Whatton House of Horror 2022 : Witchfinder & Torturers Apprentice Review

Foreword

As far as underrated gems go, Whatton House of Horror, located in Kegworth is definitely up there, or so we thought...

Last year, we saw that a local country house was hosting a scare event, designed and built by Area 51. And it was an event that really stood out to us for a number of reasons. Firstly, the price, it was significantly cheaper than any event in the area by nearly half, I think the nearest attraction was Xtreme Scream Park, located in Melton Mobray, which on any night can be between £35-42 whereas Whatton House of Horror last year was just £17 if my memory doesn't fail me. The main reason the price was so reasonable was because, instead of having a handful of different attractions, it just had 1, but that was a 45-minute, 1km walk around the grounds of a country estate, heavily themed with a few different scenes and roaming actors. It really was superbly done and we even went 3 times during its run last year.

This year was slightly different for a few reasons. The 2022 scare season saw Whatton expanding on what it already had by adding a second trail, sounds good right? Well yes and no, but before we get onto that, let's talk about the events savior which was trail 1 - Witchfinder; The underused theme of Witchcraft and the real-life horrors of centuries gone by is one that, in my opinion, is very welcome, although it seems like the obvious route to go down, it's not very often used, which is a shame because so much can be done with that theme. However Whatton was the place to do it, and they really did it.

Trail 1 - The Witchfinder

Last year, there were around 3 or 4 very well-themed scenes throughout your journey, which would stop the group, and deliver a small scene lasting a few minutes to add to the story, (think Dungeons but with more blood and innuendos) and in between these scenes, there would be 5 minute walks with roaming actors stalking, shouting and of course, scaring you. For this year there were several more scenes with the walks in between being fewer, and the scenes themselves were much more elaborately themed and dressed with effects and actors.

With other attractions, I plan on going more in-depth, almost scene by scene, but due to the scale and length of Witchfinder, I don't fancy writing a small dissertation about one attraction. So in a nutshell, after leaving the main hub area (with an amazing wood-fired pizza van) you enter the experience through a doorway, you are then greeted by a burly fellow who sets the scene and places you in the mid-1600s when the hunt for witches was at its peak, during the Oliver Cromwell-era of history. You are told that your job is pretty self-explanatory, you have to enter the woods and track down witches to be burnt at the stake (pretty brutal, we know). You start by making your walk along the trail and the first scene you are greeted with is a pretty disturbing one, and one of the first in a scare attraction to make me almost turn away, you are playing witness to a hanging of a suspected witch, now historically, this is accurate, this happened daily across the country in a bid to rid the world of witches, however this effect within scare attractions has always been a grey area, with very few ways to execute it (hehe) well, and of course remain safe. This particular example did both pretty darn well, and you could 100% buy it if you didn't know what was going on, I won't spoil the illusion, but it is very very well done, and the acting in this scene is very very good.

I don't want to delve too much information into the other scenes as I do believe you should see it to believe it, as it's definitely on my to-do list every Halloween season. From start to finish it is just so well polished, from the scenes to the actors, to the storyline, there is no guessing, no questions, just fantastic theatrics and of course plenty of scares from start to finish, don't get me wrong, this isn't Ashell 2018, but it does exactly what it needs to, and where the attraction lacked last year, namely the finale, it made up for ten fold this year, with the attraction ending with I think the best scene I have ever experienced in a scare attraction, and that alone is worth the £21.50 ticket price this season, and yes, I really do mean that.

Overall the first of the two trails this year at Whatton set us up for a undoubtedly good second trail, and we returned a week or so later to experience the brand new second door at Whatton.

Whatton House of Horror 2022 - The Witchfinder

Scares - 5/10

Costume - 9/10

Storytelling - 10/10

Theming - 8/10

Price - 8/10

Overall - 40/50

Trail 2 - The Torturers Apprentice

And here we go...

So as previously mentioned our experience in the past in 2021, and Witchfinder in 2022, set us up for high hopes for this new second trail at Whatton. And sadly those expectations were left pretty tarnished, because of a few key things that let the attraction down so much.

