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Best Scare Attractions

Serena

Serena

Miss CoasterForce 2016
Staff member
Social Media Team
So, it's nearly October, it's time to get excited for the Scare Season! For me, theme parks really come into their own during Halloween. Night rides, pumpkin decorations, spooky music and most importantly: scare attractions! I love the heart-pounding thrill of a good scare attraction. The best ones I have experienced are:

1. Hotel Kruger (Tibidabo)

This haunt features many different scary characters you may remember from previous horror films such as Chucky, Nightmare On Elm Street and Dracula. While throwing a bunch of different, well-known characters together in one maze can create a disjointed narrative sometimes, this one was like seamlessly walking through different scenes of different films. Each area had it's own atmosphere, making for a very dynamic experience. The amazing sets helped the immersion of each scene; and the actors were so committed! Not the scariest I've ever done, but the most memorable and enjoyable by far.


2. The Haunted House (Tokyo Dome City)

This one has jump scares galore! I'm glad it was relatively short because it was so intense! I liked the story line and interactive elements, where you have to place a ring on a ladies finger (cue: people jumping out at you from all angles). I read up on it further and turns out: it's not even a permanent attraction. This baffles me because it was so amazing! So glad I got to experience it in the 2 months that it operated.


3. Haunted Hayride (Tulley's Shocktober Fest)

I like how unique the haunted hayride is. Sitting on the back of a hay truck makes you feel a bit more helpless than being on foot. There's no running away from the actors that creep aboard to scare you! Plus, being outdoors means they can create some really ambitious, large-scale scenes to drive through. Involving fire! And traps! It's a really multi-layered experience for a haunt, and really well executed.


4. Cabin in The Woods (Thorpe Park)

This attraction has such repeat value! I never get bored of it. I love the 'Choose-Your-Own-Adventure' style, the way you can take it at your own pace and make it last for ages. The intensity of opening one door into a tiny room with an actor lurking, and finding out it's a dead end...terrifying! The attention to detail of adding a secret control room is brilliant. Unlike with The Blair Witch or MBV, they actually made good use of the Cabin IP by doing the maze in a free roaming style. The only thing Cabin lacks is a big finale. But it's easily the best one I've ever done at a Merlin park, I hope it stays for many years.


5. Carnival of Screams (Alton Towers)

Firstly - the opening scene where the dummy breaks out of the booth is one of the best scenes in a scare attraction ever. It's so well done, one minutes he's there...then the glass breaks and he's among the crowd. Aaah! What a great idea. The themeing is excellent too, I've done quite a few clown mazes now but this one has the strongest carnival-esque vibe. Every time I've walked through it, the actors have been relentless and struck a perfect balance between funny and creepy. This level of interaction makes it really entertaining. Again, it never really had a stand out finale (even the Jack The Knife effort of 2013 fell a bit flat) but it's definitely one of my faves.
 
I haven't done many, but my two favourites are as follows:

Studio 13 (Thorpe Park):
I'm surprised I liked this so much. I was so invested in the story in it; it was great. You toured a film studio, then went on the set of a horror film, before the horror film came to life and chased after you. Just great.

House of Insomnia (Twisted Attractions):
This always sticks out for me because of the quality theming and effects. Every scene was full and high quality and detailed theming, and each scene had special effects which really sold it. The temperatures and the smells really stayed in my memory for a long time. Take into account loads of actors and out was just great.

Despite both those mazes having the typical chainsaw ending, I don't actually like the idea of them. Very cliched and they rarely 'do it' for me. :p
 
I haven't really done many at all, but Terror Castle at Brean definitely deserves a shout out. That thing was unexpectedly really **** horrifying...
 
Not really scary or a maze, but SFGAm turns their teacup ride "Chubasco" into "Terror Twister II", which is essentially a rave party:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HF93Km527I[/youtube]

Definately my favorite thing to do at Fright Fest.

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk
 
**The most, wonderfull tiiimmmeeee, of the yeeaaarrr**

Yaaay Halloween! There's just a certain kind of magic in the air for parks around Halloween that I just adore, I live for October theme-parking!

So, fav haunts then:

Experiment 10 - Thorpe Park Resort
This was the first time I'd been split away from a group and forced to do something totally alone before, and it **** me up proper. The rest of the maze is your pretty basic offering from Thorpe, but always sticks in my mind as being one of the few to properly scare me!

