2026 spooky season truly has been one to remember. Every event we visited has had their own distinctive touch and quirk. Each maze we’ve done has shone in their own way. It truly has been tricky to whittle down to our top 11 scare mazes; it would have been 10 but we simply couldn’t skip what’s at 11th. It’s been the best season for a long while personally since 2022 and that did take a lot of beating. Let’s have a chat about our top 11 mazes of the 2026 spooky season.
11)) Full Moon Manor – The Howl:
For as long as we’ve visited The Howl this has been here and somehow it just got better this season. It’s always been a fun and strong maze in the lineup, but we had two very solid run-throughs. The actors were on their top game in here; they gave us intense scares, top-quality acting and didn’t fail to mix the groups up. During our solo run-through, I’ve never seen scare actors perform quite so beautifully in my life. The sets and scenes you walk through are all so gorgeously themed as well. The added touch with the 10th birthday celebrations was cute as well. All-round 10/10 maze that’s really developed into something exceptional this season purely due to the tremendous actors throughout. 
10)) Trailers – Thorpe Park Fright Nights:
I severely doubt this maze will ever get old or fatigued. It has the unlimited opportunities each season to switch up and have transformations made. We adore Trailers but this season gave us THE strongest run through we’ve ever had. Being placed at the back of the group on a very quiet opening day for Fright Nights was ace. The actors again really did shine in here; they were constantly on you until you left each of their sets. There were scares using the sets I’m not even entirely sure were in there prior to this season. The fact you encounter the majority of the iconic characters from across the years of Fright Nights truly is insane; I adore it so much. Hopefully, it stays at Thorpe Park for a VERY long time.
9)) Purgatory – Shocktober Fest
A few seasons in and yet it remains one of my favourite Shocktober Fest mazes. I love the fact you enter within your group with a singular lantern amongst you and into the darkness. The whole vision of that lantern lighting your path and interacting with each room/scares is terrific. It just creates an intense atmosphere before anything even happens. How the actors throughout use their area to create scares is stunning too; you’ll encounter one actor then think they’ve gone before they reappear with another scare again. It’s truly amazing. I love how the rooms are set up to add to the scares without any characters’ insight especially the use of mirrors I can’t tell you how many times I made myself jump in here. The finale is clever too; handing over your lantern you believe it’s the end before you enter the long corridor and it just continues. We did it twice in one night and that finale still never failed to surprise me and give me some harsh scares. A truly extraordinary addition to the line-up those few years ago so delighted to see it stay and hopefully continue to stick around too.
8)) The Village – Xtreme Scream Park
We first visited Xtreme Scream Park back in 2019 and that’s many moons ago now yet The Village never fails to make me have a wobbly before even entering. No scare maze quite has me on edge prior to stepping foot inside as this one does. It really is the most revolting scare maze in all the best possible ways. Every inch of this attraction is intense; the sets, actors, animatronics & the length of it all create the most uneasy experience. If you are like us and have done it prior are we the only ones who cannot stop thinking of that finale all the way through the lead-up to it? The whole maze is a work of art in my opinion. The scares are just brilliant in here too and as much as I dread it I’d hate to see it leave too. That finale though will not be in my nightmares I hate scarecrows and this just plays into that fear without a doubt. I’ll be stunned if this ain’t always in our top 10 mazes for as long as it continues to exist.
7)) Diabolous Visum Mortis – Doncaster Fear Factory:
It’s another nun-based scare maze and yet it is also disgustingly scary. You enter within your own group into pure pitch black with a rope to follow. That rope is a challenge in itself to follow especially when the actors tug on it which just adds to the horrendous tension already. The only time during that first section you see any source of light is when an actor scares you; it’s quite something. Once the rope ends and the light is back the scares just don’t cease neither it’s truly relentless. We had some of the best jump scares of the whole season in this singular maze and we always come out unsettled and in shock by how rotten it is. The finale in itself is terrifying; the strobe section is so powerful and well done the assortment of real and not real chaos is brilliant. It truly is an extraordinary maze that we can’t get enough of. Fear Factory needs to make these mazes unlimited rather than singular run-throughs.
