Halloween has officially started as Tulleys Shocktober Fest opens for the first night, which is also the press and VIP night this year. With an impressive 9 attractions, rides and street theatre starring for the 2018 fright season. The brand new attraction this year is the Circus of Horrors. An outsourced circus that been brought into the park that runs an hourly show, containing freaks accompanied by music which present their screamishly horrifying act(s). We found the acts that performed to be truly stunning and is great to see a 20 minute show added to the park to take you away from the mazes. Each show has different elements so you can keep going back to watch the next show, if you choose to do so.
UPDATE 21/10/18 - Tulleys Shocktober Fest kindly invited us back to check out all of the changes they have made since the opening of the event which certainly made a big impact to our repeat visit. We were lucky enough to visit all the attractions once again to see them working at full potential during a peak Sunday night! See below for our notes on our updated thoughts...
Twisted Clowns 3D
Twisted Clowns remains largely unchanged from last year, a psychedelic journey with the 3D glasses that makes the neon scenery come to life. This maze featured some of the most energetic actors we encountered through the whole night. Using a mixture of comedy, scares, loud bangs among other effects, to create a Twisted carnival full of clowns who were not short of being interactive with all guests.
Scare: 7/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 6/10 - Actors: 9/10 - Overall: 22/30
The Cellar (Extended for 2018)
Another classic attraction to the Tulleys line up. This haunted house included some great scares in the deepest and darkest corners of the haunt. Mainly being quiet dark and gloomy inside, the actors used this to their advantage and meant they had some good vantage points to get you from. The themeing inside hasn't changed too much but was still as good as the rest of the haunts and last year. The park has advertised an extended and slightly updated version for 2018 however, we struggled to find this during our run through but then again, it's been a year!
UPDATE: As we got to experience this again, we managed to get a more in-depth look inside the attractions. Points we didn't mention before would be that the queue line now has multiple cages towards the end of the queueing, which gives it more of a themed creepy feel before entering the experience. Alongside this, the extension was now noted and working at full strength with the rest of the attraction. This being a strobe caged room in the attraction with heavy loud music playing whilst you make your way through trying to escape from the inhabitants! Certainly worth coming back to see the changes for this!
Scare: 7/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 9/10 - Actors: 8/10 - Overall: 24/30
Creepy Cottage
The weakest maze of the event, Creepy Cottage returns as one of the classics. The attraction keeps to its name, with it being definitely creepy inside. As we have seen in previous years, a lack of actors ruined some of the empty corridors and didn't create many scares at all when we did cross their path. The set pieces we did come across were still high quality but apart from being creepy, we didn't really enjoy this haunt.
Scare: 2/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 3/10 - Actors: 5/10 - Overall: 10/30
The Village - Coven of 13
Back for its third year, The Coven of 13 brings a very similar but lengthy experience to the farm. Minor improvements can be seen through the attraction with the themeing and effects however, not much has changed for this with it being a relatively new attraction to the park. Plenty of actors can be seen scattered throughout the haunt and the mixture of indoors and outdoors elements make the scares unpredictable and unexpected at times. However, we still had the ending effect not working like previously and the attraction could of been much stronger with minor tweaks.
Scare: 5/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 6/10 - Actors: 6/10 - Overall: 17/30
VIXI
To ensure there's a variety of attractions, Tulleys have once again brought back their hooded maze. The theme of this maze feels quite mismatched with a crypt style entrance and ending in what looks like an industrial warehouse. The overall experience is reasonably good with a fair number of actors and some effects to fill empty spaces. The finale surprise(s) is what makes the maze, and is worth experiencing for.
UPDATE: Wow, what a change for a hooded maze! Intensity was turned up to another level during our peak Sunday visit. Even though the groups being batched through were the largest we have seen in an event, the scares from all the actors got us when we least expected it. Before a weak maze, now joins the rest of the park in an incredible line up. Congrats to the actors for keeping this up all night also!
Scare: 7/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 5/10 - Actors: 7/10 - Overall: 19/30
The Haunted Hayride
The Haunted Hayride is arguably Tulleys most iconic attraction, being one of the largest scale attractions around with impressive set pieces and combining humour & scares on your tractor tour of Horrorwood Studios.
Unfortunately this time around we felt it lacked the same WOW factor as previous years, this was due to a combination of what felt like less actors with more dead space, and some unfavourable changes to scenes which had less of an impact for scares and fun. #BringBackThePoleDancingNun
We still think this is a solid & enjoyable attraction, but maybe it's time for a completely new theme next year?
UPDATE: Who says attractions do not listen to feedback? We asked, we got! After some dreadful scenes originally used on opening night, The Haunted Hayride has had some significant work since to make it back to its original high quality experience that we know and love it for. We didn't quite get the pole dancing nuns but we got something pretty similar #SingleLadies. The effects were all back and working with some new additions along with an entirely new ending which we totally weren't expecting! Best turnaround we have seen an attraction do in a short space of time this Halloween!
Scare: 9/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 9/10 - Actors: 9/10 - Overall: 27/30
The Colony
(Extended for 2018)
"As the world shook with debris and dark matter, the tectonic plates moved to create great gashes in the earth. A toxic gas from deep in the earth's core escaped into the atmosphere. Now everyone's days are numbered. But what will get you first? The poisonous air or the deadly inhabitants of The Colony?"
One of the largest mazes we've ever escaped, The Colony returns for 2018 with the promise of it being extended! With it's key feature being length, it does mean actors can't be exactly everywhere in the maze however, the scale of the team is well spread throughout with perfect scare opportunities being taken at every corner. The parts where there were no actors to be seen were quiet and terrifying.
The themeing used in The Colony features beautiful inside areas mixed with impressive outside sets. Black corridors, tight cellars and the large outside spaces all used together to make you feel exposed at every point during this attraction. A slight improvement from the previous years and a crazy to make one of the longest mazes, even longer!
Scare: 8/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 7/10 - Actors: 7/10 - Overall: 23/30
The Chop Shop
Hate chainsaws? Then this will be your worst nightmare! The Chop Shop returns once again as one of the most popular and talked about attractions at Tulleys providing one of the most intense experiences around.
The maze is so brilliantly set out with the first half incorporating the storyline of the garage with some high quality themeing and lots of verbal interaction with the actors. You're then sent on your way into the fridge finale to MEAT your fate with blood splattered walls, strobes and hungry residents. This 'finale' which is a good half of the maze and seems to last an eternity really picked up intensity towards the very end to create complete chaos & terror; can still hear the noise of chainsaws grinding on the metal shipping containers now!
Scare: 9/10 - Themeing & Storyline: 7/10 - Actors: 9/10 - Overall: 25/30
Overall, Tulleys Shocktober Fest is one of the best events to go to this Halloween. For returning visitors to brand new scare lovers, Tulleys offer such a range you just can't get anywhere else this Halloween. It's such a shame that some attractions did not stay as strong as previous years however, this did not ruin the event as others picked up the scares in their place. The number of roaming actors and the atmosphere they create are brilliant and a true asset to Tulleys!
UPDATE: Our revisit allowed us to see how Tulleys Shocktoberfest really does listen to the feedback they receive. We saw some major improvments the event was needing and really brought a well made package to an incredible experience for all fright lovers to enjoy. We were amazed and shocked with how so much can happen in such a short space of time and now cannot wait until we get the chance to go back for 2019!
Organisation: 9/10 - Atmosphere: 9/10 - Attractions: 8/10 - Overall: 26/30
If you wish to head down to Tulleys, tickets are still available on the website found below! Tulleys Website