JoshC.

Just to go back to the topic of attendance, it is really worth stressing that the TEA Attendance Report is not accurate for Thorpe / Merlin. This graph is from the Hyperia consultation, including numbers up to 2020: The Queue Times website also has these numbers listed, as well as numbers from the TEA Report: https://queue-times.com/parks/2/attendances#reference4 Just for some reference: 2019: Thorpe say 1.49m, TEA say 1.9m 2018: Thorpe say 1.59m, TEA say 1.88m 2017: Thorpe say 1.54m, TEA say 1.8m 2016: Thorpe say 1.62m, TEA say 1.8m 2015: Thorpe say 1.51m, TEA say 1.85m 2014: Thorpe say 1.83m, TEA say 2.1m etc, etc. As you can see, there's years when the actual attendance has gone down, but TEA say it's gone up, and vice versa. But there is no rhyme or reason. So it is certainly possible that 2024 saw an increase in attendance compared to 2023 at Thorpe. As Benin says, the late opening of Hyperia followed by its extended downtime will have hurt attendance. But once it did get running, it ran well and was a draw. Was that enough to outweigh and then eventually beat what was a quiet, but consistent, 2023? It felt like it, but we'll never truly know.

A few things to throw out into the realm of conversation... Fright Nights Music I noticed during the last week of Fright Nights that many rides did have Fright Nights themed announcements, from Lucifer. Rush, Detonator and Nemesis Inferno spring to mind. It's weird that it happened late into the event, but good to see. I do think it's something that really does add to the atmosphere, and something the park should continue to focus on and improve. Fright Nights specific audio was one of the biggest successes from early Fright Nights - even if it was just Midnight Syndicate - and something that the park should continue to replicate. Even using free, spooky audio would add an extra layer. The park have shown this year they have the ability to programme park-wide changes to lighting and audio, so the next step is to really focus onto ride-specifics. I've also been on park for the pop music change at the end of the day. And...I still don't get it. I've seen a couple of videos of large groups of people really getting into it. My experience was a couple of people scattered around getting into it, but most people not being bothered by it. When I say I don't get it, I do understand the logic behind it. But I just don't see how it links to Fright Nights, how it adds to the overall experience or anything. In the BTS interview, it was mentioned they wanted to replicate the vibe that occurred in 2013 when they used Perfect Day (which was used in the You're Next film, which was part of that year's Fright Nights), and they wanted Bittersweet Symphony in particular to be another "iconic" Fright Nights song. I certainly don't view Perfect Day as an iconic Fright Nights song, or even associate it with Fright Nights all that much. That whole viewpoint comes from a very skewed perspective in my opinion. Mazes Thorpe have a...problem with the mazes. I will maintain what I've always said in that the quality of the mazes, on the whole, is pretty good. Yes, there's issues, batch sizes majorly affect the experiences, costs are high, etc, but on the whole, they're pretty good. You chuck any one of their mazes into any previous Fright Nights event, or into most scare events across the country, and they'll be well received. But the problem is that they're all so samey. You have 4 mazes where you get batched in as a group. You then watch a pre-show (3 of which on shown on a screen). You then walk round well themed sets as a group whilst actors jump out, invade your personal space and then you move on. The mazes feature quite passive scenes, where you see actors do things to others, but you experience no real scare. Examples.. Trailers in the dentist scene, when the dentist 'beats up' the patient. Deadbeat, just before the sewer, when a Visceral sucks out the soul of a raver. Stitches, when a worker is sewing up a mannequin. As I say, each maze in its own right is good. And the variety in themes of the 4 mazes is perfect. The issue simply is is you have 4 mazes which are basically carbon copies of each other, just dressed differently. I think that, in part, comes down to have a consistent creative team for many years, using UVE for many years - there's a level of comfort and knowing what works. I think this is highlighted again in the BTS video. One notable reason for Survival Games (which, prior to this year, stood out as being completely different) being changed is because it was seen in guest feedback that people were getting an inconsistent number of scares, which was impacting experience and the perception of value for money. And their solution to that problem is to make Survival Games like every other maze they have - single route, actors jumping out, you continually moving. Thorpe know how to make that work, so they went with that. I'm not saying that was necessarily a right or a wrong move. Nor am I saying it's easy to create a multi-route experience which is consistent. But they went with the easiest option available to their team. The last time that Thorpe had no variety in their mazes, in terms of style of scares, was 2010. They had 4 mazes (Asylum, Hellgate, Se7en, Curse). They were all "get batched in a conga line, go straight in the maze with no pre show, and actors will jump out and touch you" in style. In 2011, they changed things (not just for them, but for the wider UK scare industry as a whole). They introduced Experiment 10, which had a pre-show, split you up, etc. And even 14 years later, is spoken about extremely fondly. And that kick-started a wave of creativity for them. Each year after, you had at least one maze which was completely different. The Passing, Cabin in the Woods, Blair Witch, Big Top, Do or Die...heck, even Vulcan Peak. The quality of those vary, but there is no denying that all those mazes felt different, and all for varying reasons (split up, multi-route, outdoors, hoods, etc). There's certainly an argument that in playing it 'safe', creating the same style of maze, has allowed the maze quality to increase. But there's a parallel argument that that 'safety' is stifling creativity and progress. I'm not saying the park should change their creative team. Far from it, as they've really pushed Fright Nights forwards. But they need to take a risk, try something different, and not be afraid to put the work in to tweak and change it to make it work.

