There’s a certain irony in the fact that, for long-running Halloween scare attractions, one of the most formidable horrors they face is that of familiarity. After all, even the most ingeniously conceived maze, or the most ghoulish of it denizens, can begin to lose some of their impact after repeated visits.

Maintaining that all-important element of surprise is no mean feat when visitors – such as this very outlet – return to the same venue, year after year.

It’s a challenge that Burton-upon-Trent’s Screamfest has navigated with fiendish relish over the years, with regular introductions of new mazes, the occasional reinvention of established favourites, and a consistently impressive cadre of performers all helping to maintain its standing as one of the UK’s premier Halloween scare attractions.

As Burton celebrates its fifteenth anniversary, their 2026 offering showcases that the team at the National Forest Adventure Farm have no intention of resting on their blood-soaked laurels. With an all-new, perfectly-themed maze joining an already substantial lineup, some very welcome improvements to returning attractions, and a palpable increase in production quality across the board, 2026 sees Screamfest somehow ratchet things up yet another notch, even by Burton’s own consistently high standards.

The biggest newcomer to proceedings this year is Cortex-17, an experimental medical nightmare which transports visitors into the murky confines of a covert 1960s neurological institution, where the administration of a mysterious new compound, ‘Project Eidolon’, has – perhaps inevitably – taken a turn for the grotesque.

It’s a suitably sinister premise, and one which Burton has invested considerable effort into realising. The hospital-cum-asylum setting carries more than a few shades of Konami‘s Silent Hill series, with its clinical environments, disturbing inhabitants and oppressive atmosphere evoking the same sort of dilapidated, nightmarish medical facilities that have long been a staple of survival horror. There’s an almost cinematic quality to the presentation, with some genuinely excellent environmental design, lighting and sound work combining to create an attraction that feels particularly ambitious in scope.

“…particularly impresses with Cortex is the degree to which the maze’s visual design and atmosphere are allowed to complement the actual scares.”

Indeed, what particularly impresses with Cortex is the degree to which the maze’s visual design and atmosphere are allowed to complement the actual scares. The best horror experiences aren’t necessarily those which bombard visitors with an endless succession of actors jumping out from darkened corners, but rather those which establish a convincing, unsettling environment in which the anticipation of something unpleasant becomes almost as effective as the eventual encounter itself. It’s a credo on display from the outset – with a fantastic actress giving an unsettling, almost Nurse Ratched-esque display of passive aggressive welcoming on the evening reviewed.

Cortex-17 understands this well, with its sinister medical theming, impressive production values and suitably deranged patients making for one of Burton’s most absorbing creations to date. It’s an excellent new addition, and further evidence of the park’s willingness to explore different flavours of horror rather than merely repackage existing ideas.

If that’s the something new, then let’s take a moment to appreciate the caulrophobic horrors of something old…

One of the most pleasing developments for 2026 comes courtesy of an altogether more familiar attraction. The circus-themed Freakout: Resurrected, a revived staple of Screamfest in its various incarnations, has undergone something of a renaissance, restoring much of the full-blown circus atmosphere and spectacle from the outset – having adopted a found-footage, not-so-abandoned vibe in recent years.

Freakout has always been one of Burton’s biggest coin tosses – whilst always a reliably entertaining maze, some years it had had begun to feel a little long in the tooth, particularly when compared with some of Burton’s more elaborate and ambitious creations. This year, however, the big top terror proves one of Burton’s most thrilling and revitalised attractions, with its twisting, disorientating layout and assortment of malevolent clowns once again combining to great effect.

Of particular note is some genuinely outstanding prosthetic and makeup work, which lends Freakout‘s ensemble of circus oddities an altogether more grotesque and disturbing appearance. There are some truly nightmarish creations lurking within, and the quality of their presentation elevates proceedings considerably beyond the usual collection of cackling clowns and basic clown face. Coupled with the renewed sense of theatricality and the performers’ customary enthusiasm for tormenting visitors, it’s a bravura, chaotic return to form for an old favourite.

It’s especially gratifying to see such investment being lavished upon one of Burton’s longest-serving attractions, rather than allowing it to simply coast along on past successes. There’s a tangible sense of renewed purpose to the whole affair, and what could once have been considered one of the more routine inclusions in Screamfest‘s annual lineup has once again become something of a highlight.

The improved visual presentation isn’t limited to Freakout, either. Across all of this year’s mazes, there’s a noticeable uplift in the standard of makeup, prosthetics and costume design, with an added degree of polish that makes even some of the more familiar inhabitants appear considerably more convincing.

“Across all of this year’s mazes, there’s a noticeable uplift in the standard of makeup, prosthetics and costume design…”

And, as has become something of a recurring observation in recent years, Burton’s performers continue to be one of its greatest assets. The willingness of its actors to engage with visitors, improvise encounters and inject a little personality into their respective roles has long helped distinguish Screamfest from some of its contemporaries, and the improvements in their physical appearance and costumes only serve to make these interactions all the more effective. Fan favourites ‘Nurse Babs’ and madcap duo ‘Sprinkles & Sparkles’ return, roaming around the park’s hub areas with a whole host of creepy companions ready to torment and delight visitors.

Speaking of close encounters, Helcatraz remains one of the event’s most formidable offerings, building upon the rather significant departure for Burton that its introduction represented back in 2024. At the time, it marked the park’s first venture into a scare maze where physical contact was not only permitted, but actively incorporated into the experience, and its nightmarish prison setting continues to provide the ideal environment for some especially unpleasant treatment at the hands of its inhabitants.

There’s a deliciously sadistic quality to some of the encounters here, with the physical interactions going well beyond the perfunctory shoulder grab or gentle nudge that might be expected from attractions of this ilk.

Elsewhere, the award-winning Insomnia makes a welcome return, with its wonderfully inventive journey into the nightmares of a young girl and the ever-unwelcome attentions of the demonic ‘Crackerjack’, continues to offer some of the park’s most imaginative environmental storytelling. Its unsettling dream logic and inventive visual flourishes remain effective, even after repeated visits, and it still stands as one of Screamfest’s most accomplished mazes.

Hillbilly Joe’s Zombee Zoo, meanwhile, remains a welcome exercise in anarchic, darkly comedic silliness, and Mutation Damnation, the agricultural horror introduced last year, makes effective use of the farm’s own identity with its grotesque mixture of botanical and scientific nightmares. Both Hillbilly Joe’s and Mutation are a little lighter on scares and sparser in inhabitants than their fellow mazes, but their high-concept shenanigans make for a welcome change of pace and scenery both.

Outside of the mazes themselves, Screamfest‘s familiar festival atmosphere remains very much intact. The park once again plays host to an ensemble of fairground rides (you must ride the ‘City Hopper’ at least once), food and drink vendors, live music, and roaming performers, lending the wider event an infectious sense of energy and occasion.

The alien-themed Area 52 also returns as an optional, separately-ticketed extra, offering visitors the chance to head out into the darker reaches of the farm and engage in some gloriously schlocky paintball-based extraterrestrial combat. Anyone looking for genuine fear here will be disappointed; it has its tongue placed firmly in its cheek and is more a slice of B-movie-flavoured fun than anything approaching a genuinely terrifying encounter. It’s a fun and diverting change of pace for those willing to factor the additional cost and time into their visit.

With six, polished and immersive mazes now in place, Screamfest continues to offer a substantial evening of entertainment. It does, however, amplify the potential need for one of the park’s ‘fast pass’ options. Starting at £51.00 per person (dependent on the date attending), the ability to bypass pretty much the entirety of queuing is absolutely worth it, if it falls within your budget. The all-screaming, all-dancing ‘RIP’ option is even better – providing unlimited fast track access to all the mazes, a trip to Area 52 with extra paintballs and vouchers for food and drink on top. At £91 – 96 per person, it’s a much more considered investment, but there’s no denying it makes the evening a more manageable and immediate affair.

