Benenen
Hyper Poster
Visited on Saturday for the opening night and had such a blast. Tulleys is a huge site and includes eight different haunts, here's my thoughts in the order I went through them. There will be some spoilers ahead so please avoid this if you're planning on visiting or skim read through really quickly!
Pandemonium's 3D Carnival
Not the best start if I'm honest. I loved the whole trippy psychedelic vibe this maze had but there was nothing of real substance scare wise. Most of the actors especially towards the start would just talk to you as you walked past instead of engaging in proper scares and there was this whole build up to meeting the clowns which never really materialised. I was expecting it to keep building up to a ridiculous finale but you just saunter out the exit after more of the same. There were plenty of fun sections including the most convincing spinning tunnel I've ever been in and a bizarre room that gets smaller as you walk through it. This maze has a ton of potential and hopefully did get better throughout the evening as the actors found their places (I was in the third or so group of the first night).
Chop Shop
Absolutely loved this and by far the scariest maze I've ever been in. The first half takes you through some beautifully detailed sets as you traipse through the hillbilly repair shop and there's a particularly tense section as you zigzag between shelves of tools/weapons in almost complete darkness. Then you hit the strobes and it gets a bit mental, from here it's just chainsaw after chainsaw (I reckon we must have been chased at least five different times) until you stumble out the exit. The chainsaws are ear splittingly loud and stink of burning petrol and even though there's no actor touching it's hard not to sprint away when you hear one revving up behind you. The use of strobes is great as they vary in frequency, towards the start before you meet your first chainsaw guy it's almost like a slow flashing light meaning there's moments where you have to walk forwards in total darkness only to have someone illuminated in front of you then once it gets more intense the strobes get faster to up the sense of panic. I'm far from the hardest bloke you'll ever meet but I was physically trembling all over my body when I exited this maze and had to sit down for ages before moving onto the next one so yeah, a very solid attraction. =D>
Creepy Cottage
I really loved the Creepy Cottage, it's a nice change of pace from the more actor heavy mazes and being more alone with just the group made it even more tense walking through. There's lots of narrow corridors and tight corners where you turn in on yourself and the sets are so detailed and really nail that old musty house look. A particular highlight was a wall covered in cockroaches which suddenly lit up as you walked past, I love little scares like this that don't rely on actors. Speaking of actors we only saw two but that was more than enough as one of them followed us through about a third of the maze. She was fantastic and kept running ahead and hiding while acting more and more possessed as the maze went along.
Hell-ements
I'd never done a hooded maze before so was excited and very apprehensive about Hell-ements. The intro video is a bit OTT but sets the tone nicely then its time to stick the bag on your head and find the rope. I was curious how they'd manage to fit scares into what is essentially a blindfolded attraction where the actors can't touch you but they do a great job. There's lots of pulling on the rope and having Latin screamed in your ears and at one point I had a load of stones kicked at my feet. The windy bridge scene is also great as it feels like your hoods about to come flying off which raises the tense question of do I take my hand off the rope or the person in front of me to adjust? The hoods let some light through and there's a few bits where there's a bright light ahead with a silhouette of an actor either running towards you or standing there creepily which payed off well. Oh and the finale was great, I jumped a mile when the fireball went off!
Coven Of 13
I liked this maze, it felt very different to the others and had lots of theatrical elements as opposed to just tight corridors and boo scares. You start in a huge open swamp which has a clever illusion using fog and lasers to hide the witches until they start jumping and climbing out then you go through a forest before travelling outside past some fires then it's back inside a creepy old house before an intense finale involving a rather dramatic possession. That was a long sentence which seems fitting for this very long maze. When you finally reach the exit it feels like an age ago that you were in the swamp, the whole thing lasts nearly ten minutes. It's not quite perfect though and I hope it gets tightened up as the event progresses. There's a long straight indoor section after the swamp scene with no audio where you can hear the band nearby playing rock covers which completely breaks the immersion. There's a few places in the maze where the band leaks in and the house scene with the fireplace feels a bit bare. But like I said with the carnival maze there's so much potential here and I really hope it finds its stride.
