Spooky season is once more drawing to a close. As I write this, I’ve just packed away my ‘Graveyard Smash’ and ‘Pumpkin Chai’ candles and I’m gazing out upon my neighbour’s glistening Christmas lights – yes, already! But before I start festooning my own home with lights, I couldn’t resist a look back on what has been yet another magnificent season of scares. With new events across the UK, and a few in Europe for good measure, alongside some returning favourites, I’ve certainly gotten my fill of scares this October. So, here are a few of my very favourites… and some of the ones that left me wanting more!
Favourite Event
Halloween Horror Festival – Movie Park Germany
Self-described as ‘Europe’s biggest Halloween event’ (I wonder what the metrics are), Halloween Horror Festival at Movie Park Germany did not disappoint! Whilst the park itself is not enormous, this event sure feels it, taking over every inch of the studio-themed park, except its Nickelodeon Land. As in many theme park Halloween events, the daytime felt much like a regular day, just with some spooky characters thrown into the mix – look at this Frankenstein Spongebob! However, at around 16:30 an announcement rang out across the park, warning guests that the ‘sets’ were about to get very scary indeed, and those of a nervous disposition should start making their way to the exit. Excellent!
The Halloween event itself kicks off with a parade, however, we sadly weren’t able to catch this, due to being booked into the first time slot of the event’s headliner attraction, A Quiet Place. With the parade route not shown at all on the app, it was impossible to know where we’d need to be, and with only 15 minutes between the parade start time and our time slot, it wasn’t worth the risk. Next time!
Thankfully, this was worthwhile, as we could walk straight into A Quiet Place (an outstanding attraction) and get a good headstart on our evening. As it was our first time at the park, we’d opted not to do all of the scare mazes, but chosen what seemed to be a good variety of the offerings. All of these were excellent scare attractions, and all were so unique! But what really made this event for me was the atmosphere. The entire park is filled with smoke, lights and actors making for one enormous scare zone. Sure, there are different themes in the various lands, but unless you’re safely tucked away in Nickelodeon Land, there’s no escape! Whilst I appreciated the all-out scares, the presence of this ‘safe zone’ was also a strength, as whilst I’d found the crowds at Toverland often overwhelming, here there was a very spacious land in which to take a moment to relax when needed, before diving straight back into the scares.
Happily, the highlight of the entire evening was the attraction I was most excited to experience: the Movie Park Studio Tour Halloween overlay! The park’s newest coaster/dark ride closes for a short while at the beginning of the evening to undertake a transformation into Movie Park Studio Tour – Final Cut. With a new pre-show, changed media on the screens – including the appearance of an evil version of the park’s mascot – and a few physical props in the queue, this is a really fun addition to the Halloween line-up. We should know, we rode the spooky version five times! Not by choice mind you, just thanks to some ride ops in full Halloween make-up who would not stop sending the last train of the day! (Note: this version of the attraction is for ages 16+.)
Halloween Horror Festival is an enormous Halloween event that never feels overwhelming and has plenty to offer, whether or not you indulge in the upcharge experiences. Movie Park Germany certainly isn’t the most spectacular theme park in the region, but they sure know how to put on a seasonal event!
Runner Up:
FEAR at Avon Valley
Favourite Scare Maze
Now You’re Mine
I entered Halloween Nights at Toverland with high expectations, but boy, did Now You’re Mine exceed all expectations! Featuring perhaps the most authentic facade I’ve ever seen for a scare attraction (a fully built-out rock-covered bunker in a hillside), followed by an even better pre-show, being an actual mining museum! Admission was via the fully believable museum admissions desk, before moving inside the museum to enjoy the multiple exhibits… all until a distressed miner ran into the museum of course. Soon we were gearing up with hardhats, equipped with lights. I, somehow, ended up the designated leader of the bunch and valiantly attempted to lead our way through the otherwise pitch-black mines. The only issue was that my lamp kept going out, plunging us into darkness as I fumbled my way through. A technical issue? Annoying! But then, as I grabbed my friend and moved them to the front so we could use their lamp… that went out too. The lamps are controlled by the attraction, meaning whether you can see or not is entirely at the discretion of the operators… and, well, they were not feeling kind! As if this stumble through the darkness wasn’t scary enough, seemingly endless monsters leapt out from the shadows on our journey, providing relentless jump scares! There was a mine lift, waterfalls, intense scares, a strong narrative and gorgeous theming to boot. I just can’t think of anything else I’d ever want from a scare attraction! The deserved highlight of my season.