Return visits to scare attractions can dull the shine and stimy the shock, but  Screamfest once again bypasses that particular folly with not just the addition of another maze, or even the excellent work that has gone into Cortex-17. Rather, it’s the sense that almost every facet of the experience has benefited from an extra degree of attention and care, with improved makeup and costume work, the triumphant rejuvenation of Freakout, and the continued excellence of the likes of Helcatraz all contributing to an attraction that feels more polished and accomplished than ever.

For an event celebrating fifteen years of frights, there’s remarkably little evidence of Screamfest becoming complacent or allowing familiarity to diminish its impact. Rather, it once again remains one of the UK’s most reliably entertaining scare attractions, and on this evidence, its best years may very well still be ahead of it.

Note: TWE reviewed  ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ earlier in its current tour. Given that this is the same touring production, what follows is a revised version of that same review, updated for its most recent visit to Birmingham.

 Given its enviable trophy cabinet, stuffed with Tonys, Oliviers and even a Grammy, it had been a wobbly few years for Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s Dear Even Hansen.

The 2021 Amy Adams Hollywood adaptation, starring OG ‘Evan’, Ben Platt, was widely considered a clumsy misfire at best, and seemed to compete with the lingering remains of COVID for being the most vilified thing of the year. The West End production closed shortly after, followed – perhaps inevitably – by those esteemed scholars that are the TikTok revisionists jumping on board and starting to ask if perhaps the whole thing hadn’t always been a bit problematic and morally dubious from the start.

Cue Adam Penford and the Nottingham Playhouse.

Reviving Evan in this slick, confident new non-replica touring production, Penford and team have distilled this story of a sensitive, reclusive American teen whose lies get more than a little out of hand back into the disarming, moving and powerful piece of musical theatre it was formerly most celebrated as.

Young Evan Hansen (an astonishing Ryan Kopel) is a nervy, isolated loner, barely scraping through therapy sessions and medication refills, let alone navigating the social jungle of high school. With Dad long since painting himself out of the picture, mum Heidi (musical theatre royalty Alice Fearn) burns the candle at both ends trying to keep a roof over their heads and studying towards a paralegal degree.

When an unexpected tragedy strikes, pulling Evan into its orbit courtesy of an errant letter penned to himself (hence the title), the young teen finds himself absorbed in a growing maelstrom of dishonesty and initially well-meaning fantasy. What starts out as a fairly harmless collection of white lies to comfort a grieving family soon balloons into something far greater, though by drawing him closer to the object of his affections, young Zoe (Lauren Conroy), Evan finds the allure of his deception impossible to detach from.

Dear Evan Hansen certainly courts some heady topics and themes. Modern flourishes such as going ‘viral’, coupled with the capricious nature of online commentary become important subthreads. And issues of suicide, drug abuse, trauma and mental health disorders underpin much of the show’s narrative weight. There are even a handful of moments where these are used to punctuate comedic beats.

Some may venture into Act II hearing some of those TikTok naysayers echoing faintly in the back of their minds. Is this all, in fact, a bit distasteful?

Thankfully, a stellar cast and Penford’s considered direction all finish the hat sensitively, rounding off a frequently moving and stirring piece of musical storytelling. Evan Hansen doesn’t shy away from acknowledging its protagonists’ wrongdoing, and the eventual emotional fallout feels blisteringly authentic. There are powerful, tearjerking performances at practically every turn, and Pasek and Paul’s decorated songs and music are consistently top drawer. There’s a reason the likes of ‘Waving Thorough a Window’, ‘For Forever’ and ‘You Will Be Found’ are already comfortably established as musical theatre tentpoles.

“There are powerful, tearjerking performances at practically every turn, and Pasek and Paul’s decorated songs and music are consistently top drawer…”

For despite the fact that the core through line of Evan Hansen is built on a bed of dishonesty and cowardice, so too does it ultimately end up feeling rather hopeful and healing.

Stepping out of the shadow of the likes of Ben Platt and Sam Tutty is no easy task, but Ryan Kopel takes hold of the titular role and does stunning things with it. His Evan is an altogether more tremulous, timid beast even than we’ve seen before, but Kopel plays it to utter perfection. It’s a soulful, delicate, idiosyncratic and at times devastating central turn, completely earnest, and the fact Kopel is able to match the quality of his acting with equally jaw-dropping vocals only amplifies what is an already captivating performance.

Around him, Alice Fearn gets great material to showcase her formidable acting chops as Evan’s imperfect, hard-working and frustrated mum. She unsurprisingly tears up her handful of big musical moments, the sheer emotion and strength of her ‘So Big/So Small’ one of the highlights of what is a very packed evening of great vocals. Tom Dickerson is great fun and brings some much-needed levity as ‘family friend’ and co-conspirator, Jared, recruited into helping maintain Evan’s deceit. Will Forgrave put in a great and poignant turn understudying troubled teen Connor in the performance reviewed, whilst Lauren Conroy remains a fascinating and wonderfully naturalistic on-stage presence as potential love interest and grieving sister, Zoe.

“…a soulful, delicate, idiosyncratic and at times devastating central turn.”

In truth, though, the whole company impresses, all neatly housed in a visually arresting, high-tech playground of Morgan Large, Matt Daw and Ravi Deepres’ design. Deepres’ video work accents things often, from a melange of social media activity through to the almost blinding light of Evan’s recollections and fantasies. Much like the bustling, metropolitan, chronically online world that its characters find themselves swept up by, this is a production that is bustling, interlocking, modern and polished. Penford keeps things moving and punchy, though isn’t averse to ‘slamming on the brakes’ and letting his characters bathe in little more than a simple spotlight when the moment calls for it, such as a pivotal school assembly address.

Come its bittersweet coda, there may still be some theatregoers pondering whether or not Dear Evan Hansen has let its protagonist off lightly. It’ll doubtless fuel fan debate and those tireless TikTok and Youtube commentators for many years to come.

But to delve too deeply into such atavistic weeds would threaten to miss the point altogether. It would also dull the mature, warts-and-all frankness of the show’s ultimate message. Namely, that we’re all flawed, broken people, and even the best of us can do the wrong things for the right reason.

With a stunning, deservedly acclaimed soundtrack, masterfully reignited and invigorated by Penford and team, and boasting what should be a star-making turn for Kopel, Dear Evan Hansen is a poignant, heartfelt love letter to the foibles and frailties of the human condition.

A moving, pensive story and beautifully crafted production both, that deftly silences the critics and the naysayers. It’s a heartfelt reminder that it is often in our most glaring imperfections and unforgivable mistakes where the most unexpected beauty, and perhaps even faintest glimmer of hope, can be found.

Given its enviable trophy cabinet, stuffed with Tonys, Oliviers and even a Grammy, it’s been a wobbly couple of years for Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s Dear Even Hansen.

The 2021 Amy Adams Hollywood adaptation, starring OG ‘Evan’, Ben Platt, was widely considered a clumsy misfire at best, and seemed to compete with the lingering remains of COVID for being the most vilified thing of the year. The West End production closed shortly after, followed – perhaps inevitably – by those esteemed scholars that are the TikTok revisionists jumping on board and starting to ask if perhaps the whole thing hadn’t always been a bit problematic and morally dubious from the start.

Cue Adam Penford and the Nottingham Playhouse.

Reviving Evan in this slick, confident new touring production, Penford and team have distilled this story of a sensitive, reclusive American teen whose lies get more than a little out of hand back into the disarming, moving and powerful piece of musical theatre it was formerly most celebrated as.

Young Evan Hansen (an astonishing Ryan Kopel) is a nervy, isolated loner, barely scraping through therapy sessions and medication refills, let alone navigating the social jungle of high school. With Dad long since painting himself out of the picture, mum Heidi (musical theatre royalty Alice Fearn) burns the candle at both ends trying to keep a roof over their heads and studying towards a paralegal degree.

