Scareworld Issue 8 by AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment

The Secrets of Manormortis

The UK’s Sickest Attraction

Check into Hotel HELLvetia Mask Maker Neal Harvey The Haunt Design Kit The Halloween & Scare Attractions Show Meet Doctor Kelman And more…

Thorpe Park’s NEW Fright Nights

EIGHTH EERIE ISSUE

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

SCARE NEWS

FRIGHTFUL FEATURE

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GUEST REVIEWS

FRIGHTFUL FEATURE

SCARY FX

SCARY WORLD

FRIGHTFUL FEATURE

Psychomanteum

Ravenwood Manor, Scare Kingdom Scream Park 2013,The Sanctuary Survive Mama - Hotel Hellvetia Rubber Gorilla The Berlin Dungeon The UK’s Newest Permanent Scare Attraction Thorpe Park - Fright Nights

32,38 SINISTER SHOWCASE

Monsters of Legend and Axe Giant, Haunt Design Kit

TERROR ATTRACTIONS

SPLIT PERSONALITY

FRIGHTFUL FEATURE

SCARE ATTRACTIONS

Behind the Fear

Gerry Cannell and Doctor Kelman Screamfest 2013

current listings

This Issues Cover Image: ‘The UK’s Sickest Attraction’ Psychomanteum

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From the Editor

Fellow Haunters, Welcome to the eighth eerie issue of Scareworld - Europe’s only dedicated scare entertainment magazine. You can now obtain Scareworld as a full size hard copy publication delivered straight to your door by ordering a copy via our website at www.scareworld.co.uk, or you can read the digital issue free of charge online, plus hard copy back issues are now available to buy if you have missed any earlier editions. 2013 has seen a continuation in the growth of the scare entertainment industry, with more attractions opening than even before, plus the hugely popular ‘Halloween & Scare Attractions Show’ which was hosted at Alton Towers Resort. Off scare season haunts including ‘Ravenwood Manor’ and ‘Hotel HELLvetia’, and the return of ‘Horror Camp LIVE! For a second season demonstrate that year-round scare entertainment can work. New Halloween ‘Scream Parks’ also opened including the brand-new ‘Pleasurewood Chills Scream Park’, and significant development for ‘Screamfest’. A new trend has also emerged with The New London Dungeon offering ‘Horrible Halloween Sleepovers’, a scary pub based experience in Chester called Psychotel, the week-long Hotel HELLvetia in London (June) and the return of the traditional ‘Scare Rooms’ at Alton Towers resort. Manormortis – the UK’s brand new award-winning scare attraction is also planning to open its doors to overnight guests in 2014. It seems horror hotel experiences are here to stay! In this Autumn/Winter issue we take a look at the work of UK mask makers Rubber Gorilla, meet one of the creators the controversial Halloween hit Psychomanteum, and get the low-down on Thorpe Park’s Fright Nights presented in association with Lionsgate. Alton Towers Resort’s ‘The Sanctuary’, Chessington World of Adventures’ ‘Halloween Hocus Pocus’, ‘Screamfest’ and ‘Ravenwood Manor’ also feature alongside an exclusive interview with the popular scare entertainment character ‘Doctor Kelman’. Plus Tyler Barnett introduces us to his pioneering ‘Haunt Design kit’ and we review Nox Aracana’s ‘Crimson Winter’ and Midnight Syndicate’s ‘Monsters of Legend’ – you can also win a copy of the new documentary ‘Monsters Wanted’ by entering our competition. For all the latest scare news, reviews and listings, no serious scare attraction enthusiast or producer can afford to be without Scareworld Magazine. Remember Scareworld is your magazine, tell your colleagues and friends, it is free to subscribe to the digital issue online - and don’t forget to catch all the latest scare attraction news as it happens on our website at www.scareworld.co.uk Stay scary! Jason Karl Editor Editor: Jason Karl jason@scareworld.co.uk Designer: Paul Howse paul@scareworld.co.uk Deputy Editor: Jane Willis jane@scareworld.co.uk

Staff Writer: Lisa Woodford Listings Editor: Katrina Marston Contributors in this issue: Terror Attractions Tyle Barnett Giulliana Nicholson Gerry Cannell Ollie Cook Adam Baylis Neal Harvey Michael Eley

Published by AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment © Copyright Scareworld 2013. All material in this publication remains the copyright of Scareworld and no part of it may be re-produced without the written permission of the publishers. Materials not copyright to Scareworld are re-produced with permission and all rights are acknowledged. To get in touch or to advertise in Scareworld please email: info@scareworld.co.uk

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Scare News Alton Towers Resort’s annual Scarefest delivered the same slate of attractions as last year this Halloween, but significantly changed ‘Carnival of Screams’ with the addition of a new Theatre at the end of the experience with a character named ‘Jack Knife’. Full details at www.altontowers.com The New London Dungeon opened its doors for ‘Horrible Halloween Sleepovers’ during the 2013 scare season – the first time a ‘Dungeon’ has been made available to the public overnight. Check www.thedungeons.com/london/en for further information. Scare students from the popular ‘Scream School’ scareactors training programme created their own scare attraction in Lancashire named ‘Hell High’. The project secured them roles within various attractions created by AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment. A hotelthemed scare entertainment experience n a m e d ‘Psychotel’ opened for a limited run over Halloween at a pub in Chester. More information at www.psychotel.co.uk Thorpe Park partnered with horror film specialists Lionsgate to present ‘Fright Nights’ this season. Four brand new scare experiences ‘My Bloody Valentine’, ‘Cabin in the Woods’, ‘Your’e Next’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’, joined Fright Night staples ‘Saw Alive’ and ‘The Asylum’. Plus an overnight experience based in the ‘Crash Pad’ and inside ‘The Blair Witch Project’ area was launched for the first time. More information at www.thorpepark.com A brand new ‘Dungeon’ has been announced by Merlin Entertainments as part of a re-development of an existing waxworks museum in San Francisco, USA. It is the first attraction of its type for America. More information at www.thedungeons.com Legoland Billund is mid-construction for its new scare entertainment attraction ‘Ghost – The Haunted House’ which will open in 2014. The

attraction features a rich storyline over three floors and a drop ride. The attraction is part of a multi-million investment into the park next year. More details at www.legoland.dk/en A new zombie horror experience has been announced for 2014 in Worthing, West Sussex. ‘Azylum’ promises ‘an immersive horror experience’ set in a gaming arena. More information at www.azylum. co.uk A richly themed new zombie experience opened in London under the title ‘Zombie Blitz’. Set in the 1940’s, this new zombie experience is set in the vaults beneath Waterloo station. Check out www. zombieblitz.co.uk for full details. GNG Entertainment produced two scare entertainment experiences this scare season. ‘Haunting in the Hall’ returned to Cusworth Hall for a second year, while ‘Nightmare Circus’ was an overlay of a seasonal fairground in Donccaster where two walkthrough scare attractions were produced. Information at www.nightmarecircus. co.uk Birmingham e n t e r e d the scare entertainment stakes this Halloween as ‘The Morgue Live’ opened in a disused shop for a limited season. The same team, now named ‘Twisted Attractions’ have announced a further attraction in Spring 2014 named ‘The Facility’. Details at www.twistedattractions.co.uk Several attractions were announced and subsequently cancelled including ‘Leeds Fright Nights’ and ‘Terror-Farma’. Details at www. leedsfrightnights.co.uk and www.terrorfarma. co.uk

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www.scareworld.co.uk Following the closure of Hop Farm Freak Week, Tom Swift, the designer behind Freak Week opened two stand alone attractions temporarily over Halloween named ‘Pitch Black’ in Kent, and ‘The Hatch’ in Essex. Information at www.pitchblackhauntedhouse.co.uk AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment produced ‘Dusk Till Dawn 2’ for Lancashire County Council for the second year. The experience places youth group teams in a horror challenge scenario. More information at www.atmosfearuk.com ‘Climb of the Cursed’ opened over Halloween at The 02 in London. The experience challenged guests to ascend across the roof of the 02 before entering a scary environment populated with live scareactors. Details at www.theo2.co.uk/climb-of-the-cursed Three attractions won an award from www. terrorattractions.co.uk as the most popular UK Halloween attractions 2013. The winners were Tulley’s Shocktoberfest, Scare Kingdom Scream Park and Pitch Black Scare Attraction. www. terrorattractions.co.uk Manormortis, the UK’s newest scare attraction opened at Scare Kingdom Scream Park to critical acclaim. The quarter of a million pound attraction will now open throughout the year with seasonal overlays including Christmas, Valentines Day, Easter and Midsummer, plus overnight stays as ‘Hotel Manormortis’. A brand new ‘Phantasmagorium Theatre’ is midconstruction inside the same building and will offer ‘Abramacabre’ from late summer 2014. The attraction recently won the Haunt Design Kit’s ‘Excellence in Design’ award for Europe. Information at www.manormortis.com Horror Camp LIVE! Will return in 2014 for its third season. The producers plan to develop the existing storyline further allowing returning guests to experience a continuation from the 2012 and 2013 narratives. Details at www.horrorcamplive.co.uk Screamfest Burton opened over Halloween with a slate of new experiences joining ‘Slasher’ from 2012. New attractions included ‘Nocturnal’ set in a vampire infested nightclub and ‘Soulseekers Live’ in which guests were placed in an elaborately

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themed haunted hotel environment. Information at www.halloweenadventurefarm.co.uk Woolley Edge October Screams opened for the first time in Wakefield with two attractions ‘The Barn’ and ‘Spooks in the Straw’. Full details at www. octoberscreams.co.uk Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park transformed into Pleasurewood Chills Scream Park with an investment 10 times larger than ever before over Halloween. Created and produced by AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment seven forms of new Halloween attractions were presented alongside park-wide theming. Details at www.pleasurewoodchills.com AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment opened a full-contact haunt like no other named ‘Psychomanteum’ at Scare Kingdom Scream Park. Following a carefully crafted PR campaign the attraction received worldwide notoriety and was labelled ‘The UK’s Sickest Attraction’ by The Sun. The attraction is confirmed to return in 2014. Details at www.psychomanteumattraction.co.uk The Halloween Adventure Scream Park in Yorkshire returned for its fourth year of fear with three all-new attractions including ‘Torchure’, ‘All Hallows Evil Scare Maze’ and ‘Fear Forest’. More information at www.thehalloweenadventure.co.uk Several Christmas themed scare entertainment experiences will open over the festive period this year including ‘Christmas FestEVIL’ at Scare Kingdom Scream Park in Lancashire, ‘ChristMASSACRE’ in Chester, ‘It’s Bloody Christmas’ at The London Tombs and ‘Ghost of Christmas’ at The London Dungeon, The York Dungeon, The Blackpool Tower Dungeon, The Amsterdam Dungeon, The Berlin Dungeon, The Hamburg Dungeon and The Edinburgh Dungeon. Information at www.scarekingdom.com www.thelondonbridgeexperience.com and www. thedungeons.com For all the latest scare entertainment news at it happens, check out the Scareworld Blog - follow the links at www.scareworld.co.uk

Frightful Feature ‘THE UK’S SICKEST ATTRACTION’ PSYCHOMANTEUM After the international media storm surrounding the controversial, ground-breaking and genre defining scare experience ‘Psychomanteum’ was opened at Scare Kingdom Scream Park this year, Scareworld spoke to Mark Lofthouse, Director of Imagineering for AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment who produced the attraction, and asked the questions on the tip of every scare entertainment enthusiasts’ lips… Scareworld - What is Psychomanteum? Mark Lofthouse - Psychomanteum is a 3 minute sickening, disturbing, foul scare experience created by AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment and designed to be endured by guests on their own. We labelled it a ‘scare experience’ as opposed to a ‘scare attraction’ due to the fact that it is much more than just a walk through experience, and includes a significant amount of guest interaction. Scareworld - When does Psychomanteum operate? Mark Lofthouse - Psychomanteum 1 operated for roughly four weeks as an up-charge attraction at Scare Kingdom Scream Park in October and November 2013. Although we do have plans to open the clinic again at other times through the year… Scareworld - How did you come up with the ideas for Psychomanteum? Mark Lofthouse - We have wanted to create an ‘alone’ style attraction for several years, and began by looking at similar experiences around the world. Various themes were explored as part of the Imagineering

phase including a ‘confession’ style attraction and a satanic cult. In the end we decided to make it a ‘hospital’ themed attraction, but twisted the theme by making it adult oriented – a clinic for sexual perversion… The decision to make it an adult themed experience was made very early on, and the attraction is strictly for 18 years olds and over. Scareworld - Where did the name come from? Mark Lofthouse – Jason Karl, our Chief Creative Executive, had concepted an attraction way back in 2008 themed around a strange facility in which the dead would come back to life, it was named Psychomanteum. The word ‘Psychomanteum’ refers to a mirrored room in which contact with the dead can be made, its origins date back to ancient Greece where those wishing to see the dead would be placed in total darkness, thus having their senses dulled, before gazing into the mirrors. Early on in the Imagineering we had decided that we would limit guests’ senses by taking away their site and their ability to move around of their own accord. These elements of sensory control and our theme of morality, and ‘taking a hard look at oneself’ fitted with the name of Jason’s earlier concept, and so the project adopted the name. Scareworld - Why must you be over 18 to experience Psychomanteum? Mark Lofthouse – Because of the raw adult content that is included in the experience we decided to make this an 18 plus attraction, in line with other forms of adult entertainment. We imagined that we were producing a movie, and if it were a movie what rating might be placed upon it. Scareworld - What happens inside Psychomanteum? Mark Lofthouse – As an exclusive for Scareworld readers, I will tell you a little about what actually happens to guests inside this first version of the

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Psychomanteum experience… Guests have the ability to move around of their own accord taken away at various points inside the attraction. In the first environment, which is themed as a doctor’s office, guests sit in a wheelchair and are hooded by a blood drenched nurse named Vyra Wart. After crawling on their hands and knees through a tunnel, and having had their head pushed into a toilet they are strapped to a bed, which is then wheeled into another environment. In all there are 5 environments in which three characters perform different functions to revolt the guests. The idea is to make them feel vulnerable, uncomfortable and disgusted – collectively to scare them. Scareworld - How many scareactors are there inside Psychomanteum? Mark Lofthouse – During the first version of the attraction, we used three scareactors inside and one outside who became the ‘host’ of the attraction, although we also had numerous other unseen staff who pushed the bed and re-set the scenes. Because this was a test for a bigger version of Psychomanteum we were limited with the number of cast we could utilize, and the physical space we had for the attraction. Now we know that it works we have bigger plans afoot… Scareworld - What was the impact of the media storm the attraction received? Mark Lofthouse - As many readers will be aware, Psychomanteum came under the scrutiny of an exaggerated media storm this year, and we have our talented media team to thank for that! Although the headlines over-stated the content of the attraction (it does not, and never will, feature any content related to ‘rape’ themes) it did not harm us in any way. When we decided to produce this attraction we knew that it may provoke a reaction, and the publicity we received greatly increased our attendance at Scare Kingdom Scream Park. We were ecstatic to see that the negative views of the minority helped to boost the positive opinion of the majority.

