According to legend, Hallowscream arose on a farm where a horrific tragedy occurred in the latter half of the 19th century. Those souls trapped within return each Halloween season, now to torment us guests to their dead and salted earth. Located within York Maze, the largest of its kind in the UK, the scream park covers five haunted mazes, plenty of side shows, and entertainment brimming in the form of rides, bars, and chainsaw artists roaming the high vaulted halls.
There was really a variety of acting talents on display at Hallowscream, which made each maze we ventured into unique. The cast in “Rednecks Revenge” was amongst the most interactive of the night. One actress even joked mockingly that one of us looked like Sherlock Holmes! Adopting Southern accents, performers made strong eye contact and engaged in short, improvised conversations that felt natural and menacing – they wanted our noses, ears, and any body parts they could grab. The older actor with the beard stood out for his guttural growls and large presence.
“Corny’s Cornevil” had a twisted focus on clowning. Inside a deeply slanted room, we encountered a lively mix of carnival misfits, from a bearded lady to a woman with a snake who encouraged us to pet it, only for it to leap upon us. A particularly uncanny clown with glowing contact lenses felt very strange, popping up and down among the red-and-white hanging tent flaps within with unnaturally exaggerated movements. It was a small moment overall, but felt skin-crawling.
A funny Mrs. Lovett-type character opened in “The Flesh Pot”, exuberantly suggesting we were about to be baked into pies. Her dark humour and theatrical flair made this room very entertaining! In “The Singularity”, the android performers taking over the world delivered mechanised, inhuman movements that fit the sci-fi horror setting.
In “Necropolis” the cast of ancient Egyptian living mummies and undead went all-in. This meant climbing, thrusting, and even leaping from and taking over column bases with surprising power. Their vitality and hostility made the scenes feel chaotic and left us on edge. These were not the trundling mummified persons of blockbuster lore, but dynamic avengers defending their tombs.
True to its title, “Rednecks Revenge” nailed the backwoods aesthetic. The cast looked straight out of a horror-movie swamp with flannel shirts, tattered overalls, and the right amount of dirt and engine grease. Simple but effective, the costuming matched the theme.
The “Corny’s Cornevil” carnival concept came through with mixed consequences. The bearded lady and the snake handler stood out thanks to distinctive props, but the makeup and wardrobe felt a bit bumpy. The use of fluorescent contact lenses added a creepy pop, even if some costumes could’ve used more polish.
“The Singularity” impressed us a lot! The androids’ design was smooth and very realistic. The combination of metallic and beige tones, visible wiring, and the subtlety of the masks made the performers look artificial.
Unfortunately, costuming in “Necropolis” was less fully realised. It opened with a character in colonial uniform and pith helmet before shifting to undead figures in flowy dresses – the concept had potential, but the execution lacked the detail or texture needed to bring the “ancient dead” theme to life. Maybe we missed the mummies hiding in the corner, but there was a classic mummified character roaming around the main entertainment area so we got our fill in!
Hallowscream is easy to reach, and a massive skull sign points your way clearly from the main road. Lots of parking is to be had, and a drop-off point is available if you’re taking a taxi. Once inside, there is signage and maps galore to make sure you see everything.
Lovely and attentive staff members greet you at the front desk, who are more than happy to answer any questions you might have. This fun staff atmosphere continues within, with each maze fronted by attendants eager to talk and tell you what their favourite haunts of the night is. We did notice that some of the batching was inconsistent, with lines being sent in in no particular order rather than based on when we arrived, but this wasn’t a huge issue.
And, in a devil himself touch, we even had a bone-cold conversation with the Lord of Darkness, who was serving us drinks cold and bloody in “Lucifer’s Lounge”, an exclusive bar area.
There are only a few areas where things might have been slightly improved. In “Necropolis”, we got a scare on some stairs, which we think is a bit of a no-no for safety’s sake. And it would have been good to have a little more exit signage in the car park.
The world which Hallowscream creates is tightly-nit, so that once you enter its mighty skeletal gates, you do feel you are within a different realm. Each of the pre-haunt areas has signage indicating the maze within, but some really place you within the setting. This was particularly evident outside “Necropolis”, which had an entrance flanked by two huge sphinx statues, which looked to be modelled on the unusual sphinx of Taharqa now in the British Museum. It was an excellent attention to detail!
