We were very kindly invited to this year's Doncaster Fear Factory media and press night. Whilst we were given free entry to the event, we have full editorial control of what our review of the event says.
Our Slasher Review
Doncaster Fear Factory returns for its 5 years of fear anniversary event and we were very kindly invited to come along to the media and press night on the 6th of October. As before, the event started with the inclusion of some extremely creepy characters before we even got out of the car. And more on the way to the marquee where the hustle and bustle of the event began. Notable characters included a suitably creepy Little Miss Muffet, A deranged dentist, an insane clown and an axe-wielding character all masters of improv and getting us into the scare mood.
After an hour and a half of mingling with old and new friends alike, we were allowed to enter the main event and the 5 scare mazes on offer including the new maze for 2024 Friargate Foundry and 3 mazes with notable changes and a scarezone. All the mazes were strong on the night and usually, this is where we state the strongest and weakest but none were truly weak so we will just say some outshone the others. Our favourite maze of the night was the dark and claustrophobic "The Chasm. But the rest all had their moments of terror. Although there were some minor issues in some other attractions that we will go into detail in the Stalker Review.
Top Tips- Same as last year, starting from the back and working forward seemed to work best for us.
Things that bite- This might be down to being a press night and with the inclusion of cameras allowed in the mazes which is fine and was expected but a lot of the scares seemed front-focused.
Value for Money- With prices starting at £25 for 5 mazes and a scare zone is great value.
Scare Rating-4.5/5 Again this is mainly due to the front-focused scares which we missed alot of in the back.
Do we recommend- Absolutely it's a great night out.
Our Stalker Review
On the 6th of October, we returned to Thornhurst Manor, home to Doncaster Fear Factory. Our night started being harassed in the car by an insane dentist equipped with a jar of teeth and medical accoutrements, this actor had no fear of getting in people's cars and analysing if they were due for a checkup and was a great start to the night and this like we said is before we had even got out of the car.
Next was the walk up to the marquee where more characters lurked, Including a hyper-as-hell clown who was more than happy to try and make us smile to death, And an axe man sizing us up for a good chopping so to speak. Not forgetting Little Miss Muffet who had left her tuffet behind and made friends with a collection of spiders. Never breaking character, we were terrorised by her many times throughout the start of the night and she was a credit to the roaming team.
After an hour and a half of free drinks, canapes and a short introduction to Friargate Foundry it was time to head over to the woodland and into the Doncaster Fear Factory itself. But not before meeting the obligatory chainsaw clown who wielded it with power and precision gaining many a fright from unsuspecting guests. After a short wait, we were in and through the first of two hessian tunnels for the new scare zone Crimson Harvest, the scarecrows were totally on point and delivered some great scares in the dark. After a stop in the much-improved toilets, it was time to take on The Chasm for its final year.
The first notable thing that has changed from The Chasm was the removal of the somewhat painful crawl section, this was great to see so thank you for that. The Chasm started strong with a powerful introduction before being sent into the lift/decontamination area it seemed and into the main part of the maze. The Chasm had some seriously impressive scares and the usual tight spaces. The maze plays on darkness to great effect, last year there seemed to be a lot of abrasive noises but this time around the main sounds were the guttural screeches and growls of the inhabitants within. The mask the actors wore within The Chasm was fantastic and really added to the intensity of the attraction. All the actors were interactive and 100% in your face no matter where you were in the group. All in all an Or-Chasm of screams.
Next up we headed to Crackle Hill under the new theme of "The Summoning".
After winding through the woodland we came up to the infamous Crackle Hill house, a forboding cabin in the woods. We entered the attraction and after a brief intro found ourselves in a room with an oversized "Ouija table" adorned with various Tarot cards and a flustered paranormal investigator, here we learnt of the lady of the house Agatha Stone and her past of killing children, Some dark stuff had gone down in this house and we were just at the start. Crackle Hill like we remembered from last year was full of tight spaces and corridors complete with a woody musty scent which added to the immersion. This attraction's acting style came across more theatrical than jump scare which was a nice change of pace from The Chasm complete with some terrifying contortionist actors who imbodied the twisted nature of Agatha's victims possessed by the Devil she summoned.
The bed scene was a standout, especially with the actor who "climbed" the set combined with the limited visibility. We did notice a lot of actors sat on the floor which we were slightly concerned about stepping on hands or accidentally kicking in the dark. But one actor we have to mention who terrified the whole group was the backwards "exorcist style" crab walker who stalked one of the corridors of the house.
