COMPOUND is the only new adult scare maze at Alton Towers during the 2024 Scarefest event and we went down on opening day to check out this brand new Phalanx-themed Halloween attraction.
It’s 2024 and the Phalanx have been busy working on their latest project in a new facility just outside Forbidden Valley. Welcome to COMPOUND.
Venture inside and find out how the organisation’s scientists have weaponised human DNA, but mind your step to avoid becoming too involved in their latest experiments. Fear not, however, you will never be left alone within the complex, throughout the facility you will be shadowed by Phalanx Operatives, who are there to relentlessly protect you and for no other reason
COMPOUND is eerily similar to Survival Games at Thorpe Park in how it’s designed consisting of multiple routes to take throughout the maze. What separates COMPOUND from Survival Games is that it’s less hands-on when it comes to the actors and more themed as you traverse the multiple paths within the maze but only in certain areas.
Finding myself navigating the maze alone (groups do get split up) I found some rooms to be very nicely themed and well done with lots of winks and nods to the Phalanx story that has been weaved by the park during the 2024 season.
The maze was reminiscent of Project 42 which was a Nemesis-themed scare maze that was located in the Nemesis Sub Terra building quite a few seasons ago. Similar back story references and more but now it’s housed within a bigger indoor containment building.
Whilst the entrance of the maze (see the photo above) is about as pathetically themed as you can get the interior did not disappoint but sadly we didn’t have a good run-through of the maze with very few actors inside the experience.
Inside the maze for around 3 minutes we encountered 8 members of staff and 3 of them were at the entrance of the maze showing us inside.
What resulted was a solitary wander around the scare maze as I was trying to seek out actors for those epic jump scare moments but sadly none of them arrived.
The Nemesis creature costumes weren’t well designed nor were any of the interior maze characters’ costumes, they felt very cheap but whilst the actor’s costumes (minus the epic Phalanx operative costumes) were a lot to be desired the set pieces in certain rooms was decent as this facility certainly had its charm with some really good themed rooms in places but in true Merlin fashion had black painted walls aplenty with a variety of unthemed corridors in equal measure.
Some rooms had me looking around and admiring the theming and then in other rooms I was laughing at how contrasting it was compared to the room before, it just feels lazy if you’re theming one room and then half arsing it on the next room, the mazes need to stay at the same level of theming throughout to immerse you in the story that is being told but instead the second I was getting into it, I was just as quickly detached from the immersion.
COMPOUND has some wonderful sets in places reminiscent of independent scare maze attractions that go out of their way to provide an immersive experience but then the next minute it all vanishes and I’m instantly detached from the story laughing at the awkward and quite hilarious budget cut-back scenes that followed.
I did COMPOUND alongside a screamer who can’t go through the Curse At Alton Manor ride without screaming her head off and from start to finish, she was silent throughout the maze. She didn’t jump once, that told me all I needed to know about our run-through.
Scare mazes are hit and miss depending on how many actors are in the mazes, the time you do the mazes and more but sadly for us, and for the extortionate cost of £12 for a one-shot of the maze, I felt like I’d overpaid and Alton Towers had undelivered, which was a very fitting description for the rest of the Scarefest event in 2024.
There’s a ridiculous number of people calling COMPOUND the best Scarefest maze ever, it’s a shame they’re too young to remember the truly great mazes of Scarefest years gone as they’d have been in for a treat, everything lately is just so very weak in comparison. COMPOUND is certainly better than the copy-and-paste mazes which make up the rest of the event, but for me, it’s miles away from the Towers mazes of old. People are either very easily pleased or are adamant about praising the park regardless of what is served up to them season after season.
Theming is spot on in there, definitely an improvement but scares were sacrificed as a result. More actors in there and COMPOUND could be the best maze at Scarefest in 2024, but that’s not too difficult now, is it?
Check out our VLOG below including our COMPOUND scare maze thoughts:
