coming on suddenly really can get a few riders. But then we come to the stand-out part of the maze... Marmalisation!

The marmalising scene is really well done, the screens showing disgusting images, the horrid white noise and then smell is putrid. We then get a spray of water and leg ticklers (can't believe these have never featured in a scare maze before). The actor who leads the group in also does a good job of freaking out the front of the group.

After Marmalisation its down the stairs we go and one feature of notice (and something the Pete who is part of the team who designed the mazes, discussed with the meet on Saturday) is how each scene gets smaller and smaller so you start in a huge room for the TV and Kitchen scene yet everything starts to get more and more claustrophobic as you go. The scenes downstairs however depend on the actors giving a very good performance so we have had weaker run-through's. Though when done right the surgery and morgue scenes are disturbing and well played.

The final cage scene before the strobe maze is much better than preview with loads of smoke to add to the stress of the maze. The finale can be very strong with the actors darting through the cage walls but one issue is that with the groups splitting almost everytime one group gets more attention than the other which can lead to some duff run-throughs but it is a minor point. I think one way to improve this would be to make the groups re-meet a bit before the end as you would get the groups scaring each other.

At the end of the day this is one of the best mazes Towers have done and in my mind has the stress of Experiment 10 at Thorpe with the production values of Terror of the Towers (9/10)

Zombies Scarezone

Only done this once and it was incredibly boring, it didn't feel as claustrophobic as previous years and the "Surprisingly Well-lit forest next door really affects the atmosphere. Will re-ride and see if it improves, but i also think they have put the entrance at the wrong side and should have had that next to Dark (ish) Forests entrance.

(4/10)

Street Performers

Massive improvement on last year, really like the fact the carnival actors are out on the street before the maze opens and the freaky nurses are really fun. Also love the street actors outside Carnival who add to the atmosphere in that area. So on this point a massive improvement on previous years

Freaky Farm and Shows

The one strength of last years Scarefest was the children's activities, this year its still good but not nearly as impressive as last year with the owls and creepy creatures. The shows are fun though and seem to attract a crowd. So from a family point of view its better than 2010 but not as good as 2011

Park wide theming/ Lighting

If your not near the mazes or the farm this year you wouldn't know there is an event on. Lighting is non-existent and very little theming is apparent. Its a real shame that a huge step-up in maze quality this year has been let down with a further reduction in the quality of the park-presentation. They need to sort this out now but i imagine based on the fact Thorpe seems to have lost its good theming and lighting too that this is Merlin reducing budgets as they do like to do.

The hotels however look great

Final Thoughts

Overall a great Scarefest but this is purely down to the mazes, if they want a world class event they need to see the whole park come to life with Scarefest theming and improved lighting (which also helps Fireworks too).
 
Hi can anyone tell us if you get wet in any of the mazes as were going with full halloween makeup and don't want to reck it. Thanks for any comments.
 
Terror of the Towers
Whilst it may be the same layout as the previous couple of years, I didn't feel that the maze was as strong. The actors in both run throughs didn't seem as good as the previous years. I felt like there was the same amount, if not more, actors in comparison to last year but they just seemed to walk upto you and talk at you rather than actually jumping out and scaring. The strobe was very good as always but I didn't see much of the actor for most of it for some reason. Spacing seemed an issue in the second go. The lads leading our group weren't scared and actually going quickly so we bumped into the group ahead. Scares were being done from the front to back of the group which was good.

Overall, it was still an enjoyable maze but wasn't filled with the scares in comparison to previous years for me. 7/10

The Sanctuary
I heard people on park saying that it was their favourite maze so I was expecting it to be really good. My first problem though was when we were told to sit down on the benches when we got in. I couldn't fit on because the group size was so big (around 11). That was disappointing - especially when you pay for this maze and there was no queue. Anyway, we went in and I was at the back. Once we got inside the maze I did notice their seemed to be a lot of actors. This is where the problem started for me. The actors only seemed to be going for those at the front the whole way around. There was plenty of opportunities for them to come and scare the back. I was turning around and they were just standing there despite scaring the front of the group. How hard is it to sneak up on the back end of the group? Also, I turned around once to hear that two actors were having a conversation about when their break was. Disappointing. The marmalisation room could have been much better and like someone has said - sensory deprivation would have been epic.