One thing I've noticed with Thorpe is that such a large number of people arrive for 10am. As in, they see the park opens at 10, so they think 'Well let's aim to arrive at 10ish'. Whether that's something embedded deep in UK culture or something the park can get better at communicating, I don't know. With multiple thousands of people all doing the same, it will inevitably cause issues. That issue was particularly compounded during Fright Nights, when even more people attend. The simple answer is security is slow. What they choose to do takes a while. Simply put, if they want to continue with the level of security they are doing, they should look to invest in better scanners which means they can get through people quicker. The alternative is to reduce the level of security check (which they could do, as it is a very thorough process; significantly more thorough than most parks who do manual bag searches). Hiring more security is impractical, as has been discussed. This Fright Nights I've been impressed with all of my exits from the car park. Yes, it's busy and again many thousands of people are leaving at once. But it does feel smoother compared to previous years. The biggest issues I've found is the quality of parking (when people arrive later in the day and just park wherever and however they please) and the red and white dividers getting blown around. It would be nice if the park could manage what many other parks do with paying for the car park before entry, but realistically, I don't think the park have the space, design or capacity for that to be feasible.

Couple of things to consider: -Merlin recently made Halloween an included day for most passes. -The excluded days, somewhat ironically, tend to be a bit quieter because: There's less passholders People expect those days to be busy so avoid them -The weather was forecast to be a bit rubbish, which can put passholders off -There were 2 severe cases of bad weather, including electrical storms in the nearby area, shutting down most rides. That, along with the rubbish weather, meant people left earlier. The park today didn't feel as busy as it was yesterday. Nor did it feel as busy as it was last Halloween. However, the park was still extremely busy and lively.

Y'know, ParmPap has grown on me over the years, despite their crazed posts. For what it's worth, Se7en was a maze at Fright Nights which was based in The Arena from 2006-2010, and on the larger side of The Beach in 2011. Obviously The Arena was replaced by Derren Brown's Ghost Train. The larger side of The Beach is earmarked for the stage redevelopment. Whether that's still the plan is anyone's guess for now. So maybe Parmesan Papa is hinting at a DBGT replacement?

The hiring of 300 actors on short term contracts will be the reason.

I don't know if it's still the case (but I expect it is), but theme parks / companies are under no obligation to be truthful to TEA for reporting their attendance figures. Obviously they can't outright lie, but their numbers don't have to be accurate. I've been aware of some parks' TEA numbers being off by 300,000 in the past. So definitely take with a pinch of salt. They'll be good ballpark numbers, but obviously could be off by 10-20% in some instances. In the context of Thorpe, I'm going to outright say I don't believe the 2023 figure. The 2024 figure seems plausible. But just from my visits, I do not see how 2023 ended up being more visited than 2024. I caveat this by saying I'm just going off my experiences, so I could be completely wrong. The big question is - if Merlin haven't necessarily been truthfully accurate with their attendance figures - why have they made Thorpe seem like it's had a big attendance dip when they open a big brand new ride? Surely it would make sense to keep the fabrication alive and make it seem like Hyperia had a positive impact? Few possible factors. Could be that they are now reporting more accurately. Or they could blame 2024's "poor" performance on Hyperia's reliability. Or they could pin it to Hyperia opening in May. It could be part of a narrative they're building that will see increases in 2025 and how Hyperia is a long-term draw. Who knows. As I say, I simply don't believe that Thorpe's attendance dipped from 2023 to 2024. I could be wrong, and I'm no doubt sounding pig-headed stubborn right now, but that's a hill I'm currently going to stand on right now.

The park have released an hour-long interview with Fright Nights management about this year's event. There's some cool insight about things and is well worth a watch. Will share my thoughts about some things discussed at a later point.

Reasonably common for Colossus. They do it just to check for any signs of wear and tear at the joints of the ride. It will be a part of their routine and nothing to be concerned about.

700pph across all attractions is definitely an overestimate. Mazes probably average around 400-500pph. And I can't think of any non-major coaster that would we get above 700pph consistently.