When an unexpected tragedy strikes, pulling Evan into its orbit courtesy of an errant letter penned to himself (hence the title), the young teen finds himself absorbed in a growing maelstrom of dishonesty and initially well-meaning fantasies. What starts out as a fairly harmless collection of white lies to comfort a grieving family soon balloons into something far greater, though by drawing him closer to the object of his affections, young Zoe (Lauren Conroy), Evan finds the allure of his deception impossible to detach from.

Dear Evan Hansen certainly courts some heady topics and themes. Modern flourishes such as going ‘viral’, coupled with the capricious nature of online commentary become important subthreads. And issues of suicide, drug abuse, trauma and mental health disorders underpin much of the show’s narrative weight. There are even a handful of moments where these are used to punctuate comedic beats.

Some may venture into Act II hearing some of those TikTok naysayers echoing faintly in the back of their minds. Is this all, in fact, a bit distasteful?

Thankfully, a stellar cast and Penford’s considered direction all finish the hat sensitively, rounding off a frequently moving and stirring piece of musical storytelling. Evan Hansen doesn’t shy away from acknowledging its protagonists’ wrongdoing, and the eventual emotional fallout feels blisteringly authentic. There are powerful, tearjerking performances at practically every turn, and Pasek and Paul’s decorated songs and music are consistently top drawer. There’s a reason the likes of ‘Waving Thorough a Window’, ‘For Forever’ and ‘You Will Be Found’ are already comfortably established as musical theatre tentpoles.

“There are powerful, tearjerking performances at practically every turn, and Pasek and Paul’s decorated songs and music are consistently top drawer…”

For despite the fact that the core through line of Evan Hansen is built on a bed of dishonesty and cowardice, so too does it ultimately end up feeling rather hopeful and healing.

Stepping out of the shadow of the likes of Ben Platt and Sam Tutty is no easy task, but Ryan Kopel takes hold of the titular role and does stunning things with it. His Evan is an altogether more tremulous, timid beast even than we’ve seen before, but Kopel plays it to utter perfection. It’s a soulful, delicate, idiosyncratic and at times devastating central turn, completely earnest, and the fact Kopel is able to match the quality of his acting with equally jaw-dropping vocals only amplifies what is an already captivating performance.

Around him, Alice Fearn gets great material to showcase her formidable acting chops as Evan’s imperfect, hard-working and frustrated mum. She unsurprisingly tears up her handful of big musical moments, the sheer emotion and strength of her ‘So Big/So Small’ one of the highlights of what is a very packed evening of great vocals. Tom Dickerson is great fun and brings some much-needed levity as ‘family friend’ and co-conspirator, Jared, recruited into helping maintain Evan’s deceit. Vivian Panka is memorable as ambitious fellow outcast, Alana, who begins to realise some of Evan’s tales aren’t quite stacking up, whilst Lauren Conroy is a fascinating and naturalistic on-stage presence as potential love interest and grieving sister, Zoe.

“…a soulful, delicate, idiosyncratic and at times devastating central turn.”

In truth, though, the whole company impresses, all neatly housed in a visually arresting, high-tech playground of Morgan Large, Matt Daw and Ravi Deepres’ design. Deepres’ video work accents things often, from a melange of social media activity through to the almost blinding light of Evan’s recollections and fantasies. Much like the bustling, metropolitan, chronically online world that its characters find themselves swept up by, this is a production that is bustling, interlocking, modern and polished. Penford keeps things moving and punchy, though isn’t averse to ‘slamming on the brakes’ and letting his characters bathe in little more than a simple spotlight when the moment calls for it, such as a pivotal school assembly address.

Come its bittersweet coda, there may still be some theatregoers pondering whether or not Dear Evan Hansen has let its protagonist off lightly. It’ll doubtless fuel fan debate and those tireless TikTok and Youtube commentators for many years to come.

But to delve too deeply into such atavistic weeds would threaten to miss the point altogether. It would also dull the mature, warts-and-all frankness of the show’s ultimate message. Namely, that we’re all flawed, broken people, and even the best of us can do the wrong things for the right reason.

With a stunning, deservedly acclaimed soundtrack, masterfully reignited and invigorated by Penford and team, and boasting what should be a star-making turn for Kopel, Dear Evan Hansen is a poignant, heartfelt love letter to the foibles and frailties of the human condition.

A moving, pensive story and beautifully crafted production both, that deftly silences the critics and the naysayers. It’s a heartfelt reminder that it is often in our most glaring imperfections and unforgivable mistakes where the most unexpected beauty, and perhaps even faintest glimmer of hope, can be found.

To touch or not to touch, that is the question.

A somewhat innuendo-leaning intro, perhaps, but one of the key considerations of surely any modern scare attraction is whether or not they will allow their cast members to physically grab and interact with visitors.

It isn’t difficult to comprehend the arguments against doing so. It’s surely a safeguarding and insurance nightmare, for one, and there’s always the looming hazard of a guest getting grab-happy (or worse) in retaliation.

For as long as we have been reviewing (now the tenth year!), Screamfest at the National Forest Adventure Farm in Burton upon Trent has always been a strictly hands-off experience. Not that this has in any way been a detriment or shortcoming; a regular refreshment of its mazes and some USPs such as its ominous cornfield lends it plenty of frightful return appeal. And in last year’s review, we made a point of recognising how reinvigorated and vibrant the park and its scare actors seemed across-the-board. One could perhaps even argue that not being able to tug, grab and shove necessitated Screamfest’s ghouls and nasties leads to them having to be extra inventive in their character work and interactions – something that is still gleefully on show in the likes of Freakout on Tour and Hillbilly Joe’s Zombee Zoo.

And yet, in a real red letter moment for Burton, 2024 sees them cross that rubicon of physicality as they introduce an all-new maze from the ashes of an old favourite that allows its actors to get up close and personal and, yes, touch you.

Before appraising new arrival Helcatraz, though, the rest of this year’s Screamfest offering is functionally identical to last year’s great offering. The award-winning Insomniac returns, and its victorian era sequences seemed particularly densely populated, which is always highly welcome. The genuinely eerie trip into a young girl’s nightmare remains rich with ideas and Insidous-style creepiness and visuals.

“…whatever Burton’s casting team and directors are doing, they’re doing it well.”

Freakout on Tour, as mentioned, was another showcase that whatever Burton’s casting team and directors are doing, they’re doing it well. With our not being at a media or preview night, or even particularly early in the event’s run, it would be understandable if energy levels had dipped or weren’t at their peak, but every performer was truly giving it their all. Even the staffers giving the safety drills before entering the mazes seemed invested and on the ball.

It’s a thread that runs through each of the returning mazes. More so than in perhaps any year, there were numerous instances where the performers were willing to stop us in our tracks and create mini set pieces or scenarios all of our own. From a hilarious spot of body part bartering with a merchant in Zombee Zoo to a mischievous clown catching the name of a member of our party and deciding to comedically seek her out and toy with her as she trailed behind, there was no sense of these performers simply going through the motions, which can sometimes sap the energy out of a long-running attraction. It’s the second year running that the standards of performer energy and spontaneity have been particularly impressive and notable at Burton, and long may it continue.

Another returnee for 2024 is Area 52, an optional extra experience which sees visitors taken out into the reaches of the farm to paintball their way through invading alien forces. It returns mostly intact from last year, though a neat extra flourish arrives this year in the form of an introductory video which lends the things an extra sense of narrative and production value. As per last year, on the whole it’s hokey, schlocky fun that falls fairly squarely in B-movie territory, but is a neat change of pace and tone from the mazes themselves. At £10 (with additional costs for extra paintballs that if you are not good at rationing you will quite possibly need) it’s a considered extra purchase, especially with regard to the time investment if you aren’t going down the fast track route for the mazes, but it’s overall good, campy fun if you can allot it within your budgets and timetable for the evening.