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Scareworld - What were people’s reactions? Mark Lofthouse - Of the hundreds of ‘patients’ who endured a visit to Psychomanteum, no two reactions were the same. Some of my favourite reactions happened before the first guest entered the park. During our rehearsal days we put five cast members from other scare attractions through Psychomanteum to eradicate any possible teething problems before opening; the reactions were absolutely hilarious. One of the females exited laughing, then after a few seconds, ran outside to be sick, the actual psychological effect of the attraction only hit her after she had time to react to it. From the generic screamers, cryers, laughers through to cases of sickness, revulsion, total panic, utter shock and disorientation, every night brought new reactions. It was great fun to sit and watch. Plus there were those that didn’t manage to complete the experience, those people that said the ‘safe word’ ended up on our ‘Board of Shame’ for all to see. Scareworld - What is the Board of Shame? Mark Lofthouse – The Board of Shame is a wall in the Psychobar which is where guests exit the Psychomanteum attraction. Those who fail to complete the experience and say the safe word have their names written permanently on the wall. This generated its own publicity and at one point, we had a whole hashtag thread of guests putting their friend’s names on and tagging them in, the buzz this created was fantastic for what is essentially, a name and shame board. Scareworld - Will Psychomanteum be back and if so, will it be different? Mark Lofthouse – Because the attraction has been a resounding success for the park, it will be back bigger and bolder with all new characters and content for 2014. We have already begun imagineering the second version of the attraction which we are currently calling ‘Psychomanteum – Deeper Treatment’, in which Doctor Goodkind will be performing more of his disgusting aversion therapies upon patients. And this time, ‘sausage’ can’t help you!

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Sinister Showcase CRIMSON WINTER Nox Arcana

The profound musical influence of Nox Arcana upon writer/director Bryan Ferriter led to his decision to commission William Piotrowski to compose a dark, atmospheric soundtrack for his vampire film, Crimson Winter. Drawing inspiration from the great European composer Wojciech Kilar (Bram Stokerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dracula, The Ninth Gate), Piotrowski worked closely with Ferriter to create the perfect musical accompaniment to the film.

The Crimson Winter soundtrack contains pieces in the familiar style of Nox Arcana, with the addition of a few new innovations inspired by classical composer and sound artist Gyorgi Ligeti, as well as additional bonus material.

The story: In the frozen heart of winter, a group of researchers sets out to investigate a mysterious decline in the local wildlife population. Their journey takes them deep into the isolated mountain wilderness where they soon discover a terrifying truth and find themselves caught between two deadly foes in a centuries-old battle between vampires and hunters. As they struggle to survive, they come face to face with the vampire prince, Elric, who is haunted by his own dark past. An ancient prophecy and his own anguished heart weigh heavily upon him as the vampire lord decides the fate of those who have discovered his hidden sanctum.

Digital downloads will be available soon, and pre-orders for CDs are being accepted on the Nox Arcana website. Crimson Winter links: Music CDs: http://noxarcana.com/crimsonwinter.html Official Movie Website: http://www.crimson-winter.com IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2014198 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/crimsonwinter

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THE AMERICAN SCREAM

Sinister Showcase

By Lisa Woodford

Talk of ‘The American Scream’ had recently come under my radar and with the subject of Halloween ‘home haunters’ in America, it sounded like my kind of documentary and so I was keen to watch it. From the outset it became apparent that this documentary film was both beautifully and professionally made. Directed by Michael Stephenson, already famed for the making of The Best Worst Movie, the focus here is on the sleepy community of Fairhaven, Massachusetts in the US where we meet three families of home haunters. Home haunters are essentially people who turn their houses into DIY scare attractions at Halloween. We are first introduced to them 30 days before Halloween and we follow Victor Bariteau, Manny Souza and their families, and the father and son team of Matt and Rick Brodeur as they set about designing, constructing and planning their haunted kingdoms.

The documentary is highlighted with shots from some scare attractions around America, of which these families could certainly give some of them a run for their money, and builds up to the night of Halloween itself so we can watch the home haunters in action as their hard work comes into fruition. You really get to know these people as you are brought into their homes and at times there are a few touching moments as we learn about their health issues, their personal relationships and in, some ways, understand why they do what they do. The American Scream is amusing, endearing and, above all, very entertaining. Order the documentary on DVD from here www. theamericanscreammovie.com

Victor is a serious home haunter who works all year round in his spare time away from his job as a Systems Administrator. Whilst his family endure and embrace his passion, to the point where his young daughter hacks up her Barbie dolls to add to the house’s props, the documentary also highlights the down side of this lifestyle and the stress as the season approaches results in Victor resembling the father from The Amityville Horror more than just a little bit! A few blocks away Manny Souza is a more relaxed haunter and with a keen eye in dumpster diving, can make something out of nothing. Matt and Rick add a lot of humour to this feature however. Their arguments as they strive to finalise the details ready for Halloween are very amusing and their unfortunate luck with props produce quite a few laugh out loud moments.

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Frightful Feature

HOTEL HELLVETIA by Jason Karl The recent box office horror flick ‘Mama’ came startlingly to life for a week in June this year, as AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment produced the UK’s first ‘out of scare season’ hotel based scare entertainment experience, Hotel HELLvetia. Housed on the upper floor of Holiday Inn, Camden Lock in London, UK, the experience was created as a publicity campaign for Universal Pictures to promote the release of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray. Working with such a high profile IP presented a series of challenges for the creative team, whose task was to transfer the atmosphere and narrative from the film into a live experience based in a contemporary hotel. This was not the first time the team from ASE had created a hotel based scare entertainment product, the first being ‘FEARooms’, for a Tudor hotel in Lancashire in 2011, during which guests were invited to spend the night in a horrifically haunted hotel with live scareactors and challenge games set in an immersive environment.

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Scary hotel experiences have been produced by a variety of theme parks in recent years including Alton Towers Resort’s ‘Scarerooms’ during their annual ‘Scarefest’, and Hotel El Paso at Port Aventura in Spain, which was transformed into ‘Hotel Burn’ during several Halloween seasons in the last few years. The imagineering team behind the project decided to build on the existing narrative and characters from the film, taking the storyline one imaginary step further, and placing hotel guests in a ‘what happened next’ scenario. Over the course of one week, hotel guests which included members of the national press and competition winners gathered in the hotel Lobby where they were met by Tobias the Bellhop. After sipping cocktails the back-story for the experience was delivered via a ‘TV News Report’ in which it was explained by the Reporter that two small female children had been discovered living wildly in near the village of Clifton Forge. The girls had been bought temporarily to the hotel – Hotel HELLvetia, where ever since strange supernatural disturbances had been reported…

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Four bedrooms underwent a thorough ‘makeunder’ to provide a suitably spooky environment for the live experience to take part in, including replica film props, lighting, audio music and sound effects and scents. The corridor leading to the bedrooms was also dressed for the theme. Guests were subjected to a variety of visits by scareactors portraying characters from the film, mixed in with several new characters to impart the ‘haunted hotel’ narrative. These included ‘Geoffrey De’Sange’, ‘Victoria’ and ‘Mama’ from the film, along with a ghost hunter ‘Professor Highgate’ and his medium ‘Madame Zora’, plus an assortment of ‘hotel’ related characters including a demented chef and a ghostly maid. Over a four hour period guests were subjected to a series of horrifying and humorous ‘encounters’ with the live scareactors either singly or in teams, which gradually delivered a storyline with phone calls, interactive performance and physical challenges. The culmination of the experience included a visitation from the ghost of ‘Mama’ herself. Garnering significant coverage in the national and international press, Hotel HELLvetia was a critically acclaimed success, down to the passion of the scareactors taking part in the project and the slick delivery from the creative team at AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment. The film Mama, was executive produced by critically acclaimed director Guillermo Del Toro, whose previous successes include ‘The Orphanage’, ‘Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’ and ‘The Devil’s Backbone’. Mama is now out on DVD and Blue-Ray and available from all the usual outlets. You can watch the complete Hotel HELLvetia experience via Youtube on the following links; h t t p : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / watch?v=D7A3K0GoGV4&feature=c4-overv iew&list=UUPivfqxqXptPCrrx8j9NMKQ http://youtu.be/8Uy3g4Mg79U

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Scary FX RUBBER GORILLA Jane Willis

A childhood fascination in horror and the grotesque spawned a career in the scary effects industry for one UK man who could be described as a master mask maker.

Neal said: “I get a lot of independent movie makers buying them for low budget films which is great but I’m still waiting for someone to approach me to design an original Slasher mask for their film. That would be very cool.

For nearly a decade Neal Harvey has been making unique and handcrafted latex scare masks for industry professionals and collectors who are passionate about the macabre.

“The brilliant actor Andy Nyman has a few of my masks and uses some for his and Jeremy Dyson’s ‘Ghost Stories’ production and I get many orders for masks from scare industry pros such as AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment which does Halloween scare maze attractions.

He is self-taught in the art of mask creation and design, operating under the company name, Rubber Gorilla, based in Cleveland, north east England, since 2005.

Each one of Neal’s masks is different and can take several days to complete due to the length of time it takes to put it together and dry the latex, paints, hair and glues.

Neal said: “I guess it was just a natural progression to go from watching far too many horror films and collecting all kinds of wonderfully macabre creations to finally teaching myself how to make killers, freaks and monsters of my own.

Once complete the finished masks create a stunning, scary effect, as all the finished designs include eyes in the dark crease below the brow and are cast very thick.

“I just followed my dreams really, however strange they might have seemed to others at the time!”

They are also comfortable to wear as each includes polypropylene webbing with adjustable plastic buckles.

Orders for his masks are worldwide and he has sold many to independent film makers and the scare entertainment industry.

New mask designs include Mr Splitfoot, The Demonic, which is a half mask design featuring a deep red leathery looking ‘wrapped’ demon design

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with large pointed horns and chin. It is cast very thick and includes thick straps and buckles. Another is Bronson Mask, Sgt Banana Variant, which is painted in metallic greens and browns and is littered with battle damage and features a banana motif on the forehead. In response to the surge in zombie entertainment scare attractions Neal has crafted several post apocalyptic mask designs including a half face mask featuring a gas mask style front with removable goggles and hose.

“Halloween orders absorb my life for three months,” said Neal. “Then, in November, I plan to get stuck into plenty of new mask sculptures. I have many ideas in mind to add to my very macabre collection and I’m confident that they will be welcomed by those in the trade and collectors.” Find more information at www.rubbergorilla. co.uk

Neal said: “A recent mask I created was a deformed hillbilly, death mask, which was very weird, but then I don’t know what’s considered weird anymore doing this for a living! “One of my favourite masks of all time has got to be a full head doll mask called Hamble. I also love how my homage to Jason, hockey killer mask The Fowler which is a very simple mask but effective when worn by the right person.” Now, as the Halloween 2013 creeps ever nearer, Neal is gearing up for the busiest time of the year as orders have already started to come in for scare masks in time for the October scare season.

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THE BERLIN DUNGEON

Scary World

Jane Willis

Nine interactive scary shows, nine live actors, 700 years of German history and one raft ride - that is what you can expect to find inside the newly opened Berlin Dungeon. Opened in March this year, the new scare attraction is the latest European dungeon experience in the Merlin portfolio. The format of the Berlin Dungeon more-orless follows the company’s five other dungeon attractions in the UK and the one in Hamburg, Amsterdam. So as you’d expect it centres on legendary location-specific historical events for all of its nine chilling attractions of horror and gore. Unlike seriously scary scream parks however, te Berlin Dungeon akin to its sister sites across Europe, capitalises on pitching the level of scare to suit the family audience so don’t expect to find any chainsaw wielding craziness or frightening axe men!

Just as the London Dungeon tells the chilling tale of the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper who slaughtered women in Victorian London, so too the Berlin Dungeon includes a legendary serial killer in Berlin’s history. The spine tingling story of notorious German serial killer Carl Grossmann is one of gruesome gore as the killer’s sadistic butchering of his victims and processing their remains into tins of canned meat is recalled.

