I’m a relative newcomer to Scarefest at Alton Towers. My first visit was back in the strange old world that was 2020. In fact, it was my first ever scare event. Taking on The Attic, Altonville Mine Tours, Darkest Depths, and Toxic Junkyard all felt a lot more manageable back in the days of everyone keeping their distance. Thanks to Scarefest, I fell in love with spooky season! It’s Scarefest I have to thank for the physical and financial ruin that befalls me every October. But… it’s been a little repetitive since then, hasn’t it?
Don’t get me wrong, a trickle of new attractions has landed at the event. Trick O’ Treat Town, The Invitation and Daz Games Panic have been our additions over the previous few years, and whilst no one can say that the event is exactly the same… well… none of them are the sort of scare attraction Alton Towers are known for, are they? Rich, detailed, story-driven attractions, packed with actors to make sure you don’t get to spend too much time taking in the scenery. In fact, the closest we’ve come is Burial Grounds, a free-to-enter scare zone that expands on the Wicker Man story (and is stunning!)
Enter: Scarefest 2024. Finally. Finally. A new scare maze! Not only that, but a new family attraction to complement my beloved Trick ‘O’ Treat Town, Amigos in the Afterlife! Along with the changes to the line-up came a change in the schedule. Rather than the event’s traditional initial weekend-only operation, once Scarefest began, it wouldn’t stop. From 11th October to 3rd November, Scarefest is available each and every day. The only variation is an 8pm park close Mon – Thurs as opposed to 9pm on weekends. With the rare opportunity to experience the event on a weekday that wasn’t a school holiday, I couldn’t resist a visit to the park on the first Tuesday. With a packed event itinerary and the park open from 10am – 8pm, I couldn’t wait to see how much we could fit into our spooky day! The answer? A lot, but not everything!
I thought for this post I’d work on a pumpkin (๐) scale. Think of them as stars, just spooky. Everything here is out of 5 and represents how much I enjoyed the attraction – this is not a scare rating! So, without further ado, here is my ranking of everything I managed to experience at Scarefest 2024:
Daz Games: Panic Reloaded
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Oh Daz Games, what has happened to you? This was one I really did not expect to enjoy last year, but which took me by surprise. Sure, the maze itself is… well, it’s hideous… metal fences, black drapes, and a few bits of signage here and there do not lend themselves to the level of themed experience that Alton Towers are known for. But the experience was… surprisingly excellent! During my 2023 run, I was grabbed by the ankles, I was slammed into walls, and I was offered some genuinely intense jump scares from the actors who continually changed character and varied in intensity according to the varying ‘levels’ of the game.
None of which happened this year.
This year, instead of actors jumping through the doors to pull unsuspecting guests into the maze, we were simply told to go in. This year, we were guided to the centre of the maze to start, all 40 of us, penned in and confused and oh so claustrophobic. Gross. This year, I wasn’t touched. I wasn’t scared. Even when I found myself lost and down a dead end alone, an actor found me, and instead of using the fact that I was trapped for some intense scares… they turned on their heels and walked away. I’d heard that the best advice was to remain in the attraction after finding your symbols, enjoy the rest of the scares… except there weren’t any to enjoy. Instead, I tapped and walked out, happy to be leaving and happy that this was part of the package this year. If I’d paid for a single ticket, I’d be gutted.
Sin Bin
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The benefit of having these mid-week Scarefest days? I can finally watch some of the entertainment! Sin Bin has been around for years now, but I’ve never seen it. In fact, I’ve never seen any of the Scarefest shows! I’m usually spending most of my day queuing for the mazes.
Sin Bin is your standard Alton Towers stage show. The ents team show up in various costumes and sing a variety of songs. But, they do a damn good job of it! I really enjoyed this show, and the addition of the fire effects elevated it above the similar shows throughout the year. Grab a pint and a hot dog, and enjoy!
The Attic: Terror of the Towers
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The Attic! The beautiful, stunning, gorgeously creepy Attic. How I adore you! How I… dare I say it… tire of you? It really hurts me to say anything bad about this maze because it is, objectively, one of the most beautiful Halloween attractions I’ve experienced. From the moment you step out of the bustling theme park and into the comparatively eerily quiet Towers, the atmosphere of this maze is like nothing else. Passing through the conservatory and into that gorgeously lit queue, it feels as though you’re about to enter a real haunt. The ghosts here surely stand more chance of being real than anywhere else? The wonderfully theatrical pre-show, the sets, the characters, the heat in the final scene… everything about this attraction I adore. It’s just… I’ve done this now. It’s difficult to say when an attraction should leave. For first timers, this will undoubtedly continue to be a stand-out attraction. But for annual visitors, of which there are many… it’s starting to get old.