Overall, I found this very very poor. The long groups and the non-existent scares at the back made the maze quite pointless I thought. Purely because of the storyline 2/10

Carnival of Screams
I wasn't expecting that much from this maze because I found last years to be ridiculously poor. However, it actually turned out to be my favourite maze this year. From the very start the scares were there with the guy in the machine breaking out. The actors were very good and followed us around jumping out of places which I couldn't even see (unlike the others were you can tell where the can come from). The dotty guy didn't work as well as last year because I could see him straight away but not too sure why this was the case. The black and white square room was epic. The best thing about this maze was that the actors actually would scare every part of the group and not just focus on the front. Plus, there seemed to be a lot of actors in the maze so I didn't know where they would jump out from next.

Overall, whilst a few things need improving such as a decent finish, the maze on the whole was a good length and worth the money paid. 9/10

Obviously, where you are in the group, how many people are in the group and the time of day etc. has an influence on the experience. I think Alton Towers just need to make some tweaks to the mazes to ensure that the experience is consistent enough whenever you do the mazes.

And am I right in thinking that the people in the mazes who are just standing around with an ear piece in are security?
 
Went to the park on the 20th (yes, saw a lot of the TS lot there and some of your costumes afterwards!!). Wont detail all the mazes again but just give a brief sentence about each one.

ToTT
This was actually my fave of the day. Did it at 1pm and then 7.30pm. Both occasions the actors were excellent and the maze very good. Highlight was losing the shoulders of the person infront in the strobe maze then realising your holding on to the shoulders of one of the vampires!!
9/10

Sanctuary
Did this at 8pm. Liked the entrance and the Dr chap was very good. Expected a lot from the maze, but felt it failed to deliver for me. The kitchen scene was empty of anyone, as was the hospital ward. The "marmalize" scene was erm, very average, and we were at the front and got soaked through. I enjoyed seeing parts of the towers than the maze I think. The end bit was another strobe and fence maze. Very samey in other words to ToTT.
6/10

Carnival of Screams
Running very late and managed to get in about 9.30 after some tech problems all day. Liked the mix of indoor and outdoor sections but found the whole experience very "average", though it did provide a few more jumps for me than the Sanctuary. Ending was, erm, non-existant really.
6/10

Zombie scare zone
Great actor at the start who made some of the group go in on their own. Excellent use of smoke and lighting to the extent you could hardly see where you were going then see zombies ambling towards you through the mist. Enjoyable.
7/10


Overall given the nice weather, company and "sensible" queue times the day was very enjoyable. The mazes were each different which was nice, though I think the sanctuary has a lot more potential for next year. Maybe its time to drop Carnival and bring back the Boiler House?

One final thing - the lighting and themeing this year......or lack of it. Awful! Once you exited Towers Street you wouldnt have known it was scarefest. To drop the green lighting up the Hex alleyway is criminal!!!!! Liked the SW7 face on the side of the Towers which hinted even more towards what the "special" element of the ride will be.

Good day overall, but not on par with last year or 2010.
 
There isn't a way to make mazes 100% consistent due to the human factor. Having a Freedom pass I have done Sanctuary about 15 times and only 2 where poor so I think their hit rate is good.

Sanctuary for the vast majority is the stand out maze and carnival the poorest but these reviews prove that different people want different things from the experience. Helpfully they do have a good range of mazes that cover most bases :)
 
Did the mazes today, wasn't that busy on park but the queues were still a good 40 minutes.

First of all was Carnival of Screams, absolutely brilliant! I’ve never really found this scary in past years even with my hate for clowns! But this year it was by far the most intense and the actors were brilliant at consistently scaring the complete group, halfway through it was made apparent that the actors could tell I really didn’t like clowns and one whispered in my ear ‘don’t worry, I’ll make sure we all make a beeline for you’ and they didn’t let me down on that one I can tell you now! I thought the ending wasn’t too bad it was densely themed and the actor made use of the boards and corners well.

