• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Scarefest 2024

I visited on Friday and Sunday with two very different groups and two very different experiences. Friday was more about the rides and less about the mazes, with the park considerably full of school trips. Yesterday was very much about the mazes and Scarefest atmosphere whilst on the family-friendly day.

Maze count:

Daz x2
Compound x7
Attic x1
Mine Tours x1
Burial Grounds x3

Considering the increased capacity on Daz this year, it didn't feel too detrimental to the overall experience. The Aunty Vi character on Friday was doing a great job of helping guests find their symbols and was very much in character. A handful of the RFID symbols weren't functioning, with only one seemingly out of action on Sunday. I suspect we'll probably get at least one more year out of Daz with another different spin on the pre-show.

Compound was great. Even after 7 run-throughs, I still wasn't able to find the crawl space area. As others have said, it is very reminiscent of Sub Species and a great use of a permanent new maze space. The separation chambers at the start feel quite effective until you all merge quite quickly - I'd like to see the merges be scattered out a little in next year's incarnation. The actors leading into the maze varied in quality over the two days, with some really going for it and others manifesting closing time so they could get home ASAP.

Mine Tours: The change in story has certainly helped prolong its presence, but I'd love to see a new maze now in its place rather than let it make it to a 10-year anniversary. Did this yesterday and despite presumptions given the nature of the day, we seemed to get a run through that had a good number of actors who were giving it their all.

Attic: Also done yesterday so had the same presumptions that there would be less actors who would steer clear of touching. Wrong. We were at the front of the group and managed to break away, given the slow pace of those behind us, meaning we had actors left, right and centre, making for a great experience. Very much value for money on this run through.

Burial Grounds - Three very mixed run-throughs across the two days. There ought to be a good, powerful jumpscare on the indoor section as it feels very lacking here. Also appeared to be a misplaced member of The Smiler team screaming Join Us as an actor.

Caught a show of the Sin Bin as well. Needs more fire.

We snuck off to the hotels mid-yesterday to get a drink away from the dry park. It feels as though the effort here has stagnated with theming compared to previous years. ATH's vibe is mostly draped with fake vines, and a few larger prop pieces rolled out of storage and plonked down. Splash equally bare. Overall across the resort, it just lacks some of the passion that's been put in over the years. The talking ghost heads at the bottom of Towers Street. Nothing really going on in Fountain Square. Even the lighting on the bridge from Mutiny Bay to the Towers seems downplayed.

There's still a long way to go to bring Scarefest up to the high quality it should sit at, especially in such a competitive scare scene market. The main positive for me (which really shouldn't be one) is that the event didn't feel as stale as last year.
 
I visited on Monday and Tuesday (28th and 29th). On Monday, we did Attic, Mines, and Compound. Unfortunately, I think we had a bit of a poor run-through on all three. For context, my last visit was in 2019, so it's been a while since I've done scare mazes, and we experienced these mazes from 6pm onwards.

Mine Tours
I last did this when it had the Skin Snatchers overlay. When I last did it, you wore mine hats with lights that flickered/flashed/turned off during different parts of the maze. It was very well done at the time. This new version with Tiny's Revenge I think was very poor. The story seems lacking, even after the first room with that monologue by the actor I was a bit confused as to what exactly is meant to be going on. The theming in this maze is superb, with much of it from the original version. There were some good scares, but it felt repetitive with the same masked characters approaching you, and the dialogue seems lacking. There were a few moments on our run which were empty with no actors around, and when we got to the finale, there was no actor with the chainsaw (despite us standing in the queue listening to it). The ending was a bit of a damp squib. I much preferred the Skin Snatchers theme and the mine hats. I feel this maze has gone backwards rather than forward.

The Attic
This was our second maze of the evening. It is pretty much unchanged from when I remember it from 2019. Great theming again. I love the first room. It's so theatrical and a great introduction to the maze. The actor in this room was superb. Once we were up in the attic, the actors here were great. There was a lot of variety, lots of different scares. Much like Mine Tours, the end half of the maze lacked actors, and we were walking straight through. Despite this, it was our favourite maze of the evening.

Compound
The child of Sub-Species, I'm impressed with this maze however slightly disappointed. Splitting everyone up at the start seemed a bit procedural and nowhere near as intense as the splitting up in Sub-Species worked. The actors could do with being more forceful/intense for this part. Once we left the chamber, it was a bit of a pile-up of everyone bumping back into each other. After that, the actors managed to get everyone split up again. I ended up on my own and did the entire thing completely solo, which was a bit of a surreal experience! The theming in the rooms I saw was excellent (from dodgy memory, I can remember a cage room, locker room, Nemesis egg room, ropes room, what I think was a bathroom). However, I must have had a poor run as there were no actors! I saw four at most who did their best, but the scares seemed lacking. No finale, I felt, made it a poor way to end it. I walked out and I thought, 'Oh, is that it?'. My brother did the maze, and he also felt there was a lack of actors, but opposite to me, he was with a group of 3 during the whole thing and ended up merging as a group of 6 by the end. I think for 2025, they need to tweak the start, increase the age rating to 15+ and let the actors become more forceful to give a similar intensity to how Sub-Species was.

