KingNemesis Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 There has been a video posted for House of Monsters! Love the movie trailer style: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeah Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 21 hours ago, KingNemesis said: There has been a video posted for House of Monsters! Love the movie trailer style: Did they get Takoda from Coaster Studios to do the voiceover? In all seriousness though, isn't that the house that can be seen from the Cross Valley route? Would be interesting if they put it in there but how would you get there? Also, do you have to walk through the scare zones to get to certain rides, for example, Nox Infernus ➡ Th13teen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 House of monsters is going in Clkud Cuckoo Land, Wobble World to be precise. Nox Infernus isn't a scare zone this year but there were "safe" routes where you could avoid the actors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingNemesis Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 1 hour ago, ChessingtonSam said: Did they get Takoda from Coaster Studios to do the voiceover? In all seriousness though, isn't that the house that can be seen from the Cross Valley route? Would be interesting if they put it in there but how would you get there? Also, do you have to walk through the scare zones to get to certain rides, for example, Nox Infernus ➡ Th13teen? They use that building quite a bit, Molly Crowe used it too, for example. The building for HOM is Wobble World, In fact TowerStreet or TowersTimes posted some construction photos of the exterior. In regards to walking through scarezones to get to attractions, there is Dark Apocalypse which starts just after Sub Terra and ends at the Cannon, But you can get around that by walking past the arcade and down past Burger Kitchen. However is a bit of a diversion. Freak Out however looks like it is in the Adventure Zone area (with Spinball and... Spinball) So that may be the whole area meaning it is pretty much impossible to get to Spinball, however the maps can be pretty inaccurate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MachoMachine Posted October 5, 2016 Report Share Posted October 5, 2016 Little promo video here, quite liked this! Kerfuffle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted October 10, 2016 Report Share Posted October 10, 2016 Scarefest is just great! The park audio changing, the theming, just the overall fun vibe. Even little things like changing of some shop signs right down to all staff having a green name badge instead of the usual blue. The Ancestors are great, the flash mob is good fun and I just love the interaction they have with everyone, even when they go down to Gloomy Wood and just chat to people down there. Great fun! The kids line up seemed the same and popular so that's probably a good thing for them. Scarezones. I remember saying last year how Dark Appocalypse had more of a complete package than Thorpe's mazes. I'll stick to that I think. It has a story, effects and all just works. Simple but effective. Now Nox Infernus however was awful so I'm glad that's gone, and freak show is a fab replacement. Set pieces, loads of actors, brilliant music, lighting, and interactive actors. Great fun and so easy to do. Also think there were more actors at points in this than there were in some Thorpe mazes. The coasters looked great in some cases this year! Oblivion was lit with an orange glow (I'll put photos in a blog at another point) Rita was greeny, Galactica had the blue glow and portal, Smiler was cool with just the Marmaliser emitting light and Nemesis looked amazing! The mazes! So I didn't do House of Monsters but have heard rave reviews so there you go. I'll use them. IT'S GREAT. Done. Terror of the Towers: I've never done this so actually quite enjoyed it. I can see how people would find it stale after however many years its been, but it's good fun and really well themed throughout. Decent length and has some decent jumps for a conga maze. The strobe is pretty intense too. Solid maze in my eyes. Sub Species: After last year this had a lot to live up to. I was quite worried it wouldn't, but it did. It's the same assault on everything, being dragged about, pushed down different routes, grabbed, I got span around, just a complete mess with your senses. It didn't quite have the same wow factor because it wasn't new, but it was still stunning in every way. The only downside is the tunnel scene isn't as good now due to only one route so it's not a maze of tunnels. The one ending in my eyes is fine as I never witnessed the illusive second ending anyway. Mine Tours: I will spoiler tag some of this, but overall really well themed maze with some clever and different effects, and the same intense level of Sub Species actors in the grabbing pushing etc, just a shame about the ending!!!! so the story is built up through the first 2 scenes really well, all about the family and the legend of the skin snatchers etc. The first, middle and last people in the group also get a miners hat which has a light on. Anyway, you go into the mine shaft and in here the same tactic as Sub Sepcies is applied. You're pulled out of the group by the skin snatchers one by one and left to explore the maze. Inside the theming is incredible, the actors have great interaction and intensity. Violent pushing, verbal comments etc, great fun. I got pushed onto a bed, grabbed by the feet. They also had a great