Xtreme Scream Park 2019

So Xtreme Scream Park was my first Halloween event of the season. The excitement had been building all day and I was ready for some good scares.

Xtreme Scream Park takes place at the Twin Lakes Family Theme Park. This is a great venue for this kind of attraction with a lot of space and the facilities that lend themselves perfectly to an event of this type. We arrived shortly before opening and joined the queue, the atmosphere was already buzzing with excitement and nerves.

Street Theatre

Walking into the park we were greeted by some roaming clowns these guys were excellent improvising with all the guests and managing to get scares in quite interesting and novel ways. They were joined by a bear who was great fun also.

Mazes

The Village

The first maze of the night was The Village, this maze takes you through a number of different scenes including a school, a workshop and church to name a few. But, this was no ordinary village, it had been overrun by scarecrows hiding around every corner to give you a fright. Standout scenes for me were the school where the scares came thick and fast and the church. The sheer concept and execution of this room were perfect. This maze really set the night up with good use of sound and smells to really pull you into The Village.

The Pie Factory

Next up was Pie Factory, I ended up going through this maze alone. The actors interacted well and there was some fun humour amongst the scares. There were some good improvised moments with personalized interactions which I always feel adds to your experience. While the actors in the maze were great, I felt that something was missing, an additional actor or two might have filled some of the gaps between interactions as I felt this didn’t pack the punch of the other mazes.

HooDoo Voodoo

I was really not quite sure what to expect of this maze. Having previously experienced a number of hooded attractions ranging in quality it could have gone either way. I’m pleased to report though that HooDoo Voodoo is a strong hooded maze. Utilising textured walls and changes to the floor including one section that felt like walking through a bog. These worked well along with the actors who would poke, prod and grab you. Midway through the maze, your hood is removed and you enter a more traditional scare maze. A standout section for me was the swamp where it looked as we were walking through waist-deep water. This section could have possibly been improved with an additional laser as peoples bodies at times would get in the way of this great illusion. This was a fun hooded maze and one that some other attractions should take note of.

Stilton Hall Hotel and Hell Spa

You enter a hotel and spa where things aren’t quite what they seem. I had a great visit, the maze is full of great theming and the actors all played the part well. This attraction wasn’t big on scares but this was made up for by the use of clever elements that disorientated you. I particular liked the mattress section pushing our way through a labyrinth of mattress was quite disorientating. I felt that the way this maze ended was clever and worked well. Not an intense ending but definitely a solid finale.

Ash Hell Penitentiary

Firstly I must say that before you even enter this maze you have an inmate already intimidating the queue with fun interactions and an excellent gun prop that well and truly made me jump. This maze probably had the most jump scares of the night. The inmates were all on top form. It was great to see lots of different effects implemented and the actors using the space well. The group I went through with were terrified and the actors realy played with that, interacting with what the group were saying.

The Rocky CIRCUS Big Top!

This circus, unfortunately, didn’t meet the high standards of the rest of the attraction. We were presented with a number of circus acts primarily acrobatics. While the stunts themselves were good the whole show was lacking in a number of areas. The sound quality was incredibly poor with audio coming from behind us and not particularly filling the room. The lighting felt quite amateur with at one point some laser pointers being pointed around the room and the magician struggling with his props.

There is definitely potential with the show but the acts need better direction and the overall production quality needs some tweaking. It was clear I was not alone in my opinion of this experience with at least a quarter of the audience leaving halfway through. I spoke to a family while waiting for another attraction and they also highlighted the circus being a bit disappointing.

As this was the first night of the run there is still time for improvements to be made. Steven will be visiting later in October and we will update this review if things get better.

Final thoughts

Xtreme Scream Park was a brilliant scare attraction to kick start the Halloween season with theming that would not be out of place at a large theme park. The actors were clearly dedicated to doing a good job. The actors were able to provide scares to the whole group even when we caught up with the group in front.

The park had also introduced a variety of animatronics. While I prefer actor interactions these animatronics did work well and provided additional scares throughout the attraction.

If you are looking for a good scare this Halloween you can’t go wrong with Xtreme Scream Park with impeccable theming and strong acting. The event is running on selected nights through to the 31st of October.

Have you visited Xtreme Scream Park? Let us know your thoughts over on the events page.

Author: Ashley