One of the most celebrated scream parks in the UK, PrimEvil is this year celebrating its 16th birthday, and that means new haunts, reimagined scare mazes, and an absolutely brilliant atmosphere that will make you quiver. Tucked away in Norfolk’s village of Lenwade (appropriately enough in the parish of Great Witchingham), PrimEvil takes over the hugely famous ROARR! Dinosaur Adventure Park over October and the first day of November, and brings us six haunts: “Forest of Fear”, “The Crypt”, “Route 666”, “Circus of Terror”, “Werehouse 51: Toxic Mutation”, and “Mayhem Manor”, not to mention musical performances, a horde of terrific roaming actors, and fairground rides. This park boasts some of the most unusual interactive sets we’ve seen all season, as well as serious frights.
PrimEvil’s cast this year brought a strong mix of liveliness and interesting character work across several of its haunts. The standout performances came from “Circus of Terror” and “Werehouse 51”, where the actors’ physicality and force created a confusing and exciting experience. In the former, this included otherworldly acrobatics, with literal handstands in spinning tunnels! In the latter, the actor introducing us to the were/warehouse said we ourselves were the cleanup crew, FOR the cleanup crew (in fact, this, and the actors within, left one of the younger folk added to our group in tears of terror). The performers in “Mayhem Manor” also impressed with their interactive style. The “medical” staff mixed dark humour with frightening realism that made you writhe with unease and laugh in equal amounts. We were asked what work we were in for by a doctor with a thick German accent, and others wanted to acquire our bodies for science. The “Forest of Fear” maintained a great atmosphere also, with outlines and movement between the trees adding to the feeling of the unknown before we even entered. These mazes showed how powerful a committed cast can be in selling the illusion and lifting even simple setups into unforgettable moments.
That said, not every maze felt as populated or refined. “The Crypt” had a strong opening with its queue actor setting a disturbing tenor speaking about the Black Death abounding within, but inside the performances leaned on jump scares without much variety or character complexity. “Route 666”, while themed, lacked energy in places and suffered from noticeable dead zones where no actors were present, leaving parts of the experience feeling empty. Yet, even with these discrepancies, PrimEvil’s cast as a whole delivered a forceful and engaging night. Their eagerness, originality, and readiness to interact with guests are what make the event really standout to us, ensuring that, at its best, PrimEvil remains one of the most animated and immersive scare attractions in the country.
PrimEvil’s costume, makeup, and masking exhibited a magnificent range of originality, with several mazes showing excellent efforts. “Circus of Terror” in particular stood out with its daring, grotesque clown makeup and stylised costumes that embodied a twisted carnival. One clown’s makeup was especially arresting, amalgamating fine art and threat. “Werehouse 51” also featured creative designs, with hybrid animal masks such as boars and rabbits that enhanced the maze’s transmuted, post-apocalyptic subject matter. “Mayhem Manor” had a cohesive visual identity: bloodied dressings, surgical clothing, and unsettling facial coverings that sold the plastic-surgery-gone-wrong idea. Even “Route 666” opened robustly, with eerie scarecrow and “living wood” masks that provided a lingering, naturalistic edge to the otherwise rural location, even if the exact intention behind them was out of touch with the more hillbilly aesthetic elsewhere.
While the standard was extraordinary, a few mazes could have benefited from a bit more refinement. “The Crypt’s” outfits, though serviceable with wigs and nun dress, felt a little plain compared to the stronger visual storytelling elsewhere, and the “Forest of Fear’s” minimal masking, though moody, might have lacked the striking visuals seen in other areas. Still, PrimEvil’s makeup and costume teams deserve real credit for producing such a varied and immersive set of creations. From subtle realism to exaggerated revulsion, their work added texture and identity to each maze and proved that thoughtful design can make every confrontation, even a fleeting fright, feel cinematic and animated.
We had fantastic interactions with all the staff at PrimEvil, from ticket takers to security and to the staff roaming the park who were making sure to answer anyone’s questions. Information on PrimEvil’s website was thorough, and our digital interactions with the team amiable and efficient. We also had an easy time locating, parking at and navigating the site, with lit up signage upon entering and parking up, and with maps available to help find the mazes. The front of house experience of the park was lovely, and all seemed to run like a well-oiled machine.