take on a claustrophobia cushion, it was a load of inflatable humans dressed up as miners who had gone missing. This was quite creepy and plays with you, I honestly thought one of them would be a human. The miner hat has a light that is controlled by the actors who can turn it on, off, flicker etc which created some good scares. So some really cool effects and tactics, and then the ending. This guys finds you and helps you escape, you walk down this corridor, with a strobe and smoke and then leave. No actors, nothing, everything had been building and that's the end. That's all that's missing is a solid end. Other than that, nice new addition! Overall another great year for Scarefest and I look forward to it growing even more! Cal, Graw, L7123456 and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graw Posted October 10, 2016 Report Share Posted October 10, 2016 ^^ so how does the whole 'grabbing you off on your own' aspect work in sub species/skin snatchers? do the actors literally grab you and throw you away from the group, or do you like get tapped and told to follow an actor? cheers[/spoilers] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted October 10, 2016 Report Share Posted October 10, 2016 Okay in sub species there's a set of 3 doors, the lights go out and someone is pulled through one of the doors lights back on and repeat. You're sort of tugged from behind and told your there's for like food etc. Skin snatchers was similar but just one route so you were watching this mine shaft effect when a skin snatcher would take one from the group more push than pull in that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graw Posted October 10, 2016 Report Share Posted October 10, 2016 3 hours ago, Mitchada04 said: Okay Hide contents in sub species there's a set of 3 doors, the lights go out and someone is pulled through one of the doors lights back on and repeat. You're sort of tugged from behind and told your there's for like food etc. Skin snatchers was similar but just one route so you were watching this mine shaft effect when a skin snatcher would take one from the group more push than pull in that one. ah cool thanks! are you on your own for the rest of both mazes after these moments then? or no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingNemesis Posted October 11, 2016 Report Share Posted October 11, 2016 20 hours ago, Graw said: Hide contents ah cool thanks! are you on your own for the rest of both mazes after these moments then? or no? Skin Snatchers, no but it is very very dark. Sub Species, you can be due to the nature of the attraction you may be told to go down a certain path, although a few of the routes are just to mess with you so sometimes there was a path that was a 'U' shape but for me at the back I was alone for a vast majority. Including the tunnel section where I was being pulled back by the leg so I crawled two steps forward and was pulled two steps back for around 5 minutes. Meaning that I went through the final section alone including the chainsaw ending. Was very... fun! But I'm used to scare mazes so am not particularly scared of being alone in there. Some however may be scared of being surrounded by 3 or 4 actors! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingNemesis Posted October 11, 2016 Report Share Posted October 11, 2016 On 10/5/2016 at 8:57 PM, Amarghh said: Little promo video here, quite liked this! Shame that sign isn't actually there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted October 17, 2016 Report Share Posted October 17, 2016 Please be aware the following will contain SPOILERS. Having not done Scarefest for a good few years I was looking forward to see what had changed; in particular, the new scare mazes! Here is my review based on my experiences on Sunday 16th October; Scare Mazes (in the order we did them); Terror of the Towers Having enjoyed this maze in the past I was looking forward to seeing how it had changed. The maze had a fantastic atmosphere throughout, with a good use of audio and low-level lighting, as well as various items of theming and a few larger scenes; the church scene in particular was fantastic, really effective! The maze has a completely different route to when I last went through it, and unfortunately feels much shorter. A lot of my favourite scenes have gone, and it felt like there were a lot of corridors with not much going on; there was also a lack of scares, with the actors opting for the "creepy" approach instead. The strobe maze was also a disappointment, as it was much shorter than in previous years and lacked a sense of chaos. Overall, I'm baffled. When this was free, it was in excess of 10 minutes long with loads of huge scenes, as well as a long strobe maze finale. Now that it's a paid maze, it's much shorter with less scares, and felt disappointing overall - though as mentioned, it was very atmospheric. 