A mere 35 minutes away from sunny Stoke On Trent lies Apple Jacks Farm a family friendly attraction that come Halloween transforms into a much darker natured event. We bring you our Spooky World UK 2020 review.
After visiting the incredibly impressive Scare Kingdom and the ever high-standards set by Alton Towers Scarefest I was really looking forward to visiting a more independent fan-service type of scare attraction.
I jumped on board the website and after seeing the recent queues at Scare Kingdom and the insane ones at Alton Towers Scarefest at nighttime we brought two fast passes just be on the safe side.
As soon as we arrived at the venue we noticed that there was a big queue outdoors and instantly our fast passes seemed worth the purchase.
That feeling was short lived.
On the website it stated a fast track entrance queue would allow us to go straight into the event but when we arrived at the gate we were told there was no fast track entrance.
Not to worry.
The large queue infront of us were booked in for 6:30pm and our slot was at 6:45pm so once the first group infront of us went inside there was absolutely no one around as far as the eye could see.
Our fast track tickets became instantly worthless.
We walked straight to the front of every maze throughout the night as there was no one in the standard queues either.
This would have been fine if it was not for the fact we had paid £35 per person to attend this event.
I’m all for supporting the arts especially at this moment in time so I somewhat ignored this niggle but a free drink or donut or something to compensate for the fact we’ve paid extra with absolutely no benefit would have been nice.
Spooky World UK 2020 Mazes
After being greeted by some lovely staff members we were given our ticket which listed all 6 attractions at the Spooky World 2020 event.
I’ve never been before so I was excited at what was to come and I would be judging the attraction completely seperate from the other scare attractions we had experienced this month.
Evil Carnevil
I love a good clown maze and within 10 seconds of being inside I had my first jump scare as I was paying too much attention on getting my GoPro working than what was ahead of me.
A great start!
We headed down the light filled, UV painted corridors met by crazy clowns around every corner.
Being a sucker for theming I wasn’t all that impressed with large portions of the maze but one particular circus tent themed corridor and the UV paint certainly gave off this toxic junkyard vibe to it.
You can see the organisers have a passion for horror with the link winks and nods throughout the attraction to notorious horror movies but sadly budget was the most restrictive thing at this particular event.
With an attraction like this the acting was a bit all over the place, some great, some not so great, some random folks embracing their inner crazy. It really was a mixed bag.
There were no pre-shows or introductory scenes at Spooky World where good acting skills would be required so I was fine with that.
Instead we had everyone inside having a good time and embracing their inner crazy and I liked that unpredictable aspect!
Not a bad start at all and it certainly gave us a taste of what to expect moving forward.
Theming – 2/5
Costumes – 4/5
Acting – 2/5
Scare Factor – 2/5
Haunted House
Into the Haunted House we went as we were to meet all the inhabitants of the house that never truly left.
What struck me instantly walking through the ‘Haunted House’ was the metal shed walls that surrounded us.
Spooky World is situated on a farm and these farmers sheds were everywhere so I’m all for using what’s available to you but if other companies can make a shipping container look like a mansion then surely more effort could have gone into making this feel like a genuine house.
Simply covering the metal shed walls with something would have instantly combated this issue.
Badly wallpapered walls here and there surrounding the metal shell we were in certainly disengaged me with the immersion the maze was attempting to create.
Evil Carnevil certainly adapted the environment much better than this particular maze but for the most part I felt distanced from the story.
At no point did the maze feel like a Haunted House with all the scenes not feeling like ‘rooms’ as such.
Everything felt a bit cobbled together. Scenes that didn’t really encompass a house, manor or stereotypical rooms of a home.
There were a few good scenes as we ventured deeper into the maze including a haunting little picket fence scene with a girl singing this endearing yet chilling lulluby.
She had a wonderful voice and the voice alone dragged me into the story if only for a brief second before becoming detached once again when I entered a more basic themed scene.
Haunted House was very hit and miss, there was 1 great scene for every 2 terrible scenes we faced.
A wonderful ballerina scene that was really creepy especially with the lighting but everything felt very rushed in this particular maze.
I can imagine budget restrictions played a big part in this year’s planning and maze design which is completely understandable but I can only review what was infront of me.
Sadly Haunted House just didn’t hit home for me and felt a bit jumbled and messy at times.
Whilst I didn’t jump once it was the little glimmers of potential throughout the experience that gave me hope that this maze could be something special in the future.
Theming – 2/5
Costumes – 4/5
Acting – 3/5
Scare Factor – 1/5
Slaughter House
So we’re inside a metal farm shed, the mood is set, Slaughter House was the perfect type of attraction to match the venue we currently reside in.
Out of all the mazes we did all night Slaughter House certainly paid the most respect when it came to social distancing.
Maybe too much as all actors were behind metal fences or wooden panels throughout the majority of the run-through but it was still immersive and enjoyable.
Acting skill was definitely better throughout this maze as those hillbilly accents were running strong from start to finish.