Storylines were an interesting matter. It was clear that the mazes each contained a narrative, but some were stronger than others. “The Flesh Pot” clearly told us we were to be made into pies, but it was less clear why we were rolling up into redneck territory in “Redneck Revenge” (perhaps, of course, that’s why they wanted revenge!). This being said, there is a great deal of worldbuilding and backstory to be had on Hallowscream’s website, and we encourage you to check it out as it does provide a lot of context that you might miss if you brave the mazes without it.
The mazes themselves were deeply immersive, and we want to particularly spotlight “Rednecks Revenge” for building such an all-surrounding landscape of dread. Once you were back in the central space, immersion continued in the guise of lighting and sound, that meant you didn’t leave that headspace of horror.
This year we felt Hallowscream really excelled in their special effects department, especially with their newest maze “Rednecks Revenge”. The amount of water effects in this maze was astounding, from a drainage pipe with flowing water (over which sat a grate that allowed audiences to walk over it), to a slaughterhouse pool of blood used for exsanguinating bodies, with blood literally dripping from bodies and collecting right in front of us. This technique of bloody dripping bodies was seen a few times in the maze, with “blood” literally squirting out of bodies and into our faces as if it was shooting out of a carotid artery. This maze also made great use of loud sounds, air cannons, and large and disorientating set pieces that added to the scare factor of the experience.
An incredible amount of special effects were seen in their other mazes as well, with iconic fun rooms, mirror mazes and sliding floors in “Corny’s Cornevil”, and wrecking balls, toxic waste barrel animatronics, lasers, smoke and an inclining birth canal in “The Singularity”. “Necropolis’s” features really made us feel like we were exploring a hidden temple – in fact, one of our reviewers felt like they were living in the 1990s game show Legends of the Hidden Temple, while the other reminisced on the world of Indiana Jones. From numerous giant poison-spitting animatronic snakes, to animatronic mummy arms coming through the ceiling, we traversed fluorescent water areas and rope bridges, dodged booby traps, and held on for dear life on vibrating floors and walkways.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 6.5
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 8.7
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 7.05
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 6.8
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 7.2
Pop up scares were the most used of the night, with lots of hidden actors throughout the maze jumping out from the shadows. There was an interesting dichotomy of approaches at Hallowscream, with some actors being quite conversational and improv-based in their approach to scares, some with quite menacing phrases and others with pithy and vulgar comments. On the other hand, many of the actors were much more simple in their approach, often just making odd sounds or guttural utterances. Some of these latter vocal effects reminded us a lot of the “tsk’ sounds used at quite a lot of other scare attractions, and while sometimes these can be eerie, we think these are better in single mazes as thematic support, rather than used in multiple mazes of different theming.
Awards for best scare factor of the night go to the android actors in “The Singularity”. Their eerie and menacing presence really fit the bill and ticked all our boxes. These creatures emerged out of the shadows but then also used unique physicality to bring their characters to life, moving in disturbing ways and following us threateningly, leaving behind lasting impressions we aren’t soon to forget.
At £1 per minute in terms of maze length, Hallowscream is a bit pricier per minute of entertainment compared to some of the other experiences we’ve gone to this season. While most of the mazes are an average length of approximately 6-7 minutes, “Rednecks Revenge” is a longer endeavour, reaching 10 minutes in length and amazing quality from wall to wall – there were so many new things to see in this maze and it’s clear where Hallowscream is headed in terms of the standard of their new attractions. Batch sizes can be a little larger than one might like as well, especially if you’re at the back of a larger group, but due to the popularity of the event, we did appreciate not having to wait longer than about 30 minutes for the busier mazes.
We feel it important to note that the level of entertainment and number of things to do in addition to the mazes, especially free activities, is immense at this attraction, which more than makes up for the limited time spent in the mazes themselves. There was a show being performed almost every time we exited a maze, with the larger stage shows accompanied by at least half a dozen or more smaller stand-alone platforms dotted along the entire venue and featuring a themed dancer performing the same routine as on the main stage, allowing for queueing audiences not to miss a beat.
A fun cast of roaming actors chased audiences up and down the venue, and in case you don’t have enough with their five mazes, endless photo ops and fairground outside, you can also get professional makeup done or hang out in two fantastically themed bars on site, one where even the devil himself greets you and serves you drinks in blood bags. We think Hallowscream’s on-site entertainment is a must to see this season, with a wonderful and lively vibe to match their fun and terrifying mazes dotted throughout the venue.
York Maze, York , England YO19 5LT