Haunted Hayride - Tulley's Shocktoberfest
I LOVE this concept - it feels really American and I adore it. They really make use of every opportunity of the space it takes up and it's cool to see scares done on a larger scale.

Terror of the Towers - Alton Towers
I can't remember exactly why, but one time I had a proper good run through this, really chilling and creepy with a good old hint of nostalgia for the towers themselves and a dash of Hex legend - love a good tie in!

Take Away - Europa Park
Themed to a zombified Chinese take-away restaurant complete with cats being used as ingredients and chop sticks in the face, what's not to love? Oh, and there was this really amazing lighting at the end that I fell in love with!

Hotel Kruger - Tibidabo
Just so impressive with attention to detail and levels of theming - if you're a horror movie fan this is excellent as it's basically a who's who of classic horror villains. It's excellent and probably some of the best theming I've ever seen in a haunt.

Human Zoo - Scare Kingdom
There was something about this maze concept that struck a cord with me - probably because I'm a huge Rob Zombie fan and this has lashings of his films throughout. Kind of grotesque caricatures of torture devices in a hyper-stylised almost nu metal style with dashes of neon paint thrown in for good measure. I love the fact that you end up being caged as a victim and watched by these torturers, really sordid idea, awesome!

The Mystery of Hocus Pocus Hall - CWOA
My god. First of all, we have to talk about the soundtrack. It's an IMA Score jobby and it is glorious. If ever I want an injection of Halloween feels I stick that on and I'm straight in the zone. Excellent stuff. And then the transformation of the attraction itself - it is unrecognisable in all the right ways. And then the awesome projection mapping goodness - it's seriously almost Disney level, just so impressive and unexpected from l'il ol' Chessie.
 
I've not done nearly enough in the last few years, but I want to go some way towards rectifying that this year.

Hotel Kruger is fantastic, really well themed, long and with a good mix of creepy and jump scares. The hotel lobby at the start is so creepy and amazing.

The one at Parque de Atracciones is amazing too. Or was in 2007...!

Terror of the Towers is amazing, I love that. It goes on for ages and it's just brilliant. A good mix of creepy set pieces and out and out scares.

Oh God I need to do some more...
 
I haven't done a huge number really, but a few that have stood out:

Hotel Kruger at Tibidabo. As others have said, it's fantastic. It's probably the best thing at the park to be honest.

Gasten Ghost Hotel at Liseberg. It's not particularly scary, but the sets are great and it's very atmospheric.

Grave's Academy at Hong Kong Disney. It ran for 3 or 4 years, but looks to be gone now since I think the building that housed it doesn't even exist any more. For a temporary attraction, it was excellent. Again, it was mostly down to sets and atmosphere, but it had plenty of jump scares as well.

Haunted Hospital at Fuji Q. The absolute MOTHER of all horror walkthroughs.

Blomberg's Tomb of Terror at Flamingoland. Because I used to work in it. It was nothing compared to the stuff around now, but it was kind of ahead of its time since live scare attractions just weren't a thing at all in the UK back then, much less a permanent attraction that wasn't Halloween based.
 
I really enjoy Scare Attractions but they scare the absolute **** out of me, like they terrify...but that's kind of the point! That's why I'll do them...plus others enjoy my reaction, just ask Jordan and Conor ;)

1. Hotel Kruger, Tibidabo - As others have said, it's phenomenal. Like wow. It's a decent length and there is so so much going on, every time you turn there's someone else jumping at you, plus it as a really eerie atmosphere anyway,
my favourite part was when Chuckie was just sat in a chair, I assumed an animatronic, until he came running after us, I have never **** myself so hard, (it was actually a midget dressed up xD )

2. The Haunted House, Tokyo Dome City - I'm copying Serena for these first two, but they're just amazing. It was so well done we all assumed it was a permanent attraction so I was really surprised when Serena told me, the other day, that it was only a temporary thing! It was so good, I can't think off the top of my head, another scare attraction to require interaction from its employees, you have to place a wedding ring on a woman's finger at the end. The bit that really **** me up was I just causally turned around and there was a body flying towards me on the roof, Jordan and Conor found it hilarious when I was cowering on the floor -_-

3. The Mystery of Hocus Pocus Hall, Chessington - Surprised no one else has mentioned this. Edit, just seen that Jordan did mention it! Sorry :p I think it's fab <3 It is themed so so well, with technology too! Woooooo. The story is great, it's not scary, I just absolutely love this walkthrough, I'm pretty sure Hocus Pocus Hall is open all yeah, it just gets a retheme for halloween, I'd quite like to give it a go when it isn't decked out in it's Halloween dress.

