Kent Scareground is a Halloween event that takes place in Hewitts Farm in Orpington. The event features four scare mazes along with roaming actors, stalls and food and drink.
About Kent Scareground
Kent Scareground is a family run event which is now in its third year of operation. The Theme Park Jam team have been visiting since it first opened and each year it has got better by adding new scares and developing on previous mazes.
In the first year we visited, we thought that the event had potential but was not fully executed, however in the following year it was bigger and better than ever. Fast forward to 2023 and this event is the strongest it has been.
This year the event offers four mazes, roaming actors, stalls and food and drink. One thing that is missing from the previous years is the events fun fair which is not needed at a scare event, however this helped to split up crowds and keep guests at the event for longer.
Scare mazes
Kent Scareground features four mazes this year which are:
- Renegade
- Fortitude
- Scream Works
- Scare BnB
In the subheadings below, we will be reviewing these mazes and talking about them in detail.
Renegade
Renegade is a clown maze at Kent Scareground which takes place through a twisted junkyard. Although this maze is a returning maze from last year, the route has completely changed.
Renegade is now a lot longer and packed with actors who are not afraid to get up close and personal. Every actor in this maze had very high energy and this only added to the scares as we made our way through the junkyard.
The maze provided jump scare after jump scare with a variety of scares taking place from different angles of the maze. The sets were highly interactive too with objects like a car which you could enter and a maze of pallets that the clowns could trap you in. In addition to these interactive props, the maze also explored different levels such as a trailer which was up some stairs and filled with fog.
Overall, Renegade is a fantastic maze and it was great to see the changes made from last year. The energy from the cast really built of the atmosphere for this maze.
Scare rating:
James scare rating: 8/10
Laura’s scare rating: 8/10
Fortitude
Fortitude takes guests on a journey throughout their fears as the different rooms in this maze each represent a different fear. For example, one room is a dentist room, another room is a doll room etc…
Fortitude is very story driven and takes guests on a journey through different scenes as your fears are aimed to be reduced. Every actor that we encountered in Fortitude was very lively.
One scene that really stood out to us in this maze was the giant rabbit scene which featured hay flooring and a slanted wall as a giant rabbit gets up close to you. This scene was really unexpected and not something that you would expect to see but worked really well as created tension and confusion to reinforce the theme that you were exploring your fears.
Scare rating:
James scare rating: 7/10
Laura’s scare rating: 7/10
Scream Works
Scream Works is a film studio that starts by taking guests through the auditioning stage of a horror movie. The first part of the maze starts off as an audition while the second part of the maze brings guests into the movies.
As guests make their way through the first few scenes of the maze, they enter through theatrical scenes that introduce them to a film studio such as the acting audition, make up process and sound stages.
Midway through the maze and after the audition process, guests make their way through a caravan trailer which we are assuming is a place for the stars of the movie to hang out. As you exit the trailer, the film has begun and you start of by seeing a clown suddenly appear through a two way mirror.
After this scene, guests encounter many different characters which resemble characters from horror films like Scream, The Exorcist and the woman from The Ring. The maze ends with a runout from a pig who is holding a weapon and chases you down a corridor.
Scare rating:
James scare rating: 7/10
Laura’s scare rating: 7/10
Scare BnB
Scare BnB starts off with a mysterious character who tells you about a creepy and deranged family who you eventually meet as you make your way through the BnB.
The family are both killers and murders who are about to make you their next victims and as you make your way through the BnB, the scenes progressively get darker.
This scenes build up and the final scene from the BnB is a bath filled with blood. As you are about to find out your fate, a detective comes through and orders you to leave the BnB due to multiple noise complaints in the local area. From here, you exit in a forest and leave the BnB.
The forest is really dark and hard to navigate however as you follow the lights, you eventually bump into an actor with a shovel. From here, you walk forward and soon encounter an actor with a chainsaw who goes after you and this seems like a very long run out.
This maze is great however the BnB scene to the forest could have benefited from having a transition such as police caution taping. The forest also would have benefited from more lighting as although there was lighting, it was very dark.
Scare rating:
James scare rating: 7/10
Laura’s scare rating: 7/10
Thoughts
The Theme Park Jam team had a great evening at Kent Scareground and have found this year to be the events strongest year so far.
Kent Scareground have really worked on their mazes by changing up their returning mazes while also adding in new mazes. The event has found a good mixture between theatrical mazes and scares which provide a fun, scary but yet enjoyable experience.
Since the mazes at Kent Scareground use a mixture between theatrical mazes and scares, we have ranked all the mazes here as an overall package rather than on scare factor alone. This is because Kent Scareground have their own unique style which they execute well.
One thing that we did notice from this years event was that the funfair had not returned. In previous years the event has a funfair which helped to fill up the evening. Since you can only do the mazes once (unless you have an unlimited maze ticket), we think the event could have benefited from more roaming actors or another maze. This being said, there was a bar and live music but we found the funfair really helped with capacity and spreading out crowds.
It is also worth noting that Kent Scareground had a fire breather this year which certainly did a great job in engaging guests in the events street theatre.
Overall, we had a great time at Kent Scareground and found the event to give a great night out. The event has developed from last year and it seems like it should only get better in the future. There have been a lot of changes and updates to the existing mazes and maze line up this year, which show the Kent Scareground team have put a lot of passion into this event and want to keep the event lineup refreshed and engaging to both new and existing customers.
Lastly, the Theme Park Jam team would like to thank the Kent Scareground team for providing us with two standard complimentary tickets.
Learn more
If you would like to learn more about Kent Scareground, visit their website.
Theme Park Jam 
Leave a comment