It’s that time of year again when we bring you our thoughts on Alton Towers latest Halloween offering and this year there have been improvements made to finally step out of the staleness of the last few seasons. Here is our Alton Towers Scarefest 2023 review.
Scarefest has been a stagnating event for quite some time now. The same mazes coming back year after year after year with zero effort or changes made to enhance the experience.
2023 has brought a number of changes added but with a few of those stale mazes still lingering at the event.
Let’s take a deep dive into each individual experience at this years Halloween event as we bring you this Alton Towers Scarefest 2023 review.
Daz Games Panic Review – 3/5

Daz Games Panic is certainly an experience that has had many curious and one of the more surprising additions that you’ll see within this Alton Towers Scarefest 2023 review.
This is premise that is so out of Alton Towers comfort zone that it feels like an experience that would have debuted at Thorpe Park instead of Towers.
A first of its kind players are given a wristband and two symbols to remember before being let into a scare maze. Within the scare maze are symbols that you need to scan and once you’ve scanned your symbols you escape, the person with the quickest escape time is the winner but there’s a catch, you’re not alone in the scare maze.
Filled full of smoke and guard rails, not to mention creatures of the night Daz Games Panic was certainly fun in terms of its tech execution. Going around trying to find your symbol and even completing tasks to scan your band was something different but one couldn’t help but find negatives.
As much as I loved the premise of the maze we were running around an empty building full of guard rails and smoke. There was zero theming of note and for this particular experience it was entirely needed but there was zero effort made on the theming front.
All of the money has clearly been spent on the wristband technology and it worked beautifully, there was no issues with registering the band, discovering my symbols and registering my competition time.
You are given 7 minutes to escape and I managed to escape in 2 minutes and I was ranked in second place a mere 15 seconds behind the lad who won.
I’ve just paid £10 for a maze I’ve been inside for 2 minutes. Next time I should purposely take my time and get my moneys worth.
Was it worth £10?
Absolutely not.
It was very simple in its execution but with how bare it was the price felt extortionate. For £5 I’d have been well impressed with both price point and quirky experience but £10 is absolutely ridiculous.
At this moment in time, you can walk through our Museum of Horrors for £10pp with a guided tour and a duration of up to 60 minutes within the building. 
Daz Games certainly made you panic by trying to find the symbols but I found the pre-show scarier than anything within the maze. It was a little bit of a cheesy pre show but it slowly descended into madness and it had a chilling effect.
So chilling in fact I was looking around the maze to see younger kids reactions as it was a little more intense than I was expecting for a maze collab with a gaming YouTuber.
Daz Games Panic certainly has the unique element nailed down I just feel it needed to be in a better more themed environment with more actors who can touch you etc.
Theming – 0/5
Acting – 2/5
Scare Factor – 2/5
Darkest Depths Scarefest Review – 2/5

Whilst I loved this maze when it first opened I feel as though now it’s time to go.
Dragging on and on with the same mazes every year is just getting annoying and for some reason this maze had even less actors than last year.
Some actors were half arsing their acting (it was early in the day too so tiredness certainly wasn’t an excuse) but it was a lacklustre run-through with us being in the middle of the line.
There were a few jump scares at the front of the conga line and as is the case with many scare mazes it’s very much location, location, location dependent when it comes to your scares.
Aromaprime scents are still smashing it with creating the atmosphere and its still a beautiful maze to walkthrough but the ship has well and truly sunk on this particular maze and they need to strike this one off the Scarefest line-up for 2024.
Theming – 5/5
Acting – 2/5
Scare Factor – 2/5
The Attic Scarefest Review – 2/5

It’s back again…
Rumoured to be haunted by ‘the Governess’, local legend says she is eternally trying to avenge the death of her charges; taking the spirits of the living as penance…but who will be her next victim?
So last year The Attic suffered from a lighting issue that plunged us into complete darkness from start to finish during every single run-through. This year we had the complete opposite, too much light.
Every set was brightly lit and you could see absolutely everything you were walking towards. The balance certainly hasn’t been struck but for me I enjoyed seeing the details of the maze more than anything trying to jump out at me.
Scenes seemed scarce of actors and the maze still feels stale in its execution.
The big devil finale has changed with the devil being considerably smaller in height this year and that led to a much more dampened finale in addition to a fireplace you crawl through that now has no heaters to simulate the fire.
The actors who were in there were more than good enough but everything just felt tired.
It’s time to go.
Theming – 4/5
Acting – 3/5
Scare Factor – 2/5
Altonville Mine Tours: Tiny’s Revenge Review – 3/5

For me, Altonville has always been the strongest Scarefest maze but it has been here close to a decade at the park and needed a change-up.
That change up came in the form of a new story, more entrance theming and a slightly different approach to the interior of the maze.
Altonville still has a claustrophic walkthrough experience but scenes from last year have been chopped and changed around and it feels more intimate than last year especially with actors coming very close to you and cornering you off from other members of the group.
Gone are the days of going through with a helmet torch as your only source of light this new version of the maze was enjoyable but wasn’t too far gone from the original Altonville Mine Tours.
A little tweak here and there but nothing that warranted the name change in the first place.
I love the entrance theming before you enter the mines, there’s more effort there and theming and I feel as though the outdoor area should have some actors within it interacting with people in the queue line but that’s just me.
Tiny’s Revenge was definitely the best maze of the bunch (as is always the case) but there just isn’t enough there to warrant the name change for me.
It’s still Altonville Mine Tours and it still needs changing up and replacing in 2024.
Details – 4/5
Acting – 4/5
Scare Factor – 3/5
The Invitation – 1/5

I don’t think this experience even deserves words to describe it. Just grunts and angry emojis.
The Invitation was the worst Scarefest experience I’ve ever witnessed last year. General feedback was appalling and I don’t think I know of one person who enjoyed it.
So guess what they did.
Brought it back for 2023!
This audio-led experience suffers from the worst scripting I’ve ever experienced, the premise and execution are woeful and this year has the addition of a little scare maze final which consisted of a few tombstones and one actor.
This was appalling, if you pay for this, they’ve got you hook line and sinker. You absolute sucker (me included).
The fact I paid for this again in the hopes that it would be different… oh how wrong I was.
AVOID, this is a shambolic experience that absolutely does not reflect the genuine quality product that audio company Darkfield usually offer with their travelling shipping container shows.
Burial Grounds Scare Zone – 5/5

A themed area near the Wicker Man welcomes Alton Towers back into the world of walkthrough scare zones.
It’s been many years since Alton Towers did a walkthrough scare zone and with The Curse At Alton Manor ride opening this year many thought that they would theme one around their latest ride.
Alas that wasn’t the case as Wicker Man got the scare zone treatment and it was wonderful.
A slow starter that quickly ramped up into something you want to do more than once.
It’s free of charge and you can see the effort they have put in to create it. It’s complete immersion as throughout the walkthrough you don’t feel like you’re in Alton Towers, that’s a rare thing to achieve!
Around the time the rollercoaster opened they had The Welcoming Scare Maze to promote the rides opening.
For me, this walkthrough experience was better than that scare maze and I paid for the privilege of that maze many moons ago.
Burial Grounds is an incredible addition to the Scarefest line-up and I hope the feedback is positive enough to warrant more scare zones being reintroduced to the park for future Scarefest events.
With a stale maze line-up this was a refreshing addition to quite a tired line-up with a few improvements just giving me enough hope for a brighter future.
Alton Towers Scarefest 2023 Review by Sean Evans