The Slasher Review Doncaster Fear Factory returned to the world of scares this year and we popped along to experience it. The event has three attractions. Y.A.N.A Gate was the best attraction of the night with Eden being the weakest despite it being visually stunning.
Top tip for the event: Start at Chasm and end with Y.A.N.A Gate.
Things that bite: The toilet facilities need sorting out
Value for money: Yes
Scare Rating: 3/5
Do we recommend: Yes
FOR A MORE IN DEPTH REVIEW PLEASE READ BELOW
The Stalker Review
On Thursday we headed to an event I had been watching closely ever since u announced they would be returning to scares after a fifteen year hiatus. I am of course talking about Doncaster Fear Factory. We arrived and got parked up very quickly. It was a bit wet and bit windy but our group of four didn’t let the weather dampen our spirits. We were there to have some scares and just have some fun. We walked to the entrance which has a really lovely sign above it so it’s easy to find. We showed our tickets, got given our maze tickets and we entered. The event is advertised as 3 scare mazes and 2 scare zones. We were greeted by the first scare zone, a clown themed one. It was creepy, fun and bright. It had about 3 actors in it but it set quite a good start for the event. The clowns didn’t say much but they interacted very well. You then arrive at the bar area. There’s plenty of seating both undercover and outside. There’s also a dj, a small food place and what i can honestly describe as the worst toilets I’ve ever seen at a scare event. They were disgusting. They were porta loos but they weren’t taken care off very well. There was no toilet roll and they looked and smelt like they hadn’t been cleaned for a few days. We did mention the toilets to a member of staff behind the bar but we didn’t return to use them so I don’t know if they had been taken care off.
Potential spoilers: please read ahead with caution!
Anyway on to the mazes. Chasm was first up for us. It’s an industrial mine/fracking site themed attraction where you enter a simple yet effective facade. You are then greeted by an actor who explains about the health and safety of the mine and explains that there will be crawling in the attraction. He then led us into the next room and told us to wait. What happened next was a mix of high impact scare, scares from different heights and just a good 3/4 minutes of darkness, set pieces and well timed scares. The attraction was what you kind of expected from one of this type and it just worked really well. I came out very surprised by how intense it was.
Next up for our group was Eden. To put it simply, Eden is a protest against the fracking site and the company who runs it. It’s an outdoor maze that can’t really be described as a maze if I’m to be honest. It’s definitely feels more like a scare zone to a maze. It’s very open and lacking any scares but it’s absolutely beautiful to look at. We didn’t encounter many actors along the way and it just fell flat scare wise but there really is so much to look at and it was weird as hell seeing my face on their missing persons board because I forgot i had submitted it.
Last up was Y.A.N.A. Gate and we had definitely kept the best for last. This was themed around the scientists doing tests on people and plant life who had been affected by the fracking site and it was brilliant. It was intense right from the start. The actors never let up. Right from the start the actor interaction was great and it just got better and better the further in we went. The sets were really good and provided some really great scare opportunities for actors. At one point we got scared by a man hiding behind some leaves. It was crazy. The attractions finale was superb. It was intense, disorientating and even had actual dead ends. It really is the crown jewel of the event and is so brilliant.
Something you notice as you do the mazes is that all three are interconnected with each other. The story grows as you do the mazes. There isn’t a set route to take through the attractions but I think it would actually benefit the event more if they took a more linear route than a scream park route as I think the over arching story they have is really good. As mentioned above there is also supposed to to be two scare zones and three scare mazes but we only saw one scare zone, so we aren’t quite sure what it was supposed to be or where it was supposed to be located, which is a shame.
Overall, for an event that came back after a long hiatus, Doncaster Fear Factory have done a really good job. Chasm and Y.A.N.A Gate are really good scare attractions with some really well thought out and times scares. Eden needs work but what they have there is visually stunning and other than the issues with the toilets they have a really fun event and completely worth the £19 to experience it and we can't wait to see what they do next.
As this review is going out on Halloween itself, it is the last night of the event. This is where I would normally say to buy tickets but as this isn't possible all i'm going to say is make sure you keep an eye on the Doncaster Fear Factory website for any news of their 2022 offering.