In what feels like a blink of an eye we once again find ourselves on the precipice of spooky season, and I for one can't wait! After what was, to all extents and purposes, a bit of a blue balls Halloween season last year (despite the incredible efforts of those attractions that did manage to operate) I am SO READY for more of a 'Halloween proper' in 2021. And yes, although it's with a heavy heart that I accept that for the second year running I won't be embarking on the trip of a lifetime to Salem Massachusetts and surrounding scary things, I am gagging to get stuck into a whole season of home grown spooky fun here in the UK as well as a quick pop over to Germany for good measure. This is my most anticipated 2021 list!
Kicking off with what will always to me be the grand daddy and home of Halloween, it's Thorpe Park Fright Nights. Celebrating TWENTY YEARS (yes you read that right) of fear. The park have continued in a lot of ways on from last year, with a healthy mix of 'proper' scares zones accented with a few key scare mazes for some extra intense terror. This includes the return of my beloved Creek Freak Massacre AS WELL AS the return of Creek Freaks Unchained. Suffice to say Old Town is going to be receiving a noise-complaint or two this year for chainsaw-induced screaming.
I think it goes without saying that the thing I'm most excited for at this year's event is Trailers, the park's New for 2021 horror maze. Taking residence in the former Jungle Escape location, Trailers takes place in the SuperSpark Cinema and promises that 'no fear will go unmissed'! I'm sooo excited to see what this maze is like - from the, ahem, trailers so far I'm getting big Stranger Things vibes so if it's even got a hint of that about it I'm sold.
If it's a fun, spooky atmosphere you're after then look no further than Chessington's Howl'O'Ween! It's an event I look forward to every single year and this year is no different. It's by no means the most intense event, even those this year will see the return of the award-winning Creepy Caves: Resurgence, which was one of my favourite mazes last year. The park also seem to be introducing roaming characters in a bigger way this year after there being a spattering of them around for last year's event. Wild Witches, Plunderous Pirates, Ferocious Pharaohs and Barbaric Bandits will be found roaming around various areas of the park throughout the event and I can't wait to soak up the spooky ambience on my visit to one of my favourite parks in the UK at my favourite time of the year!
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I haven't visited The Howl since 2017 so I'm excited to get back to this event after such a long hiatus! There are five haunts to experience at this event, as well as street theatre and general spooky farm ambience which you know I love an am craving in a huge way this year after not getting nearly enough in 2020. Squealer's Yard, The Shed and Topper's Twister are still part of the line-up from when I visited previously, and all of which I had a fun time with in 2017. Red and The Attic are the 'new-for-me' houses, although if Tulley's Shocktoberfest are anything to go by I imagine these are just slight rethemes of the old House of Hounds and Hotel de Basquervilles. Not that I'm complaining - I don't remember too much about these two other than there was a giant wolf puppet similar to The Cellar snake at Shocktoberfest in House of Hounds, so I'm excited to see what changes have been made to the event overall!
It is very wild indeed to me that the last time I visited Burton Screamfest was 2019, because it sure does feel a LOT more recent than that. Wow. OK so yes, Love Hurts is a thing and as long as that perfect horror maze is operating I feel like I'll find myself at Burton Screamfest year after year. There's actually a fair bit of newness to the event for this year - Hillbilly Joe's Zombee Zoo seems to have had some tweaks and updates, as well as a slight change of theme for the attraction's resident clown maze Freak Out, now Freak Out: On Tour. Creed Farm seems to have replaced Dia de los Muertos which I am very thankful for, although I am intrigued to see how Creed Farm will differ from your standard 'crazy hillbillies' maze. And then the attraction I'm most interested in - Le Theatre Noir. This thing seems to be like a dark side of burlesque, which is a theme that very much interests me. I haven't forgotten that Screamfest is the previous home of the likes of Insomnia and Soul Seekers, so we KNOW they're capable of incredibly original things so I'm excited to see what this new maze turns out like.
Booked on a bit of a whim but I'll be heading back to my beloved Movie Park Germany to one again visit their Halloween event Halloween Horror Festival. I think this will be my third or fourth visit to the event...you know what I'm like, I can't remember things to save my life, but regardless I think it's my most visited European Halloween event, and with good reason. Halloween Horror Festival is world class, I always think of it as a Halloween Horror Nights lite - but not in the scare department! The roaming characters are always soooo creative and the scare mazes are detailed and differentiated. There's not actually a lot of detail about the mazes specifically on the website, but I do know that sadly the IP mazes such as Hostel and Wrong Turn aren't a thing anymore. Despite this, the website does promise 'eight horror attractions' and given their track record I'm pretty sure they're all going to kick ass. I can't wait to do some scary stuff abroad again!
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Another return to an attraction I haven't visited since 2017 - FEAR at Avon Valley! And even on our 2017 visit, there was such horrendous traffic that we arrived with just one hour to get around the entire event, so the whole thing was actually quite rushed so I'm excited to do it properly and at a bit more of a leisurely pace this time around. As per our last year, there are four haunts to enjoy. X4 and Anarchy: Live are returning mazes for me but new to the line-up are House of Clowns, a nightmarish twist on the classic scary clown horror maze, and my personal most anticipated Vita Nova, which has nothing but a poem alluding to what the maze actually IS on the website. And that has me very intrigued indeed!
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And finally some new-for-me events as I FINALLY get my butt up to Yorkshire for spooky season. First up is York Maze Hallowscream. I've heard fantastic things about this event, with some calling it the Shocktoberfest of the north, which is a very interesting accolade and certainly sets my expectations high! A previous winner of the UK's best scream park, Hallowscream boasts five haunts, which, with the exception of Corny's Carnevil (which appears to be a clown maze), the themes of which are very unique and intriguing indeed. We have post-apocalyptic, a bit of sci-fi and something that looks like it might be body horror. Something I love about these more independent events if that you'll often find some really weird, wonderful and unique ideas in the attractions so I'm hoping to see a lot of that from Hallowscream!
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Farmageddon is probably the new-for-me 2021 event I'm most looking forward to, mostly because from the branding it feels a little 'edgier' and off the beaten track than the others. It kind of reminds me of Download music festival or something, there's something very 'Kerrang!' about the whole thing. That said, from the descriptions of the four (?) horror mazes I can make out they do all seem to have pretty standard themes, so I'm excited to see if there's a little more to these attractions than initially meets the eye. That said - it's always nice to just be able to get to a new event regardless of if the mazes aren't out of this world or not, so we'll see how this one turns out!
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And now, we wait. There's just three days to go for me before my first event of the season (Tulley's Shocktoberfest, of course. Can't wait to get back in Wastelands Penitentiary!!) and I am SO ready to dive head first into a season of blood, gore, chainsaws and more chainsaws! Bring. It. On.
What events are you visiting this spooky season? Which ones are you most excited for? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to have a chat!
Talk later xoxo,
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