Whilst we were very kindly given free tickets and fast-track
we retain the editorial control of the review
Slasher Review
Disclaimer- The park is quite dark and the outside mazes are mainly yellow sign boards so there wasnt much to take photos of, but we have included some from the night.
We headed to Spooky World for their 2024 season for what would be the last event of spooky season for myself,Dane and Abby. Spooky World is located just outside of Warrington nr Liverpool at Apple Jacks Adventure Farm and features 6 scare attractions and a haunted hay ride ending with the Tunnel of Terror with some very unique moments. The 6 main attractions are Carnevil, The Institute, Haunted House, Slaughterhouse, Field of Screams and Below Deck. Throughout the night all the attractions gave some great scares but the batching, not connected with the cast was at times questionable, especially in Haunted House where we ended up in a congaline around 25 strong. The 2 strongest attractions of the night were Carnevil and Slaughterhouse, the weakest sadly was Below Deck but again we attribute this mainly down to the batching that made the cast members' lives very hard. Spooky World also features a small funfair comprising of a Miami, Waltzer and Dodgems all modestly priced. And finally, a huge shout-out goes to one of the best roaming characters of the season, SpookyWorlds very own take on Art the Clown, this guy had no less than 7 interactions with our group throughout the night, including even watching us on the Waltzer and clapping away to us riding, we do know the name of this cast member but we can't mention, but you know who you are and we loved every moment we spent with you.
Top Tips-Do not come to this park expecting the sets of say Xtreme, Fear or Fright Nights, That is not what this park is about, in my honest opinion it's the cast that makes us come back year after year.
Things that bite- The batching from the staff outside at times throughout our night was sketchy at best, even when there was very little in lines, the staff were sending in groups with maybe 20 seconds between them causing conga lining in the maze. Again not a fault of the cast who tried their hardest to keep up.
Value for money-Id say so yes as long as you accept what we have said before about the sets, but rest assured as the years go on they are improving.
Scare Rating-4/5
Do we recommend-Absolutley, the cast fully make this scream park what it is and never fail to deliver a show.
Stalker Review
On the 29th of October, we headed northwest to Spooky World located at Apple Jacks Adventure Farm just a short distance from Warrington. After the usual hair-raising experience of crossing the bridge over the motorway and feeling like you're about to collide with the M56 traffic en route, we arrived in the carpark of our destination for the night at about 6:20, 10 minutes to spare before heading into the security queue and collecting our tickets, followed by a much-needed catchup with the evil twins, The two Sarahs, After a quick chat and long overdue hugs it was time to head into the night's attractions.
We started at Field of Screams which is Spooky World's corn maze offering. Now I will say the walk to Field of Screams was very dark and could do with some form of accent lighting as the current set up made us question if it was even open. But alas it was open and after a short wait, we headed in. It has to be said the cast seemed quite young or collectively very short, but this didn't stop them from getting in our faces and being determined to stop us in our tracks, Now one thing to be aware of, this is not a traditional jump scare maze but rather a more subtle type of scare that uses creepy interaction and low whispers to put you more on edge rather than make you run for your life. All the cast that we encountered kept to this narrative of creepy rather and jumpy and we appreciated it for what it was. It felt more theatrical than impact and that's not a bad thing, yes some of the dialogue left a little to be desired but this is not an easy environment to work in, especially with the extremely low light and muddy grounds below, which Spooky World does make the effort to try and cover over unlike some places where you are expected to dredge yourself through deep mud. If more subtle and creepy coven girls are your thing, Field of Screams might be just up your alley, the only critique is that the finale if there was one fell a little flat.
