The Top Ten Most Weird Scare Attractions

Entry posted by JoshuaA May 28, 2020

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Scare attractions are usually very formulaic, a bunch of corridors with actors in them, a chainsaw finale, a strobe maze. Though there is some attractions that I have been through that are just plain weird. Today I'm gonna be counting down the top 10 most weird mazes I have experienced. Now I have not been to every event, so this won't be include every weird maze out there sadly, but if you do have any mazes you think are bloody strange leave em in the comments.

Here is a few mazes that were close to making the cut, but ultimately failed to make the top 10.

Twisted Clowns 3D: The bungee chord is unique in the UK, the vortex tunnel, and the heavy use of 3D and UV make this maze worth mentioning. I decided I was a tad biased towards it, so I decided to not include it. Though it does have a good case as it is quite unique. Its flooring is also quite brutal.

Altonville Mine Tours: It is quite a interesting maze. It does have that mine lift scene which is pretty cool, and the finale in 2017 was pretty unique and cheeky. Though I did not think it was quite enough to make it worthy of this list.

The Cabin In The Woods:

Good use of multi routes, and the control room make this maze unique IMO.

10. Sub Species: The End Games- Alton Towers Scarefest (2015-present)

Now despite not being the first to utilise this concept (Mazes at Thorpe had been doing separation and multi-routed mazes since 2011), Sub Species I feel like takes it to the extreme. The separation in Creek Freak/My Bloody Valentine feels like child play compared to the sheer brutality that is Sub Species. In the Thorpe mazes separation is a threat, but the mazes usually only have a few multi-routed sections and actors tend to not have the power to properly separate and isolate people within groups like Sub Species does. I think the real benefit this maze has is that it feels designed specifically for separation in sections, the room with the opening doors is a great example of the maze basically just double downing on splitting as many groups up as possible. The heavy amount of multi route sections and very hands-on actors really compliment this. Actors are not afraid to get hands on, and it really adds to the intensity and make a experience that is unlike any other maze. I experienced Sub Species in 2015, 2016, and 2017, and each time I found myself alone at some point. This is a real testament to how effective the maze is at splitting up the fairly big groups they batch through. And this is why it makes the list, no maze takes the multi route and separation concept as brutally as Sub Species. Not any I have experienced anyway.

9. Studio 13- Thorpe Park Fright Nights (2014)

This maze was kind of a shock on its debut. Taking over fan favourite and the very traditional 'Asylum', Studio 13 had a lot of weight on its shoulders.

Though looking back, this maze was nothing like The Asylum, and something very unique and interesting.

To begin with Studio 13 was a free flow attraction, this at the time was unique and different. The maze also had some weird actor placements at times, it seemed there was a point or two where actors could just swarm you. The theme in itself was interesting, having a maze themed to a horror film studio proved to be interesting and also went along with the park's other mazes that year.

In hindsight Studio 13 I think was a maze that really didn't get enough attention, I think a lot of people forget about it due to Asylum kinda overshadowing it.

8. The Sanctuary- Alton Towers Scarefest(2012-2014)

Now the only reason this maze is not higher is due to its finale, which to be frank, is pretty run of the mil.

Though everything else about this maze is weird. The queue line plays tranquil and happy music, for a moment you can easily forget it is a scare maze.

The first few rooms are pretty huge for a maze, the maze in its first half is completely eerie more than actually scary.

The lack of traditional scares or typical scare maze stuff just is bizarre, and I think it is the main reason people like this maze.

This peaks in the Marmalisation Room. This room makes this maze worthy of this list alone. Its foggy, weird, slightly hypnotising, and very creepy in a strange way. This room honestly feels like an acid trip in the middle of a gothic ruins in the middle of Staffordshire, its strange.

7. Vampire: Haunting In The Hallows- Chessington (2012-2013)

Before we got Creepy Caves, Chessington had a pretty scary maze in its lineup a few years back.

Haunting In The Hallows in a way kinda reminds me of a dungeons style attraction, with proper scripted scenes and effects to compliment the script.

The maze really told a story, and each scene built up the atmosphere and the narrative.

Haunting In The Hallows really was a unique maze in that only its finale was really a true scare maze. Every other part of the maze is scripted and more theatrical, and it made this maze stick out from the many scary mazes at Fright Nights.

6. The Volt- Tulleys Farm Shocktoberfest (2015)

I have talked about this attraction a fair amount now, so I think you guys get the picture.

