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Screamland 2015, Dreamland Margate - Review

Ian

From CoasterForce
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
This year I've done a record number (for me) of scare attractions - Europa Park, Thorpe's Fright Nights and now Screamland. Out of the three, Screamland was the one I was most looking forward to. The teaser images that they released on Twitter looked amazing and I've heard good things about Atmosfear (the creative company).

Male Jordan and I arrived in Margate about 4:30, 90mins before the Screamland event had opened. The horizon soon lit up when we saw the Scenic operating and looking fab with it's white lights. We killed the next 90mins talking to Lofty, looking around the shop (which has some fab tat btw - take lots of money!) and figuring out how to deactivate my car alarm.

When 6pm rolled around we, and about 200 others, were let into the park to try everything for free. Before doing the scare attractions, we did the two coasters (Scenic and Apple coaster) as Jordan had cred anxiety.

Anyway, on with the show! May contain nuts and spoilers. Sorry for not taking many photos (and you can't take photos in the mazes) - Jordan's report will have more when he posts his thoughts.

The first scare labyrinth we did was Festino's Forgotten Funhouse. Right from the off it was superbly themed. The batching and explanation area set the scene. Upon entering, there is a bit of crouching to be done, which is a bit awkward if you are following somebody you don't know. Having a 16 years old girl's arse a few inches from my nose was not how I planned to spend the evening. After that, it opens up and you start to appreciate the set. Every scene was well themed with uneven floors, things hanging from the ceiling - it felt eerie. This attraction did not scare me and I don't recall any memorable jump scares. However, it freaked me out! There were some awesome scenes such as the checkerboard man (that was so freaky and my top highlight of this maze), the scary clown face corridor with the freaky dwarf, the woman who ate turds and the camp mermaid. There is also a bit of audience participation, for which I was picked - "come in my box" said the actor... The finale scene was amazing! That was the only time I felt on edge.

Overall FFF, was a good maze to start the event with. It's not scary, just freaky. I think if I had done it after the others, I would have found it underwhelming scare wise but the atmosphere would have still been electric.
Number of Underwear Changes Required: 2
Max Time I'd Queue For It: 30mins

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The two signature mazes were our next port of call. You cannot do one of them - you have to do them both.

First up was The Final Cut.

The queue was only about 15 people deep but we had to wait about 20 mins before we could enter but boy was it worth it! The indulgent briefing area was well themed, lit and atmospheric. The attraction begins with a revolving door which everybody has to enter one-by-one. Losing sight of my group and feeling alone got my heart pumping. Once the group was together, an actor well dressed as an usher told us the storyline in a comical and cheesy manner - exactly what I'd expect. Before the scares begun, we walked from the "lobby" to a comical and incredibly well themed confectionary counter with an actor playing the type of person you'd expect to see selling popcorn at a cinema. I loved the attention to detail such as the spiders crawling out of the popcorn and the smells - the use of scent cannons were genius.

It is the flowing story line that makes The Final Cut fantastic. So far I'd entered the cinema, bought my ticket, got some popcorn and was about to take my seat. In the theatre, there are rows of zombies sat watching a movie and before you know it, the screen splits and you walk through it. Behind the screen are some claustrophobic air cushions which seem to go on forever! I lost sight of the person in front of me and the person behind; I was isolated. Trapped. Anxious of what would greet me when I emerged. What follows are scare scenes from famous films (or generic film ideas). The one I found most memorable was the screaming woman on the tilting gurney. Argggghhh! I wanted to get out immediately. The finale was fantastic - I actually did a nervous fart when the room lit up due to a sparky thing in a cage which revealed a woman with a knife stood beside me.
Number of Underwear Changes Required: 4
Max Time I'd Queue For It: 60mins

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Upon exiting, there is a small courtyard that smell of damp (I'm not sure if t's real or another scent canon) where you wait to enter Dead & Breakfast. The facade of the guest house is themed to a war torn 1940's Margate B&B. It's here that you wait to enter the next maze. My queue line experience was slightly spoiled by a young lady who kept boasting about how she has done loads of scare mazes before and nothing frightens her. She was annoying. To make it worse, she was leading the group so whenever she led us into the room, she would position herself in the middle so she could have the best experience whilst those at the back missed out on the initial scare. Thankfully the actors noticed that those at the back couldn't see so in the story rooms they encouraged the annoying young lady to move to the far end.

