The Village of the Cursed Review (2026)

The Village of the Cursed is an event that has gone from strength-to-strength year on year, especially in terms of guest experience. A detailed website is very helpful for pre-visit information, and there’s lots of parking in the green space outside the showground. Particularly here, the number of parking attendants was excellent, and when they saw we were going a little off course on our exit made great efforts to direct us with shining torches. Similarly, staff within were always helpful, and the facilities, though temporary, were well-maintained. Roaming actors would swarm you if you were sitting at a table, and sometimes provide a bit of harassment in line, although not always. There is also a DJ who is hearable across site, so your wait time is not music-free.

Queue flow was generally efficient and orderly, with attendants clipping our tickets upon entry to each maze, some of which we entered solo and others in a group. The only snagging point was at entry, where one primary ticket taker was tasked with checking in all arrivals. She did an excellent job but perhaps could have used some assistance up front to speed up the process.

You very much “arrive” at The Village of the Cursed, literally so as the ticket hall is designed as a train station, roaming actors dressed as conductors with eerie green lamps interrogating you for your tickets. Once within the Village, each haunt is fronted by a themed board and sometimes additional painted flats facades (for example, the church was made to look like it had church windows). These frontages are simple but let you know which haunt you are attending well.

Each maze gives an introduction and vignette with an actor, explaining the storyline within. We really appreciate this, as many other attractions simply plunge you into action without providing any setup. This was more theatrical – “The Final Cut” has a sister who tells of her pie-making from her brother’s victims, in a Todd-esque story; “Doom-entia” travels some real fears of what happens when people are placed in elderly care; “The Inner Sanctum” explains that the demonic sisters below the mines of the church are worshipping…something?; “The Inn-Formassmurder” includes a performance explaining the proprietors collection of mass murderers she’s keeping within; whilst “Tainted Blood” invited us for a little nip, tuck, and slaughter. “HMP Strangleways” probably had the least explanation, but maybe that was lost in the chaos of the prison riot. The mazes exit back into the atmosphere of the showground, where you can calm down and perhaps grab a drink or supper before plunging back into the madness.

Each maze used a selection of interesting effects and scenes to bring their different worlds into shuddering life. When you begin your journey, a train station is your embarkation point, with lots of green glowing paint picking out the details, complementing the conductors’ green lamps. You need to get through a very tight inflatable passage even before getting into the main showground! Even though these were mazes built using temporary infrastructure, there were some impressive effects. Water as blood gushed up from a tap over a bucket in “The Final Cut”, the air filling with victims’ screams. One of those victims was fully caged, and props littered the barber tables where it mattered (and the sink was most bloody indeed). And if that cut throatiness wasn’t enough, one fellow at the end went full-on, displaying a trophy head on a stick to us.

Demonic nuns run the warren of mines in “The Inner Sanctum”. Upon entry, a giant mural of one such nun (the Mother Superior) is splashed upon the wall, except the defining feature of this work is her rows of shark-like teeth. Further inside, a full chapel has been built, with pews and lectern. Further water effects and sounds were to be found in “HMP Strangleways” shower-block setup, with other clever effects like an extremely powerful blower used as a machine gun to usher us out, and a secret escape chamber through which we exited. Separately, but in criminal fashion, “The Inn-Formassmurder” has each of the murderer’s real photographs on the wall in the entry room (such as Dahmer and Gein) and rooms heavily themed to their subjects. The “clown” room was set for a party, with tables and toys, and leading out of here was a false door as a massive fridge to Dahmer’s apartment, with further a fridge filled with rather forbidden foods.

And dissecting the medical scenes in “Tainted Blood” uncovers beeping equipment, beds on which lay patients with irreversible damage, and props that crossed the costume-prop-puppet boundary, such as syringes embedded within necks, pumping away, and some patients with half-destroyed bodies somehow screaming into life.

An element at The Village of the Cursed that particularly surprised us as rather new was actor diversity. In many attractions across the country, there is a reliance on younger actors who are “aged up” to fit the roles. Not so here: we encountered cast members of all ages, displaying some very theatrical manners of professional performance. As already mentioned, each maze begins with a scene with one actor, who interacts with you to advance the narrative. For example, “The Final Cut” had an excellent, verbose actor tell us of her pie-making, shoving the pies in our face, before an introduction to her brother and his razor wielding, maniacal assistant, who spent time evaluating our shaving and meat potentials. Later, a butcher lunged and nearly caught us. In another room where a victim was caged, an actor in a long black dress cornered one of us to tell her frantic story, getting incredibly close to the face.

Makeup and prosthetics were delightfully creative and gory. “The Inner Sanctum” showed us inhabitants with gaping, far too wide serrated mouths. “Tainted Blood” had brilliant prosthetic work, especially one character of a girl who looked like half her face was missing, as well as parts of her lower body, with blood glistening and runny, with acting complementing this through high energy, slightly different medical characters threatening to stab us with syringes. In contrast to this “Doom-entia” had rather standard makeup. Acting itself was especially personalized. “The Inner Sanctum’s” chapel not only had menace because of the general environment, but also because the nuns made eerie and threatening conversation, focusing on one of our noses which they quite wanted to alter. The same can be said for “HMP Strangleways” with high levels of interaction, including a cook making us run into a corridor and egging us on into a chainsaw chase. “Inn-Formassmurder” continued that trend, with us greeted by a dead girl that we were to wish a Happy Death Day. But when we had no presents for her, she became terrifyingly, chaotically incensed! And Dahmer even made one of us take off our jacket!

In the main, scares here were of the jump variety, but the personality of each was slightly different. Shocks came from very close quarters in “The Final Cut” with meat cleavers smashed into walls inches from our faces. To make sure everyone got those jolts, in haunts with slightly larger groups like “The Inner Sanctum” top and tailing was highly employed, meaning groups were broken up very well, giving each person an individual scare. Attacks would come from several sides in “Tainted Blood” cornering us, and the sheer creepiness and shock offered by the prosthetics of the jawless girl lunging through bars made us physically draw back in revulsion and disbelief.

Not all the scares were from actors exclusively. During the prison escape in “HMP Strangleways” misdirection revealed a hidden room where none seemed to exist.

The Village of the Cursed has a total walkthrough time of 24 minutes and a ticket price of around £30. This makes it on the more expensive side for the time you spend within the mazes, not including the additional seventh mini-intro maze, but that’s not the extent of the entertainment here. Be prepared for running into roaming actors, the ubiquitous butcher often trying to take a bash at you with a mallet, a DJ mainstage, and plentiful food and drink. For a little extra you can also enjoy a crossbow range (unusual!) too. But what makes The Village of the Cursed special is the performances, the personality of which is entirely unique within the world of haunts.