This is a new attraction(s) for 2018 by the wonderful team at Immersive Events at Shepton Mallet Prison. We went to experience opening night. Warning though, this review will contain spoilers to the two scare attractions on offer, so read on at your peril!
The Street
Lets start by talking about the main event. The Street is a very interesting attraction. It’s very immersive with some great interactive elements. It has a good, strong story line too with some very well placed scares. We arrived and joined the queue. The queue line was lit red with former American presidents pictures hanging from the walls. We waited for our turn to enter. Our group was made up of 4 people. We entered the pre show where we were greeted by a SWAT officer. We were played the usual warning and then we were let in. The actor in this bit was unfortunately very quiet so we had a hard time actually hearing her, but hopefully it was just first night’s nerves 🙂
We entered into a cinema lobby. The actress in here had a very strong American accent and was playful in her interaction with us. It was a small room but the level to detail was really impressive. We then entered into the cinema via the store room. We took our seats and they started to play trailers. The trailer for Die Hard came on, which had been edited by Immersive Events in a way that is quite clever. Then another trailer was about to play but it was interrupted by the president who said about a virus and that people who came into contact with those infected would be infected. The usher hurried us out the cinema and we found ourselves walking through a couple of back rooms full of proper 80/90s nostalgia and some animatronics, one of which made me jump. We then found ourselves on The Street.
The remains of what looked like a helicopter greeted us. Suddenly a man hurried us into his barber shop. He checked us to see if we were infected and then started offering us haircuts. He grabbed one of us and tied them to the barbers chair and offered to give him a shave. He explained that we needed to find the facility and how to get there before letting us leave via his cupboard that led to the Chinese shop next door. We left the shop and headed across the street to Bang Bang Bar. The entrance way to the bar is secretly my favourite thing. It’s camp and shiny. Unfortunately half of our group got scared because someone was napping on the bar and legged it, so by the time we actually entered we were ushered on to catch them up, but from what we saw it was highly themed, like the rest of the attraction.
After leaving the bar we headed through a cemetery which was very foggy and built up suspense. We then found the entrance way to the facility and were greeted by a infected soldier. He held us in the area for a couple minutes as we had caught up with the first group. We were then let move on and we came to the general. This was the strongest actor in the attraction in my personal opinion. He was very intimidating. He swore and waved his gun around and was very hands on. A very strong performance. The infected soldier than burst into the room and general hurried us into the next room. There was a woman walking up and down the corridor, slapping her head and muttering about a cure. It was a tight corridor so we had to keep moving side to side to let the lady pass by.
We then entered the medical room. The doctor told us to lie on the bed and explained how she was working on cure to do with blood. There was an infected tied to the bed in the middle. She explained that the infected was her sister. This room was good as the infected kept escaping from her restraints and leaning over to the next beds trying to grab you. The doctor then explained that she had done something with the blood and that one drop would kill. She then started to panic as she spilt some of it. This caused the infected lady to get really energetic and we were rushed out of the room to the finale.
What greeted us was an electric chair. There was a lady strapped into it and a man outside. The man was the executioner. He was quite twisted and played the character well. He went into the room, placed a metal thing on her head and pulled the switch. The lights went out and when they came back on she was in the room trying to grab us and chased us out. It was a very good finale. For its first year, The Street is a very impressive production and has some very well placed scares and a great cast of strong actors. I was very impressed with it.
The Darkness
This was the second attraction of the night. It was basically a pitch black room and you had to follow the rope. It may be simple in its design but my god, I was screaming like a girl. The actors in here were very good and got you when you were least expecting it.
Unfortunately the Battle Archery wasn’t available, but overall we had a blast and really enjoyed ourselves. We hope this event returns next year, bigger and, if possible, better than this year. You guys did an amazing job! Thank you for inviting us along!