23 October 2024
This Halloween a brand new event makes its way into the Manchester City centre. The Scare Factory opens its doors for the very first time for Halloween, with two scare mazes, entertainment and food & drink. All in the setting of an abandoned warehouse, they have a large space to bring a terror filled nightmare to life. The building has been used for industrial metalwork and has plenty of old machinery inside with its eerie and creepy charm.
The event is in the heart of Manchester’s City centre and located in the Diecast building. Which has a nightclub and bar inside usually, and still does in a separate part. The team behind this new event also links with Newsham Scream Park, which is located in Liverpool and is still upcoming. Area 51 is responsible for many past attractions in the UK and they have come together to make sure Manchester Scream Park is the next talked about haunt in the UK.
Manchester Scare Factory is open throughout October, which started from the 4th October and runs on selected nights. Tickets are on sale for around £35 per person, which includes entry, entertainment and access into the two mazes once. You book an entry time when you buy your tickets, with slots as early as 6:30pm and as late as 10:30pm, depending on the night and how busy they are. You will have to likely queue for each maze, with the event being most lively in the middle of the slots and the queues would be at the busiest. So best to book early if you don’t wish to be waiting around.
We take a further look at our how Manchester Scare Factory fairs in its opening year on a Saturday night.
Our First thoughts…
With any new event, we couldn’t wait to see what they could bring to the scare game. Located in Manchester and with good opening hours, we decided on a later time slot of 9pm entry, towards the end of the night. We drove to the event and although they have no parking themselves, there is parking all around on some streets, opposite the venue and a short walk away. We walked into the venue which was manned by security and checked in at a desk. We walked past lots of unused items you would find in an abandoned warehouse, giving that genuine aesthetic to the event from the get go. After checking in you would get vouchers to access the maze and could enter the main fear floor itself.
The event itself isn’t huge but is large enough to include photo points, a full bar, two mazes, a pizza stand, a DJ and plenty of seating. The event had an incredible atmosphere, with colorful lights and club music playing at a decent level that wasn’t too loud so you could still socialize. The bar was fair priced and whilst everything looked busy, you couldn’t fault our first look into the event itself.
Sadly the queues to the attractions were well out of the queues they’ve made, with them trying to manage the group of people swarming one maze, and another just being super long. We decided to get a drink and brave the queues to get the mazes completed.
Below we go into more depth about the attractions, giving you our thoughts and rating. Our ratings are completely separate and allows us to give a fair unbiased rating of each attraction. To know more about the ratings before you read below, do click here!
Time To Die – Scare Score: 54%
Theming 60% | Storyline 65% | Screams 45% | Laughs 50% | Actors 50%
The first maze we braved was Time To Die, or The Die Is Cast, we’re not totally sure due to the website vs what was above the entrance itself. This was advertised as a long maze lasting 20 minutes and it seemed to take up a fair amount of space, which seemed promising. The entrance of the maze had a themed character who was pretty freaky, and gave a serious yet comedic introduction with a safety speech thrown in. We then went through many show scenes inside the maze, building a story and setting the scene, which started great. Sadly, it then had its faults with us queueing inside the maze due to some scenes having another group in and we couldn’t hear what was being said due to a large noise bleed from the event itself and loud noise effects. We didn’t have many scares, and as we got towards the end, the actors were really offering not much to the maze itself. We would of hoped for a few jump scares and less story scenes, which just lost its charm very quickly. It has huge potential and wasn’t badly themed at all, with the characters being spooky too, just needed the intensity to be turned up a few notches. It’s more a theatrical experience than a scare maze.
Toymaker – Scare Score: 47%
Theming 55% | Storyline 70% | Screams 25% | Laughs 40% | Actors 45%
The Toymaker is more your traditional scare maze which you flow from room to room with scares and some story. Again including a few show scenes, this was done much better but again, it was hard to hear what was being said. Unfortunately, scares were very low and it just felt the actors didn’t give any effort on our visit. Whilst some moments they were creepy or maybe funny, it just wasn’t scary at all. They did have a very unique feature near the end which was cool to see in action and made for a disorientating ending. The cast were again dressed to impressed with them being toys or the doctor for example, but the interactions fell flat. Again, if they could turn up the intensity just a little more, have some energy inside and just master a few more basics, it could be really terrifying.
Overall, Manchester Scare Factory has an unusual venue and lots of potential but just needed more than a fair few tweaks to get there. With our maze experiences being a little disappointing, the event space itself is truly spectacular and one of the more unique features of this place. Whilst the cast had some incredible looking costumes and makeup, they just need to use the space better, give some energy and work out the best way to project the story and scares on a better scale for how many guests they are trying to please. If you’re looking for an event that has a cool location, is theatrical and some spooks, then you’ll love here as it would be right on your level. We just wouldn’t recommend visiting if you’re after the same level of scares and intensity compared to competitors.
A huge thank you though to the team for inviting us down to check out the experience. They did provide us with free entry and a drink on our visit. Whilst given permission to film, it seems you may be able to when you visit anyway, but best to clarify if you do visit yourself.
Whilst we are pretty critical, the event seems to be booming and popular with great feedback from the general public. Maybe next year they can fix some opening year snags. Until then…
Attractions 45%
Entertainment 30%
Atmosphere 75%
value for money 40%
uniqueness 75%
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