Runner Up:
A Quiet Place – Movie Park Germany
Favourite Entertainment
Toverland Halloween Parade
Parades are one of those things that I can’t help but feel like every park of a certain size should have. Yes, showcase your characters, your lands, your rides! Let’s celebrate your amazing park! Unless I’m mistaken, Toverland does not ordinarily offer a parade during routine operations, with this Halloween parade being the only one offered year-round. Which is perhaps why the crowd were, shall we say, a little ill-informed as to the parade’s contents. To be clear, this parade is listed as part of the offering for the scare event ‘Halloween Nights’, not the family-friendly ‘Halloween Days’. However, it marks the turning point in the park, with the former beginning as soon as the parade concludes. For that reason, as is common amongst parade crowds, the entire front of the crowd was made up of kids pushed to the front by their parents, which was all well and good… until the enormous chainsaw-bearing rats arrived. This parade is not for the faint-hearted, acting as a preview of all the evening’s scare zones. The actors in every group took time to charge into the crowd, eliciting plenty of screams – and tears – from those assembled!
Fear factor aside, this was a fantastic parade, filled with high-quality costumes, floats and effects! It certainly made me very, very excited for what was to come throughout the evening. The parade is so popular that its route was extended for this year’s event to offer guests more opportunity to gain a good spot, however it was still essential to arrive 20-30 minutes early to be near the front. This show is popular popular!
Runner Up:
Lucifer’s Lair – Thorpe Park
Favourite Alternative Attraction
Amigos in the Afterlife
I’ve already reviewed Amigos over on my Scarefest 2024 ranking, but as an attraction aimed at the younger guest – or just those that don’t enjoy scares – Amigos is a perfect addition to the Alton Towers line-up. If I had but a scrap of time left in my schedule, I’d had been booking for another run in a heartbeat. Silly, joyous fun!
Favourite Scare Zone
Shadows of the Sea
Toverland’s Halloween Nights is highly regarded for its stunning scare zones, filled with creative lighting and beautiful costumes, and of these, my personal favourite was Shadows of the Sea! Located near the park’s rapids, this zone makes use of several permanent water features to create a Davy Jones-esque scare zone filled with aquatic villains and haunting pirates!
Whilst thematically the Toverland scare zones were excellent, we did struggle with crowds in all of them, with each one being wall to wall guests. (We were there on a really busy night!) This sadly meant that the actors couldn’t provide many scares, but of them all, I jumped and screamed the most here. Who wouldn’t when a giant crab man is running through a waterfall and hurling water in your direction?
Runner Up:
The Entire Park – Movie Park Germany
Honorable Mentions
COMPOUND
Another attraction to get a full review over on my Scarefest blog, COMPOUND made me perhaps the most anxious of any attraction this spooky season. Not from fear, but from fear of disappointment. The potential here was so great, with the park really needing to deliver on a solid scare attraction, that I was nervous I’d leave bitterly disappointed. Thankfully, this was very much not the case, and more than any other, I’ve tried to think of a way to get back to Towers for more runs on this attraction. I just loved it so darn much.
Doncaster Fear Factory
Tucked away in the woods of a stately manor house way up north sits Doncaster Fear Factory. Given its location, about as far across England as it’s possible to get from my home in Bristol, I’d not managed to visit the attraction previously, but this year set a plan in motion with the help of some friends, and managed to attend the press preview evening!
For a smaller event, Doncaster Fear Factory is spectacular, offering five vastly different mazes that all share one similarity: they’re stuffed full of actors who are determined to make you scream. The cast here were exemplary and made each attraction a blast. I love a good hands-on scare, and I swear I must have had my hair pulled here more than at any other event. Even if this hadn’t been the case, I’m sure I would have had a wonderfully spooky evening here thanks to the location alone. I’m not sure anything will ever give more spooky season vibes than wandering through a dimly lit, smoke filled forest, screams floating on the breeze… what a night!