Beware as you tread the eerie grounds of the But if you’ve encountered Merlin’s other dungeon dungeon maze for Grossmann remains alive inside the walls of this ghostly place for his evil experiences you’ll have a fairly good idea crimes of slaughter so wicked and gruesome. about the concept behind the latest dungeon in Germany’s capital city. Gory it might be but there is no doubt that the signature theme of Merlin’s dungeon experiences make grizzly tales of the past come to life especially for young minds, thus they remain popular with the family audience. The opening of this latest dungeon has already attracted thousands of visitors and won acclaim in the city’s media where one news report is quoted to have described the new scare experience as “a history lesson with goose bumps”. The chilling historical scary tales are contained within nine scare zones Elevator

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of Dome, Old Library of Berlin, River Raft Ride, Plagued Street, Torture Chamber, The Secret Court, Lost Catacombs, The White Lady and The Butcher of Berlin. More than 700 years of Berlin’s history is brought to life from the dark side of the capital city in the Middle Ages to the crimes and perils of the 19th century. Stories encapsulate gruesome moments in history at the city’s Hohenzollern, the Berlin Palace, the city’s cathedral, Silesian Station and many other locations where eerie happenings have prevailed in times past. Guests will encounter many legendary mortals of German descent including the white lady. Look deep into her eyes and within the next eight days you will die, or so the legend goes. In addition to live scareactors, startling special effects and historical scenes, visitors can board the Spree, a cloudy and dark water raft ride. Although opened in a new building that took just four months to construct and create from start to end, the Berlin Dungeon has the typical look and feel of a historical entertainment fright zone. The recommended age for admission to the Berlin Dungeon is ten years old and all shows are performed in both German and English so don’t let your lack of understanding German put you off attending this very new fright-fest. Find out more at http://www.thedungeons.com/berlin/en/

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Frightful Feature

Portugal in early 2014. The attraction is a 4800 square foot classic ‘haunted house’ style attraction which combines European scare entertainment storytelling with classic American style impact scares across 24 themed rooms and environments.

MANORMORTIS – THE UK’S NEWEST PERMANENT SCARE ATTRACTION

In 1913 the old Haxenghast Mansion was burned to the ground amidst mysterious circumstances, now, 100 years later the house has appeared once again, its parapets and turrets twisting up through the autumn mists in a defiant statement against science, nature and time itself. Known locally as ‘the dead manor’, Manormortis has awoken from its slumber, and it is hungry… Manormortis, located at Scare Kingdom Scream Park in Lancashire, UK, is Britain’s newest permanent award-winning scare attraction. Created for Scare Kingdom Scream Park by European scare entertainment specialists AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment www. atmosfearuk.com, who have created over 100 temporary and seasonal scare entertainment projects in their thirteen year history. Manormortis is the third permanent scare attraction designed and built by the company (Sunken Village of the Damned in Cornwall and The House of Fear in Greece, being the first two), a fourth, named ‘Labirinto’ is due to open in

The Imagineering and design phase for Manormortis was an 18 month journey for the production team who immersed themselves in classic ghost stories, movies and legends. Mark Lofthouse, Director of Imagineering for AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment, said ‘we looked at films like ‘The Haunting’, ‘Steven King’s Rose Red’, ‘Crooked House’ and ‘The Legend of Hell House’, plus the various ghost stories of James Herbert, M. R. James, and Susan Hill’s ‘The Woman in Black’ before we decided on the theme of the attraction. Other reference seeds included classic British ghost stories like the allegedly true ‘Monster of Glamis Castle’, the American ‘Winchester Mystery House’ and the stories of the ‘UK’s most haunted house’ Borley Rectory in Essex. We also looked at existing scare attractions which present the classic ‘haunted house’ theme like Gasten Ghost Hotel in Sweden and Legendary Truth in America.’ Designed as a set of four ‘quads’ the attraction includes a labyrinth of back-stage corridors and ‘rat runs’ which allow quick movement by scareactors behind the scenes. The physical set is like a huge piece of Swiss cheese with ‘impact hatches’ in chests of drawers, cupboards, behind curtains and through walls. These give scareactors the theoretical ‘scareportunity’ to target guests a total of 73 times as they navigate through the labyrinthine warren of passageways and chambers. The design also allows for easy

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www.scareworld.co.uk changes to the guest navigation as the house ‘changes shape’ in line with its deep back-story. The attraction is presented in a variety of time-periods, from the medieval Kitchen to the more lavish Edwardian Great Hall and Victorian Conservatory, each featuring authentic set dressing. Jason Karl, Chief Creative Executive for AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment said ‘authenticity was key during the design and realisation phases. We spent months sourcing hundreds of pieces of antique furniture and props to ensure that the environments would look and feel believable. We bought an entire library of old books and sourced authentic artefacts connected with the supernatural for The Museum of the Strange room. The fictional history behind Manormortis is as elaborate as its set design, and will form the majority of content in a brand new experiential website which is due to launch in early 2014. Website visitors will be able to learn about the houses past, the inhabitants who have lived (and died) there, and explore the environments through video and photography. The attraction’s back story presents the house as a ‘living, breathing entity’ or ‘Domus Mactabilis’ – in simple terms it feeds on those that dare to enter and grows in size as it devours them. This means that the environments will continually change and shift, giving repeat guests a new experience every time. The characters that inhabit the house are also fluid – and can be plucked from any part of the attractions fictional historical timeline. The flexibility of the design means that imagineers have the opportunity to introduce new rooms and change the layout frequently. A 3 storey ‘Bell Tower’ is planned for 2014 along with a ‘shiver chute’ and new characters including the evocatively titled ‘Meat Man’. Technically, the attraction utilises over 100 DMX controlled lights, operated via a central computer which also runs the scent pods, haze machines and other effects including digital ghost projections, a Claustrophobia corridor and a ‘Living Painting’ which comes to life and speaks directly to the guests. Imagineers used scare attraction online technology tool ‘Haunt Design Kit’ to plan and pre-visualise the attraction layout.

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www.scareworld.co.uk brave enough to spend the night inside a scare attraction as ‘Hotel Manormortis’ offers the chance to dine in ‘The Devil’s Dining Room’, take part in a séance in the Library and sleep in the Grand Bed Chamber. The attraction has garnered significant praise from the scare entertainment world: ‘Breath-taking’ – www.scareraters.co.uk ‘Easily the most elaborately designed scare maze in the UK’ – www.scaretour.co.uk ‘Theming akin to a Disney haunted house, it’s a manor-masterpiece’ – www.terrorattractions. co.uk The attraction has already been recognised with two awards: ‘Excellence in Design’ by online scare attraction technology specialists www.hauntdesignkit.com ‘Top Rated Scare Attraction 2013’ (one of three awarded nationally) by industry leading scare entertainment review site www. terrorattractions.co.uk Jason Karl, Creative Director for Manormortis/ Scare Kingdom Scream Park and Chief Creative Executive of AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment gives Scareworld readers an exclusive virtual tour of the attraction… The primary orchestral score for the attraction was written by Chris Thomas, an LA based award-winning film composer, whose haunting track will also be featured on the attraction’s dedicated website. Manormortis first opened its doors as the headline attraction at Scare Kingdom Scream Park this Halloween (2013) and will be open at various times of the year, presented in different ways. On Friday 13th December it re-opens as ‘Christmas FestEVIL’ which is inspired by the little-known English ghost story ‘The Mistletoe Bough’, and in 2014 will offer a family-friendly scare experience as ‘Mystery Mansion’. The park operators are also planning to make the attraction available for wedding parties, private functions and film/television production. Overnight stays are also planned for those

Guests enter a once grand, now drab, Great Hall where stone busts and creepy wooden figures stare from the gloomy corners. The inspiration for the look of the room was from the film ‘The Legend of Hell House’. Initially we had decided on a blood red colour scheme for the wooden panelling, but at the last minute I changed the colour scheme to a turquoise blue which creates a colder and harsher feel. Above the Victorian fireplace is what appears to be a gold gilt framed portrait – it in fact a digital effect which allows us to use video technology to surprise guests when it comes to life and speaks to them! Our scenic art team created a unique Edwardian style sampler which purports to have been created by an ‘Emily Haxenghast’ in 1846 – it is a reference to an as yet unused character who can appear in the attraction at a later date. An old Victorian cabinet conceals artefacts like a music box and Spiritualist Medium’s trumpet, on the top a glass

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domed display case features a bizarre bird which has a baby’s skull, its known as ‘Baby Bird’. Guests leave the Great Hall by entering the fireplace, essentially moving into the chimney stack, before emerging in a set we call ‘Behind the Walls’. The styling of the corridor was inspired by the film ‘The People under the Stairs, and we used real plaster to create an authentic look. One of the walls is stretched spandex which allows scareactors to ‘appear’ suddenly or push their hands and face through in a style inspired by ‘The Nightmare on Elm Street’. Guests ‘break’ through a wall back into the house itself and emerge in The Kitchen. The back-story dictates that this room is much older than the rest of the house, and formed part of an earlier building on the site. It has medieval beams, and Victorian ‘updates’. Hundreds of antique kitchen items hang on the walls and beams, along with swathes of real herbs which create another dimension of experience with scent. Leaving The Kitchen, guests pass through a door and down a corridor which is filled with dripping icicles and ‘frozen’ human heads. This sets the scene for the forthcoming room – The Cold Store. The Cold Store is our interpretation of a Victorian ‘Ice House’ – although traditionally these would have been a separate building in the grounds of the house.

The room features dismembered frozen body parts, hanging meat and ice. Torture tools are hung on the walls, while a set of huge double doors ‘leads outside’ – while guests leave the room via an alternative doorway. Passing in the grand Dining Room, this is the ‘heart’ of the house. Cracked paint effects and torn wallpaper show the rooms ‘age’ while in some places the plaster has fallen away to reveal sections ‘behind the walls’ which reference the earlier set. An antique piano, large fireplace, sideboards and other furniture complete the look while in the corner a real taxidermy Vampire Bat, which we have named ‘Vlad’ hangs asleep in his cage. In the centre of the room is a vast dining table, which is actually a ‘stage’ and allows a scareactor to enter the room at height and perform ‘over’ the guests. Porcelain crockery, bottles, serving cutlery and lavish portraits complete the look. The Gallery is a corridor in which a variety of paintings, including those of former house residents can be viewed. Some of these are physical effects including a drop panel, lenticular changing portraits and two examples of ‘Living Art’. The style of the room is gaudy. It is painted in bold maroon and black stripes, and lit by a flickering UV light. The stripes and the light combine to give a disorienting effect as you walk down the corridor.

www.scareworld.co.uk Leaving The Gallery, guests enter The Museum of the Strange. This is an over-filled Museum of supernatural artefacts which have been sourced from all over the world. Our back story dictates that a former house resident was a keen Menagerist who travelled the globe in search of the strange. This room is where he housed his collection. Everything from a Voodoo Snake Goddess idol, Egyptian tablet, life ring from The Titanic, haunted doll, possessed skull and Hand of Glory can be seen here, spilling out of crates and displayed in a haphazard fashion which creates a winding pathway for guests to move through the environment. A lifesize Transylvanian crate provides the perfect hiding place for a scareactor to surprise guests. Each item in the room has its own back story which will become the Imagineering seed for future versions of the attraction. A curtained doorway gives guests entry to The Library, which is one of the most elaborately themed environments in the attraction. Hundreds of authentic antique books line the mouldy shelves, bedecked in dust and cobweb. Two 10 foot tall towers of ‘toppling books’ can be seen. These were created by welding strong iron rods to the floor and cutting holes in each book before assembling the towers. The towers look as if they could fall at any moment, and provide the perfect distraction away from the

scares which come through the bookshelves. The colour scheme is a greyish green, and our scenic team painted the room to look as though it was mouldy and decaying. In the corner of the Library a curtained exit provides entry to The Wine Cellar. Inspired by a similar set in a European attraction, mixed with a scene from the film ‘The Haunting’ we decided to ‘spin’ the idea of a wine cellar a little. Six huge wine racks, which are dressed with over 1000 wine bottles, each individually labelled and painted, create a twisting pathway for guests to navigate. The further guests walk, the more the wine racks close in, apparently ‘falling’ on the guests. An old whiskey barrel forms a ‘stage’ for a scareactor. After squeezing out of the Wine Cellar guests find themselves in a hallway which we call ‘Servant’s Staircase’ this portrays a ‘back stairs’ area, used by servants to move around the house away from the grander rooms. We commissioned an actual staircase for the set, and dressed it with tumbling furniture to dissuade guests from trying to ascend! Darkened wallpaper and tatty chairs give this are a very gloomy feel, while scribed ‘into’ the wall is a crude message which reads ‘Marianne, please help, get light mass prayers’. We borrowed the message from the case of Borley Rectory – an allegedly real haunted house in

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Essex which has been the subject of several books. We named one of the houses residents after a character in the story and replicated a message purported to have been written by a ghost at Borley Rectory in our set. Paranormal enthusiasts may understand the reference, but most will not even notice it.

film. A red light glows eerily from within, and guests are thrown into the furnace to be burned alive, where they discover a low tunnel leading onward.

Guests have to go ‘under the stairs’ to continue their journey around the attraction, passing next into a long corridor lined with rusty metal. Above them hang cobweb covered chains – this is the entrance corridor to the cellars…

The furnace tunnel leads to a moss covered corridor, designed to resemble a broken shed or store area. Lit from above, shafts of light spill through a dense roof of broken wood struts and tree branches. We are mentally preparing you for the next room here, creating a transition space between the harsh metallic cellar areas and the more rural ‘outdoors’.

