After a long trouble free drive from the south-west, I arrived at Scream Factory, a family run attraction located behind the Kirkleatham Museum in Redcar. On arrival, stewards directed me to the car park and I made my way inside. The waiting area had music playing, low lighting and a good atmosphere, I particularly liked the little touches on the balcony that could go unseen by many.
I quickly joined a group of two couples and we were ready for our safety briefing. We walked towards the attraction, the anticipation slowly building. We were soon met by our first scene in which we were greeted by a transvestite who worked up the group nicely flirting with some of the men. It was full of smutty humour and the odd jump scare which was a perfect fit for the event.
Now, this is where things blur into one so the order of sets may be a bit off. There were many notable bits that I thought worked really well. There was a section with so much smoke you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. This was incredibly disorientating. I loved that you had no rope or anything to follow making the whole section so spectacular. It’s so great to see how you can create uncomfortable spaces with simple techniques and don’t always need to rely on scenery for the scares.
There was a section where you were out in the open. I loved how you just had 4 characters standing intimidatingly in front of you. Were they real or just mannequins? A number of characters worked the crowd well splitting us up with good improvisations.
Towards the end of the attraction, we were split up one by one where we were hooded. I was unsure what to expect as hooded mazes can be a bit hit or miss, Scream Factory really got the hooded bit right. With characters interacting with us along the way, crawl areas and other effects.
Overall Scream Factory was superb. The tongue in cheek nature of the valentines event really worked well. The attraction really should be commended for bringing together excellent actors who really worked the groups and the excellent scripted sections that got the balance of humour and scare spot on. I also want to thank Scream Factory for taking the time to show me around back of house and letting me learn more about how the show is put together.
If you get a chance to go to Scream Factory during the Halloween season you will not be disappointed.
