13th Seance

[Deleted Users]

Foreword:I don't normally do Trip Reports but this one is a little special because the chances are that this maze will never be repeated again. Still, I am going to keep this short and sweet unless interest arises for extra detail, eg a written walkthrough. Tom Spindler - 13th Seance's creator - has become renowned in the scare attraction industry for making horror mazes that are incredibly detailed and going beyond what most mainstream attractions will do to be scary. While waiting outside on the aptly named Crucifix lane, our group of 5 TPM members had no clue what to expect.Memorable Scenes:Both the detail and the single actor wrapped in sewn up cloths, sitting at the table and beckoning us forward in the small first room were amazing. He slowly reached out for our tickets, examined them and put them inside his intricate moneybox. He then stood and cracked open the door to a near pitch black corridor which seemed to go on for miles, slamming it shut behind us. This actor needs to be commended, he managed to create a huge amount of tension and scare us without uttering a single noise and moving incredibly slowly.There is a moment in the heart of the maze where you turn a corner and have to look directly into a very strong strobe light which completely disorientated me. An actor suddenly lashed out at me, gnashing her teeth by my ear while trying to drag me back into her corner.The Good:1. The Asylum style parts were done very well. At points I felt completely lost and having barriers overhead as well made it very claustrophobic. There was also loads of blind points so the actors had great hiding places. There were even parts were the barriers had been removed and just the black cloth remained, meaning they could run through.2. The amount of tension built up was amazing.3. Having a maximum group size of 3 and not having to go in a conga line.The Bad1. Having nearly the entire maze in darkness seemed to be an excuse to not bother to theme most of it. The theme of a seance went completely out of the window after the first room. How a girl in a gasmask has anything to do with it, I don't know... For someone who has created great set pieces in the past, this was a huge let down. To add to this, there was only one actor who didn't have a generic costume, who was the actor in the first room. I would have thought for £8 per a person (£2 more than his last maze, Masks which got rave reviews), there would have been really good themeing. Once again, bar the first actor, none of the actors seemed to have been given scripting past the generic shouting, growling, etc which they had in previous mazes.2. Most of our group were more scared about what could happen rather than what did happen; we were expecting the worst but it never happened. There was absolutely no set piece for the end, just walking into the bar.3. This one really took the cake. The maze was 10 minutes, half the advertised time. How anyone could have thought it would last 20 minutes, I don't know.4. We had to sign a form before going in basically saying that we couldn't sue Tom Spindler for anything that happened inside. While I don't really mind this, it seemed to be used more as an excuse to not bother sorting out the steps in the building. There was one moment when I fell down about 3 steps and up another 2 in the pitch black. If it wasn't for Ellie then I probably would have smacked my head on the floor.5. While having small groups is a good idea, it's a bit stupid for an actor to lock us in a room for under 10 seconds with the lights on, with another group. Also, because he didn't lock up the group behind, we were now in a group of 8 and the later actors made little attempt to separate us.Conclusion:Overall, I did find this maze scary at points so I guess it did its job but it seemed as if it was a shadow of Tom Spindler's previous mazes. Hopefully the next one he will be back on form.The Disclaimer:

[Aliice.]

Great trip report Danielle.Good to know you still got scared, but glad I didn't go.

[AdamY]

I'd agree with most of that! Just to back up Dan's points on it not being themed, this really disappointed me too. After seeing how his previous attractions were split up into individual scenes - with loads of detailing to tell the story, cleverly lit set pieces ect - the whole 'lets just put some fences in a room and flash strobe lights in otherwise pitch darkness' didn't really impress me.

[MikeyT]

Review of Seance by Michael Bolton.13th SeanceDan, you clearly didn't like it because I wasn't acting in it..... :(

[Ellie]

Some just rely on make up but several are in hideous bird beaked masks like something out of a pagan ritual. The actor roles veer between character based vignettes that we witness (let's just say the barefoot mirror crunching scene was a little too uncofortable to watch!) through to pitch dark scare characters waiting round every corner. And of course, as usual - all bets are off when it comes to "Spindler" actors, so exect all manner of stroking, touching, pushing and playing ! At one point I was actually tied up by a length of cloth held by an actor that I had to try and extract my arm from!

This bit is completely the opposite of what I remember. For a start we walked past the room with glass on the floor which was completely empty. I didn't see any bird beak masks. And no actors touched me at all.So disappointed with this. That was the night before we went and you'd think they'd have a fantastical finale for halloween night but nope, nothing.

[MikeyT]

It really is a shame that your experience was sub-standard, it does sound as though this hasn't been as good as some of his other attractions, like has been suggested elsewhere. Especially for £8 a ticket, I'm not surprised you feel short changed.I don't know Tom very well at all really, but you can tell that he has a real passion for the industry and does put a lot of effort into his attractions to ensure that they're unique and different to anything he's done before. I suppose it's very much an experimental thing, sometimes you take a risk and come up trumps, sometimes they don't work out so good.I also think this highlights the importance of the role the actors have in these type of attractions, especially if you're expecting huge amounts of interactivity and a high amount of one-on - one time with the actors, much like his other attractions, then, again, if this isn't the case when you went through then it will affect your experience.I also found it interesting that he deleted some of the comments made on Facebook. I'm not sure I found that necessary. Still, I hope his attractions continue to grow in scope and scale as well as popularity, they offer something very different to what we can expect at the theme park events.

[Ellie]

I also found it interesting that he deleted some of the comments made on Facebook. I'm not sure I found that necessary.

Don't worry, he didn't delete the comments It's just because he has a filter up that hides the comments at first glance. Go on the page, click 'just others' under the box for a wall post and it'll show them

[Deleted Users]

I didn't see any bird beak masks. And no actors touched me at all.

The bird masks were probably the gas mask guys. The masks just weren't clear enough in the dark though. And a lot of actors touched me, including grabbing, clawing, stroking and even sticking their finger in my ear Yeah Mikey we only got one on one time with the ticket guy at the start.