The UK finally has an official Texas Chainsaw Massacre scare maze brought to us by debut scare event Halloween Haunt Fest in 2025 but sadly, not everything went to plan for this inaugural Halloween event. Here’s our thoughts on this brand new UK scare maze.
When it was announced that the UK would get an officially licensed Texas Chainsaw Massacre scare maze I was so bloody excited! I was over-the-moon that the UK would host such an iconic scare icon in an officially licensed setting and at an independent horror events no less which is crazy considering not even big theme parks seem to host IP-themed mazes anymore.
Hertfordshire Showgrounds was the home of this bold scare maze as guests step into the world of Leatherface and his cannibalistic family.
Now instantly we head into the maze and are greeted by a garage scene and some opening dialogue and instantly we notice just how bright each room is within the maze. There’s no atmosphere and it feels as though the service lights are on as opposed to the maze being in show-mode.
So much brightness in a scare maze also reveals the materials the mazes are made from and in this particular instance it felt very cheap upon first impressions through the first two opening rooms before we go outside?
Yes, the second you get into the first maze and the actors are welcoming you into the maze you’re thrust outside in front of guard rail, zero theming and an actress looking for someone who has gone missing inside the Sawyer house.
Credit – Bryanston Distributing Company
Now, as we go into the Sawyer house the iconic staircase is there, the sliding door and even the hanging materials from the ceiling, the infamous door mat and animal skulls behind the door and it looks like they’ve absolutely smashed this part of the set but it’s so bright!
Why is it so bright in here?! The film has this eerie darkened look to this particular part of the house yet it’s so bright in here that absolutely no one needed to worry about getting blurry badly lit footage it was lit up like a Christmas tree and the entire ambience of the house was completely ruined.
I was impressed by this room though, it certainly looked the part and throughout the maze there were two or three other rooms which had the potential to be great but were lacking in scares and atmosphere because of the lighting situation.
This particular part of the set had promise and then we enter the dining room and sadly this very open planned room fell way short of its cinematic representation. No skeleton lights hanging around the place, not even much set decor on the table and as we wandered around the table a scene was unfolding in front of our eyes.
This particular maze wasn’t your standard jump scare maze you were watching scenes fold out in front of you in a similar vein to Halloween Horror Nights but at least at HHN you get jump scares, there wasn’t much of that at all within this maze as there just wasn’t anywhere dark enough for characters to hide for the majority of the maze (except towards the end).
After walking through a well-lit but also well themed kitchen (another impressive room) we’re back into the low budget part of the maze with hanging sacks, cheap Temu blood soaked curtains and just an overall cheap feel about the place.
The actors certainly tried to install some fear into proceedings and as the light got more dull towards the end the chainsaws came out to play and it was here where the jump-scares could breed but by now I was already at a point where the immersion was ruined as I felt so disconnected by not just how short the maze was but how open planned it was, so distanced from the scares.
If cinematic accuracy was a part of the IP criteria for this maze then I’m staggered as to how it was signed off to be a licensed Texas Chainsaw Maze.
The costumes were great and the Leatherface masks were spot-on but the set (aside from the staircase / sliding door scene) just wasn’t up to scratch in the slightest. If this wasn’t a licensed maze they could have maybe got away with it but with it being a licensed maze, it looked nothing like it and felt like many corners were cut.
Too short, too uninspired and sending people outside back into a funfair area completely detaches people from the maze, it felt very amateurish to do this but the maze wasn’t all bad, there was certainly potential and the event knew how to do a good scare maze (the witch one was the main highlight of the event) so if they made the TCM maze equally as long and immersive they could have been onto something special but sadly it just didn’t hit for me and this hyped up maze (in my head) was sadly one of the biggest disappointments of the evening.
The UK deserves good licensed scare mazes and the team have worked so hard to put this event on that it feels as though the mazes were a last minute addition in terms of planning them out to be a good scare experience. It felt very theatrical and for me, that just doesn’t work in a scare maze. There has to be a blend, you’re going in to be scared, not to watch a show.
One particular highlight of me was Leatherface imerging from the shadows holding a chainsaw, it was just very good timing as the lighting in that bit with the chainsaw was pretty cool but this once and done scare maze experience had similar glimmers of hope until it all crashed and burned in front of my very eyes.
There’s a lot of work to be done here and it feels as though the organisers had bitten off more than they could chew when it comes to IP mazes as this particular maze along with their Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey maze were the two weakest of the entire event.
Was the criteria for licensing too strict? Was it too rushed?
Many questions need to be answered about this particular experience and whilst fans of the film will go in and have a moderately good time if you’re a scare maze enthusiast you may roll your eyes at this one as it just doesn’t quite hit BUT it has its moments and that gives me hope for much, much bigger improvements in the future.
With a bit more time to really iron out the bugs, rearrange and improve the sets and maybe extend the length of the maze or at least improve the outdoor part of the maze to keep you immersed and away from the funfair etc I can see this maze being something rather special but at this point in time, it felt rushed and not ready to open and that’s a real shame as the potential is there for all to see.
