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Scarefest 2013: Discussion

Its sad when an event feels stale before its even been announced.
 
Personally I'm not expecting any major changes for Scarefest this year. I hope that I'm wrong though.

:)
 
Yeah I always enjoyed the Boiler House, thought it was the most intense of the scare mazes at the time, seemed to be a lot more confined and crawling through tight spaces with the twins following you. Saying that, the Sanctuary this year I found to be even more intense and excellent. However, you cant beat Field of 1000 Screams at nearly midnight for the atmosphere!!
 
The masks I thought were naff in Boiler House (seeing the bottom half of the mask hanging below the actors neck was a bit of disappointment). But I really loved the setting of The Boiler House, and I found it to be my second favourite maze when it was around.
 
Field for me was an odd one, i liked the atmosphere but it had too many dead spots, the Finales where usually good though. Boiler i found to be a bit mixed, the first one was just mad, the later ones had some good scares until the 2011 event when it just got dull.

1st year of Carnival was amazing, i liked the idea of a maze making you laugh and scream in equal measure and some of the effects Wardley did for it where great. It just seems to have lost steam over the following years.

TotT is amazing though it is getting stale, my only defence of this is every year they work on improveing it and each year has been as good if not better, Thorpe don't really change their mazes, that said a TotT refresh is needed soon.

Sanctuary i expect to be the same as March with maybe a slightly different introduction as now The Smiler is open it's not relevant anymore.

We will see
 
My wishes for scarefest 2013.

1) It isn't to overly themed on the smiler.

2) They change the mazes. Not too much so that we don't recognise them but just so that they are fresh and entertaining.

3)They use area's of the park to there full potential. E.G Haunted hollow and maybe turning the queue line of Duel into a haunted crematory. My idea would be to have it area'd off and have a theme almost but quiet like Blair Witch. Have abandoned campsites (littered with skeletons that move and an abandoned hut where we find the evil, if you've been to the Yorkshire scare maze you'll know what I mean)

4) Better adult only mazes. After witnessing a zombie apocalypse in Leeds. (Although it wasn't much different to a normal walk round Leeds just with odd people with Heinz ketchup around there mouths. Again not much difference)I thought that would be good in the park. Open the park after 6 to adults only (or an area such as forbidden valley up to Katanga canyon, you know for control) Hell you could even theme differently to tie into nemesis. I was going to suggest the house but H&S.)

5) Lower the cost of the mazes. Or just make them all free.

There we go my suggestions. Some of these may have been said before, I haven't read the thread in full so if I have copied anything you have said I'm sorry.

 
They need something new maybe having areas of the boiler house and the field with new ideas.
But we will wait and see what Pete pulls out for scarefeast
 
One thing I'd rather not see is for actors to be put in the "themed" exit for The Smiler as scaring people is the exact opposite of the feeling it's supposed to leave you with. Sure, there's space for actors, but that's not the point.

I'd also like to see a more interesting maze (perhaps one based on part of the area's rich history and folk lore) and for the mazes to be more than just jumpy moments strung together with a few props dotted around to "immerse" guests.
 
Remember when we were tossing around ideas for the potential Sub-Terra theme and one of the stronger suggestions was a ride based on the supposed catacombs that lie beneath Alton's grounds? If that isn't cool inspiration for a scaremaze, I don't know what is!
 
^ That reminds me, I wrote a plan for a maze based on the supposed catacombs beneath Alton *plug*! :p

The story behind Slain Hollow would also provide inspiration for a great unique scare attraction with a little more depth to it (ooooorr just more jumpy moments but in a forest instead ¬_¬ ) than your standard scare maze.

:)
 
What I'd love, is a sort of theatrical mock seance. Instead of a scare maze, do a grouped 'experience' where you get a batch of guests of around 15-20 to sit a around a large enough table to take part in a seance, to get in contact with spirits (Maybe basing it around the Hex story, getting in contact with the ghosts of the Earls of Shrewsbury and the old witch).

That's what I'd love to see, something different and unique. I haven't got a clue where it would be located though.
 
A live actor dressed as a crab in the Sub-Terra drop chamber. Would be amazing to see him running about amongst the strobes and in the dark. Only problem would be the safety issue but I'm sure that could be sorted.
 
I'm pretty certain there are strict rules that no one can be in Sub-Terra's drop area. Same as Th13teen, main reason why they never bothered doing anything with that either. Nice idea, but no way of them getting around H&S on that one sadly.



Stevie said:
What I'd love, is a sort of theatrical mock seance. Instead of a scare maze, do a grouped 'experience' where you get a batch of guests of around 15-20 to sit a around a large enough table to take part in a seance, to get in contact with spirits (Maybe basing it around the Hex story, getting in contact with the ghosts of the Earls of Shrewsbury and the old witch).

That's what I'd love to see, something different and unique. I haven't got a clue where it would be located though.
Click to expand...

I really like that idea. To make throughput manageable too they could either have 2-4 seance rooms so multiple batches can be sent at once and have the actors bounce back between all rooms (a bit like how the scare rooms operate). Or there could be a small maze and then the seance room is the big finale!

Would certainly be unique. Although I can see Alton Towers may be sticking with classic scare mazes for now. Unless they get budget increases.
 
It's not budgets its throughputs, even the traditional mazes struggle to get 600pph and when you consider the park on busy days has 25,000 on park you can't really offer attractions that don't have some throughput.
 
To be honest im more concerned about bringing back all the atmospheric lighting from Scarefests of old rather than what mazes we have. last year had no real atmosphere and the lack of the green lights up the corridor to Hex was just criminal
 
Not every one wants scare mazes after scare maze some guests want proper Halloween Entertainment and not just for the little ones some guests want a decent Halloween music 'dance show with some money and effort put behind it. not just four characters dancing to mimed music.
it also needs new décor the current decoration is now old and tried and broken even the pumkins around splash landings last year are all chipped and rough looking.
Only a point of view but Halloween is not only about scare mazes
 
I think that was the main 'issue' I noticed last year at Scarefest: it just didn't FEEL like an event. It felt like the park was open a bit longer and there were some upcharge scaremazes.

This year, and in future, they need to bring some more atmosphere and make it feel like a special event. Aside from Towers Street I don't remember any decoration to even indicate it was scarefest.

They also need to think about moving something over to the Forbidden Valley/Katanga Canyon area because last year everything was concentrated around X-Sector and the towers, making everywhere else feel a little neglected.
 
Lighting is the key for the event to feel that little more special. Even if they can't afford extra theming, lighting will make the event feel like something more. 2010 just proved how effective lighting can be.
 
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