Sometimes when you love sฬถoฬถmฬถeฬถoฬถnฬถeฬถ something, you need to let them go.
Altonville Mine Tours: Tiny’s Revenge
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Now, whilst I’m pretty much done with The Attic, I am at least glad that it has at least escaped the fate of Altonville Mine Tours and become a shadow of its former self.
Oh Tiny, what cruel revenge to downgrade one of the best mazes at the event.
Now, of course, scare attractions are extraordinarily variable. Perhaps my two runs of Tiny’s Revenge just haven’t been as strong as my runs of its predecessor. But, I’m not so sure. My 2023 experience was just a total flop with endless empty spaces where actors should be, I didn’t even get a whiff of the chainsaw finale. But this year, the cast all seemed to be in attendance – and working hard! They were delivering the scares, they really were. (My friend who was fighting for his life at the front of the group can sure attest to that!) But it just didn’t have the character of the old maze. I miss the elevator. I miss that man. I miss the fun chaos of the thing. These days, it’s just really dark in there, and whilst the actors are all doing a magnificent job, it just doesn’t land for me the way it used to.
The Alton Ancestors
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I’m not joking when I say I’ve never had time for the entertainment before. This was *shock horrror* my first time watching the Alton Ancestors, or even really engaging with them in any way. You guys are right, they are iconic! The costumes and make-up are fantastic, and their performances on Towers Street are so much fun! (A bunch of ghosts dancing to Hot to Go? Incredible.) However, what really makes them special for me is the time between performances, when they haunt Towers Street! On our way to Towers Trading for some mid-morning browsing, we were jump-scared by an Ancestor hidden in a tree, greeted politely by two others and intensely, silently followed by another. I love them.
Burial Grounds
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Burial Grounds is everything. Wicker Man is one of my favourite themed experiences in this country. The music, the atmosphere, the pre-show… it’s perfection in my eyes. So, to be able to just wander into an included-with-admission scare attraction expanding on that story? God, I love it! Being a free outdoor walkthrough, my assumption was always that this would be a scaled-down scare experience, but that has very much not been my experience. Sure, I had one weak walkthrough last year when it was raining, and not a lot happened, but every other time, that cast has been on fire. I’ve had ‘knives’ held to my throat, jump scares from behind the sheets, characters running at me howling. All whilst surrounded by smoke, flames, and the distant sound of Wicker Man. Long live Burial Grounds!
Trick O’ Treat Town
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Trick O’ Treat Town, my beloved! One of my favourite things about the ticketing structure this year is the introduction of the Spooks & Frights combi whereby you get everything for one price. With this, it’s suddenly become a lot less difficult to get people to join me in Trick O’ Treat Town. ‘No, honestly, the kids’ maze is really good, I promise!’ Because believe me, you need to include this attraction on your Scarefest itinerary.
Trick O’ Treat Town is everything you would want a family Halloween attraction to be. It’s gorgeous. It’s spooky. It’s packed with fun, memorable characters. There are a few genuine scares. There are sweets. Need I go on?
Like many, I just wish that you could take photos inside this attraction because it’s just that magical. It honestly feels just like stepping into Halloween Town from Nightmare Before Christmas!
Each year, it feels like a very special treat to return to Trick O’ Treat Town, and I hope it’s one I get to enjoy for many years to come!
Amigos in the Afterlife
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And the biggest surprise of the year goes to? AMIGOS! I say surprise as if I wasn’t majorly hyped for this from the off. As mentioned above, I love Trick O’ Treat Town, the park’s existing family Halloween attraction. So, when Alton Towers announced that they’d be building a sister attraction next door, I was pumped! However, nothing prepared me for just how much I loved Amigos in the Afterlife. The attraction is very similar in conceit to The Dungeons – unsurprising given its location in the park’s former upcharge attraction – or Shrek’s London Adventure. Batched into a group, you pass through the story, encountering characters along the way across various interactive scenes. Now, immediately, we hit the one downside to this attraction, our batch was enormous. 23 to be precise. We really, really struggled to fit into each scene which did detract from the fun a little, but my god, what fun!
