Set deep in the woods of Thornhurst Manor Country Park in South Yorkshire, Doncaster Fear Factory invites you to face a night of pure horror. Returning for the first time since 2023, we were excited to find the event completely reinvigorated, featuring five refreshed mazes, including two brand-new additions for this year. Check in for a fatal stay at the “Shellton Motel”, descend into the disease-ridden tunnels of “Quinlens & Co”, confront your deepest fears in “Friargate Foundry”, cross ways with the witches of “Crackle Hill: The Summoning”, and step into the shadows of “Diabolus: Visum Mortis”.
Beyond the mazes, two scare zones bring the horror to life: “Uncle Dork’s Scare Zone”, where crazed clowns close in for shocking encounters, and “Crimson Harvest”, where the scarecrow keepers of the corn stir once more. This year’s Doncaster Fear Factory feels bigger, darker, and more ambitious than before, a cold evolution that cements its reputation as one of Yorkshire’s top Halloween scare parks.
The cast throughout most of Doncaster Fear Factory delivered outstanding performances that made every corner of the different haunts feel alive with danger. From physical intensity to unnerving stillness, they threw themselves into their roles.
At the “Shellton Motel”, our check-in experience began with a theatrical scene. The hotel receptionist introduced the story, warning us that an escaped killer had been freed and was nearby. What followed was the best kind of bedlam, with actors bursting from motel doorways, slamming blinds, and shouting over the blare of alarms as a SWAT team herded us between rooms, corridors, and the outside world. The huge number of performers was extraordinary, with some appearing and disappearing in quick order. It felt like being trapped inside a disaster unfolding before us. “Quinlens & Co” offered a slower burn, but with much unnerving physical acting. Set within a plague-ridden bakery and introduced with another vignette of the baker herself who offers you stale old bread, the performers staggered and creeped with abnormal motions, while plague doctors crawled through the murk with shimmering masks. One actor even reached out to hold our hands as we crawled through a dark tunnel, so we had no way of seeing who was doing the holding. This moment was eerie, but also strangely intimate.
Things turned chaotically brilliant again in “Friargate Foundry”, a maze that tested boundaries of bodily performance in an effort to measure us “test subjects” fear. Dozens of actors shoved, poked, and jeered at us through scenes of dental torment (where the dentist took one of us and forced him into his chair for an examination!) and prisoner escapes, with actors contorting from ceilings and walls in a constant bombardment. Clowns told us to stick out our tongues for inspections and the performers’ coordination made the maze overwhelming. At “Crackle Hill: The Summoning”, repetition was used to sustain terror. Characters would disappear only to come back moments later from unforeseen angles, most notably a knife-wielding woman who reappeared several times. Others grabbed our ankles and struck when our guard was down, although we felt the characters were a little less fleshed out here.
In “Diabolus: Visum Mortis”, the cast shifted their performances, for this was a (partially) dark maze. Caped nuns emerged from the blackness with furious precision, yelling condemnations and delivering scares through sheer intensity rather than closeness. Whilst less mobile than in other mazes, there were still plenty of cast members here.
Outside, “Uncle Dork’s Scare Zone” and “Crimson Harvest” both offered fast, keen encounters from actors within these pass-through zones. Clowns toyed with us in sudden bursts of hostility, while silent scarecrow actors froze in eerie stillness before lunging forward without notice. At the entrance to “Crimson Harvest” a towering scarecrow with glowing fingers touched our heads with his boney hands and added a charismatic threat, playful in distorted, rattling words via a voice changer. Even between mazes, roaming performers ensured no moment of serenity. One infected performer provided a close encounter, inspecting our skin with disturbing attentiveness in a very touchy way!
Across Doncaster Fear Factory, costuming and makeup worked to distinguish each haunt’s world, often balancing realism with theatricality. While some areas leaned toward the understated, others embraced full visual display. The collective result was a credible, unsettling aesthetic that sustained the illusion of peril.
In “Shellton Motel”, the costumes grounded the chaos in a sense of time-specific realism. The front desk receptionist, dressed in 1940s/50s clothing, immediately set the scene, while the SWAT team, who were clad in full tactical gear, reinforced the sense of a police chase. Though some costumes here felt less developed than those in other haunts, they served their purpose well in conveying the setting’s period. “Quinlens & Co” took a more controlled approach. The plague doctors, dressed in traditional beaked masks and muted clothes, were effective within the poorly lit tunnels, even if the designs themselves didn’t push boundaries. The shadowy environment did most of the heavy lifting, casting long silhouettes that turned simple designs into phantoms.
In “Friargate Foundry”, the costuming was among the strongest of the night. The bloodied dentist and deranged inmates were realised with convincing dirt and distressing detail, helping to especially sell medical and carceral horror. A standout element was The Operator (a figure glimpsed only through an introductory video – and who is incidentally the mascot of the entire park) wearing a demonic goat mask. The absence of this character in person felt like a missed chance, as his design was one of the most unique.