Haunted Hayride
I was very excited about riding this and it definitely lived up to the hype. I loved how there was no attempt here to tell a story, it was just a mish mash of fun horror things as actors ambush the trailer and various effects go off around you. While there are a lot of jumps it's mainly played for fun and the actors are very interactive with everyone on board. It's another very long attraction but it never feels boring or repetitive and you're constantly kept on edge wondering where you're going to end up next.
The Colony
The Colony is an absolute marathon of a maze, everytime you think it must be ending soon you're thrust into another scene. The queue had no one in when we arrived so myself and the other half were sent through just the two of us which really amped up the scares. The theme is you're walking through the grounds of a far out feral tribe and the actors really got into character acting more like animals and beasts than people at times. The maze itself weaves about both inside and outside and there's sections where actors come from all directions including overhead. It's a very claustrophobic experience too with lots of pitch dark rooms where you have to feel around for the exits and even sections where you have to crouch and crawl. It's so relentless and intense and the ending where the groups are split up and sent down different paths was great.
The Cellar
Oooooh this one was really good! I loved the jungle at the start then as you descend down into the house it got scarier and scarier. There's a nice mix of tight corridors and larger rooms here, the sequence where you go past the TV (with the actor on the sofa getting annoyed at you for blocking the view!) then through the kitchen was one of the most detailed and well themed bits of the whole night. Once again the length here is great and the final few rooms were full of really lively actors and it got very in your face. This maze is such a huge asset of Tulleys and I really hope it doesn't go anywhere soon.
Overall this is such a great event, with all the bands, fairground rides and food places it feels like a festival. Another thing to mention is there are loads of fire pits with seats around which makes it pleasant to unwind between mazes and really makes you feel all wintery. I haven't done a huge amount of scare attractions but the ones here are some of the best I've ever done, there's a lot of emphasis on exploring the locations you're in which I enjoyed a lot. Cannot wait to see what they have up their sleeves for next year.
Pandemonium's 3D Carnival
Not the best start if I'm honest. I loved the whole trippy psychedelic vibe this maze had but there was nothing of real substance scare wise. Most of the actors especially towards the start would just talk to you as you walked past instead of engaging in proper scares and there was this whole build up to meeting the clowns which never really materialised. I was expecting it to keep building up to a ridiculous finale but you just saunter out the exit after more of the same. There were plenty of fun sections including the most convincing spinning tunnel I've ever been in and a bizarre room that gets smaller as you walk through it. This maze has a ton of potential and hopefully did get better throughout the evening as the actors found their places (I was in the third or so group of the first night).
Chop Shop
Absolutely loved this and by far the scariest maze I've ever been in. The first half takes you through some beautifully detailed sets as you traipse through the hillbilly repair shop and there's a particularly tense section as you zigzag between shelves of tools/weapons in almost complete darkness. Then you hit the strobes and it gets a bit mental, from here it's just chainsaw after chainsaw (I reckon we must have been chased at least five different times) until you stumble out the exit. The chainsaws are ear splittingly loud and stink of burning petrol and even though there's no actor touching it's hard not to sprint away when you hear one revving up behind you. The use of strobes is great as they vary in frequency, towards the start before you meet your first chainsaw guy it's almost like a slow flashing light meaning there's moments where you have to walk forwards in total darkness only to have someone illuminated in front of you then once it gets more intense the strobes get faster to up the sense of panic. I'm far from the hardest bloke you'll ever meet but I was physically trembling all over my body when I exited this maze and had to sit down for ages before moving onto the next one so yeah, a very solid attraction. =D>
Creepy Cottage
I really loved the Creepy Cottage, it's a nice change of pace from the more actor heavy mazes and being more alone with just the group made it even more tense walking through. There's lots of narrow corridors and tight corners where you turn in on yourself and the sets are so detailed and really nail that old musty house look. A particular highlight was a wall covered in cockroaches which suddenly lit up as you walked past, I love little scares like this that don't rely on actors. Speaking of actors we only saw two but that was more than enough as one of them followed us through about a third of the maze. She was fantastic and kept running ahead and hiding while acting more and more possessed as the maze went along.