5/10 Altonville Mine Tours Our second maze was Altonville Mine Tours, and wow! The maze is themed to a mine where you are going to uncover "the legend of the Skin Snatchers", and as such features lots of small corridors, but also some highly detailed scenes as well! Scares were very good, with actors having lots of places to hide; the lighting made for a very disorientating and intense experience, with actors being very full-on in terms of pushing you, and holding up the person at the back (me!) on multiple occasions. For me the biggest scare came from a scene near the beginning; corridor after corridor full of dummies with gas masks! The fact that I hate the things, combined with the fact that I was on my own at that point meant that for the first time in a while, I genuinely felt scared! The close proximity of the dummies also meant that you had to push your way through them, which added to the fear factor. In our group three people were given miners helmets with lights on; my helmet changed its flash rate throughout - at points it was static, whereas at other times it was flashing frantically. Personally I wasn't a fan of these, it felt like a gimmick and having a helmet on made me feel less vulnerable. My only criticism is that the ending was very weak, consisting of a room full of fog - after which we just walked out without any "final" scare. Overall I was hugely impressed with Altonville Mine Tours; the scares are brilliant, the theming is top notch and with a few adjustments it could be one of the best scare mazes in the country! 7/10 Sub Species After all the hype I was looking forward to this, but unfortunately it didn't deliver. Firstly, the soundtrack for this is great; it's intense, loud and raucous and sets the tone well for the attraction. The preshow was first, however we couldn't hear the spiel (on the TV's) due to the music playing in the corridor behind us, as the door was left open! Just before the end of the speech an actor came and closed the door; but we'd missed the entire thing by then. The first scene was fantastic with a number of doors; the lights went out and everyone was sent through the first door, but we were then pushed through the door immediately on the left. Following this was a series of black corridors with no theming, hardly any actors and no scares. It felt like we missed most of the theming as there were times when I'd see a themed room ahead, only to be pushed the other way into yet another dull, empty corridor. In addition to this, we went the wrong way at one point and saw an actor in a fantastic 'alien' costume; however we completely missed out on this scare as it was aimed at the rest of the group who were on one of the other routes. I feel that one of the biggest issues with this is that it's a multi-route maze, which means that you can essentially miss the best parts (as we seemed to). Considering that this is an upcharge maze, I feel that you should see everything in one run-through. Near the end there was a crawling section which was good, and provided a good jump scare as there was an actor in the tunnel! After this we reached the finale. Now I hate to say this, but this was diabolical. It's a chainsaw finale, however due to the exit door being open there was light spilling in and we could clearly see the actor sat on the chair before we reached him, which completely removed the element of surprise. For me there were two positives; the soundtrack was good, and the scene with the doors was effective. I found the layout boring, consisting of corridor after corridor with nothing to see, or to scare us! It felt like we had a bad runthrough, but in all honesty when you pay to experience an attraction that's not good enough; they get one chance to impress and as such it should maintain a high standard all the time. 4/10 General event The theming around Towers Street was good, however there wasn't much around the rest of the park, aside from a few items here and there. There was lots of themed music playing around the park which was good, for example in front of the Towers. Lighting was much better than in the last few years, with Nemesis lit up red, and the Towers lit up in a multitude of different colours; really effective! I don't like the fact that, since we last visited, more attractions are paid yet the quality has (IMO) reduced. Terror of the Towers used to be free, and was a much stronger maze than it was on Sunday. In addition, the Zombies Scare Zone was much better than the two there were today, which were good, however they were 'themed pathways' rather than attractions. L7123456, Cian, onair and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeah Posted October 18, 2016 Report Share Posted October 18, 2016 It's not really related but I just want to make sure the ratings @Coaster Jamie gives are in green right, it's not my eyes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeah Posted October 18, 2016 Report Share Posted October 18, 2016 2 minutes ago, Coaster Jamie said: Yeah, it is. Oh thank god. I haven't had an eye test and thought my eyesite had gone weird! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted October 18, 2016 Report Share Posted October 18, 2016 Yeah, it is. EDIT: Deleted post above by accident! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshuaA Posted October 23, 2016 Report Share Posted October 23, 2016 Just came back! Shameless Plug: Anyway in short.. Sub Species: Brilliant, got manhandled more times than I can count! TOTT: Meh, not as good as last year. Altonville Mine Tours: Brilliant theming, brilliant actors, just needs a better finale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 TOTT was longer when free because it didn't have to share the building with other mazes would be my guess... When will our parks and guests realise that scarezones ARE just pathways with theming and roaming actors? JoshuaA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 45 minutes ago, Benin said: TOTT was longer when free because it didn't have to share the building with other mazes would be my guess... When will our parks and