“Crackle Hill: The Summoning” favoured simplicity. The witches here wore minimal makeup, which perhaps suited the country/folk-horror surroundings, with no masks being used. The restraint in their appearance gave their movements and performances more gravitas. As with many of these mazes, the vignette actors were particularly strong in the costume department. The fortune teller who guided us into the séance-like card reading sequence stood out with a far more detailed costume, embodying the mysterious nature of the room.
“Diabolus: Visum Mortis” delivered a visual highlight through its use of religious iconography. The (un)holy sisters, dressed in full habits, were illuminated by strobing lights that transformed their silhouettes into menacing flashes of wrathful devotion. The makeup was understated, allowing the lighting to carry the impact.
Beyond the mazes, the roaming actors also contributed to the visual cohesion of the park. The clowns were particularly successful, especially a masked, demonic chainsaw clown who pursued us throughout the evening, revving his saw. As memorable were the corn-stuffed scarecrows, their faces shrouded in burlap, evoking the sinister stillness of figures that might leap to life at any moment (which, of course, they did!).
We found it easy to locate Doncaster Fear Factory, and there was good and well-lit signage on the road and directing us into Thornhurst Manor Country Park, on which it is sited. Navigation within the site was fairly simple, with intermediate directional signage to the various haunts throughout, and some maps as well. One area that we slightly struggled with was locating the toilet facilities, which whilst marked on the map didn’t appear to be exactly in the location specified. We did eventually find them, but unfortunately these were not particularly well-maintained.
We saw no instances of safety concerns in any of the mazes or at the venue generally. Although, of course, the park had a threatening atmosphere, nothing posed a real danger to us.
The staff members we encountered at the check-in desk and ticket lines were all kind, helpful, and enthusiastic, but we did notice that overall the park seemed to lack the staff numbers we’ve seen elsewhere, occasionally leaving us turned around whilst wayfinding.
Doncaster Fear Factory has an excellent website, with all the information you’d require clearly laid out and accessible, including a calendar, frequently asked questions, ticketing, and contact.
Beginning the moment you entered the pre-haunt queue areas the sense of immersion across the site was powerful. These lines felt cinematic, with intricate sets, lighting, and soundscapes that made waiting an experience. The transition from one world to another felt intentional, each space introducing a distinct tone through its sights and sounds. The storytelling quality varied from maze to maze, but the creative use of opening vignettes gave each one a firm narrative foothold before the action started.
“Shellton Motel” immediately impressed with its atmospheric staging. The facade of the structure, paired with distorted 1940s music and sweeping searchlights, made you want to know more about the story. Sirens and helicopter effects added urgency, while the lobby sequence (where guests were greeted by a distressed receptionist and shown a televised news report about an escaped murderer) drew everyone straight into the tale. It felt very genuine.
At “Quinlens & Co”, the immersion took on a more historical quality. The pre-haunt shopfront and layered sound design, with echoing horse trots, shouting plague doctors, and desperate pleas from sickness sufferers, established a 19th-century setting impressively (albeit ahistorically, given that by the period in question bubonic plague was not prevalent). Voices cried “Bring out your dead,” creating a sense of dread even before entering the maze itself. It was a convincing opening that placed visitors in the grip of illness and myth.
“Friargate Foundry” offered one of the clearest narrative through-lines of the evening. The story of a facility designed to test human fears was explained through a video presentation, grounding the horrors that followed in believable circumstances. Within, the set design continued that sense of location, shifting between clinical fear and imprisonment. It felt like an experiment we had volunteered for!
The folklore-inspired “Crackle Hill: The Summoning” was quite different and focused on a legend of witches luring local children to their doom through dastardly ceremonies. The story gave the maze a distinct character, transforming the rural setting into something strange. Its simplicity worked in its favour, relying on performance and pacing rather than elaborate effects to maintain immersion.
“Diabolus: Visum Mortis” offered less narrative structure but made up for it in visual and emotional strength. The near-darkness and oppressive atmosphere created a sense of spiritual conflict, even without a defined storyline. It functioned more as a visceral than plotted experience.
Between haunts, forest pathways carried us from one nightmare to the next. The flicker of lights on either side and the echo of distant screams in response to roaming chainsaws was quite immersive in the less populated areas. While these areas were effective in sustaining the air of foreboding, some of the trails came quite close to incoming queue lines, softening the illusion.
The special effects across Doncaster Fear Factory demonstrated a careful balance of detail and practical design. From convincing environments to multi-sensory experiences that played with light, sound, and even smells, the park showed impressive range in how it built its worlds and sustained tension from haunt to haunt.
