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Scarefest 2023

It's obvious that the 2 oldest mazes at the least need replacing but a major thing for me was how concentrated it was around one area. You had Towers Street, the lawns, Whispering Souls and the mazes in the Towers which was all well and good but pretty much nothing outside of that main hub other than Trick or Treat town. Not much around the hotels either.

In the past we've had scare zones and mazes in Forbidden Valley, mazes out by the hotels and scare rooms, skeletons going around rapids boats, a maze in Mutiny Bay, a scare zone next to Dark Forest, mazes in X Sector, entertainment in fountain square, actors in Haunted Hollow etc etc. It felt more resort wide. Even little touches here and there made it feel like a Halloween event.

An effort to spread the event out from the hotels to most park areas would be an essential element for me, as is family friendly roaming actors. Where's the dancing zombies and uncle festers driving around playing organs and stuff?

In terms of what to keep, entertainment stage on the lawns, a family attraction (like trick or treat town) whispering souls, utilisation of the Towers themselves as they're a great asset at SF. For the rest, it needs to reviewed.
 
I think one of the major problems Towers has at the moment is staffing the mazes. They always struggled but post covid staffing pressures just meant they didn’t trust being able to staff extra mazes hence the naff audio one.

So next year they need to invest in replacing the existing mazes if staffing issues remain the same. At least that way the event feels a bit fresher.
 
I really hope they step up their game for Scarefest 2023, the last good year for me was 2019, with the introduction of 2 new mazes, 3 other remaining mazes when most of the mazes were still relatively new (for todays standards- The attic and Darkest depths have been here for 4 years, Sub-species was in its 5th and final year ). I just hope to see a return or original, intense and long mazes. Also, I want to have another finale like sub-species had, watching people run out of the exit created an atmosphere that other scarefests have not been able to replicate.
 
I wonder what profits the mazes make for Alton Towers as I been to many Scarefest events but only done the free mazes/walk though’s.
Hopefully with the Haunted house returning next season they can bring back the live actors for Scarefest. Maybe the Alton Ancestors could do a live show outside the house.
 
zeock said:
I believe we need a completely intensity-focused maze like Sub Species again. We also need a maze themed to Nemesis to promote the retrack.
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And scare zones too they give people a chance to dabble with scare actors and a taste for more and adds a sense of the atmosphere which scarefest just generally lacks now.

I still am fond of the event but it's mostly just about the night rides now, had a phenomenal run through on attic though, mine tours and darkest depths were really quality I really did enjoy them but just not that intense really.
So I do agree we need a new intense and hopefully longer maze.

Just it didn't really feel like a full fledged event that used to be even Mardi gras made more of a appearance park wide and that's more of a off peak event.
 
zeock said:
I believe we need a completely intensity-focused maze like Sub Species again. We also need a maze themed to Nemesis to promote the retrack.
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I never went into sub-species, could anyone describe what it was like in there?
In terms of a nemesis themed maze, are we thinking that the maze will reflect the changes to the lore for the ride ahead of its reopening or will it be a maze that focuses on the original story?
 
Hazza said:
I never went into sub-species, could anyone describe what it was like in there?
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I never went in Sub-Species either, however I must admit that I am a little obsessed by it.
It began with a preshow narrated by someone called 'The Controller'. This person was an underworlder who organised betting in which you would be thrown into The Labyrinth, and in this preshow room would be several underworlders. This betting was organised to appease the beings inside The Labyrinth, which would leave the underworlders in peace if they fed them.
At the beginning of the maze, an underworlder pushed three people into The Labyrinth alone, where the scare maze would truly begin. This was a genuine maze, which many people got lost in. This section used 'rat runs', which allowed the actors to travel around the maze without being seen by participants. This allowed the actors to scare the same people multiple times, and also to guide participants elsewhere if they joined up with another guest.
The final parts of the attraction took place in a set of black shipping containers, in which there were two alternate routes; one of which would make you traverse through an area in which you had to crawl. This crawl space was different than many because there were actors inside these. They would either direct you throughout the space, or they would try to grab you by your legs. The other route was where you would go past the iconic alien nest and would be chased by aliens, which had rather terrifying costumes.
In 2015, Sub Species had two endings. One of which was a human ending, which had a person with a chainsaw standing in front of you, blocking the way, unlike in most mazes where the person wielding the chainsaw came from behind. An even bigger twist on the chainsaw chase in Sub Species was that the actor was actually allowed to force the chainsaw onto guests, which was rather radical and terrifying. The other ending was an alien ending which involved a giant puppet alien, which would travel towards you. Originally, this was meant to move at great speed, but Health and Safety intervened and so it would not move as fast as intended. It also broke down a lot, which resulted in the human ending with the chainsaw being used most of the time. It was also an inferior ending to the human ending, and so from 2016-2019, Sub Species would only have the human ending.
Sub Species was a groundbreaking maze in terms of sheer intensity and contact, and over the years from 2015-2019, many scenes were added, notably in 2016 with the addition of a completely dark room with only a rope to guide them and with actors occasionally forcing their hand away from the rope. This maze was certainly a classic and possibly the best in Scarefest history.
 
