Express & Star

Be amazed by Alton Towers scares - review

“Do not touch the shoulders of the person in front of you as you will most likely be split up.”

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The Welcoming: Be Chosen, the newest Alton Towers Scare Maze

Visitors were stripped of every sense of security when they heard this on entering Alton Towers’ award-winning ScareFest.

Running on selected dates throughout October, the spook-tacular event sees the theme park remain open until 9pm so visitors can enjoy rides in the dark.

Extra entertainment is also put on including live shows, Scare Mazes, Freak Show scare zone and more.

And it was passed on by hillbillies piling visitors into a mine of Skin Snatchers, ghosts from the Towers, a Sub Species threatening to eat them or, for the newest attraction, a mysterious group who perform rituals.

ScareFest is back for 2017

The newest addition to the line-up is The Welcoming: Be Chosen.

Suitable for over-15s only, the live action horror opened this year and follows a mysterious group who were spotted in the woods on the outskirts of the park.

However, they have been angered by people using up the world’s natural resources. They have now made their way into the park to pay homage to the earth and celebrate the crossover between the living and the dead for Halloween.

The maze offers the same style of mayhem you’ll be able to experience on Alton Towers’ latest attraction, SW8, or codename Secret Weapon 8, which will open in February next year. The ride is being kept under wraps, but what is known about it so far is that it is a wooden rollercoaster and will be on the site of the Log Flume, which closed back in 2015. It is rumoured to have a wicker man theme and it reaches a height of 22 metres.

Also in the fang-tastic maze line-up is the AltonVille Mines Tour: The Legend of the Skin Snatchers; Sub Species: The End Games and Terror of the Towers.

All of these mazes have won Best Halloween Scare Attraction for Scare Con, the Europeon trade show for the scare attractions industry.

The Welcoming: Be Chosen, the newest Alton Towers Scare Maze

Each maze is suitable for those who are aged 15 or over but for younger visitors and families there is the House of Monsters, which is a mix of comedy and scares for children aged eight or over.

The House of Monsters takes young guests on a quest to unearth the truth about the residents of a spooky old

house.

Young families can enjoy four live shows with song, dance and stories, plus take a spin on more than 20 attractions at dusk.

Throughout the park, there were dancing flashmobs of Alton Ancestors who interacted with visitors and performed live shows throughout the day.

Overall it’s a very immersive experience and things are guaranteed to go bump in the night

ScareFest runs this weekend, and again from October 20 to 31. For more information and to book tickets, see altontowers.com/activities/events/scarefest. But be warned, enter at your own risk!