Doncaster Fear Factory is back again in 2025 when this time last year it was looking as though the event would be closed forever. Thankfully things didn’t turn out that way and the Doncaster scare event is back again and this year they’ve added two brand new mazes!
Debuting at the event in 2025 are Shellton Motel and Quinlens & Coand both are sporting rather beautiful facade designs that really drag you into the story, let’s take a look at each maze individually and out of the two (in our eyes) there was a clear winner.
Shellton Motel
This cool Motel facade certainly draws your attention and lures you in and whilst inside you get to meet all sorts of weird and wonderful inhabitants.
I particularly enjoyed the winding corridors of the Motel, like a twisted Travelodge as you wander in and out of a variety of motel rooms, the kitchen, the front desk and more encouraging all sorts of horrors along the way.
Imagine if American Horror Story Hotel was condensed into a motel version and that’s what the Shellton Motel offers to guests.
Scares were few and far between though sadly but the maze was certainly the busiest in terms of actors contained within, I counted a minimum of 30 actors within but sadly they weren’t really utilised in any specific way they were mostly just there, not really delivering anything of note to the maze other than someone to shuffle past other than the ones in the beginning who set the scene.
Towards the end of the maze the story sort of veers off and goes in a different direction so it was quite hard to keep up in terms of narrative but it didn’t matter, it was a fun maze to navigate and a very welcome addition to the already rather strong line-up (aesthetically) but sadly scares were non-existent.
Quinlens & Co
A bakery that is cooking all sorts of weird and wonderful pies and smell pods aplenty greeted you up upon entry but unlike the Shellton Motel this maze had you stopping and starting a bit as characters gave you backstory.
I’m not a fan of this.
Mazes should be telling the story as you navigate them, if a character is stopping you and giving you exposition then I don’t particularly find that a good indication of a strong maze.
I understand doing it at the start of certain mazes but not more than once.
Quinlens & Co wasn’t a strong maze, it was full of cheap vacu plastic wall decor after the opening scene and it felt as though all the money had gone on the rather beautiful facade.
This wasn’t a strong addition for me and was one of the weakest mazes at the entire event.
Keep the facade but please develop that maze more as it feels very rushed, unfinished and a little lazy in the scares dept.
Doncaster Fear Factory Review
The other three mazes of the line-up at Doncaster Fear Factory included Friargate Foundary which was another rather beautiful maze but lacking in scares and actors this year compared to previous years (I think they were all in the Motel).
Crackle Hill served up a much weaker addition compared to last year as once again the lack of actors was noticeable but Diabolus was a considerable improvement on last years maze.
We were in and out of Diabolus in what felt like 60 seconds last year but this year is a guided rope style maze in pitch darkness but the rope led you up close and personal to the jump scares. I loved this! It was much more impactful and worked a treat, we felt as though we were in there a lot longer and the maze hit home much harder than last year as a result.
Doncaster Fear Factory was certainly a hit and miss event (the less said about the new ‘scare zone’ the better) but I’m so glad it’s back for 2025 as it was an event in jeopardy in 2024.
There is still lots of time to tweak things and to have more actors spread across the other mazes more evenly and to tweak the scares / delivery of the scares but whilst it’s a nicely run event operationally it just isn’t very scary whatsoever but hats off to everyone for putting on the event and congratulations on being able to secure the event for many years to come.
