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Scarefest


JoshC.

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Even the American zones have theming, hopefully they sort the scare zones out..

 

America's scare zones are some of the highest quality ones in the world. To say 'even their scare zones' makes them sound sub the level of quality of Tower's ones, which they may not be. 

 

It's like saying 'ugh that ride only has 10 inversions, even the smiler has more then that!'

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America's scare zones are some of the highest quality ones in the world. To say 'even their scare zones' makes them sound sub the level of quality of Tower's ones, which they may not be.

It's like saying 'ugh that ride only has 10 inversions, even the smiler has more then that!'

But no generic us park has the intensity of sub species or the towers location as a whole. Apples and oranges.

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So looking at the scare zones I don't think Alton can pull of the "American Style" scare zone.

It just looks cheap, it looks like a area with 4 actors with no theming and some smoke machines..

Even the American zones have theming, hopefully they sort the scare zones out..

To be honest it works quite well. The problem with the zombie scare zone which is what these are replacing is that poeple see it once. This, even though much cheeper, seems to get more squeels and screams and giggles than zombie did. We stood at the dark forrest one watching the zone for about 30 minutes and the reactions were good. The main problem was asian teenage lads 'bullying' the actors. Whilst we stood there we saw 4 different groups of lads, all about 12-14 and all Asian pushing and poking and kicking the actors. There was a non character based actor in the area and we saw her tell all 4 groups off and threaten to have them thrown out of the park. Security was called on one of the groups.

 

I would prefer this than nothing at alll and that is all they could afford.

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America's scare zones are some of the highest quality ones in the world. To say 'even their scare zones' makes them sound sub the level of quality of Tower's ones, which they may not be. 

 

It's like saying 'ugh that ride only has 10 inversions, even the smiler has more then that!'

I meant that the American style scare zones and the Towers old scare zones had theming. In IMO scare zones like any other attraction need theming. American Style zones are probably miles better.

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Here we go then. Long post time :D 

 

Scarefest is simply great. Other than Smiler sitting in X-Sector like an elephant would, the park was alive. There was so much atmosphere, it was buzzing with people. It was a great sight. Quite simply don't know where to begin as it was all so good.

 

Alton Ancestors: 

 

This group of 10 actors is great. They do a flash mob on TowersStreet at 10:15, 11:15 and 12:15 before heading to Gloomy Wood between 2 and 5pm. The dance routine is good, some odd mixes of music... never knew Gangnam Style and Ghostbusters would blend together so well. Was concerning. Whilst in Gloomy Wood they continued to be entertaining, taking peoples phones and taking selfies on them or posting Snapchat stories. They were just great to go up to and talk to. They basically had free roam, not an ents person was in sight around them unlike Thorpe's roamers. Just made it so much more relaxed. True entertainment!

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Flash mobbing on the greatly decorated TowersStreet.

 

The kids stuff:

 

Didn't really cater to us obviously, but from what we saw it looked great for the audience. Phil (I think that's the one that did this) stood behind me and Celia Mae whilst waiting for a coffee and imitated us by linking arms with Skelvin (?) but either way it was great, and the ents staff with them were dressed up to! Also I can finally say I've seen the Scarefest Hearse, and this groovy sign

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Scare zones:

 

I'd heard decent things about the previous ones in past years, but this year they were literally just a section of path. So the Nemesis area one (Dark Apocalypse) ran from Sub Terra down to the main Nemesis sign. Wasn't expecting much, first time found it very meh but second time it was actually quite good! We got singled out and preyed on almost. Plus, this less than 100metre stretch of path had more actors than MBV often has, more of a story than any Thorpe maze. So it was basically a Thorpe maze condensed into a small path. Not bad when you don't have to queue at all.

 

Nox Infernus was bit less good. But the wraiths around 13 and the girl were groovy. Plus the mist spilling out of the scaffolding tunnel onto Rita was great when riding Rita. So it wasn't very scary, but still a good 9/10 actors in the area and lots of mist. Not bad for a free extra on park.

 

Scare Mazes:

 

Don't hate here. Molly Crowe didn't interest me, I despise Hellements and the idea of wearing a blindfold, just means they can go cheap on the inside surely? So I passed on that. Terror of the Towers is vintage and again didn't interest me too much as that seemed like a standard (not saying bad) scare maze. But Sub Species interested me a lot, with its different routes and separation. HUGE SPOILERS IN THE SPOILER TAG.

 

Sub Species is insane. You enter the first room where there are a load of computer screens with people on. Then this figure appears on the main computer screen and informs you of the story. A disease has infected the sewers and the creatures in it are mutated, and hungry. It is a game to them. Humans are sent in, for their entertainment, and dinner.