Next was sanctuary, I was really looking forward to this and the anticipation was growing and growing as I got in the conservatory, then we realised we hadn’t been moving for a while and after about 15 minutes of standing there we were informed there was a technical difficulty and it will be open in about two minutes. As soon as we were let in I thought the sets were brilliant, DR Kelman was a brilliant introduction if not a bit out of time but we were soon let into the first room which was where it all started to go wrong…The fire effect, admittedly stunned me and I thought the boiling pots were brilliant, but the room was practically silent, the actors were minimally scary and just moved their heads around you really unimaginatively, we walked out of that room rather disappointedly, followed by various other rooms with either very quiet audio or no ambience music/bass/whatever you want to call it and pretty much every actor doing the same thing which wasn’t scary! Standing still and staring is not scary when you’ve seen about 10 other actors do it before in the space of 5 minutes, I didn’t notice a ‘marmelisation’ room at all and before we knew it we was in the white room which was again silent and looked very cheap with the cloth walls, I also got drenched by the sprayer which left me freezing and I didn’t really remember the rest as nothing really happened. On a side note though, I loved the morgue room, it had SO much potential, shame to see it wasted by bad acting!

Now, I had 2 runs on terror of the towers, both at the front may I add, and the first go was pretty good, plenty of scares and scenes were exciting however there was not many actors and in some rooms you could tell there was meant to be more or they were meant to be doing something different, I loved the strobe maze this year, seemed way longer and more confusing the actors were brilliant in here however there did seem to be less of them! Now my second go was not as good I found myself wandering through many rooms and seeing the same technique the actors used in the sanctuary apart from a few. There was also much less actors than the first time, we walked into the banqueting hall and there was no one in there at all, however my friend did say ‘where’s the chef then?’ and he ran through a door shouting HERE! I also found the use of bags hanging from the ceiling pretty pointless and had nothing to do with the maze at all, in fact none of it felt like it flowed or had any continuity from the video.
So that’s my thoughts, also I enjoyed getting a photo opportunity with a dwarf and mime, it’s a shame they were only appearing sparsely and later in the day it was just the dwarf who did look shattered!
 
The white room with the water and leg ticklers is marmalisation and there is only one room and a corridor between the kitchen and that room. Shame you had a bad run through though, I hope the maze isn't tiring over Scarefest as that would be a real shame as its a great maze.

Great to see Carnival is upping its game though :)
 
I was expecting to at least hear the word I s'pose its confusing, it did give off a very 'Oh I cant be bothered any more' attitude though, especially with the actors doing there least to scare you in comparrison to say Carnival or TOTT.
 
Please bare in mind I'm only 12/13 so I may make the mazes seem scarier then they are.
WARNING BIG SPOILERS!
Carnival of Screams

The actors outside this area were fab. Especially the one with the heart trying to find friends. So you go through the clowns mouth and into a corridor where you get briefed. No foul language, no phones, no torches, do not touch the freaks and the freaks will not touch you! We go in a conga to the first scene where a (rather large) clown with his belly showing says a poem about the Carnival of Screams and sticks his finger in someone's face saying 'Can you smell my belly button?'. He says that Zoltar will tell you if you may leave the carnival or not. You get cramped into a small tent with a puppet in a box. Music starts playing and the puppet starts waving his head around. The lights go out and Zoltar who is actually a person in a latex mask jumps out of the box into someone's face. At this point a member of my group ran out of the tent so we ended up at the front for the rest of the maze. :eek: You go through the last outdoor section where a clown sits on a box with his head down. I heard screams so I'm guessing he jumped out at the group. He tells you to go through an extremely tight corridor with air bags that are being pushed down onto you and by the sides of you. There are then many crooked corridors with clowns scaring you with a few scenes I remember. The dot room which is pitch black apart from green, purple and orange dots on the walls. There is a sign saying 'Can you find Mr Dot?'. No one could and he seemed to appear out of nowhere. The most difficult part was trying to find the way out of this room with Mr Dot taunting you from everywhere. There was a flashing Trommels Tunnel you are made to walk through. Since you are in a conga, there's nothing to hold on to and you get extremely dizzy! The punch bag room with lots of black and white checkered punch bags you have to push through while strobes and clowns confuse you. The mirror maze where clowns thud on mirrors and tell you to walk into them. The animotronic room, this one scared me the most in the maze. There were 8 clowns standing in the room with their wrists attached to the ceiling by rope and moving up and down. One of these clowns was real and terrified the group. Most of the rest of the maze were intense corridors and cages to walk through with clowns popping out of every direction. The final actor at the end was good who was trying to block the way out with his leg so we had to run past without touching him.