The pig masks looked great and the theming was much improved from the previous two mazes.
Utilising lighting, great costumes and solid performances Slaughter House dragged me into the story.
Slaughter House provided one downfall though however, it just wasn’t scary.
The actors behind the fences and panels completely distanced them too much from our group of two to have an impact.
Regardless, just walking through and seeing what it was all about, it was my favourite maze of the evening.
Without social distancing this one could be pretty special.
Theming – 3/5
Costumes – 5/5
Acting – 4/5
Scare Factor – 1/5
Field of Screams
The idea of being chased through a corn field was giving me flashbacks of my buddy Mark’s film Fear Pharm and I was getting excited at living my own version of such a wonderful indie horror film scene.
Through the muddy maze we trampled as my boots were getting caked with dirt we soon met a creature that wished us death upon our travels.
After a pumpkin man in a robe led us into the maze before disappearing into the corn (very cool) we ventured deeper into the maze.
We walked.
And walked some more.
Nothing.
We were literally walking through an empty corn maze with nothing but a phone flashlight for 3 minutes before we saw our next scare.
A Scarecrow.
Using our torchlights we could see it coming a mile off but regardless it was just nice to see something else in the maze other than us.
Another 4 minutes of walking with no scares of the sort we saw another pumpkin figure pop out and say hello.
Two minutes later a guy with a chainsaw came out of the corn and just stood there.
They didn’t chase us, didn’t wield the saw high above their head in Leatherface fashion, they just stood there.
We laughed, walked out of the maze and that was our Field of Screams experience.
The corn field was so wonderful to walk through adding atmosphere with zero theming needed.
Having more actors in there is a must because the location has the potential to be incredible.
Maybe a few of the actors went on a break and left the maze during our run-through, who knows.
But for nine minutes we basically walked through an empty maze.
So much so I didn’t even upload the POV I captured as it’s just me walking through some corn for nine minutes.
Little did we know this was just the start of the night taking quite the downward slide.
Theming – 5/5 – It’s a field. If it looks like a field, It’s doing it’s job.
Costumes – 3/5
Acting – 2/5
Scare Factor – 0/5
Haunted Hayride
I’m quite easy to please, that’s why this review is certainly picking out positives whereas if my friend had reviewed his experience from Spooky World it would be a bit more unkind to say the least.
Jumping on board a wagon behind a tractor, I was a happy chappy.
Like a kid on Christmas i’ve never had a tractor ride and well, I was reliving a childhood.
It was only when I got off the tractor at the end that I realised that this experience should have been scary not childlike and innocent.
We drove past various bits of theming, got sprayed with a bit of water but for the most part we were looking at trees and dark fields.
At various intervals the tractor went through zones and you expected things to happen, they were lit up and raring to go, we just passed through them.
We went through an LED lit tunnel (the kind you’d see at your local garden centre at Christmas) and after being jet-washed at the end our ride was done.
I don’t personally feel that being jetwashed is particularly scary but hearing people scream and moan about getting wet proved quite entertaining.
Theming – 2/5
Costumes – 2/5
Acting – 0/5 (No one had dialogue)
Scare Factor – 0/5
Tunnel of Terror
As we stepped off the Haunted Hayride we crawled through the tunnel of terror and 35 seconds later we had finished the last maze.
We got to the end of a tunnel where 2 guys threw those crackers at the floor that make a pop, he called me a rude name and we walked out the other side.
Yes, that was the entire attraction.
At this point we were laughing to ourselves at just how horrifically bad that was and the sheer audacity of labelling that as a separate attraction.
If I wanted to be sweared at and hear some weird noises i’d walk through Stoke On Trent at night for free without paying £35 for the pleasure.
Overall
With Evil Carnevil, Haunted House and Slaughter House being mazes you could walkthrough and come out with a positive point or two. There’s real potential there and for an indie fan-run type attraction I certainly saw the potential.
Sadly the other three attractions were a joke.
So much potential wasted and we came out feeling as though we had drastically overpaid.
£35 seemed quite steep for an independent attraction anyways but given the current circumstances I really don’t mind overpaying for anything lately.
Everyone needs the support right now and I’m happy to do that.
But despite my charitable good will I came out feeling a bit disheartened.
I remember coming out of the free scare maze at For the Love of Horror and being somewhat disappointed in that, but it was free, low quality was to be expected.
The maze at For the Love of Horror was genuinely better than every maze at this attraction bar Slaughter House.
It was a shame, a real shame.
For footage from the event (including individual maze walkthroughs) check out our VLOG below on Lift Hills and Thrills.
Regardless, if you just want something to do this Halloween and you want to support the people who have put hard work and effort into the organisation of this event please go to https://www.spookyworld.co.uk
I’m getting quite numb to jump scares lately because of the sheer number of attractions we’re doing.
If you’re a newcomer or new to scare mazes or jump easily your experience will no doubt be a memorable one.