“Shellton Motel” opened with one of the most noticeable uses of sound and lighting. The exterior of the haunt was framed by distorted 1940s tunes, interrupted by sweeping searchlights, the whir of helicopter blades, and blasting sirens that shattered the calm. Inside, the lobby felt real, and later corridors lined with doors leading to hotel rooms. The bathroom set was something else, not for its visual accuracy but for its overwhelming, unsettling odour that added another layer of the grotesque. Every detail contributed to the sense that something dreadful had happened here…and might again happen at any moment.
In “Quinlens & Co”, it was all about sensory storytelling. The late 19th-century soundscape in the pre-haunt area was comprehensive: reverberating hooves, cries of “Bring out your dead,” and despairing voices pleading for mercy not to have their children taken constructed a world steeped in fear and disease. Starting in a plague-stricken bakery before descending into the sewers, the transition was excellent. The cellars felt subterranean, complete with damp stone textures, hanging vines, and the constant dripping of water (including water features which gushed). The smells of decay and wetness were distinctly present, making the environment one of the most realised of the night.
“Friargate Foundry” focused on simplicity but still featured a few memorable moments. The dentist’s office, with its blue chair and tools gleaming under harsh light (some of which were picked up and used on us!), immediately made you feel that pain was forthcoming. The penitentiary relied more on lighting and sound to create anxiety, with echoing clangs and screams, all backed by a loud soundscape.
“Crackle Hill: The Summoning” adopted a more controlled and paired-back approach to effects. The set, built from wooden pallets, was minimal but practical, evoking the feeling of an isolated rural building. The persistent lullaby that filled the maze tingled us with its icy monotony. Though the maze lacked complex effects, the sound design carried much of the weight, maintaining a ghostly quality.
“Diabolus: Visum Mortis” experimented with perception itself. Instead of using blindfolds, the maze guided us through near-total darkness with a rope. Sudden shifts in light and dark unveiled the horrors within. The sparing use of other effects made every flicker of light or unexpected noise feel intentional.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 6.75
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 9
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 8.05
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 7.2
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 6.8
One of the unique aspects of Doncaster Fear Factory is their approach to how they scare audiences. A popular strategy in many of the mazes was the constant recycling and reuse of some of the same actors over and over again as they appeared out of any doorway, hole in the wall or window you could think of – this was exceptionally intelligent, and meant that their mazes were really well thought out in order to be able to accommodate cast movements this way. A deadly creature was never done with you when you escaped them – they kept coming back, and you never knew where they might pop out from next or when you might be rid of them. Mazes that did this the best were certainly “Shellton Motel” and “Friargate Foundry” – actors came out of nowhere and made us jump, exiting into another crevice, before appearing moments later somewhere completely different. This added a sense of complete chaos that was very welcome, and kept high energy levels in the spaces we were navigating.
The other scariest feature these mazes relied on was the shock factor in touch – arms grabbed at you from all sides, whether dropping from the ceilings, reaching through windows, or grabbing at your ankles from underneath curtains and tables. As still relative newbies to touch haunts (having been wimps in our first few years of haunt going and staying well away from them), this type of scare tactic is still really effective for us, much more than your general pop-up scares.
Doncaster Fear Factory is a medium sized scare park – its central hub is where most of its extracurricular activities are while some of the mazes are further afield after the smallest of walks through a haunting forest. The atmosphere of the surrounding forest really adds to the ambience of this scare event, and the way the park has used their two scare zones to link all these paths together is a great step. With these two zones, five mazes and an entertainment area, there is definitely a significant amount of entertainment on offer.
We ended up with just under 30 minutes of mazes during the night. With prices varying wildly depending on whether you attend on peak or offpeak days, ranging from £25 to £45, this roughly amounts to a little over £1 per minute of maze scares on their cheaper nights. This is a bit less than other parks we’ve gone to, so isn’t the best scream value for money we’ve experienced this season, but a lot of love and work has certainly gone into this park and it’s unarguably worth visiting. It’s good to note that Doncaster Fear Factory does batching pretty well here – groups tend to be no bigger than 8, often smaller, with the average appearing to be approximately 4-6 people, and most of the attractions timed out to be 3 minutes per group admitted, which meant absolutely no queueing problems in the mazes themselves. However, the 3 minutes per group also meant that queue times to get into haunts were significant – we were at the park for practically 3 hours and barely had time to do anything outside of the mazes themselves, so that’s definitely something to consider when going, especially on busier nights.
Our favourite bits of this park were definitely the roaming actors and the two scare zones, as well as the facades of newer mazes like “Quinlens and Co” and “Shellton Motel”. It’s clear that Doncaster Fear Factory is upping their game every year, and we’re excited for what next season may bring!
Holme Ln, Owston, Doncaster DN5 0LR