Elsewhere, Burton’s usual ensemble of food vendors, musical performances, fairground rides, wandering scare actors and a performance stage all return. Set within the National Forest Adventure Farm, it has always proven itself an atmospheric and ambient hub space, landing somewhere between psychedelic rave and farmyard horror. New features and focal points, such as caged dancers and a perturbing electric chair animatronic, along with returning favourites such as the inimitable Nurse Babs and friends wandering around, all infuse the park with character and identity at every turn. It’s just a fun, freaky place to wander about, with an encounter or something to see likely at every turn. By the time Babs had taken over one of the dancing cages and was twerking and thrusting away furiously, only to be chastised by a disapproving undead girl with her dolly, there was no denying you were at Screamfest. Few scare attractions stamp their identity so indelibly and infectiously.

“…Screamfest’s newest outing most certainly doesn’t pull its punches.”

But there’s no escaping the big ticket newbie that is Helcatraz. Having finally seen off what seemed like the eternal Love Hurts (though loving homages and throwbacks to that can be found scattered throughout the park and mazes), as mentioned, Screamfest’s newest outing most certainly doesn’t pull its punches.

An intense venture into a nightmarish industrial prison complex, Helcatraz grabs you – quite literally – from the off, and doesn’t let go. Without wanting to spoil too much of what is a fantastic, very full-on maze, just be prepared to be separated, isolated, touched, shoved and very possibly get rather wet. This reviewer’s Helcatraz journey saw him cut off from the rest of his party for the entire maze, a suitably thrilling and frightening venture into the unknown. As is par for the course here, the design work, lighting and sound work are all excellent throughout. And the actors here are clearly relishing the freedom of permitted contact – hair will be pulled, legs grabbed, and at the point which I was shoved head-first into a narrow crawl space early on the maze, I knew Burton weren’t going to half-heartedly tiptoe into this new approach.

Given the high intensity of Helcatraz, it unsurprisingly fostered the longest queues of the evening. Though the general length of queues did not seem too long on the Thursday evening in question, the fact that Burton allows unlimited entry to its mazes at base really lends credence to considering its fast track and other ancillary ticket options. Though prices do vary dependent on the date of visit, for weekends and Friday evenings in particular, the ability to bypass queues should be a consideration. If contemplating the fast track options, the extra bang you get for your buck by opting for Screamfest’s ‘RIP’ ultimate ticket is notable. Whilst not exactly cheap at £89 per person, it actually works out to be very reasonably priced when broken down, offering up unlimited fast track entry to all of the mazes, entry to Area 52 (usually £10 by itself), a £10 food voucher to use at the food vendors, 3 complementary drinks at the event’s bar (including alcoholic beverages) as well as a bespoke RIP lanyard. It is the experience we enjoyed on our visit, and means you are able to take in almost all of what Burton offers hassle-free and at your own leisure, with food, drinks and the fun of Area 52 all thrown in.

“If contemplating the fast track options, the extra bang you get for your buck by opting for Screamfest’s ‘RIP’ ultimate ticket is notable.”

Irrespective of whether you are able to indulge to full toothsome extent though, a 2024 visit to Screamfest Burton is another easy recommendation. Firmly ensconced as a staple of any of our Halloween Horror Visits, it has been a devilish joy to see this stalwart of the scare industry go from strength to strength. Once again boasting an enviable ensemble of game, invested scare actors injecting new life and frights into even older mazes, Burton finds itself comfortably nipping at the heels of its competitors as one of the best scare attractions in the UK. With the fantastic new Helcatraz boldly and unabashedly breaking through into new territory for the park, the future looks bleak, bloody and brilliant for our favourite Halloween must-visits.

The concept of the ‘reboot’ is nothing particularly new within the realm of Horror. Hollywood in particular loves to relaunch, revamp and revitalise its tentpole fright franchises, with at times terrifying regularity. This year’s Saw X, for instance, somehow feels like the eleventh time Lionsgate have rolled Tobin Bell’s ‘Jigsaw’ out of retirement (in fairness, X was a perfectly solid return to form…).

2023 has most certainly seen the concept take a foothold within the world of scare attractions. We mentioned in our review of Burton-upon-Trent’s Screamfest how their Love Hurts maze received a stay of execution after being advertised in 2022 as having its ‘Final Orders’. Over in Uttoxeter, meanwhile, Alton Towers’ Altonville Mine Tours got a fairly perfunctory retitling that translated to little else within the maze itself.

It isn’t difficult to see why; with operating budgets still facing the genuinely frightful double-whammy of post-pandemic squeeze and cost of living/energy crisis, the days of whole new mazes popping up on an annual basis seem, for the time being at least, six feet under. And it isn’t as if we haven’t seen this kind of thing before within the scare industry – a snazzy new title and artwork, a couple of tweaks to formula and an always slightly-questionable ‘new for 20xx’ suffix to seal the reboot deal.

For Leicester’s Xtreme Scream Park, one of the long-running regents of the UK scare circuit, 2023 visitors get a duo of maze reboots. One is a genuinely excellent overhaul of a former side curio into a fully-fledged maze that ends up being one of the park’s best experiences, the other… well, we’ll get to that one.

What is always true of Leicester is the overall calibre of environmental storytelling, aesthetic and immersion. Each of their now seven mazes are big, expansive, immaculately themed and often just a spooky pleasure to walk around and take in. There’s some light and shade in there, too; with just enough dollops of camp and humour (2022’s chicken man making a gloriously bonkers return) to puncture the real frights and thrills. Parts of the indoor-outdoor hybrid of Uncle Enos’s Open Acres are even quite serenely beautiful to take in, too, as you make your way through corn fields dotted with laser and lighting effects giving the impression of a blanket of multicolour fireflies.

“Parts of the indoor-outdoor hybrid of Uncle Enos’s Open Acres are even quite serenely beautiful to take in…”

The Village, Uncle Enos’, Ash Hell Penitentiary and The Pie Factory return relatively akin to previous years. For those who have not visited Leicester before, we recommend our 2021 and 2022 reviews for more in-depth breakdowns on what each of these mazes involve. Village has had some extra nastiness injected (quite literally) into some of its sinister laboratory sequences, whilst Uncle Enos’ offers up some psychedelic disco laser rooms that were disappointingly vacant of any scare actors. In fact, Uncle Enos’ as a whole felt notably sparse of performers, a huge shame as it is one of the park’s more individual and idiosyncratic offerings.

Thankfully, The Pie Factory made up for this, with a densely-packed entourage of game and willing actors giving it their all. Coupled with their creey porcine prosthetics and attention to detail in the maze’s world-building and storytelling, made Factory one of the best mazes of the night.

Of the ‘reboots’, Warehouse of Weird is probably 2023’s biggest (and most welcome) surprise. What was formerly The Unfair Funfair was previously a fairly open and explorable area with a caulrophobic twist. It was a fun little side distraction from the more disciplined pathway of the other mazes, but its lack of direction and structure often made it feel a little meandering and uneventful. Its successor for 2023 actually puts set pathing in place (bar one wickedly disorientating interlude) and is for all intents and purposes now a fully-fledged maze. A nightmarish fusion of industrial and circus-themed horrors, Warehouse’s bombardment of colour, noise and some of the park’s best actors makes it unexpectedly one of the strongest entries of the year. A stellar example of repurposing and rebooting an attraction to breathe all new horrifying life into it.

Somewhat less successful is the transition of Voodoo Hoodoo into this year’s The Witches of Hard Luck Wood, which amounts to little more than a surface-level reskin. The voodoo-styled hijinks and set dressings of yesteryear are placed with (arguably less interesting and generic) witchy staples – cauldrons, familiars etc., but the set pieces and general flow of the maze remains identical to its predecessor. Including, regrettably for this particular reviewer, an overlong section where visitors are hooded and forced to navigate around in the dark holding a guiding rope. I’ve protested in previous years as to why I do not find this trope particularly effective, fear-inducing or even enjoyable, and it was only amplified on an incredibly busy night where progress through said section was terminally slow.

“Warehouse’s bombardment of colour, noise and some of the park’s best actors makes it unexpectedly one of the strongest entries of the year.”

