By Bill Mouland
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Faces contorted with terror, lungs bursting with screams of sudden fright, the Halloween party-goers hysterically embrace the theme park slogan 'Be prepared to be scared.'
As Allhallows Night – sometimes known as the Festival of the Dead – seizes Britain with its ever stronger grip, these are just some of the people who have paid to be afraid.
Over two nights in the ever longer run up to October 31 – now worth more than £300m a year and Britain's third most lucrative festival after Christmas and Easter - our photographer captured these images of customers who have paid up to £40 a head to have their hair stand on end, their hearts beat faster and their wits rendered witless.
Don't look now: A Halloween reveler gets what he
has paid for as gruesome-looking character screams at him in the
darkness on the Sanctuary attraction at Alton Towers
According to one consultant counselling psychologist yesterday, the desire to be frightened out of one's skin derives from our caveman ancestors who lived their lives entirely on the edge.
'They were not a confident bunch,' said Dr Michael Sinclair, clinical director of the City of Psychology Group in London. 'They were trying to survive in a new and threatening world. They needed to be on high alert all the time so they started to question their environment.
'If they saw a wild animal, for instance, they had no reference point for it, so they would tend to think the worst – their minds racing with the worst case scenario. They needed to fight or take flight.
'Anxiety has been developed as a protective mechanism ever since. It's like wearing a suit of armour – although it feels uncomfortable we are in a heightened state of protection. We know something is there, but we also know it's not real. We also get a feeling of togetherness and social acceptability.'
Surprise:
A woman holds her hands up in fear as one of the actors at the Xtreme
Fright Night at Twinlakes theme park in Molton Mowbray
No escape: This woman closes her eyes as a hire hand lets out a surprise high-pitched scream in the darkness
No
turning back: Screaming, jumping and clinging onto each other in fear
Halloween thrill seekers in The Sanctuary attraction in Alton Towers
Nerve-wracking: According to one consultant counselling
psychologist yesterday, the desire to be frightened out of one's skin
derives from our caveman ancestors who lived their lives entirely on the
edge
So that, claims Dr Sinclair, explains why thousands of people line up at this time of year to experience the 'terrifying scare mazes' (part of the £39.50 entry ticket to Alton Towers in Staffordshire) or the 'Farmhouse of Fear' at the otherwise docile sounding Twinlakes Park in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.
'We have a couple of attractions – Punishment and Pie Factory – where people cannot stand any more and we have escorted them out,' said Dave Rose, a marketing assistant at Twinlakes which is transformed at this time of year into the venue for Xtreme Fright Nights (£14.99 to £22 a ticket, depending on when you want to go.)
Punishment, according to the blurb, pushes punters into a dark simulation of a military boot camp where the screams of the participants are only matched by those of the actors bussed in to create the scary atmosphere.
Covering up: As Allhallows Night – sometimes known as
the Festival of the Dead – seizes Britain with its ever stronger grip,
these are just some of the people who have paid to be afraid
Lucrative: Now worth more than £300m a year, Halloween is now Britain's third
most lucrative festival after Christmas and Easter
Anxiety has been developed as a
protective mechanism since cavemen. Although it feels uncomfortable it puts humans in a heightened state of
protection
According
to promoters revelers at Punishment in Melton Mowbray are plunged into a
dark simulation of a military boot camp where the
screams of the participants are only matched by those of the actors
The theme park has also forged a macabre link with the otherwise innocent Melton Mowbray pie in an attraction that somehow blends Sweeney Todd with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre under the title The Pie Factory.
'Make your way through the gory pie factory and witness horrific happenings,' urges the blurb. 'Watch your back and try to escape with your limbs intact.'
Twinlakes has forged a macabre
link with the otherwise innocent Melton Mowbray pie in an attraction
that somehow blends Sweeney Todd with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre under
the title The Pie Factory
Entrants are advised to wear sensible footwear, beware
of strobe lighting and leave mobile phones, cameras and loose change
behind
'It's like watching a horror film through
your fingers. However scary it is, you know you are not really out
there in the wilderness'
'Going to these places is a kind of
stimulation. It's why people bungee jump or jump out of planes. It's
thrill seeking and some people have to have it in their lives'
'It's a safe risk taking because it's not actually a ghost that's going to get you or scare you to death,' says chartered psychologist Ros (correct) Taylor. 'Deep down you know you are play acting and that you can go home afterwards and everything will be OK.
'It's like watching a horror film through your fingers. However scary it is, you know you are not really out there in the wilderness.
'Going to these places is a kind of stimulation. It's why people bungee jump or jump out of planes. It's thrill seeking and some people have to have it in their lives.'
A participant at Extreme Fright Night is given a scare by a bloody-faced man
Faces of fear at Xtreme Fright Night, but just why do people pay so much money for the pain?
As one reveler appears to run for cover at Twinlakes another turns away in fear
