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.