Overview
Following a sell out run in 2024 at Margam Park in 2024, Scream Time has expanded its number of events to three for 2025. It has returned to Margam Park in South Wales, and now is also running at Elvaston Castle in Derbyshire and Wentworth Woodhouse in South Yorkshire. At each of these stately homes Scream Time offers two different events, Spooky Time a PG 7+ event and Scream Time which is rated 15+. We went to their Scream Time event at Wentworth Woodhouse to see what it was like.
Atmosphere and Setting
Wentworth Woodhouse is one of the most imposing buildings at the best of times, but following a long drive to the car park and subsequent walk back to the building alongside a very well-lit trail and seeing the massive East front of the building bathed in pulsing blue light, and accompanied by spooky music and eerie voices, it was honestly one of the most impressively atmospheric walks to the entrance you could imagine.
Whilst it’d be difficult to keep that up, the rest of the event is still well done, nice lighting and sound effects as you pass the entrance booth and head to the back of the building, where the older West front of the building is bathed in red light, and is the entrance to the start of the indoor section of the scare maze.
Scare Factor
This is a much more atmospheric and spooky event, so don’t go if you’re expecting high impact or relentless scares. That said in a couple of places the actors managed to land some nicely executed and timed scares, but this is definitely on the lighter side, but it does use some nice effects and parts of the building and gardens.
Theming and Design
There were some nice bits and pieces throughout both sections of the event, and whilst the building itself is undergoing restoration, they used the rooms well. There was also some nice use of mannequins, animatronics and set pieces. Overall it was nicely done, if not the most detailed and intricate in this regard. The costumes and make up were incredibly well done
Actors and Performance
Given the nature of the layout, large open spaces, and nothing really in addition to the existing rooms / trails, it was difficult to get much scare wise, but the cast were entertaining and as mentioned still managed to get a couple of decent scares in. We also encountered a couple of roamers who were suitably entertaining. I can really imagine the cast coming to the fore in the more family friendly Spooky Time events.
Variety and Line-up
With just the indoor and outdoor sections it’s quite limited, and whilst the experience is bookended by some exposition, I didn’t get much sense of a storyline throughout. In addition to scares, there was a multi-level ghost train, a couple of midway style games, a coffin challenge, numerous food and drink options and an entertaining fire act.
Operations and Queue Experience
Really slick, no real issues, slight wait to enter, but they were letting everyone go through in their groups and had a reasonable amount of time between batches. The only issue was with other guests completely stopping in rooms for minutes at a time and I’d rather not have a Universal style be-glowsticked marshall waving everyone through, but I feel that there needs to be some middle ground here. This last note is something that we’ve noticed becoming massively prevalent at nearly every single maze we’ve been through this season, so isn’t an issue limited to here.
Value for Money
The mazes themselves are quite short, but for an overall package we paid about £20 which seems fair value.
Final Thoughts
It was a fun evening overall. We really liked what the Scream Time team have put together at Wentworth Woodhouse and whilst it’s not the longest or scariest, there’s a lot of impressive elements especially in the atmosphere, some of the sets, the overall operation and the actors and their makeup and costumes were all nicely done. We can definitely see the appeal of the family friendly event, and if you’ve got some younger children and are local, thighs would be well worth attending. We hope this event can grow in future years.
