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Scarefest 2022

siralgenon said:
It took us 3 hours last night to do all 4 'mazes' from the 5:15 slot. Which was quite funny when they say you've got an hour to do them all... (And we did do them back to back apart from a toilet stop)
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Thought it was a 2 hour time frame?
 
Matt N said:
In a promising development, it appears that The Invitation may have been improved in some form, as Manchester Evening News have posted a rave review of the experience: https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...owers-scarefest-halloween-invitation-25256834

Interestingly, the writer also sings the praises of The Alton Towers Dungeon.
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I wouldn't believe that if I were you Matt. It states that they got to experience it before it opened to the public, so they were probably paid to write a positive review.
 
Matt N said:
In a promising development, it appears that The Invitation may have been improved in some form, as Manchester Evening News have posted a rave review of the experience: https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...owers-scarefest-halloween-invitation-25256834

Interestingly, the writer also sings the praises of The Alton Towers Dungeon.
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I think you missed this bit Matt.

‘This article contains affiliate links, we may receive a commission on any sales we generate from it.’
 
Matt N said:
In a promising development, it appears that The Invitation may have been improved in some form, as Manchester Evening News have posted a rave review of the experience: https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...owers-scarefest-halloween-invitation-25256834

Interestingly, the writer also sings the praises of The Alton Towers Dungeon.
Click to expand...
Strip out all the usual journalistic over-exaggerating and that is pretty much how I experienced it yesterday. Clearly she missed the point of the lift as that was not a waiting room! The actor in with us was great, got into the character brilliantly.

Here's my review:

The "graveyard", while good, did lack theming, it was so obvious you were just walking around the back of the games bunker because you could still see the block paving underfoot! Gravel and sand on the floor would've made all the difference there.

We queued for 5 mins or so at one of the arches and were then met by an undertaker who was brilliant and funny. He led us into the lift, which due to it's metal interior, did feel like one of those old 1960s multi-story carpark lifts rather than a cranky old lift taking you down to some burial chamber. The doors weren't automatic either which ruined the illusion somewhat. As we entered, there was a robotic Alexa-style woman's voice repeatedly saying "Hello", "Welcome", "Please enter" etc in various tones - very sci-fi-esq. My daughter said when voice was talking that it reminded her of Black Mirror at Thorpe. And I tend to agree.

The lift "descended" there was a power cut, then came back on. The actor had then become trance-like for a bit then snapped out of it - whether part of the story or just what he wanted to do, I don't know.

He escorted us into the main area, and you sit on benches in a row in small sound booth-type cubicles facing the middle with people on the other side. The middle was a floor-to-ceiling cage which becomes part of the audio bit. More of the oddly placed Alexa woman talking about what to do (as part of the story) until the lights go out and then the audio experience starts. There are a few bangs and jumps, air blown onto you from above at times so it's not all audio.

Then, when that finishes, a door opens the other end and an actor with a torch shouts, "This way please, exit this way". Step through some blackout plastic curtains and you're outside on the main path.

The bit that stuck out for me was the exit. You're led to believe you're descending down to a chamber yet when its all over you exit in what could easily be a fire exit. It needs something after the audio section to get you back to ground level. For this reason, I think this would've been perfect in Sub Terra building. You've got the lifts to descend, you all sit in the drop-tower ride seats with the headphones and then you have the exit lifts (complete with effects which could be the vampires from the audio) then you exit in a mini scare maze. Now of course if ST is returning next year, this wouldn't have been possible, but it seems like Towers have the perfect setup in ST's building with the ideal story for it over the other side of the park!

So all in all, I'd give it 5 out of 10. Credit to Towers for trying something different but on it's own in its current form this is not strong enough to be a standalone experience. If this was the finale of a maze which had got everyone hyped up and on edge beforehand, then it could be something special.
 
Would someone who’s done it be willing to post a breakdown and summary of the actual audio section? Spoiler’d, of course.
 
Ok I'll try, it might not be very detailed and accurate but here goes:

The last thing you see/hear as the lights go out (and they go out instantly like a power cut) is a small metal trapdoor in the roof of the middle cage area falls open. So this is the visual clue that something is about to happen. The audio starts with the [presumably] crashing to the ground of the vampire from the now open hatch. He then starts talking to you, wings flapping, crunching of gravel and bangs against the metal cage as he walks past you and around the back of you (yes you can tell front and back as well as left and right). The crunching of gravel works because there is gravel on the floor as you sit down (more than in the graveyard in fact!). I can't remember exactly what he talks about, but its not long speeches, just lines. Have to admit, whoever the vampire is, he's very good (sounded like Anthony Head - was in Buffy, 80s/90s Nescafe Gold Blend ads and a headmaster in one of the Tennant era Dr Who episodes). He then starts talking to your "group" one by one and they reply. He asks them their name and about eating I think, what they'd taste like(!) That did sound good, because he was moving around asking people to the left and right of you. Even those actors playing your group really did sound quite realistic and did sound scared. And the quality of the sound really did make it sound like it was someone next to you talking. Eventually, he attacks a couple of them to the sound of biting and slurping in a typical vampire way. There are a few bangs along the way which vibrate through the bench you sit on as well as breezes of air as the vampire walks past you. This means that there are a couple of jump scares where you hear people scream and I genuinely thought it was people in our group. I even asked my daughter afterwards if she screamed at that point and she said no - so it is pretty realistic.

Now I'm not one who generally gets taken in by this sort of thing - I'm always looking at and thinking about how things are done - but the last bit of the audio I remember was the vampire whispering in your ear. He gets so close, that I even got hairs on the back of my neck standing on end, not because I was scared but because it was that invasion of personal space you experience when someone gets a little too close to you and whispers in your ear! That in itself shows how realistic the audio is. After that, he escapes back through the hatch and that's it.

Looking back on it, I liken this to those Magic Eye pictures that were all the rage years ago. You had to relax and refocus your eyes to be able to see anything and it's similar here - if you just relax and try to forget your surroundings (not that you can see anything anyway as it really is pitch black!), you'll appreciate the audio and the effects of it a lot more. Sit there and think "I've got headphones on in the dark in a shipping container listening to a vampire" and you'll miss the immersiveness of the audio
 
I went to roughly 7 out of the 15 scarefest events and I only did the free scare zones.
Is the mazes still busy? Cause if they still getting a queue at least 80%-90% of the day then they still popular with the general public who paid to get into the park and paid for the mazes and fast track as well for the rides.
 
Mazes were very quiet in the early evening on Sunday, considering how busy the park was. Batched straight in.
 
A heads up for anyone who's doing The Invitation soon....

I'm reliably informed by a friend who did it the other day that it has a new effect.

There are now water sprayers that activate when people get "bit" by the vampire
 
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