You have to hand it to the Dungeons attractions for constantly evolving and keeping their shows fresh. Each year brings new additions to the line up or tweaks to existing shows. This year sees a makeover of the original Fire of London exhibit to introduce Bloody Mary: Killer Queen!
Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII was one of England’s most feared rulers and was nicknamed Bloody Mary after she ruthlessly burned 3,000 Protestants as heretics. The new show invites guests into Mary’s private chapel where the embittered Queen decides that we too are heretics. As one poor soul is strapped to a stake above a funeral pyre, judgement is made and all hell breaks loose.
The attraction uses a number of different effects to show the ritual burning of the chosen one and as the attraction plunges into darkness, the watching guests are in for a surprise.
The first half of the show works really well with a great build up of tension and a real sense of trepidation about what is going to happen. I was slightly disappointed that there wasn’t more “fire” in the room around us but all in all the show works really well.
Where it is slightly let down, is as we leave the scene and face off to see Mary’s “fiery wrath”. This part of the attraction leads through the “burning” streets scene from the original Great Fire of London set and is a slightly anticlimactic walk after the build up of tension. Although saying that, I was leading the group and jumped out my skin as I rounded one corner and a very loud sound effect scared me! Bloody Mary: Killer Queen is a huge improvement over the very stale Great Fire section and finally relieves the perceived “dead spot” in the attraction. Interestingly it appears that the Great Fire story has moved to earlier in the show where it’s educational element fits in better. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see that as part of our tour.
The rest of the Dungeon remains pretty much the same with their unique mix of gruesome history mixed with a good splattering of blood drenched humour. It was nice to see that the extended Bedlam introduced at last years witches event has been kept as this strobe lit pathway provides a very intense disorienting scare in the midst of all the horrible history!
One final mention has to go to the wonderful Extremis. I’ve probably now ridden this dozens of times but it gets me EVERY time. Scarily, this time there were just three of us strapped in to the drop tower in the dark and as the bottom fell out of our worlds it was hard to tell which one of us screamed loudest!
Bloody Mary: Killer queen will be burning guests daily from today.
You have to hand it to the Dungeons attractions for constantly evolving and keeping their shows fresh. Each year brings new additions to the line up or tweaks to existing shows. This year sees a makeover of the original Fire of London exhibit to introduce Bloody Mary: Killer Queen!
The attraction uses a number of different effects to show the ritual burning of the chosen one and as the attraction plunges into darkness, the watching guests are in for a surprise. 
