Monday, 21 October 2019 00:00

Review: Oakwood's Spooktacular 2019

Oakwood Theme Park's Spooktacular has returned for Halloween in 2019 with a brand new attraction. We were invited to the exclusive press evening for a preview of all it has to offer.

The annual Halloween celebration sees the park add a host of spooky attractions on top of all it's usual rides. It takes place every day during the autumn half term from 26th October to 2nd November 2019.

New for 2019, Spooktacular welcomes the brand new scare maze, Clowning Around. The park had also planned to debut a second new scare maze, Y Pentref (the village), but unfavourable weather conditions have made the area unsuitable for use.

As well as the new attraction, the event also sees the return of popular scare mazes Hide.Run. and Witch Hunt.

Most of the fun takes place in and around the very nicely themed Spooky Street area of the park, featuring The Creepy Crawler family roller coaster, Spooky 3D dark ride, Witches' Brew tea cups, The Cauldrons trampolines and Witch Hunt scare maze.

Witch Hunt was nominated for a top industry award after making the shortlist for the 2019 SCAR Awards.

The live action scare maze uses a combination of specially created audio, lighting and other effects, along with enthusiastic live actors. There is a very effective pre-show that ramps up the anticipation and delivers an opening scare before heading on to face an intense smoke and strobe filled maze.

In a fun novelty, visitors are able to watch the action in Witch Hunt unfold live on screens within the adjacent pizza outlet The Haunt.

Hide. Run. returns for 2019 with a revamped layout and challenge. You must evade blood thirsty zombies, in a time based challenge to escape the maze.

The pre-show sets up the experience perfectly and being 'against the clock' to escape the maze really adds to the excitement, making it feel frenzied. All the zombies chase you and block your path and if you fail to escape in time, prepare to face a thrilling final scene with a chainsaw wielding zombie.

The structure of the maze is made of shipping containers, crates, oil drums and water tanks, with indoor and outdoor sections, strobe lighting and a generous quantity of dense smoke.

Unfortunately, new attraction Clowning Around was really disappointing. We cannot fault the actors, who did their best to make it work, but without any proper sets or decent props it didn't look or feel anything like a circus.

It is housed in The Oak Tree restaurant, and so the very temporary nature of the attraction is evident. Bare metal fencing, white sheets and black tarpaulin do very little to hide the normal function of the space.

For those looking for an extra thrill, Oakwood has late night Spooktacular Bites Back events on 26th and 31st October, where the park will remain open until 8.30pm, enabling you to enjoy all of the Halloween attractions, as well as a selection of Oakwood’s regular rides, in the dark.

For the press evening, we were delighted that all the attractions in Spooky Street were open, but the highlight was multiple rides on the excellent wooden roller coaster Megafobia in the dark. What a fantastic experience!

Book your 'Fright for 4' tickets from just £20 per person at www.oakwoodthemepark.co.uk

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