Interactive games company Slingshot has revealed plans to expand its highly successful 2.8 Hours Later zombie experience into the US and Europe after performing strongly in the UK in 2014.

With many UK dates for 2015’s version of 2.8 Hours Later – known as Asylum – already sold out, Slingshot is looking at Germany and a city on the east coast of the US to host its first zombie chase events abroad.

“It’s essentially a pedestrian roller coaster,” Simon Evans, director of Slingshot, told AM2. “It’s a route that’s 2 1/2 to 3 miles long covering public highways, private property, shopping centres, dark warehouses and more.

Starting from a secret location, participants will be chased across the city by hordes of “zombies”, attempting to survive long enough to make it to the end location without being infected. Once there, there is a ‘Zombie Disco’ where guests can relax after running for their lives.



“It’s a bunch of permissions we need to seek,” continued Evans. “We’re experts on the UK. One of the things that has held up our overseas expansion is the idea of permissions. We don’t need special licenses but we do need road closures and a licence for our after party to sell alcohol. We work very closely with local councils to make sure they know what we’re doing. Moving abroad it becomes a whole new ballgame.

“When we go to the US, we’ll be choosing the major cities and probably one which isn’t too far away from the UK. In Europe, we’re starting out with Germany, but if it proves successful we’ll expand further into the continent.

Aside from the international expansion of the attraction, the success of 2.8 Hours Later is leading to further dates and locations in the UK in 2015.

“In 2014 we had eight cities and we did five events per city,” Evans continued. “This year we’re doing 11 cities with five nights in each city - all in the UK.

“In the new foreign locations we’re going to do one in each to serve as a tester and if it goes well, we’ll move ahead with more locations and more dates.”

Slingshot also recently revealed to AM2 its plans for a unique bio-activated horror maze to debut in the UK in 2015. Themed around Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Jekyll and Hyde, the Jekyll 2.0 indoor horror maze is part of a long-term aim for the company to build a boutique theme park in the UK.