Next up departing the corn was the scream parks clown maze Carnevil. Now I know what you're thinking, it's 2024 why a clown maze? I'll tell you why and that's because Spooky World and the cast within Carnevil do this somewhat cliche theme so damn well. Carnevil uses the best examples of clown attractions and merges them all into one fantastic mix without overselling the theme too much. The only critique we had for this attraction is the duck-down sections could do with a little warning, nothing over the top but I being 6.1 didnt see the roof dip down and banged my head which luckily my hat took the brunt of. But other than that Carnevil is a great example of what a clown maze can be, each of the inhabitants acted like children on a mix of too much candy and Red Bull. Special shoutouts go to the cast members in the curtains section who got multiple scares across our group of 3 and the other group that we bumped into at the time, they worked the curtains with perfection and brilliant timing, another shoutout mention goes to the axe-wielding clown who spun his weapon with precision and skill, this was a great unexpected moment of the attraction, the final main shoutout, although the entire cast were fantastic was the overhead scare that came completely out of the blue, and it looked like it took some serious skill and balance to master that scare so hats off to you too.
If memory serves me correctly it was around this time when we met Spooky World's very own Art the Clown, now we have to spend a moment to talk about this roamer. They were fantastic and I mean seriously entertaining, using no dialogue at all but simple gestures and light touches, this cast member was one of the best roamers we have had the pleasure to meet this year. With no less than 7 interactions throughout the night at least, every moment was a mix of unease and joy. We do know your name but for safety reasons, we don't mention cast names but you know who you are, one of our highlights was you clapping along to a Paul Simon song whilst watching us spin the night away on the Waltzer. All round very entertaining and a perfectly executed character.
Next it was time for a quick bite to eat before heading into Slaughterhouse. We walked straight into this attraction with no queue at all which was very promising, the safety spiel played out and we were warned not to enter if we were easily offended, in previous years the first character shall we say has been a tad risque with dialogue which we loved, but this character was nowhere to be seen or heard. We later found out that some scenes in Slaughterhouse and The Institute had to be toned down due to the guest's complaints, if you don't like something after youve been warned before entering, don't go in, its that bloody simple, don't ruin it for the rest of us that want the full show as intended. But that aside it was time to enter the park's Hillbilly maze which in previous years had been one of the park's front runners and this year was no exception. Enter a world of the depraved and twisted family of terrors. Each mastering the southern drawl immersing us in the deep south. The cast members are no strangers to getting in your face, in your personal space and hitting you with a ton of innuendos, from brothers and sisters to the big daddy of the family, these meat-obsessed characters really go in deep to provide scares, the only downside is that this year the super powerful chainsaw scene was absent but this was confirmed to be due to it breaking a few days earlier which can not be helped. Again not the easiest space to work in as many of the scare locations are visible but we don't care, it works and the cast knows how to work their respective areas and once again it hit the top of our table for the Spooky World line up in joint position with Carnevil.
Leaving the deep south behind we headed to Haunted House which had moved location from previous years, now as we mentioned in the slasher review, this is one of the places where we had some problems, again not the fault of the cast but rather the staff on batching. There was a minimal queue line maybe 6 in front of us and as we entered the attractions briefing room we saw guests leave before us, this was not a good sign as the briefing rooms are usually around 20 seconds long. And rest assured our fears were realised when we entered and soon met up with the group ahead, Maybe a minute into the attraction. But that aside the first thing we will mention is the improvement of the sets in Haunted House, in previous years they have been somewhat lacking but this year each room felt more realised and fully formed. The cast had a mammoth task ahead of them, dealing with a conga line of maybe 25 people strong, yet we still got scares, some theatrical some impact but either way the scares were there and not all front-focused either, a shoutout goes to the cast member in the armchair that soon shot down a guest trying to take pictures in the attraction and did so 100% in character, threatening to strip them down if they did it again, its safe to say this cast member took no BS and we were here for it, Another memorable scene was that of the bathroom with the inhabitant rushing round the room getting scares from all angles, it was not a scene I was expecting to work but it did and the screams were coming in the bucket loads. The cast were up against the odds but still worked so bloody hard to keep the show going so a huge congratulations goes out to them.
