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Scare Boom

Lofty

Lofty

CF Legend
Hey all.

Just a topic created to discuss the sudden boom of Scare Entertainment within the UK and Europe. I'll start;

In years past, we've seen a few of these type of Haunted/Scare Attractions popping up everywhere. Yes, during the Halloween season, there's a LOT of them that we have in the UK, from your large full-scale Theme Park Productions all the way through to your stand-alone, single night events. Whilst this might not interest people on this forum at all, the following bit might;

As you'll know, there's been a few in Europe that run year-round. Such as Pasaje Del Terror/Hotel Krueger, La Pyramide Del Terror, London Tombs etc. It's common knowledge the industry is in fact growing as introduced by the American influx of Haunts and Attractions. Personally, I think this is great news, obviously for me it is, woking in this exact industry as some of you may well know.

Wether you like it or not, this industry is going to grow HUGE in Europe. Park's such as Allou! (Athens) and Heide Park actually have these types opening in their parks. The UK itself has 3 new ones that are opening year-round this year. It's all very exciting.

So, basically this topic is here to discuss any developments on any Scare related shows and for a chat about your opinions on the sudden boom and evolution of the industry in Europe.
 
Not necessarily. It's a topic for anyone that's interested in it or has any questions etc. There's actually a LOT of people who are interested in them.

It's not exactly "Porn" for me. Seen as I WORK in the industry ;)
 
I'm not to keen on going in them, but I've always found them fascinating. I loved the concepts and story behind them all.
So what's your job in the industry lofty?
 
To be honest, I'm not sure we'll see a "boom" in terms of permanent, park-based attractions unless they're either low on live actors or an upcharge sort of thing.

The staffing costs just get too high if you've got a decent number of actors (I use the term loosely). Plus throughputs are generally nowhere near as good as a lot of rides.
 
Meh, I'm yet to go on a good one. I really, really want to go on one that will scare me **** but I'm such a cynic I doubt that'll happen. Stupid brain.
 
I'm really not sure on them to be honest, I've had good and bad experiences in the past, I really enjoyed Saw Alive, and found Pasaje del terror to be alot better than i expected, But on the other hand im really not a fan of Carnesky's ghost train, I found it pretty ****, and it's wasted in Blackpool, Infact the best place for it is in the bin, so they can use the site to build a decent kebab shop.

So yeah, all in all mixed opinions, they will never be more than filler attractions for me, and im not going to go in search of them.
 
mouse said:
I'm not to keen on going in them, but I've always found them fascinating. I loved the concepts and story behind them all.
So what's your job in the industry lofty?
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I'm a Designer, Producer, Performer & Consultant for the Scare Industry. I work for AtmosFEAR! Entertainment Group who build these types of attractions across the globe. Which is the main reason I'm doing this topic, as we're actually busier then ever building permanent attractions. It's actually astonishing the amount that's being built at the moment, it really is.

gavin said:
To be honest, I'm not sure we'll see a "boom" in terms of permanent, park-based attractions unless they're either low on live actors or an upcharge sort of thing.

The staffing costs just get too high if you've got a decent number of actors (I use the term loosely). Plus throughputs are generally nowhere near as good as a lot of rides.
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You'd be surprised, just as you said, there's a lot that are becoming an Up-Charge attraction. Which makes more business sense, as you said about throughput etc. The one we've just worked on for Allou! proves how successful they can be. We set their throughput at 6 people, every 5 minutes. Meaning, at MOST, we would have 3 possible groups in the attraction, therefore, bringing down the queueing time, or so we thought. Within a day of us coming home, we had an email saying they had a 3.5 hour queue the night we left. After that, we asked some of the actors how it's going and they mentioned that they have had 2 hour queues every night, sending groups of 6 in every 30 seconds. It really is astonishing. It proves the market for these attractions is out there. Bearing in mind, each guest is paying as little as €6 to €8 to get in ;).

DarrenBloomfield said:
I'm really not sure on them to be honest, I've had good and bad experiences in the past, I really enjoyed Saw Alive, and found Pasaje del terror to be alot better than i expected, But on the other hand im really not a fan of Carnesky's ghost train, I found it pretty ****, and it's wasted in Blackpool, Infact the best place for it is in the bin, so they can use the site to build a decent kebab shop.

