Maximillion's blog

Oh Maxy Love it, and totally agree. MBV was so stupidly dark, I couldn't see the tunnel entrance, and then I couldn't see when I came out of it either and felt so disorientated I nearly fell over! I touched an actor thinking it was one of the group (could have got kicked out!) and tripped/stumbled through to the next scene, where eventually I was able to see again. My Bloody Valentine? More like My Bloody God I Can't See A Thing

I liked how Cabin In The Woods worked, but I honestly had no idea what was going on, maybe as I hadn't seen the film? The bedroom scene on my first run was good and scary as I felt trapped, and I liked how some of the actors kept following us (something they do at Tulleys, very effective). But nothing from the maze stands out clearly in my memory, nothing "Wow'd" me unfortunately. I don't get all the hype!

Or maybe I just have better standards

PS Actually I did enjoy the Asylum, was a laugh as usual, gutted I didn't see the stumpy armed woman though

I disagree with a lot being said here.

I thought that Cabin in the Woods was very clever, and was overall a very good maze. I very much enjoyed it, but it would benefit from a better ending.

My Bloody Valentine was very hit and miss - I went through it more times than I care to remember over the October period and it varied greatly - sometimes very good and other times underwhelming. The lighting in this maze was very strange as well - some times it would be fairly light (showing some pretty detailed sets), and other times it was pitch black which was stupid! So yeah, more consistency needed in that maze.

To say that Thorpe don't do lighting is ridiculous - look at Asylum!

I really do think that CITW could have explained the storyline better though.

My Bloody Valentine did it well imo (with the story about the mine etc) but Cabin was hard to understand (and I've seen the film!)

The Asylum was still a top class scare maze in my opinion, and the atmosphere surrounding the maze and inside it is brilliant!

First of all the lighting in Asylum is just STROBE STROBE STROBE STROBE. That's not atmospheric, it's annoying. There's no variation whatsoever.

I also fail to see how MBV did story well, a short bit of exposition at the start of the maze does not a good story make.

First of all, great entry - really enjoyed reading it!

In some ways, I don't like judging scare attractions on just one run through, simply due to the very nature of them. However, in other ways, it makes it a lot better as, after all, the mazes should good quality all the time. So, based on my one experience of all the mazes...

Cabin in the Woods was great. The tone it created was great, and I didn't think the lighting was weak at all. Each scene was effectively designed and it all worked very well. The latter parts of the maze were poor due to how the maze operates - everyone has choices in the first half, before being rammed down the second. That was the maze's main fault, along with a lacklustre ending which I cannot remember.

As for the other mazes - Saw was lit up very well and effectively. Blair Witch was too dark in some ways, so you couldn't take in some of the theming around. What was worse was the lack of audio - pre-recorded rustling in the bushes, screams and gusts of wind would have been great. This was the one attraction which required atmosphere, and it was ruined by the fact it tried to use the surroundings to create an atmosphere. It was like the park tried cutting a corner and paid the price. Asylum's strobes weren't as annoying as previously, but it is a pretty boring feature after a while. MBV was just rubbish.

Did the IPs improve the mazes? Well, Cabin is certainly an improvement on Hellgate and Passing (even though I quite liked Passing). Blair Witch, which has essentially served as a replacement for The Curse is actually alright. Okay, so it wasn't scary and wasted so much potential, but for a 2 star attraction, I think it was actually okay. Still needs work of course. MBV was just poor and NEEDS a rethink. The beginning speech was actually really good - something I really enjoyed - but everything else was distinctly below par. I mean, I had some sort of inflatable bed pushed against me at one point - like, what?! So, the answer is yes and no.

I think Thorpe need to experiment a bit more with IPs; work out how best to execute them. One thing which they haven't tried is something which actually utilises a story. At best, we get a quick minute blurb at the beginning of a maze. We need something which actually has a story which is strung across the entire maze; a level of interactivity. Hopefully they will try it again next year. I don't think IPs restrict creativity of designers per se: they can still create whatever they want, they just need to work with a story which isn't their own. Based on the levels of theming we saw (which I thought was quite good), we should see the designers become more creative with stories and how to scare people.

I'm going to feel like a bit of a broken record saying this, but I think that Face it Alone shows the Thorpe can create good, effective scares. However, it's a case of they need to strike a balance between doing these scares and getting people through. We saw them try with Passing charging for a maze; unfortunately, the idea and the maze itself were met with mixed responses. We saw them try something wild with Experiment 10 in 2011, but that resulted in horribly long queues. The trouble I'm seeing the park having is that they haven't found the best way to balance scares and 'getting the numbers' - let's see how they deal with that next season.

So I do agree with you in some ways, but I think there's a much bigger picture to this all. Thorpe are constantly trying to improve Fright Nights, even if the quality of mazes we get doesn't improve (or gets worse). They are trying new, and sometimes innovative, ideas to them, and experimenting with what works and what doesn't. Whilst it doesn't mean we get the high-class Halloween event now - which is shame - I can see that being the case in a year or two from now...

Couldn't agree more about the IP's being more of a restriction than an advantage. Whilst they will have helped with marketing they just limit everything. This was shown in MBV on the tour we got where everything was to such detail it replicated the film. Yes, it looked great but the creative teams job is essentially done or at least exceedingly limited. Credit to Thorpe moving away from traditional hands on shoulders mazes in recent years though and trying something new especially with Cabin (even though it became one route after the first few rooms).

The thing that annoys me is that Chessington can create great story lines, atmosphere (even in broad daylight) and decent scares yet Thorpe can't. They're owned by the same company! I understand that each park has their own creative team dealing with these sort of things but surely they could share ideas with each other about what works well. The fact Towers can pull off a scare zone properly yet Thorpe's has an hour queue is baffling. It can't be that difficult for these creative teams to talk to each other can it?

If we get something that uses a great story, atmosphere and tension like the Chessington mazes but with the ultimate fear Thorpe would provide as they are targeting an older market, then we would have something great on our hands!