It is the fourth consecutive year of going to Dr. Fright's Halloween Nights scare maze, and as ever I was looking forward to it. With my best friend in tow we did the perilous ten minute drive to where it was located. As in usual fashion, the maze is split up into seven different sections with food areas at the halfway point and at the end. We had hoped by going midweek it wouldn't be so busy, but that turned out not to be the case. Even with a high volume of people the queue times were not excessive. By now it is all a known quantity, the usual anxiety of waiting in line for the start wasn't there, instead I was just tired from a long day at work. I really liked the presentation for this year, with the maze set out as if it was taking place in an institute that was testing different fears on its test subjects.
The first maze was 'Black Death' which was designed to feel like a medieval village, with disease as its fear focus. It didn't begin well for me, immediately struggling to work out where to go due to the maze beginning in a different direction to usual. I enjoyed the layout of this, with features such as the entrance to a barn and a giant bonfire prop that you walked around. There were the usual hatches in the walls and ceilings that performers would burst out of screaming, and as usual that didn't leave much of an impression due to expecting that to happen. An issue with this first maze was that we quickly caught up with the group in front of us, while the group after us were hot on our heels, which took away from the immersion.
Next was 'Maid to Kill' with its fear type being A.I. This was something new, with the maze winding its way through a robotics factory. Rooms had robots (dummies) in various states of construction and it all looked neat. I loved the glowing red eyes on the finished versions of the robots, and the room where the robots were packaged in giant Chucky style boxes was a fun inclusion. I felt a bit bad for the performers in this part as no amount of make-up were going to have them resemble the look of the dummies, so they stood out like a sore thumb, incapable of appearing scary.
Next was 'Maid to Kill' with its fear type being A.I. This was something new, with the maze winding its way through a robotics factory. Rooms had robots (dummies) in various states of construction and it all looked neat. I loved the glowing red eyes on the finished versions of the robots, and the room where the robots were packaged in giant Chucky style boxes was a fun inclusion. I felt a bit bad for the performers in this part as no amount of make-up were going to have them resemble the look of the dummies, so they stood out like a sore thumb, incapable of appearing scary.
'Lights Out' followed this (revolving around the fear of the dark), and was set in an old hotel that used to be a nunnery. This of course meant the Dr. Fright old favourites the demonic nuns were out in full force. Lots of this maze were unsurprisingly dark, it would have terrified me as a child scared of the dark. I lost count of the amount of nuns bursting out of hatches screaming "sinner!" at me, it's like they know me!
Another returning favourite were the Texas Chainsaw inspired cannibals, this time within 'Blood Bayou' (fear of chainsaws). Last year I had an embarrassing time when I got stuffed in a walk-in slow cooker by a wall of a man, so I was anxious for reasons other than fear. This maze turned out to be one of my favourites, the performers were over the top with funny dialogue, and it was also the maze where I began to jump at the performers. People can burst out of hatches to their hearts content and it won't faze me, but rounding a corner and almost walking into a performer lurking there made me jump no end of times. There was use of lighting and smoke machines to simulate walking through waist-high water, which also led to more scares as performers could hide in the smoke and then suddenly stand up to cause fright. The chainsaws didn't disappoint here, with one performer who chased us around an outdoors haybale section, and another who burst out a hatch and blocked the route with his chainsaw, which in the dark looked very effective. After a drink and some candy floss at the halfway chill zone, we headed into the second half of the mazes.
'Trick or Treat Street' (fear of boogeymen) was the traditional post-halfway maze that was based around famous movie maniacs. Freddy Kruger, Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees were joined by possible first appearances of Art the clown and the bad guy from The Black Phone. At least it was the first time I had seen those there. There was a neat room based on The Exorcist complete with green vomit speckled drapes, and a cool room based on Scream, plenty of dummies of Ghostface and plenty of glowing masks on the walls.
Penultimate maze was another new feeling one, and was very memorable due to its unique design. 'The Terror Below' was linked with claustrophobia and took place within a submarine. There was lots of black plastic piping everywhere, causing me to gently bang my head more than once. The route was narrow and also had low ceilings, causing me to be almost bent double at times. A good maze and my second favourite of them all this year.
Last as always were the evil clowns, this time in a maze called 'Killer Clowns Super Happy Funworld' which was set around an abandoned amusement centre. In past years the clown maze has felt almost like a night club, with loud banging music and lasers shooting bright lights everywhere. The music was still here, but it had more of a dour feel to it, the club vibe replaced with plenty of different coloured streamers. Very dark, especially the strobe lighting section, and the clowns were not particularly creepy, in fact the opposite, with one helping me find my way when I got lost!
Penultimate maze was another new feeling one, and was very memorable due to its unique design. 'The Terror Below' was linked with claustrophobia and took place within a submarine. There was lots of black plastic piping everywhere, causing me to gently bang my head more than once. The route was narrow and also had low ceilings, causing me to be almost bent double at times. A good maze and my second favourite of them all this year.
Last as always were the evil clowns, this time in a maze called 'Killer Clowns Super Happy Funworld' which was set around an abandoned amusement centre. In past years the clown maze has felt almost like a night club, with loud banging music and lasers shooting bright lights everywhere. The music was still here, but it had more of a dour feel to it, the club vibe replaced with plenty of different coloured streamers. Very dark, especially the strobe lighting section, and the clowns were not particularly creepy, in fact the opposite, with one helping me find my way when I got lost!
Out of the maze we then had our tradition of a cheeseburger and donuts, and I also brought my annual Dr Fright T-shirt. This end was only slightly affected by an irritating giant clown who was being very loud and distracting. Dr. Fright's Halloween Nights Presents Terror Trials was a fun, if unsurprising journey, but one I of course enjoyed, and as always, it being so close to my home is a real plus.
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