After a short break, it was time to go to a rave in the twisted The Pogo Club. Right from the get-go you know this is going to be a fun maze with its pulsing lights and rave music from the outside. The batching host did a great job of selling the attraction and then it was time to go in for the main event. Greeted by the host of The Pogo Club we learn that everything in the club is class A and we mean everything. The person who played this role set the scene perfectly even dealing with added guests to our group, it didn't phase her, she just carried on and got on with the job at hand, she was creepy and hilarious in good measure right up to her departure sending us into the dank toilet blocks. Pogo Club started strong with some crazed clowns in strange places all with the energy of a child on too much candy, just what you want from a clown maze. We think the aforementioned and warned of "John" was seen but if so it was just for a second and would have been nice to have seen more of them. Unfortunately for us, this is where the negatives started to seep in, some of the actors seemed more content just standing laughing and not really doing much( a run down the side of the group space permitting would have been nice to include everyone), It kills me to have to write this as Pogo Club is such a great maze, but for us, the scares that did come were very much focused to the front of the group and at the back it became more of a reaction show than actual scares for us. Maybe if the scares towards the end of the maze were more group-focused we would have had a more glowing review.
Next up, the highly anticipated new for 2024 Friargate Foundry. It appeared we had arrived just at the right time, with an empty queue we entered the maze. The batching area holds many nods to past attractions and a timeline of the mazes too, but due the location it was a bit difficult to take it all in.
Before long we found ourselves in the holding room of The Operator, the mastermind behind the mazes of Doncaster Fear Factory, we were told by an old tv screen that this foundry was the home of mazes of the past, mazes of the present and mazes of the future to come.
This all sounded so promising and we were absolutely pumped for the light to go green and enter the maze. As we made it through each section we were treated to an array of lights, smells and sounds and high-energy actors along the way, well from what we could see, again the scares seemed all focused to the front which was such a shame but it has to be mentioned.Special mention to the gross-out meat guy, he did this role with perfection and it was genuinely grim and also great physical acting from the electric chair victim. Going through there was a scene where our group was split up, Dane and Abby ended up in a prison toilet but I however missed this scene completely and was sent down an uneventful corridor into the dentist scene leaving them behind. Seeing a dentist chair I was hyped to think this might be my destination but after a short moment of light interaction was sent on my way out into the finale of the maze( a disorienting strobe maze)which I believe was the finale from Y.A.N.A. But not long I after exited it was a full 2 minutes before Dane and Abby appeared. I left feeling a little deflated and cheated out of an experience, I so heavily wanted to love Friargate Foundry and all the little details are fantastic, you can tell alot of effort has gone into this beautiful maze but after the split, I felt like an afterthought of a guest and was rushed through to the exit.
One more maze to go Diabolus-Witches of Salum, Standing outside the beautiful dilapidated church at night is a lovely way to set the scene for Diabolus which last year was a hooded attraction under the moniker of Keeper of Secrets. This year the maze loses the hoods and most of the nuns and sends you in to see the witches head-on, It was a shame not to have the confessional scene from the original but we can understand why it was removed as it was the point of hooding last time. The interiors of the church hallways all hit the senses with the smells you would expect. The lighting is suitably eerie too.
A trapped nun is a nice nod to Keeper of Secrets and she made a great scene before heading outside into the witch's lair. The witches worked their spaces well and were creepy and spooky in equal measure, there did seem to be a couple of dead spaces but this added to the mystery of the woodland section so witches didn't become samey too quickly which is a risk. The ending takes us into the church itself, last year there was an aerial scare but this time it didn't seem like that happened, if it did we missed it, if it wasn't there we didn't. The contorting person on the table added a great visual but we didn't really get a scare so-to-speak in this scene so the ending was a little odd. We did hear screams so it might have been the front of the group got the brunt in the dark but for us, the ending seemed like something was missing.
Before we sign off we want to make a mention of two special characters, who I hope won't be offended when I call them alcoholic prostitutes, which I mean in all the best ways, these two who sadly we didn't get the name of, just like Miss Muffet, were among the stars of Doncaster Fear Factory from start to finish, never missing an opportunity to interact with great effect.
So now comes the time to say this is the end of this review. It's been a mixed bag for us but a great night nonetheless and we are absolutely honoured to be invited to the media and press night.
We want to take the time to thank every scarer and performer on site for bringing the mazes to life and to all the creatives for making some truly unique experiences.
Doncaster Fear Factory runs from 11th to 13th,18th to the 20th,24th to the 27th and the 31st of October with the 30th already sold out.
If you wish to book you can do so at the link below.
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