Thankfully, a lot of what follows in Witches after the hooded section, whilst nothing new, remains immersive, spooky and occasionally claustrophobic, as Hoodoo’s jungle is replaced with a twisty trip through the woods.

In regards to the practicalities of a visit, the central seating and refreshment area remains a warm and inviting hub to navigate from, and a new gazebo/tent and improved seating, along with the usual assortment of vendors, makes for a great environment to just sit in and soak up the spooky atmosphere. The biggest challenge will be, with six (seven if you count Warehouse, which you really should) sizeable mazes, whether or not you will be able to afford to indulge in any such down time.

For the visit reviewed, we were given the parks ‘Fast Track’ tickets, which, if your budget can accomodate them, are truly worth their weight in gold. On an extremely busy Saturday night, with lengthy queues for each of the six ticketed mazes, we ended up not queueing for any of the mazes at all. Where other parks fast track equivalents can cut down on queuing, here it was non-existent, with instant entry to each of them. It’s probably worth noting that, even with this boon, we still only just about managed to fit everything in to our evening. At circa £20 on top of your regular ticket entry, they are a considered investment, but unlike some attractions and parks where it feels like an indulgence, on busier nights (which will only become amplified by recent weather cancellations and proximity to Halloween) they should be at the very least a serious consideration.

As is true of practically every year with our ‘Halloween Horror Visits’, your mileage with Leicester, as per any scare park, will depend on your level of familiarity. For those unacquainted who will be venturing into Xtreme’s screams for the first time, brace yourself for one of the finest scare attractions the UK has. It sits comfortably near the top of any recommendations for the spooky season, and its lengthy, winding mazes demand to be experienced. For those like us who are veteran visitors to the park, it’s probably fair to say that whilst it always proves a solid night of squeals and screams, there’s little this time round by way of evolution or revolution. In fact you may, like us, even find yourself wondering if future years may benefit from perhaps one or two fewer mazes to ensure the rest are as densely-populated and exciting as, say, Pie Factory and Warehouse of Weird proved to be this time round.

In all though, whilst its two reprises are something of a mixed affair ranging from serviceable to surprisingly good, Xtreme Scream Park retains all of the exemplary production value, frightful flourishes and ghoulish goodies that make even its soft reboot a Halloween adventure well worth taking all over again.

Returning to review annual scare attractions – even ones as reputable and renowned as Burton-Upon-Trent’s Screamfest – always runs the risk of coming up against that true Halloween horror; the law of diminishing returns. It isn’t the first time (and likely shan’t be the last), that we’ve posited this at the outset of one of our Halloween Horror Visit ‘regulars’, but that’s often because it bears repeating.

It’s a fair assumption that we aren’t alone in returning to the thrills and chills of yesteryear, and events such as Screamfest have to routinely innovate and expand, to ensure they aren’t catering their scares to newcomers alone.

“Screamfest feels bigger and more expansive than ever.”

It’s a particular curio for Burton’s 2023 offering, because on the one hand, they have done exactly that – introducing two fun and very welcome new side offerings, whilst continuing their excellent work in essentially stretching out the floorpan of their event into multiple, complementary hub areas. Screamfest feels bigger and more expansive than ever.

On the other hand, not only does this year’s offering present no new mazes, the team at the National Forest Adventure Farm have actually undone some finality and marketing of last year’s event, where one of the attraction’s most tightly-themed and reliable mazes, Love Hurts, was pitched as having its final year. Curiously, and with little by way of fanfare or explanation, Hurts returns for 2023 with nary a scratch, and no mention or acknowledgement that it was supposed to have called its ‘last orders’ some twelve months ago.

Which leaves the question – do the two new flourishes, and the overall quality of Screamfest’s five returning mazes, warrant a return visit? And, for newcomers, where does the overall experience fall within the ever-growing scare maze industry here in the UK (and indeed, beyond)?

Having reviewed Screamfest annually since 2015 (bar that one year where a certain pandemic had the unmitigated gall to infringe on the spooky season…), it’s a genuine delight to say that 2023 offers up probably its strongest year to date. Although much of this praise comes with the caveat that we attended on its opening/preview/media night, so energies were high and could potentially wane further into the month, we review as we experience, and this year’s Screamfest offers up five strong mazes that were densely populated with spirited, game scare performers giving it their all across-the-board. Plenty of ‘street’ performers and a variety of entertainment and side attractions (including some returning fairground rides and even a ‘Death Slide’) along with the aforementioned sideshow ventures make for the fullest, funnest ‘fest to date.

It’s a trifle old hat going into detail on some of Burton’s mazes for what will now be the sixth or seventh time, but as a general recap for those unacquainted with either Screamfest or our takes on it, Hillbilly Joe’s Zombee Zoo and the award-winning Insomnia remain the best of the bunch, though in truth, all five mazes are solid. Zoo guides visitors around a hillbilly shanty town that seems to be perpetually stuck somewhere between Christmas and purgatory, as deranged locals (see: yokels) hurl insult and abuse aplenty. It’s a well-themed adventure into tubthumpin’, rootin’ tootin’ chaos, bursting with character and some great environmental storytelling. The same is true of Insomnia, perhaps Burton’s most outwardly and explicitly horror-laden offering; a venture into one child’s terror – haunted by the demonic ‘Crackerjack’ figure who regularly pops up amidst a twisting, time-travelling (and in some cases, literally back-bending) nightmare.

The death-defying Love Hurts presents a singles night gone horribly wrong, descending as it does into a suitably grotesque trip into the sewers and waterworks belonging to a deranged, chainsaw-wielding professor. Hurts is another maze that is fairly immaculately themed and plenty immersive, even if, like the circus-themed Freakout, parts of it are beginning to feel a little long in the tooth. Lots of praise again to the maze actors who, on the night reviewed, were giving it their all and really injected a lot of energy and fun into these two older attractions.

“Lots of praise again to the maze actors who, on the night reviewed, were giving it their all and really injected a lot of energy and fun into these two older attractions.”

Elsewhere, Creed Farm quite literally takes you out into the corn fields of the site, with some welcome new inclusions to the maze puncturing its walkways and outdoor corridors with unsettling moments of genuine paranoia and uncertainty. Are those scarecrows blocking your path real? At one stage, Burton’s ‘outdoor maze’ was in many ways its USP, as there was a time when you would board a tractor-pulled livestock carrier and be driven out into the dark beyonds of the farm in order to reach Creed’s predecessors, which always leant an incredible atmospheric, remote and foreboding air to proceedings. The only ongoing (and admittedly minor) critique of Burton is that they have still not reinstated this excellent, absorbing prelude.

With this being said, 2023 does offer visitors a chance to head out into the recesses of the farm’s boundaries, with the (unsurprisingly) Alien-themed Area 52. With a decided emphasis on campy fun over horror, 52 sees those willing to pay an extra £10 for admission driven out into the fields to open fire with paintball guns on what is pitched as an alien invasion. It’s good, hokey fun shooting at the actors padded up to the nines and sporting suitably B-movie worthy alien masks, even if the understandably restricted number of paintballs meant that pretty much the entirety of our troupe had run out of ammunition before the final set piece. It’s completely understandable why 52 is not included in entry, given its requirement of paintball ammunition (and indeed, additional paintballs beyond the 60 you start off with require additional purchasing, too), and it does prove a lot of fun. If you go in prioritising goofy, schlocky silliness over anything resembling scares, it’ll likely be worth your time and extra investment, but it’s by no means an absolute must-do.

What is definitely worth a visit is the free, short but enjoyable slice of macabre-lite variety that the new Psycho Circus offers. Featuring a handful of horror-themed performers serving acrobatics and other freewheeling hijinks, it’s a relatively short but entertaining wrinkle of spectacle. Themed around the concept of a globe-trotting (and seemingly centuries-spanning) collector whose steampunk gubbins trap all manner of beasties, there’s a neat storytelling bent to the show, even if some of the spoken delivery is gloriously hammy. It ratchets up nicely, too – with some genuinely wince-inducing moments later on that received palpable, audible reactions from the audience.

