The Howl is back with for 2018 with heavy advertisement on the 2 new haunts this year. Red & The Attic take residency alongside Toppers Twister, Squealers Yard and The Shed. Grandma is back with Grandpa and the rest of the family, ready to start all over again. This year is Grandpa's 100th birthday and in his celebration, we were invited to his opening celebration known as the Monster Parade!
As we were half way singing happy birthday to Grandpa with the rest of the family, we were interupted by the rest of the... family? As Grandma called them out, they caused chaos in usual fashion by rampaging through the crowds before being contained back into their attractions for the evening. Once we were joined by the whole family, we finished singing the song. However, Grandma saw something coming into the distance who were covered in red cloaks and were heading towards Grandpa... It was RED! Grandpa vanished and was taken by the troops in red cloaks, as the family cowered and ran away.
We thought this was another brilliant introduction to the event and thought this was one of the cleverest introductions to open up a scare event. They mixed what they previously done by bringing each cast out before heading into the maze whilst incoperating the story of the new maze Red with the resident family, with Grandpa taking the star position for 2018. (For all of you that don't know, Grandpa is the big bad wolf).
The Howl is based in Leighton buzzard and offers 5 Horror Mazes, Street Food, Bar & Live Music at a Bedfordshire farm this October. Open for 12 nights throughout October, we highly recommend you take a visit for some of the best mazes you'll experience this Halloween. Along with a fantastic interactive street team and for 2018, they are selling merch such as The Howl hoodies, underwear and even knickers!
Our official rating of the event can be found below along with our thoughts on all the mazes!
Organisation: 7/10 - Atmosphere: 9/10 - Attractions: 9/10 - Overall: 25/30
The Shed
The Shed is a returning attraction for 2018 after its solid performence last year. Very little changes have happened since 2017 however, the actors are still very loud and vocal. With so much noise happening in the dark corridors, it becomes quite disorientating with the creatures lurking in the shed...
Scare: 7/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 7/10 - Actors: 7/10 - Overall: 21/30
Toppers Twister
The resident clowns are also back this year with Toppers Twister. The clowns were even crazier than last year, with the energy from the actors being the best we've seen so far during Halloween. The layout hasn't changed and the themeing isn't the best however, the scares just kept coming with the clowns asking us to sing happy birthday and cheering on with their party blowers. A fun and top class attraction for a returning classic, especially with Mr Topper waiting for you at the end...
Scare: 8/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 5/10 - Actors: 10/10 - Overall: 23/30
Squealers Yard
A truely terrifying experience along with the biggest cast by The Howl. A favourite from last year does not dissapoint as it comes back for 2018. Nothing has changed inside in terms of layout and themeing but the scares come back stronger with the actors pushing for every scream they can from everybody. Most attractions need time to warm up and actors to learn the ropes however the Squealers Yard team do not. The best run through we have had personally from all of the attractions we have experienced to date this year! The intense experience uses indoor and outdoor spaces, seperates you from the ones you love and leaves the actors able to come for you at all angles with no help...
Scare: 10/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 8/10 - Actors: 10/10 - Overall: 28/30
Red
The first of the two next mazes The Howl have introduced this year. Replacing House of Hounds from 2017, a lot of the advertisement and hype for The Howl has been based on this maze. Remember to #ResistRed. Sadly, this was the weakest maze of the night for us. Scares were not the focus of this maze and the actors were really not there to be scary, but to progress the story. Saying that, the themeing inside and storyline matched perfectly and had some incredible little gems inside the maze. The main part would be visitng Grandma's house and meeting the big bad wolf.. I mean Grandpa, is that you?
Scare: 5/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 8/10 - Actors: 5/10 - Overall: 18/30
The Attic
The other brand new haunt for 2018, The Attic takes place where Hotel De Basquerville was last year. They have continued the story on from the hotel by using a lot of the previous sets and rooms however, The Attic wasn't open before. Added to a slightly different route around the hotel, we took the stairs up to the attic and experienced the unusual creatures that were living inside. This was quite creepy actually entering the upper floor of the building as it felt and looked like an actual attic. The music was creepy and really matched with the actors in this scene. With it being quite short, the rest of the maze did continue on with short sharp shocks and big impactful scares to our group. The question you have to answer is, can you #EscapeTheAttic at The Howl this year...
Scare: 9/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 8/10 - Actors: 8/10 - Overall: 25/30
Overall, The Howl is still such an incredible event and hidden gem. Compared to other events, the actors energy levels are non compareable. With haunts like Toppers Twister, Squealers Yard & The Attic all taking our breath away, which is over half of their haunts, it's totally worth a visit. If you have a spare evening this Halloween, take a visit to The Howl and experience the 2 new mazes along with the incredible 3 returning mazes for a night you won't forget. Don't forget to say hi to Grandma for us...
