Ghoulies X Review

Ghoulies is a year-round live action horror attraction in the centre of Liverpool, with an adjoining horror-themed bar, which the attraction itself exits into. The attraction has been on my list for some time, and with a trip to Liverpool finally on the cards, we had to check it out!

We booked onto a tour and headed into the adjoining bar to await our start time. Our favourite rock & metal tunes were blasting and the staff were serving up some absurdly instagrammable drinks. I could have stayed in there for hours. Nevertheless, our time slot came around so we made our way to the attraction entrance.

Ghoulies offers a family friendly tour earlier in the evening, the Haunted House experience, and an over 18s tour later in the evening, Ghoulies X, which we opted for. Ghoulies is advertised as a full-contact scare experience, however they do offer wearable glowsticks which serve as a signal to the scareactors that they shouldn’t touch you. No glowsticks for us of course. But as we found out later, full-contact didn't necessarily mean what we thought it would.

As we entered the attraction, I was instantly impressed. Themed corridors and lighting set the scene for the first scare, which landed perfectly; little did we know, the intensity was about to increase exponentially. Drop panel scares and dark corners soon gave way to a proper introduction to the monsters, who were eager to toy with us, both physically and mentally. Certain characters made their entrance, including Stabby the clown, whose unhinged manner was extraordinarily convincing. Things quickly became tense as we were separated and lead off; I myself was about to pay a visit to the dentist. And this is where things got very interesting.

The densest room setup is perfectly configured for some serious victim intimidation. A tilted chair, with my head at the downward point, meant the dentist could loom over me as though he were ten feet tall. And loom he did; his horrific mask seemingly magnified. Add to this a blinding light for disorientation, and this scene WORKED. It delivered, big time. I’ve sat in similar scenes before, but none have packed this kind of punch – I mean that figuratively and literally. Out of nowhere came a bonk on the head, and bites on the leg. I left the room in a somewhat pissed-off daze, my shirt adorned with a sticker to congratulate me on making it through his treatment.

After being instructed to bend over a chair for some light whipping (yup) we continued our journey. Highlights included a chaotic clown room and corridor with hanging bodies, the scareactors were ruthless at every juncture. Their energy flowed, gathering momentum, and the intensity never dipped. The finale was well constructed, blending comedy with yet more shocks, however the lighting in the final room was a little bright. However, to some readers, my complaint about the lighting must seem downright trivial when positioned in the same paragraph and a comment about whipping. Am I going to address that? Yes. Yes I am.

En route to Liverpool, my friend Zoe and I were engaged in a conversation around what constitutes an ‘extreme’ attraction. We’d discussed it before, but the advent of aggressive experiences utilising direct infliction of pain has shifted the conversation for us. Rough handling, we’d decided, wasn’t linked; we’d had plenty of full-contact scares in mainstream attractions. The word ‘pain’ is a gamechanger, and for me, the intentional infliction of it crosses a line. In extreme events I've done in the past, the pain was incidental, i.e. the result of a stress position. No one was physically doing anything to me - it was a result of what I was being told to do. I maintained that this didn’t constitute direct infliction of pain. Zoe disagreed.

What we did agree on is that pain is a weird element, and something we’re still getting our heads around. As I alluded to, I wrongly assumed that 'full-contact' meant grabbing/rough handling. The biting and hitting in the one-on-one dentist scene was downright bizarre to me, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of Ghoulies X. Had the intro video specifically mentioned biting/being struck in any way, would I have asked for a glow stick? Most likely. Was it OK? I’m not sure. Does Ghoulies X do exactly what it says on the tin? Yes, it was absolutely terrifying, but in spite of these elements.