The Furnace Cellar is dark and cold. Rusty tools, copious pipes of different sizes and a huge furnace, or boiler, feature in the room. The furnace design is based on styles often found in large houses during the Victorian era, but mixed with some artistic license. The end result could sit comfortably in a Nightmare on Elm Street

Perhaps the grandest environment in the attraction is The Conservatory. Our Imagineering team spent much time researching historical conservatories, garden rooms, glass houses and orangeries before deciding on the final design and look for the room. Initially planned as more of a veranda and less of a

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www.scareworld.co.uk ‘room’ we finally decided to enclose the room, to prevent guests wandering ‘outside’ the confines of the space. Our back story indicates that this room was once a grand Conservatory but has fallen into disrepair and is now more of a gardener’s lair. The architecture includes a partially collapsed roof over which three entire trees can be seen clawing their branches above guest’s heads. Arched windows between grand pillars provide guests with sightlines ‘beyond’ the house itself, and here we installed over 20 full size fir trees to provide a believable vista of an overgrown garden ‘outside’. Piercing blue moonlight bathes the garden and washes through the windows creating a haunting spectacle. Over 100 individual props bring this set to life, including authentic Edwardian garden tools, sundial, broken terracotta plant pots, rat poison and horse shoes. The look is completed with an aged Victorian garden table and a deformed bulbous insect eating a human ‘foot’ in a cage. The transition from The Conservatory to the next environment is sudden, because there is no corridor or passageway connecting them. We also faced the problem of taking guests ‘upstairs’ as the attraction is all on one level. In order to achieve this we decided to make The Conservatory the transition point from ‘downstairs’ to ‘upstairs’. When guests enter The Conservatory they are still downstairs, but when they leave, they are suddenly upstairs! To achieve guest ‘buy in’ we decided to turn an entire room upside down… Known as The Twisted Room, the next environment is literally upside down, with furniture hanging from the ‘ceiling’. While in the Imagineering phase this posed various problems for the realisation team as it meant the ‘ceiling’ had to be strong enough to support the weight of the furniture once attached. But I wasn’t satisfied with just turning the room upside down, I wanted it on a slant too, so that it would totally disorient the mind of guests when they enter. During realisation (construction) I made the decision to have the slant of the floor and the slant of the room at slightly different angles. This means that when guests enter the room, first they realise it is ‘upside down’, secondly they realise it is also on a ‘slant’ and the brain makes assumptions on what the eye is seeing. As they ascent the slanted

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www.scareworld.co.uk floor (which does not match the angle of the walls) it confuses the brain giving the feeling of disorientation. The room is themed as a servant’s parlour, where a strange tarot reading is spread on the table top. ‘Hanging down’ (up from the floor) is a single flickering light bulb which illuminates the room. To achieve this our realisation team welded chain links together to give the illusion of a chain hanging (up/down)! One of the walls is painted jet black which provides the backdrop for a digital ghost effect which appears to burst out of the wall and screech at guests before disappearing back ‘into’ the wall. In the Nursery guests are presented with over 100 genuine Victorian dolls, dismembered teddy bears and toys. The room was inspired by a set in the film ‘The Woman in Black’ and includes a cryptic message scrawled deep into the very walls ‘you could have saved her’. Crude children’s scrawling and an elaborate Edwardian fire mantle complete the look. Guests pass by an old metal cot and window through which a gusty breeze blows and ‘lightning’ strikes. It is the perfect scareportunity for an impact scare from ‘outside’ the house. Guests are now well and truly ‘upstairs’ in the house, and the psychological suggestion for such is deepened by the slanted floor in The Twisted Room on which they physically move ‘upwards’. The next environment is the lavish Grand Bed Chamber which includes a king size Tudor style four poster oak bed. This room has the most scareportunities in the attraction; a total of 9 in all. The bed is actually a form of ‘stage’ and designed in such a way as to give the impression that it is a made up bed, when in fact it hides a series of steps which allows the scareactor to run ‘through’ the wall and ‘into’ the bed itself. The edges of the bed then allow the scareactor to perform at a greater height than the guests navigating past. After potential impact scares from the Haunted Mirror and Chest of Horrors, guests exit the room through a wardrobe door which is swathed in plush aged red velvet. Passing into the wardrobe, guests find themselves pushing through rails of vintage clothing. Musty fur coats and Victorian dresses allow two scareactors to perform impact scares from both sides as guests’ progress through the darkness. After pushing out of the Wardrobe, guests find themselves presented with a well-known scare attraction in the form of Claustrophobia. We used an English company to obtain the latest version and it is very, very tight indeed! In terms of narrative it proved difficult to incorporate this effect into our Imagineering, but it seemed to fit well as part of the ‘Wardrobe’ section. Guests squeeze through Claustrophobia and emerge into a corridor which is themed to look like a chimney stack – the ides here is that guests are now in the chimney breast at the top of the house. Our initial idea was to make this a ‘Priest Hide’ which are commonly found in chimney spaces in houses of this type in history. Our plans included a backstage rat run in which a staircase would allow a scareactor to perform ‘above’ guests on a ramshackle series of wooden planks. During realisation we ran out of time and this element was dropped at the last minute. That leaves us with a relatively uninteresting corridor and two large backstage areas on either side – the perfect black box space for future re-development! Leaving the ‘chimney stack’ guests emerge into the elaborately themed Attic – the final environment in the attraction. Over 150 antique furniture items

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were sourced to create huge piles of ‘junk’ which create the path guests navigate around. In the centre of the junk is a podium which provides a high staged area for a scareactor to perform. A hidden impact hatch provides a secondary scare from a bookcase at knee level. Decaying paintings, rotting bedclothes and old ornaments complete the look of the environment, while in one corner stands a lonely figure, illuminated in a fluorescent blue light, and adorned with a thread bare wedding dress. This is ‘Eve’ – a visual Imagineering reference to our next version of the attraction opening for the Christmas season in 2013. The exit from the Attic is via a ‘broken’ window, the shape of which was inspired by the famous ‘Amityville Horror’ attic windows. Guests’ plummet through the window amidst thunder and lightning, their escape is cushioned by the foliage and trees which

provide the perfect backdrop, before they exit through a door and out of the building. FURTHER INFORMATION For more information on AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment visit www.atmosfearuk.com For information on Scare Kingdom Scream Park visit www.scarekingdom.com Visit Manormortis’ new experiential website from early 2014 at www.manormortis.com

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Frightful Feature THORPE PARK FRIGHT NIGHTS Thorpe Park’s hugely popular ‘Fright Nights’ are a UK Halloween favourite with scare enthusiasts. For 2013 the park announced a ‘terror takeover’ with a brand new line up of attractions presented in association with horror film entertainment company Lionsgate. Scareworld sent a reporter to give us the lowdown… The chilling and thrilling event, which took place over selected weekends in October and early November, were the Park’s biggest in 12 years of fear, and presented terrifyingly entertaining scare experiences based on some of Lionsgate UK’s most iconic and award-winning horror films. Guests were invited to experience immersive, live-action horror attractions based on ‘You’re Next’, cult classic ‘The Blair Witch Project’; the dark ‘My Bloody Valentine’, the twisted ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ and not forgetting the menacing ‘SAW’, already the inspiration for the live action horror maze at the Park ‘Saw Alive’. YOU’RE NEXT This feature promised roaming scareactors dressed as the menacing assailants from Lionsgate’s new summer horror flick of the same name. Wandering the park from 3pm, they provided an eerie ambience across the park. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT SCARE ZONE Set in an area of the park not usually open to guests, The Blair Witch Project offered a trek into darkness after the sun had set. Tents and torches were the key themes here, with clusters of theming spread along a straight walkway down the side of the park. Scareactors delivered no dialogue with the assumption that guests already knew the story of the film, and of the infamous ‘Blair Witch’. In an attempt to make the walk less formulaic, shrubs had been uprooted and placed in the path, lighted by tiny battery operated torchlights. These provided several impact

scare opportunities for scareactors, but these were repetitive and few and far between. Performers wearing hoodies with their faces in shadow formed the basis of the experience, until the culmination which was set in a garden shed. As guests navigated through the shed, they were presented with a depiction of the end scene from the film – a static figure standing in the corner facing away from the guests. This distraction scare allowed the ‘Blair Witch’ to shriek ‘get out’ at guests forming the end to this experience. With the rich possibilities in material from the film, it was a disappointment to witness an attraction which sadly failed to deliver any scare factor. Braver guests were also invited to stay overnight in the park’s new ‘Crash Pad’ and take part in an overnight scare experience themed around The Blair Witch Project. We did not experience this, but it is fair to say that it has received mixed reviews. MY BLOODY VALENTINE House inside a series of shipping containers, this indoor attraction depicted scenarios from the 2009 film of the same name. Pitting guests in a strong narrative from the very start, the attraction posed a real choice of route in the maze of underground tunnels superbly themed as the well-known mine from the film. Using the terrifying gas masked icon character ‘Harry Warden’ as a repeating protagonist throughout the experience created a genuine feeling of pursuit as guests explored the winding routes through the mine tunnels. Uniquely, guests were ushered into a ‘chute’ which required them to crawl on their hands and knees over multiple levels to navigate through the central part of the attraction. This was without doubt the best scare attraction at Thorpe Park’s Fright Nights this year. The experience did not require you to have viewed the film in order to understand it, it provided a good mix of scares and narrative, and was presented in an impressive themed environment with just the right amount of disorientation and challenges.

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THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

SAW ALIVE

Horror fans delighted at the announcement that a scare attraction based on the hit movie ‘Cabin in the Woods’ was coming to Thorpe Park this Halloween. With a rich storyline, lavish set of monstrous characters and a twisting end to the film, the material available to the creative team behind the attraction provided fertile seeds for a truly different style of scare experience.

Returning once again following periods of full-time operation and subsequent closures, Saw Alive presents a passive guest experience in which the ‘victims’ from the incredibly popular film franchise are witnessed in a variety of traps and tortures. Where this attraction perhaps fails is that guests are never under threat themselves, but simply observing others undergoing horrific treatment.

Touted as ‘the first time ever in the UK’ (although this has been done at other attractions in the UK before) guests were invited to navigate the attraction by choosing their own routes. The well themed ‘Cabin Living Room’ at the beginning of the experience offered several doors to select, with the instruction that guests must close all doors behind them after passing through. Behind each door, guests were presented with different scenarios from the film, including a forest where a hillbilly ‘zombie’ (presumably one of ‘The Buckners’?) provided a well-timed impact scare from within the underbrush, a darkened chamber where a silent white masked ‘Dollface’ came suddenly to life and a variety of other rooms themed around the film. A ‘Trommel’ plastered with images of the well-known monsters from the film suggested that these might be lurking ahead, but this was surprisingly not the case, with no sign of ‘The Ballerina’, ‘The Merman’ or ‘Buzzsaw’ in the attraction, a missed opportunity perhaps? We loved the ‘Monster Selection Board’ and other touches lifted from the film, it is these small details that set this attraction apart from the rest of the park. The transition from ‘Cabin’ areas to the blood-soaked ‘Operational Complex’ environments was sudden and required guests to have prior knowledge of the film narrative to understand. Filled with frightened and mad operatives that had clearly been mauled by the unseen monsters they were well played by the scareactors. Engaging with one of them, I was impressed at their ability to ad-lib around the planned dialogue and establish their plotline further. Cabin in the Woods was an ambitious attraction to realise, particularly when it has been done so at Universal’s ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ in such epic proportions. The Thorpe Park team are to be congratulated on delivering an attraction that is truly different from anything else attempted before, and the delivery was slick, imaginative and immersive.

Elaborately themed sets prevail in this attraction with real detail that creates a believable environment, it is extremely impressive to look at. The culmination of the attraction takes place in one of Saw’s devilish traps in which guests are ‘shot’, followed by a momentary encounter with a recognisable ‘pig headed’ character from the films. THE ASYLUM Set in a chaotic chain maze, The Asylum has been part of Fright Night’s slate for several years. Guests undertake the role of ‘patients’ as they navigate around a series of strobe lit environments with dead ends and hidden corners. Lurking inside the attraction, a team of energetic and physically fit scareactors lunge at guests from every angle, delivering impact scares from the floor, at your feet and over your head while straddling the set itself. Mirrored walls give the illusion that the attraction is far larger than its actual footprint, and provide additional scares as guests catch glimpses of themselves on their journey through the experience. The end culmination is delivered with a chainsaw ‘attack’ as guests hurry down a corridor themed as a series of shower and toilet cubicles. This attraction, like many others, has come under criticism this season as ‘politically incorrect’, and is accused of causing offence to those with mental illness. It has been suggested that Thorpe Park considers changing the name and theme of this attraction in future years. In summary, Thorpe Park Fright Nights 2013 was great fun. A good selection of different scare attractions and scare experiences which when taken collectively were very strong indeed. I am looking forward to seeing how these develop for 2014! For more information visit www.thorpepark.com

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Sinister Showcase MONSTERS OF LEGEND AND AXE GIANT Midnight Syndicate Symphonic gothic horror musicians MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE have just released their sixteenth studio album, MONSTERS OF LEGEND. This “tribute to the golden age of horror” is inspired by horror films from the silent era, Universal Studios’ horror classics, Hammer Films, and other European horror films of the 60s and 70s. It features the sweeping symphonic horror instrumental music and sound effects in the signature style the band helped pioneer. “We want to make you feel like you are a character in one of those classic horror films - that you’ve entered a world where any one of those iconic Universal monsters could be right around the corner,” said composer EDWARD DOUGLAS. The CD artwork features original images from classic Universal Studios horror movies including BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, WEREWOLF OF LONDON, and DRACULA. “Those classic horror films are at the core of what we do in Midnight Syndicate, so to do an entire disc based on them was a lot fun,” added Douglas. “Musically it required us to use more traditional orchestral instruments, and use them in more ways than we have in the past. The result is a fuller orchestral sound with a heavy classical music influence. There are plenty of nods to James Bernard, Bernard Herrmann, and other early film composers.” Although the band promises the new disc will deliver the dark atmosphere haunted house designers, roleplaying gamers, and Halloween music enthusiasts expect from them, they feel they’ve crafted a disc that transcends their favorite time of the year. “Like CARNIVAL ARCANE, we feel we’ve taken things up a notch both musically and with the sound design on this release,” said GAVIN GOSZKA. “There’s a lot there to listen to and lose yourself in.”