guests realise that scarezones ARE just pathways with theming and roaming actors? I go to Hackney or Croydon when I want a well themed scare zone. Nick Hutson, Benin, Matt10 and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted October 25, 2016 Report Share Posted October 25, 2016 At the end of the day though I go to these events to be immersed and entertained. Not to be beaten up or stabbed though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-S Posted October 25, 2016 Report Share Posted October 25, 2016 Why skimp, you can do both at Thorpe. Seriously though, bit peeved we couldn't go to scarefest today, we've all got flu so had to cancel the trip, pondering the idea of going to the fireworks instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted October 28, 2016 Report Share Posted October 28, 2016 I'd never done Scarefest and so I wast throughly looking forward to this. I will get right into the maze reviews... Terror of The Towers - What Lies Within? I wasn't looking forward to this as much as I knew it was a conga-line maze. It seemed to be quite a case of 'the building is the theming' at first - however once I started with the main maze I found that this wasn't the case. The scares however, weren't very good. So far the maze was okay, however the strobe finale was terrible! It felt as though the actors had no idea where they were sending us and it just became uncomfortable. Unfortunately I have to give this 4/10. Sub-Species: The End Games The award winning maze returns for a second year! Except I don't see why it won an award? The maze started very well, with the pre-show and 'door scene' being incredibly well done. The rest of the maze was just boring. I can tell say it wasn't 'intense' as I wasvoushed up against a wall by an alien at various points - once by the neck! However this became so boring and really quite humerous for the wrong reasons. Whilst it's not the worst maze I've ever experienced, it's far from the award winning experince I was expecting. I can't give this more than 5/10, and I wouldn't pay £8 for it. Altonville Mine Tours - The Legend of The Skin Snatchers Now, this is a fantastic maze. Not only does this manage to be very hands on, it's very creepy as well. The actor was very very good here, and I did get lost on my own arc one point. A memorable point of this maze was when an actor pulled my t-shirt over my head and made me run whilst I couldn't see - very good! The ending did let this down, and would have been the vital detail to make this a 10/10. Mine Tours gets a 9/10 from me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L7123456 Posted October 29, 2016 Report Share Posted October 29, 2016 Was at Scarefest yesterday. Will post some brief reviews here but will do full ones in a blog post. Terror of the Towers was rather poor. Not that many actors, average theming, the shortening didn't help either. The strobe finale was intense as always. The group I was in ruined it for me too. Sub Species was crazy! Loved every minute of it. Very intense, some good theming in places and and lively actors. I was alone for nearly the entirety too! Altonville Mine Tours was damn near as good as Sub Species, if not just better! The theming was amazing and it was very theatrical. It wasn't as intense or as scary, but it had a few good scares! The use of Haunted Latern's were a nice touch too. House of Monsters is a good family maze but no more and I only managed to do Freakshow, which was rather poor too. Overall though, Scarefest is a fantastic event, and is a must every October! JoshuaA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt10 Posted October 29, 2016 Report Share Posted October 29, 2016 Again, I was present yesterday but only managed to do sub species as no one in my group would do mazes. For me I think the main aspect of the maze is the idea and fear factor is isolating you and splitting you from groups. When you go in with no one else you know, I feel it loses quite a lot of the fear factor as you don't really care about anyone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted August 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2017 Towers have partially announced their 2017 Scarefest line up, which includes... House of Monsters Freak Show scare zone Terror of the Towers Sub Species Altonville Mine Tours And a 4th scare maze... A completely new maze is rather unexpected. Wonder where it could go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshuaA Posted August 11, 2017 Report Share Posted August 11, 2017 TOTT is returning? Anyway besides TOTT I'm glad Sub Species and Altonville Mine Tours are both returning, as both attractions were IMO two of the strongest mazes I did last year! I really like the theming, costumes, length, and the touch scares at Alton, it really makes the mazes on another level compared to other events. House Of Monsters also seemed to be a good effort for the younger children, so I think that as well as Freakshow will round out the lineup. A fourth maze is very exciting though, I wonder if its going to be a freebie ? And I'm puzzled to where there gonna put it- as the Towers seem jammed enough as it is with 3 mazes in it, and the old location of Carnival Of Screams/Scary Tales is now kinda occupied by the scarezone. My best guess would be where Zombie Scare Zone used to be, but I'm not too sure that even could even fit a maze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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