Halloween has crept around once again, and if there’s one thing synonymous with theme parks at this time of year, its scare mazes. These are the sort of labyrinths that are absolutely spine-chilling whether you have a good sense of direction or not, and with themes of cannibalism, curses and even evil itself, some theme parks are pretty skilled at creating attractions that will leave no guest unscathed. Carve a pumpkin, put on some spooky music and prepare to scream as we explore the history of some of the most unique scare mazes, both past and present!
Warning: this post contains mentions of blood, gore and vomiting- as well as potential spoilers for some scare events. If you find any of this disturbing or don’t want to know, make sure to click off now!
Hell’s Kitchen, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida
You may know Hell’s Kitchen as a TV show with a lot of shouting and some awful kitchen hygiene, but while there were some pretty bad culinary practices present in this scare maze, the TV show’s presenter, Gordon Ramsay, was not. This terrifying haunted house made its debut at Halloween Horror Nights 1994, and seemed designed to make people feel completely and utterly sick. Before even entering the attraction, guests would be greeted with a gothic façade featuring a man snacking on cockroaches (I think I prefer Halloween sweets!), but if you thought this was the end of the disgusting imagery, you would be sorely mistaken.
As you entered the maze, it soon became clear that not even the most experienced scare maze fanatics were prepared for the horrors that lay ahead. Guests would be taken through a perilous butcher’s shop, complete with dismembered body parts, references to cannibalism, bloody chainsaws and the rather unpleasant smell of rotting meat. Screams filled the stifling hot air as scare actors playing unsuspecting victims are butchered by a demonic cook, and if that wasn’t horrifying enough, an angry head chef was waiting menacingly at the end with a chainsaw.
Since its debut in 1991, Halloween Horror Nights has continued to grow, evolve and adapt, and Hell’s Kitchen lasted for just one year, before being replaced during the 1995 season. Hell’s Kitchen is one of the less remembered scare mazes at Halloween Horror Nights and only operated for one season, but it’s safe to say this maze’s pure terror lives on in plenty of fond memories and nightmares!
The Sanctuary, Scarefest at Alton Towers
Many of Alton Towers’ “Big 7” rollercoasters have some horrifying themes worthy of their own horror movie or scare mazes, but did you know the park’s second newest major coaster, The Smiler, really did have its own scare maze at one point?
It all began back in March of 2005, when the park’s Jest Star 2, Black Hole, gave its final rides, and closed permanently. The coaster itself eventually found a new home as Rocket at Furuvik in Sweden, but the same couldn’t be said for the tent that housed it. For several years it stood abandoned, occasionally being used for scare mazes but nothing more… and then in the early 2010s, everything changed.
Alton Towers gained permission to build a new attraction in the Black Hole’s place, and as the tent was demolished and the new project, codenamed Secret Weapon 7, broke ground, the park’s online presence began to become a little mysterious. Guests had the chance to sign up for updates on this new project and could enter a competition to be the first to experience it, but what caught most people’s attention was on Alton Towers’ YouTube channel. A string of videos were released following the final moments of psychology students Trish and Dan, who went missing after finding a set of tapes encouraging people to Smile Always. After A LOT of speculation it was announced that SW7 would be The Smiler, a record-breaking Gerstlauer Infinity Coaster that spins through fourteen thrilling inversions… but lets take a step back, and see what came before.
Scarefest at Alton Towers has always been a pretty big deal, and when Halloween 2012 came around this was no different. A new scare maze made its debut, taking guests on a tour of an abandoned medical facility with a sinister twist. As guests entered the Towers ruins where the maze was housed and began to explore, it became clear that this was no ordinary scare maze- the facility was formerly used by the fictional and terrifying Ministry of Joy, who ran experiments with the mission to force society to smile. Sounds, lights and videos were used in order to ensure anyone and everyone came out grinning (though many more people were too scared to smile!)- and if this sounds familiar, its because that’s exactly what the Smiler does too! Except the Smiler does it with a LOT more inversions.
It’s pretty amazing how elaborate the storylines for Alton Towers’ Secret Weapon coasters really are, and The Sanctuary is a great example of this. Now, next time you’re in X-Sector and listening to that extremely catchy Smiler soundtrack, you’ll know just how much lore is behind this twisting and terrifying infinity coaster!
