On the 7th of May we headed up to Blackburn to take on Scare Kingdom's annual halfway to halloween event Walpurgis Night. This version of Scare Kingdom, like its other counterparts Christmas FestEvil and Valenterror, hosts two scare attractions, Manormortis and Body Snatchers plus the upcharge psycho-sexual scare experience Psychomanteum, which would be a bittersweet affair as this version of Psychomanteum would be its last ever after over 25 incarnations of Dr Killian Goodkind's infamous clinic.
We arrived at an unusually quiet 6:30 time slot and were aware that some of the past patients of Psychomanteum, in the form of roaming characters would be about. The first was a grim gran with a handbag and an attitude that didn't let up for all the right reasons. After signing in we were met with Liverpudlian lass Viola who told us that although we couldn't take photos, we could have something chopped off instead as she stood menacingly with her bolt cutters. Viola was also joined by a terrifying character which we dubbed "The Sniffer" another past resident of the clinic bound in an apron and wearing a skin mask.
After our brief encounter with these two, it was time to head to our first maze.
Manormortis: Diodati
Manormortis takes place in the Haxenghast property and we were met with a very short wait before entering the house. The theme was that of gothic horror authors who were hosting of night of works within however a madness had overcome them it would seem and the darkness from their stories was now emanating throughout the house. Some of the writers haunted by their works were but were not limited to Lord Byron and Mary Shelly who thrust her book at us to which I tried to grab the title and failed miserably in the dark. As the maze unfolded we were soon under attack from freakish creatures and crazed people before heading to the laser room finale, sadly due to our group being very slow a lot of the scares in this room were taken away quite quickly but this is not at the fault of the actors, simply unfortunate timing, It has to be said Manormortis did seem a little low on actors but it still had the beautiful charm and amazing stories that we have come to expect from Scare Kingdom.
Leaving Manormortis it was time for the short walk to the second maze of the night and a meeting with another character from the clinic, this interaction was short but provided a fun extra before heading into ...
Bodysnatchers:TimeTrapped
Next, it was time to head to Brimstone and Black's off Knox Alley for Bodysnatchers: TimeTrapped. After a brief introduction and having our intelligence thoroughly judged we met the mad inventor William Tomb played eccentric as ever to great delight. We were here to witness the maverick's latest invention whose actual title was one of the longest tongue-twisters I'd ever heard and luckily for us was also known as The Time Machine. William Tomb was on a dark mission to open the time rift and bring some of the most infamous killers from the past to the present however this was not enough, in wanting to become the greatest serial killer of all we would be offered up to his collection of terrors to rack up the personal body count. The Time Machine scene was fun and inventive to excuse the pun and provided a great thematic start to enter into the depths of the attraction. Inside the dark corridors of Body Snatchers we would come into contact with such psychotic stars as H.H.Holmes, John Wayne Gacy's "Pogo The Clown", a serial poisoner murderess whose name slips my memory and of course, Whitechappels own Jack The Ripper. The maze followed the usual format entering the cellar and getting lost in the dark corridors ahead with some well-timed jumpscares hitting from all sides. Then we got to another mainstay scene in Bodysnatchers, a sit-down room that usually forms the basis of a small show however this time it was a walkthrough section that left us wondering if something wasn't working before hitting the finale and running for the door.
Leaving Bodysnatchers, so far we were having a great night and all commended these incarnations of mazes we had come to love. But the best was saved till last and after meeting yet another past patient this time with a chainsaw we began our walk to the final part of the night, I am of course talking about Psychomanteum.
Before we begin this next part we have a couple of things to say. It must be mentioned that Scare Kingdom were kind enough to provide us with tickets for the final ever Psychomanteum but this does not affect our review. This review will also contain many spoilers of what happened. We feel it safe to share what happens inside due to the attraction now coming to an end.
PSYCHOMANTEUM:Rainblow
After signing our waivers and having some great interaction with "The Sniffer " from before, seriously he ran off with my bank card and came back with it in his mouth XD, It was time to queue up for Psychomanteum: Rainblow. But before we get to that we have to give a huge shoutout to the Psychomanteum host Vanya! Omg, she was hilarious. What came across as an eastern European brothel owner was actually the manager of the titular kid's tv show Rainblow. The queue for Psychomanteum can get quite long due to the nature of the show as only two are sent in at a time but Vanya kept this wait sounding like a party, from embarrassing the guests to insisting we dance or as she would say " Show me your viggle". It takes a lot to keep up that much energy all night and still sound fresh! After a short wait, it was time to crawl through the hatch one last time or the first of two for Dan and enter into Psychomanteum!
(Spoilers ahead and information of a graphic nature)
The first scene was a guy on a break whom we had interrupted him "pleasuring" himself, after realising we were the new extras for the show he insisted we were wearing too much clothing and must remove our tops and later for Dan his trousers too. This was a clever move to actually give you your free gift of a Psychomanteum T-shirt. This character was the first of many who used the traditional innuendos to tell all about playing with balls! Soon another character, a female then joined with top nudity to take us through to the next room which was the puppet scene. This was absolutely nuts quite literally as ZipIt and their counterpart went back and forth about how we nicely play with balls. The next scene took us to classic Psychomanteum and brought back the hospital gurney which was a scripted scene we had to read. One was calling the other a filthy slut etc and the other an eviction notice from the creator Jason Karl. This was a great addition which I genuinely laughed out loud at. The next scene after interrupting some "buggary" was that of the music maker who made us answer questions about what we can do with instruments such as suck and blow and after being made to join in with a short song session showed us exactly what he likes to play with. The final scene is the kind of thing we expect from Psychomanteum, forced into a chair whilst a bare arse is pushed in front of you and the production of some "excrement" for the full-on gross factor before for the final time being told to F**K OFF! Also inside were nods back to past shows and even photographs of members of the scare community. This might not have been the most intense Psychomanteum but neither did it need to be, it was a laugh riot with all the grossness and filth in between, was it the best of the best of Psychomanteum?, maybe not I suppose it depends what you're into, Heartbroken, Goremet Cafe and Scared Stiff still rank very highly but was it a fitting send-off?Absof**kingloutly. Psychomanteum you will be missed greatly by us at Parks Scares and Glitter and ScareKingdom, we can't wait to see what replaces it.
All in all, we had a great time at ScareKingdom and can't wait to hopefully come back for Halloween, A huge thankyou to all the cast and crew of the night that made this event possible, we had a blast!
Scare Kingdom Scream Park will returning for its Halloween experience. This year they will have 5 attractions included in the ticket price with these being The Paradise Foundation: Glitch, Manormortis: House of Tarot, Gothica, Body Snatchers: The Butcher In The Basement and Zozo's Grindhouse: Devils Night. As well as that, the scream park have confirmed the attraction replacing Psychomanteum as Enigma, a challenge based scare experience for 16+ and it will cost £10 per pair. For more information including dates and attractions as well as to book tickets you can visit the Scare Kingdom Scream Park website.
Until next time PSG Signing out.