“Dick’s known throughout the haunted house industry as the “Voice from Hell,” needless to say he was the perfect match for this disc,” added Goskza. The CD is available now through the band’s website, as well as iTunes and Amazon.com. It will also be available in select Halloween retailers beginning in August. A collector’s edition 12” vinyl version is also available on the band’s site. Official Midnight Syndicate website: www.MidnightSyndicate.com Midnight Syndicate on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/MidnightSyndicate Midnight Syndicate on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/MidSyndicate Dick Terhune – Voice From Hell website: www.VoiceFromHell.com MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE have also just released the AXE GIANT THE WRATH OF PAUL BUNYAN: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK. The album, produced by Midnight Syndicate, features highlights from the movie score composed by EDWARD DOUGLAS along with The Ballad of Paul Bunyan performed by HICK’RY HAWKINS. “From a simple flourish of strings to behemoth bass horns on the rampage, the score is everything I hoped it would be and more,” said director and co-writer Gary Jones. “The perfect marriage of sight and sound, Ed’s music carries our film into that cool, cool realm of which filmmakers only dream.” “Gary wanted the film to have a feel similar to classic monster movies like King Kong. I found myself trying to channel my inner (Max) Steiner and (Bernard) Herrmann, in an effort to achieve that big, dramatic, classical sound,” said composer Edward Douglas. “The monster in the film is American folklore legend, Paul Bunyan, so it gave me the opportunity to work with some 19th century American instrumentation as well. I think the result is a soundtrack that will sound both familiar and at times very different from what Midnight Syndicate has done to this point.”

The CD is available now through the band’s website, as In addition to over 50 minutes of new music, the band well as iTunes and Amazon.com. went back into its archives and recreated several tracks Official Midnight Syndicate website: from its early releases Born of the Night and Realm of www.MidnightSyndicate.com Shadows, bringing the total runtime of the disc to over Midnight Syndicate on Facebook: 65 minutes. “Both the new album and those older ones are set in and around the mysterious hamlet of Arcacia. www.Facebook.com/MidnightSyndicate We felt it would be a great opportunity to breathe new The Axe Giant official movie website: life into a few of our lesser known tracks from those www.AxeGiantMovie.com discs to help tell this story. For additional atmosphere Hick’ry Hawkins on YouTube: the band called on voiceover artist Dick Terhune. http://www.youtube.com/user/hickryhawkins

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Guest Review RAVENWOOD MANOR by Lisa Woodford With anticipation brewing, I arrived in the town of Newark in Lincolnshire for participation in the latest offering from GNG Entertainment Group; Ravenwood Manor. A good basis for any scare attraction is the opportunity to secure and develop a location well and the stunning ruins of the 12th century medieval Newark Castle was a good start. Standing in the grounds of the castle waiting to enter the attraction, the ruins looked amazing illuminated against the backdrop of the sun going down. A slightly kooky scientist led the way, excitedly raving about the research of The Dominions Corporation and the discoveries that had taken place within the castle walls. He led the group into a security room while he continued gabbling about the research, gleefully rubbing his hands together. The dark security room was the base for the Corporation and fleetingly something seemed to occur on the CCTV screen. Without a chance to absorb what may or may not have been seen, our guide whisked the group away once more, down some concrete steps into a very dark room. As my eyes tried to adjust to the murky blackness, we were told to perform a small séance to summon any possible activity. Within a breath of beginning this, the floor suddenly banged and thumped, vibrating loudly around the room. With legs slightly shaking, I followed the scientist back up the steps and clambered out into the cool night air wondering whatever could be next. Glowing floodlights lit up the ruins giving the castle a very eerie feel as we were taken into another part of the building and up a winding staircase into a small tower room. Another experiment was to involve us as guests and this time it would be through a Ouija board. As our leader called out to any spirits present, a female voice echoed around the room and suddenly a rather vampish lady appeared with a Transylvanian accent. With long dark hair and a ghostly face she answered every question the scientist asked but strangely he could not seem to see or hear here. Christina, as

was her name, explained sadly that he never hears her even when she is right in front of him. As she floated around the room flirting seductively with the gentlemen in the group, we were taken back downstairs in the part of the building we had first entered to attempt yet another séance. As we stood around in a circle holding hands our scientist guide uttered the welcoming of spirit when suddenly a scruffy teddy flew into the centre of the circle. A small girl crawled out from the corner of the room and asked if we had seen her daddy. As each of the group replied that they hadn’t, she explained that she had hugged her daddy until he had turned blue! With a catchphrase of “Daddy goes blue” echoing from her mouth, she questioned us further and yet again the scientist just simply did not appear to notice her as he had entered somewhat of an odd trance. Unnerved slightly by the cheeky girl who had a habit of wanting to steal hats and throw them, our rather unhelpful guide seemed to shake himself out of his present state and take us back out of the building. He warned now that he could not proceed any further with us and we were to enter the last part of the journey alone. Without a glance back he disappeared as fast as he could and we descended into the dungeon to await our fate. Greeted by a religious figure who warned us of the perils that lay ahead, we were then ordered to walk along the dungeon path. The air was foggy and apart from odd lights it was very dark. As hands grabbed and words were suddenly whispered in our ears, the sounds got louder and louder as the ghouls appeared faster and faster. Coming to the end we were ordered out of the building and were quite happy to accept! Ravenwood Manor was a very good offering from the GNG Entertainment Group. The use of the location was brilliant and a great setting for a scare attraction. I thought the actors performed extremely well and interacted brilliantly with the group, considering any interaction with the scientist was taken away. The footing within the grounds however, particularly down the rocky steps, felt a little bit haphazard, but with such an old location this was to be expected and could easily be rectified with a little bit more lighting. The storyline had been thought out quite well and overall a great deal of effort had been put into the attraction. I would recommend a visit to other planned attractions by GNG and look forward to seeing what else they have in store.

Autumn/Winter 2013

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Autumn/Winter 2013

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ns Terror Attractio BEHIND THE FEAR By Giuliana Nicholson Terror attractions have become ever more popular in the UK since Sheer Terror and Alien Wars set up productions in the early 90’s. The industry is growing with new attractions launched every year to satisfy the ever expanding market of fear hunters. Today we have a wide variety of productions dedicated to fear, from ghost trains and haunted houses to whole farms and scream parks. But why is it that fans continue to put themselves through the torture of horror camps, zombie ridden mazes, and the chilling chainsaw? A few of today’s terror attractions have been known to make customers faint, vomit and literally wet themselves in fear, yet they are also known to entertain and delight fans. If we find the effects of fear so physically repulsive, then why do we enjoy it? When we look back, historically there has always been entertainment of this kind in some form. The Romans passionately threw thousands of slaves to the lions, eagerly watching each poor soul while they were torn limb from limb in enormous shows. According to Aristotle and Freud, this deadly display brings us to the catharsis of our passions. It allowed the audience to explore their primal fears, to empathise with the victim and to think “what if it happened to me?” Terror attractions today simulate the same fear, although it has evolved tremendously; instead of watching the action from afar, a customer is now the prisoner who is facing the lion. Specifically in June 2012, GNG Entertainment introduced us to ‘Project Fear’ an attraction which was designed so that a customer would experience it completely alone. This Halloween, AtmosFEAR! Scare Entertainment will also launch an ‘alone’ attraction called ‘Psychomanteum’ at Scare Kingdom Scream Park. The effect of this reflects the lions’ den, there is no group safety, the customer is ultimately at the mercy of the scare actors. When we experience fear our bodies automatically trigger the “fight or flight” reaction; we breathe quickly, our heart rate increases, our muscles tense, and our attention focuses on responses to threats. Furthermore our adrenaline rises, and it has been suggested that generally fans of horror particularly enjoy this adrenaline rush. In his book ‘Why we watch: The attractions of Violent Entertainment’, Goldstein comments on the sense of pleasure that comes with fear, which is directly associated with adrenaline. The rush that we feel can be enjoyable when our brains know that there is no real threat. This is why we enjoy the thrill of fear more when we are at a safe distance, aware that we will not come to any harm. ‘Slasher’ by Andrew Porter at Screamfest induces our “fight or flight” as we watch the execution of a serial killer.

Then in a turn of events the killer escapes his death and seeks revenge by hunting his audience, thus we become the victims. Similarly ‘Outbreak’ by HallowScream York Maze informs us of an apocalyptic virus by using a combination of cinema, lasers, and actors. When one of the audience members is found to be contaminated with the disease, the rest of us watch the violent events unfolding, and we are all threatened with the likelihood of a similar fate. In these attractions we are in no direct physical contact with the actors when confronted with the danger, and therefore we can hide behind the rule of ‘do not touch the actors, and they will not touch you’. Some attractions push the ‘safe distance’ boundaries by allowing actors to touch the audience. For example, in ‘Horror Camp Live’ 2012 the audience experienced a simulated hostage situation where they had bags put over their heads and were put in the back of a van, then driven to a separate location. Such an invasion of personal space that reflects events which could happen in ‘real life’ activates our survival mode, yet deep down we still know that we will be alive after the terrible ordeal. I mean, if we thought we were in serious danger it wouldn’t be fun would it? Furthermore science had produced findings that show a correlation between distress and delight (Zillmann, 1986). The stronger the negative emotions experienced during an attraction, the more likely we will enjoy it. The pleasure comes from the relief that follows once you escape the attraction. It means that some people can interpret their negative feelings into a positive experience. One of the major reasons why so many people go to terror attractions is because fear = fun, even the Dungeons have adopted the slogan ‘Fear is a funny thing’, and we WANT to be scared. We desire the adrenaline and excitement that is caused by terror attractions. We are stimulated by the dangers of the unknown, the threat of death, infection, murderous clowns, and eternal damnation. Terror attraction’s speak to our basic human condition of existential fear, the fact that we all have an expiration date. To experience a fictional portrayal of ‘the end’ allows us to live our greatest human fears without actually being hurt. REF. Zillmann, D., Weaver, J.B., Mundorf, N. & Aust, C.F. (1986). Effects of an opposite-gender companion’s affect to horror on distress, delight, and attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 586–594.

www.scareworld.co.uk ’ HOB S PIT Pleasurewood Hills have launched a new ride this year at the 30 year old family theme park in Lowestoft. Based in an abandoned 18th century mine, the attraction is part walk through and part ride where the audience attempt to escape from the devil presence they call Hob. The producers have spent half a million pounds in creating Hobs Pit, and have even brought in such people as Rob Ostir the world renowned special effects expert, who has worked on a variety of movies such as Rocky Balboa, X-MEN, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose, to name a few. The attraction also features the voice of Corey Burton who provides the voice for many Disney animations including Aladdin and Disneyland’s “Haunted Mansion Holiday”. The ride is similar to a conventional ghost train but much more sophisticated, consisting of CGI, peppers ghost effects, animatronics, leg ticklers and live actors who were trained by ‘Scream School’ owned by AtmosFEAR Scare Entertainment! It is aesthetically pleasing; from the outside, lopsided wooden panels line the walls with cracked windows and gas lamps. The themeing is excellent, with scenery and props all to a professional standard. We start with the short walk through which leads to the ride, we hold hands walking on the uneven floor through the dimly lit mine shaft and reach a locked door where we have to find the key to get through, and are confronted with a nerve shaking dilemma. Here we are introduced to video effects with graphic content reflected in the BBFC rating of 12A.

have been deceased for a number of years and you’ve got an eerie ensemble to match larger scale attractions. I was lucky enough to work with such a talented bunch of performers and operators who made it an absolute pleasure to mentor the Scream School programme. Some parts of the ride felt a bit redundant and we think if they added a bit of smoke and a soundtrack then it would add to the tension and the pace would pick up a bit. Ben Rowe “Marketing Executive, Who clearly has a huge passion for Pleasurewood Hills told us that Hobs Pit is very much, as he describes ‘v1.0’, and many tweaks will be made between now and the official opening in June.” It is already a great ride and we see the potential for more, it could be amazing. It is thoroughly enjoyable and it has its scary moments but it wasn’t terrifying for the frequent fear hunter. Then again we witnessed plenty of young teenagers shaking and screaming at the exit, and families enjoying the experience together. It is hoped that 1,000 people a day will go on the new ride which is part of a £3.5m investment. General Manager of Pleasurewood Hills, Alexis Camelin, Added, “This ride is unique to the UK, it is the first dark ride to combine a walk through and seated scare experience with lots to scream about along the journey. The big question is...will you escape Hobs Pit?” Find more information at www.pleasurewoodhills.com

We squeeze through tight spaces, with lots of small jumps until we get to the ride itself. The carriage is an old mine cart which seats 4 people and takes you slowly around the attraction. Once the ride begins we are taken on a journey of animatronics, hologram ghostly figures, deathly and gruesome projections and actors portraying the dying miners. The scares are well timed and we did jump quite a few times on our journey. The actors involved didn’t hold back and fully embraced their roles. ‘Scream School’ mentor Mark Lofthouse added “after receiving a brief about the types of characters that fit with the attraction, I made the performers get into the mind set of the miner and grieving wife. The hunching from narrow tunnels, the respiratory problems and the hatred of natural sunlight etc. throw into the mix the fact that all these characters

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Sinister Showcase HAUNT DESIGN KIT The online Haunt Design Kit is taking the scare attraction design world by storm at the moment. Created by Producer and scare attraction design Tyler Barnett, it allows scare attraction creators to produce professional three dimensional computer aided designs and layouts utilising Google Sketch Up. Scareworld met up with Tyler to tell us a bit more about the product, and his plans to develop it even further.