Overall I don't understand why people were disappointed with it as I found it full of scares and suspense. 9/10
I'll do a review for The Sanctuary later.
 
Great review BowMan :). Glad you liked Carnival, it's a maze which had improved somewhat over the course of the event. I think the issue is that a lot of the scares (the dummy scene at the beginning fur example) have been used in the past so regulars perhaps don't find it as scary. It also relies on people having a fear of clowns too, another reason why some haven't found it very good.

Still, it's a personal opinion and it's great to see reviews from another viewpoint. Looking forward to reading your other reviews :.
 
Now my review for The Sanctuary. First of all I need to mention that there were some kids that looked around 7 who went at the front of the line and were braver than anyone else in our group! *round of applause*. But anyway on to the review. The first thing that happened was I stopped to scan the QR code in the queue while the others in my group went ahead. Once I looked up, I saw them running away from the guy who looked like a gardener. He started walking up to me so I legged it past him which gave those in the TOTT queue a good old laugh. :-[ We went inside and handed our tickets in. We were supposed to give an appointment card in which our name, email, date of birth and pet's name on it. We filled these in but didn't hand them in. We didn't see anyone else hand one of these in either. The videos in the queue and the music were great for setting the tone for the maze. I especially liked the rocks with 'Don't trust him' written on. We got our hand stamp which is a nice touch and sat down for the pre-briefing. This guy was great. He said 'no smoking' and looked right at the kids at the front. He then said 'no torches' and looked right at the member of our group who had brought a torch with him. Even though we knew this was just a coincidence, this was the first thing that started freaking us out. We were at the back of the line this time and followed the group down a small corridor with several portraits of doctors on the wall. You then walk into a room with cages and barbed wire for some reason and are greeted by Dr Kelman. He explains during this how his work is misunderstood because he experiments on the living. During this talk, he looked right at me in the eyes and said 'Boo!' in a funny and slightly creepy way. He began to start talking faster and louder. He then opened the door screaming 'YOU'RE OURS NOW! YOU CAN'T TURN BACK!' We walked into the room and didn't get a fire affect. I'm guessing this was because we were at the back of the line. At this point, an actor started picking on us and following us. We continued to the canteen where an actor got right in my face and said 'Don't go downstairs whatever you do!' This phrase continued from actors throughout the maze. We then continued into the ward. You walk through with beds and curtains on either side of you. We then walked through the marmalisation corridors. You are shown several images on TVs along with swirls and confusing patterns. Green, red and blue lights are flashing at you. Images appear such as spiders, boiling pots of stews and words such as "greed", "You have been given a second chance" and "Smile". Water is sprayed at you alone with air. Leg ticklers also give a good jump scare. You can't see them though as they are hidden under smoke. You then go through corridors and cages before going downstairs. They were now calling us "the boys at the back". One member of our groups was walking do fast he nearly pushed us down the stairs! We continued into the surgery where the scares really picked up. There was a body on a slab that we didn't know if it was real or not. Just that uneasiness really scared us and put us on edge. They were threatening us now with things such as "They're gonna cut your faces off!" We then entered the cage maze which was really confusing. There were white strobes flashing extremely bright. The cages had holes in so the actors could stick their arms and heads through. There were also actors following us through the cages and jumping out from behind. Then we all ran out of the exit, sat down and tried to catch our breath!
Overall, a very atmospheric and tense maze with amazing actors! 9.5/10

Zombies

This was quite atmospheric and got the theme of an apocalypse just right. The actors seemed to be dressed up very well and got a few scares in there. It was fairly short but should be like that for those who decide they don't like it and want to leave. It's good for those it's catering for but fairly boring for the rest.

6/10

I didn't experience TOTT if you're wondering why I didn't review it. :)
 
I'm sure I posted my reviews somewhere, so will keep this brief.