I won’t go into too much detail, but each and every scene was glorious. Made so by an incredible cast of actors who were hamming things up to high heaven. Thankfully, our enormous group was all in for the fun, and we all had a fantastic time dancing, searching, wrestling (yup!) and singing along with a fantastic range of characters, including, of course, new Scarefest legend Barry the Tequila Worm.
I honestly did not stop smiling or laughing through my entire journey to the afterlife. Plus, it smells amazing, oh, and the music slaps…. my gosh, I just can’t say enough good stuff about this attraction!
If you’re going to Alton Towers this Halloween, please, please get that Spooks combo ticket at the minimum. You’ll have so much fun!
Compound
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Then, of course, there’s Compound. Four years into attending Scarefest, finally, I have a new fully fledged scare maze to experience!
For those living under a rock, Compound is a new for 2024 scare maze themed to the Phalanx, and the Nemesis story. Located on the pathway between Forbidden Valley and The Curse at Alton Manor, the attraction expands on the story in a similar way vein to Nemesis Sub-Terra, introducing us to more of the Phalanx facility. Here, by entering, we are agreeing that our bodies may be used by the Phalanx as part of their experimentation – eek!
The exterior of the maze is very reminiscent of Survival Games down at Thorpe Park, a maze that I have a… not so great history with. For this reason, I approached Compound with some trepidation, not from nerves, but out of fear that this would be an enormous disappointment. With 2024 being Nemesis Reborn’s year, this attraction needed to do justice to everything that had come before. Well, if you’ve clocked that pumpkin rating up there, you can probably guess that for me, it did that and then some. I adored Compound. Absolutely adored it.
Whereas Survival Games is entirely devoid of anything but the actors, Compound is a fully themed experience befitting of the Nemesis name. On my journey through the facility, I passed through seemingly endless brilliantly themed sets. I crawled through a tunnel. Passed over a bridge between bubbling barrels. Tiptoed through a kitchen. In every space, the actors were relentless. If I wasn’t being jump scared, I was being grabbed, I was having walls moved, I was being trapped, shouted at and just generally flustered to the point that my heart was racing both times I escaped. You see, despite being a paid experience, I immediately booked a second run-through on exiting the attraction, I just loved it that much. (It helps that a QR code is available at the exit, providing a discount on second experiences!)
I wasn’t sure if my second experience would live up to the first – multi-direction mazes are variable after all – but it was even better! Despite ending up paired with a friend in the first, group-splitting, scene I ended up exiting the attraction 5 minutes after them, spending a good 15 minutes in there in total. Not that they were short changed, we’d both spent a ridiculous amount of time being locked up, pushed around and shouted at. I exited, for a second time, gasping, grinning and unable to shut up about what a great time I’d just had.
The more scare attractions I experience, the more I realise what’s important to me. I love theming. I love jump scares. I love a good story, and I love hands-on scare actors. Compound delivers all of this by the bucketload! One of my highlights of the season without doubt.
Of course, the seasonal attractions aren’t the only fantastic thing about Scarefest, there’s also night rides! On our calm tuesday visit, we managed to score night rides on Thirteen, Wicker Man, and Nemesis Reborn. After the absolute fiasco that was the end of Nemesis Reborn’s opening day, it was fantastic to finally score that night ride, and what a ride it was! With the recent return of one of the ride’s waterfalls, the entire area was looking better than ever, and it was a joy to sail through the night in the midst of that new lighting package!
In fact, that’s true of the whole park. Whilst during daylight hours, it may just be Towers Street and the lawns looking their spooky best, once night falls, the entire park looks amazing. Though I’ve come to love the generators – is it even spooky season without that telltale hum of a generator – there are encouraging signs of the lighting around the park being improved! Everywhere we walked, there seemed to be purple and green lighting glowing in the mist, with the same colours illuminating the Towers themselves. The only disappontment was the lack of lighting in the gardens. Whilst I understand the desire to prevent guests from accessing this park at nighttime, the lighting trail previously present during both Halloween and Christmas seasons was a unique and beautiful part of both events, and I wish there was even a small fragment of that offered to illuminate the most beautiful, and unique, part of the park.
Overall, I had an absolutely fantastic visit to Scarefest! I’m so glad that the resort is offering these off-peak days this year, as it made the whole experience a breeze. I’ll certainly be booking one again next year if they return! However, whatever happens, you can be sure I’ll be back. I need Compound and Amigos back in my life ASAP.
Oh, and LOOK at this character meet!
Speak again soon,
Claire
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coasterclaire.co.uk 