Temple HospitHELL - Leeds

Temple Works in Holbeck was transformed into the 'Edfu Industries medical research facility' where the world renowned Dr Marshall had extracted the DNA of an ancient Egyptian king from his mummified remains, bringing with it the wrath of the ancient Pharaoh, and his guardian, the jackal.

The venue itself has an Ancient Egyptian look from the outside with columns and Egyptian stone carvings on it's front, having being based on the Temple of Edfu at Horus in Egypt. Inside however, the venue had been transformed into a hospital, and as our group was ushered into the waiting room by an evil looking nurse, we could tell this hospital wasn't NHS.

The attraction mixes live actors and special effects in order to create an unnerving and often genuinely frightening experience. Our group of ten was handed over to a doctor who became our group leader, dressed in a white overcoat and holding a clipboard we followed him down a flight of stone steps into the basement anxious about what we may find down there. Without the hospital theming the temple would have already looked scary, but tonight it looked even more eerie, as we nervously huddled around a television that explained to us what research was going on in the hospital.

The broadcast was interrupted by a warning that told us the patients had escaped and from then on we followed the guide around a labyrinth of corridors and dark rooms, as 'patients' and infected staff jumped out at us from every corner.

The group occasionally stopped, as the hospital staff performed set pieces such as one nurse pulling out the heart and intestines of a decaying corpse, covering us all in stomach juices, or the hospital cook explaining her menu of eyeballs and brains. This provided a welcomed change from walking round in the dark, and was one of the better parts of the attraction.

A maze of wire fences was also a highlight, effectively using strobe lighting to make it nearly impossible to see what was happening around you, while crazed, infected patients jumping out. The use of sound, light and smell, helped to create an uncomfortable atmosphere, where you didn't know what, or who, was hiding in the shadows, and what was going to happen next, which kept your adrenaline racing until the end.

As our group ran out of the exit, away from a crazed patient with a chainsaw, we ran into the bar, breathing a sigh of relief that we had survived the hospital, and all of its inhabitants, and sat down to have a drink to steady our nerves. It was only then our nerves calmed and we started laughing about our experience and how scared we really were.

The event was the first of its kind in Leeds, and although the idea was great, it was sometimes not brilliantly executed. Some of the actors for instance, although wearing lab coats still had there normal clothes underneath, which took away from the realistic approach that the attraction was trying to achieve. Some of the actors were also not putting their full potential into their roles, mumbling their lines and sometimes forgetting them completely.

This wasn't helped by the fact that often the sound was so loud that you sometimes couldn't hear what the actors were saying. The big finale of the attraction, in which Dr Marshall brings back to life the Egyptian Pharaoh, was also ruined for us as we were ushered around the event too quickly and so entered this scene before our group should have, therefore only catching the end of it, without the build up.

We were then lead to the exit of the attraction, feeling slightly disappointed with the anti-climax which had been built up so well throughout the rest of the tour.

It's mixture of scare moments along with camped up horror, made it a really enjoyable experience. The companies behind the event hope to return next year in Leeds for Halloween, which I recommend attending if you are looking for a scary yet thoroughly fun and enjoyable experience, just don't have nightmares.