7 UK Scare Attractions I'm Looking Forward To This Halloween
The best time of the year is almost upon us, and I've been busying myself the past few weeks putting together my schedule for the Halloween season. Every year I try to do a few 'new to me' attractions as well as visiting my old favourites. There's nothing like trying out a new scare attraction when you have literally no idea what's coming! Here's what I've got in store this October.
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The park is celebrating 15 Years of Fear this year and going all out with the scariest FRIGHT NIGHTS yet. Old favourites such as Cabin in the Woods and SAW Alive are returning alongside Platform 15. New for this season, guests will walk down an abandoned railroad track to discover the secrets of the legendary Sleeper Express, a train whose passengers disappeared without a trace.
I'm excited to return to FRIGHT NIGHTS for my 7th year in a row. There's always something new and terrifying to try as well as FRIGHT NIGHTS classics that deliver the scares year after year.
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Whilst not half as extreme as its sister park THORPE PARK's Halloween event, Howl'o'ween has a much more wholesome family fun atmosphere. The park is covered in pumpkins and cute photo opportunities and truly feels magical once the sun goes down. They also have their own family versions of scare attractions, including Curse of the Lost Tomb where guests have to work together to solve the mystery whilst experiencing some frights along the way!
This event is tons of fun and the atmosphere on park is really vibrant. Also, they pump out my favourite theme park music of all time on repeat, so it's kind of my favourite place to be at Halloween time!
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To complete the unholy trio of Merlin park Halloween events, of course I have to try out Scarefest! Again, whilst the attractions aren't nearly as pant-wettingly extreme as those you'd find at THORPE, there's a certain element of that Towers charm running through each and every one. There's also a little something for everyone: 3 scare mazes for those seeking more high-octane scares and a host of family-based Halloweeny goodness for those with little ones with the Towers' own Halloween mascots Skelvin, Phil, Franklyn and Patch hosting various shows and spook zones around the park.
The Towers is a spooky setting in itself, so really comes alive during the Halloween season and already gloomy themed areas take on a whole new lease of life. I'm excited to retry Sub Species: The End Games. Our run through last year wasn't amazing but everybody has raved about it so I'm keen to give it another go!
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Another park I'm returning to for another round, Scare Kingdom takes scare attractions to the next level and was once home to the notorious Psychomanteum, named the UK's most extreme scare attraction in its debut year. Alongside this infamous attraction, Scare Kingdom changes its lineup every year to keep the scares fresh and delivering the fear. Check out this year's line-up here. The park pushes boundaries continuously so I'm interested to see what evil they have in store for us this year!
The crown jewel of this scare park is Manor Mortis, a highly themed haunted house that is as enjoyable to experience from a thematic point of view as well as a narrative one. And again, the creators change the overall storyline so despite the attraction looking similar year on year, there are just enough subtle changes to make the experience totally fresh.
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I've wanted to visit this scream park for a few years now and when they won the ScareCon SCAR Award for Best Scream Park I decided this would be the year. I love the atmosphere of entering a new attraction for the very first time and the anticipation of having no idea of what's to come.
That said, despite the accolades this park has achieved, I can't help but feel their line-up looks a little generic in terms of theme. Where other indie scream parks like Scare Kingdom go out of their way to bring something totally unique and unexplored in scare territory, XTREME SCREAM PARK seem to have chosen to build up their audience by playing with pre-existing notions of 'scare'. It'll be good to see what they do with these generic themes and how they make them their own.
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Another new-to-me scream park, I've once again finally decided to bite the bullet and visit this place after years of umming and ahhing. Winner of three ScareCon SCAR Awards, this place clearly has something going for it that I'm excited to try out for the first time. The website calls it the 'Tarantino of Scare Events', so if it's not full of loads of gore, action and witty anecdotes with pop culture references I'll be super disappointed.
All the attractions at this event are theme to horror movies through the ages - it's like this was designed especially for me! There are no IPs though, so from what I can gather it's a generic theme based on some of the most popular tropes from each decade. Ie, 80s slasher films, 70s cannibal nasties, 50s black and white classics. I have to say, I'm getting increasingly excited about this even as I write this, hear's hoping it doesn't let me down!
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This will be my fourth year of visiting Tulleys because apparently I haven't got tired of it just yet! If you're from Surrey, or anywhere nearby, likelihood is you've heard of this one, it's almost legendary and a must-do Halloween event for locals. Annoyingly, and unlike Scare Kingdom, Tulley's do recycle old mazes year on year and don't do that much to make them a different experience for returning customers. Similarly, I raved about the Haunted Hayride to get friends to visit with me last year, only to be let down after they removed some of the best elements of the ride. I guess you could argue that each ride is different but it just seemed a shame to me that some of the best scares were absent during last year's ride.
That said, the Chop Shop was ridiculous last year, some of the older resident haunts make their return for a reason because they're great fun and the park do go out of their way to add at least one new attraction every year. This year it's Coven of 13. I love anything to do with witches and the occult, so sign me up!
Writing this post has got me properly in the mood for the Halloween season to kick off! Can't wait to grab my boots and jumpers and get my scare on!
Talk later xoxo,
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