Goostrey Graveyards, a new scare attraction in Cheshire, both terrifies and enchants with five intensely exciting and interactive experiences, paving the way for a new brand of fear deep in the woods of the North West UK. While Goostrey Graveyards do offer family-friendly spooks on many of their evenings, they also have a few intense adult-only nights, bringing a super immersive and theatrical experience to haunt lovers of all ages. This isn’t your average “boo” attraction, indeed we’ve been told the word “boo” is banned here, but instead a formidable adventure into the distressing, the disturbing, and the delightful!
Goostrey Graveyard’s secret sauce is truly their exceptional cast, who created absolute magic on the night we attended with their amazing improv skills, dedication to character building, and ability to tread the line between fear and fun in impressive ways. Some of our favourite cast of the night were the clowns from “Toybox of Terrors”, who really seemed to have such joy in what they were achieving and somehow made us feel welcome in the slightly claustrophobic space of an inflatable maze while also having a menacing edge to all their actions. Actors in “The Forgotten Fort” were equally as strong, with constant interaction and seemingly improvised reactions to our words and deeds. Cast in “The Hunt” really played their parts in creating some of the most threatening and terrifying creatures we’ve ever had to run away from, and the cast members in “Restless Waters” were just as magnificent, especially a zombified man who crawled along the floor to grab our feet and played into his tragic character the entire time, reminding us in a way of Billy Butcherson in Hocus Pocus, a character who brings out pity, laughter and terror all in equal measure.
One of the things that will leave a lasting impression on us from our journey through Goostrey Graveyards is surely the incredible artistry of the masks utilized throughout the park. While some of the actors within the attractions relied solely on makeup, there were a few incredible masks, which we were later told were all designed by one of the scare actors themselves. We’ve rarely seen such craftsmanship, from a teddy bear that looked as if it was rotten from the eyes to an open-faced woman in “Toybox of Terrors”, to a Fox, Raccoon and more in “The Hunt”. These masks were utilized perfectly and to terrifying effect – the silhouettes they created of intimidating creatures against the beautiful lights spotted throughout the woods? Hands down some of the most beautifully frightening things we’ve seen in a haunt!
Goostrey Graveyards gets high customer service marks from us. We had a lovely conversation with the staff before we left where they told us some of the backstory of creating the experience, and we could tell everyone at the park was really dedicated to the attraction they had designed. All the staff and roaming actors were excellent, and the signage and lighting for entering and exiting the park were clear and obvious. Our only constructive criticism would be for the information on their website – we could have done with a little more explanation of what we were experiencing (one of our team members mistakenly understood the whole experience to be a single trail, which it wasn’t), but really this is nitpicking. Everyone at this attraction was really kind and helpful, and it’s clear there is a lot of love here for providing fear and fun to all their audiences.
We’ve said this already in this review and we’ll say it again, but Goostrey Graveyards have made intelligent decisions in their maze-building concepts with their startup season of scares, creating immersive worlds from seemingly very little infrastructure. Their site-specific haunts “Restless Waters” and “The Hunt” are evocative and innovative, incorporating beautiful lighting and well-placed cast to provide a full scare experience from start to finish. These two mazes were perhaps the most interactive, and it felt like we were dropped into a live action horror movie, whether it was conversing with undead characters in “Restless Waters” or literally running (or speed-walking) for our lives while trying to avoid the characters in “The Hunt” without getting killed.
The interactivity of their indoor mazes “Toybox of Terrors” and “The Forgotten Fort” also forced us into a high level of immersion, from talking our way out from becoming victims of a treacherous and murderous family or playing with balls and toys with a chaotic troupe of clowns. The intimacy of all the spaces and the approach the actors took with audiences in them aligned perfectly and created really engaging and intriguing experiences.
While the mazes themselves in Goostrey Graveyards sometimes lacked sound design, the general use of a specific theme song in the park to tie the whole thing together provided a very cohesive character – we had this song in our head for days afterward! And while this was a new attraction with a lower budget, there was still an incredible use of special effects, including beautiful lighting (especially in “Restless Waters” and “The Hunt”) and smoke in the indoor mazes.
The company was so intelligent in their use of space, creating the entire “Shadowbound” dark maze in solely one shipping container chockablock full of effects including strobe, textures and water. And we were super impressed with their inflatable “Toybox of Terrors” maze. We’ve experienced other mazes utilizing these blow-up spaces in quite simple and unimaginative ways, but they really made us rethink inflatable mazes with their inventive use of props and misdirection throughout.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 7.6
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 10
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 7.7
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): 6.6
One of the most refreshing things about Goostrey Graveyards is that there are very few pop-up scares, which means that when they are used, they are used to great effect. The “Toybox of Terrors” was an impressive maze for the variety of scares they had to offer, whether it be your usual jump scares to directional scares where they replaced themselves with other audience members, often creating shocking and disorienting scares. They also utilized misdirection and often attempted to cajole us into a feeling of safety and relaxation until suddenly it was too late!
“The Forgotten Fort” felt like an entirely different scare attraction. We were pushed around a bit in this maze and pinned against walls, and other actions by the actors really made this feel ridiculously intense, even though it wasn’t super extreme or the most physical haunt we’ve ever been in. The physicality and behaviorisms of the actors really heightened the terror here, constantly ramping up our adrenaline and causing us to question whether we’d ever make it out alive!
At £27 for approximately 27-minutes of scare mazes, which ends up being just over £1 per minute of scares, this attraction turns out to be a little pricier than some of the other haunts we’ve attended, but for a startup company with high quality actors, this is to be expected. Goostrey Graveyards have done so much with so little, and many of their mazes in our opinion were better than some of the more tried and true attractions we’ve been to. For their startup year we were super impressed, from the theming around their park to the interactive scare actors, to the mazes themselves. While there isn’t a ton of additional entertainment on offer, with just a few food stalls, a seating area and roaming actors to keep the queues entertained, the mazes themselves give you plenty of entertainment to keep you going. “The Hunt” really tires you out, so a drink and some nibbles on their beautiful site are most welcome. This was a spectacular offer from a brand-new company, and we can’t wait to see what they come up with next year!
Goostrey Home and Leisure, Cranage Trade Park, 1 Goostrey Ln, Goostrey, Crewe, England CW4 8HE