Attraction Source Forum

KoasterKraver wrote:How long do you think Scarefest will stay for?

Do you mean how long will it remain named Scarefest? as I doubt they'll get rid of the event as its their most popular time of year.

Andy Mc wrote:

KoasterKraver wrote:How long do you think Scarefest will stay for?

Do you mean how long will it remain named Scarefest? as I doubt they'll get rid of the event as its their most popular time of year.

Yes how long Scarefest will stay. I go many times every year to Scarefest as its defiantly the best time of the year to visit towers. I'm personally hoping the name Scarefest will stay for a very long time as it suits Alton towers very well. The rides in the dark is great, maybe some extra coloured lights in some places but a great experience for all! I absolutely love it and I'm hoping it stays for a long long time.

Suggested addition to the Sub Species: Operation Lockdown experience should it continue:

So Phalanx requires cadets to help stop this alien species and the world from coming to an end as we know it. Quite frankly they don't care about you really, you're a pawn and in numbers to help them out.

My thoughts to the start off this experience would be that you all gather outside The Swiss cottage, the Phalanx Operatives are located within two (maybe three) transport vans (some cheap Phalanx logo sticker on the side) pre-parked nearby waiting for the experience to commence. The actors reverse / drive down to the Swiss Cottage and come out all shouting and round up the cadets.

A debrief is had like in the experience currently and then everyone goes into the transport vans. For guests in the back there is no visible windows to see where they are going. Then the actors drive them around (a nice steady 10mph H&S you know!) as seen in the diagram (following the red route) for a minute or two and park outside the entrance to her ladyship gardens.

The actors jump out of the van (maybe possible alien ambush & some Operatives don't survive) guests will just hear the commotion outside and then the Corporal / Operative opens the van doors, you all rush towards the maze entrance and down (for those who've done it you'll know where, you're safe for now..) and then the experience continues as normal.

The experience was epic as is but having an introduction like this would make it even more epic imo as we were all stood outside Sub Species maze waiting for 10pm.



Obviously I'd love whatever budget to be pumped into the mazes however I think this below prop could bring added tension.

So Molly Crowe, while standing in the queue line you have the old time lighting and with the below prop (see videos) using different audio (done especially for Molly Crowe) at timely intervals think you could create quite an atmosphere at night, probably wouldn't bother with it during the day. This doll starts off and finishes in a crouching position and slowly rises & gets more demonic. Spirits possessing dolls, the thought just sends shivers down me already lol.

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[Taken from my post in Scarefest 2015 thread] Also for Molly Crowe should it return the end finale could even use something like the Blood Walls seen in the promo video below. You could have the minister performing the exorcism, Molly splatters blood all up the wall/writes something. Then the lights go out, the floor shakes and the rest you should know.

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I think Scarefest could do with a couple of things to improve it for next year. Sub Species needs to stay. It really is an awesome maze. As for ToTT, i think it is actually quite a good maze. I just feel that the conga line should be taken away. It would be a lot better if it was free flow. If they could it where it was like our Extreme runs during the Scaremazing North event, than i feel it would vastly improve the maze. As for Molly, i personally don't think it should return. I felt it was kind of pointless and the space could have been used for something a lot better.

With regards to the mazes, there is one place that i feel would be ideal for a maze (or even a scare zone), even though it would have to be either a conga line or a free flow line, and thats Duel's extended outdoor queue line. It really would make a very great location for an outdoor maze/scarezone as its sort of out the way and is just generally creepy without any props or actors.

As for scarezones, i honestly thought that this years were, well to put it in a polite way, boring and not scary. They lacked any real umph. I can see what they were trying to do, i just felt that they failed. Next year, if they are to do a similar thing again, i would like to see either more actors, or a larger area used.

The scare zones were definitely better when they were enclosed like in previous years. The open space just doesn't work. Personally I'd much rather have just 1 enclosed scare zone rather than 2 open ones. With Zombies and Scary Tales it felt like I could make a special journey across the park just to experience them but with these new ones they're just something to look at as you're passing through. I wish they'd kept Scary Tales, even if it meant losing Zombies - they already have all the props and enough actors and in my opinion it was much better than Nox Infernus and Dark Apocalypse put together.

