And just like that spooky season 2021 is over and the Halloween blues have kicked right in leaving me rather bleak and missing the scares already. Although we still have one more scare maze to come in December when we do our first ever Christmas themed scare maze over at Walsall Scare Maze. It’s time to sit and go through my top 12 as I’m too indecisive for a top 10 haha. Let’s crack on shall we?
Honourable Mention:
Creepy Caves Resurgence:
I don’t think I have ever done this maze and left it feeling disheartened in all honesty. Unfortunately this season we only managed to get half way due to an E-Stop through no fault of their own. Yet that first half of the maze was extraordinary. The actors were insane and it was strong to the point I was a nervous wreck from the moment of stepping foot into the first room. The theming was on point as normal and altogether it is a tremendous maze which I hope returns for another season next year.
12 – Maze of Death – Farmagedddon:
This scare maze was so unique in comparison to anything we have ever done before in all honesty. It was a literal maze you enter and don’t leave until you find the route out but in the meantime, there’s not a great ordeal but a fair few actors making you jump and just feel on edge. Not to forget the fact there is also a dude in this maze with a chainsaw as well and sufficient amount of smokey effects to make it extra hard to find your way out. There is a tap out word which you are given upon entering but all in all, it took us about 40 minutes to figure the path we had to take to flee this maze. It genuinely is so different it’s almost difficult to not adore.
11 – Darkest Depth – Alton Towers Scarefest:
It is one of my firm favourites for years now and this season saw it become a full-blown scare maze with the newly acquainted age restriction which aligned with the fellow mazes at Alton Towers. Being a leader of this maze gave me the opportunity for some of the powerful scares I have ever experienced. But also the location of this maze is so applicable I feel and the outer point of view is just gorgeous. Heading through each individual room it just feels surreal to acknowledge you are still within Alton Towers grounds. It just feels like an entirely distinct setting the theming, sounds and smells all just immerse to the point you forget where you really are. It’s truly a magical maze for the entire offering it gives.
10 – Wastelands Penitentiary – Tulleys Shocktoberfest:
As sad as it makes me popping this maze quite as low as it is I still admire it so dearly. The sheer intensity of this maze from the moment you step into that plaza and are greeted or shall we say terrorised by the roaming team, into the strobe ridden queue line and then into the maze itself. You never catch a minute to feel peaceful at all. It’s another maze that feels as if it’s in a total different place like you feel as if you are inside of a prison. The theming has always been tremendous and quite dingy. Heading into THE best strobe section to ever exist in a maze in my opinion was as menacing as I recollected. It is just surreal to clarify the emotion it gives you and it was my first time leading our group through this area and it was so challenging. The half-open prison doors throw you so much and it takes a fair while to figure out where you are going in there. Before heading down the exit corridor the finale room was apprehensive the two actors played this room flawlessly but I do wish it had an actual finale down that corridor even one guy with a chainsaw would do.
9 – Creek Freak Massacre – Thorpe Park Fright Nights:
I’m so grateful to be adding this beauty of a maze in my top 10. It never did an enormous ordeal for me back in 2019 but it restored itself this season. I can’t get over how unpleasant it is and those actors are absurd in the nicest feasible way. For me, the audio that comes hand in hand with this theme and maze truly makes the environment TENSE. Adding the variety of the theming, actors and chainsaws to the blend just makes everything so much chilling. The team have smashed this maze out of the park and with all the current rumours surrounding the area I truly hope we can see this maze return for so many more years to come.
8 – Hillbilly Joes Zombee Zoo – Screamfest Burton:
A maze we were moderately optimistic about yet never foreseen to fall in love with it as much as we did. It is the precise combination of fun to incredibly jumpy. Some of the characters you meet along the way are so bizarre yet they use some unbelievable tactics to frighten you. I have had some massive scares from both run-throughs we got to have and they were pretty intense too. I found the actors were completely extraordinary and they played their roles so effortlessly and it never felt all that forced with them neither. The set-pieces were fab and I just admire that real uncommon scare moments you really don’t find elsewhere and it just works so well. If someone tells you oh in this maze there is a zombie hotdog you just giggle like how will that even be scarier yet that hot dog gave me some fierce scares. It’s a maze I’ll forever giggle about but forever cherish too.
7 – Freakshow Toxic Junkyard – Alton Towers Scarefest:
I was over the moon to see this join the line-up for its second year at Scarefest as last year I just fell in love. This maze is crammed packed with real cute easter eggs to past rides and attractions from Alton Towers. It has the wackiest variety of a theme with this undertone of craziness. I always loved this theme as a scare zone but it really has been upped and brought to life in a scare maze setting. The slow-burning start is the best way to start this maze you encounter the stray ends of actors but you are almost blind to the pure terror that is about to unearth the closer you get to the finale. Again the audio is just delightful. We ended up with two actors in distinct scaring us around about 5-6 times each and it was constantly the same person. It was just insane. The finale was easily one of my favourites we have done this season and the genuine intense level of fear I felt when the actor booted the metal gate it seemed to be then revved that chainsaw up is just unspeakable. I honestly hope to see it return for its third season as those little tinker developments made for this year were perfect and I’d love to see where they could really take this maze next year too.
