I visited the new zombie experience at Camelot and couldn’t stop screaming

When you think of Camelot, you think of fun, happy experiences at a popular theme park.

The site has now reopened, but with a completely different approach, one that may terrify some, and delight others.

Forget roller coasters and knights, because now Camelot is all about zombies and horror movies.

READ MORE: Dirty Dancing and Titanic hit the big screen in Liverpool for Valentine’s Day

The spooky new immersive attraction begins with a one-mile, zombie-filled journey and ends with a drive-in cinema experience.

We were lucky enough to visit the test race on Friday night (February 4) and let’s just say there was a lot of shouting.

The experience

To start, we took a strange journey on country roads to get to Chorley in Lancashire. Before we even got to the abandoned theme park, we passed through a small village called ‘Hunger Hill’ – coincidence?

After traversing several long and winding roads, we finally arrived at Camelot. We were told to head to the bollards to queue for our zombie experience, and the atmosphere was ominous.

There were a lot of cars queuing to get to the experience, and it took about 20 minutes to get to the start of the one mile zombie filled trail. We were greeted by an overbearing military guard who peeked into our car with a torch and simply said, “Good luck…”

Once we arrived in the military zone, we were told to follow strict instructions at all times. We were about to enter an “extremely dangerous zone” and it’s safe to say that my heart was racing.

The zombies

As we passed through several abandoned wrecked cars, we approached the ‘river of the dead’ – which didn’t look too inviting. My heart was really pounding now, keeping a watchful eye out for the zombies lurking among the dark trees.

Then we saw them.

The terrifying looking zombies, slowly walking around then charging cars screaming and banging on windows. Some even got into the cars, but luckily we had the doors locked (so take my advice on that!)

I have to admit the zombies were way scarier than I thought, they looked incredibly realistic. It wasn’t some green makeup and fake blood, it was serious business, and it had me screaming to death.

They knew exactly how to blast you out of your skin, but the experience was fun and exciting nonetheless.

The drive-in cinema

As we reached the end of the 1 mile trip, I felt pissed off but my adrenaline was surging. We joined two ladies in hazmat suits who washed our tires before arriving at the “safe zone”, which was the drive-in cinema.

We could now breathe a sigh of relief, as the mood was completely different here. No zombies. Just a DJ, a big screen and delicious food stalls.

The film shown was “28 Days Later”, a zombie horror classic, and I was really excited. We grabbed some food (a hot dog, chicken burger and dirty fries) which were all very good and made ourselves comfortable in the car.

It was clear that the one-mile journey had made me paranoid, and rightly so, because all of a sudden ‘CODE RED’ flashed on the big screen. Out came a ton of zombies, running between parked cars, banging on windows, and climbing into cars.

I just wanted to enjoy the hot dog and the movie! But I guess it was a good idea.

Once the zombies were finally gone, it was time for the movie, which was a little cracky in parts due to the radio frequency – but I guess that couldn’t be helped.

The verdict

I’m not a big horror fan, but I really enjoyed this experience. It was definitely something different for a Friday night, and the one mile ride wasn’t too long.

The fact that there was a good movie at the end with tasty food made the whole experience enjoyable.

Even though I screamed (a lot), I would definitely do it again. The creepy abandoned theme park backdrop was a perfect and spooky combination.

Camelot Rises will run for 12 weeks starting February 5, including the “Valentines Is Dead” special. Price is £50 for car entry, find out more about tickets here.

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