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Just came back from my first Fright Nights, and in turn (and unexpectedly) my first scare maze. Come a long way from the boy that had to ask to be escorted out of I'm a Celeb one or two years ago 😂 I can't post any pictures but I'll do some reviews, please bear in mind, again, first Fright Nights. I'll probably enjoy these things a lot more than FN regulars will. The Fearstival Arena This was fun and creepy. Some of the costumes are terrifying, and the actors are very fun. Saw one chase a small child round a circular bench which was cute. Didn't get to see the actual show although I got to see some fire which was nice, and got some decent scares as we went through on our way to leave the park. I have nice eyeballs apparently. Terror at Amity High Wasn't very scary but very fun. Had a proper good interaction with one vampire - 'ABCDEFGH I really wanna rip your head off and suck your blood'. Oh okay. Once again saw some very small children in the scare zone who definitely should not have been, but the actors were great, heard them talking about unicorns, then saw the kids chase the actors around. Wasn't expecting the most wholesome thing I've ever seen in a theme park to come from a Fright Nights scare zone but here we are. Once again, didn't see the show. The Howling of LycanThorpe High Out of all the attractions I'd say this was probably the weakest one for me. Saw others get some good scares but the only interaction I got was one asking me if I could dance and then asking me if I'm Amity. In a common theme at this point, did not see the show. The Swarm: Invasion As Josh said, not much of a scare zone, but quite fun. Got some scares. Had a very nice interaction with one of the conspiracy theorists where we almost had a full conversation about 'the truth', before she asked us to leave with her so we can be safe. Asked us are names, then said we'd have to leave her after she saw some military alien things. Storyline was a bit confusing, not sure why the military are now The Swarm or something, but okay. Creek Freaks Unchained Oh my God. If the scare zone was this intense, I can't imagine what the maze was like 😂. First go wasn't too intense, but in the second, oh my. Had an axe swung at us, before Lucas Buckwheat sat us down in his 'office' (a picnic bench). Gave us some backstory, asked if we had any special skills (no), then said 'Well you may not have any skills but I sure hope you can count to 5'. He then started revving his chainsaw and counting. My friend's a scare actor (actually knew this actor) and he kept telling me not to show fear if I don't want to be scared but I am not afraid to admit I clung to that canopy like it was my mother. He then chased us around the scare zone with his chainsaw. We then had another axe swung at us. Then another two chainsaws. Jesus Christ. The Crows Loved The Crows. Didn't have too many interactions other than one following me around Colossus, but the costumes are absolutely incredible. Saw them spot Jack Sickstone, and every single one of them started walking towards him, so that was a pretty terrifying visual. Parkwide Theming/Atmosphere What theming? I loved the atmosphere but felt the park could do with a few more bits of theming and, please, Thorpe, for the love of God, buy some filters for those lights... Colossus' station was very nice and I loved all the audio based around phobias. Detonator was particularly good, built up so much tension and it was only my second go on it so I was still terrified 😂 Stealth was also fun, felt the atmosphere was lacking a bit in the Inferno station though. Not sure how irrational the fear of fire is btw, that seems like a pretty rational fear to me. Does take you out a bit that this is the exact same voice as New New Tomb Blaster. I also did enjoy The Swarm's audio, especially hearing the You Me at Six song, and the new dispatch is nice. Speaking of dispatches, why on Earth is the Saw dispatch audio not playing all year round? It was literally perfect? Roots of Evil My first scare maze, and I feel like it was the perfect start. Didn't get any actors in the indoor bit at the start which was a shame, but the suspense in the maze was brilliant and a few of the scares got me good. Bit short to be worth £9 mind you. What wasn't so good was the queueing system. I get that it's the first night of Fright Nights and there's gonna be teething issues, we queued 40 minutes which wasn't ideal when I have difficulties queueing and there's no Ride Access Pass, but the main thing was the management of it. For whatever reason, they aren't using any of the IAC queueline, or the large temporary queueline they've built in the back of house area, so the queue was basically all up the path going past Burger King and right up to the start of Creek Freaks, then stopping at the actual entrance, before you go through an empty cattlepen and then a small queue before the maze starts. What's the point in building that queue if you aren't gonna use any of it? Management and Security were out, feel for the staff who probably got some stick. Bit of a nightmare, but the maze was fun. Didn't get to go through Platform and not sure I'm up for spending £18 to do both in one day, but hopefully next time I'll make it there. Overall, very good day, I loved the event and the atmosphere and if I can find the time will definitely be going back. The scare zones can fall flat sometimes if you don't get enough interaction, but they can't scare everyone. Just a little more theming, some filters on those god forsaken floodlights, and a tad better queue management for Roots of Evil and I think it'd be a very very good event. One again though, not been to previous events, so for all I know, could be the worst ever 🤷‍♂️ I very much enjoyed it though and I'm glad to finally get through a scare maze after watching them from afar for some time.