Mazes:
ToTT: Long winded, plot made no sense, scarcity of actors, way way too many stairs - up and down up and down, most of the way round our group (who I didn't know) were just pointing directions out to everyone. Little clear direction, very few scares, actors we did encounter however put up a good effort. Disappointing, was bored by the end. 5/10

Carnival: Acting at start was super! Was quite odd, first bit took me by surprise and was clever entrance to the maze it self. Belly button *classic* - some quite creepy bits, like a slightly twisted fun house (guess that is the point). No real scares, but clear theme & some great acting. 7/10

Sanctuary: Reading through more reviews, I got ripped off. Things on show that clearly shouldn't have been! Clear theme, which at points is very immersive, with clever touches around I must say - actors we did come across were quite fantastic, that being said - it lacked intensity. You've all mentioned them now, but I will spoiler this bit anyway
when you look down, and see the little plastic pipes that are hitting you, well they don't "tickle" firstly, and next I think - well why can I see them? No smoke, nothing to hide them at all. Then I check at only the lady at the front is soaked, we're just watching her getting even more wet whilst we get a slight misting

Park Wide:
Just poor. Great staff, got to see the Logo on the towers - probably the best bit of the day actually - if you haven't see it, it is brilliantly animated and HUGE! So, keep an eye on those towers folks! I was impressed upon entrance, had some great interaction with the Dr wandering round a few times too - got into this freaky conversation with a younger member of our group which was hilarious. He was super, really super. Some of the clowns on Towers St too were brilliant - but after leaving there, apart from flashy stalls everywhere you could easily forget it was Halloween.

Scarefest it wasn't. Upsellfest and disappointment fest it was. Left quickly at close, feeling quite annoyed, and disappointed with the mazes in general for the money I paid out. Usually I'm one for nick knacks mugs and shizzle too, to eek out that atmosphere and spend well - no way, not this time.

I keep banging on about this but I will say it again though, certain staff members were absolutely brilliant. I went on the 19th, if anyone here knows people who worked Nemmy, Air, or Blivvy that night - they were just superb. Really really wonderful, anyone who knows them - pass it on if you can ;D.

Most certainly the least Halloween feeling night I have visited so far. Night rides FTW of course, great staff too, but that's the lot, and wasn't the point of visiting.
 
I forgot to mention that the park-wide actors were brilliant. I seem to remember a nurse from the Sanctuary, 2 pirates (one of which was in the boat), and a few clowns giving us a good scare! I tried some of the green donuts which were pretty cool. I do have to agree that the lighting was bad. I like the ambience given by the stringed lights in between 'lands' but the flood lit areas were disappointing. The face on the towers though was great and started to get very hypnotic after a while.
 
Apologies this review got a bit long :-\
Did all the three mazes yesterday. This was my first scarefest and had not much to go on how scare mazes are -the only scare maze before this that I had done was Saw Alive and well that felt like a walk through.
Warning, there will be spoilers here and there.
The first maze we did was Terror of the Towers. We had a great group as we where next a couple at the back with one of them not wanting to go in the maze. After the short briefing on the story by a host we got turned round with that couple at the front. That meant, because this man was so scared at almost every corner we would suddenly stop as he looked round. We did get a fair amount of jumpy scares, and the man in the group made it even more fun. Many of the actors didn't do much other than jump out, so I found the best actor was a man in a big room half way through who spoke to us. We where preparing ourselves, when in the corridor with the hooded people, for one of them to jump out. This was an interesting maze, with good sets. We made our way very slowly through the strobe bit at the end because of our group leader getting to scared to even move. Then we suddenly are out at the bottom of the towers. I found that whatever story was behind it was weak, and from reading other posts on here about how it hasn't changed for three years or so, looks like it must be boring for others. But I found it was a decent maze as the first one for me.

