Only two years old Kent Scareground was a hidden gem in our month-long Halloween scare season, here’s why we feel the attraction is certainly one of the best upcoming events here in the UK. Here’s our Kent Scareground review.
Based at Hewitt’s Farm in Orpington Kent Scareground certainly is a unique event that stood out like a sore thumb on this year’s travels.
The event was difficult to find and wasn’t signposted anywhere and upon arrival, it wasn’t very well lit due to a lighting issue they were having on the night. Instantly we thought the event would be terrible and our enthusiasm dropped as we saw a few tents, a couple of rides and not much in the way of lighting or good signposting leading us to each maze, but looks can be deceiving.
Let’s dive right in with this Kent Scareground review.
We headed into the first maze Renegade which was a scrap yard inhabited by post-apocalyptic guests and whilst the maze itself wasn’t very well themed (it didn’t need to be, it was a scrap yard) the actors were crowding around you, intimidating you and personalising their dialogue to clothes you were wearing, using your name throughout various sections and even passing on information to other actors so they could continue the tormenting further down the maze.
This was something I’d never seen before and because you were batched in just your groups only.
The extra wait was certainly worth it for this unique and rather personalised scare experience.
So whilst Renegade was one of the weakest mazes of the night already there were signs that this event wasn’t going to be your ordinary scary experience.
We then walked over to Synders Pub, a maze themed around a pub is something I’ve never seen before and I was excited to see just how it would pan out, upon stepping into the opening scene of the maze we were greeted by a very threatening looking mob boss and his landlady wife. We were in a gangster pub and we had been recruited for some criminal activity.
As we walked through the establishment we sat down during a tense poker game, met the mob boss’s bit on the side and then met his henchman before being thrown into the back of a Van and taken away (briefly) before the cops showed up.
What the maze lacked in theming in some areas it made up for with originality, incredible acting and complete immersion. This was such a strong maze and was certainly one of the highlights of the entire scare season. I could only imagine with a bigger budget for set design that Synders could be one of the best mazes in the country, especially with the blend of immersion into theatrical scenes mixed with jump scares. I loved it!
Up next was Fortitude which was an experimental maze that delved into removing fears from people. We were greeted by a scientific team who made us take tablets before entering (Tic Tacs) and our fears were explored in this maze of jump scares, experiments, illusions and crawl spaces.
The variety of scenes within the maze completely immersed me into the story, we were going from fear to fear in each room as it was tailored to a variety including fear of the dark, fear of dentists and fear of confined spaces which was demonstrated when a room we were in was closing in on us and getting smaller by the second.
Both Synders and Fortitude were mazes that wouldn’t feel out of place at a huge grand-scale scare event, they were very impressive indeed.
Our last maze of the evening was an outdoor maze by the name of Case 543arch. We were part of an investigation team on the lookout for a missing person as we walked through a forest and encountered hillbillies who had an appetite for lost souls in the woods.
I wasn’t particularly a fan of this one which is a shame as the storyline was there but the execution wasn’t. Walking through dark poorly lit forest areas wasn’t very fun and the theming when you arrived at the hillbilly camp was pretty poor aside from a caravan that you sat in briefly.
What did stand out for me in this particular maze was the use of child actors. This scared me more than anything as you can’t react to them like you would an adult performer and having children corner you certainly added to the intimidation factor and I thought that unique selling point alone gave the maze potential for the future.
Well played Kent Scareground. This event is easily the best upcoming scare attraction in the UK with unique themed mazes, superb execution in areas and acting quality that was above and beyond to deliver the most immersive experience.
I feel with a bigger budget (please go and support them) Kent Scareground could easily compete with the big boys. Only two years old and these guys are putting on an event of this calibre in terms of maze strength. They simply turned a small field into a grass patch of horrors and we all loved it!
Website – https://www.kentscareground.co.uk/
Kent Scareground review by Sean Evans