I'm pretty stuck after that...I have done one of Thorpe's scare mazes, 7 but that was years ago so can't remember it. I'm off to Europa next weekend so I'm sure I'll be able to add to my list next week!
 
1) Alone - Busch Gardens Tampa.

Simply the best attraction I've ever done, hands down. Extremely theatrical and lasted around 25 minutes. Beautiful sets and great atmosphere, plus the fact of limited group size meant for such an intimate experience. Just loved it.


2) Hotel Krueger.

Great solid attraction, wonderful sets and a brilliant team behind it (NOT the old MPE Europe team).


3) A Haunting at Old Town - Kissimmee.

Truly brilliant attraction - done the same way as most other European haunts in that it is theatrically led and not too reliant on animatronics or snorting like most other USA haunts.
 
I'll be adding a ton more to my list of top attractions in the weeks to come, but at the moment it's something like this, in no particular order:

1. Ward 78 - Twisted Attractions - Kinda cheating here as I also worked in this attraction for one night, but my god it's the most intense thing I have ever done. It was relatively short, but they made up for it with many scares. I was tied to a bed, blindfolded and put in a wheelchair, they faked a lobotomy and injection on me and to top it off they pretended to attack me with a hammer, it was fab!
2. Terror of the Towers - Alton Towers - I don't know why but there's something about ToT that I just love, its creepy gothic atmosphere is spot on, and the actors are generally pretty great! On top of that, it has one of the best endings out of any scare maze I have ever been on! I have had some bad runthroughs, but even then it's miles better than anything at Thorpe.
3. The Cellar - Tulleys Farm - A stunning attraction that seems to go on forever! It's well themed and remains intense throughout its duration. There's a great deal of varitey in this one, and some of the best scares are right at the start in the jungle section. It's definitely in the same league as Terror of the Towers.
4. House of Insomnia - Twisted Attractions - Again another really intense scare attraction from the Twisted team. This one was really well themed, and had some great scenes! There was some great characterisation in there, and on my alone runthrough's they amped up the ante significantly! Lets just say at one point I was held still whilst they bought a chainsaw down on my arm. It was incredible!
5. Horrorwood Haunted Hayride - Tulley's Farm - It's just insane. I think that's all I should say.

Notable omissions are: The Sanctuary (Great atmosphere but not all that scary) My Bloody Valentine (Too bloody short) and Studio 13 (Could've been improved but was far better than The Asylum)
 
silenthillXD said:
I'll be adding a ton more to my list of top attractions in the weeks to come, but at the moment it's something like this, in no particular order:

1. Ward 78 - Twisted Attractions - Kinda cheating here as I also worked in this attraction for one night, but my god it's the most intense thing I have ever done. It was relatively short, but they made up for it with many scares. I was tied to a bed, blindfolded and put in a wheelchair, they faked a lobotomy and injection on me and to top it off they pretended to attack me with a hammer, it was fab!
Click to expand...

Wow, your experience sounds so, so much different to mine!

I didn't get anywhere near that sort of interaction; it felt like doing one of Thorpe's mazes by myself on a standard run through. The being alone made it a bit creepier, but it wasn't intense in any way really. So I never really rated it that highly.

I did do it on opening night, so I guess the actors were settling in and the like. Were they given more freedom to be more intense later on in the event as well perhaps? Such a shame I had a seemingly-off run, as your run through sounds incredible!


Mentioning the alone experience made me realise I didn't mention Thorpe's Face it Alone extra here. I've done it in Saw and Studio 13 and genuinely loved both runs; extreme and shocking, and definitely left me feeling a bit worried to say the least!
 