Pitch black maze with a intentionally jank-y layout to force people to touch the walls, the walls have panels that can give you a mild electric shock. This in itself is just odd, and really enough to make it worthy of this list. Though there is one maze that used this gimmick and made it even more weird..

5. Scary Tales- Alton Towers Scarefest (2014)

2014 was a controversial year for Scarefest. Carnival Of Screams was axed and Scarefest were down a proper maze, though we what got in its place was true-ly interesting and unique.

Scary Tales was a 'scare zone', it had a constant flow of people, but had a clear path with a entrance and exit and at points felt like a maze.

The attraction had tons of actors, so even with no grouping actors still seemed to be able to interact and give good scares to as many people as possible.

The maze had a brilliant cast full of different fairy tales characters that gave some laughs (Hansel and Gretel) and good scares (the three piglets and their ugly masks).

Scary Tales makes this list as it really straddled the line between scare maze and scare zone, the theme was also pretty strange by itself. I really hope Alton bring back this type of 'scare zone' again as Scary Tales was a brilliant attraction

4. Festino's Forgotten Funhouse- Screamland Margate (2016)

Screamland Margate really nailed making their clown maze unique back in 2016.

The most standout part of this maze was its use of props and costumes, many times in this maze would you walk through a room for a camouflaged actor to jump out from absolutely nowhere!

The maze also had a brilliant use of large props (the skeleton hands being absolutely a highlight).

After about 5-10 minutes of a normal maze the attraction began to adopt a Dungeons-esque flow with scripted scenes from a knife thrower, and the Bearded Lady.

This was particularly odd, the maze was slightly odd up to this point, these scripted scenes later on in the maze just escalated the quirkiness of this maze.

3. The Paradise Foundation- Screamland Margate (2016)

This maze makes this list as it really focuses on its concept and the macabre nature of its theme. In any other maze, the actors not doing jump scares at all and screaming for "help" would be boring and not scary. The Paradise Foundation flips this and the actors crying for help in their disgusting costumes only make you feel even more uneasy and grossed out.

Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of actors in here. But a lot of them were playing victim over aggressor, which for a scare maze, is unique. Well unique in that it actually worked.

I didn't get many (if any) jump scares in here, but I felt uncomfortable during the experience and for all the right reasons. Like Festino this maze does have a few scripted scenes at the beginning of the maze which further separates this from other scare mazes.

I felt Screamland really nailed this attraction, the theme is pretty gory, and they didn't hold back with theming and costumes, as well as building up backstory and finer details (roaming actors who are 'ex-victims' of the foundation, and some scripted scenes to explain the narrative).

The maze is currently defunct from Screamland, though you can find its spiritual successor at Scare Kingdom up north, so it still lives on today.

2. The Legend Of Crank Jack- Screamland Margate (2017)

Screamland are the king of odd mazes. But Crank Jack takes the cake for being the strangest concept for a maze.

The maze's exterior is literally just a white marquee, though the intro room is very themed. What?

After the intro video you are a ushered through a foggy entrance to a crawl space, this crawl space is unlike other any crawl space you have experienced.

Its long, it has plenty of zigzags, and there is even sections where actors have crawl height holes to deliver scares. Even weirder, there was some parts of the crawl maze where actors could deliver scares right above you! This crawl space went on for a eternity, but after you start to stand up, it honestly just got weirder.

The next section was a bunch of confusing corridors with the exit being kinda hard to find, I got lost in this section on both run throughs.

Actors were equipped with loud horns which made getting lost even more annoying.

The use of crawl space really makes this maze worthy of this list. This is by far the most elaborate and largest crawl space in any maze to date.

1. The Dark- Tulleys The Howl (2015)

Now I have spoken about The Volt at Tulleys Shock a couple of times now. Though honestly its sister attraction that existed at The Howl was even more weird. If being shocked by wall panels wasn't unique enough, The Dark had even more weird crap to throw at you. The floor being one, the floor seemed to change a few times. Sometimes it felt like you were walking on sand, next you were walking on straw. The floor was elevated at points too, which just added to the oddness of the maze.

The actors were mostly dressed in werewolf costumes, this gave great scares with torches which was a shock to the eye of after extended darkness.

The lack of traditional jump scares, the shock gimmick, and the weird floor in this maze really made it a standout experience.

Unlike The Volt this maze really worked in a weird way, and it is a shame it only lasted a year.

The Dark's shock gimmick combined with some of the best use of the floor in a maze makes this maze easily one of the most odd mazes to grace the earth.

Hope you enjoyed folks. If you have any other mazes that you think deserve to be on this list then let me know!