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Got a remark for computing which went up by 1 mark so I got a 9!

I've done the mazes a couple of times now, so here's some thoughts from me... Saw Alive Surprisingly, my early favourite for the event. Saw has been consistently good, and this year is no different. The ending still lacks oompf, but it's generally good this year. Platform 15 I'm not a fan of the new story this year (a train full of wedding guests is crashed into a non-existing oil pit by the jealous conductor who appears at the end) - I preferred last year's incarnation. Nonetheless, Platform remains good this year, with the tunnel having a good number of actors. It still suffers from the same problems as last year - a slow beginning and a weak ending, and it hasn't reached the heights of last year, but it's still good. Living Nightmare I've decided - Living Nightmare is not a good maze. The route is poor. There's only 3 recognisable scenes - hospital bed, Don't Open Dead Inside doors and the prison scene. Anything else, despite being well themed, isn't that recognisable to anyone who knows nothing about the show. The maze isn't set up for scares very well. The pre show isn't as good without getting people to kneel on the floor. The script features a lot more swearing now (which makes sense given how sweary Negan is), but it feels cheap. Actors in the strobe section were good at teaming up on people though. Do or Die How do you describe this. It's good, yet still misses the mark. There's some nice touches with the theming, there's some good story moments, but equally there's black walls which are there for the sake of it, and bits that make no sense - why are we being told to find food or become food when you've assured us this place is safe? There's a chainsaw section about 2/3 of the way through, which just feels like it's there for the sake of it more than anything else. So there's potential there. There actors have a good scope for dark humour which I love. But it just needs more oompf. Dead Creek Woods Dead Creek is okay. It's a confusing, easily lost, story. It has moments which are okay, but equally it just feels very standard Thorpe fodder. Again, a chainsaw 2/3 of the way through, but it doesn't capitalise on it - you just sort of stroll through the rest of the maze. I guess it can't be at the end due to the uneven / sloped floor, but it just makes the rest of the maze feel so...dead. Blair Witch A decent incarnation of the maze. Lots of thick trees and woodland which really works with the concept of the maze. The fact that there's a shed at the start of the maze, which you avoid, before you eventually come back to it at the end was clever (fitting in with the whole 'you go round in circles' idea of the story), though that was actually lost on me at first! Despite the significantly shorter route, it does snake round well. The trouble with Blair is, ultimately, there's not much scope for it - actors act creepy, do creepy things, but you're very much a bystander, until the strobe shed. 2015 still remains, by far, my favourite version of this maze. The route started off open, then gradually got narrower. Actors would appear and disappear. They worked with loud noises, impact scares and general creepiness to build something which did work. But this isn't a bad version. Vulcan Peak Awful. Awful. Awful. From the set up which makes no sense, to the pre show which you can't hear, to the bags you can see through, to the not-atmospheric 'don't look at the locals' announcement that rings through the whole maze, to the bad soundtrack in the maze, to the lack of actors, to the lack of scares, to the ending where you arguably take your bag off far too soon. Basically everything. I'm guessing a large part of I'm a Celebrity cannot be used as a traditional maze, because if people bump into the rock work or walls, it will hurt a lot. And with jump scares and the like, it makes sense that a traditional maze wouldn't work. A hooded maze is a good way around this, but it doesn't work. Bad audio. No exposure to touch or smell. It fails miserably, and arguably is the worst maze Thorpe have churned out. Screamplexx 4D You go into the cinema, and watch one of 5 films which is randomly chosen. These films vary between 2-10 minutes in length and have clearly been cheaply produced. They aren't in 3D. They don't use any special effects. It's a waste. Terror at Amity High It's okay. Literally just actors dancing around. Adds a bit of atmosphere, but not really what they've advertised. Big Top Showtime Ignoring the travesty that Big Top isn't returning, this is okay. Mostly because there's loads of people who hate clowns, so people react very well to the actors, which creates a great atmosphere. But again, not a scare zone. Containment - Apparently the same as the past couple of years, so doesn't warrant me bothering to do it. So yeah, this year's Fright Nights is okay. Some good attractions, a few bad ones. They've clearly gone for quantity over quality and it really shows. Everyone would much rather have 5 quality mazes with good throughputs than 11 attractions of varying quality and questionable throughputs. The event lacks a headline attraction, which in the past has been taken by Asylum, Studio 13 and The Big Top (even if those mazes weren't the best, they were always a clear focal point for the event). To just add - Saw has never been my favourite Fright Nights in any year since it opened. I don't think this year it's been particularly better than other years, so that means - on the whole - quality has reduced across the park. The event needs a massive shake up next year in my opinion. Arguably an event like this should have no more than 1 outdoor maze, and needs 5 quality indoor attractions. An event with Saw, Living Nightmare, Platform, 3 more indoor mazes plus Containment would be perfect for the park at the moment. I don't see that happening, but that's what should happen now. To shorten it up, here's my favourite mazes this year in order: 1) Saw Alive 2=) Platform 15 / Do or Die 4) Dead Creek Woods 5) Blair Witch 6) Living Nightmare 7) Leaving the park, going to Chessington via the M25, going through Trick or Treat Wood, coming back to Thorpe via the M25 8) Vulcan Peak

