I finished my trip to Yorkshire with the Yorkshire Scare Grounds near Wakefield.
I’d arrived for opening and the fun started as you arrived in the car park with actors roaming free. This was a really nice touch with top notch improvisations with the audience. The actors really worked hard making the audience jump as well as laugh.
Once through security you walk into the queue for the three attractions which run one after the other. The actors were also in this area working the audience up even more.
We were batched into small groups with one the person at the front carrying a glow stick. This batching was done by a nurse character who had a really intense gaze making everyone feel uneasy as we waited to enter.
Once we were let through we watched a brief safety video along with an actor making the experience quite humorous.
After the briefing was a long eerie walk through the woods. Not knowing if someone would be hiding behind a tree ready to give me a scare.
After the wooded walk we met two clown characters who gave an introduction to the maze and what would be inside. Inside was rather dark with minimal theming visible. This maze definitely focussed on actors hiding in the dark. Unfortunately I kept catching up to the groups in front causing a bit of a conga line. which meant that I kept missing scares which was a bit of a shame.
The next maze was Hotel Transylvania, this started with an actor outside the attraction introducing the groups to the story. Once inside there were a few characters with scripted sections. I enjoyed the excellent scene in the elevator which was impressively executed with the actor timing his movements with the lifts movement and sounds.
The theming in the hotel was really strong with a lot of attention to detail, each room with a different actor providing additional narrative and scares.
The final maze was Undead on Arrival. This was a hospital zombie themed attraction with the usual infected inhabitants you would expect in a zombie maze. The theming again was great but unfortunately I missed a number of scares due to catching up with additional groups.
The end of the attraction had a good finale that ended in the central hub. The central hub had a nicely themed bar, shop and a number of food outlets perfect for socialising and talking about the experience.
I came away from this attraction with mixed opinions. The actors were all on top form but the issues where I caught up with other groups and missed scares unfortunately made the experience sometimes fall a little flat. You can clearly see that this is a good attraction that I just had an unfortunate run through.
I will try and go back for Halloween as I want to see the attraction in all it’s glory and hope that my experience was a one off.