Anyway, the entrance to Dead & Breakfast is brilliant. If you've ever stayed in a rundown seaside B&B, you'll recognise it. The group was welcomed by Fag Ash Lil, the B&B owner who set the scene by telling us the only room available was room 13. The hotel was run down because of the war, ghosts were present etc etc. With hands-on-shoulders, we walked through a corridor full of smashed windows, noisy sound effects and actors looking at us, trying to grab us and so on. It was unnerving. The first room we stopped in was room 13 - which was being used by a hooker. She wasn't scary, just funny - the real scare was the man jumping out of the wardrobe. We quickly dashed to the next scene which was the bathroom. Here we were told to get out, evil is around, bombs are falling and all sort of stuff. A man in a gas mask appeared behind the bathroom mirror - freaky!

Out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. I found this scene to be quite weak. A chef appears and says there isn't much food about but we all look tasty etc. It was a bit predictable. Predictable is fine if it has a element of cheese to it but I found the pace of the attraction drained a little here. The set was amazing, as was the acting, but it lacked something.

After exiting the kitchen, we headed "outside" where an old crone was hanging out her washing. The attraction picked up pace again as we walked through the dirty backstreets (again, fantastic set) pushing away her dirty clothes that were dangling over our faces. The noise here was intensifying - there was an air raid on it's way! Quick! Everybody into the lift down to the air raid shelter! The lift section was great. We were all packed in like sardines, the floor vibrated and the lights went off. The sense of anticipation was brilliant! What I liked the most about the lift is the group order was reversed. The leaders of the group (including Annoying Boasting Young Lady) was now at the back and the people at the rear (me and Jordan) were now leading.

We sort of walked around and around in a circle for a few moments, with the odd illuminated scare actor popping up. It wasn't scary, just a bit silly in a good way.

The highlight was the air raid shelter scene. It was so well themed. Everybody was told to sit on benches situated alongside the long walls facing inwards. The bombs fell...the lights went off...they went back on! ARRGGH! A scare actor was in your face. This was repeated a couple of time so the actors could change positions. It was terrifying!
Number of Underwear Changes Required: 5
Max Time I'd Queue For It: 60mins


I loved Dead & Breakfast. After exiting the attraction last night, I thought it was my favourite. However, after writing this report, I think enjoyed The Final Cut more. Even though D&B was excellent, I found the story and creativity in TFC a tad slicker. TFC has a continuous flow with a sustained level of anticipation. D&B dropped very slightly on occasion. I'm being really picky here, as if choosing which of my two parents I prefer the most.

Our final attraction was Abramacabre. When Dreamland approached my company to install a mirror maze, the brief stated it must be versatile for a Halloween event. Therefore it was designed with that in mind, hence it's macabre artwork and the layout. Throughout the year it remains a high quality maze attraction but in October, it's transformed for Screamland and I was keen to see how.

Before entering the maze, a magician's assistant called Deadie McGee (lol!) explained that a magician is looking for his rabbit that has escaped from his top hat. Simple enough.

Upon entering the maze, the lights bathe everything in a blood red. As with a true maze, you don't know what is around the next corner, plus you are unnerved by the illusions and the sense of being genuinely lost. Out of nowhere appears the magician who looks terrified. Where is his rabbit? What has happened to him? He has transformed! The magician disappears and you are left to explore the mirror maze once again. Everybody inside KNOWS that something is going to jump out at any moment but because you're free to explore, you have no idea when or where it will be. What added to the scare was I found myself wandering around on my own. Jordan has taken another route so without somebody to back me up, I was on edge.
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Out of nowhere, one of the mirrors lit up and an actor dressed in a MASSIVE and scary fanged-rabbit costume started to bang on the glass and make scary noises. It is shocking! I nearly shat myself. For me, it was the best jump scare of the entire evening.
Number of Underwear Changes Required: 2
Max Time I'd Queue For It: 20mins


Out of the three Halloween events I have attended this year, I rate Screamland as my fave. It had the whole package of variety, strong storylines, excellently crafted sets, memorable scare moments, perfect pacing, awesome use of special effects (soundtracks constantly playing, smells, lights - everything!) and confident actors.

My only concern is that Dreamland have made a rod for their own back. How the hell will they top it next year?!
 

Serena

Miss CoasterForce 2016
Staff member
Social Media Team
Wow, Screamland sounds incredible! The revolving door entrance for The Final Cut is such a clever idea. So, so tempted to make the burdenous 5 hour journey to Margate now...
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
Do it, I'm racking my brains to figure out how I can go there next week. The sets are incredible and from what Lofty says, the actors are much better than what I've seen so far this season.
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Love this review - it's been a hard slog to get here but the event is truly fantastic and the Dreamland team truly need a pat on their backs. They've done a fantastic job.


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk.
 

