The Sanctuary at Alton Towers Scarefest

by Lucy Moore | 21 October 2013

The Sanctuary

The Sanctuary experience begins in a light and airy conservatory queue, with televisions propped on tables that tell you, rather unconvincingly, why you should check into the establishment. You are told that it has been closed to patients for the last 50 years; however appointments can now be made to rejuvenate yourself and get your smile back. However as the Ministry of Joy implements its new hospital trials, things don’t go as planned…..

The hospital waiting room has the obligatory optimistic music piped into it while you read the posters full of health promise on the walls. The pasty looking nurse, in the traditional white dress and cap, gives you instructions before you enter the caged off area that leads you into the bowels of the building.

The experience plays on all of the classic hospital clichés with well needed horrific twists. If it is not someone jumping out at you from behind curtains surrounding adjacent beds, it’s a body on a slab in surgery or mental patients jumping out at you from behind cages. The whole thing plays very cleverly on who is the patient paradox- you or them?, as you feel increasingly vulnerable and trapped.

It plays on all of the senses, with unusual smells and water dripping from the ceiling, to help you lose your bearings. Half way through your group is split in two, making you feel even more isolated against the creatures living within.

As with the other Scarefest experiences at Alton Towers, the pathway through The Sanctuary is neither predictable nor straightforward as it meanders through the classic characters just waiting in the wings to jump out and encourage blood curdling screams.

Overall, The Sanctuary provides a timely link to The Smiler rollercoaster as the doctor explains at the beginning. The building of the ride is the reason why it was closed down, however the inhabitants are fighting back! A brilliant experience for anyone who is afraid of the doctors, the dentist or frankly anyone in the medical profession!