Hallowscream has been running for quite a few years at the York Maze. It’s one I’ve always wanted to visit so finaly got a chance.
On arrival you can tell this is a polished event. As you await entry there is a huge flaming sign, skull heads and skeletons.
Once the site opens you go through the usual ticket booth and into the first experience. You are facing a giant head that gives you the rules of the site. This is a novel way to give the rules and works well. The addition of Corny’s Mum was a really humorous addition. Once the safety spiel is over all hell breaks loose and we are let into the park.
The central hub is set up well with food stands, a stage and roaming actors providing photo ops and scares a plenty. The Mazes are all connected to this central hub making them easy to find.
The Mazes
2073
The first Maze of the night was 2073. You enter a ‘post trump’ world where things aren’t particularly great. The theming was fantastic with actors working the space well. I found there were a few dead spots in the corn maze section but this was well and truly made up for by the actors before and after. The use of full sized vehicles in the section worked well and gave a brilliant post apocalyptic vibe.
The Singularity
The next maze of the evening was The Singularity. This was my favourite maze of the night. The prison scene stood out the most with actors coming from all directions. I also really liked the use of a bright white room filled with smoke that was extremely disorientating.
The Flesh Pot
On to The Flesh Pot, this maze is full of body parts and flesh with the actors playing the menacing roles well. This was full of jump scares and I particularly liked a very threatening looking character who just stared and slammed the props around causing some excellent jumps.
Corny’s Carnevil
Corny’s Carnevil is half fun house, half scare maze. The clown actors really worked well together in this one using distraction techniques effectively. Two standout points in this were in the wonky room where an actor launched himself against the wall as if from nowhere and the second actor making me walk up the steep slope and then under her weapon. The use of angles and mirrors were great and really added to the clown/fun house vibe.
Barneggedon 3D
The last maze of the evening was Barnaggedon 3D within this maze you wear 3D glasses that make the paintings on the wall really pop out as well as the actors faces and makeup. The actors were good at hiding in plain site using the 3D well to get a scare. I’d say this maze is more fun than scary but still a delight to walk round.
Summary
Hallowscream is a well polished enjoyable event. The roaming actors were great fun. I managed to catch one stage show which was enjoyable. It was a shame I didn’t have time to see more as I had to get off to another attraction. This is definitely an event you want to spend all night at so I’d recommend coming early and soaking up the atmosphere.
Hallowscream is running on selected dates through to the 2nd November.
