Before I get into the post itself, I would just want to say a massive thank you to the press team for inviting us down to experience this event.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ONWARD!!!!!!
I feel as if we caught this maze at an odd time in all honesty. We were the second group through after a little while of down time. Therefore I feel the run through we had may have been impacted due to whatever occurred before us. However, I found this maze relied heavily on the dark to create scares. I’ve never been in a maze quite that dark before. There wasn’t all that much to look at due to the pitch black. Again it felt very reliant on the drop-down windows scare. Which were fab as they naturally scare me anyway but I think by after a few I got a bit too used to them, to even jump anymore. One part of this maze you had to crawl although we then found out afterwards you didn’t have to at all. We found ourselves getting very lost and confused walking into walls with the lack of lighting throughout. It built up a tense the atmosphere and made everything feel a little jumpy. The finale was somewhat similar to Alton Towers Dungeons finale. Don’t get me wrong it was scary but almost felt a tad familiar for it scare us out of our wits. Overall it’s a maze that had a a lot of potential in regards to scares but unfortunately, the sheer darkness kind of took away a lot of the enjoyment for us. Again I’m unsure whether whatever happened before us entering had an impact on this.
Look, I completely respect the fact this is usually a bag on the head style maze outside of the current COVID situation. But this maze was probably the weakest of this season. Let’s begin by praising the women at the start, she was fab. She got us into the storyline and played her role incredibly well. Then it almost a downward spiral from there. You can tell this maze was invented to be a hooded maze. Although there were some truly gorgeous themed set-pieces throughout. The layout felt odd almost. Some of the entrances to the following scene/room felt almost as if it should have been an actors route if you know what I mean? Again a fair bit of darkness throughout nothing on the scale of The Haunting though. The actors were actually fab throughout this maze. But for us, it did not scare us at all & felt as if it lacked actors again. We came out almost confused about what had happened. It was fairly short as well maybe around 3 minutes all told & did not rise to the potential it actually had. I think as a hooded maze this would no doubt be tremendous but of course, we understand that it wasn’t designed for the way it’s run this year.
This is the best maze at Fear Island by far. The first scene you enter pleasingly intense and almost set the fear factor at an high. The actor performing the story again played it so well it felt hard to remember it isn’t true. One of the best scares distractions we’ve seen this year happened within this room, I won’t quite say what as it will ruin it for anyone wanting to experience this maze. This maze relied less on darkness and a lot more on strobes, which is my kind thing. One room had the most intense strobe lighting we’ve seen this year. Every single room had an extraordinary amount of theming. I think there were a few missed opportunities regarding scares inside. But the ones we did get were fab. The finale corridor was good but I almost expected at least another full-on room then exit. I think this maze would sit cheerfully within my top 10 but not quite my top 5. Overall it was tense, visually remarkable like it felt as if you were genuinely strolling through a hospital & the actors were top quality. The only thing which could have made it better which I understand may not be possible due to various reasons is double the number of actors in there.
Overall the event was fab & a lot of fun. The mazes were decent but had a small bit of room for improvement. I found the layouts of the mazes quite confusing. A lot of the routes felt almost as if they were meant for the actors, but perhaps due to us being quite used to the other mazes been clearer on where to go next. I think if The Haunting had the tiniest bit more lighting it would have been insane. My highlight maze was Disturbiam. I think that maze is unbelievable and worth the visit alone. I think the team at Fantasy Island have done an incredible job considering the circumstances we’re all in right now. I would happily visit again next year. If you haven’t experienced Fear Island I’d highly recommend checking it out. It’s well worth a visit and what might not scare us may scare you.
If you’ve already experienced Fear Island let us know your thoughts in the comments or across our social media.
Thank you for reading & thank you to the press team once again for the invite!