Yorkshire Scare Grounds 2018 Review

2018 was my first ever visit Yorkshire Scare Grounds; a park that had been on my list for ages, and I had high expectations for it. After a lengthy entrance queue, we made our way to the intro building and were met with ‘the doctor’, who, with the help of a video, laid out the rules of the scream park before sending us off into the darkness. This guy did a superb job of injecting humour into his spiel, thereby lulling us into a false sense of security in readiness for the scares.

We ambled along a dark woodland path – a portion of the experience which I thoroughly enjoyed – until we came upon the show building for the first maze, nestled perfectly amongst the trees. Atmospheric lighting, a dead body hanging from a tree, and a creepy scareactor set the scene for our first attraction of the night.

The Torture Rooms

The exterior theming (I loved the price list) does this maze a huge favour, and a deeply unnerving scareactor did a wonderful job of stirring up a little unease before sending us into the attraction. Without him and his intro, I’m not sure the concept would have worked for me. Once inside, the shine wore off as I realised that the scenes were all strikingly similar, in terms of set decoration and the direction from which the scares came (it was essentially the same every time). The tension levels quickly levelled out as a result of this uniformity; nevertheless we received one or two good jump scares. The scareactors inside were energetic and engaging, although perhaps the latter was a disadvantage; they were keen to keep our group moving, and so kept shouting at us to leave through seemingly continuous patter, of which I wanted to hear as much as possible!

Zombie Outpost

Odd to hear myself uttering the words “are… are these nazis?” in a scare attraction. And indeed they were. Nazi zombies. This theme was executed with a great deal of enthusiasm. I suppose it's a case of 'go hard or go home'; if you’ve chosen to go with nazis (complete with swastika flags and authentic uniforms), you might as well see it through.

I enjoyed the intro, where I was instructed to select a random member of our group to go at the front. The layout of this maze is relatively open, so the victim didn’t suffer too much, but it was a great little gimmick. We ended up at the back of the group for this one, which was fine by us, as the zombies skillfully delivered scares towards both the front and back. Despite the theme, which I wasn't hugely keen on, this attraction was outrageously fun; more like a scare zone than a contained maze, and utilising the best of both.

The Colony

Fear levels quickly rose as we entered The Colony; themed around a rural village inhabited by lepers who have been left to rot within its walls, this attraction delivers on style and substance. The detail within is stunning; complete with abandoned shops, eerie streets and crude dwellings which we steadily weaved in and out of, never knowing where the next scareactor would appear (the layout is ideal). Unlike The Torture Rooms, we didn’t feel rushed in this attraction. I was extremely tense throughout. The attraction was so immersive, I was genuinely surprised when the final scareactor alluded to what would happen in the next attraction, essentially breaking character. Nevertheless, this experience was one of the highlights of the night.

Hotel Hell

As we entered the first scene of this attraction, I genuinely wanted to applaud. The theming is stunning and I bought in immediately – I could see the grandeur of a once fully functional hotel, now transformed into a macabre playground for a truly deranged bunch of clowns. This concept carried through perfectly, each room plunged into pure chaos and insanity at the hands of our unhinged hosts. We found the attraction to be a little light on the scareactors as we progressed towards the end, but the animatronics were extremely effective, largely due to the tension created in earlier parts of the maze. The kitchen scene could have benefited from an additional scareactor; the one in there was hoping to scare the whole group, meaning we had to wait a little for everyone to catch up. That being said, given the detailed theming in that room, I could have hung around for hours.

Blackthorn Asylum

Can. You. Fucking. Not. I anticipated big scares in this one, and in that anticipation I became so worked up, a mere tap on the shoulder would have sent me into a panic. Having done most of the work for them, I was primed and ready to be terrified. I wasn’t disappointed. The action kicked off almost immediately, setting the bar high for the remainder of the experience. The theming had a similar vibe to Hotel Hell, in the sense of an institution being overrun and spiralling into chaos at the hands of the patients. My best scare of the night came from the bed scene, where some acute misdirection paid off impeccably. I recoiled in complete terror – although I’m not sure how well this would have worked at the back of the group. This maze is proof that you don’t need an IP to nail the horror movie aesthetic; with the right vision, this can be achieved with aplomb.

The final maze exited into a delightfully unexpected finale, which had us in fits of laughter. Once outside there was still plenty for us to partake in, including food stalls, a gift shop, roaming characters and a hilarious photo booth. Still high on adrenaline and trying to resist the urge to purchase all the food on offer, we made our way towards the exit. Our first visit was over, and it certainly won’t be our last.