Hellgate, Thorpe Park

You could be forgiven for thinking Freakshow was never meant to be particularly scary. Principally a palette of bright and gaudy colours throughout, and with fairly subdued acting talent, even the name didn’t suggest too much in terms of doom and gloom.

Freakshow first opened with the rest of Fright Nights in 2002, and was a blacklit maze to compliment the grittier Freezer (now The Asylum). Comparably, acting talent was sparse, with far more emphasis on the 3D paintings on the walls and floor, which throughout the first and second season were remarkably effective.

But over time, as these paintings faded and became less effective, so too did the appeal of Freakshow. It was always considered as the weaker of the two mazes, and I can definitely attest to the fact it was an acquired taste, so during the summer of 2005 we were surprised with the ‘last chance’ to enjoy Freakshow 3D before it became a new maze in October for Fright Nights.

By October, Freakshow had become Hellgate. Gone was the chance of expecting anything less than terrifying; the name alone really ups the ante.

With the addition of Slammer, the well-signposted entrance to Freakshow has gone to the well-signposted heaven up above, so it is up to you to find the entrance. It is hidden away between Slammer and Colossus, and follows the route normally taken by Colossus’ Fastrack queue.

With the queue splitting into two, there is constant concern from queuers that they’re infact queuing for Colossus, which – to be honest – is completely understandable.

The queue is actually well-organised aside the slightly cramped and confusing location, with alternating sides being let into the back of the X:\ No Way Out building where the attraction is situated.

Passing between two gothic pillars topped with snarling griffin-type animals, you enter a long, straight black corridor and join the back of another queue. Stinking of London Dungeonisms whereby you spend a considerable time queuing only to join another queue, patience slowly ebbs away as the shouting and boisterousness of those in the tunnel makes queuing very uncomfortable and often frankly scary.

Imagine a corridor three times as long and three times as miserable as the Black Hole’s infamous queue tunnel, and you have the idea. While you grit your teeth in this queue, the story of Hellgate is recited by the dulcet and well-spoken tones of a storyteller who explains – in great length – how Hellgate became cursed.

If you’re expecting me to give away the plot, don’t worry, I won’t. This isn’t down to good showmanship on my part, though, it is just that I couldn’t hear the story over the shouting in the queue-line.

People are batched into groups of eight-or-so, and move down into another corridor standing in the shadow of a few statues next to the stone-effect wall. Above the atmospheric ambience, a recorded announcement lays out the house rules.

Like The Asylum, groups have to go through with hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you. While a slightly annoying rule, it keeps groups together and helps limit the tendency to run.

The doors open and the group nervously shuffle into the darkness of Hellgate.

The first room is quiet – almost too quiet. With two monks standing to the side, you expect one to jump out, yet they allow you to pass unchallenged. Perhaps becoming overly complacent, you run the gauntlet of passing down the opposite side of the room in the darkness.

From the shadows, a ghostly woman appears, a blue light helping her to jump out as the group enters a long corridor.

Dimly lit with grubby cobweb-strewn candelabras, this is as close as Hellgate gets to a deadspot, and seems to be consistently devoid of actors, before you turn the corner and walk straight into the open arms of another ghostly apparition.

As the dark corridors zig-zag towards the centre of the building, more and more actors follow you, block your path and appear from the darkness before you walk into a revolving tunnel.

As you pass through, your senses are bombarded with the sensation of being in a revolving tunnel as well as the subconscious absorbing the gloomy words that litter the tunnel interior; pain, doom, hell...

Under the watchful eye of yet more actors, you navigate more dimly lit corridors. A character stands in your way, before clambering up the handrails and up between the two walls, bridging the corridor and allowing you to walk underneath.

You walk the length of a castle prison with a prisoner apparently securely locked up in a metal cage. As you walk past, though, the character follows, hitting a bar on the metal cage before opening a door before jumping into the path of your group, refusing to let you pass.

You finally force your way past, and around the next corner, you walk towards a set of gallows, from which a lifeless character hangs. As you approach, the character – as if possessed – slips from the noose and slowly walks towards the group, forcing you to the side of the corridor.

The attraction begins its grand offensive as you near the end – from a cubby hole, a hunched character lurches from the dark blocking your passage, growling, snorting before collapsing onto his back and scurrying away by crawling backwards.

You enter a small room with a plinth in the centre from under which a bloodied character jumps out, wielding a chain sending the group first cowering into the corner before bursting out from the black curtains into the exit area.

As in previous years, Thorpe have two completely different mazes that will inevitably invite comparisons between each other. Yet, four years on the gulf of difference between the two is getting smaller and smaller.

Freezer – or The Asylum is it is now called – has always been about conveying a sense of panic and bedlam in its very most raw form, while 3D Freakshow went further (on paper) to offer the 3D element on top of the acting talent, but was always a calmer, more palatable fearfest.

The differences remain. Hellgate is very much still about looking pretty, with the full emphasis of scaring left in the hands of the acting talent. The Asylum, meanwhile, has actors less likely to rise to the challenge of sending you over the edge, but the continual strobes and sirens offer a sense of chaos and urgency that Hellgate will never be able to match.

But the contrasting character of Hellgate this year works brilliantly to its advantage. The theming inside is simple and generally effective. It is surprisingly light when compared to other mazes, but still the dark corners remain, and the actors aren’t afraid to make the most of them.

The acting talent on Hellgate is far more reliable than that on The Asylum. While it’s still a possibility you will get through unchallenged, the different setting of Hellgate offers the opportunity to do some interesting tricks. Climbing up the wall Spiderman-style was a fantastically well-executed trick and took the entire group by surprise, while unlike The Asylum, the best is saved to last which will send the group running out the final door.

Like The Asylum, Hellgate isn’t immune from problems. There are quite a few dead spots, and unlike The Asylum there isn’t the sense of disorientation and panic to distract you from the occasional lack of actors.

To a lesser extent than The Asylum, too, quite often actors let you pass unchallenged. If there is one slumped in the corner, it isn’t unreasonable to expect them to jump up when you least expect it, but often they resist this temptation and let you pass.

The scenery in Hellgate is good – the scene with the prison cages is particularly good, and the gothic theme works well, although obviously not as good as the dearly departed and much-missed epic, Terror of the Towers.

So, 2005 at the very least marks a turning point for Thorpe’s mazes. Asylum’s inability to improve over the last year, and the obvious improvements made to Hellgate have meant that Thorpe Park have two mazes of a similar standard.

Yet, despite their newfound similarities, both have separate identities and offer completely different experiences. There is much that can be improved on both mazes, and while it would be nice to see Hellgate’s queuing refined somewhere between 2005 and 2006, Thorpe Park have definitely got both mazes up to a standard where they can start focusing on new projects for Fright Nights, and not feel obligated to continue improving upon these attractions.

MS 27 October 2005