Lexington Screampark. Here, as a co-owner, I was able to really get hands on with the business side of the haunt industry. I was in charge of marketing, design, scares, actors, makeup, etc. etc…I handled it all along with my former business partner. I was with the Screampark for over three years helping it become one of the top haunted attractions in the United States as per Hauntworld and Haunted Attraction Magazine and others. Nowadays I mainly focus on attraction design and layout as it was my strongest trade skill.

Tyler, tell us a bit about you and how you got into the scare entertainment industry? This goes WAY back. My grandparents actually did a home haunt during trick-or-treat here in Kentucky when I was a kid. Here, I would act as a ghost and jump out from behind the basement door. I would also help decorate the night before, I loved this. I feel this is what really put the passion in me. From there, I spearheaded our high school drama into putting on a haunted house as a fund raiser for our theater productions. This worked out really well and its here I started to get the design bug; I did this for three years. I wanted to pursue a career in design…so I went to college for theater design at Northern Kentucky University. While I was at school I worked as a scare-actor at Kings Island (a major amusement park just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio) and worked for both their “Fearfest” and “Halloween Haunt” events. However, due to a tough family emergency I was forced to move back home and cut my college education short.

What exactly is The Haunt Design Kit?

I moved back home to Lexington, Kentucky where I co-opened the largest haunted house in Kentucky, the

After teaching a seminar about SketchUp and haunt design at Transworld in 2012, I had a HUGE response from haunters everywhere wanting to learn more about it. So I launched HDK in 2013 and the website almost instantly skyrocketed. HDK offers 3D models that can be used in SketchUp specifically made for the haunted attraction industry. This is to help streamline the design process and offer a better render product than what most people are used to.

I started Haunt Design Kit in February of 2013 and it’s merely an online resource for everything haunted attraction design and construction. I use a free software program called SketchUp to layout and design attractions. This is the same software used by many professional attractions including Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights.

Why did you decide to create the Kit, and make is available as a resource for producers around the world? Well, after I spoke at the Transworld hauntshow in St. Louis…the post-show response I received was massive. I did not expect the number of emails I received from people I didn’t know. So it kinda just “clicked”…I

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www.scareworld.co.uk needed to make an online resource with all this great information on it. I wanted to help haunts better their own design process and streamline their layouts and offseason planning.

don’t when those will be available.

Even the “mom-and-pop” attractions can do this.

Easy. A LOT! We are currently working on about 11 new projects that will help take HDK to the next level. One major thing is taking HDK into becoming a truly functioning business. Another thing is a brand new app for iPads that allows you to view your attraction in a REAL space. Yeah, REAL space. This is a brandnew technology that we’re working very hard to bring to the market. Our only downfall on that right now is the expense of getting apps into the Apple app store. It can be expensive…and that’s the ONLY thing holding us back. We’re also working on a first of it’s find howto that will discuss not only SketchUp but haunt design and construction, design principles and theories, and interviews with pro-haunters throughout the industry.

Who is using The Haunt Design Kit? Well…everybody! Haha…I get emails everyday of new people discovering our site and using my downloadable collections. I can’t confirm this but I even heard a “rumor” of a major theme park in Orlando, Florida using the downloads to help streamline their design process. Everybody from professional show owners and designers…to the “mom-and-pop” shows and home haunters. Everybody has a use for this type of software and for what we offer at HDK. SketchUp is free, with a paid “pro” version, and I think this is what makes it so valuable. Everyone can do this…and SHOULD be doing this. How do you decide which suppliers products to convert for use in the Kit? Well, this is a tough one. We get constant emails asking if we’re ever going to make downloadable collections of product from this company and that company. Simply put, we can’t do it all. So, to help ourselves out we created a “list” of what we look for in a company before we reproduce their product as 3D models. First we look at space usage. If a company is making product that is a considerable element when looking at attraction layout and space usage, then we could reproduce their product. If a company makes things like wall panels, Vacuform, wall props or any large prop that might affect the flow and design of the layout…then we’ll consider re-producing their product. Is a companies product feasible to recreate for a product like SketchUp? Maybe. That’s really it, that’s what we look at. What suppliers will be coming on board with the Kit in the future?

What developments do you have planned for the Kit to go even further?

We’re also designing shows for clients all over the world. From home haunts to attractions for theme parks, we’ve now “done it all”. We’re just really busy! I’m just glad that I have my wife in on this to help keep HDK on track and focused. How can readers download the Kit and get started using it? Well, first you’ll need the latest version of Google SketchUp. Download and install that first. Then, go to www.hauntdesignkit.com and download our “starter kit”. This is a collection of wall panels that every haunted attraction uses and will be your starting point in not only learning SketchUp but also learning how to design your show with the program. From there you can download any of our other files, including finished haunt project files, and really bring your designs to new heights. We also have several videos in our “education center” that will help you learn SketchUp. There’s NO REASON why you aren’t already doing this. Don’t get behind the times with your haunt or designs. This is the future, embrace it, and start designing your attraction like a pro…even if you’re not!

Hmmm…I don’t know really. I do know that we’ll be walking the Transworld show floor looking for our next vendor collection. Some vendors simply don’t want us to re-create some of their products for fear of giving away “trade secrets”. We do our best to avoid this at all cost. The way we look at it…if someone can figure out how something works just by walking the show floor, then we have no fear of reproducing it in detail. But we try our best to NOT give away detail; our main focus here is space usage; so our only main concern is sizes and measurements. Saying that, I really don’t know what’s next. We’ve been working on a few new vendor kits from Distortions and Nightscream Studios. But that’s it for right now and I

Autumn/Winter 2013

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Guest Review SCARE KINGDOM SCREAM PARK 2013 By Ollie Cooke I recently attended the preview night for Scare Kingdom Scream Park 2013. Located at Hawkshaw Farm Park, home of Mrs Dowson’s Ice Cream we pulled up into the large car park and awaited our fate. First up after a fun photo opportunity was The Oubliette. Greeted by a lively character, the group is herded into a small cage where we experienced a unique way to go through the rules of the scream park which provided a great start to the evening by instantly taking you out of you comfort zone. After escaping we were greeted by LuciFEAR at the entrance of the Neverdead Scare Zone. As we wound through the dark twisted path round the corn field we encountered memorable characters from previous years at Scare Kingdom back to scare us yet again. The maze was very hit and miss if the actor got you or not and we missed the majority of the scares. Nevertheless Neverdead is a great warm up for whati s to come later in the night. We then got split into smaller groups before being sent into Cyberscream Live. Even though the maze is quite small it packs a lot in and is extremely visual. We were impressed by the detailed costumes and effects inside and the maze was tight, narrow and disorientating which left us anticipating what was hiding round each corner.

As we exited Manormortis we could make out the glow of carnival lights in the distance. Once we arrived we were welcomed to Cannibal Carnevil by a sinister snake lady who introduced our group to the other characters. The build-up to the maze was well paced and well designed with some fun interactions between the actors and guests. Once inside the intensity picked up as you made your way through avoiding the cannibalistic clowns. The indoor portion of the maze did seem to end rather quickly but it escalated nicely and left most the group running for the door. For those who want extra thrills and a more intense experience then Psychomanteum awaits them with the glowing entrance as you approach. This additional experience is strictly for over 18’s and you have to sign a waiver before entering ALONE. One of the rules of the attraction is not to discuss your experience inside Psychomanteum with other people so you’ll have to brave it yourself to find out what’s inside. However I will tell you that it is sick and disgusting and very personal. Due to the nature of the attraction and the fact that you enter alone it does mean there can be quite a wait to get in. However the additional maze is worth the wait and every penny of the entry fee. Overall, Scare Kingdom shows that it can continue to push boundaries and takes more risks every year . The two stand out attractions this year are clearly Manormortis and Psychomanteum but each of the attractions are great fun and range from mild to extreme so there really is something for everyone. I cannot recommend Scare Kingdom enough and encourage you all to go and check it out. For more information visit www.scarekingdom.com

Next up was the maze of the night, Manormortis. This maze is a HUGE production and it’s hard to get an idea of the scale of it without visiting yourself. From start to finish every inch of the place is themed to perfection and fully immersive. Each scene flows naturally into the next and you can feel the tension rising as you wind your way deeper into the heart of the house. Overall Manormortis is a beautifully themed attraction of epic scale and depth.

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Autumn/Winter 2013

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Sinister Showcase MONSTERS WANTED In early 2011, Rich Teachout quit his lucrative job to focus on creating a one-of-a-kind haunted attraction. He and his partner Janel dedicated every moment, ounce of energy, and dollar to making their ‘Scream Park’ a reality. ‘Monsters Wanted’ is a film of their journey and story of their self-proclaimed madness and the industry, culture, and people who share it. Starting at the beginning of the project, the film highlights the stress, the worry and anxieties that all come from the start of a new venture. Monster Wanted documents the journey of Rich and Janel from the beginning to the terrifying end. The documentary gives the viewer an insight behind the scenes, of the highs and lows while creating a scream park from initial ideas, trade shows, casting and training. Tensions are rife, relationships are strained, and we see how difficult it is to manage your money, your time, and you staff in an ambitious but ultimately exciting project. The documentary is fast paced, cramming 83 days of preparation into a 90 minute presentation. Also featured are a number of scare attraction which Rich and Janel visit to undertake their market research. Monsters Wanted is a ‘must see’ for anyone thinking of getting into the scare entertainment industry, it’s a wild American journey through the pitfalls and highlights of creating your very own scare attraction. Entertaining and informative in equal measure, it should be on your Christmas wish list this year. Find out more at www.monsterswanted.com to view the trailer and order your copy today.

COMPETITION We have two copies of ‘Monsters Wanted’ DVD to give away to the winners of our competition. All you have to do is answer the question below to be entered into a draw to win! The competition closes at midnight on December 24th 2013. Winners will be notified by the email address used to send in the answer to the question. No alternative prize is available. One entry per person.

QUESTION In which year did Rich Teachout leave his usual job to begin creating his own Scream Park? Send your answer to scareworld@atmosfearuk.com with ‘SW8 Competition Entry’ in the subject heading. Send your one word answer with your full name in the main body of the email.

Autumn/Winter 2013

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Split Personality GERRY CANNELL AND DOCTOR KENWARD KELMAN Meet scareactor Gerry Cannell, who has made a name for himself in the scare entertainment world over the last two years portraying the now infamous ‘Doctor Kenward Kelman’ at Alton Towers’ ‘Sanctuary’ attraction…

GERRY CANNELL INTERVIEW Firstly please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a little about what you do:

Which two people, from fact or fiction, living or dead, would you invite to dinner, and why?

My name is Gerry Cannell, and I am a professional actor. I have been in the business for over 40 years.

American comedian Jerry Lewis (he of the Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Team) because I last met him in London in 1995 when we had dinner, and we have both been so busy since then. Also, if possible either Marilyn Monroe or James Dean, as they were my youth.

How did you get into the scare business? As an actor, I auditioned after I finished touring with “The Rat Pack Live”. What do you enjoy most about your job? I guess the variety, and the opportunity to perform. If you are referring to The Sanctuary, then obviously to disturb people, to watch them as they suddenly realize that this doctor isn’t quite as he seems! What other jobs have you had? I started at the age of fourteen, and that was in chorus, then into stage work with a touring comedy group called “The Nutters”, and over the years I’ve done bits of TV, Radio and film. I produced The Fearmakers, and created Vulcan Film Productions way back. I also was a professional racing driver for twelve years, so I have been around a bit. What scares you? When my pay check is late, I always think the worst. Which scare attractions have you visited, either in the UK or further afield? Which are your favourites and why? As an actor, I am usually working, so haven’t visited any, perhaps one day I will. I have ‘appeared’ in Screamfest though, and as a voice-over, but not as me.

What is your most annoying habit? I talk too much. What do you do in your spare time? I don’t have any, but when I do grab a few minutes, I love to read. How do you celebrate Halloween? Work. Tell us a deep dark secret about yourself! I would love to have been a helicopter pilot, and regret never having gone for it, when I had the chance years ago. What is coming up next for you? I have a documentary coming out in 2014 about Charlie Chaplin, to whom I may be related. Plus little bits n’pieces of radio and telly. Gerry can be found on Facebook “Gerry Cannell Actor”. plus Twitter. Just Google Gerry Cannell for what’s happening next.

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DR KENWARD KELMAN INTERVIEW Firstly please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a little about what you do: My name is Dr. Kenward Kelman, and I am known for my wonderful system of correction, of bringing smiles to everyone I meet. How did you get into the scare business? I don’t understand the question...what scare business? What do you enjoy most about your job? Why the procedures, of course, the clinical procedures! What other jobs have you had? I studied psychology, and then found that my skills were leaning more toward, shall we say...the sharp scalpel end of the job. What has been your most memorable scare? Having a guest in my reception area collapse...it really WAS WONDERFUL to see!

How do you celebrate Halloween? I stare into people’s eyes, and try to imagine the terror they are going to go through, makes me feel all warm inside! Tell us a deep dark secret about yourself!

What scares you?

I am a pussy cat, you can trust me...can’t you?

When I hear that they wish to close down my hospital....They must be mad....They are all FAILURES!

What is coming up next for you?

Which scare attractions have you visited, either in the UK or further afield? Which are your favourites and why? I do not believe in them. Which two people, from fact or fiction, living or dead, would you invite to dinner, and why? Peter Lorre (look him up) or Vincent Price....I have no idea why! What is your most annoying habit?

Dr Kelman T-shirts, and phone covers would be nice. I have patients actually working on these, below stairs............down there...in the belly of the beast! Dr Kenward Kelman can usually be found hanging around The Sanctuary at Alton Towers Resort, or dreaming up experiments in a darkened chamber… Thanks to Towers Times and Gerry Cannell for granting permission to publish the photography featured in this interview. Photograph copyrights © Towers Times and Gerry Cannell.