Anyway, I haven't heard many good reviews about the new style of scare zones so I'm hoping they'll revert back to the old way next year!

Because I had an overnight stay alton towers have asked me to complete a survey which included a question about the scare zones. It asks you to rate them from 1-10 and If a lot of people rate it low then they may decide to change them back to what it was like in previous years!

I liked the scarezones, I love actors walking around park areas.

smileradvocate1 wrote:Because I had an overnight stay alton towers have asked me to complete a survey which included a question about the scare zones. It asks you to rate them from 1-10 and If a lot of people rate it low then they may decide to change them back to what it was like in previous years!

That's what I was thinking, I gave them 2! :-$

The scare zones on the whole were awful. Zombies was ok, but box was just dismal to be honest.

I thought the scare zones were very good to be honest. They did exactly what they were there to do, provide something different. For the people who didn't particularly want to do the scare mazes themselves, they provided a good sense of atmosphere. Every time I went either of them, people were running through laughing or screaming. I think this was the idea of them, and they did it very well

I see what everyone's saying about the zones being different and something new but personally I just don't think I'm getting as much for my money. It's easy to scatter some actors across a couple of areas of the park whereas it takes a bit more effort to plan out a special route with intense theming and effects with some undercover sections like they have done in previous years.

The scare zones were atmospheric but, particularly nox infernus, a little too small for my tastes, and they didn't really do much for me. Then again they weren't really aimed at me: one of our group (the youngest) was absolutely petrified of them both, and she even did the best run through dark apocalypse I've ever seen arms flailing around and screaming. So funny watching a terrified purple minion get chased by a guy with a chainsaw.

In nox infernus she made the mistake of making strong eye contact with one of the ghostly women with freaky eyes, who had the awesome idea of following her to the thirteen queue line and confronting her creepily, unnerving her completely she was petrified of going through the scare zone at all.....so for her they worked perfectly.

I liked the idea and the roaming actors are fantastic, so for me an extension of the zones would be better next year.

Sub species was astonishingly good, I think it has had near universal praise so can't see it going anywhere. I loved the story of Molly Crowe, the finale was brilliant, and it was great they tried something new but it lacked scares for me. It might be because of the conga line you took comfort in being in a group. Sub species was so effective because it's disorienting there was no way to predict how it will pan out or where you are/who you're with, if they could use the sensory deprivation in Molly with some kind of locational uncertainty (it would be hard as the conga line makes sure you don't all fall over each other) I think it would allow the audio, the limited visuals and the random touching to be far more effective.

I think it will stay for a very very long time. They've had to cancel it before, and that might happen again, but as it's one of the busiest and best times of year so there's no reason to get rid of it!

It isn't looking good. Only operating scarefest on weekends... What are they thinking? Yes it wasn't as busy this year in the week, but I'm sure it would of improved fot next year. There were enough people around park.

I won't be attending next year, not a single chance. Will be way too busy. I'm not the type of person who enjoys queuing hours for everything! And the mazes are going to be chocoblock.

I chose to go in the week for a reason. It's a garbage desicion. Dissapointed that I won't be able to to sub species , but Hay ho.

Mikkel wrote:It isn't looking good. Only operating scarefest on weekends... What are they thinking?

Its still open Friday 21st then Monday 24th to Friday 28th with the 31st being a Monday as well the rest of the dates being Saturdays / Sundays.

I really like the Scarefest date changes. Spreading the weekends out more will make weekends quieter. Great decision in my opinion.

Yeah but no scarefest through the week before, been every year in that week as its the quietest and can enjoy the mazes a few more times than once.

Speedy_no1 wrote:Yeah but no scarefest through the week before, been every year in that week as its the quietest and can enjoy the mazes a few more times than once.

But for those of us who are busy in the week

Soooo which weekend will the travellers be going to scarefest this year then? The actual first weekend of scarefest, or the weekend thats always traditionally been the first? Got nothing against them, just trying to pick the quietest weekend.

Sawboss wrote:Soooo which weekend will the travellers be going to scarefest this year then? The actual first weekend of scarefest, or the weekend thats always traditionally been the first? Got nothing against them, just trying to pick the quietest weekend.

And there we have the million dollar question. I'd just avoid the first two Sundays to be 100% sure.