10 February 2024
Labelled as the newest and most terrifying haunted attraction in the south west, Phobia at Puxton Park opened their doors in October 2023 as darkness descended to bring your worst nightmares to life. Open for 4 nights in total, they would provide 5 haunted attractions, live music, food and a licensed bar for you to enjoy during your evening of hell with them.
As Phobia at Puxton Park returned for its second year of running since being introduced in 2022, we were interested to see how this family friendly park by day transforms by night to offer this Halloween entertainment to the locals. With a haunted tractor ride and other scare mazes, they had plenty to offer and all for a very cheap value, if anything, the cheapest we’ve seen any UK experience offer!
During the day, Puxton Park is a family friendly location to experience rides, attractions and animals and is more aimed at the younger audience for sure. With this event being tailored more towards the older audience they would usually aim for, we were interested to see for our first time what they could provide as a pretty new event in the country.
Gates opened from 6:30pm on the night and your experience would last just under an hour from your booked time slot. You were allowed to arrive before or stay after to enjoy a whole evening of entertainment however. Tickets only cost £12 per person, which provided access to the live entertainment, bar and 1x entry to the attractions on offer.
Check out our thoughts below…
Our thoughts for 2023…
With the value of the tickets being the most surprising thing for us during our research and before attending, we were very curious how this would translate on the evening. With it only running 4 nights and offering 5 Halloween attractions, it seemed too good to be true. We heard mixed opinions during the launch of this new event in 2022, with some good but some bad, we thought we would just experience it for ourselves.
A large portion of our visit was tainted spending around 80% of our time at Phobia, stuck in the woods queueing inside a maze as you can see from the image. This was actually the first attraction we went through. We had no expectations going in and we were recommended by the first host we came across to take this route. Whilst you can read our thoughts on the attraction below, unfortunately due to a backlog due to how it flowed and operated, we ended up being in this maze, queueing for over 90 minutes. Which was well over our total time meant at the event, let alone our first attraction.
Outside this really big issue, there were some elements of the making of a good event however, this issue took so much time that by the time we completed all the attractions, there was no live entertainment on and hardly anybody at the event. We could only hope it was an issue at the start of the run however, we could not confirm if it was.
To find out more about our scare ratings, click here!
The Dark Wood
Theming 25% | Storyline 25% | Screams 30% | Laughs 45% | Actors 75%
To continue with our most negative aspect on the evening, we have The Dark Wood, our first attraction at Phobia at Puxton Park. This attraction started in complete darkness as we entered a forest pathway. With limited lighting and some basic theming, it provided a spooky start. We had some good jump scares and laughs on the way and had no issues, until we got near the end of this maze. Which we found ourselves in a queue which we couldn’t see the end of in the middle of a forest in complete darkness and no clear escape. The reason being the next attraction linked on to this was the Haunted Tractor Ride, which had very limited capacity which caused a huge backlog. We are unsure if any other issues caused the delay but we were not told. So we spent a large part of our time at the event, in the darkness, in the forest with no information or exit. The saving grace were the actors who must of been informed of the situation, as they all came to the queue and interacted with everyone the best they could. We give the actors here a huge well done for just attempting to saving this flaw, which affected many peoples evening, as we had many people behind us.
The Asylum
Theming 45% | Storyline 40% | Screams 50% | Laughs 30% | Actors 65%
Moving onto more positive experiences, we experienced The Asylum at the end of the night as our last attraction. As the name suggests, is a maze based on crazy people going insane inside the maze. With loud noises, multiple jump scares and some good effects, we had a great time in here for what the event offered. Whilst short and limited, they were able to provide some basic theming, a simple storyline and the actors once again did a fantastic job in piecing everything in-between. Not at all a bad attraction for the price bracket you are paying for and the facade outside was much more than we were expecting from what we seen in the first part of our night. With it being slightly longer and a handful of changes, it could be one of the best mazes they had at the event.
Freak Show
Theming 40% | Storyline 35% | Screams 50% | Laughs 40% | Actors 65%
Freak Show was the clown based attraction at the event and again, it was pretty good. It had some minimal theming but the bits they had matched the theme and wasn’t done bad. The outside of the attraction had some theming to it and you clearly knew what you was entering into a circus themed freakish nightmare and the story that would be behind it from the name of the maze. We screamed a handful of times and laughed a few times too. Another team of actors that did amazing with the situation and space they had provided and felt very much on par with The Asylum. For the price you are paying, you wouldn’t ask much more than what is being offered here.
Dolls House
Theming 50% | Storyline 45% | Screams 55% | Laughs 30% | Actors 60%
Dolls House followed on from Freak Show, as a separate attraction. Based on toys and a childhood nightmare coming to life, the theming and storyline matched accordingly. They had one room which was way beyond our expectations however, the rest just fell a little short. You knew it all linked and matched here and couldn’t fault it from that. We screamed the most in this maze, which actually made us pretty uneasy, with little laughs due to the style of maze it was. Who’s laughing at dolls anyway? Another strong team of actors, although a little light, they did well to cover the space they did and was a huge hit. This maze alongside The Asylum & Freak Show, all sat in one area of a barn and were the three mazes of quality at the event.
Haunted Tractor Ride
Theming 10% | Storyline 55% | Screams 10% | Laughs 15% | Actors 40%
Unfortunately, as our second attraction on the evening following The Dark Woods, the Haunted Tractor Ride was a poor addition to the event. Whilst the only positive features of this was the detailed story given and the 1 actor who delivered the story, that was all. This was simply a small tractor ride with it being blacked out and taking about 5 minutes to complete to get through the story. No theming, no scares, very minimal laughs when you had been queuing as long as we did to ride it. Unfortunately for the event, this does not work and we hope to see it removed, as it had no benefits of it being at Phobia.
So our overall thoughts of Phobia at Puxton Park? Very much mixed, as we can see so much potential that they have to offer, with the mazes in the barn being Freak Show, The Asylum and Dolls House providing what we would expect and more from an event like this. With the issue with The Dark Woods & Haunted Tractor Ride causing the bulk of the issues, we would need to see some serious changes to prevent this ever happening again at the event. With us being unable to comment about the outside entertainment as it all finished by the time we finished, it just felt like it missed the mark for us. For £12, you did get an awful lot and we maybe think it was a bit too much to perfect for a brand new event and what they were trying to achieve.
We would like to thank Puxton Park for inviting us and working with us during our visit. They did provide us two free tickets to attend and we were able to get some images also during our visit. We did reach out to have a further discussion with the team however, no discussions happened following this so we are unable to comment about our issues if were just on our night or an issue they are addressing for the future.
Will we see Phobia at Puxton Park return for 2024? We hope they do with some required changes!
Attractions 35%
Entertainment 25%
Atmosphere 20%
value for money 55%
uniqueness 50%
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