The pre-haunt atmosphere for most of the haunts is simple, with marquees with themed music and a sign or two indicating what the maze is. “Circus of Terror” has a fun colourfully lit marquee with a sardonic clown queue actor. “Werehouse 51” has perhaps the weakest pre-haunt area, with a strange queue line within a bright fluorescently lit room without any theming. “The Crypt,” however, is an exception, with what appears like an entire church right in front of you, and a queue priest in amazing costume and makeup, and thus has an extremely strong pre-haunt atmosphere. All mazes mostly spit you back out into the main thoroughfare after you’ve survived them, leading you to navigate to the next terrifyingly fun adventure.
Batching was quite successful in all mazes, and we rarely felt like we were queueing through the attractions. All of the mazes also had some sort of pre-haunt actor, mostly either telling us some of the rules or a bit of an indication about the story of the maze, which added to the immersiveness of the experiences. All of the haunts felt tied together very well, with set design and actors moving us through each of the spaces with ease and showing how well thought out it was. The only maze where this wasn’t as successful was “Forest of Fear” purely due to the several different places it exists in, with an audio walkthrough, a moving ride section, and a hooded section – we did feel like we got taken into and out of this attraction a bit, but we appreciated the variety of different experiences it provided!
PrimEvil has some exciting special effects, some of which we’ve never experienced before. Starting a bit simpler was “Route 666” with some fun wonky floorboards, banjo and folk/country music, and a walk through an actual caravan, not to mention a large animatronic boar. “Forest of Fear” had sound design, with different eerie sound effects as you navigated through the woods via a set of headphones, and again here the use of animatronic elements. “Mayhem Manor” also had some great animatronic work, a fun pneumatic lift, and some fabulous set design with lots of different rooms from libraries to kitchens – each one extremely well realised.
Other more impressive mazes in terms of special effects were “The Crypt,” “Werehouse 51” and “Circus of Terror.” “The Crypt” had amazing water features, an animatronic jump scare, and lasers and fog that were utilised to their best scare effect. You really felt like you were going down into a crypt in this maze, with catacombs on all sides, red lights shining out of floorboards, and authentic church and graveyard designs. “Werehouse 51” also had excellent water effects, with toxic waste everywhere and a fun laser and fog swamp with inflatables. There was an animatronic boar here too – this park has a thing for animatronic boars!
“Circus of Terror” definitely had the most fun set design and special effects, with not one but TWO twisting tunnels, ropes you had to walk through, a bouncing boxing ring, a birth canal, and an amazing moving floor that rotated wildly like a record player! This maze felt like a real funhouse from wall to wall, and we were like kids in a playground both times we went through the haunt.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 7.5
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 8.33
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 8.25
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 7.63
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 6.63
PrimEvil had some strong scares this year that kept us on edge from start to end. “The Crypt” had an amazing animatronic nun jump scare and a fog and laser section where someone loomed out from the side as you left the mist, which was full of dread. Most of the actors here used quick jump scares, but the character after the fog engaged with us and made the moment stand out. “Circus of Terror” was in-your-face and physical, with one performer doing an upside-down handstand in a spinning tunnel. They also had something we had been wanting for a long time: someone scaring us at the end of the birth canal! And they were adept at holding you longer than normal in the spinning tunnels, which made you completely disoriented the whole way through. “Forest of Fear” had a very fun interactive set piece in the middle that also spins you right round but in a different way, which was a great disorientation scare. “Werehouse 51” had some clever moments also, like a mutant crouched on a shelf popping out at head level and a fox in a laser swamp with the actor appearing at the finish, which worked well.
A few mazes didn’t have the same density of frights. “Route 666” had some good moments, like a surprise animatronic and being separated into pitch-black rooms to get different experiences on departing, but a lot of the walk felt empty and underpopulated. Even so, PrimEvil did a great job of mixing interactive moments (such as the weird and unsettling medical conversations we had in “Mayhem Manor”), physical scares, and clever set design, so even the quieter parts felt anxious. When the timing hit right, the scares were shocking, fun, and immersive, which is exactly what you want from a scream park.
While the ticket price for PrimEvil might seem a little high at £39, there is a ton on offer at the park, and with a scare maze walkthrough time of 54 minutes, a minute-per-pound ratio of 1.38 means incredible value for such a high quality attraction. While we would have loved a bit more variety in the live entertainment at the park, the theming from end to end was on point, with an electric atmosphere in the main entertainment and concessions area, with the scare mazes spotted around, and the roaming actors doing spectacular work to tie it all in together. We were very impressed with this park, and loved one of their mazes so much that we returned again, and that’s what might be one of the best things about PrimEvil – every ticket level lets you revisit the haunts over and over again, as many times as you’d like, which means incredible value!
Norfolk, Lenwade, United Kingdom NR9 5JE
