The team behind overnight scare experience ‘Scream Camp’ is back again in 2020 with their socially distanced offering The Retreat.
Back to the Movies were kindly invited down free of charge to this £200 a night event (accomodation \ food included) as the mission was clear.
Could you survive in a cabin in the woods overnight whilst a serial killer is on the loose?
My idea behind The Retreat was to shoot a video much like a found-footage movie as we were essentially living out our own horror movie from 8pm (start time) until 2am (end time).
We were given an address where we would be picked up from and were greeted with a very loud and crazy uber driver who took us on a crazy adventure before dropping us off at the cabin.
What followed was a night of weird noises, walking through the woods at night to find objects and completing various tasks where the woods took centre stage.
At numerous points throughout the evening we were not alone and walking through the woods knowing you were being watched from all angles was very unnerving to say the least.
It would take something truly special to scare me at the moment as I feel numb to many scare attractions due to the sheer number of ones I have now done.
So whilst the segments throughout the night didn’t scare me, walking through the woods got me every single time as you just can’t stage that primal fear of darkness / the unknown.
Using the woods to their advantage The Retreat is a really immersive experience.
You start the evening out with a microwave meal and a film of choice within this relaxing cabin.
The cabin was really spacious and warm and was rather smart inside.
From the outside it looks very rustic and ‘shed-like’ but inside was very smart indeed.
At various points of the evening the show went from comedy scenes to some quite disturbing scenes before our eyes.
Not on the same extreme levels of Psychomanterum at Scare Kingdom or the Extreme Maze at For the Love of Horror but disturbing enough.
The Retreat brought some scenes much closer to home.
As you’ve settled into the cabin its home for the night so having things happen in and around your little ‘safe’ hideaway certainly keeps you up an hour or two after the experience has ended.
After such an incredible experience it’s hard to find a negative to highlight but if I was nitpicking I’d have finished the event earlier.
I would have arrived earlier and finished earlier so that people can enjoy the cabin rather than going straight to sleep after a night that does involve quite a bit of walking / wandering.
If you’re paying £200 for a night you want to enjoy the accommodation also and for those 6 hours we couldn’t relax, constantly on edge with what was to come next which is great, but for the price point offered I’d assume one would want to enjoy the accomodation a little more also.
An end point of 11pm-midnight would have given folks time to chill out, calm down, watch a bit of TV and discuss the nights events.
As the sun rose the next morning our crazy Uber driver picked us up at 8 am sharp and dropped us back off at the meeting point.
Check out the video below for our full found-footage experience:
Overall the team have put on a wonderful event here and it was a real honour to be invited down.
For more information on future dates please visit https://screamcamp.co.uk/product/the-retreat-ticket/
