Dr. Fright’s Halloween Nights has returned with yet another huge trail, this time dotted with seven scary mazes with completely new themes. Styled as Horrorfest, this route promises a deadly lineup of musical talents, for the story this year is that you’re at a music festival – but here you’ve got to dance until you’re dead! On the bill tonight are: “Death Metal Manor”, “Rave from the Grave”, “El Sangriento”, “The Grindhouse: Blood Country”, “Summer Camp Massacre”, “Play Me and Die!”, and “Killer Clowns Greatest Hits”. One of the most unique scare events in the UK, Dr. Fright’s Halloween Nights: Horrorfest keeps both the beats…and your blood…pumping in 2025.
Dr. Fright’s has an insane amount of cast, creating worlds full of crazy characters from wall to wall. The cast in the second half of the trail was stronger and more interactive, and seemed purposeful and committed to their roles, while we wished the cast in the first half would have been a bit stronger. Yet it’s obvious all round that the cast members at Dr. Fright’s love what they do! The most interactive cast members of the night were those in “The Grindhouse”, who at one point kidnapped us and put us in a booth, not letting us escape until we sang a song. The clowns in “Killer Clowns Greatest Hits” were also a highlight, who stopped us for batching reasons and had hilarious conversations with us. Many of the actors got quite close and had a slightly haunting quality, while others projected an intense level of energetic madness. Highlights of the night were the roaming actors, especially a devil girl who stalked us throughout the rest of the area and into the queue, as well as a zombified cheerleader who literally got so close she was breathing down our necks!
Because Dr. Fright’s covers so many different environments, you get a fantastic blend of looks that mark each maze within the trail out as unique. In “Summer Camp Massacre” hugely convincing renditions of film horrors were everywhere. Jason struck at us in his hockey mask, but also a well-observed costume from the films themselves. Freddy Krueger looked exactly the part, with clinking claws and a prosthetic mask that was perfectly nightmarish. And, of course, we encountered many Ghostface(s), billowing towards with black robes flowing.
Other moments of sheer dread came from the makeup in “Play Me and Die!”, with ghoulish smiles smeared upon the faces of the cast, complementing the exceedingly creepy mannequins with these same smiles throughout the segment. We couldn’t not comment on “Killer Clowns Greatest Hits”, with brilliant carnival aesthetics for all actors which crossed the line from fun to fear with pops of color catching the lights almost too brightly to look upon without flinching.
In “Rave from the Grave” simple, white masking ruled, which worked well with the black lights capturing the face-forms, but was not as well-realized as some of the other costuming.
In the pitstop area, two queue actors really stood out to us. A bloodied cheerleader with makeup that made it look as if she’d had some terrible accident and had risen again, gore applied to her head; and a devil girl with prosthetic horns protruding from her skull. The latter’s makeup was blended very well, with a quality approaching motion picture prosthetics.
Overall, we had a great experience on the customer service end of our trip to Dr. Fright’s. It was relatively easy to locate, park and navigate the site, with signage in the necessary spaces. The fact that the attraction is mostly a single trail means it’s easy to figure out where to go. All the ticket takers, roaming actors, and other staff around the park were lovely. There was one security guard who wasn’t as friendly, who we had approached with a question about where to line up with our specific ticket option, and he was quite abrupt, not really listening to our question – but we think he was probably quite stressed on such a busy night. We also had no issues with finding information prior to our arrival. Dr. Fright’s has an easy to navigate website and social, and all our digital communications with them were straightforward and pleasant.
The entire trail is broken into a few different tents, with main pre-haunt theming areas. Each of these areas really established an amazing atmosphere to prepare us for the experience, starting with a facade covered in guitars and other rock, metal, and band paraphernalia, with a Rammstein track in the background, to kick off the first zone of the night, “Death Metal Manor”. Other facades on the trail included a clown tent covered in fun moving colourful lights and a clown face, and a wooden facade reminiscent of a summer camp complete with a moving silhouette of an axe murderer behind a window. All of the zones linked together in one trail, with a rest stop in between with roaming actors, and all ending in a final space full of concessions and fairground games.
Within the trail itself, we were completely immersed for the most part, especially as all of the worlds are fully realised spaces from set design to special effects and to the actors that live within them. However, this year we did have a bit of a negative experience with the audiences we had arrived with, with a very rambunctious group of teens in front of us who ruined the first two or three zones. Upon exiting these first zones, we did try and see if we could restart the trail, but due to the way the experience was set up, this was just not possible. Ploughing ahead, we let this group pass us and tried again, but the time between batched groups overall seemed less this
year, often leading to slight queues within the mazes. We’ve never had this problem at Dr. Fright’s, but perhaps that’s because we always tend to go on super off-peak days early in the season, and this night was really busy. And although we do think the short spaces between batches did affect our experience, this batching system is still better than a lot of scare attractions we’ve gone to, and we still had a really good experience despite the crowds!
