So, after years and years of wanting to visit, I'm finally getting to Tulley's Shocktoberfest. Before I get into my review, thank you so much to Tulley's media team for gifting me RIP Fastrack bundle tickets over on Instagram in a giveaway. Go check them out! This review does contain maze scene spoilers so if you don't want anything spoilt I'd recommend coming back once you've checked out these mazes for yourself but if you're not to bothered or have done them before, let's get into it!
Extras -
Food:
I'm gonna admit it, part of the reason I loved the food options was because We got £10 free vouchers with our tickets. But, the food was lush anyway and so were the drinks and desserts😍. The staff at some food units weren't that great but others were lovely, so I guess it balances out.
Merchandise:
I loved all the merch they offered! Walking round in my big fluffy tulleys hoodie late at night was so cute and I think it'll make for great photos next year. There were designs for each attraction, designs for all of them, designs with roaming actors on and some merch just with plain Tulleys logos on.
Attractions -
Horrorwood Haunted Hayride:
One of my favourite Attractions I did yesterday was Horrorwood Haunted Hayride. It's so unique in the UK halloween lineup and I wish more places offered something similar: A less scary, more family friendly big group attraction, that offers a variety of characters and themes. I thought that the variety of different storylines in one attraction would just make a confusing mess, but it was actually very effective as it was linked by an overarching movie studio theme.
We did Horrorwood twice and it was definetly better the second time when we knew where to sit to get better actor interaction and a better view. It's a great experience from any seat but the more you talk and interact with actors (or come in costume) the more fun you'll have.
The Island:
Island was interesting. It was probably the longest maze Tulleys had which was great (it was about 14 mins?) but the theme was so broad I think they just used it to cover all the old theming and costumes they had left over from old mazes and just threw it together into one long maze.
The first half was severely lacking in actors, with about 6 in 7 minutes of maze. Having not many actors can be used effectively if they're all cohesive and have useful actor corridors which I don't think this maze had. The second half, however, may have still not been cohesive but boy were the actors and costumes stunning. About 3/4 of the way through there's a little corn field type area fenced by wood and the actors in it were great. This maze also featured possibly the best 2 costumes I saw that night. There was a man in a 'wolf/beast' mask who was amazing and then a really tall deformed knife-handed character who was jumping over different raised platforms, which really took advantage of height.
Altogether, I wish it had a more specific storyline and either more actors or a good behind the scenes actor route, however an advantage of not having this in this maze was it made the route very obvious and there wasn't any accidental entering of actor corridors like there was in other mazes.
Wastelands Penintentary:
I'm gonna be honest, I don't see the hype of this maze. The area is absolutely incredible and I struggle to fathom the talent that went into designing it, same with the ideas for the roamers at the entrance. The maze was still great and one of the best of the night but it wasn't the life-changing, best thing to happen since sliced bread experience it was hyped up to be in 2019. I can imagine with more actors (it was a bit lacking), a big hyped up crowded atmosphere (there was almost no-one in the area) and multiple run-throughs it would be incredible and prison themed mazes are just SO intense, but a maze isn't perfection unless it's perfection every time.
The strobes, actors and theme were what made this maze and I think if you value that in a maze more than how consistent it is the whole way through. Personally, I value scares and storyline more than the maze area and intensity but I imagine if you just really want an intense maze and don't mind as much about some sections being too loud etc this'd be your favourite maze and that's cool, I can appreciate how epic it is. The batching was great, the soundtrack was so atmospheric and as I say, the area was on a whole new level😍.
Twisted Clowns:
Twisted Clowns was my second ever 3D maze and I still think they're not for me. It offers great variation in the events lineup and along with the other mazes, has a completely different theme and characters to anything else, which is what makes Tulleys so great. Being a multi route maze, it provides an experience which has a lot more re-run value than other mazes. That being said, the 3D hurt my eyes too much so I only did it once.
