Last year, a new, independent, scare company burst onto the scene - Twisted Attractions. Opening up in Birmingham in a disused nightclub, 'The Morgue: Live' caught the attention of many people, and got amazing reviews from the scare industry. Fastforward to May this year, and Twisted Attractions had moved to an old warehouse, bigger than the nightclub, with 'The Facility'. The reviews of The Morgue caught my attention, and upon hearing about The Facility, I really wanted to go try it out, but alas, I couldn't for a variety of reasons.

After The Facility closed, it was announced that two new attractions would open in its place for Halloween - 'House of Insomnia' and 'Ward 78'. And, well, I just had to go try it out. And that's just what I did tonight, on the opening night! I arrived just before the 7pm opening and after a slight delay due to some actors being caught in traffic (to which they offered free tea or coffee whilst we waited), it was time for the scares to begin...

NB: I'll give a review of both mazes in the order I did them - I'll do a non-spoiler review followed by a spoiler review (in spoiler tags).

Ward 78

Ward 78 is very different to most scare attractions, in that it's designed to be done either by yourself or in a group of two. Essentially, the maze involves you going through a Victorian hospital ward where, of course, not all is well. The website describes it as follows:

Enter this abandoned Victorian ward used for patients with problems that just couldn't be controlled with a simple drug or tablet.. The old ways of the Victorian Doctors and Nurses had to do.. but did they help?

..of course not!

Will you make it through with just a candle to light your way? Not knowing who or what you might face in this abandoned Victorian ward?

Did they really tie down the insane patients tight enough?

After being told the instructions and signing a waiver, I was given my candle (one of the electronic torch-like ones, not a real one!) and ventured down the hospital corridor...

Non-spoilers:

The maze involves a lot of tight spaces, loud noises and disorientation. Being by yourself already leaves you on edge and the actors take advantage of it; they like to bully you! After a while, my candle was taken from me, leaving me seemingly without hope. This actually turned out to be near the end of the attraction, which involved some nice trickery and a lot of special effects.

Spoilers:

The torch is literally your only source of light, and it's only when you come into contact with another actors (with their own candle) that there's really any other light. As said above, the maze is lots of tight corridors along with scenes of patients rooms and such. The first couple of actors are nurses, who say how visiting hours are over and the matron won't be happen. Eventually, you're warned that the patients are restless.

You then go into some of the patient rooms, which are very small and contain metal beds. Actors scream, shout, lunge at you and like to make a lot of noise. They get in your face and a lot of the time, it's very difficult to know where to go! There were a couple of tight squeezes (through some blow of walls and low down ceilings) and then eventually I came to a room with seemingly no exit. My candle was taken from me and I was pointed to a tunnel.

After eventually getting up from the tunnel, it all was very manic. It was a bit lighter, but I was pushed and shoved around a bit and then came to a strobe light and a gate. An actor opened the gate from the other side, I was shoved through, the light went off, the gate closed. It all happened so quickly. Screams and shouting occurred as well as a splash of water, and I was pushed around until all of a sudden, I was out of the attraction.

It was quite a weird experience really. Lots of in your face screaming and shouting, followed by some really manic moments. However, it felt a bit lacking of something a bit more. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there needed to be a bit more to make it that something special.

So, all in all, a fun scare attraction. It makes good use of scare tactics and special effects, but I think it was a bit on the short side and needed a bit more to it.

The entrance/exit. Image from ScareTOUR.

House of Insomnia

House of Insomnia is more of a traditional maze; you go through in groups, though there's no need for hands-on-shoulders. The vague idea is about a pair of twins in lived in a house who essentially went crazy due to mistreatment from their parents, lack of sleep and whatnot (from what I understood) at least. Here's what the website says...

Sitting empty for years, this house has a lot to answer for!

Are the Demurrer twins just an urban legend?

Did they really live within the walls and floors to escape the cruel punishment of their parents?

Are they still out for revenge?

This urban legend caught the eyes of a local company, who decided to turn this old house in to a museum, but what they didn’t expect after just several days of the workmen starting, was that they would become the next victims of the evil presence...

Was it Charlie and Norman?

There’s only one way to find out! Become an urban legend explorer yourself... but be careful... You are trespassing!

Non-spoilers:

The maze starts with an introduction to the story, telling you about the Demurrer Twins. Very nice idea and from what I heard, very cleverly done, however, there was noise bleed from inside the attraction, making it difficult to hear. After that, we ventured into the maze.

The maze is quite possibly the best themed maze I've done - lots of details and consistent storytelling theming about. Each scene follows from the previous and usually builds upon it. The maze is again very claustrophobic and makes great use of a small space. The actors are very well placed and each add to the story line - there's no 'random' actors or anything. The ending isn't particular special and is something that has been done before (indeed, I don't think it's a spoiler to say what the end is, since it's rather obvious from outside, but alas, I shall not say here...). Nonetheless, still very good.

Spoilers:

The group is directed into a circular room with a table in the middle; the museum that is built in the storyline. The door is closed and things happen... The room vibrates, air is blown, mist circulates. It's all very eerie. There's then a story told via a recording about the Demurrer Twins. It's sorta difficult to hear over the maze itself (due to the compact nature of it), but turning it up too loud could well ruin the quality. It is being looked into though.

After this, we enter the house itself. Actors hide in the best places and interact with everyone in the small group of 6 people. Each scene requires you to weave in and out of theming and find your way to the next. More importantly, there's never any dead spots - everything is a room that is themed and styled beautifully! The actors again like to make a lot of noise, get very in your face and aren't afraid to try and scare the braver looking guests (like myself). All very good.

Some highlight scenes was one with a furnace - it was very warm in there, and there was an actor with a baby doll in his hand, and what looked like a baby's head poking out the furnace. Another scene involved a butcher and was very cold, smelt a bit and required you to go past hanging meat carcasses. It's hard to recall many of the scenes because they come at you so thick and fast, and that you've got actors getting in your face.

There were some rooms which were very tight, or required you to crouch down, adding to the fear factor all the more. The maze lasts a good length of time and doesn't feel boring (indeed, it could have gone on for longer and I'd have been happy!), but you know you're at the finale when you hearing the revving on a chainsaw... You don't get chased out like you were in Asylum, but the actor instead picks on people and brings it very close to everyone, which is always bound to scare people!

Overall, House of Insomnia was a very good attraction, again making brilliant use of scare tactics, tight spaces, creating a great story and some top-notch theming. I think the fact that people quickly ended up holding onto one another, even though you weren't required to have your hands on shoulders, shows how unnerving the attraction can be. In fact, the girl being me was seemingly clinging onto my shirt for dear life!

Entrance to House of Insomnia - taken from ScareTOUR.

It's hard for me to compare these two attractions to their previous ones, but I personally think that the creating of two attractions may have been a bad thing. The Facility was one attraction in the same place as these two, and had a Face it Alone feature as well. Instead, they've created two separate attractions, a Face it Alone one which feels like it needs to be longer and have more substance, and an 'ordinary' attraction which should go on a bit longer. Maybe it just needs more time to settle; who knows? However, I guess I shouldn't really complain when I really enjoyed both attractions!

For anyone interested, the cost of both the attractions was £12 (though it goes to £14 on peak days) and I definitely think it's worth every penny! The main issue is of course getting to it, but if you're near Birmingham at some point when Twisted Attractions are running a show, definitely give it a try (they're about a 10-15min walk from Birmingham New Street train station).

A link to ScareTOUR's review, where I got the photos from - http://www.scaretouruk.com/review---halloween-scream-nights-by-twisted-attractions.html

So yeah, all in all, some great scare attractions from an independent company who only have good things for their future!