This year’s theme “Horrorfest” put sound front and centre of the experience at Dr. Fright’s – and boy did they deliver! The different soundtracks in all the mazes were booming, fitting perfectly within their zones while somehow, miraculously, not bleeding into others. “Death Metal Manor” had some great metal tunes circulating throughout, with Rammstein starting off our experience with a bang. “Rave from the Grave” blasted techno beats as you moved through, creating an electrifying energy in the space. The strongest maze soundscape was definitely “Killer Clowns Greatest Hits”. Each zone had an announcer in a crazed clown voice talking about what the clowns were doing in each area in a humorous yet horrifying manner, all on top of fun and energising music that had us dancing with the clowns all the way to the exit.
It’s unbelievable to us what Dr. Fright’s can deliver with their pop-up event in terms of scenic design – all their worlds are intensely immersive, not to mention unique, creating something amazing and terrifying under simple marquees. “Death Metal Manor” dropped us in a Satanic metal band’s world, while “Rave from the Grave” pulled us through a fluorescent graveyard of tombs, monuments and skeletons. “El Sangriento” was set up like a Mexican bar with an abandoned music stage, whereas “The Grindhouse” had an intricate set depicting a decrepit farmstead with hay bales leading your way.
However, it’s in the second half of the trail that Dr. Fright’s really shines with their immersive detail. “Summer Camp Massacre” started with an actual camping ground complete with over a dozen tents in an outdoor working cinema, continued with a fun Ghostface mirror maze, and finished with the best scene of the night: a river created with lasers, fog and lights, complete with kayaks set up at the waterline. “Play Me and Die!” had the most terrifying scenic designs, with several different rooms filled with tons of characters with horrifically smiling faces, including a schoolroom with little girls with their heads turned around and another with mannequins at beauty stations with hairdryers, smiling at you through the mirrors. Finally, one can’t forget all the different themed zones within “Killer Clowns Greatest Hits”, which created clowns on a spaceship with panels and pictures of the Earth rotating, clowns in Ibiza complete with a pool party club created from smoke, lasers and inflatable pool toys, and finally clowns at a supermarket!
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 9
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 7.75
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 9
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 9
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 8
Our experience at Dr. Fright’s throughout the years has shown us that they really know how to provide a variety of different scares, and this year they did not disappoint. While the first half of the trail relied mostly on jump scares, we did have an amazing experience with “The Grindhouse”, with a super interactive cast who surrounded us on all sides and even locked us in a room. “Summer Camp Massacre” had the most frequent scares, with serial killers jumping out of every crevice that could possibly exist, whether this was through a cinema screen, through a mirror, and even through the ceiling above us. This maze utilized a mirror maze section amazingly, with Ghostface mannequins at every corner, leaving us confused as to where the real Ghostface was! There were also great use of illusion scares here, with an actor timing his moment perfectly in a river created from fog and lasers to surprise us.
Dr. Fright’s strength has always been in misdirection and distraction – they absolutely love to put a ton of mannequins and props in a room, forcing one to constantly ask themselves which might be real, and distract audiences from where the actual scare comes from. This was done to great effect in “Summer Camp Massacre” and especially in “Play Me and Die!”. In this latter maze, just the creepy tableaus themselves were some of the scariest things we’ve seen all season. The room full of schoolgirls with their heads turned backward, faces smiling up at us bloody and red, as well as the beauty salon full of smiling faces, still haunts us days after experiencing them.
It took us 49 minutes to walk through the entire scary experience at Dr. Frights, and with tickets as low as £25, this is just under 2 minutes per pound of entertainment, which is extremely high! You get so many different scary experiences at Dr. Fright’s, with unique mazes that tread the line between fun and frights in the best ways possible. The mazes are always incredibly unique, and year after year this is one of our favorite places to come for the absolutely mind-boggling worlds they create. They’ve got some additional entertainment on offer, including a video feed inside of the haunts where you can watch people get scared, as well as concessions and photo ops. We do still think there could be a bit more on offer to boost the atmosphere of the space to invite people to stay longer onsite. This year they have also added a spooky American school bus with a beautiful retro bar inside, which was a fun place to grab a pint! The best additional entertainment of the night by far was the roaming actors – they are always on point and super committed to their roles, and we would love to see more of them, especially at the end of the mazes!
Clay Lane, Earls Burton, Northamptonshire NN6 0EP