It rounds out what is a full, hearty offering for Burton this year. As mentioned, the conscientious planning of the event’s site map and layout has continued and is greatly appreciated (long gone are the years when everything sprung off from one, over-congested central hub). Psycho Circus complements a strong, existing lineup of mazes, and whilst Area 52 is a quirky but fairly inconsequential side distraction, it is entirely optional.

There was a modicum of grumbling on social media when Burton’s prices seemed to have hit a bit of a noticeable hike this year… but, quite frankly, welcome to 2023. Your need and mileage for other costs, including the extra ‘Fast Track’ passes, continues to vary considerably from maze-to-maze. As advised in previous years, this will likely only be amplified by what day and date you decide to visit on. For some, entry was immediate, fast track or no, whereas others (most notably, Love Hurts) they will likely save you up upwards of half an hour (or more) in queuing time. When trying to fit five mazes plus the extra side distractions in within a single evening’s visit, there’s certainly a case to be made that they’re worthy ‘peace of mind’ purchases.

“It’s an admirable move, and one which we’d love to see all large-scale scare attractions adopt.”

One very welcome change to proceedings is that, irrespective of whether you go for fast tracks or not, Burton have made entry to all five of its mazes – and Psycho Circus – unlimited, whereas previous years saw you capped at five tracked entries. For 2023, you can essentially go in as many of the mazes as often as time allows. It’s an admirable move, and one which we’d love to see all large-scale scare attractions adopt (provided that they logistically can).

Though it may not summon up a new maze for 2023, and one previously destined for the chop makes a slightly unexpected (and relatively unexplained) resurrection of its own, Screamfest reminds us, with an energised, well-populated ensemble of performers, some fun and diverting new side adventures, and an admirable decision to take the shackles off of its entry limitations, why it remains one of the UK’s go-to scare attractions this – and indeed, every – Halloween.

As is perhaps evinced in its no-frills name, Stourbridge Scare Maze doesn’t get itself too hung up on having a singular, uniting theme. In larger scare parks, such as Burton-upon-Trent’s Screamfest, or Leicester’s Xtreme Scream Park, where there are multiple different mazes to experience, giving each their own distinct theme and flavour of fear becomes a must.

As one of a growing number of standalone scare attractions popping up as the industry continues its boon, though, Stourbridge forgoes this, instead offering up something of a ‘greatest hits’ offering – presenting a sizeable, 15-20 minute walkthrough that winds its way through various different environs and themes.

They’re mostly familiar and broad horror strokes – from a hillbilly shanty town to a malfunctioning asylum ward, and even a Satanic chapel adorned with more ‘666’s than you’d know what to do with. Dimly-lit industrial walkways littered with nests of piping and cables give off strong Ridley Scott vibes, whilst monitors displaying CCTV footage of disturbed inmates offer an early moment to pause and dread over what may lie ahead.

“Dimly-lit industrial walkways littered with nests of piping and cables give off strong Ridley Scott vibes, whilst monitors displaying CCTV footage of disturbed inmates offer an early moment to pause and dread over what may lie ahead.”

For the most part, Stourbridge is impressively transportive and immersive. In truth, more so than anticipated. Yes, there are a handful of places where the production value can’t quite keep up with some of the more established contemporaries, with its relative newness felt in places such as the wooden builds of the early hillbilly locale, but on the whole the environmental storytelling, audio and visual design is comfortably of a standard that could be easily slotted into one of the industry heavy hitters.

Where it really impresses, though, is in the energy and vehemence of its scare actors. After recently reviewing some of its heftier competitors, and being slightly underwhelmed by the casts’ engagement, Stourbridge’s blood-soaked assembly of lunatics, demons, cultists and piggy butchers were excellent across-the-board. Whilst we shan’t spoil the experience by going into specifics, some real highlights were sections where the flow of travel became temporarily suspended by an actor or two really taking the time to showcase and make the most of their character, tormenting unsuspecting visitors in the process. 

“Where it really impresses, is in the energy and vehemence of its scare actors.”

The denizens of Stourbridge Scare Maze will – with very little hesitation – grab you, block your path, scream profanities, and time their jump scares with disarming efficiency. And whilst some of the nasties can be fairly generic fare, some of the masks, costumes and characters are genuinely impressive. That visitors are guided up and down staircases, through a variety of different ‘zones’ and themes, and at times even having to crawl on all fours to make their way through, only keeps the fear of not knowing what may be around any given corner – or, indeed, what it may do to you – all the more gnawing and constant.

At £16.50 per head for 2022’s offering, visitors will have to factor in the fact that they are only getting a single maze for this price, whereas parks such as Burton or Leicester offering up to six for roughly double that cost. Stourbridge is, however, a great time – long enough to feel satisfying and worth the admission (and, as a single maze, longer than the vast majority of individual mazes at other parks), and genuinely varied and intense enough to stand on its own as an easy recommendation for scare seekers, particularly as a relative newcomer to the field.

In fact, having attended and reviewed a host of scare attractions both this year and before, between its excellent, engaged cast of scare actors and multi-levelled playground of varied, freakish delights, Stourbridge Scare Maze has proven itself one of the most pleasant (unpleasant?) surprises, and consistently intense scare experiences, of this Halloween year.

There’s a standard of frightening excellence one has come to expect from the annual Halloween offering of Melton Mowbray’s Twinlakes Park. For starters, an attraction that lashes Xtreme Scream into its title sets a certain bar of expectation. That it has managed to meet and surpass such expectations over the course of the past decade of operation is testimony to the skills and vision of those involved.

A year with no real new mazes presents something of a challenge for Leicester’s premier scare attraction, then. Sure, we’ve got the souped-up Uncle Enos’s Open Acres, rebranded as ‘New for 2022’, but in reality is a minor facelift and re-tweak of last year’s (admittedly fantastic) Earth to Ashes. Elsewhere, new sections, animatronics and freaky flourishes have been added to practically every one of Xtreme’s already lengthy and impressive six scare mazes.

Throw into the mix the not-quite-a-maze sideshow curiosity of The Unfair Funfair, which has also had a spot of refinement and embellishment (though remains slightly directionless), and Xtreme offers plenty of bang for your buck. There’s the requisite cast of wandering scare actors and smatterings of live entertainment, not to mention a handful of the park’s rides that remain both open and free of charge for visitors. The slightly canted, bohemian, ghast-onbury vibe of the park’s central gathering area remains a fun and vibrant hub from which to explore the frights and delights.

But it’s undoubtedly the mazes themselves that are the real draw here, and, for the seventh consecutive year of reviewing, Leicester’s offerings continue to be up there with the most intricately realised, impressively detailed and consistently polished in the industry. Originally something of a transatlantic overthrow, the scare maze world is big entertainment business nowadays, and its encouraging to see Xtreme holding onto its ghoulish crown with wicked relish.

“…the scare maze world is big entertainment business nowadays, and its encouraging to see Xtreme holding onto its ghoulish crown with wicked relish.”

Mileage for a night at Mowbray’s horror show will vary, depending on your familiarity. As mentioned, the two ‘new’ offerings this year are really fairly minor facelifts for past offerings. 2017 was a benchmark year for the Park, seeing two tremendous new offerings in Voodoo Hoodoo and The Village crop up at once (and both of which remain to this day). Perhaps understandably post-pandemic, the recent onus seems to have been on more measured, incremental additions. That being said, even older haunts such as Ash Hell Penitentiary have been given extra animatronics and jump scares, meaning even veteran visitors can’t be completely sure of what may be lurking around any given turn, twist or low-ceilinged corner.

If you’ve never ventured to Xtreme Scream Park, prepare to be greeted with some of the best scare mazes you can experience – in the UK and beyond. Each has its own distinct character, setting and styling – from the cornfield-meets-Manson-cult derangement of Uncle Enos, to the hillbilly, porcine horrors of The Pie Factory. Not only are they each sizeable and lengthy beasts, so too do they each represent a journey, with the production design, attention to detail and environmental storytelling excellent across every maze. Some, such as the depraved tour into a deranged black market high society of Belvoir Manners, dip into genuinely disturbing body horror territory, whilst others, such as the environmental tour-de-force of The Village, bring dilapidated and haunting trips to the familiar – schools, homesteads, churches – to disconcerting and occasionally terrifying effect.