X4: Blackout
I’m of two minds about X4: Blackout. On one hand, I loved X4 as it was. I adored its theming as, even if I spend most of my life inside a laboratory, I thought it was quite a neat set-up for a scare maze. X4: Blackout completely removes all of the attraction’s theming and story – except for its initial lift sequence – something I would usually be up in arms against. However, I had the single most terrifying scare maze run of my life in here! You see, in Blackout, guests are sent into the darkness of an un-lit X4 armed only with a glow stick to guide their way. It turns out it’s pretty darn easy to get lost in this attraction in those conditions, with our group going around in circles twice before a member of staff appeared to tell us that we needed to turn around. However, I, being at the back of the group and attending the event alone, seemed to be the only one to get the message. What followed was me fumbling my way through the darkness with just one small glowstick, entirely alone. I kept anticipating the arrival of the rest of the group. Surely, surely they’d catch up? Nope. They never did. I stumbled through the entire thing alone, getting hit with each and every scare on my way. Did the actors take pity on me as a solo traveller? Did they hell. They threw their all at me. Running through the darkness. Slamming walls I couldn’t see. Hiding in corners my glow stick couldn’t reach. By the time I ran out of the finale, I was breathless and for the first time ever, needed to have a sit down to recover. I’d lost my voice from screaming and my pulse was something silly. A ridiculous, horrifying, glorious experience.
The Fanta Orb
Las Vegas Sphere who? All hail Fanta Orb.
Biggest Disappointments
Dr Frights
I cannot believe I’m writing this, but after all the years of seeing everyone say how fantastic Dr Frights is, I finally managed to visit and… I left so, so disappointed. We got off to such a solid start too, Stormvale Cemetary, the first maze of the attraction, had some fantastic theming, solid jump scares and great lighting. Sure, it was nothing spectacular, but as a linear attraction, surely things would ramp up as we went along? Hmmmm… not really. We passed through maze after maze, walking into rooms that simply had an actor in staring at you, or past spots that were clearly designed for a non-present actor, leaving actual scares few and far between. There were some fantastic concepts. I loved Found Footage, a maze that saw every room dominated by CCTV footage of your group. The screens were incredibly distracting, and a fantastic setup for distraction scares that just… didn’t materialise. It pains me to say that I also just wasn’t a fan of this attraction’s linear setup. Instead of being defined attractions with a finale, the mazes here blurred into each other. We’d be stumbling through one theme, pass under a sign and suddenly find ourselves in another. Whilst this could, in theory, offer some relentless intensity, with the lack of scares on our run, and an absence of strong finales, it just resulted in the individual mazes blurring into one. Another issue with the setup was the batching. Not only did we find the groups constantly catching up to one another – most of this attraction was experienced as a conga line with the groups either side of us – but with an annoying group up ahead, the linear design meant that instead of just the one maze, a large chunk of our evening was ruined by them.
Perhaps I just visited on a bad night – these things do happen with scare attractions – but Dr Frights is not an attraction I’ll be rushing back to. Not something I ever thought I’d say after everything I’ve heard!
Deadbeat
Another massively painful thing to write but, Deadbeat just does nothing for me. I was so, so excited for this attraction. It’s high concept, unique, and something that’s right up Thorpe Park’s street, but it just… wasn’t scary? I’ve had two run-throughs so far and on both experiences I found myself vibing far more than I was actually scared. With actors primarily found dancing in the middle of scenes, and plenty of missed scare opportunities on both my runs, it couldn’t help but feel very anti-climatic each time. No spoilers, but there are certainly some very cool concepts and techniques in here, I just hope that next season the scares can be ramped up!
Also, I would love to see DJ Canistro played by an actor, rather than being a mannequin. This is an opportunity to create another iconic Fright Nights character, something the event does so well, and it feels like a waste not to have the maze’s villain actually offer up scares!
Next Year’s Wishlist
Must Do:
Xtreme Scream, Screams
Aiming for:
The Howl, Scare City, Halloween Horror Nights
If I’m Lucky
Peur sur le Parc, Walibi Holland
Speak again soon,
Claire
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coasterclaire.co.uk 