And that right there is my issue. £10 for any upcharge is quite a fair bit of money and for a horror maze that has been pretty naff since its opening year especially. This even more so when you consider that the scarefest mazes cost £8. £8 is also a bit of an ask after paying admission (assuming you aint a MAP holder that is) but given the quality of the towers mazes in relation to a glorified walk in the woods, you could just about justify it. For £15 as recently as 2016 you could have had an extreme brave it alone through Big Top or Cabin in the woods for the love of pete!! The thing though is naturally the enthusiasts will moan about it, but my question seriously would be "what the heck did you expect??" its been at the event since 2016 now so if they seriously think that just because its now £10 that all of a sudden it turns into the second coming of Asylum or Big Top then I personally think they are being naive.

Corrr, no one posted updates throughout the evening? Blimey, that's a first I have some mixed feelings about Fright Nights this year, but I have to say, the park have done a decent job with the (ever-changing) restrictions in place. Let me give a brief run over all the different attractions and I'll leave with some final - perhaps surprising - thoughts... Quick word on actors. They did a great job with distancing. Because both they and guests are wearing masks, they can get up to 1m to you, but usually tried to stick to 2m. Roots of Evil So the new maze for the year. In all honesty, this isn't much different to Blair Witch. There's a quick pre show in the Jungle Escape building, which I imagine is there to help get more groups through whilst keeping people distanced. When you enter the woods, it seems to be the exact same layout as Blair last year, with the ever dense shrubbery and buildings too. The buildings have been rethemed to look like tree roots are taking over them. I think Roots suffers from Covid restrictions though in a major way: actor numbers. Because of the dense forest area, there's not many place where the actors could interact with you without breaking social distancing. This means that in moments when you need there to be actors, it can fall a bit short. Many of the actors that are there are military personal to guide you through (because of the story), or covered in trees to blend into the environment. The upside is that at points you do feel very secluded and alone. Mix that in with the household only thing, and that will get a lot of people on edge. Platform 15 Brave it backwards! The tunnel has been turned into a queue. The long pre show has been cut to a quick 'Where is the conductor?' talk. The village hasn't had much work done, so loses some of the wow factor you get from it from a visual standpoint. And, in general, the village is quite weak. The train has derailed on is on its side, with no more fire effects. From the train, however, the actors did a good job. Quite a few hiding spots (including the old Love Island cabins which have been repurposed), and lively actors bashing against the metal walls. It's basic stuff, but it's the best they can with what they have, and again, it will get people. The ending features a 'fake' ending (but the type where it's obvious it's not the end), followed by a group of actors along with a train effect. I think we missed the train effect though (not the actors' or our fault). The Upshot on the Upcharge Is either of these mazes worth £10? To me, no. Do I envision a lot of enthusiasts paying the price and moaning saying it's not worth it? Yes. Do I think the public will feel short changed by paying £10 for the mazes? Well, I don't know... I've been doing scare attractions for a long time (I did my first one 17 years ago...), and I've done a lot of different ones. And I've paid money to get much more unique experiences than what's on offer in Thorpe this year. Thorpe's mazes rarely 'get' me any more. And I'm sure that's the same for plenty of people reading this: people will have done so many of Thorpe's mazes, had the opportunity to do them in small groups, etc etc. So if anyone's there expecting that because Thorpe's hand has been forced to charge for mazes they will magically become significantly different and better, you're in for a shock. For the public though, the mazes offer a different experience. Going through in small groups will leave many on edge from the get go. The lack of actors invading your personal space creates the fear of what could happen, rather than what is happening. I can see a lot of people going through the mazes and feeling very satisfied with the experience they get, because it's different and much more personal. Will people think it's worth £10? Only time will tell... In my opinion, they're the level of maze I would only pay £3-5 for. I think Thorpe perhaps should have gone for a price point in the £5-7 region to get the balance right of not making it too expensive, whilst also making sure it's not too cheap. Creek Freaks: Unchained So straight off the bat: I loved this. Nicely themed scare zone with good actors. Simple story. Good opportunity for load of different interaction points. Everything here just works. There's one issue. This is a one-way scare zone, and it's been made very much into a path. If anything, it's more like a very short outdoor maze (though, it definitely shouldn't be marketed like that). I don't know how it will cope on busier days, and I do worry there may end up having to be a standby queue if the area gets too busy. Again, that's something that time will tell with. In many ways, I prefer this to the actual maze, just because you can have a bit more fun with the characters. It all comes together nicely. And obviously with chainsaws afoot, it will make things even more memorable. The Fearstival Arena This was kind of an unknown thing in many ways. However, this could well be a sleeper hit of an attraction. It's basically a freak show / carnival come to town. It's not clowns, it's all the other sort of characters. And it's that nice mix of fun and scare. It takes itself seriously enough that people will get a scare out of it, but it's light hearted enough that people can laugh with it too. It's something different! There's a short show, as well as a mini light and fire show too. These will play on a sort of 'as and when' basis, to make sure that not too many people crowd around. Being a major pathway, there may well end up being some congestion on busier nights, but hopefully this won't be an issue in the same way Creek Freaks. Terror at Amity High / The Howling of LycanThorpe High I'll bung these together. Again, there's a dance show at Amity, which is very similar to last year's (I think there's one new song). There's a slight difference in that the LycanThorpe High students crash the school and also join in the dancing. It misses the mark a little bit, in the sense that they don't really seem to compete all that much - there's a little mention of it in the audio, but not much else. Didn't get to see the show at LycanThorpe, but I imagine there's a similar set up. There's always actors roaming around each area too, and they're both alright. It's similar to last year in that they're playing stereotypical high school teens. The LycanThorpe characters don't feel very werewolf-like compared to the Amity characters, where it feels more obvious that they're vampires in my opinion. I don't know if it's because it just feels very similar to last year, but it's not *as* good as last year. The lack of real competition between the two characters feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. But it's still fun, and gives a good atmosphere. Screamplexx This is still the same films as the past couple of years (though I think it changes in every showing). The difference is there's a couple of actors (such as The Director) who roam around outside and do a little pre show before the films too. The actors do a good enough job with what they've got. The films are terrible. Thorpe really should, ahem, cut their ties with BloodyCuts after this year. The Swarm: Invasion I think some expectations should be set here. This isn't really a scare zone in my opinion. This is 'a few actors have been placed round the Swarm island to create more of an atmosphere for Swarm'. And that's fine. It's what Swarm needs over Fright Nights. You have a couple of military like personal and a few of Lez Cougan's followers, warning you of what The Swarm can do, and what "they" are hiding. One of the conspiracy theorists even has a microphone that can play over the island's audio to drawn attention to a mini show happening. It's all a bit of extra fun really. It's one of those areas where you could walk through to Swarm's entrance and likely not even interact with an actor if you wanted to. And equally, you could spend a lot of time watching them and interacting with them. It's what you make of it. They have changed the audio with this though, and it's a lot better. You get the actual You Me at Six song play occasionally, which is nice. The rest of the audio just sounds a bit darker and creepy, and it suits the area and theme really well. I was impressed there. The Crows As I've said before, calling roaming actors an attraction is a bit of a stretch, especially when through no fault of your own, you may not see them. But these guys are good - costumes are creepy. And I'm sure they'll get a lot of people running. Scare Zones - Final Say The zones aren't that bad really. Time will tell how they'll cope on a busy day with thousands of people wandering through them all the time. But there's some good concepts there, a good - and large - variety of actors, and they really do add extra atmosphere to the park. Final Thoughts The mazes this year aren't the best. There's no getting round that in my opinion. Under the circumstances, it was never going to be easy for Thorpe to execute their mazes though. But the park have, under strange circumstances with limited time, created an event which has a lot of atmosphere and a lot of potential. Over the past decade, I think it ranks as my 3rd or 4th favourite Fright Nights year, which I think is pretty damn good. But hear me out. If this event had a couple of indoor mazes over a couple of scare zones: say Creek Freak moves back inside, and LycanThorpe replaced by a maze in a tent/marque, plus had Containment, and social distancing wasn't a thing, this could have been an even better event. Would it have happened like that if Covid wasn't a thing? We'll never know. But if things go well, then hopefully this shows Thorpe that a mixture of scare zones and mazes is a great way forward.