Wrong Turn Into Darkness, Fright Nights at Walibi Holland
Walibi Holland may not be the first park to call their scare event Fright Nights, but they almost certainly were the first to have a scare maze exploring the origin of evil itself. Ranked 4/5 on the park’s ‘Scaremeter’, Wrong Turn Into Darkness sends guests on a perilous journey with an old man who claims to know the origin of the force we all know as evil, and as its located a bit of a distance from Walibi Holland’s other attractions, no one will hear you scream.
Walibi Holland’s Fright Nights is actually a bit of a hidden gem when it comes to scare events, and the theming comes thick and fast all the way from the beginning. As 6pm comes around, an ominous announcement echoes through the park informing guests that Fright Nights is about to begin, and that they should “seek immediate shelter,” or “run for your lives”. If you’ve managed to get lost and are desperately looking for the exit, that is quite possibly the least reassuring thing you can hear! After this, you can dine at a haunted hospital or at the Campsite of Carnage, which is probably about as relaxing as it sounds, hide out in a not-so-safe safe house, and venture into the witch-infested Wicked Woods.
Whether you’d rather sit down for a spooky meal, go exploring or discover the origins of evil, there’s something for everyone at Fright Nights!
Journey to Hell, Freak Nights at Blackpool Pleasure Beach
When deserted and in darkness, pretty much anything can become terrifying, and Blackpool Pleasure Beach is no exception. Or at least, not until 2019, when their first ever scare event, Journey to Hell Freak Nights, debuted and settled like a spooky fog on the park. Journey to Hell uses many of the conventions of more traditional Halloween events: scare zones, actors- but this time, it comes with a twist, or rather, a few inversions.
Journey to Hell starts off like any other scare event. Guests are warned of a curse that has overtaken the park, and its not too long until they are sent twisting and turning through a labyrinth of all things freaky, including rides new and old that have been given the spooky treatment for the night. Without spoiling too much, a huge part of the experience is riding one of Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s major coasters in pitch darkness, with only the screams of other riders to guide you!
Like many things, Journey to Hell had to be cancelled for the 2020 season, due to the pandemic and how the event demands relatively large groups and close contact. By 2021 however, the Pleasure Beach’s first major scare event returned, even bigger and more bloodcurdling than before!
The Freezer, Fright Nights at Thorpe Park
October may be the spookiest month of the year, but it is also when the cold of winter time starts to creep in. But throughout its two years of operation, The Freezer took the great British hate of the cold to the next level! When the 2002 Halloween season came around, Thorpe Park decided it was time for something huge, and this came in the form of the UK’s first major scare event, named Fright Nites. Inspired by Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, Thorpe Park’s take on the popular event introduced two blood-curdling scare mazes: Freakshow 3D, and The Freezer.
Freakshow 3D was relatively similar to modern scare mazes, featuring florescent UV paint and a grotesquely generous helping of pure nightmare fuel. If this maze played on just how much people hate creepy faces, The Freezer did something else entirely, bringing to life the very real fear of the freezing cold. Everything that could possibly make a scare maze scary showed up in some shape or form in this attraction- with scare actors, a fear inducing attention to detail, and the possibility of getting completely and utterly lost! That’s right, in its first year, The Freezer was riddled with dead ends… and you really could get lost if your sense of direction was clouded by your fear.
If somehow you weren’t terrified before waiting in line for this tangling cold void, you sure would be by the time you got to go in. Why is this? Well, it was a lot more simple than frightening theming or actors, it was the placement of the exit practically next to the queueline, so those in the queue could watch as terrified guests fled from the maze! And considering that the European theme park market hadn’t seen anything like it before, there were quite a lot.
The Freezer and Freakshow 3D returned to Fright Nites for the 2003 season, but with a twist. Or rather, less of a twist. Many of the dead ends had been removed or reworked, meaning it was significantly harder to get lost. The changes were made to improve crowd flow so that large amounts of guests were not gathering in these areas, and although it didn’t actually change the mazes that much, a pretty large part of the fear factor had been lost.
The original Thorpe Park scare mazes ended their run in 2004, when they were replaced by The Asylum and Hellgate the following year, but The Freezer still lives on in Thorpe Park legacy. When a new scare attraction, Platform 15, made its debut in 2016, some parts of the experience were inspired by previous scare mazes, one of which being the terrifying Freezer. Fright Nites was restyled as Fright Nights several year after it started, and its safe to say this frozen labyrinth left an icy mark on the park that started the UK scare event.
Have you experienced any of these scare mazes or events? What’s your favourite theme park to get your Halloween fix? Let me know below!
If you enjoyed this article, check out my other posts from theme parks and attractions around the world, and find us on Facebook and Instagram for exclusive CoasterDreamers content!
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