Atmosphere - an Alternative Spooky Night Out!

My wife stumbled on this event while looking for something different to do this Halloween and stumbled upon http://www.hexintheharvest.com.

Atmosfear Scare Attractions is the brainchild of Jason Karl of “Most Haunted” fame and runs several live actor scare shows around the UK. These shows are very popular in the USA and are rapidly becoming popular here as well. “What are they?” I hear you ask. I’m sure that you can remember going on the Ghost Train at theme parks as a child. Now imagine walking through one where, instead of mannequins and sound effects, they use real actors up close and personal!

Hex in the Harvest is literally what is sounds like.  You walk through a corn maze in total darkness, which in itself is quite creepy (does anyone remember the film Children of the Corn?!). The maze has been grown at Hawkshaw Farm Park on the A59 not far from Preston. The venue was easy to find, had plenty of parking and we were directed up to a small wooden building where we checked in and were able to buy food and drinks.

We then set off in a small group through the corn. The person at the front and back of each group were given a torch and we were instructed to walk single file, hand on the shoulders of the person in front to ensure that we all stayed together. The storyline of the show is that of a travelling Victorian carnival that disappeared into the corn but has reappeared, somehow “changed”, now that the corn has grown again. I won’t give too much away as I don’t wish to spoil it for anyone who might want to go to this attraction next year (assuming they use the same storyline).

Now I don’t think that I scare easily, but I really did jump a few times on the way around this attraction.

The make-up and costumes were fantastic; one character in particular had very realistic looking barbed wire hanging from his face, which was disturbing to say the least! The sets at different stages of the maze were equally well thought out and impressive. The group of people we went around with all seemed to enjoy it as much, if not more, than we did.

Tickets were £10.50 each and it took about forty minutes to walk around the attraction. I felt the price was about right for the fun that we had. The event was very well run, from an organisational and safety point of view.

Unusually, for any kind of attraction or event, the food and drinks were reasonably priced too. My wife felt that a few more cast could have been added into the storyline and given a few more scares, but I think the anticipation of walking through the corn maze unsure of what is going to happen next built up the anticipation and tension, adding to the effect when we did arrive at the next scene. All in all, I enjoyed the event and will be keeping an eye on the website for next year’s offering of Halloween scares!