Jordanovichy

Credit Whore 2016
Like Ian, I have done more scare attractions this year then ever before, I usually do Hocus Pocus Hall at GF and that's it, I find them terrifying, and I'm glad I've seen more of them this year. I'm not just going to review the scare things here because I think Dreamland deserves an overall review too. Like Ian's this report will contain spoilers!

I got to Ian's in time to be on the road by 13:15. We made the loooong journey to Margate, stopping at some services for a cheeseburger on the way. We arrived at Dreamland with loads of time to spare, the Scenic was running, and looked great at the front of the car park.

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The sign is made out of old bits of wood from the Scenic

We minced around the tat shop (which is fab, I got a big apple pin badge, so happy!). We also met Lofty for a coffee, I'd never met him before but somehow it was like meeting an old friend. Great to meet you!

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It looked so fab and retro, I loved what they'd done in here. The arcade had loads of pennies stuck in the floor, there were old arcade machines as well, really fab.

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Ian and I popped to the seafront for a portion of bleak chips before heading back, grabbing our wristbands and heading in.

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We...well, I made a b-line for Counter Culture Caterpillar because cred.

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It was the first pastel coloured Big Apple I've ever ridden! And it was oddly smooth. I thought it was new, turned out it came from Bulgaria. But yay +1.

We next headed over to the Scenic, I took a few pictures of the various attractions en route.

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We joined the queue for the Scenic which wasn't substantial but took 5 minutes.

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I wasn't a fan of the seats, over the shoulder seatbelts for one thing, and that cage thing is obstructive and spoils your view. The coaster though is good fun, it was great knowing that this had brought people pleasure for almost 100 years, it isn't thrilling, it's just fun, couple pops of airtime, I'm really happy it's finally open!

Anyway, I won't bore you with more of this, let's get onto the scare attractions. First up was :

Festino's Forgotten Funhouse
I was nervous, I was on edge. Firstly, I was about to experience a Lofty creation which I'd heard excellent things about and I was really excited at the same time. The straw on the floor was a great, simple touch.

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Casual blurry Lofty

We passed through a tongue and began the labyrinth. There were various rooms of really freaky, phycological **** going on, a woman eating **** for example. There was nothing jumping out and particularly scary but I think that's the whole point in this one. It was freaky as ****, really weird, and there was the anticipation of scare. The last room did make me jump when someone behind bars suddenly jumped out. I like the uneven floors, which you had to pay attention to, forgetting where you are, you look up and there will be something else to make you jump. The music was also fab, circus oriented, really spooky and worked so well. I really enjoyed this attraction!
Overall score - 6

Next we headed out through the front doors and waited in a queue for the next two mazes, sorry, labyrinths. It took around 20 minutes. Next up was:

The Final Cut
Actually based in the old cinema was this scare attraction themed to a haunted cinema. Genius. We headed through the revolving door which did give the feeling of 'oh ****, now I'm alone'. We were then introduced to the labyrinth by an usher and given the story of what was happening. We then made our way through to what was, probably, my favourite single set of the night, it was so simple but worked so well with popcorn covered in spiders, and various chocolate bars dusty and cobwebbed up too, the smell of popcorn in the air (loved the scent cannons so much), soft popcorn on the floor to tread on. So genius, loved it.

We then entered the cinema full of zombies watching but we soon 'escaped'. The rest of the labyrinth was full of the scares, with the air cushions first, they were so so tight, it was actually physically straining to get through. But the scares! I jumped here. I jumped there. I jumped everywhere. People I weren't expecting were coming out of various places, out of things, my most memorable was seeing Ian absolutely **** himself in a room which went dark, then some sparks started but as he turned there was a scare actor right next to him, I'm surprised he didn't hit his head on the ceiling, that's how high he jumped. It was amazing. I loved how you had the story at the beginning, increasing the anticipation, and it not being that scary until the proper scares started. Loved it.
Overall Score - 7

This attraction leads into the fantastically named...

Dead and Breakfast
We were 'greeted' by a very odd woman, Fag Ash Lil, her role and acting in said role is perfect, so funny. As Ian said, think your typical run down seaside B&B and you've pretty much got it...this just had a few less cobwebs. Fag in hand, she introduced us to the hotel and explained how there was a war etc. Only room 13 was available, **** typical. We were lead through the labyrinth by the master of scare mazes, a woman who never gets scared by these things, she didn't flinch once at Thorpe Park Fright Nights last year after all....