https://queue-times.com/parks/2/queue_times I'm a Celeb is Vulcan Peak, Sanctum is Do or Die, and Big Top is Dead Creek Woods (IIRC)

Last year I went on platform 15 and my group was put with 2 parents with two 5-7 year old kids, we had to stop halfway through the tunnel because they turned on their lights and ran back the other way... go legoland

I went to fright nights last night, and it was an excellent trip! Defo the best FN I’ve been to (I’ve been doing it for 5 years now). I didn’t get to go on every maze as we were too busy getting multiple re rides on the coasters (did anybody say three consecutive goes on inferno?) but I felt they were all pretty decent, except for that Vulcan peak one. The only sort of actor we got was someone going past with a megaphone yelling various growls at us. I’d say we were blindfolded to avoid us realising that the maze was essentially IAC without the challenges or Ant and Dec. Or maybe it was so they could avoid accusations of racism- if we ever got to see the ‘locals’ of the jungle and not just hear them, there could be accusations not too dissimilar to those that came out after Thorpe’s portrayal of mentally ill people in Asylum but rather about stereotyping and cultural appropriation instead. Who knows. The actors doing the ‘terror at Amity High’ thing were all really good sports - my friend got to dance with them and then got fist bumps from the American football players- but they must have chosen the oldest actors they could find to play high school students! Considering that the majority of FN actors are very young, I had no idea why they’d chosen mostly people in their thirties and forties to do this one. Living Nightmare was excellent- we went on at about 8:45 and the girl playing Neegan was really good and intimidating. We literally walked straight into it too- despite the queue being advertised at 45 minutes. (The queues for Sanctum, which I did not try, looked huge though) Platform had had to be my favourite maze of the night. The bloke playing our tour guide was amazing and had some good banter with the guests in our group, who were a little disgruntled after having the maze being down for a while before we went on. The tunnel was scary as ever for me, as I don’t like confined dark spaces- and I was at the front of the conga line! We managed to get the whole group to sing the ‘baby shark’ song, which was a feat in itself. Dead Creek woods was decent, but the experience was almost the same as Blair Witch from previous years, bar the shed. Once again, the introductory actors was great, but there wasn’t much story to it. For both this and Platform, we must have queued 20 minutes maximum each. Saw was actually my first maze of the evening and had a very short and quickly moving queue. It was pretty much the same as previous year and I feel like the actors could have been better lit so we could see what they were doing more. So so an excellent evening for me! I really enjoyed it and all the main actors were great in my opinion!

Couldn't agree more, there's a recommended age, if you want late night rides there's other events on through the year !

I too have only just realised/remembered about the pre-booking for passes and can strongly say £20 is not acceptable and as a result of Tomb not going amongst other things arising, I must make the difficult decision and unfortunately also decline attendance on this occasion. I would like to wish those that go, a frightfully enjoyable time and hope to see you all at another meet soon (fingers crossed for Christmas). Until then, Dead Creek Out!