This year Birmingham Botanical Gardens have teamed up with Xtra Humongous to create their Halloween event: Dr Nerium’s Garden of Ghouls. We are regulars at the gardens as we are members, but obviously our visits normally take place during daylight, so it was strange to be in the gardens at night. In some ways it’s easy for the garden to feel a bit spooky at night as there are always strange noises and our senses are heightened in the dark. From Friday 26th October until Sunday 4th November 2018 Dr Nerium’s Garden of Ghouls is open for those that want to take a scaremaze trail around the gardens.
We were invited to the preview night and got to encounter Dr.Nerium (on the left) and his ghouls before we set out on our walk around the scaremaze. The background story is that in the early nineteenth century, Dr. Nerium started carrying out experiments that led to the creation of some weird, wonderful and unique creatures. It all started when he brought back his first carnivorous flowers from the base of the Peruvian Andes. Attempts at cross breeding with other findings led to fantastical creatures that can only be described as unique. It’s these creatures that you encounter as you walk around the grounds.
It’s very atmospheric and the actors are well rehearsed – we particularly liked the one of the witches and a ‘zombie’ that had a lot to say to us. The costumes and the props are great and really help bring the experience to life. I did find the story a bit hard to follow at times, but it’s easy to treat it as a series of tableaus and still get a lot of enjoyment out of it. We attended the more scary session which starts at 7pm. Essentially before that it’s the same experience, but the actors have a bit more leeway later to add to the intensity of the experience. H is 11 and we took his friend who is 12 with us and both boys enjoyed the event and didn’t get more than pleasantly scared. I think it’s best to judge based on your knowledge of your child and how they react to scary things when making a decision about whether to go and which session to pick.
Our evening was very entertaining and H said he enjoyed it and would recommend it, so Dr.Nerium’s Garden of Ghouls got a rather hard to obtain pre-teen seal of approval. I would happily go again and would enjoy going with adult friends too. From today (Friday 28th October) there will be an entertainment area to go to if you make it out of the scaremaze or you can hedge your bets and wander around before you go in. There will be street food traders, bars, performers, music and circus themed entertainment.
This sounds awesome, what a way fun way to get into the spirit of Halloween! x
this sounds like a good kid friendly Halloween event! I’ll be honest I’d probably be more scared than most kiddos haha
I would probably be scared, me and my sister were nervous wrecks going around York Dungeons. My kids would love something like this
This looks so much fun and not too scary I think for teens. We went to Halloween Horror Night at Universal Studios recently and loved it, but that is super scary
I am really bad with things with live actors as I am so jumpy so I don’t think this would be right for me but it does look like good fun x
What a boring night! We went after 7pm thinking it would be more spooky. Only scary for five year olds. Utter waste of money. Don’t waste your time.
This looks so scary my son would love it
Not a family fun event as advertised , not suitable for children . Not much there and not worth the money at all
Wow, such a great place. This Halloween, my sister and I dressed up as Pennywise and skull. It was fun. Thanks for sharing this.
The year just started but I am now planning a Halloween party for the whole family. Same with the Dr. Nerium’s Garden of Ghouls, I’ll have the garden setup at 19th century with creatures I invented. Haha. I love Halloween and costumes since I am an artist!
Some great spooky photos there, my kids would love this.
This makes me want to go! I love this kind of thing
Sounds like you had a spooktacular night, the photos look fab, and as you say senses are heightened at night and the actors are well rehearsed, my son would enjoy something like this too but hes 14, my girls are 6 and 2 so a little young for it yet xx
It’s still in April but we are now getting our Halloween costumes ready. We love dressing up and I hope that many people love it too!
seems bit creepy so right up my street
This looks and sounds great x
I hope to go somewhere like this for Halloween this year x
Looks really spooky. My family would love to go to something like this.
This sounds like lots of fun, provided any children are not predisposed to get very scared. I remember when my son was about 9, taking him and his friend to a Haunted House. My son & his friend wanted to go on their own, which I was not keen on as I felt it best for me to accompany them. Using a bit of reverse psychology, I said I wanted to go too, but was too scared to go by myself! They relented and let me go with them, which was just as well as it did contain some quite frightening set pieces, such as being chased by a person wielding an axe.
Who doesn’t like a spook, spectre or ghost!
I’m hoping that in 2021 these types of events are available again, post-virus.