Hell-ements
I'd never done a hooded maze before so was excited and very apprehensive about Hell-ements. The intro video is a bit OTT but sets the tone nicely then its time to stick the bag on your head and find the rope. I was curious how they'd manage to fit scares into what is essentially a blindfolded attraction where the actors can't touch you but they do a great job. There's lots of pulling on the rope and having Latin screamed in your ears and at one point I had a load of stones kicked at my feet. The windy bridge scene is also great as it feels like your hoods about to come flying off which raises the tense question of do I take my hand off the rope or the person in front of me to adjust? The hoods let some light through and there's a few bits where there's a bright light ahead with a silhouette of an actor either running towards you or standing there creepily which payed off well. Oh and the finale was great, I jumped a mile when the fireball went off!
Coven Of 13
I liked this maze, it felt very different to the others and had lots of theatrical elements as opposed to just tight corridors and boo scares. You start in a huge open swamp which has a clever illusion using fog and lasers to hide the witches until they start jumping and climbing out then you go through a forest before travelling outside past some fires then it's back inside a creepy old house before an intense finale involving a rather dramatic possession. That was a long sentence which seems fitting for this very long maze. When you finally reach the exit it feels like an age ago that you were in the swamp, the whole thing lasts nearly ten minutes. It's not quite perfect though and I hope it gets tightened up as the event progresses. There's a long straight indoor section after the swamp scene with no audio where you can hear the band nearby playing rock covers which completely breaks the immersion. There's a few places in the maze where the band leaks in and the house scene with the fireplace feels a bit bare. But like I said with the carnival maze there's so much potential here and I really hope it finds its stride.
Haunted Hayride
I was very excited about riding this and it definitely lived up to the hype. I loved how there was no attempt here to tell a story, it was just a mish mash of fun horror things as actors ambush the trailer and various effects go off around you. While there are a lot of jumps it's mainly played for fun and the actors are very interactive with everyone on board. It's another very long attraction but it never feels boring or repetitive and you're constantly kept on edge wondering where you're going to end up next.
The Colony
The Colony is an absolute marathon of a maze, everytime you think it must be ending soon you're thrust into another scene. The queue had no one in when we arrived so myself and the other half were sent through just the two of us which really amped up the scares. The theme is you're walking through the grounds of a far out feral tribe and the actors really got into character acting more like animals and beasts than people at times. The maze itself weaves about both inside and outside and there's sections where actors come from all directions including overhead. It's a very claustrophobic experience too with lots of pitch dark rooms where you have to feel around for the exits and even sections where you have to crouch and crawl. It's so relentless and intense and the ending where the groups are split up and sent down different paths was great.
The Cellar
Oooooh this one was really good! I loved the jungle at the start then as you descend down into the house it got scarier and scarier. There's a nice mix of tight corridors and larger rooms here, the sequence where you go past the TV (with the actor on the sofa getting annoyed at you for blocking the view!) then through the kitchen was one of the most detailed and well themed bits of the whole night. Once again the length here is great and the final few rooms were full of really lively actors and it got very in your face. This maze is such a huge asset of Tulleys and I really hope it doesn't go anywhere soon.
Overall this is such a great event, with all the bands, fairground rides and food places it feels like a festival. Another thing to mention is there are loads of fire pits with seats around which makes it pleasant to unwind between mazes and really makes you feel all wintery. I haven't done a huge amount of scare attractions but the ones here are some of the best I've ever done, there's a lot of emphasis on exploring the locations you're in which I enjoyed a lot. Cannot wait to see what they have up their sleeves for next year.
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