Located in Bath, the House of Frankenstein is a lovely multi-floor attraction themed around the classic Frankenstein creation and the work of author Mary Shelley. Packed full of facts, immersive sets and interactive elements it’s always worth a visit if you find yourselves in Bath but come Halloween the venue transforms for an after-dark event and we were kindly invited down to check it out.
This 300-year-old house is plunged into darkness for this festive event with no torches or mobile phones in sight as you navigate the venue with a variety of creatures lurking in the dark.
We reached the venue and a soldier outside said we were early very sternly and ushered us away. Thus began our first niggle of the day as there is a very nice bar inside the venue we could have spent money at but during the after-dark event it’s used as part of the experience (just a man shouting from inside there, nothing more) but I thought that was a wasted opportunity not having early groups in the bar ready for their experience.
When we finally got into the building there were no staff members on hand to give instructions on where to go so it was a free-for-all of choice on where you walk to, which doors to open and which corridors you go down.
What resulted was a wander around a very old building with many a drape from the ceiling to walk through and some random people in costume just standing there waiting to jump you but that’s the thing, waiting was the issue.
I must have walked into at least 4 rooms and the actors were just standing there staring at me through their costumes but when they could finally see out of the gas masks they were wearing in the pitch darkness and realised another person was in front of them they then decided to try and scare me, too late pal.
One room I walked into was a cinema room, a scientific gentleman sent a puff of air straight into my ear from a syringe her was holding but I sat down and watched what was on screen, we all did, there was no guidance, no flow and no one had a clue what to do or where to go, it was all very random.
We were eventually asked to leave the room (in character) and wandered around some more. A little crawl space I wiggled through and got to the other side before being asked to ‘get out’ and it was very quickly turning from a well-advertised horror attraction into a very low-budget and uninteresting event.
House of Frankenstein is a beautiful venue with some stunningly themed rooms yet plunged into darkness it lost all of that magic, all of its charm and absolutely no lighting effects were used to highlight some of the incredible set pieces they have there other than the animatronic room.
The Frankenstein animatronic is easily the highlight of the House of Frankenstein’s daily museum operations and the room is stunningly beautiful and well-themed, but as we entered the room a crazy scientist was trying to upsell me shots of alcohol mid-way through my after-dark experience. To further cope with more drapes and low-budget scares I paid £12 for three strong shots and thought I’d at least support the venue after being given a free invite.
Regardless of what I thought about this particular event I know just how incredible it is in the day so £12 for 3 shots didn’t matter despite that being VERY expensive anywhere else.
The basement of House of Frankenstein usually has a little walk-around scare attraction along with more cool theming in a certain room but here we had balaclava-clad staff members just standing there or following us around. There were no jump scares or anything of the sort just staff following us around with their faces covered occasionally stroking our backs.
Sadly, House of Frankenstein After Dark didn’t do it for us with this particular event and with an original charge of £16 I feel as though this was a little cheeky. With no guidance everyone who entered the building was as confused and lost as I was but what I would suggest, if you are a scare maze fan such as myself is to split off from your group and explore alone.
When I walked around the entire building on my own it was unnerving knowing that the only other people around me were the actors and not knowing where they were or what was going to happen was the best part about the experience. There’s too much safety in numbers with a group in this attraction and the event just isn’t strong enough for group scares.
Send people in alone and let their minds contribute to the scares, it was a much better experience.
For more information on the House of Frankenstein After Dark event click here – https://houseoffrankenstein.com/after-dark