For those already familiar, there’s plenty to recommend a return visit for. Stripping away the rebrand, Uncle Enos is only in its second year, and venturing out into its cornfields of crazies remains a transportive thrill. The mazes are also universally of such high quality, that the level of immersion rarely drops below a relatively unmatched standard.

“The mazes are universally of such high quality, that the level of immersion rarely drops below a relatively unmatched standard.”

In the interests of remaining completely unbiased and accurate, there are some potential negatives and downsides to be considered in 2022. In comparison to past years, some of the longer mazes in particular felt at times a trifle more sparsely populated. This was similarly an issue back in 2020, at the time dismissed as a consequence of the pandemic (Leicester being one of very few scare attractions that opened that year). There’s a high probability that the closer to half term and Halloween that the calendar gets, the higher the roster of actors that will be drafted in. The sheer breadth and size of the mazes demands respect when attempting to populate them, too, but it was somewhat disappointing to walk through significant chunks of a maze designed for jump scares and pop-outs, only to be met with patches of occasional emptiness.

Similarly, there seemed to be a slightly more tepid and cautious nature to the actors’ interactions and engagements with visitors. Past years have seen the cast grasp the Xtreme mantra with real gusto and mettle, with actors grabbing, body blocking and interacting with visitors with at times quite ferocious energy. This year, whilst there were some definite standouts – including a wandering corpse bride lamenting her woes, who provided some terrific on-the-spot improv and interaction – the energy levels overall fell a little flatter than we’ve been spoiled by in the past. There’s always the chance it was just an ‘off’ night, though, and mercifully, the world-building and production design in every maze remains so good that they easily command your attention throughout.

Logistically, there’s a fair amount to fit in to a single evening’s visit, making the option to purchase a ‘Fast Track’ pass for the mazes a shrewd investment. At roughly an additional £19 on entry costs, it may seem, on the surface, a steep investment, but in reality the Fast Track queues are remarkably well-executed and efficient; on the evening reviewed, our party of four went straight into every single maze, even when some, such as Pie Factory and Ash Hell had queues that looked to be circa 45 minutes+ in length. Given that there are six sizeable mazes to traverse in a single evening, the Fast Track option, for roughly £3 per maze, is a strong recommendation.

Pushing aside the comparatively mild gripes about some of the mazes being a little less densely occupied than previous years, and wanting some of the performers to perhaps be a little more characteristically boisterous in their engagements; these are only concerns made in light of Xtreme’s already established high standards. There remain very few – if any – Halloween events with such a high pedigree and attainment of offerings, and boasting six big, brilliantly realised mazes of such polish and execution means that this Scream Park absolutely continues to reign high atop the list of horror visit recommendations, for visitors old and new alike, even if it could probably be even more excellent by channelling previous years in being a touch more, well, Xtreme.

Halloween 2022 is proving to be something of a year of comebacks and callbacks for the spooky season. For starters, for many in the scare park/maze industry, it is the first full year back without any shadowy spectres of pandemics, or their associated restrictions. Elsewhere, branching out a little further afield into the world of Halloween entertainment, and we see sequels, returns and revivals for major tentpoles of the season, including long-awaited, eagerly-anticipated resurrections of Hocus Pocus and Hellraiser, to name but two.

The National Forest Adventure Farm’s ‘Screamfest’, already an established player in the world of spooky Autumnal visits, has decided to follow suit. Whilst it already made a comeback of its own last year, with 2021’s ‘Screamfest: Resurrected’ following on from a COVID-induced no-show in 2020, this year sees Burton bring back one of its best ever scare mazes, whilst simultaneously preparing to bid a fond, freaky farewell to one of its staple offerings.

Starting with the latter, 2022 is the last chance to experience the sewage-styled spookiness of ‘Love Hurts’ (given a fitting ‘Last Orders’ affix for this final outing), a dark, dank visit into the seedy underbelly of a nightclub offering love, but serving up so very much more. ‘Hurts’ has been a tentpole of Burton’s offerings for several years now, and remains one of their most consistently impressively themed mazes. Even in this final year, the team have seen fit to introduce a few wrinkles and surprises (prepare to get wet – if not soaked, thankfully), and whilst it will be sad to see it go, it is at least bidding adieu in impressive style.

The circus-themed ‘Freak Out on Tour’ is back, too, including the very welcome return of some pre-maze scene-setting that adds a little more narrative and world-building to what was previously a more straightforward and perfunctory affair. Your mileage – and fright – will likely vary based on your tolerance of clowns, but the twisty-turny nature of the maze, coupled with its various splits and junctures, (do you pick the ‘Good Clown’, ‘Bad Clown’ or ‘Evil Clown’ door?) where you and your fellow maze-goers will be forced to choose your path, keeps it an engaging and regularly disconcerting visit.

“More than perhaps any of its counterparts, ‘Zoo’ affords its actors time to interact with visitors…”

‘Hillbilly Joe’s Zombee Zoo’ remains the most bonkers and anarchic of the five mazes Burton offers, and there’s a darkly comedic bent to it, once again peppered with some fun interactive set pieces and characters. More than perhaps any of its counterparts, ‘Zoo’ affords its actors time to interact with visitors, including the personal highlight of ‘Granma’ and her beloved ‘Fluffy’. As per ‘Love Hurts’, the theming is excellent, as you pass through a ramshackle shanty town, seemingly in the throngs of festive celebrations, and its madness includes deranged zombie chickens, rifle-wielding hillbillies and a real colourful cast of characters. It isn’t the most outright terrifying of mazes, but it is, crucially, a lot of fun.

Far darker and more chilling, then, is ‘Creed Farm’, which has not only been given some extra sinister decor and theming on top of what was already an excellent, spooky trip out into Burton’s corn field of horrors (something of the park’s signature offering), but it has also been injected with some excellent and inspired surprises. To go into detail would likely spoil the spook and ruin the impact, but let’s just say a scare maze set piece that has become a little rote (and rope) here catches off guard with a genuinely frightening extra ingredient, turning it from one of the most formulaic sections of a maze into possibly the creepiest part of the entire park. 

“…a wonderful example of instilling character, narrative and a palpable, gnawing sense of dread into a scare maze, this latest incarnation of ‘Insomnia’ is its best yet.”

Finally, returning triumphantly for 2022 is the fantastic ‘Insomnia’, Burton’s award-winning maze that visitors have sadly gone had to go without the past couple of years, including last year when the event re-opened after its COVID hiatus. Already a wonderful example of instilling character, narrative and a palpable, gnawing sense of dread into a scare maze, this latest incarnation of ‘Insomnia’ is its best yet. As per ‘Creed’, to go into specifics of the new wrinkles and sections added to the maze would likely incur the wrath of its sinister ‘Crackerjack’ character, but everything that worked in the original – including some terrific environmental design and even a spot of period-infused time travel – are back and more impactful than ever. As you navigate the nightmares of a young girl tormented by a demonic entity, the creators have here pushed the demented, twisted nature of ‘Insomnia’ ever further, incorporating some neat visual trickery that plays around with forced perspective, and even have included… deep breath… a visit to a sadistic dentist, for added trauma.

Outside of its enviable roster of mazes, Screamfest once again offers up a side showing of fairground rides and attractions, a host of scare actors wandering around to catch unwary wanderers off guard, a number of food and drinks vendors, and a smattering of live musical entertainment. For the latter, the organisers have shrewdly repositioned the main stage to be further out into the park itself, being now located near the entrances to ‘Love Hurts’ and ‘Zombee Zoo’. Not only does this help to avoid some of the bottlenecking that could occur around the main entrance area, but it also gives the whole event an extra sense of size and dimension, with several hub areas now stretching out across the park, as opposed to everything being so centralised, as before.