So yeah, all in all mixed opinions, they will never be more than filler attractions for me, and im not going to go in search of them.
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You see, Carnesky's isn't made to SCARE THE **** OUT OF YOU. It actually follows a Victorian ghost story that you witness along the way. It's changed a LOT since it's been put in Blackpool. It's first residence (in Blackpool) was at the Winter Gardens in which it was an Art Installation funded by Marisa Carnesky and The Arts Council (which if you know how hard it is to get funding with, you'd be shocked). The main aim is to create a mild scare-based ghost train with live performers. That's it. A lot of people expect it to be OTT scares, which it's not meant to be. Trust me, I know a LOT about this Ghost Train. It's my main source of income every year ;)
 
I would love to see more permanent scare attractions in the U.K. I wouldn't mind Alton Towers elaborating much more in Gloomy Wood/Haunted Hollow, or just have a park such as Thorpe or Alton create an area themed on haunts from a ghost train and then have 3 or 4 other attractions within the area of said park that range to much bigger scares.
Would be epic! :angel:
 
I agree, it would be great to have that. The likelihood of it happening is 0% though.

Alton were once in the stage of deciding wether to build a "Dungeons" in the actual Towers themselves. Thankfully this never came to fruition due to Warwick Castle opening their Dungeon and it not being all that far away. Thank god for that...
 
To be honest, I don't think there's that much of a boom. If you look at this image of Robosauraus, I think you'll find that it's clear why this is:
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I'd say the boom is only really noticeable if you follow the industry or know what scare attractions are.
Although the other day I was talking about scare attractions in my lab class and most knew what one was once I described it. I even tried to plug Scare Kingdom for Mark but they hadn't heard of that (but they had all heard of Spooky World haha spite :P).

But yeah I love them. I used to be scared to go in them years ago and just took an interest in the behind the scenes side of it and how it came together. Then I realised that most I go in don't scare me at all but I still love feeling fully immersed.

Really want to get more work experience with attractions. I know and talk to a lot of designers and producers for attractions but the only stuff I've ACTUALLY done myself is work briefly behind the scenes at Pasaje del Terror and being a scare actor in the London Tombs.
Coming up with a fund-raising idea though for uni and as soon as we find out if we're covered insurance wise to do it it'll be the first scare production I've ever taken full control off and brought together from scratch which is rather exciting so fingers crossed. :)
 
Ollie said:
I'd say the boom is only really noticeable if you follow the industry or know what scare attractions are.
Although the other day I was talking about scare attractions in my lab class and most knew what one was once I described it. I even tried to plug Scare Kingdom for Mark but they hadn't heard of that (but they had all heard of Spooky World haha spite :P).
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Um, you do realise that's because SW advertise around the Chester Area?! Oliver, I thought you were slightly cleverer than that post... ;)
 
I know but SK is only just outside Preston which is right near Chester. :P
Oh well. SK has Blood Barf. ;)
 
When I was workingintheindustry and had to do quite a bit of research into these things, I was actually shocked at just how many there are around.

They've never really been my cup of tea as a visitor. I don't like to be made jump, but apparently lots of people do. I think there is a lot of potential with these kinds of attractions to do some really cool stuff and they are definitely becoming more creative and interesting. Actor led attractions, in general, are I think a touch problematic because they rely on quality staff. Anything that can be done to ease the pressure on staff and make the attraction space more interesting in it's own right is I think what sets apart the better attractions, because at the end of the day people are human and they vary in quality hour to hour.

As an example, when I visited York Dungeons I was very impressed with the actors. They were far superior to any of many visits I've had at London's... But because the attraction itself is full of filler crap, with very little substantial, quality environments, effects, etc... It just misses out. The best part of the attraction is the Viking part, with the moving wall and projections, which is probably as an individual room way better than anything at London too.
 
I have to agree when it comes to York Dungeons.

It's one of the smaller ones out there, but the performers are incredible, it's actually one of my favourite ones. All I need to visit is Blackpool Tower's, Hamburg and London now as then I've been to all of them. Amsterdam's is still the highest ranking, it was great.

I do see your point about the reliability of actors Joey, but, they bring another dimension to attractions, they're far better then adding an animatronic in here and there, which still causes vast problems.
 
lofty said:
All I need to visit is Blackpool Tower's, Hamburg and London now as then I've been to all of them.
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You "only" need half of them then? Three out of the possible six? 50%?
 
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