The Leicestershire-based scream park is one of the biggest and best Halloween events in the UK, and those who dare to enter can experience a stellar line up including the 5 purpose-built attractions and various street theatre.

This year, new scare maze Belvoir Manners joins the many returning attractions, including the award-winning The Village.

Due to the coronavirus, social distancing was encouraged in the queues and some of the high touch points in the scare mazes had been removed, but it was otherwise business as usual in the attractions. The main operational change was to send each visiting group into the mazes separately, rather than batching people with strangers. Where sufficient time was left between each group entering the attractions and groups passed through at a steady pace, this worked really well and provided a more intense experience.

In order to comply with the latest government restrictions, so the Xtreme Scream Park can be open beyond 10pm, there was no bar or live music on the night of our visit. Entertainment was provided by The Toxic Dolls fire act.

Scare Mazes

• Belvoir Manners (New for 2020) - taking over the lower level of previous scare maze Stilton Hall Hotel and Hell Spa, there were quite a few similarities and some repurposed sets but a completely new storyline and characters. As we have come to expect from this event, there were lots of highly detailed rooms and due to it being more difficult for the actors this year with the required distancing, it was great to see so many highly effective animatronics in use. Much like its predecessor, this was again a brilliant experience from start to finish.
  
  
• Ash Hell Penitentiary - this remarkable scare maze returns pretty much unchanged. We once again entered into what looks and feels like a genuine prison, occupied by sadistic guards and convicts running wild. Passing through a relentless series of passages, cells and tunnels we encountered more and more dangerous inmates. The strobe lighting is particularly effective, making it very difficult to navigate.
  
  
• HooDoo VooDoo - a great combination of a 'hooded' maze and highly themed scenes. Due to the coronavirus measures, the hooded section involved wearing an eye mask rather than a full cloth hood, but this was just as effective at plunging us into complete darkness, with nothing but a rope to guide us. The second part was packed with scares and takes place in a completely immersive environment that transports you to the Americas with trees, huts, bridges and of course voodoo dolls.
  
  
• The Pie Factory - with the park located just outside Melton Mowbray, home of the pork pie, it's a very fitting basis for a truly twisted attraction. This returning experience takes place across multiple buildings including the piggery, slaughterhouse and the factory itself. The crazed pigs and even crazier workers are there at every turn and you are lucky to escape without being their latest ingredient.
  
  
• The Village - unfortunately our experience of this award-winning maze was impacted by batching issues, with multiple groups merging into one long and slow moving conga line through much of the attraction. We once again explored this vast village inhabited by evil scarecrows, and in one scene we were caught completely off guard by a very powerful air cannon. The scale and ambition of this attraction remains quite remarkable and we look forward to experiencing it again at it's best.

Outside the attractions you aren't safe from scares, with lots of new roaming characters this year, our favourite being the rude and hilarious 'Joe Erotic'.

The team behind the event is as passionate about it as ever, and we are impressed that they have been able to go ahead with it this year, considering the obvious challenges in doing so.

The event runs on selected nights until 1st November 2020 - don't miss out on this award-winning scare attraction! Find out more and buy tickets at www.xtremescreampark.co.uk