For opening night, queues moved swiftly, and everything was easily navigable and doable in a single visit (pit stop for food included). Burton are this year offering a ‘FastTrack’ pass, which comes in at an extra £12 on top of standard ticket prices, but that is for all five mazes. Whilst there were only two mazes where our group queued for any real length of time, the park will likely get a lot busier at weekends and the closer we get to Halloween, making the FastTrack passes a very reasonably priced option. Doubly so, given that the event is limiting how many FastTrack passes are available per evening, meaning their ability to bypass much of the queuing and down time should be a serious consideration, particularly for those going later into the event’s run.

In all, if 2021’s ‘Screamfest: Resurrected’ was a very welcome return for Burton, 2022’s roster of screams, spooks and scares feels like a full-throated, wailing renaissance. With one of their very best mazes back and on top, terrifying form, some ergonomic changes that only improve the park layout and experience as a whole, and the useful option to FastTrack your way through some of the queues, Burton once again proves itself a Halloween favourite well worth a return visit to. In a year of comebacks, revivals and haunting throwbacks, the malevolent Crackerjack is back, and invites you, too, to return to one of the UK’s best Halloween scare attractions, if you dare…

Full disclosure. We guessed the plot, direction and even mythos of Scott Cooper’s Antlers within, no joke, the opening minutes. Granted, this was mainly owing to the prologue (and much of what was to follow) being almost nigh-dentical in lore and in its locale of a dimly-lit former mining complex, to one of Supermassive Games’ highly successful horror releases (we’ll try to steer from overt spoiler territory by naming which one), but this bit of horror mythos geekery merely gave a head start on what was to quickly become a drawn-out and predictable affair even for those coming at it ‘blind’.

The biggest trouble with Antlers lies principally with its screenplay and storytelling. It’s a handsomely shot affair; Florian Hoffmeister bathes its small Oregon suburb in so much fog, drizzle and mire as to make it borderline monochromatic, effectively soaking the piece in mood and atmosphere. Cooper mostly directs in a deft, measured fashion, even if there’s doubtless a much tighter and more purposeful cut buried away somewhere amongst the first hour’s laboured meandering in particular.

At a conceptual level, Antlers tackles some interesting ideas. In a small, isolated mountain town, a series of disappearances and deaths seem to pivot around troubled young schoolboy Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas, a talent to certainly watch), with his teacher Julia (Keri Russell) taking it upon herself to begin uncovering the truth; doubly so when she happens upon some particularly worrying drawings and reference texts young Lucas has stashed away in his desk. She also happens to be the sister of the town’s reluctant sheriff, Paul (the ever-reliable Jesse Plemons, who deserved more dimension from an underwritten supporting turn), whom she has recently returned home to live with.

Oh, and she has trauma. Trauma to spare. In case you don’t get the subtleties and nuances of her childhood plight as first depicted with screamingly obvious flashback glimpses in what is only the character’s second scene, Cooper and co-writers Nick Acosta and C. Henry Chaisson find ways to crowbar this subtext in to almost every scene in which she appears, and scarcely with much in the way of subtlety.

“Trust me, I’m well equipped to know when someone is being abused,” the character exclaims as she takes her findings and suspicions about her troubled pupil to the boss. Lather, rinse, repeat… and then sprinkle with yet more flashbacks a little later on in case, you know, anyone left in the cinema hasn’t gone completely glass-eyed from it all.

The trouble is, had Antlers left the parallels between the cyclical nature of abuse and the more supernatural goings-on of Lucas’ story to just light allegory and some surface symbolism, it would have been a far more satisfying experience. The creatives here are capable of it – see their much defter inferences that deforestation, industrialisation and man’s encroachment on the natural world is getting mother nature more than a little pissed off. But instead, where Cooper and co. think they are being frightfully clever and miminalist with their handling of trauma and abuse, they instead pummel it in with the grace and delicateness of napalm.

Worse still, it becomes apparent very early on what some of the twists and turns to come will be, and instead of leaning in further to affirm or indulge in the nastiness of it all, Cooper spends far too much time attempting to create a sense of mystery or suspense when the audience is already ten steps ahead.

There is some grim delight to be had in some of the more twisted moments of the opening hour, but they are scarce, and ultimately repetitive. It’s a shame, because Tim Grimes’ production design marries with Hoffmeister’s cinematography to lend a sickly, wet and truly disconcerting feel to some of Antlers‘ grislier moments and set pieces, and, come the finale, Cooper knows just how to frame, capture and light the film’s antagonist to almost Spielbergian effect. The design and camera work for an eleventh hour showdown are particularly excellent.

It’s a shame then, that after a plodding, laboured first hour, what follows quickly descends into a nonsense of formulaic horror cinema 101, some truly bonkers character decisions (no… do not go outside to investigate that strange noise when you know there are murders and deaths occurring quite literally on your doorstep, you FOOL) and a complete suspension of disbelief in regards to the mechanics and logistics of what is happening in this town. What’s that, immediately call it in and request backup when you find a fellow police officer brutally killed? Not in this town, friend!

Russell’s Julia, for instance, takes it upon herself to just take Lucas home after a particularly grisly discovery and turn of events (and a subsequent brief stay in hospital all alone for the poor boy), and, despite this being a child who has been at the scene of multiple murders, her brother (you know, the Sheriff) doesn’t see anything wrong with this. Apparently, Antlers takes places in an America that has never heard of appropriate adults, social services or child protection procedure.

It doesn’t help that the relationship Julia adopts with Lucas is, when you scrape it down to its core, so underwritten and obvious that it becomes utterly toxic and inappropriate; the troubled teacher projecting her own abuse, trauma and father issues onto this boy, at times even downright manipulating him and broaching subjects that morally, ethically and professionally just wave nothing but the biggest and reddest of flags. It is so egregious, and so bluntly slathering the symbolism of abuse onto the horrifying events surrounding Lucas, that you’d be forgiven for thinking the movie was going to atually lean into self-awareness and acknowledge this being far from a healthy set up (it should have done – it would have made for a much more fascinating study). Perhaps Plemons’ Paul would step in and forbid his sister from continuing to attach herself to the boy – for both personal and professional reasons – injecting some much-needed conflict between the two characters.

Instead, Antlers ultimately comes to treat Russell’s character almost akin to a saviour figure. It’s all horribly misjudged; where she should probably be losing her job and getting a restraining order, she instead becomes the film’s Ellen Ripley, and it all demonstrates a screenplay in desperate need of more time in the oven (and more brains on the page). Perhaps nowhere is this more soberingly apparent than in the finale, where we come to the morbid realisation that a key character whom could perhaps have offered some hope or ambiguity, was actually in the film the whole time just to fulfill a much simpler, depressing and wholly unnecessary function.

There’s promise tucked away beneath the murky, rain-soaked exterior of Antlers, and as mentioned it’s a gorgeously bleak thing to admire from an aesthetic perspective, but its potential is trodden so deep underfoot by the clunky writing, questionable character work and delusion that it is tackling its subtext with any semblance of nuance, that the whole thing becomes a feat of endurance without anywhere enough in the way of either thrills, scares or satisfying payoff. It takes too long to get going, and then jetties logic and restraint to descend into borderline B-movie schlock. As mentioned, you’ll likely spend much of the runtime twenty-or-so minutes ahead of where Cooper thinks you’d be, with a particular late-game sting you’d have to be asleep to not have already seen coming a mile off.

It makes Antlers difficult to recommend, as the only thing it truly does successfully from the perspective of a new arrival to the horror playground is looking good (very good). That extends to the villainous entity it unleashes upon its world, too, and yes, there are creepy moments and some disturbing, effective visuals smattered throughout, but it takes itself so seriously, and is so almost perplexingly self-important in its blundering application of subtext and subject matter, that it ends up being ultimately little more than a frustratingly pretty and rarely frightening mess.