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I wouldn't be able to explain it in depth, as I didn't do it many times. You have a little pre-show room at the start, then proceed into a corridor with multiple doors and everyone is stood against the wall/doors. Random doors open and random people are pulled into the maze, rest of the group goes through a different door, and from there it is a literal scare maze. Lots of different rooms with different themes.

The maze was very varied. You may reunite with your group, you may go through the whole maze alone, actors may make you go around in circles, actors may pin you into a corner, and you may be dragged around.

I must say I hated the idea of a maze where actors touch you, but Sub-Species converted me. The best maze experience I've ever had at Alton Towers. It's something I would like to see return to the Scarefest line-up, to offer something different to the usual.
 
I just saw that out of society video online. First of all I disagree with their actions and they were completely idiotic for doing that, however I want to talk about the presence of The Attic and Altonville Mine Tours. Do we think that we will have both mazes next year or will they remove them during the season? I would like to think that after so many years of Mine Tours that it will be removed for a new maze but the appearance in the video make me doubt if it will be removed. What are your opinions?
 
zeock said:
I never went in Sub-Species either, however I must admit that I am a little obsessed by it.
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That's a brilliant synopsis of the maze, particularly as you never experienced it.

I did it about 10 times and wouldn't be able to describe it that well.

I never remember biting though, not sure that would be allowed.

It was a very good maze; I'd rate it as 8/10, it was probably the most anxiety-inducing maze I've done, but I always felt like the second half of the maze was poorer than the first half - the chainsaw finale felt a little misplaced for an underworld/alien type theme, and more suited to AVMT.
 
LLCorkscrew said:
That's a brilliant synopsis of the maze, particularly as you never experienced it.

I did it about 10 times and wouldn't be able to describe it that well.

I never remember biting though, not sure that would be allowed.
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Thanks! The biting was probably a very rare occurrence, but I assume it was allowed. Biting has also been allowed in other mazes since then, most notably in the After Dark variant of Creepy Caves.
On the subject of Sub Species, the person who wrote the page on TS about it clearly didn't like it much!

'Sub-Species: The End Games is anot award-winning multi-route maze' 🤣
 
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The chainsaw finale was lazy, but it worked for the majority and you would get crowds standing outside the exit, watching in amusement those running out screaming.

Hazza said:
I just saw that out of society video online. First of all I disagree with their actions and they were completely idiotic for doing that, however I want to talk about the presence of The Attic and Altonville Mine Tours. Do we think that we will have both mazes next year or will they remove them during the season? I would like to think that after so many years of Mine Tours that it will be removed for a new maze but the appearance in the video make me doubt if it will be removed. What are your opinions?
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I think Towers put an application in a while ago that allows them to keep the mazes intact all year round. Personally I want to see both mazes gone/replaced, however, Towers could easily reopen them if they are standing untouched.
 
NoSmoking said:
There was no biting or harm in the maze. It was jolly good fun
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I suppose the people that said they were bitten could have been lying. However, multiple people have said that this happened to them (pretty sure there was also someone on this forum somewhere that said this happened), so I will believe that it happened to a very small amount of people until someone proves that it didn't.
Edit: Sorry for not having anything yet to back up my claims, but people have definitely said this happened very occasionally.
Edit 2: Perhaps the people saying these claims were referring to Operation Lockdown instead? I honestly don't know.
 
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I did Sub Species every year and there was only a normal amount of touching. I think in its first year it was more physical with dragging in the tunnel etc, pushing against walls. But the idea H&S would not allow a prop alien to 'move quickly' but would allow biting—I'm not sure either of those sound true!
 
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