Ok, so a few more hours left to go and i must say this, Alton's scarefest 2008 has been it's strongest and weakest Scarefest event.
So, let's start with the Strong Points:
Duel:LIVE! - Wow, this is such a fantastic idea, was great for the house to change back to a near enough image of it's old self; the actors, the staff costume changes, change of music, lighting and turned off blasters and LEDs really showed how amazing duel can be. The idea here by the ents team was so fantastic!
It's got potential, but next year work on that a bit more. The Field - Bigger by far this year! Slightly different story, good to see a proper queue with red lighting etc and more of a technical influence this time (more soundeffects etc), nice new and fresh scenes and scares and also a nice twist too.
The Boiler - a fantastic concept and one that's really got the potential to become a seriously scary maze. A worthy replacement of Room 13 I feel. The different routes, the different levels, the scenery and the pre-show etc all show how much thought has gone into this maze and tbh it can only get better - and with full actors inside people have really been desperately wanting to escape from it!
ToTT - Ok. The cage, what a lovely idea to do and go by - thsi really caught people by surprise and was a nice addition and fulfilled their aim of people literally running for the exit. The flicking by the chef and the intimidation of this maze had very good intentions. The master and his little banquet went out with a bang.
Trick or Treat Doors, Haunted Hollow, Scarefest Music/Song and themeing - Again a huge improvement this year on all. The doors had been re-located causing there to be more life around there during the evening and better popularity too. Haunted Hollow, the début of new characters was fantastic (lady of the lake!
) a more family approach with the more mystical/magical characters, but this worked well. Scarefest Music was great choices throughout and great to hear that the HH soundtrack along with other favourites returned and the scarefest song, loved it! Great for the kids and to get you into the mood for the event. Themeing, this has to definitely be an improvement compared to last year. The "Giant Pumpkin" photo spots where a nice idea along with the huge vines and pumpkins on the main entrance; towers street; alton towers hotel and splash landings were welcomed new additions and i'm sure it'll be even better next year.But, now onto the weak points:
Duel:LIVE! - Ok, the main thing here was the actor rotas, so people got none or one/two actors and other's got as many as 6/7! The scares can be seen from the other cars and sometimes technology got in the way sometimes with things making noises that shouldn't be etc.
The Field - Bigger yes! But better? Hmm, no - there were huge blank sections - not enough zombies in the corn and some very empty scenes. Throughput this caused HUGE problems even though the time slots are meant to abolish this issue. Some of the scenes didn't really grasp people's attention and sometimes there were not enough actors in the maze to actually intimidate people. It became a slight joke at points according to some guests :S
The Boiler House - New, fresh....but for some strange reason alton decided to cut the pre-show on certain days? WHY? This is such an awful move! Never ever remove something that is designed to reveal/strengthen/contribute to the scares and story. Again, actors (as with all live attractions) was a real issue with some guests walking out with a look of "is that it" on their faces? Oh dear...
And also, confusion on the theme with the furnace being hundreds of years old some where a bit puzzled when confronted with a modern maze etc, i feel that more clarity on the background of the era etc would be good next year.ToTT - the biggest problem of this year's scarefest. Throughput, actors, fastrack, the size - just about all of it was a problem. The queue - it was awful this year and the fastrack is not helping at all! No access to food or drink is awful alton...c'mon. The actors - there simply isn't enough of them! There needs to be more and they need to be designed better with ALL sections of the group in mind (yes love, that does mean the middle too!). And please alton DO NOT let staff get into an overboard character whilst in the normal alton uniform, this can't be done it doesn't work with the clash of two different themes being merged into one (Theme 1: the character the staff member is trying to act and theme 2 is the alton uniform) - the mix of these two just causes confusion amongst guests. The music and general atmosphere wasn't bad this year at all and the attention to detail and all inside is great. The size of the maze however, isn't. Why cut an attraction just for throughput? Alton, you KNEW fastrack organisation was the sole reason for this (and scripting last year too) but then why cut the maze? Just get rid of the fastrack queue and work on those scripts. Condense them and realise that a story can be told via a script in a very short amount of time if you construct them well. You need to start off with a strong frame and then build it up - the last two years have had a weak frame holding a hell of a lot of script inside and causing the maze to seriously slow down - and fastrack isn't helping. Don't use scripts as your only excuse for the slow throughput because it was mainly fastrack. You managed it in 03 to get that script and scares done with a quick queue and you did - and it worked. That's the sole thing to work on next year and especially if a new scenario for ToTT is on the cards. Work on getting rid of fastrack (or better organisation) and work on condensing those scripts and getting them to be giving vital info that contributes to the story but that doesn't drag on! And those scares - the cage was a start - just give a little more punch next time.
So, there we have it (and apologies for me rambling on but some know how much i love acting etc and it had to be said). I can assure everyone that this year's Scarefest has really and truly been a learning curve for the team meaning they are definitely improving on lots for next year. All the complaints and constructive criticism has not fallen on deaf ears either, they will really work with all that has been said to make sure Alton's Halloween Event for 2009 will be the best yet.
The ride itself was good, I noticed about 5 or 6 actors inside, the best scare being a girl who was hiding behind the Pillar Demon and came right up close to me and sqeeled! The music was good aswell, quite Tim Burton esque 
I was about 3rd or 4th in our group and got quite a good few scares, mostly in the maze bits themselves. The Chef was brilliant and the Masters wife did a good job at taking the piss of some chavs in our group, however my main criticism was that the elustrious Master didn't show himself at all, and also the back story about his deformed child confused me as it didn't seem relevant to the Bloodfeast Banquet theme.
It was very cold and started to rain whilst we were queueing, so I presume some of the lesser actors must have gone away because of the cold. It was fun and the acting was god, but there were so many dead spots where something could have jumped out it seemed a bit pointless. Still, the end sequence was fantastic and had everybody running for the door! One small question, was the girl at the fence, sammy, in anything last year? I seem to recognise her somehow.
: Both the boiler house and the field were scary/funny where as the TOTT was actually bum clenching!!!! Again down to the excellent job of the actors. Queuing for the TOTT was also bum clenching as it was sooooooo long and soooooo cold which again needs to be addressed by the powers that be. Overall i would give it a 9.9998 out of 10. Can't wait till next year. P.s bye bye corkscrew 
I dunno how the staff coped with that, working in there every day. We were tearing our hair out after one evening!