Next we did The Sanctuary. The waiting room was great, really set the tone. We were at the front ant got led down the corridor to the Dr. After his explanation of what went on, and his help to open the door, we entered the, lounge? It was a big room with a tv, and we missed the fireball here as it happened after we passed near the end of our group. The kitchen had one person in, just following us with a book saying: 'would you like to eat my book'. I thought that the kitchen could've been used more. I feel from the good reviews from others that we got a bit of a bad run in this room. After this we went through the ward I think. This had two actors throwing curtains at us. It was very dark in the ward which almost made us go the wrong way. Next was I think (sorry but I have stated to forget what order the rooms happened in) marmalisation. This was well, quite weird really. An actor led us through a tunnel of white. We where at the front and placed almost under the tv and couldn't really see what was on it. It felt weird as the lights flashed, and those pipes on our legs. Then we got soaked. Us at the front didn't get a light spray, we basically got rained on. After that the actor waved us on, (after having to make my mate at the front open his eyes to notice we had to go on). We then descended downstairs, with wet hair and shoulders. Does any one know how many flight of stairs there are, we seemed to keep going down. After that we were in a dark bit doing a bit of teamwork, shouting step to each other when we found one. After wondering which way to go we entered a the surgery. This was a bit disappointing and again more could've been done in this room. There was one man just standing at a table, how moved a bit along the room , and that was it. We entered the morgue where a woman jumped up to us, doing her best to try and get scare some of the group. I could tell the people behind me where not scared. Finally we entered the strobe bit. This felt a bit similar to terror of the towers ending, but the actors who could jump through was clever. Some of the other actors didn't really do much, and then we exit into a crowd of others exiting terror of the towers. Looking back we notice that only four of us were there, and we wondered if we left the others behind without noticing. I felt that The Sanctuary is a good maze and probably is usually good and I we just got a bit of a bad run through. I think it was just some of the actors not doing as much. The sets where good on the other hand and nice to go through a bit of the towers the public don't usually get to go round.

I went in to Carnival not expecting that much, as I had seen many reviews saying it was poor. Being briefed by that fat man with a amazing reason for me never to eat pork pies. He was good at getting us in the mood and freaked out some girls in our group. When we watched the puppet/doll face man I was almost ready to think he was not real when he suddenly jumped out at us. The girls got the biggest fright. When walking down to the main building the clowns in the corridor were jumping out at us, and all that stuff. They could see that they'd get the screams from the girls and concentrated on them. That inflatable wall bit, was strange, I felt like it was closing round me, and because I'm not the biggest of peoples I thought I was going to briefly suffocate. I came out so fast from it I scared the girls who thought I was an actor. The mirror bit was ok, nothing big, and the spinning tunnel didn't really work. Then I think was the dot man. That room would've worked if he was not already in the middle of the room when we entered. He was in plain view, which ruined the effect. The puppet room gave a few frights for some people, but I found this maze fun but not scary. The final room of the maze felt plain. It felt like there should have been a better ending, than a clown and a woman ganging up on you just before you reach daylight. It was a well theamed maze but wasn't what I'd call a scare maze.
We did do Zombie scare zone at 5:00 but well that was a very short walk past some zombies that where hyperventilating and grumbling. Some younger ones got scared but was very dull. Even one of the army guys tried to scare someone. Not much more to say on this one.
Overall scarefest was worth coming to. Being able to do mazes for the first time and ride some great coasters in the dark. A downside as mentioned many, many times already was the lighting. Katanga canyon and gloomy woods where nicely lit, but other parts of the part had bright lights all over the place. Not very spooky going past a rumbling generator.
The roaming actors were good, didn't see many though. One thing I'd like to congratulate Towers for is the sw7 faces. Almost everywhere you looked you where bound to see one. And at night we got to see a bigger one right on the towers. I just hope that Towers will get it right this time with marketing and advertising of sw7.
All in all a good day, even got free lunch by wining that red button challenge in fried chicken, and would really like to come back to scarefest another year
 
After visiting again yesterday, I really do think that COS is the strongest maze of the lot this year, I do have a terrible hate/fear for clowns and after my first runthrough where the actors managed to guess this I was really targeted and recognised by the actors from just a couple of days before.

It got so bad that towards the end of the maze I had 2 or more of the clowns constantly shouting at me and blowing in my ears which continued throughout the final scene which I didnt really see much of I was to busy crashing into it all trying to get away from them and then to my surprise not only did they follow me out the door but as I started to run away through the crowds of people... they sprinted after me!!! I have to admit it must have been comical to watch but it really was horrible for me! As we got past the fastrack desk though they did stop and the looks on peoples faces as the clowns pointed at me were histerical, especially my mates and our dads who seemed to think it was so funny they couldn't stand up!

Anyway for those who arent (lucky?) enough to experience this I have to say the ending is pretty poor and really lacks any sense of scare, I think for next year if it returns id like them to use something along the lines of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Z7HY9Gt9Y&feature=relmfu
 
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