The first room was a bedroom with a prostitute in the bed, she wasn't scary, but the thing jumping out of the wardrobe was. We ran on. Next room was the bathroom, there was a man in a gas mask, I find gas masks terrifying in general, I was keen to get out. Next was the kitchen. I disagree with Ian, I really liked this scene, the way he kept smashing his cleaver down on the side made me jump out of my skin every time, as did the way he smashed his way around the kitchen...and his final countdown when we needed to get out. Out into the garden in fact where all of Fag Ash Lil's dirty clothes were hanging, you were running through this whilst there were flashing lights and sirens and loud noises. Loved it, so intense! We bounded into a lift to go down to the air raid shelter. Fab vibrating floor.

Ian and I had been at the back the whole way round but we were now at the front. I was leading the pack. Oh ****. We went into a room where we were basically walking in circles. It sounds dull but it worked so well, we didn't know where we were going or what was happening, we wondered where we were going, a couple of people behind us were like 'what's going on?', 'where are we going?', I think that's the point!

The air raid shelter was the last room, it was so scary. We all sat down and everything went dark, suddenly a flash, I assume from a falling bomb, and right up in my face was a gas masked thing, I screamed so so loud. I loved it. Amazing. This happened with other poor sods for the next couple of minutes before we left. It was amazing. There's something about a war theme which is, obviously, terrifying anyway, but incorporating it into the maze was **** genius. I loved it so much. I would happily do it again.
Overall Score - 9

Excellent work on that! We headed back into the park to the mirror labyrinth...no no, that actually IS a maze, excellent.

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Abramacabre

So it has been Halloween-ified for Screamland, we were introduced to the maze by the fabulous Deddie McGee, that really cracked me up. So a spell once went wrong and a huge bunny is on the loose, would we bump into it in the high quality mirror maze? We'd soon find out. We anxiously headed inside. I soon lost Ian, I clearly know my way around these things better...I found Ian again and we bumped into a guy who said he'd been lost in there for 12 decades. I said he looked very good for it which cracked me up (and very nearly, him) and warned us of the bunny. What made this really scary is that we both knew something was going to happen we just didn't know when. Something did happen, I won't go into what, but it was the biggest and best scare of the night. So good.

When we came out I decided to do 'Barrel of Laughs', the rotor which leaves you stuck to the wall. Much fun, such sickness. The ride op got me to try and clap, I could hear Ian laugh from the viewing platform. Cheers!

We headed over to the ferris wheel so I could get some aerial pictures of the Scenic for Instagram.

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It was SO cold up there, the wind off the sea cut right through you, I was fine in my toasty warm winter jacket but Ian struggled in his MouseAT fleece! I got some decent pics

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After that we were pretty much done. We said our farewells, and congratulations to Lofty on such an amazing series of attractions and headed off into the night.

I feel like I haven't said enough on the generic park. It's fab, I never went when it was open years ago but they've really tied in the old heritage with the new and I love it, it works so well. They have a series of new rides, like the top spin and the mirror maze and have tied them in with old school rides like the carousel, the Scenic and the old school Twister. They also went all out for Halloween, there were pumpkins dotted around here and there, they had music everywhere themed to the places in the park, so at the front they had 'seasidey' spooky music, and towards the back near the Circus horror labyrinth they had the spooky clown music. They had a tonne of lights lighting everything up in green and white, and they moved around too, there were smoke machines and loads of roaming actors.

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I can't wait to see what happens to Dreamland, I really hope it does well, it really deserves to. I had such a great evening, thank you Ian for the driving, thank you for reading!
 

Ben

CF Legend
IT WAS SO GOOD.

Best theme park scare event I've done, Dead and Breakfast gave me life <3

Here ends my indepth review.
 

silenthillXD

Hyper Poster
Ben said:
IT WAS SO GOOD.

Best theme park scare event I've done, Dead and Breakfast gave me life <3

Here ends my indepth review.

Ha oh my god, I think that might just be the best review ever! Ha I am still typing up my full review for my blog, but in short it was stunning! Festino's is the best carnival attraction I have ever done, completely tramples over Big Top. Abramacabre is a perfect family attraction, and Final Cut and Dead & Breakfast are just stunning! Two of the best scare attractions I have ever done!
 

Ian

From CoasterForce
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Pssst....enter SCREAMPROMO4 as a voucher code when buying online for a £5 discount :) (Valid until midnight 31st Oct).
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
Went last night with a friend, got there around 7 and headed straight for Final Cut and Dead & Breakfast.

I loved the Final Cut for the way it's been created, every scene is wonderful, the sets are fantastic and the acting parts are well done. I especially liked the concierge's speech, very well delivered and focused well on the punters.

The popcorn actor was also pretty good, reminded me of a spotty teen selling rank hotdogs, the smell and the throwing of popcorn added well to the scene. Obviously the set was fab also.

