Having missed the press night I decided the logistically sensible thing to do was to see this cult Irish immersive horror show on my own, late at night (I slotted it in after seeing another immersive horror, Room 13). This was either a terrible idea or a brilliant one: even some of the relatively sympathetic costumed beings that inhabit this pair of scary mazes – plus shorter one-room vignettes – looked at me in slight concern when they realised I was flying solo.
I can well imagine that with a group of friends, and after a few drinks, The Nightmare Realm verges on camp and is quite a good laugh.
Arguably I did in fact do it the only authentic way: even blessedly aware that none of the actors were allowed to touch me I still flinched and yelled repeatedly as I passed through its two dimly lit, twisty turny labyrinths in which a seemingly endless stream of abominations leap out at you from any given corner.
I flinched and yelled repeatedly
The mazes don’t so much have plots as themes. In Sundown Manor you’re invited to dinner with… well, lots of scary people, but let’s call them a coven of witches. I was too on edge to entirely follow what was going on, but it’s all very well done, as you push through decrepit halls and rotting sides of meat (NB fake) while being constantly menaced from the shadows, eventually arriving at your final encounter with eyeless manor proprietor Lady Sundown. In Avery Hill Asylum you’re edging through a chaotic madhouse where the patients have been experimented upon by Dr Thorne, who has removed their souls in order to turn them into… scary looking people who jump at you from the shadows.
The not so secret weapon is the sheer number of actors deployed in the mazes, combined with first-rate makeup and costumes. Yes, I did it on maximum scare mode, and I can imagine a great big group of drunken mates determined to not take it seriously would have a different experience. But if you’re in the market for a scare it doesn’t get much better than this (within legal boundaries).
The smaller encounters - a haunted funeral parlour, an exorcism, that sort of thing - are less overtly terrifying but they’re spooky enough and give you a little something extra to do post the mazes. There are also various food and drink concessions, plus an extremely popular (temporary) tattoo parlour.
The Nightmare Realm left Dublin due to the sorts of financial uncertainties that threaten most independently produced immersive experiences. I hope London has been a good replacement: I slightly worry that the Avery Hill campus of the University of Greenwich is a bit out of the way for a mainstream attraction (although it seemed busy enough given how late it was). In any case, The Nightmare Realm isn’t exactly subtle, but it’s very well done and you are simply not going to beat it for sheer volume of scares.