5)) The Cellar Returns – Tulleys Shocktober Fest:
Truly never predicted seeing The Cellar within my top 5 scare mazes but the return really has done that alone. If you’re going to bring back a scare maze THIS is how you do it. There are so many moments in here that are genuinely incredible. The scares are fantastic and come out of the least expected places like the fireplace. There are effects making you feel as if you’re going below into water. It generally feels as if you are amongst The Cellar. We had two truly tremendous runs and for two runs to be THAT uniform you know it’s a brilliant maze.
4)) Trick or Treat Street- Dr Frights:
We headed into this maze at THE perfect time, when all the actors had reset into their positions and had only us to focus on scaring and my goodness they did that perfectly. I’m someone who’s had long-running fears of the large portion of the characters you meet in here and the reset positions just made that ominous. Dr Frights has a whole lot of really unusual scare tactics anyway but my goodness this was intense. There were characters coming from the least expected places; there were drop windows, a room full of Ghost Faces with real and fake ones, there were tents, there was EVERYTHING. It felt as if it lasted forever due to the poor torment of it all but honestly what a maze. It’s always been at Dr Frights in some form since our first visit but it just gets better each time. We love it but also loathe it all in the same sense.
3)) The Final Exhibit – Alton Towers Scarefest
What a ravishing scare maze that’s been produced by the team at Alton Towers. The maze we’ve done here since The Attic. From the outside, you’d not anticipate much but inside truly is something so special. It’s all based around the history of the park which as someone like us you immediately admire regardless. We love all things history-related. It’s so beautifully done; it’s a similar concept to Trailers but completely different too. This is almost like a museum-type theme where you walk through and confront retired mascots, ride parts and broad history. It doesn’t sound all that horrifying when you actually describe it but I promise you it is. Again, I did two separate run-throughs, and both times the scares came out of new areas each time, you need two runs to truly appreciate the level of detail in here; there’s so much to look at and it is an intense scare maze as well. The scares can be pretty fierce. Everything about it is just PERFECTION. Can’t wait to see how it grows for next season.
2)) Ash Hell- Xtreme Scream
Always one of the highlight mazes of any scare season. Ash Hell has always been a rough experience; it’s so lengthy, dark, dingy, stinking and the characters you meet are always untamed. However, the team took an already tremendous attraction & SOMEHOW made it even more amazing which I never thought would be possible. It’s almost in two halves: you go through all the prison familiarises of previous years then you enter the rehabilitation section and it becomes a whole new maze. There’s so much happening; there are exceptionally enormous animatronics, there are almost like these theatrical scenes and so much new. It’s taken an already existing extraordinary maze and produced something truly astonishing. The changes made have blown our minds and we wish again we could do endless run-throughs, as there’s so much to take in. It’s a gorgeous experience again in all the wrong ways as it is still terrifying. The team smashed it out of the park with these changes; we are still in utter awe & surprise at how it was even achievable to better this maze.
1)) The Mortician – Doncaster Fear Factory:
Never did I anticipate this level of intensity. It took me by utter shock and genuinely left me thinking of it every single day since. It’s our first experience doing a maze recommended for those over the age of 17. We should have guessed from that announcement how drastic this was going to be. It was full-on in every single aspect you can imagine the set pieces, actors, the touching, the lighting, tight confined spaces, smells and noises. It had it all happening & it was genuinely a lot. It’s just you and your little group throughout and it’s almost impossible to catch up to anyone else except the finale; that’s where we did. But we got locked in corridors during that point; we were stroked, grabbed, pushed and pulled; it was absurd. There are moments where the intensity of the touching, noise and the tight space really has you terrified. We had some of the least expected jumps in here; it was truly fantastic and so hard to thoroughly explain the magnitude. It’s one of the few mazes this season where we came out needing a minute to compose ourselves. We pray this returns next year as it’s really altered our perception and opinions on scare mazes altogether. It set the bar and made us crave for more like this.
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These are our top 11 of the season and we’d love to hear yours!