I don’t have any What do you do in your spare time? I read, Medical Journals, and I enjoy looking at prime cuts of beef!

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Frightful Feature SCREAMFEST 2013 By Lisa Woodford Screamfest was back for 2013 and certainly proved its popularity with scare-seekers. Andrew Porter, creator of Slasher which was Screamfest’s featured offering for 2012, was back on board and this time had infused his imagination into every one of the four scare zones. In the spacious and welcoming National Forest Adventure Park, entertainment was in abundance with fire-eaters, wandering scare actors and spooky skits. Quality refreshments were available along with photo opportunities to offer a breather to visitors trying to regain their composure. Having seen many teasers of the zones being offered, it was difficult for me to decide which one to encounter first, but I opted for Andy Porter’s Soulseekers. Along with Sam Bott and Kate Monroe, formerly the venue of The Barn in 2012, Andy has created and designed Soulseekers to resemble an old hotel; the Helton Grand Hotel to be precise. Left abandoned since the 1930’s, it was the job of the participants to join in a paranormal investigation within the walls of the old building. Every aspect of the hotel was exactly how you’d imagine a closed-down 1930’s hotel to be. Eerily dusty and unkempt, but still holding the image of time stood still, I made my way through the reception and into a ballroom. As the old-time music played, the lights flickered and my group huddled in the centre of the room, whilst being intermittently plunged into darkness. Through the short bursts of light, I found myself face to face with some previous inhabitants of the hotel. Dressed in their finery; with the gentlemen in dapper

suits and the ladies in beautiful evening wear, adorned with feather boas, it would almost have been charming if it wasn’t for the unnerving smiles on their faces. As they closed in, we were welcomed to the hotel and guided towards the corridors to explore. Now, imagine the unsettling hotel in The Shining, and you might get an idea of how this environment felt. The hotel corridors felt long and passing doors on either side, it was difficult not to be concerned that one of them would spring open at any moment! Approaching the end of the passageway, a young girl, covered in blood, begged for our help through a window. Screaming and pleading, it was with much reluctance that I left her but I really did not fancy sticking around in this creepy building one second longer than I had to! No choice but to enter a blood-spattered bedroom with again more victims to warn me, I quickly walked through into the second part of this attraction which was a series of passageways absolutely shrouded in darkness. Not being able to see my own hand in front of my face, I staggered along with my route being changed, characters blocking my way or hemming me in, and totally no idea how I was getting out! As the change in flooring increased my vulnerability, disabling me further, I realised that I had been guided around in circles and finally found my way out. Soulseekers was completely unique to anything I had experienced before. Combining the infamous paranormal investigation genre with the ghostly experience of the 1930’s and then having a bit of gore thrown in, the creation worked very well indeed. A return to meet Slasher was next on my agenda. Queuing in the grounds of the correctional facility, I reminisced about this being my favourite attraction of Screamfest 2012. Led into the execution chamber’s viewing area to witness the demise of James Munroe; Slasher Boy himself, I took my seat and awaited the floor show. Executed in front of the group, the electricity sparking from his fate seemed to throw the lights out and he then appeared to be very much alive and cold-bloodedly murdered the religious advisor in front of us all! As the door was thrown open and the path had changed, my fellow scare-seekers and I gingerly moved through the passageways before encountered several characters, depicting the various murderous stages of the Slasher Boy’s life. Openly threatening behind cages and

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www.scareworld.co.uk some very much in our faces, the group was held in situ at one point, unable to escape before rapidly quickening our pace when we did! It was reassuring to see Slasher performing at its best; even 12 months down the line, and judging from the reactions of the victims fleeing from its lair, it very much did the job it intended to do. Next onto The Field of Screams and a trailer carried the group up the hills and into the darkness. Blissfully listening to the soulful tunes on the radio, the music was interrupted by a broadcast informing us that a toxic waste spill had occurred, contaminating the area. As we passed scenes of devastation with overturned vehicles and the military brought in to control the infection, we were ordered from the trailer and forced through the tall cornfields. Taking on a sinister form, the corn obscured the appearance of many unscrupulous characters who were clearly diseased and unhealthy of mind! Arriving at a clearing in the field, a military doctor berated and verbally abused the group, ensuring that we took the infestation seriously and forewarning that it would get worse from hereon in. Forced to continue on our journey, a series of tents with a varying degree of clever scares warranted us to hastily beat a retreat from this hellish area. A ‘big squeeze’ and a decontamination later, the final leg of the passage left us bolting for our lives as the familiar sound of a chainsaw kicked into life. The Field of Screams has everything to satisfy the scarehungry. 2012’s version was fantastic but for 2013, the quality was at its finest for sure. The final attraction of the night was the much-anticipated Nocturnal. Andy Porter’s main design for 2013 had seen some very promising marketing and, by leaving it until last, I was hoping for a very big Screamfest finish.

finally freed but harangued constantly as we journeyed through the rest of the building. Nowhere was safe and the walkthrough seemed to take forever. Victims were tortured in front of our eyes and our path was hampered by the lack of light and the demonic entities appearing constantly. We soon found ourselves trapped in a maze where every path seemed to be the wrong one. Two quite unsettling beings with skeletal and horrifically disfigured faces came closer than was comfortable and with the smoky air closing in on us, we finally managed to find a way out. A final passageway signalled the end and we could all breathe a sigh of relief as the exit door was in sight at last. Before we knew it however, a chainsaw roared into life and its operator stood behind us, menacingly. He seemed to fill the passageway with his intimidating presence and panicking, we absolutely fled for our lives as he chased us out of the building. Barraging into the exit door, it flew open and I must’ve carried on running for a further few yards before I felt it was safe to stop! Nocturnal certainly did not disappoint. It was everything it was hyped up to be and more. My heart did not settle from thumping out of my chest for a good while afterwards. I could not compare it to another attraction as it was definitely a genius and unique design from Andrew Porter. If I was to choose my favourite zone of the attraction, I really could not call it. Each one was equally as enjoyable as the other, therefore ensuring that the event as a whole is overall a fantastic venue to visit. Screamfest has definitely moved up a pace to become one of the masters of scare for the UK. Developing to become even bigger and better as each year passes, it is one of the mustsee’s for every Halloween season. For more details visit www.halloweenadventurefarm.co.uk

As podium dancers writhed away at the entrance to the venue and the club music pumped loudly, this seemed like quite an ordinary nightclub. Hedonistic in its nature, I was soon to find out that all is not quite as it seems, especially at Screamfest! Moving through the attraction, from the polished and brightly-lit entrance to the club, the atmosphere was soon to change. The ‘club’ now resembled an abandoned industrial factory and I made my way down some metal steps and into a large cage which was slammed shut behind me. The group I was in waited nervously as the soundtrack got louder and a siren sounded. Suddenly from nowhere, the cage was attacked from all angles by vampires, and definitely not the kind you witness in Dracula or in Twilight. These vampires were out for blood and would attempt to obtain it by any means. Water sprayed us but keen to stay away from the manic blood-thirsty individuals, we had to brave the soaking in the middle of the cage. Springing on top of our prison and screaming at us all, we were

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www.scareworld.co.uk

Guest Review THE SANCTUARY By Lisa Woodford The first annual trade conference of a UK network of scare n April 2013, I had the opportunity to visit The Sanctuary, Alton Towers Theme Park’s very own scare attraction. Set within the grounds of the actual Towers themselves the location is amazing and makes such a great use out of this part of the building. Designed as a medical rehabilitation hospital this was definitely not for the faint hearted! As part of a group, I made my way up a series of steps and into the cold, stark atmosphere of what would be likened to a 1950’s psychiatric hospital. It was very clean but there was a sense of unease in the air, particularly when a strange doctor walked past us mumbling and then two nurses welcomed everyone to the establishment, run by the Ministry of Joy. One seemed quite polite and normal but the other giggled manically as she stamped our hands with the Sanctuary symbol. With one lady she left the stamp there just a little bit too long to be comfortable with. Some oldfashioned music tinkered away and the sensation felt very strange indeed, particularly when we were told to stand in a line and put hands on the shoulders of the person in front. Somehow I had appeared to end up at the front and so with a heavy heart and clammy hands, I led the group through the metal gate and into the realms of The Sanctuary itself. With the eerie music still playing we ventured through a corridor and met with the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Kelman, who spoke about the experiments within the confines of The Sanctuary. Half-listening to him I became aware of a horrible odour that crawled towards my nostrils and seemed to stick to my skin. Holding my breath through the putrid stench, we went through a door and began encountering different rooms and wards along with a few ‘mad’ characters giving us some shocks. One such being suddenly dropped down from the ceiling and seemed to bounce off the walls acrobatically

in front of us. The foul aroma steadily got stronger and that along with some frights and the skin-crawling music left me feeling very oddly repulsed and slightly panicky. As we continued through the maze of rooms and a cage maze, I witnessed a body being pulled apart in a morgue and went deeper down some stairs into the depths of the building. Each room was separated off so you had to literally push your way through plastic sheeting not knowing what would be on the other side - very unnerving! Rounding a corner I came face to face with a rather evil looking nurse whose joints were at odd angles and she staggered on crutches towards me! By this point I had lost my nerve slightly and feeling less brave, slunk into second position in the line. One part involved us walking through a claustrophobic triangular-shaped space where the roof seemed to be coming down on our heads and we couldn’t pass through it immediately as manic patients came flying towards us. TV screens above showed strange images and a doctor’s voice rambled that we should ‘smile’. We were entering the Marmalisation area and a symbol swirled in a hypnotic way on the screen. This symbol is what joins The Sanctuary and Alton Towers’ new ride for 2013, The Smiler, together. The Sanctuary is like a prefix to the ride and I would imagine most certainly puts you on edge for The Smiler. he deafening instructions to “smile”, the horrific smell and T the noise getting faster and faster, as my heart raced, we managed to exit The Sanctuary! The attraction had lasted a good 20 minutes and I had really enjoyed myself. Overall it is very different to a lot of scare attractions. The psychiatric theme seems to be quite a popular one at the moment but rather than just entering a small set, the creators have managed to make use of the whole building which does give it a real feel of a hospital rather than having to use your imagination so much. It was very sinister and unnerving, especially with the noise and smells. There wasn’t as much interaction with the actors as I maybe would have liked but the atmosphere and how the actors did interact was well worth the experience. Are you prepared to be marmalised?

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www.scareworld.co.uk

Autumn/Winter 2013

www.scareworld.co.uk

Scare Listings EUROPEAN SCARE ATTRACTION & SCARE ENTERTAINMENT LISTINGS

ERMANENT UK SCARE ATTRACTIONS Buccaneer Bay Cornwall, England www.buccaneerbay.co.uk

The Edinburgh Dungeon Midlothian, Scotland www.thedungeons.com

Carneskys Ghost Train Lancashire, England www.carneskysghosttrain.com

The Ghost Bus Tours London, England www.theghostbustours.com

Dracula Experience Yorkshire, England www.draculaexperience.co.uk

The Haunted House at Dickens World Kent, England www.dickensworld.co.uk

Dr Frights Halloween Nights at Whites Farm Northamptonshire, England www.drfrights.co.uk

The Hellfire Club Lancashire, England www.thehellfire.co.uk

Dungeon Labyrinths Devon, England www.watermouthcastle.com

The House of Magic London, England www.houseofmagic.co.uk

Enchanted Manor at The Creaky cauldron Warwickshire, England www.seekthemagic.org

The London Bridge Experience and London Tombs London, England www.thelondonbridgeexperience.com

Frankenstein Bar Edinburgh, Scotland www.frankensteinedinburgh.co.uk

The Lost Cellars at Alnwick Castle Northumberland, England www.alnwickcastle.com

Frankenstein Bar Glasgow, Scotland www.frankenstein-pub.co.uk

The New London Dungeon London, England www.the-dungeons.co.uk

Haunted Crypt at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Lancashire, England www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com

The Stratford Ripper Experience at The Victorian Imagiscarium Warwickshire, England www.stratfordripper.co.uk

Hobs Pit at Pleasurewood Hills Suffolk, England www.pleasurewoodhills.com Manormortis Lancashire, England www.manormortis.com Pasaje Del Terror Lancashire, England www.pasajedelterror.co.uk SAW Alive at Thorpe Park Surrey, England www.thorpepark.com Scream at Madame Tussauds London, England www.madametussauds.com Terror Tombs Rhyl, Wales www.palacefuncentre.co.uk Terror Tower Yorkshire, England www.terrortower.co.uk The Arundel Jailhouse West Sussex, England www.arundeljailhouse.co.uk The Black Chasm at The Silver Mountain Experience Ceredigion, Wales www.silvermountainexperience.co.uk The Blackpool Tower Dungeon Leicestershire, England www.thedungeons.com The Bram Stoker Dracula Experience Dublin, Ireland www.thebramstokerdraculaexperience.com The Castle Dungeon at Warwick Castle Warwickshire, England www.warwick-castle.co.uk The Creaky Cauldron Warwickshire, England www.seekthemagic.org

The Sunken Village of The DAMNED at Buccaneer Bay Cornwall, England www.buccaneerbay.co.uk The Woodland of Terror by Ace Airsoft War Games Staffordshire, England www.woodlandofterror.co.uk The York Dungeon Yorkshire, England www.thedungeons.com SEASONAL EUROPEAN SCARE ATTRACTIONS After Dark Worchester, England www.ramtraining.co.uk Asylum Worchester, England www.ramtraining.co.uk Bunker 51 London, England www.ultimaterecreation.co.uk Christmas FestEVIL at Scare Kingdom Scream Park Lancashire, England www.atmosfearuk.com Horror Camp LIVE! At Scare Kingdom Scream Park Lancashire, England www.horrorcamplive.co.uk Hotel Manormortis Lancashire, England www.manormortis.com It’s bloody Christmas...again at The London Bridge Experience and London Tombs London, England www.thelondonbridgeexperience.com Psychosis Jersey www.secretsbeneath.com

