Scarefest has been running since 2007, and Alton Towers was scaring people in the ruins five years before that.
In that time, some genuinely brilliant attractions have been built, run for a few seasons, and quietly disappeared. A few are still talked about with real affection by people who queued for them fifteen years ago.
Here's what's gone — and why some of them deserved better.
Terror of the Towers (2002–2017)
The one everybody misses.
Terror of the Towers wasn't just Scarefest's signature maze. It predates Scarefest entirely — it was the attraction that started everything, designed in 2002 by industry legend Lynton V Harris, commissioned that year to create attractions across three Tussauds parks.
Its advantage was unbeatable and unrepeatable: it was set inside the actual Towers ruins. Long, winding gothic corridors, real derelict architecture, and live actors pursuing you through it. No maze built in a temporary structure can compete with a genuine ruined mansion.
It evolved substantially. Terror of the Towers – Bloodfest Banquet ran 2003–2008, adding scripted dialogue and the memorable premise that guests were the main course at the Master's Halloween feast. By 2008 the Master had an extended family including a twisted, deformed son.
The finale became legendary. Originally a strobe-lit corridor of actors lunging from behind fences, it was later replaced by something worse in the best way: a small room caged on every side, with actors reaching through the bars for nearly a minute.
In 2009 it was rebranded What Lies Within, the queue moved outside into Her Ladyship's Gardens, and the attraction started in the derelict Conservatories.
Sixteen seasons. Nothing since has occupied the ruins in quite the same way — though Final Exhibit returns Scarefest to the Towers in 2026, which is the most encouraging development in years.
The Field of a 1000 Screams (2007–2009)
The original Scarefest attraction proper.
Guests were invited to the small town of Altonville, where something terrible had been uncovered in the local cornfields. If that name sounds familiar, it should — Altonville Mine Tours picked up the same fictional town years later, making this the root of one of Scarefest's longest-running story threads.
Three seasons only, but disproportionate influence.
The Boiler House (2008–2011)
An ancient boiler house on the resort grounds, strange noises reported, and a labyrinth some said was the den of a pair of serial killers.
Those killers were the Hampton twins, and they've never entirely left — references to them have surfaced in later attractions including Dark Hollow, covered elsewhere on this site. Four seasons in X-Sector, and a legacy that outlasted the maze itself.
Carnival of Screams (2010–2013)
Possibly the most-loved retired maze after Terror of the Towers.
A sinister circus with a giant clown's mouth as its entrance, replacing the retired Field of a 1000 Screams. John Wardley contributed to its development — the same designer behind Nemesis and Oblivion.
Its history is a lesson in Scarefest's restlessness. It opened in 2010 in woods near the Alton Towers Hotel, sharing a building with the Boiler House. In 2011 it moved into the old Black Hole tent in X-Sector. Ministry of Joy developments — The Smiler's arrival — forced it out in 2012 into the nearby Goal Striker unit. For its final two years it took over the old Zombies scare zone area near Adventure Land.
Four seasons, four locations. In its final year it became Scarefest's free maze, replacing Terror of the Towers in that role. Its retirement in favour of the Scary Tales scare zone disappointed a lot of people — though some of its set pieces reappeared there.
The Sanctuary (2012–2014)
A 1950s medical facility run by the Ministry of Joy — the same organisation behind The Smiler.
This is the cleverest thing Scarefest has ever done: a scare maze built as a direct narrative tie-in to a new rollercoaster, with Dr Kelman positioning The Sanctuary as the failed early process that eventually led to The Smiler. Marketing and storytelling doing the same job at once.
By general agreement, a huge hit.
The Ones That Ran a Single Season
The Ultimate Sleepover (2014) — the Towers operated as a third hotel, with guests spending the night in the gothic ruins.
Sub Species: Operation Lockdown (2015) — an alien containment operation in the Towers, with guests recruited as Phalanx operatives on a covert night-time mission, built off the back of Nemesis: Sub-Terra.
Room 13 (2006–2007) — the scrappiest and most important entry on this list. There was no full Halloween event in 2006, but a small hotel creative team decided to frighten their residents anyway, working with a minimal budget and a daring raid on the Terror of the Towers props cupboard. Its success directly prompted the resort to reinvest and launch the newly branded Scarefest in 2007.
Scarefest exists because a few people improvised a haunted hotel room out of borrowed props.
What the Pattern Tells Us
Three things stand out across two decades.
Mazes rarely die because they failed. Carnival of Screams was popular when it was dropped. The Sanctuary was a hit. Attractions go because space is needed, buildings are repurposed, or the park wants something new.
Nothing is truly retired. The Hampton twins, Altonville, the Ministry of Joy — Scarefest recycles its own mythology constantly. Characters outlive the attractions that introduced them.
The Towers ruins are the crown jewel. Every attraction that used them is remembered more fondly than those that didn't. Alton Towers knows this, which is why they keep going back.