6 – Pie Factory – Xtreme Scream Park:
Heading back into this maze I suppressed judgement a lot given back in 2019 it just fell flat for me due to the batching issues we had encountered. Yet this year during our visit this issue was resolved which made this maze incredibly personal. The assortment of animatronics, props and actors all create a real fiery kind of maze. As you travel through you just feel dreadful from the smells and sounds alone. But you add those scares in too and it just becomes an exceptional maze. I jumped so much and felt as if nowhere was safe the full way through. A stand out scare for me was the pack of zombie animatronics just coming towards me it freaked me the hell out haha.
5 – Altonville Mine Tours – Alton Towers Scarefest:
If you have followed me throughout the last few Halloween’s you’ll be familiar of the fact I have never been one to rate this maze at all. I had always ended up in the wrong spot of the group to get the intense scares that everyone was raving about. Yet this year I was second from the front of our group, my mum is quite small therefore it felt as if I was leading haha. I have never in my life experienced Altonville Mine Tours on this precise level before. It is one of the first times in so many years I almost sobbed from pure fear. Those actors were just outstanding and the set-pieces complimented the scares perfectly. One of my highlight scares were thinking we had to go through the cloth covering a doorway and an actor was behind this curtain and ready to go and gave me one of the harshest jumps I have ever had. I came out of this maze trembling it was so much fun but incredibly tense.
4 – Chop Shop – Tulleys Shocktoberfest:
This was one of my most anticipated scare mazes for this season and it sure did not disappoint. I found the build-up was somewhat ominous yet sluggish in the same aspect. But boy, I promise the finale was everything other than stagnant it was truly traumatising. I ended up leading us through the finale and the scares were very predictable in all honesty but that did not stop me from stopping dead in my tracks to stamp my feet purely out of feeling petrified. The chainsaw sounds and smells were vile. I was pinned up against the wall at one point by the chainsaw dude. The soundtrack is perfect again. I love a good heavy soundtrack to a maze because it just sets the tone brilliantly. I hope next season when we return we manage to get a tinier batching group in order to have the full-blown scares continuously.
3 – Love Hurts – Screamfest Burton:
I had such high hopes for this scare maze which made me almost afraid of the fact could easily dissatisfy by the amount of hype I felt. Turns out those concerns weren’t a problem because it was everything and more that I had dreamed it to be. It was my first time seen such unique scare techniques and the entire maze was utterly horrendous intense but I did love it nevertheless. The finale was so unusual to the conventional chase out by a chainsaw dude instead it a dead stop kind of room with a chainsaw running at you which is a whole different level of terrifying. I came out of this maze truly petrified and I hope it returns for next year.
2 – Trailers – Thorpe Park Fright Nights:
I love this maze for the entire package which comes along with it. The fact it could quite effortlessly be altered every year and each room could be rewritten is just a genius maze style to establish. I’m looking forward to seen how this maze develops over the years. But it is one of my favourites from this season with the variation that each room delivers. It’s everything other than repetitive and as enthusiast there is something truly outstanding about the small nods to retired mazes over the years. When you watch the behind the scenes it gives you a new level of appreciation for all the tiny bits and bobs you perhaps wouldn’t notice on an ordinary run-through. I had some fun scares in this maze as well which is another justification to why I just idolize it. But as I mentioned before I am so enthusiastic to see this maze just proceed to thrive over the years to come and watch what the team come up with going forward.
1 – Bunker 41 – Walsall Scare Maze:
When we added this scare maze to our Halloween plans I never believed it to be my number one maze of all-time. Yet here we are. This scare maze is gorgeous and a whole level of terrifying. I found the scares to come from areas I least anticipated and the actors were so hands on with us it was insane. It’s the first maze to leave me speechless upon escaping it. I can’t explain enough how much I recommend this maze. It is the best in the UK by far and the sheer level of intensity is madness. The finale was stunning it was one of those where again it felt like a genuine maze and at one point I was confident it was going to take us an eternity to get out as we just kept going in circles until we learnt the way out. I am so hyped to get into their Christmas scare maze in the coming months!
So guys that is a wrap of Halloween 2021 and I am gutted to say the least. It has been phenomenal and I wish I could put a top 20 scare maze list together but it would be far too prolonged haha. I may share a top 5 least favourite scare mazes in the coming weeks. But I’d love to hear what were your top 10 scare mazes this season?
Thank you so much for the events who invited us to check out their attractions and thank you to you guys for reading as always!