We were kindly invited to Xtreme Scream Park in Melton Mowbray on Halloween Night, and one maze in particular caught our eye. The brand new maze for 2025 maze named SPORES. Imagine being thrown into The Last of Us TV series. It was so impressive that we just had to come home and write this very review!
It’s very clear when you enter SPORES just how different it is from the other mazes at Xtreme Scream Park. The previous version of this maze was arguably the weakest as you were walking around an outdoor field for so long with nothing happening that there was no surprise when the attraction said it had been replaced.
The first thing you enter within this maze is a coach as you start your journey on a mystery tour, it’s such a cool introduction to the maze and somewhat helps to space out the batching between groups although this is forever hit and miss at attractions as you just can’t account for how fast/slow someone is going to navigate the maze infront of you.
The tone is set, and as you head into the maze you really are thrown straight into the premise of The Last of Us as apocalyptic settings are merged with this fungal overgrowth, turning everyone into ugly-ass creatures (to put it mildly).
The premise of the maze revolves around a Brewery where something seeped into the beer as these spores entered the bodies of consumers, they took over, first in the beer and then into the air, into everyone around.
The spores linger in your body, not killing the host but changing them, reshaping them as the humans now resemble a greenish-black fungus-infested mess and controlled by the infection with the sole purpose of spreading like wildfire.
SPORES is a very long maze indeed, which is something Xtreme Scream Park prides itself upon. The sets are wonderfully themed and so realistic that they could easily be turned into film sets during the off-season.
Actors were once again few and far between within the maze, which is a real issue at Xtreme Scream Park (especially on Halloween Night) but the ones that were involved certainly made an effort despite this year being more of a creepy watch interaction as opposed to the usual jump scares that come with many scare events up and down the country.
The finale leaves a lot to be desired within the maze, which is a shame because everything up until that point really is quality. SPORES is such a strong addition to the stellar line-up of mazes at Xtreme Scream Park.
I would also advise that chainsaws at scare events are just so boring now. They only seem to work on easily jumpy people or people who have never been to an event like this before, so there’s an audience for them, but for me, they’re just pointless.
Simply stand there and watch the actor crumble in stature and intimidation factor as he comes at you with nothing more threatening than a leaf blower.
SPORES is a solid addition, a UK scare maze to be proud of, and I wish Xtreme Scream would just keep building and expanding their maze line-ups because, as far as quality UK scare mazes go, these guys really are at the top of their game.
