A little new for us event yesterday evening and we certainly weren’t disappointed! Thank you so much to the team at Doncaster for inviting us down for their press evening. So, without further ado let’s get into it.
Roaming Team:
You join the queue to enter and instantly there are clowns with chainsaws. The entire evening we bumped into so many different roaming characters all of which were incredible fun to interact with. You almost felt like there was no escaping a little jump scare especially when they sneak up on you.
Scare Mazes:
Shellton Motel – 5/5:
First maze of the evening and boy it didn’t disappoint. Brand new for this year and the exteriors alone looked very convincing of the fact that it was a motel. Upon entering the lady performing the pre-show was excellent. She was very believable. Once you’re in the maze it’s scare after scare. The actors had no boundaries they were feral. It was intense, the story was effective and it is beautifully themed. There were some really comical gags throughout too. The mixture of indoor to outdoor sections was fun. The whole storyline was terrific, the scenes were brilliant and the actors were absolutely top class. Easily one of the best motel/hotel themed attractions we’ve done in years. Hats off to everyone involved with this maze.
Quinlens & Co – 3.5/5
Standing in the queue and watching others’ reactions after leaving it’s safe to say we were bricking it to enter. This was a very touchy kind of maze with some unnatural scenes to see. One of which included two waterfalls on either side of the walkway first time we’ve seen an effect quite like this inside a maze. The actors were great. The smells were absolutely wretched and you genuinely felt filthy coming out as if you literally went down the sewers. Actors provided some respectable scares. It’s a great maze but in comparison to some of the others didn’t quite give us the scares we predicted. Nonetheless, it was really well illustrated and delivered by the actors.
Crackle Hill – 2/5
This is one of the weaker mazes of the evening, unfortunately. The overall atmosphere was beautifully developed with the eerie haunted house where the woman had lost her children is the best way I can explain what I accumulated from the story. It was very eerie. Some of the scenes were so remarkable like an actor smearing blood across the floor playing in it. It was an experience but unfortunately just didn’t quite do it for us.
Diabolus Visum Mortis – 5/5
None of us was ready for how truly ominous this actually was. You hold onto a rope for a good percentage of the maze due to the dark. However, the scares in this section were some of the most fierce we’ve had so far this spooky season. It was truly horrifying in every possible way. Once the rope ends you enter an outdoor section again the scares did not give in at this point. The finale was absolutely everything you’d imagine in your worst nightmare. The mixture of statues to actors was horrendous but unlike other finales similar to this you genuinely cannot tell what’s what at all. We all came out very much SHOOK from the whole experience.
Friargate Foundry – 3.5/5
We loved this maze for the characteristics of all the best bits of your favourite spooky characters you’d see in any classic maze. You had clowns, hillbillys, dentist. It was the best kind of vibe. The actors knew how to victimise and play your group perfectly being at the back you get very much followed and terrorised. The energy these characters all gave off was extraordinary. It’s certainly less about jump scares and more about an uneasy feeling is the best way to describe it. It was tremendous fun though and just the way to end our evening at Fear Factory.
Scare Zones:
Crimson Harvest:
Immediately you enter a scare zone once you’ve got your cards for the evening. Crows, of course, are my biggest fear. The outdoor section at either end of the tunnel was fun and they definitely know how to deliver the jump. Once entering the tent it is dark and there are hanging bodies and again the actors are beautifully camouflaged amongst the props and the scares are brilliant. It’s a short scare zone which seems to be a recurring pattern but potent.
Uncle Donks:
Brand new for this year is Uncle Donk’s scare zone. Before even entering the brightly coloured tent I had a chainsaw on me again. Up against the tree and running it across my legs! Vile! Once inside the tent, there’s no shortage of actors for sure. It’s definitely quality over length for both scare zones which is definitely preferred.
Overall:
Something is unnerving about going to a new event especially when you go in blind. Yet this event absolutely pulled it out of the bag and truly provided some very substantial scare mazes from every element in terms of scares, themes, storytelling, actors’ performances & the overall package. That’s including the weaker mazes out of the bunch. Theatrically stunning all of them. The scare zones and roaming team are phenomenal. It’s an event we’re gutted to have missed in previous years. But we won’t be missing another year here on. It’s extraordinary, small & compacted but the quality outweighs everything else.
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Thank you for reading and be sure to visit Fear Factory this October!
