I have a theory, that when October rolls around, people are divided into three major categories:

• Those excited for Halloween/Horror
• Those excited for Autumn
• Those who don’t care

And while the first and second group are not mutually exclusive, I feel that ‘The Nightmare Realm’ is a bit more suited towards the former.

This indoor scream park located right in the heart of Dublin City centre offers fun and fear, perhaps in equal amounts. There are 5 mazes for you to go through:

• Sundown Manor
• Death Row 2, Shank Season
• BioX1ne Laboratories
• Dead Carnival, Killer Klowns
• Shriekers, Return of the Swamp Witch

Once you go through all of those, the last obstacle of the night is the Banshee.

There are also other attractions and services you can avail of: acrobat and circus entertainment, food court, little museum of horror movies, and more.

It is a well organised, alcohol-free event and the market area is sufficiently big to house it all. The construction of mazes is incredible, it shows how much attention and detail was paid to each set. There’s actors walking around the mazes, including the main area too, scaring and interacting with attendees, but with no touching allowed.

The main issue of The Nightmare Realm are queues. It took over 20 minutes to get inside the Sundown Manor. While you can get a fast pass to skip the queues, it costs more and the event is not the cheapest to begin with, especially if you count in food and other extras on the day. To try and avoid queues, I’d recommend going on off-peaks days if you can.

I had an enjoyable time there but I did not feel scared. Others have and a lot of it was attributable to jump-scares. The event is probably the most enjoyable for older kids and teenagers, they seemed to have the most fun with the scares. For me, it was difficult to immerse myself in it and since I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t sure how to react to the workers during interactions. Although I will say, same as with the sets, their costumes were outstanding.

However, it is still a nice activity to do with your family or friends during the shorter, autumnal nights, if you’re in the city centre. You can book your tickets and find out all the more information on the event on their website.