We were very kindly invited to this year's Fort Amherst Halloween Horrors. 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
On Saturday, we visited Fort Amherst in Kent, celebrating its 41st anniversary. This historic Napoleonic fort, with over 250 years of history, provided a unique backdrop for our evening. After a short walk from the nearby car park, which filled up quickly, we went through security and waited with our tour group. The initial safety briefing was humorous, but the night's experience soon took a turn. As we entered the fort, we encountered actors who made physical contact, which felt overly aggressive and uncomfortable. Each themed section involved long waits, with highlights including a chaotic clown area and a "heaven or hell" segment that disoriented us with dark tunnels and rough treatment from actors. While some characters, like a miner, were engaging, the experience was marred by excessive physicality, leading to moments where we felt unsafe. The final scenes, including witch and cannibal themes, lacked restraint, overshadowing any potential thrills. Overall, we didn’t enjoy the evening due to the aggressive interactions, but we’d like to return to Fort Amherst during regular hours, as it seems like a great place to explore without the Halloween intensity.
Top Tips - Arrive early to get parking
Things that bite - Quite Physical
Value for Money - Yes
Scare Rating - 3/5
Do we recommend - Yes
OUR STALKER REVIEW
On Saturday, we visited Fort Amherst in Kent, which is celebrating its 41st year. Set in the tunnels and grounds of “Britain’s Biggest & Best Napoleonic Fort” with over 250 years of history, it was an unforgettable location.
We started our evening with a short walk from Riverside Car Park, about a five-minute walk away, since parking isn’t offered on-site during the event. The car park was empty when we arrived, but nearly full by the time we left, so definitely arrive early to get a good spot. After a quick security check, we joined the rest of our tour group. Though we arrived the recommended 30 minutes early, we found ourselves waiting around for a while—something we’d end up doing a lot of that evening.
Once through the initial wait, we had a brief photo op, followed by a safety briefing that added some humour through pop culture references, it was crude and definitely not family-friendly but got a lot of laughs from our group. Once the briefing was complete, we waited again until our tour guide, a character of, “Old Hag,” to arrive to lead us into the fort for our first scare.
We were informed that actors would make physical contact, and they certainly did, sometimes with head-grabbing or hair-pulling. While meant to be frightening, the physical intensity crossed a line, feeling at times very uncomfortable.
Throughout the experience, each section was separated by further waiting periods while our tour group reassembled. The first major set-piece was a chaotic clown section that felt disjointed and confusing. We were ushered into a tiny tent where a loud, chaotic scene played out, and it wasn’t clear that we were meant to leave the way we entered. After a few moments of disorientation, we finally moved on.
Next we reached a “heaven or hell” section where an actor, dressed as a devil, split us up. Some of us went through a light-blue crawl tunnel for “heaven,” while the majority of us crawled through a dark red tunnel for “hell,” where actors made a lot of physical contact. It was so dark that it was hard to tell what was going on, which added to the confusion. Once we were out of the tunnels, the actors shoved us around, grabbed our heads, and generally harassed us
Next was a “mine” section. We met a miner character who was actually fun and engaging, but the rough treatment from the other actors got worse here, lots of head-grabbing, shoving, and hair-pulling. At one point, I even had to step in between an actor and one of our group members because things got too intense.
The final segments included a witch-themed area, where one group member nearly fell from a hard shove, and a “cannibal hillbilly” scene, complete with chainsaws. While these might sound thrilling, they lacked the needed restraint to keep them enjoyable; the over-the-top violence overshadowed the potential for suspense.
In the end, we didn’t fully enjoy our evening. The location and ideas were fantastic, but the overly aggressive contact really took away from the fun. A good scare doesn’t have to be so physical; a few jump scares would have gone a long way. That said, we’d love to return to Fort Amherst on a regular day, since it genuinely looks like a great place to explore without all the Halloween roughness.
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