Drive through events have been something good to come out of Coronavirus and we were lucky enough to visit all three drive through events in the UK. We found each to be very enjoyable while all offered something different.
FestEvil was the first of these events to be announced but sadly was affected by a lockdown in Wales and now in England so only managed to visit last minute.
The event originally open in Wrexham was forced to move to Oswestry to finish its run. While there are some similarities to other drive through events it was
interesting to see that rather than each scene being separated by a long drive to the next the scenes came one after each other. Having not visited the original site this could have been due to space but we felt this worked quite well enabling continuous scares throughout the drive. The use of traffic lights also worked quite well letting us know when to move to the next scene. This also stopped us catching up with another vehicle.
The event only had a small queue to get in and the fun started pretty quickly as actors descended on the vehicle from all angles. The scares continued to come thick and fast as we moved through different horror movie themes from your classics like a cemetery, zombies and clowns to a lesser used but equally as great theme involving aliens. This scene while quite simple in its delivery offered a glimpse into what is possible with this theme and we loved it. This is definitely something that could be explored in the future potentially simulating an alien abduction or the like.
The theming throughout the event was great with actors using the space well. We were informed at the start that due to high winds some of the scenery was not at its best but this really wasn’t noticeable as we drove through the detailed scenes. To give a scale of the scenery there were busses, burnt out vehicles and watchtowers to name a few. The audio and lighting effects were also of a high quality helping immerse you further into each scene.
The event ended with a really fun finale taking place in a big top. The actor within used the lighting and sound effects to create one impactful scare after another. The use of a big top also enabled moments of pure darkness which only added to the impact of the scares in this finale.
The event lasted approximately 20 minutes and when compared to a single scare maze we feel you get incredible value for money at just 25 pound per car. The actors all put a lot of energy into their performance creating jump scares for all of us on numerous occasions. While each scene was able to stand alone something that would have been nice to see would have been a narrative throughout linking the scenes together forming an overarching story.
Overall, we had an absolutely fantastic time and as one of the last events of the year it was a great event to end on. There is so much potential with an event like this we hope that after everything that has happened this year FestEvil Horror Drive-Thru Scare Maze can come back next year bigger and better than before.
Drive through scare attractions are here to stay and this is one we hope we can see return.
