Beware: This is a review of a past Halloween event. Therefore, do not use it as a basis upon which to preview the same event this year, and please note that the event may not necessarily be taking place this year. Please use our guide for an overview of this years' Halloween attractions. 

Terror of the Towers, Alton Towers (2003)

You don’t get much for free at Alton Towers, so when a group of six of us were warmly invited to a banquet in the gothic ruins of the Towers, we were quick to accept. The malevolent Master of the Towers was to be our host, a mysterious character who hosted but one banquet a year, every Halloween.

The sun shone down on a bracing autumn day as golden leaves caked the pathway up to the towers. Beyond a crumbling gothic archway, the path goes through a family cemetery with various gravestones lit in a sombre blue light and coffins abandoned to the left.

The pathway passes through a fairly creepy tunnel... but worry not, we’ll be at the safety of the Towers soon. The path opens up into a courtyard, the ruins of the stately manor house towering over us. The green door in front abruptly opens and a haggard old woman with unkempt grey hair and pale face barks; “You – in – now”, abruptly ushering us in.

Following this fairly frosty welcome, we’re locked into a small room as the rotting door slams shut behind us. “The Master doesn’t like waiting, and you’re late” she warns. “So I’m going to send you through the servant’s quarters. Don’t touch anything – keep your grubby little mitts to yourself”

As she opens the opposite door, she shrieks “Gertrude!” into the musty corridor. From the shadows, a white-faced maid dressed in a traditional pinafore paces towards us as if a ghostly apparition through the dimly-lit haze. “The master ain’t very happy” she complains, “so hurry up, and watch your step – we wouldn’t want anything nasty happening to you, would we?”

Her shrill voice cuts through the rolling orchestral music like a hot knife through butter. “Stay together now, as you may not like what you see” she shrieks, before breaking into a chilling cackle. A gate is flung open before we climb a steep staircase into the deepest depths of the Towers.

Turning a corner, we enter the kitchen. It’s hard to see what gastronomic delights our cook is preparing, but as we begin to make out severed arms and heads, a frenzied woman comes towards us clutching a rolling pin, bashing it on the splintered partitions between you and her.

A servant hacks away at bloodied meat on a chopping block with a rusty cleaver. As her eye catches yours she hisses with venom before lurching out at you from behind a door. Seething, she chases our group from the kitchen into a tight corridor. Down this corridor you have to slalom and duck your way around a tight zig-zag of heavy curtains before you make another turn and climb up more steps.

Arriving outside the Banqueting Hall, a butler steps from the shadows behind a table with a punch bowl and goblets on. His back hunched, his tailcoat thickly covered in blood, the punchbowl full of blood and eyeballs. After swigging from a bottle, he staggers over, bellowing at us to stand and wait.

“I suggest you put your arms on the shoulders of the person in front of you,” he slurs. “If Master sees idle fingers, he’s likely to eat them. Now move quickly. Master likes his meat to be fresh.”

We enter the grand Banqueting Hall. Judging by the feast laid out on the table, we are not eating from the menu, but we ARE the menu.

From the head of the table, Master catches glimpse of our group. The stout character, chewing on a severed arm, staggers over towards our group. Squirming out of the way, our group are stalked as he sniffs and snarls at each person, as if selecting only the juiciest of us. We run around the back of the Banqueting Hall down a corridor flanked in statues covered with dustsheets. As one lurches at us, we run into a small reading room with two decorative eight-foot mythical monsters. One paces towards us before a mutated man jumps towards us out of the darkness as a large bang explodes behind us.

He stands behind the group, his cold breath hitting my neck as a maid steps from the dark corner of a library, surprised that we have escaped Master. “Don’t hang around” she warns, as she pushes open a bookcase to reveal tens of body bags hanging from the ceiling. A rancid stench permeates the cool air; large swathes of blood stain the white wall. Our passage out means we have to push a body bag out of the way before we pass a small room where the remains of a dissected human remain. Entrails drip blood and are presented in graphic detail, before the eyes open, the victim painfully screaming for help as we avert our gaze and run out of the room.

After passing several barrels overflowing with blood soaked body parts, we now enter a winding labyrinth of pathways lit with disorientating strobe lights. Characters flutter around in the light, jump through gaps in partitions and follow the group around.

Large bangs, dramatic music and sharp gusts of air add to the sense of panic as we’re then led out of the maze by a maid and enter a small cage, the metal gate slamming shut behind us. Two characters circle the cage, one inside, all wielding metal pipes, smashing them on the bars of the cage before with a huge crash another character lands on the metal grating above smashing a bar on the metal above, snarling with malice as another door is opened and we escape out into her Ladyship’s Gardens.

Last year you may remember I complained that Terror of the Towers felt like Alton Towers were dabbling in something that was out of their depth. This year, it is by no accident that Terror of the Towers is the absolute epitome of what a good walkthrough should be in every single aspect.

Scenery last year was scant, but this year the Bloodfest Banquet theme has been exploited to its full potential using macabre, and often gory set pieces. Such is the level of detail in places, it often eclipses even more established walk through attractions such as Pasaje Del Terror.

Furthermore, special effects like changes in temperature, lighting effects and some often fairly disgusting smells mean that Terror of the Towers is a meticulously polished performance throughout.

The Bloodfest Banquet theme really opens up opportunities for actors to really play some great roles, and all duly rise to the duty. Highlights include the frenzied cook wielding a meat cleaver, the Master himself snorting at all and sundry as well as the characters who attack you whilst caged up at the end who convey a great feeling of recklessness.

Music is used well throughout the attraction with different parts suiting the different scenes. The frantic overlaid screaming in the labyrinth instils a great feeling of urgency, whilst the surging orchestral music at the beginning adds real drama.

MS 31 October 2003

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