For seven nights each October, Dreamland mutates into the stuff of nightmares.

The "spook-tacular" event has been growing year-on-year, and with seven scare mazes the 2018 promises to be bigger than ever.

Dozens of actors dressed as zombies and hammer-wielding murderers are scattered throughout the park, giving the whole place a creepy, post-apoloclyptic feel.

Be warned that the actors roam freely, devotedly stay in character and are liable to jump out at you when you're least expecting - from the very minute you set foot inside.

Throughout the attraction there are nods to famous horror films and television shows like American Horror Story, the Grudge and Stranger Things.

Each of Screamland's seven mazes - which feels more like six, as Tunnels of Terror is stitched onto the end of the Dead and Breakfast - has a completely different setting and back story.

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These really do run the whole gamut of hair-raising locations - from a creepy research facility, to the rotting remains of a ghostly ship, to a Punch and Judy horrorshow filled with ghastly puppets and masks.

Dead and Breakfast was a personal favourite - it felt like it had the strongest narrative. Guests are greeted by the jaded landlady of a fictional Margate B&B, which has been sealed off and long-forgotten since a series of grisly murders, before winding through its decaying corridors and encountering its terrifying inhabitants.

It also involves crawling through a small, low-ceilinged tunnel and pushing through a very narrow gap between two long inflatables that press in from either side - which probably makes it inadvisable for anyone claustrophic.

The mazes each last about three to four minutes, and are generally dark and eerie thanks to smoke machines and lighting effects. Each one filled with actors - whose costumes and committal to staying in character are impressive, making the whole experience very immersive.

Festino's Funhouse is one of the scarier mazes, and is almost definitely a no-no for anyone with a fear of clowns, which follow and jump out at you throughout.

The whole experience is very well-done. Theme parks after dark have a markedly creepy feel about them anyway, but the addition of clowns, zombies, fake blood, smoke and labyrinthine mazes pushes Screamland well into the realms of scary.

Screamland opens next week, on Friday 19 and Saturday 20. It will then run from Thursday until Saturday the following week, before opening for its final night on Halloween, Wednesday 31.

It opens from 6pm until 11pm, and visitors are advised to arrive as early as possible to allow time to visit all the mazes and have a go on Dreamland's classic fairground rides.

Dreamland is well connected to London and the rest of Kent by the Southeastern network, and is just a three-minute walk from Margate train station.

Head to dreamland.co.uk to book.