Park Atmosphere
Park lighting has vastly improved around the park, so well done to Towers for more permanent lighting. Hopefully, this will continue, and more generator lights will be sacked off. As I've always found with Scarefest, you wouldn't even know there was a Halloween event once you're past Towers Street. The change of music in some areas at night is good. It would be nice to see theming in other areas. I don't understand why they cannot create one or two pieces of theming each year and build theming around the park. Even pumpkin displays and a few skeletons would significantly improve the park atmosphere and remind you that you are actually at a Halloween event.

Towers Street
It looks good, as always, but where's the decor gone in the plaza? No Scarefest logo or pumpkin and vines on the entrance before the turnstiles? The plaza lacks a lot. The food outlets/stage/seating area on the lawns is excellent. I didn't watch any shows, but it looked good from what we saw while walking past. Seeing the crowds in this area shows an appetite for entertainment and more food options. Towers should look at something more permanent for the theme park.

Hotels
We stayed at the ATH for two nights. The ATH now has no theming at the front or around the lake. The interior has vines, which look fine, but the exterior needs something. It feels like a step backwards. Splash looked slightly better, but it looks a bit bare compared to when I went last.

Overall, I think the event is good, but it needs a lot of work done. More theming around the park, more entertainment (do something in Fountain Square!) and more roaming actors scattered around. Have some creepy 'marmalised' characters in X-Sector, bring the Wraiths back to Dark Forest, and have 'infected' characters by Phalanax experiments roaming Forbidden Valley. If you don't do the mazes and don't see Towers Street all day, aside from the late closing, it's like any other day of the year.

Scare maze-wise for 2025, I think Compound should stay with an increased age rating (15+), The Attic should stay (if they aren't able to replace it with a new TOTT iteration) and become the only maze situated in the Towers, Mines should go and be replaced with a new maze in the second shipping container building where Darkest Depths was, and Daz should be removed with no replacement. For 2025, they should concentrate on having three amazing scare mazes filled with actors and keep the two family mazes/experiences.
 
Did another run through of Compound this afternoon- fully cemented this maze as my favourite from this years line up and confirmed my suspicions about the slightly reserved actors on a certain Sunday! Honestly would pay to do it again at fireworks if it was still on (and maybe a bit cheaper!)

Was batched through with just one other person. Definitely had a longer experience pre the sliding gates bit and a true highlight was being put in isolation for yelling seek the truth! Went wrong a few times and saw some other bits and didn’t see last time but unfortunately got quite a similar ending route.

Think they need for next year to go back to 15+ mazes- all the kiddy winks have their little mazes and CBeebies Land (well before 5pm!)

Also noticed this week the spooky music after dark on the MB to KC pathway- a nice touch! The green lights look lovely along there!
 
Just got back from scarefest after 3 days, Maze Count:

COMPOUND: 50
Daz games Panic: 14
Attic: 3
Altonvile Mine tours: 1

Also does anyone know what C.O.M.P.O.U.D. means (it IS an acronym)
 
rob666 said:
COMPOUD doesn't actually spell anything.
And anyone can make up an acronym.

Good that you had a good time...Ignore the pontificating Pirate...do what you like...some people even like playing D&D.
Click to expand...
It’s an OWCA (Organisation without cool acronym) moment… we have to make one up for ourselves!
Mhoowee said:
COMPOUND: 50
Daz games Panic: 14
Attic: 3
Altonvile Mine tours: 1
Click to expand...
The absolute difference between Compound and Altonville is hilarious. You just went in compound and went “oh! This is the shit I have to do this 49 more times!”
 
Given how bad capacity has been recently and with the fireworks tying into Phalanx could we see the maze back open the weekend to help with capacity? Obviously still charging but makes sense no? As the fireworks are themed to it and could be classed as a “additional” experience?
 
Excalibur said:
Given how bad capacity has been recently and with the fireworks tying into Phalanx could we see the maze back open the weekend to help with capacity? Obviously still charging but makes sense no? As the fireworks are themed to it and could be classed as a “additional” experience?
Click to expand...
Would be an operational nightmare, with multiple contracts having ended so no staff, hadn’t been budgeted beyond yesterday etc etc etc.

Could they? In theory, but realistically wouldn’t be possible.
 
Islander said:
Would be an operational nightmare, with multiple contracts having ended so no staff, hadn’t been budgeted beyond yesterday etc etc etc.

Could they? In theory, but realistically wouldn’t be possible.
Click to expand...
Darkest Depths remained open for Fireworks the other year so it's not out of the question.

Although these days I don't think they'd be arsed to do anything like that.
 
The_bup said:
It’s an OWCA (Organisation without cool acronym) moment… we have to make one up for ourselves!

The absolute difference between Compound and Altonville is hilarious. You just went in compound and went “oh! This is the shit I have to do this 49 more times!”
Click to expand...
On many of my run throughs the actors would say "WHATS THE ACRONYM" and I said Compound and they said "YES BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN" and I didn't know so the shoved me into the gas chamber
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top