It was now time for something new which arrived in 2023, sadly we were unable to visit last year due to acting commitments but it was time to enter the pirate-themed attraction Below Deck. Now I don't want to start this on a negative but it has to be mentioned and hopefully improved for next year but the split moment of the fast track queue merging with the main queue was completely unmanned except for 1 guy who seemed to want to be inside rather than managing the merge point. This left us literally waiting to elbow our way into the main queue much to the irritation of the guests within and left my nerves in shreds as my anxiety was through the roof because of this. Now onto the attraction itself, after walking up the ramp into the original Haunted House building you find yourself on the deck of a pirate ship, the captain scene with the map was a welcome addition and really sold the story, but it was time for us to go below and into the cursed vessel to try and escape the unfortunate crew. This maze uses a lot of UV paint on the cast to capture the ethereal vibe of the cursed crew. Again this was another maze where the cast had to really work hard and although most were dead on point with scares, there were the few that were determined to do the "Scare and reset" which as a scare actor myself if you have a large group coming by it makes more sense to do something with dialogue and sustained scares rather than risk being caught resetting for the next group. Sadly this was the case a few times which I know wasn't intended but gave the impression of actors standing around doing nothing, again if you're not sure what scare to use that's fine but just a nod to next year, try and creep out your guest rather than scream and then fail to hide. I know it sounds like I am being harsh but it comes from a place of love. The cast was again up against the tide so to speak having to deal with poorly batched groups and I know on the night it can't have been easy.
One more maze to go and it was one of my personal favourites from 2022, The Institute. Now we had been told previous to arriving that The Institute has had some dramatic changes from its original form, Now personally and I have told the Twins exactly the same thing that I'm typing now. I preferred the original concept, for those that didn't know or never understood, The Insitute was based on the Russian Sleep Experiment and the effects of sleep deprivation on the body. Some saw it as a parody of mental health, but if you rave about the Asylum you can't then shout down The Insitute which was less about mental health and more about the the sleep experiment. However that all being said the new form of The Institute is less experiment and more your traditional prison maze. The Insitute in its original form was a simple but very effective strobe maze filled with participants working the spaces with terrified glee, this year however the participants are replaced with more traditional inmates of a penitentiary. Now i will admit I was expecting the cast to go a lot harder but like I mentioned before due to guest complaints this former contact attraction had to be toned down and had we visited earlier in the season our experience might have been very different. On to the actors, they were going mostly for intimidation and damn did it work, there were some very tall cast members who had been placed perfectly for their roles storming the cages within. Another unsettling scene was a guy who simply rocked back and forth on a bed, admittedly we were expecting this to be followed up by an impact scare that never came but it did a great job of setting the unease of the scene, the dialogue was mainly the usual prison tropes, some more risque than others, I wasn't expecting to hear "Don't drop the soap" for instance but then again I waiting to pinned up against the bars, the cast members were loud and aggressive which was a nice change from the other attractions on offer. I think had the attraction had more of a link back to its original form it might have found itself higher on our list but it was in no way a weak maze. We will say though that the mugshots at the beginning were a nice touch and great if you know who to look out for.
Finally, it was time to take on possibly the most infamous of the Spooky Worlds attractions, Im talking of course about the Haunted Hay Ride, Now this is where the review is going to get vague as I truly believe the Hay Ride should be experienced with very little knowledge of what to expect, All I will say is expect scares from unexpected places, wrap up warm and be prepared to face the elements, be it in water, fire or even foam.
Upon exiting the Hay Ride and your "decontamination" you will find yourself at one of the strangest yet intense areas of Spooky World and that is the Tunnel of Terror. You will have to crawl or crouch at least for extended amounts of time before being sent into the main stretch of the tunnel itself which sounds like boot camp, you will be shouted at whilst squeezing your way through an increasingly claustrophobic environment with what I can only describe as "rat tails" stroking your face the whole way down. It's a very strange way to end the night but It's one thing we always expect and oddly look forward to as the interaction has varied from year to year.
So this finally brings us to the end of our Spooky World 2024 journey. We want to say a huge thank you and congratulations to the entire cast and crew for working your collective arses off to make another great night up northwest. Yes, your sets might not be the top of the class, but you try so bloody hard and work with what you have to make an event that stands with the best of them. Spooky World truly is a testament that the cast can make a scream park and you all do it so well.
Spooky World has now finished its Halloween season run but if you want to check them out for next year you can do so at the link below.
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