JoshC. said:
silenthillXD said:
I'll be adding a ton more to my list of top attractions in the weeks to come, but at the moment it's something like this, in no particular order:

1. Ward 78 - Twisted Attractions - Kinda cheating here as I also worked in this attraction for one night, but my god it's the most intense thing I have ever done. It was relatively short, but they made up for it with many scares. I was tied to a bed, blindfolded and put in a wheelchair, they faked a lobotomy and injection on me and to top it off they pretended to attack me with a hammer, it was fab!
Click to expand...

Wow, your experience sounds so, so much different to mine!

I didn't get anywhere near that sort of interaction; it felt like doing one of Thorpe's mazes by myself on a standard run through. The being alone made it a bit creepier, but it wasn't intense in any way really. So I never really rated it that highly.

I did do it on opening night, so I guess the actors were settling in and the like. Were they given more freedom to be more intense later on in the event as well perhaps? Such a shame I had a seemingly-off run, as your run through sounds incredible!


Mentioning the alone experience made me realise I didn't mention Thorpe's Face it Alone extra here. I've done it in Saw and Studio 13 and genuinely loved both runs; extreme and shocking, and definitely left me feeling a bit worried to say the least!
Click to expand...

Ah admittedly that particular experience I described was on my third run-through. I won a competition that gave me a season pass ticket for their maze so I could do it unlimited times. Did both Ward and Insomnia 3 times each. Every time was ramped up and I did Insomnia on my own twice. My first Run-through on Ward was relatively tame compared to the second and third run-through's but it was still very good! I remember being caught out a lot on the first corridoor. My second runthrough they tied me down on their bed and tortured me for a while. It was great fun! Might be worth asking for an intense runthrough when you're at the matron if you're going through again.

Just saying I have been through Ward 78 Unrestrained whilst it was being constructed and it looks amazing! Alot longer than the origional and it seems to be rather claustrophobic! There's some great stuff going on at Hellfest this year from the looks of it! Will be going on Wednesday for their VIP night, so expect a trip report of that and Scare Kingdom sometime within the next week :lol:

Ah neat! What was the alone experience like? I just booked myself in for an Alone visit to Terror of the Towers, what sort of thing should I expect?
 
Ah, that's pretty cool. I'm glad to hear it was an intense experience more often than not; wish I'd given it another try now. Hopefully I can get up to Hellfest this year too.

Thorpe make you sign a document asking not to reveal much about Face it Alone to keep it a bit mysterious. But anything can happen in there and they give everyone a poncho since things can get a bit messy to say the least...

Not sure what the alone experience will be like at Towers, but I would assume that they'll try to violate you in as many ways as humanly possible. :p
 
Yeah Hellfest is going to be great! Had a look in all 3 mazes and they're going to be pretty darned good! I am really hyped for Terror on the Streets myself, that looks to be the one to watch from them this year! It wasn't completed when I visited, but the theming looked great!

Ah, fair enough, sounds intriguing! Ha if I can handle Ward 78 and Psychomanteum, I am sure i'll be able to handle whatever Alton throw at me.
 
Definately Project Z in Walibi Belgium. One of the weirdest experiences ever in my life.

It was a haunted house where you saw alot of people coming out looking shocked and sometimes pretty pale. The first surprise was that you had to enter it all alone. Doing scare-mazes on your one is very strange. Once you enter the maze they throw you into the action straight away. They were making you crawl into a tunnel on your hands and knees, with an actor who is teasing you with a chainsaw on the top of the tunnel. There are these drill instructors inside who make you feel really uncomfortable by blowing with whistles in your face the whole time, make you stand against a wall, make you sit on your knees with your hands in your neck, make you so sit-ups,...somwhere in the middle they lock a bunch of people in a very small cage and pull you out brutally -sometimes being left there for 5 to 10 minutes - dropping you into a round room with plenty of doors, where an annoying alarm is going off the whole time. I remember running around there for 15 minutes before someone drags you into on of the doors to let yoou finsish the maze...
 
Out of interest, given the number of people who like their scare attractions on the intense side, have any of you done McKamey Manor? I, rather regrettably, stumbled across it on YouTube while looking up some of the attractions mentioned above.

I haven't been so affected just by something I've seen since that bit at the end of the dog show section in the cabaret show Briefs - The Second Coming last summer.
 
^ I haven't done it but know Russ McKamey on some level and that reason alone puts me off for good - I wouldn't be caught anywhere near him or that attraction.
 
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