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As of yesterday, construction and preparation has turned up a notch for Fright Nights: Seemingly the Saw Alive pathway will be the location of the Crows scare zone: Old Town is being partially shut off for Creek Freaks Unchained: I am also under the impression that much of Trailers is complete now, which is a good sign of course.

Went to the Oktoberfest event this weekend. Marked improvement over last year's event. The main area from last year remains and is more or less the same. The tented picnic area in Lost City is also an Oktoberfest tent, with beer and entertainment. There's live music and actors around these areas from 12pm, along with the food offerings available. There's themed music around the rides again, along with the random 'Bavarian Bingo' which takes over rides randomly. Not a fan of that; would prefer something a bit more streamlined, but I guess it's cool all the same. I think Rumba (sorry, Oompah) Rapids has new audio over last year which is better. Detonator audio is the same as last year and I still don't like it. The main problem I have is that the actors the park have speak with terrible German accents. In the sense that they're meant to be terrible. They act as caricatures of Germans. It's "'Allo! 'Allo!" level of humour, and is extremely cringey. It's really, really not my thing. Maybe it's something the masses react positively, but it simply doesn't work for me. But yeah, as I say, a marked improvement from last year. Some good entertainment. Just drop the cringey accents please.

And the final maze, Trailers: The 'never ending loop' thing makes me wonder if this will feature some sort of multi-route / repetition throughout the maze. The theme is a nice idea and I've seen other places make this sort of concept work. And I also think this is where these play a part: These are probably the 'films' which are shown at the SuperSpark Cinema, and throughout the maze, you enter into a scene of each one. This then combines a nice mix of Fright Nights throwback whilst keeping things fresh (and makes things easy to follow for people unfamiliar with old mazes too). I think the main concern I have there is space. The Jungle Escape space isn't that big: I reckon it's similar to Creek Freak Massacre, if not, smaller. So it's by no means small, but not huge either. So fitting in 8 scenes (plus the inevitable pre show, and an ending scene) is a challenge, especially if you want to make sure the maze flows coherently too. I think being upcharge and putting people in small groups will be a huge help, but that still isn't an answer to many of the concerns.

Little Easter egg, your favourite vloggers seem to know a tad bit more than what's in their construction updates. In all seriousness we have one new maze, which I assume will also be an upcharge but this really doesn't do the 20 years justice. Comments on socials say bring back XXXX maze and we want this, yet Thorpe never deliver on these comments. We do get a nostalgia light and fire show which I assume will be at the Fearstival stage, another great park of last years event why get rid of it but keep the family friendly cringeworthy dance acts, probably budget? Only good is finally removing the Walking dead but man do I miss the Asylum, Cabin, Experiment 10, Big Top and the other old tented mazes or even Saw, why can't we do what the fans want and bring some of these back rather than having a nostalgia show, hopefully there will be some visuals of POV'S etc rather than just the music, but I even think here a museum, like what what they did for X would be better suited. Then the scare zones, will they be doubling the actors for Creek Freak for example or will the outside just have a few actors on the quiet short staff days while the main cast are inside. Overall Fright nights for me has just lost the scare factor tbh as it takes more of a family friendly path, while charging consumers for the mazes so they won't have time to find all the little easter eggs included.

Think I've said it often now but Asylum absolutely blew practically every other FN maze that ever existed out of the water. I wouldnt necessarily say it is nostalgia that gives me that opinion, its the genuine fact that for me and 95 percent of the people that did it, it just did its job which was to scare. It was loud,chaotic,disorienting and the cast that was in it on most of my visits during its tenure absolutely went all out to deliver. No FN maze that has came after it has came anywhere near matching it in those regards. Then we look at some other mazes the park historically had. Experiment 10 created one hell of a sense of isolation that at the time was a breaking of the mold for UK theme park halloween mazes Se7en was the single most disgusting and psychological maze I have seen on these shores. Those scenes,smells and sights to this day have stayed with me Hellgate whilst not particularly unique in that it was just a generic haunted house themed maze, was an absolute jump scare ridden fun experience. Those opinions to me are nothing to do with nostalgia. Its just as I remember them on their own merits during their time at the event. They did their jobs far better then MOST of the mazes that have been at the event since Asylum left. Aside from Big Top and Cabin, none of the other mazes that have been at the event have done anything for me personally. For all Platform 15 is worth, one might as well leave the park early and just head round to monks walk for an evening stroll....you're now doing Platform 15 for free.

Well I first went to FN in 2012 and the Asylum was by far the scariest maze on the night. And you could say that 2012/13 is in the more "modern era" of the event. So I completely disagree with the idea Asylum would not be well recieved because it was levels above (imo) any other maze back then, and the rest of those 2012 mazes are better than the mazes (bar a couple) that we've had since then. Imo 90% chain link mesh is what the end of creek freak is, Asylum added a hell of alot of messed up detail to that strobe maze and it all added up to a terrifying experience. Also the chain link stuff was probably only a half of the actual maze in later years... There were many different scenes added to that maze each with their own unique detail and chaotic environment. The only thing that stayed constant throughout the whole thing was the soundtrack and strobes (which was a good thing). As for overall past years being tinted by nostalgia I completely understand that arguement actually, but in this particular case also disagree with this aswell. I'm a big advocate for the past not necessarily being so much better than the present due to nostalgia bias but in this case the mazes in recent years have done absolutely nothing. I mean come on... Are we really suggesting the 2018 maze line up with those walking dead mazes is better than the 2013 lineup, or better yet, the 2011 lineup? Well I'd say most will agree that's not the case.

I think there's a lot of rose-tinted specs with regards to some of the old Fright Nights attractions. I've made my comments on Asylum quite clear in the past, but just as a general thought experiment. Imagine if Asylum (and Freezer) never existed, and this year the park opened up a maze which was 90% chain-mesh fencing with strobe lights, featuring a chainsaw runout at the end. I'm sure it wouldn't flop, but would it be as well received now as it was 10-15 years ago? Or would many find flaws in comparison to many other mazes? Mazes such as Hellgate, Se7en and Curse took a while to find their feet. Hellgate really was never that good or sparked that much interest. Se7en and Curse only really more consistent positive reviews in their final year or two and, despite their well-themed interiors, were mocked for being in white tents. The park had plenty of misses and underachievements too. My point here is simply that it's easy to look back and say Fright Nights was better in the past, etc etc, but saying so certainly glosses over many things. I think the set up for this year is good on paper. 3 mazes, 4 scare zones, 2 shows and roamers. Good mix of themes too. The number of mazes is a difficult balancing act to get right, especially going down the upcharge route. But, at the very least, both Platform and Creek Freaks are decent length mazes (which can be stretched out time-wise if you are in smaller groups). That's a good thing. I'd like to see the event develop and experiment with one high throughput free maze and the rest upcharge to give that extra choice.

Yep you can't beat early to mid 00s Fright Nights! Such good times as a teen back then!