So the second door at Whatton is something that is brand new for this season, and we absolutely love to see the new, smaller attractions growing, I think a lot of the time, the smaller budgets and newer talent can often make sensational attractions that on occasion, impress us more than the super high budget attractions. So evidently we were itching to tackle this new twist on Wharton's incredible history with its attractions.

However as time progressed we became a little skeptical for one main reason, the pricing. The second trail is not included in the price of the first trail, however, it can be added onto a Trail 1 ticket. We didn't do this and went on 2 separate occasions, but I digress, it doesn't take away from the fact that the second trail is up to £27, which is tickling on the price range of Xtreme Scream Park which this year boasts 6 scare mazes and a scare zone, its brave pricing for a single experience, yet as we read a little more, this isn't another 45-minute walk, like Witchfinder is, it is a 10-minute scare attraction. I've been attending scare events for over a decade and I can't think of a single scare maze i would pay that money to do once, (sorry Dr. Kelman), so already we were somewhat even more excited because how could our beloved Whatton House ever betray us?

After booking tickets and arriving back at Whatton for round 2, we were preparing for an extremely intense experience, that would pack a hell of a lot into 10 minutes to ensure people left feeling like they'd had their money's worth.

Our time was up and it was time to enter The Torturers Apprentice. Upon arrival in the first room, we were greeted by a woman dressed in similar attire to those in The Witchfinder so it was clear this was a sister attraction to the main. The actor went on to tell you that your job, again, very obvious is to be an apprentice to the torturer that wanted to pass the trade down. this scene was great, with plenty of banter and time to talk to the character which really added to the tongue and cheek aspect of this attraction, and it's something I really like to see in mazes because after all they are meant to be fun.

There were around 5 or 6 scenes within this attraction, all would stop you and give you a short spiel and there would be an effect as a finale to each scene, however, none of these were anything groundbreaking or innovative like they were in Witchfinder.

There were some cracking scares and the scenes themselves were very well-themed and dressed, you'd wander through what seemed to be the gardens of the house itself, finding yourself in large greenhouses and small passageways between scenes.

The acting within the attraction was good, as were the scenes, and as mentioned there were a few moments where it got intense, in fact really intense, with short chase portions and large monsters (?) cornering you in dead ends.

However was it worth the money, in a word, no. It really does kill me to be negative in these reviews, especially after I had such high praises to give to Witchfinder and Whatton overall. But everything I'm stating from now on are things that I believe can be solved relatively easily and it is of course all constructive.

Firstly, put the price up to £27 for both trails, offer it as a scare evening and start to get your foot in the door as a scare park, as it would just work better and we all know that it can be done. Secondly, I don't know if this is the case, but this attraction just felt like an afterthought, and not very thought out, as after the first scene, the storyline itself kind of, just, stops. You go from being told you have a meeting with the torturer about being his new sidekick, and after seeing guests leave with blood smeared on their faces, you would assume that the attraction is very interactive and would put the guest in the place of the torturer, even 'torturing' other members of the group? This wasn't the case as it felt like you were just walking through a living museum-style attraction, as an onlooker, not as a participant. To sum it up this has a Merlin Dungeons feel to it, with less interactivity and a much higher price tag. However the biggest letdown for me is the prospect this attraction had, with Purgatory in 2021 being a standout attraction of around 20 that we did, and of course Trail 1 - Witchfinder definitely being in the top 3 of the year so far, this attraction should and could have been better, much better.

Regardless of what we thought of Trail 2, I always urge people to go and try every attraction for themselves, purely because of how many variables there are to a scare attraction that can make each run through significantly better or worse. However, I personally would be skeptical from now on about booking a second-door attraction at Whatton.

Whatton House of Horror - Trail 2: Torturer's Apprentice

Scares - 7/10

Costume - 7/10

Storytelling - 3/10

Theming - 7/10

Price - 1/10

Overall - 26/50