Ahead of tonight’s new-for-us spooks, I thought I’d evaluate my top 5 favourite scare mazes so far. I don’t usually do this kind of thing mid-Halloween season but given how packed our scares have been so far I couldn’t suppress talking about those I’ve fallen in love with! So, let’s get on shall we?
5) Freakshow Toxic Junkyard – Alton Towers Scarefest:
This is so close to been sat at my 4th place in all honesty but the dormant build-up to the scares is possibly why it’s not sat there. We had a minor batching issue upon entering but once we lost that group we ended up getting some significant harsh scares. Me & Ant had the same actor 6 times scare us in the mirror section then the finale was something else. I have never encountered a finale quite like this one before the actors were absurd in the nicest way. The guy with the chainsaw terrorized us around 5 times again & the enormous scare of them all was when he kicked the gate open and came after us with the chainsaw. A genuinely extraordinary maze that I hope stays around for many years to come & even has an expansion in some sense.
4) Creek Freak Massacre – Thorpe Park Fright Nights
During its launch year, I found this maze considerably underwhelming which gutted me. But this season has captivated a new light to the maze and left me frightened at every corner and noise noticeable. I got good wood again which I was not mad about. But I had so numerous large scares some of which almost sent me flying they were that big. The strobe section looked worlds better than the last time I did this maze & the chainsaws were ferocious. It’s another maze with one perhaps my favourite soundtrack. That heavy vibe creates the favourable type of setting you’d want from a maze-like this with great intensity throughout.
3) Pie Factory – Xtreme Scream Park:
Another one of those mazes left me rather underwhelmed back in 2019 but positively made up for it this year. It was on fire during our run through. The smell pods were tragic, to say the least, and I couldn’t get the aroma out of my nose for days afterwards, vile. I found the actors to visually look outstanding their make-up alone is enough to make you want to run out there. The scare tactics were striking and were flattered by the animatronics too. Overall, it was the maze that astounded us.
2) Altonville Mine Tours – Alton Towers Scarefest:
I never would have guessed I’d pop this maze so high on my list in all honesty. Every year I experienced it until now I had terrible experiences and never found it done much for me. This season was worlds apart. I surely can’t get over fierce some of the scares were. The actors were on point in this maze and pretty much all of them tended to terrify us at least twice each. Being so near the front gave me a whole new perspective of this maze and I saw the scares arrive from the cleverest of spots. It’s a spectacular maze with some of the best actors feasible inside. The audio is also iconic.
1) Trailers – Thorpe Park Fright Nights:
Of course, the maze is all we have ever hoped for from a maze. I have a fundamental level of admiration for the amount of imaginativeness that has driven this maze to build it so unusual to include the nods to prior mazes. But also to facilitate the opportunity for it to alter each scene too. We had a remarkable run through with some truly LARGE scares. One of my favourite rooms was the Big Top style & Seven Dolls. All of the scares felt extreme and quite frankly utterly terrifying. It’s one I can’t wait to hopefully watch it ripen and fluctuate over the coming years or at least I hope it sticks around? I couldn’t sit and write this without recognizing the impressive audio too. That sense of peace whilst queuing is so deceiving for what you are about to experience.
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What are your top 5 scare mazes so far this spooky season?
Thank you for reading & a huge shout out to all the actors & teams who establish these attractions together. You are all tremendous.
