Interactive fun once the sun goes down

KRYAL Castle becomes a different place at night time.

Thick shadows streak across the cobbles and an ominous score pulsates in the background.

Actors shuffle about the medieval buildings with dishevelled hair and bloodied makeup, growling at the moon and ready to frighten unguarded attendees.

This is what’s in store for people as part of the amusement’s regular Cursed offering, which held one its regular events last Friday.

Kryal Castle’s creative performance manager Elise Heenan said the interactive adventure entails more than just standard zombie horror fare.

“It’s not just zombies, there’s a lot of arts behind the scares,” she said.

“There’s escape room elements to it, there’s puzzles to solve while avoiding getting eaten by zombies, there’s survival and stealth elements.

“Because it’s a live show, it’s a different show every night dependant on how the audience is reacting to the situation.”

Each event sees four groups of attendees scouring the castle’s buildings solving puzzles and avoiding the undead, and Heenan said the event has been an evolving concept over the years.

“Recently we’ve been focussing more on action and we’ve included a photographer to capture the post-event. It definitely feels like a new product in its current state,” she said.

“Although there’s a basic template, it’s not scripted so all of us in the crew are just constantly saying what if we added this or tried this section like this way?”

Cursed has been running since 2013 and Heenan said the event is still as popular as ever since its re-emergence earlier this year.

“People love it, and we actually have a lot of regulars that just keep coming back for it,” she said.

“And we’ve only grown the event overtime to have more meaning and engagement from the audience.”