Phobia Mirabilandia Ravenna, Italy www.mirabilandia.it

Fright Fantastic at Adventure Island Essex, England www.adventureisland.co.uk

Prison of Terror Fright Hike in Epping Forest Waldshut, Germany Cheshire, England www.repage.de/member/children-of-the-night/index. www.fright-hike.com htm Fright Hike in Sherwood Forest Ravenwood Manor Cheshire, England Nottinghamshire, England www.fright-hike.com www.gng-entertainment.co.uk Fright Nights at Thorpe Park Scare Kingdom’s Abramacabre Surrey, England Lancashire, England www.thorpepark.com www.manormortis.com Fright Night at Bristol Zoo Gardens Scare Kingdom’s Christmas FestEVIL Bristol, England Lancashire, England www.bristolzoo.org.uk www.scarekingdom.com Fright Nights at Walibi World Snuff House Biddinhuizen, Holland Various, England www.frightnights.nl www.atmosfearuk.com Fright Post Farm The Last Survivors Nottinghamshire, England Essex, England www.whitepostfarm.co.uk www.thelastsurvivors.co.uk Fright site Wolfmen London, England Worchester, England www.frightsite.co.uk www.ramtraining.co.uk Frightmare Halloween Festival at Over Farm Market Zombie Battle Gloucestershire, England Various, England www.frightmare.co.uk www.zombiecamp.co.uk Frightwater Valley at Light water Valley Zombie Blitz 1940 Yorkshire, England Various, England www.lightwatervalley.co.uk www.zombiecamp.co.uk Ghost Train at Exbury Gardens Zombie Bootcamp Hampshire, England Worchester, England www.exbury.co.uk www.ramtraining.co.uk Ghost Train at Swindon and Cricklade Railway Zombie Earth - Apocalypse Wiltshire, England England www.swindon-cricklade-railway.org www.zombieearth.co.uk Ghost Trains at Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway Zombie Evacuation Race Cumbria, England England www.ravenglass-railway.co.uk www.zombieevacuation.com Ghostly Castle at Bolsover Castle Zombie Riot Derbyshire, England Worchester, England www.english-heritage.org.uk (search Bolsover) www.ramtraining.co.uk Halloween at Cantref Adventure Farm Zombie Swat Training Powys, Wales London, England www.cantref.com www.ultimaterecreation.co.uk Halloween at Coalhouse fort Zed Zombie Survival Events Essex, England England www.coalhousefort.co.uk www.zedevents.co.uk Halloween at Hidden Valley HALLOWEEN EUROPEAN SCARE ATTRACTIONS Cornwall, England www.hiddenvalleydiscoverypark.co.uk Broadwitch HauntFest at Broadditch Farm Kent, England Halloween at Kent and East Sussex Railway www.spookycastle.co.uk Kent, England www.kesr.org.uk Climb of the Cursed at The O2 London, England Halloween at Aden Country Park www.theo2.co.uk/climb-of-the-cursed Aberdeenshire, Scotland www.adencountrypark.org.uk Cursed Essex, England Halloween Entertainment at Blenheim Palace www.thecursed.co.uk Oxfordshire, England www.blenheimpalace.com Dr Frights Halloween Horror Nights at White’s Farm Northampton, England Halloween Experience at Canal museum Camden www.drfrights.co.uk London, England www.canalmuseum.org.uk Dudley Canal Horror West Midlands, England Halloween Express at South Devon Railway www.dudleycanalhorror.co.uk Devon, England www.southdevonrailway.co.uk Farm of Terror at Animal Quackers Farm Bacup, England Halloween Extravaganza at Craig Y Nos Castle www.farmofterror.co.uk Powys, Wales www.craigynoscastle.com Farmaggedon at Farmer Ted’s Lancashire, England Halloween Festival at The Big Sheep www.farmaggedon.co.uk Devon, England www.thebigsheep.co.uk Farmaphobia at Causey Farm Co Meath, Ireland Halloween Fright Nights at The Rare Breeds Centre www.farmaphobia.com Kent, England www.rarebreeds.org.uk Freak Week at Hop Farm Kent, England Halloween Ghost Night at Kents Cavern www.hopfarmfreakweek.co.uk Devon, England www.kents-cavern.co.uk Freaky Fortnight at Mead Open Farm Bedfordshire, England Halloween Ghost Trains at East Lancashire Railway www.meadopenfarm.co.uk Lancashire, England www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk Fright at the museum Leeds, England Halloween Ghost Trains at Kirkless Light Railway www.thackraymedicalmuseum.co.uk Yorkshire, England

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www.scareworld.co.uk www.kirklesslightrailway.com Halloween Half Term at Wonderland Telford Shropshire, England www.wonderlandtelford.net Halloween Haunted Weekend at Woodside Farm and Leisure Park Bedfordshire, England www.woodsidefarm.co.uk Halloween Hocus Pocus at Chessington World of Adventures Resort Surrey, England www.chessington.com

Nevendon Manor Halloween Essex, England www.nevendonmanor.co.uk Nightmare Circus at Doncaster Racecourse Doncaster, England www.gng-entertainment.co.uk Nightmare Realm Cork, Ireland www.thenightmarerealm.com Oxford Castle Unlocked Oxford, England www.oxfordcastleunlocked.co.uk

Halloween Horrors at Fort Amherst Kent, England www.fortamherst.com

Panic Fife, Scotland www.muddybootsfife.com

Halloween House of Horrors at Tayto Park Co Meath, Ireland www.taytopark.ie

Pitch Black Scare Attraction Kent, England www.pitchblackhalloween.co.uk

Halloween Howls at Millets Farm Oxfordshire, England www.milletsfarmcentre.com

Pleasurewood Chills Scream Park at Pleasurewood Hills Suffolk, England www.pleasurewoodhills.com

Halloween Mini Horrors at Babbacombe Model Village Devon, England www.babbacombemodelvillage.co.uk

PrimEVIL at The Dinosaur Adventure Norfolk, England www.primevil-scare.com

Essex, England www.playhouseharlow.com The Haunted Castle at Warwick Castle Warwickshire, England www.warwick-castle.com The Haunting in the Hall at Cusworth Hall South Yorkshire, England www.gng-entertainment.co.uk The London Tomb’s Phobophobia London, England www.thelondonbridgeexperience.com The New London Dungeon Halloween Sleepover London, England www.the-dungeons.co.uk The Morgue Live Birmingham, England www.themorguelive.co.uk The Possessed Warwickshire, England www.heartofengland.co.uk The Ritual Gwent, Wales www.tinshedtheatrecompany.com The Royal Asylum at The Royal Oak Cheadle, England

Halloween Spooktacular at Shugborough Hill Estate Staffordshire, England www.shugborough.cmhosts.net

Psychotel Chester, England www.psychotel.co.uk

Halloween Spooktacular at Thurleigh Farm & Adventure Playground Ltd Bedfordshire, England www.thurleighfarmcentre.co.uk

Scare Kingdom Scream Park Lancashire, England www.scarekingdom.com

Tram of Terror Devon, England www.tram.co.uk

Scarefest at Alton Towers Staffordshire, England www.altontowers.com

Tullys Farm Shocktober Fest Scream Park West Sussex, England www.halloweenattractions.co.uk

Scarefest at Castle Point Essex, England www.castlepointghosttours.co.uk

Vampire Beach at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Lancashire, England www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com

Scareium at The Blue Planet Aquarium Cheshire, England www.blueplanetaquarium.com

Witches and Wizards Week at Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway Co. Ltd Cumbria, England www.lakesiderailway.co.uk

Halloween Spooky Spectacular at Sacrewell Farm & Country Centre Cambridgeshire, England www.sacrewell.org.uk Halloween Spooktacular at Oakwood Theme Park Pembrokeshire, Wales www.oakwoodthemepark.co.uk Halloween Tours at The Tollbooth Prison Aberdeenshire, Scotland www.aberdeencity.gov.uk Halloween Week at Muncaster Castle Cumbria, England info@muncaster.co.uk HallowFest at Crealy Adventure Park Devon, England www.hallowscream.co.uk Hallowscream at York Maze Yorkshire, England www.yorkmazehallowscream.co.uk Halloween Spooktacular Festival at Longleat Wiltshire, England www.longleat.co.uk Halloween at Heide Park Lower Saxony, Germany www.heide-park.de Halloween at Port Aventura Tarragona, Spain www.portaventura.co.uk Halloween at Rainbow Magic Land Roma, Italy www.magicland.it Haunted Spooktacular at Groves farm Co Meath, Ireland www.hauntedspooktacular.com Halloween Horror Fest at Movie Park Kirchhellen, Germany www.movieparkgermany.de Halloweenspektakel at Belantis Leipzig, Germany www.belantis.de Happy Halloween at Holiday Park Plopsa Pfalz, Germany www.plopsa.be Horror Nights at Europa Park Rust, Germany www.horror-nights.de

Scarenation Hertfordshire, England www.scarenation.info Scareshow at Church Farm Merseyside, England www.churchfarm.org.uk Scaresville - Haunted Village at Kentwell Hall Suffolk, England www.kentwell.co.uk Scary Night in the Barn at Grange Burckle Masevaux, France www.scarynight.fr Scream at The Eden Project Cornwall, England www.edenproject.com

Spooktacular Halloween at Gullivers World Theme Park Cheshire, England www.gulliversfun.co.uk Spooky Night at Barleylands Essex, England www.barleylands.co.uk Spooky World at Apple Jacks Farm Cheshire, England www.spookyworld.co.uk

Maison du Tourment Charmes, France www.maisondutourment.free.fr Nightmare in Budapest Budapest, Hungary www.nightmareinbudapest.com Scream at Madame Tussauds Amsterdam www.thedungeons.com Spokhuset at Grona Lund Theme park Stockholm, Denmark www.gronalund.com Terenzi Horror Night Hannover, Germany www.summer-horror-festival.de The Amsterdam Dungeon Amsterdam www.thedungeons.com The Berlin Dungeon Berlin, Germany www.thedungeons.com The Hamburg Dungeon Hamburg, Germany www.thedungeons.com The House of Fear at Allou! Fun Park Athens, Greece www.allou.gr The House of Horror Budapest, Hungary www.houseofhorrorbudapest.com The Manoir de Paris Paris, France www.lemanoirdeparis.com Underground Fear Budapest, Hungary www.undergroundfear.hu STAGED SCARES

Woolley Edge October Screams at Beacon Hill Farm South Yorkshire www.facebook.com/WoolleyEdgeOctoberScreams

Circus of Horrors, Touring the UK www.circusofhorrors.co.uk

Xtreme Scream Park at Twinlakes Leicestershire, England www.xtremescreampark.co.uk

The Woman in Black, The Fortune Theatre London, England www.thewomaninblack.com

PERMANENT EUROPEAN SCARE EXPERIENCES

HOME HAUNTS

Demonia at Rainbow Magic Land Roma, Italy www.magicland.it

The Séance – Contacting Alice West Sussex, England www.thehorrorhaunt.moonfruit.com

El Templo del Terror at Isla Mágica Sevilla, Spain www.islamagica.es

WORLDWIDE INDUSTRY TRADE EVENTS

El Viejo Del Caseron at Parque De Attraciones Screamfest Burton at The National Forest Adventure Madrid, Spain Farm www.parquedeatracciones.es Staffordshire, England www.halloweenadventurefarm.co.uk Gasten Ghost Hotel at Liseberg Theme Park Goteborg, Sweden Spooktacular Halloween at Gullivers Kingdom www.liseberg.com Theme Park Derbyshire, England Ghost-The Haunted House at Legoland Billund www.gulliversfun.co.uk Billund, Denmark www.legoland.dk Spooktacular Halloween at Gullivers Land Theme Park Grusellabyrinth Buckinghamshire, England Kiel, Germany www.gulliversfun.co.uk www.grusellabyrinth.de

The Creep Merseyside, England Leeds Fright Nights at Leeds Bradford Airport Estate www.thecreep.co.uk Leeds, England www.leedsfrightnights.co.uk The Halloween Adventure Scream Park at Stockeld Park Mission of Fear Yorkshire, England Telford, England www.thehalloweenadventure.com www.junglelandtelford.com The Hatch

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Toy Terror Powys, Wales

Labirinto Lisbon, Portugal www.labirintolisboa.com

Horror House at LuneurPark Rome, Italy www.luneurpark.it Horror House at Movieland Park Verona, Italy www.canevaworld.it Hotel Krüeger at Parc d’Atraccions Tibidabo, Barcelona, Spain www.tibidabo.cat Krake Lebt! At Heide Park Lower Saxony, Germany www.heide-park.de La Pirámide del Terror at Terra Mitica Benidorm, Spain www.terramiticapark.com

Transworlds Halloween Attraction Show St Louis, Missouri, USA www.haashow.com Canadian Haunted Attraction Conference Hamilton, Ontario www.canadahaunts.ca Mid West Haunter’s Convention Columbus, Ohio www.midwesthauntersconvention.com The Halloween & Scare Attractions Show Alton Towers www.thehalloweenshow.co.uk ScareCON Unknown www.scarecon.weebly.com TRADE MAGAZINES Scareworld Magazine www.scareworld.co.uk Hauntworld Magazine wwwhauntworld.com Top Haunts Magazine www.tophaunts.com 13th Hour Magazine www.13thhourmagazine.com Selling Halloween Magazine www.sellinghalloween.edgl.com