WHAT: Doncaster Fear Factory
WHO: Doncaster Fear Factory
WHERE: Doncaster Fear Factory (Thornhurst Manor, Holme Lane, Owston, Doncaster, DN5 0LR)
WHEN: Friday 13th October – Sunday 29th October 2023
PRICE: £5-40
OUR RATING: Chance It!
In their third year at their newest location of Thornhurst Manor, Doncaster Fear Factory offers an exciting evening of fear with five mazes (including one new scare maze), entertainment and a live scarezone in the centre of the park. This was Storefront City’s first year at the attraction, and we are so happy to have finally taken a stab at experiencing it all.
Upon entering the queue for the attraction we were immediately preyed upon by some great scare actors, and it wasn’t long until we were allowed into the main event. The path between the ticketing area and the actual haunts was one of our favourite moments of the night – a dimly lit trail through some of the most horrific and terrifying scarecrows who came to life and stalked us on our journey. In addition to the five haunts of the night, the central entertainment/scare zone offers even more spooky street actors and food, merchandise and sweets stalls.
The Pogo Club: Our initial plan was to take a walk around the entire park just to take in the atmosphere of it all, but we were quickly waylaid by a creepily enthusiastic clown who insisted we join him at The Pogo Club, a high intensity and neon-tastic night club that invites you to dance until suddenly you realise that the venue has been overtaken by killer clowns! This maze was completely disorienting from the start, and we were immediately locked into the club’s smelly toilets to try and escape the terror before us. Unfortunately, the night club toilets could only protect us for so long, and the clowns soon renewed their attack, chasing us through the back of the club and into playrooms where toys came to life! The costumes and set were really detailed, but unfortunately much was obscured by the use of fog. We still really enjoyed the music and high-adrenaline nature of this maze with scares coming from all sides!
The Chasm: After a quick walk through the woods we then came upon The Chasm, which was hands down our favourite maze of the night. The set for this maze was remarkably detailed, and we really felt as if we had delved into an old underground bunker. We did find this maze a little physically difficult, as there were extremely long stints where you had to crawl/duck down through spaces for quite a distance, which was challenging for the taller individuals in our group. But the theming, acting, and costumes and makeup for this maze were intensely immersive, with eerie music to coincide. We were touched by practically every actor, and one of us were actually put into a gentle headlock so as to stop us from going through the maze too quickly. We are still in awe of the calibre of the actors in this maze, who really embraced their characters and their interactions with the audience.
The Legend of Crackle Hill: The Legend of Crackle Hill was our next haunt, where we were immediately sat down and told the legend of the cursed house we were visiting by a super professional and passionate entertainer – definitely one of the best introductions to a haunt as this actor was such a good storyteller. We don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say we were chased by countless evil maids throughout the house, with one who kept on trying to feed us our medicine. This was yet another maze where we were touched quite a bit, with one of us even being held up by one of the maids with a real spade under our chins – quite a lot of terrifying contact, and this had us a bit shaken! There was a nice mix of indoor and outdoor space in this maze, but the end was a bit of a letdown as we think the actor for the final climax was missing from the final bit, so we ended the last bit of a maze confused about what was supposed to be happening. All in all though, it was a very entertaining maze!
Y.A.N.A Gate: At Y.A.N.A. Gate we experienced a haunting descent into a post-apocalyptic world plagued by infection. The theming was detailed, and we particularly thought the hydroponics bay setting is a standout feature, blending overgrown greenery with chaos. The maze’s confusing layout immerses visitors in the disarray, while the heart-pounding climax features a wire maze, chainsaw maniac, and even dance music in a surreal twist. This maze has some similarities to others we’d visited, but was much more disorientating.
Diabolus – The Keeper of Secrets: This maze makes use of the growing trend of hooding participants who proceed down a rope, which is your only method of navigation. A rather demonic nun carefully placed hoods upon our heads and soon we were in darkness and being touched mercilessly all over. Sometimes the rope itself was hard to follow, but this made the experience all the more heightened. Other mazes of this type have experimented with heat, smell, and sound more than we felt here, but since the experience is outside we understand that controlling the environment to that extent would be difficult – and we truly appreciated the Tibetan chanting! We were finally disgorged in a spooky chapel with a dreadful priest rigged to the roof, almost swooping down at us, the scent of incense heavy in the air, and a foreboding hooded congregation
Final Thoughts: This was the first attraction we have attended where actors touch you – a lot. Yet this was done in such a professional way, the actors were masterful and the touches were frightening but weren’t aggressive or harmful and didn’t cross any boundaries. We usually opt out of physical attractions, but we would happily return to Doncaster Fear Factory for this level of physicality. We were also super impressed by the immersive costumes, makeup and sets – everything was very skillfully created and world building, especially Chasm. We do have a few bits of constructive criticism, with greater care and cleanliness needed in the facilities on site, much less fog required in the attraction as a whole so as to be able to enjoy the maze aesthetics more, and definitely a bit more information on their website about what the attraction offers would be a step in the right direction. All in all however, we can’t recommend Doncaster Fear Factory more for anyone who lives within driving distance – they offer seriously high quality haunts and their actors are superb. Go now for a hell of a time!