The Village Coven of 13:
Coven Of 13 was my joint favourite maze of the night with Wastelands. Once again, it was unique in the park lineup, but for the right reasons. The smoke section with the big air pillows we had to walk through are so funny but also provide variation in texture and levels, Having the actors 'below you' provides some amazing jump scares that I was not expecting and I wish more mazes used things like this. A scare maze themed to woods and witches really isn't that imaginative but I've never seen one pulled off so well. The heat room at the end was so surprising and cool but I think the reason it was so effective was how energetic the actors were but also how cold it was outside😭
The Chop Shop:
Chop Shop was probably the most scary (for me) of the night because of all the chainsaws. It had my far the least imaginative story of all the mazes but for it's sheer intensity through number of chainsaws it did really get my adrenaline pumping and tested my bravery. Aside from how repetitive the second half was with triangular rooms of white walls with a chainsaw every 4 or 5 rooms, the maze was fun and one of the more scary, it wasn't really what I expected (a deeper narrative, longer scenes with each saw) but it was still very scary! Also, the ending felt really bland being a whitewashed corridor with no actors outside; I feel like using a large prop (maybe an axe to differentiate from the previous scenes) as a runout would've been effective. Lacking maze endings were pretty common at Tulleys and I think it's one of the only things Merlin do a lot better.
The Cellar Imprisoned:
I loved Cellar! It had a variety of characters and varying intensity throughout the maze (in a good way) with some sections being more calm actors who would talk, and others being screaming, jumping, shouting actors who backed you into corners. My favourite scene was probably the stairs halfway through as both times we went through everyone we were grouped with just got so scared by the actor stood above them.
The strobe room in this maze was a bit unneeded when there was a much better one in Wastelands, but it didn't make too much difference because it wasn't the overarching theme, so it didn't rival Wastelands exactly.
Hell-ements:
Hooded mazes are a weird one. As with 3D mazes, they provide something different within a lineup as sometimes mazes can look very similar when compared to others in the same park. I liked that about it as it is easy to remember and definetly stands out, but I feel like in general hooded mazes are hard to compare to visible mazes as you can't actually see actors, costumes, theming etc.
Hell-ements matched its storyline and name perfectly, it really felt like you were dead. I didn't think that was actually possible to recreate but Tulley's managed it, so props to them. I think this maze probably compares quite similarly to The Passing which used to be at Fright Nights, but I never got to experience it so I don't know. Because you couldn't see, they only had to nail the sounds, smell and feel for the maze to really immerse you which it did, it's just the hooded part and the repeated walking into people & nearly falling over that ruins it.
The Creepy Cottage:
The Creepy Cottage is by far the tamest and shortest maze on park, but it provided a great first maze of the evening to ease us into the scares of the mazes to come. It had a basic storyline and some cool scares, especially in the section with large white fabric drapes with actors behind. I think it was nice that Tulley's had a not as scary maze to ease people into the scarier ones but it still could've been a bit longer and had more actors in. Otherwise, great theming and set pieces in a lovely little maze.
So, Tulley's was awesome! I loved the range and variety in attractions, the atmosphere and in general the evening was just incredible. I cannot wait to hopefully return next year. A couple positive and negative things i found in general with Tulley's.
The mazes all had their own epic soundtracks which provided a perfect atmosphere! But, every so often when a soundtrack looped finished and restarted it'd just cut out for a few seconds before restarting but it's not something I noticed too much.
All the mazes were so much scarier than any I've done in a merlin park, but I think that's the case with most Scream Parks.
The mazes were all considerably longer than others in the UK, which in general was very good but in 1 or 2 it just meant they didn't get enough actors.
It isn't all that obvious which route is for you and which is an actor corridor, so you might have to guess. In some cases, and actor will help direct you the best they can in character but you might just have to find out for yourself!
I got lost in mazes. Multiple times. We walked through the Cellar strobe room 3 times on our second run-through and still couldn't find the way out. Don't get worried, you'll find the door out eventually.
It gets cold, so bring enough layers but be careful of your hat getting taken off by hanging drapes on Horrorwood!
Have you been to Tulley's Shocktoberfest this year? What did you think of it? Tell us in the comments below. Thank you so much for reading, I'll see you next time!
Cleo x
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