One of the stand out events of the 2020 scare season was the award winning Survival Zone. Located at Nothe Fort in Weymouth, they used their their location and experience in special effects to bring such an amazing event that when they announced that they would be back with an out of season event, Survival Zone Alien Encounter, I was incredibly excited. Running on selected dates between 10th and 20th June they offered two types of experiences, their normal experience and an ultimate scare experience. Due to plans and work we weren't able to visit a normal run but we did book tickets for the ultimate experience. Having done their Halloween event I knew what I would be in for on a normal run so I was very intrigued to see how these guys would amp it up.
Nothe Fort, the location of the event is just stunning and the experience uses the tunnels underneath the fort to their advantage. We arrived, had a temperature check and then it was time. We we led over to some barriers in the middle of the fort grounds that were around some weird thing sticking out the ground. It was explained that a sonic boom had echoed above Weymouth and the whole of South coast and that the remnants of a meteorite was sticking out the ground. They explained that they sent some scientists into the fort to go and explore but they never came back and that we, as specialists, had to go find out what happened to them. We were then lead to the tunnels and I kid you not, I hate this tunnel (In such a good way). Its creepy and provides such a unique beginning to any event. (They did it at Halloween too and I hate/loved it back then too). Our experience began and we were just stood in a long, pitch black tunnel and were told to wait. Now I won't go into to much detail on this beginning, not because I don't want to, but its because it just very hard to describe how they use it. All i'm going to say is that they use shadows and the darkness to their full advantage and it delivers on creepiness, anticipation and terror.
The first scare scene is always a highlight but these guys always make their second scare the one the impactful one. Halloween was the award winning notice board scene and this time was an incredible unexpected impactful scare that came from above and genuinely scared the shit out of all of us as we just weren't expecting THAT! What ensued after was 20/30 minutes of complete and utter chaos, anticipation, confusion, immersion and terror. We screamed and laughed, but mainly screamed, as we walked and sometimes ran (Sorry for breaking the rules on this but it was scary) around the tunnels avoiding the aliens. There were so many actors within the depths and they came from every dark orifice within the fort and made the experience so good.
The entire team at Survival Zone are incredible. They are so friendly and they obviously love doing this. No character felt out of place, not even the gun wielding scientist who gave creepy murdery vibes. The whole experience was just utterly brilliant and the team there should be so incredibly proud of creating something that matched the intensity and shock value their Halloween event had. We genuinely can not wait to see what this team do next. Thank you so much to everyone involved for making it such a fabulous way to start the scares for me in 2021!
Unfortunately when this comes out, the event will be on its final night but make sure you follow them on the social media accounts and check out their website for more details https://www.survivalzone.co.uk/