Halloween House Party: Horror Attractions Past & Present
Welcome back to Divination Hollow’s Halloween House Party! Every year, we celebrate Halloween with some specific content, giving you films, books, attractions and more that fit the spooky season from both contributors and guests. And if you want to celebrate with us, make sure you check out our Substack post for all the details on how to submit. Don’t forget to subscribe to be the first to hear about our events and open calls!
There’s always some events and attractions that pop up around Halloween – some end up sticking around for years to come, others disappear after a short while. As well as these frightful experiences, there’s horror attractions out there you can enjoy year-round! So, for Halloween this year, I wanted to spotlight some attractions I’ve attended in the past, both the good and the bad, the current and the closed.
X-Scream
Where? Rhondda Heritage Park
Attended: Halloween, 2016
Rating: 10/10
Is it still going? No
Rhondda Heritage Park is the site of a former mine – as an attraction, you can still have a tour of the mine (which I also highly recommend), though their Halloween offering is now more family friendly. X-Scream was an incredible 18+ event, where we were blindfolded and led towards the mine, and once the blindfolds were off, we had to make our way back out. Cue scary actors jumping out at us and trying to make my then-brand-new partner jump. They managed it successfully, once, and the way he jumped meant he slammed his elbow into my face, causing me to come very close to tripping over a mine track, followed by a girl yelling, “I was waiting for them to get you!” before she spotted me and went “OH MY GOD, ARE YOU OKAY?”. Thankfully, I was fine, if a little bruised, and he was incredibly apologetic (he is very hard to scare).
Point being – this was a great event, themed around germ warfare initially, with plenty of scare actors and ending with us being chased out by a chainsaw wielding cross between Michael Myers and Leatherface. It hit all the right buttons for a scare event, and it was really sad to hear it closed down after 2018.
Pasaje del Terror
Pasaje del Terror, Blackpool, UK
Where? Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Attended: September, 2017
Rating: 10/10
Is it still going? Yes
This one is a permanent attraction in Blackpool, located just outside the Pleasure Park, and it’s fantastic. Word of warning: this one spits you out into the middle of a pub, so if you visit during busy seasons you might end up suddenly stumbling out into a crowd. Luckily for us, we were there on a wet, rainy afternoon when the pub was closed, so there weren’t any witnesses to my paler-than-normal face or shaking hands. A walk-through horror attraction with live actors, different themed rooms, and the promise of a pint at the end though can’t really be beat, especially at only £15 on the door. Find more information or book tickets at their website.
Cardiff Halloween Festival
Where? Cardiff Bay, Cardiff
Attended: October, 2025
Rating: 2/10
Is it still going? Apparently not – which isn’t a bad thing
Ah, Cardiff’s very own Willy Wonka Experience, this one was bad enough to warrant its own BBC News article. Honestly, there was a lot working against this – the idea of having it on a section of the barrage wasn’t bad in theory, but huge queues with no checks on the time you booked for the boat, poor weather and unfinished attractions all added up to a bad experience, plus the fact organisers didn’t seem at all interested in rectifying it for visitors who’d already attended or even apologising. We were optimistic in going, and in all fairness, the food was excellent, but that was the best thing that could be said for it. Despite arriving when we were told to (based on the time booked), by the time we got to the attraction we really didn’t have long there. One thing we were excited for was the ghost train ride – we are always looking out for Good Ghost Trains, which seem very few and far between. As we were waiting in the cart however, we could smell burning. Then the ride flickered, someone got stuck, and they shut it down (we did at least get the additional money we paid for the ride refunded). What followed was us walking through too-dark-to-see-anything tents, paying almost £10 each for ‘Trick or Treat Street’ (but only kids getting the sweets), and none of the promised ‘walk around actors’ because they’d all taken shelter from the rain. Really poorly organised, and we weren’t the only ones disappointed by the price and experience. The actors we did come across, however, were fantastic, and I felt bad they’d been roped into something so dreadful (negatively) overall.
For me, the worst thing was this was targeted at families, but the emphasise on “photo locations” and the expense of any additional activities, it really felt like people were being massively ripped off, and likely chose this over other family Halloween activities!
Scardiff
Where? Cardiff
Attended: Sometime back in…2013? 2014?
Rating: 10/10
Is it still going? No – disappointingly
I am not kidding, if anyone ever tried to revive the briefly lived Scardiff, I would throw what little money I have at them. At one point, Cardiff had a couple of decent conventions, but they’ve disappeared over the years. Scardiff was such a fantastic experience though! I walked out with so many books. It was a horror convention during October, and the local horror community really came out for it. Books, crafts, and general horror paraphernalia alongside film screenings, panels and I think at some point a zombie run? Please, someone, hear me – bring this back! It’s about time Cardiff had some smaller conventions back on the calendar.
The London Bridge Experience
Where? London
Attended: Sometime back in…2013/2014, then in 2017/2018
Rating: 9/10
Is it still going? Um…it’s complicated?
The London Bridge Experience & London Tombs, London, UK
To my surprise, The London Bridge Experience is currently listed on Google as temporarily closed. Their Instagram does confirm closed for maintenance but their last posts were in 2025 and the website has disappeared. I really, really hope this one isn’t closed for good! It always seemed to be a solid tourist attraction. I haven’t yet been to London Dungeons, but having done Blackpool Dungeons the initial part of London Bridge is similar, in that you walk through different parts of history, with live actors explaining London’s dark history. London Bridge felt a bit more ‘adult’ though (but still suitable for teens!). Once you’ve walked through London from the Romans to Jack the Ripper, you hit the second part of the attraction: The London Tombs.
These were a bit different the second time, and I admit I found some of the rooms more frightening the first time, but it was still a great scare maze. Again, it’s live actors, and you at least are pretty much guaranteed to be with a group for this one. And the second time I did this was with the same partner from X-Scream, though thankfully I sustained no injuries this time! (Though to be fair this also applies to both Pasaje del Terror and Harvest of Horror!) I really hope this comes back as I’d love to visit again.
Initially, this article did start life as a “things I think are fun to do around Halloween”, but I also wanted the opportunity to talk about how good the long gone attractions were, and it felt only right to take the chance to talk about the poor experience at the Halloween Festival, too. I hope one day some of the better things we’ve done can return in some form, because Scardiff was just brilliant, and who doesn’t love being chased through a mine?