The vault opens to the sewer system and down you go. You are greeted by 3 doors. No one quite knows what to do here, all the doors are shut and you wait for 20 odd seconds then the lights go out. Then they come back on. Your group of 10 is now 9. Oh. Same again, 9 becomes 8. The suspense of waiting to be dragged into a room is quite intense. I thought I'd be guided lightly, urm no. Towers don't just touch. They chuck you about basically. I was the last one in the group to be grabbed into a door. I was grabbed by the scruff and flung into one of the routes. You are now on your own. I was alone the whole maze, didn't see a single other person from this point.

I basically had an actor preying on me for a few minutes as I tried to figure out a route through the maze. It's all themed, has very dark patches, the theming is lit so you can see it unlike at Thorpe. I was surrounded by 4 actors at one point, all just on me. Finally I think I found a progressive route after a good 5/7 minutes of scares and just general greatness. Didn't think it could get much better. I'd have happily walked out at that point.

Nope! Down I went again to be greeted by a tunnel. Wasn't expecting much, maybe like MBVs tunnel. Oh I was surprised. It had multiple routes whilst you're crawling around in pitch black. I was also grabbed by the ankle, pulled back and pushed down another route by an actor.

It was so intense, full on, just great! The actors were fab, the story great and it made sense in the maze. I hear there are two endings, don't know what the other one is but mine had a chainsaw guy. Okay it's been done before, but it was actually well done, made sense, and not constantly on so everyone can hear it. All in all, 10/10. Best maze I've done. Thorpe has nothing on this.

 

Great thing with Sub Species was its length, I got in just after 2. I met up with Celia by the chicken place in X-Sector at 2:25. So that's what, 15 minutes at least! So good!!!! 

 

Note- I don't know any actors at Towers, I did the maze once, I got that treatment. If dear old Joe Bloggs can only go to both Thorpe and Towers once and do each maze once, he would prefer the Towers ones because they are that level of extreme to everyone on all runs, irrespective of knowing an actor.

 

 

Rides:

 

13 is quite cool in the dark, the forest isn't lit at all! Rita is better and not too rough, Oblivion has a pitch black hole, Spinball was lit too much. RMT was cool in the rave tunnel, Air is superb in the dark with a great mix of force, light, darkness, and fun! 

 

Nemesis is top dog. It is sublime at night, it looks great, rides great. Just great! So glad I finally got to experience it and the whole of Scarefest. Can't wait to return next year :D

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<3

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Give it a go! I was dreading Sub Species but it's really good fun... Especially when an actor wants to cut your eyes out!

I'm being brave enough to try Molly Crowe... I'd rather not see and be by myself and know I got a rope to follow, than being by myself throughout the whole maze, I don't even like being at the back of a group in a horror maze, and refused to be at the front!

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  • 8 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I'm very intrigued by this maze, as I am very hopefully that this will be a great maze like last years. The name is a bit naff. Skin Snatchers sounds like the name of a low budget 60's horror movie. The storyline is also strange, and not one I'd find that scary. 

'Disfigured inbred hillbillies' taking people's skin is more shocking and disturbing than scary. 

Also, all the mazes have a strict 15+ age limit again. And after reading the story of this it's quite understandable..

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New link since the one above doesn't seem to work:  https://www.altontowers.com/activities/events/scarefest

 

Skin Snatchers sounds like an interesting story, but I'm not quite sure how it's going to work.  Like story wise, it just sounds like a really complex thing to get across in a maze environment.  I'm just having visions of actors rubbing bits of latex 'skin' in my face screaming "THIS WILL BE YOU NEXT" or something.  But who knows, it might work.  If they focus more on a generic hillbilly style then there's plenty of potential; Twisted Attractions did that style brilliantly a couple of years ago for House of Insomnia for example.

 

Glad Sub Species is returning, since I really want to try that out.  Shame that they've decided to keep TotT, but I guess they need one 'softer' maze.

 

 

On a different note, interesting to see that the park and maze ticket is set at £50 when bought online.  Rather steep, especially when you can buy Fright Nights tickets, included 5 mazes, from £28 (with the option of a 6th for another £10)...

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I'm sad to see Molly Crowe go, the maze felt completely different to anything I experienced before, the ending was incredible! 

 

Skin snatchers sounds very interesting though, I wonder if they will be all in the Towers this time? This sounds like it would be better outdoors...

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On 25/07/2016 at 10:48 PM, BaronC. said:

On a different note, interesting to see that the park and maze ticket is set at £50 when bought online.  Rather steep, especially when you can buy Fright Nights tickets, included 5 mazes, from £28 (with the option of a 6th for another £10)...

But then again the mazes at Scarefest are way more Quality IMO.

Even though Scarefest is quite expensive, its worth the money.

14 hours ago, MattyMoo said:

I reckon Skin Snatchers will feature a chainsaw finale :P

Very Original..;)

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