The actress playing the Usher had a really quiet voice and only just heard her lines, but the actual cinema room is one of my favourite scenes, the lack of space makes everyone get a little too close for comfort with the dead bodies.
The entrance into the movie through the airbags is a great twist with quite a few gasps from the punters when they realised what they had to do.
Once into the movie the recognisable characters start showing an appearance, but it wasn't the werewolf or king kong which scared me, it was the excellent actress with the huge knife!

The vampire scenes were perfect, dracula's entrance from the coffin produced one of the group scares of the maze and the mirror vampire gave me one of the personal scares of the night, really excellent movement. I also loved, and I mean loved, the nosferatu scene, the costume was absolutely on point and the actor carried out the movements of count orlok perfectly.

Again, the actor playing frankenstein's monster was excellent, and the wires hanging from the ceiling combined with a huge monster swiping for you was fab.
The bride of frankenstein was also very good, the bang was a good jump scare.

The final scene with Dr jekyll and Hyde was really well done, loud enough to realise what was happening and a really great effect.

I think Final Cut was perfectly done, it had a few really good jump scares but it's the quality of the attraction and the acting which made it so good, not just how scary it is.

Dead & Breakfast started with a very funny speech for Fag Ash Lil, keeping with the excellent acting. This one was a lot scarier than Final Cut though, straight away we were hit by constant jump scares from the windows and doors, creating a panicked atmosphere before entering room 13.
The room seemed empty but I knew there was at least 1 actor in there.
Well done to the hooker, she scared the crap out of me coming round the wardrobe door right in my face, one of the top 3 scares of the night. The rest of the group was hit by the guy in the wardrobe, into the bathroom we went, out went the lights and the gas mask man appeared in the mirror, we were ushered through to the stinky washing room, both the hooker and the maid's acting was great through here.
After getting through the minging washing we moved towards tge lift where there's a really fab projection on the wall, I stopped to watch it for a few seconds as it was amazing.

The lift effect is really good and disorientated the group, making the people at the back become the leaders. Into the horrid smelling kitchen, again with a good actor delaying us from the next room.

The disorientation room wasn't as dark as I'd hoped it would be, but it worked, round and round we went being hit with scares as we went round. Just as they opened the passage I got a whisper in the ear saying "go", good jump, nice and creepy.

The final scene was utterly incredible, for me it was the scare of the night.
As the air raid sirens sound and the bombs fall, the lights flickered and went out.
Back on the flickered and there was a gas mask a foot from my face, expletives were said and the lights went out again. Great jump I thought, next one will get someone else, so with a smile on my face I wait for the next flicker to see someone else get masked.

No, me again but no more than 2 inches from my nose, jumped a foot in the air, nearly kneed the actor and had tears in my eyes. Holy crap.

2 of the best haunts I've done, only the haunted graveyard comes close.

We then did faustinos, which while very well themed, is obviously a much tamer attraction with less scares but some excellent characters including the merman, **** eating baby and faustino himself. The creepy clown laughing soundtrack in the queue was fab, I was smiling the whole time I was queuing.

Moment of the haunt is the awesome clown. Pretty obvious when you walk in the room that he's there but is crumpled up, the movement of this character is perfect, with a creepy wavy wobble towards the group, it scared the bajeezus out of the guy in front of me.

One thing I really didn't like was the woman calling us freaks, while I get the concept, the actress sounded bored and the lines weren't great.

The final scene gave a decent jump from the cages though but it's nowhere near the level of the previous two.

Abramacabre was an ok walkthrough with an excellent scare right at the end, but I was hoping to see a bit more of Ian's maze, I understand why so much is covered though.
Deadie Mcgee was proper fit as well, for a zombie.

Dreamland itself was actually a pleasure to spend time in as well, really good atmosphere, lovely food (thai place is fab), ambient music and a great lighting package.
Just a shame their ops are ****, Lofty knows what I'm on about.

All in all was a great night, well done to Lofty and AtmosFEAR! For creating 2 amazing haunts, they are world class. I'll definitely go back next year if they are still there and being run properly.
 

DelPiero

Strata Poster
Lofty said:
Screamland just won an award for the best Halloween Event. Very proud.
Congratulations! I heard you guys won two awards, so Best Halloween Event and what was the other one?
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Best New Event for Screamland.

Best Multi Part Halloween Event for Scare Kingdom Scream Park.

So two of the biggest awards, made up.
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
Well done Lofty. Your Dreamland horror attractions were some of the best I've ever done. Those awards were indeed well deserved. Excited to see what ideas you've got for us this year.
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Thank you very much guys. This year will be even bigger/better than last - very excited about what's coming up.
 
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