Not sure if it still does, but in the first few days of the event, the park was playing The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony shortly after closing. Apparently the reason is to represent the same feeling you get when the last song plays at the end of a good night out (ie bittersweet). Apparently meant to recreate when the park played Perfect Day in 2013's Fright Nights (which was in the film You're Next). I...don't get it frankly. But I've also seen some really positive reactions online. For me, it just doesn't make sense / fit with Fright Nights. I got why they did it in the exit area of DeadBeat (since it's nightclub themed). But parkwide? I don't know; I just don't get it. Playing other pop music too, again I don't get it. Probably has some 'hidden meaning', but yeah...doesn't do it for me. Really good point, and I certainly didn't think of it that way. Obviously there will be different schools of thought. I do still think there will be plenty of scare actors who would be more than willing to give it a go...even if just as a once off, but there will definitely be people who aren't keen on the idea (or choose to go there and then realise the style isn't for them). I'm very intrigued by how Universal will set up HHN (or whatever they end up branding their Halloween event). The European market is very different and has very different expectations and standards for Halloween attractions. Do Universal stick with what they know, and bring that slice of American culture with them, or do they try to still keep it in the same form, but add the European flair to it. If they can bring on board British / European creatives with experience of creating and running Halloween attractions, they definitely could find a way to make it work. One thing which I've noticed is that it would be very difficult for your average guest on your average night to do everything (ie all Fright Nights attractions and shows and major rides in the dark). There will definitely be many, many people who don't manage that. Whilst the park will have a lot of repeat visitors thanks to Annual Passholders, and I'm certainly all for keeping things fresh, for many people, a show feeling very similar won't have that much impact. I'm sure that there are people who are going "we didn't do X last time, let's do it this time". Equally, people who are going "we did Y last time and enjoyed it, let's do/watch it again". Of course, there will be people on the other side who crave new things / got everything done last time. It is all about striking a balance. I still maintain that one year with no big new things is fine. Equally, I'd have preferred to see some extra work go into things like park-wide theming, themed audio, etc. Doesn't surprise me. The profit in particular makes perfect sense given they're effectively introducing 4 paid attractions now, so they make more money from passholders as well as non-passholders. Halloween events always do well for parks, given the later openings and limited-offering attractions, and that's true anywhere. Equally, for Thorpe, I think it's a telling statistic. It's not necessarily that Fright Nights has become more visited, but that the rest of the year has become less-visited. Obviously both things could be true (and probably are), but I think that statistic is driven by the park being quieter the rest of the year. I'm too lazy to look at what the days were last year, but this year, Thorpe has 207 open days and 24 of them are Fright Nights dates. So they're getting about 20% of their visitors across 11.5% of their open days. Those numbers are pretty meaningless without additional context, but I'd be interested what is was like in past and how important that is.

I don't think the event in its current guise is 'family friendly". It's by no means adult/mature, and has something for everyone, but it's not exactly pushed down to Chessington or Legoland markets. Yes, there's a dance show which is for everyone, and doesn't go hard on scares. Whilst you could argue that the cast for that could be used for a "scare" attraction, it's not guarantee that all the actors involved would want / could be scare actors. Different skill set, backgrounds, etc. So not a straightforward swap. Obviously it won't interest everyone and that's fine. But it does add atmosphere and variety to the event. Lucifer's Lair features some dance shows, but they are certainly geared towards a more mature audience. And that whole zone does encapsulate what previous roamers were like it terms of scare factor. Ultimately yes Fright Nights does still have things which cater to everyone. And part of me expects that that is because regardless of what Thorpe do, families still visit the park. We saw years ago that the park tried catering to just thrills and a slightly older audience, and that just led to less people spending money, and more complaints and bad publicity from families who came anyway. There's still enough to satisfy the 'thrillseeker' audience. Even if the upcharges are too much, or the mazes lack consistency, the quartet of mazes intent is to be scary, and for the wider audience, that is what they acheive. Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see the park have Fright Nights be more mature, up the age recommendations, become a bit more scary. And that would certainly benefit some of their attractions. But I completely get why they won't do that. And if that's what people are after, I going to an out and out scream park is the best option for them.

I write this on my way to work, as it's raining. I'm tired. So forgive any typos. As always, this is "my" review, not a 'press' review. Trailers My favourite maze of the night. Two new scenes are one inspired by Roots of Evil (in the forest area after the Dolls scene) and an Experiment 10 inspired one replacing Brainsburys. The safety speech is done in the old pre show area, with the screen now having a pre recorded pre show. It's the same basic maze, but with a solid cast and good scares. DeadBeat No changes inside maze. Pre show is slightly different but that's it. Stitches A couple of minor changes, but same idea. It's hard to tell without knowing numbers, but Stitches is either the most popular or has the worst throughput because even at Press Night it gets a longer queue than everything else Survival Games No more splitting up. This is a single route maze. As a result, it is significantly longer. It's also still intense, but definitely less intense than previous years. There's a change in story line about the characters being given a serum to make them more vicious, and so the 'assassin' characters are no more. The maze does feel fresh. For me though, it's my least favourite of the 4. It feels a bit too Tulleys-like in that there's a long maze but a few moments where not a lot happens. It is, like the other mazes, walking through a themed set more than anything else, although it is less like that than the others. I don't know. Maybe actors just need more time to bed in and get in the groove. Maybe I'm just salty because I liked the old Survival Games. Will be interesting to re do it later. Purgatory Town To behonest, exactly what I expected. It's an interactive zone. You get out what you put in. If you seek the actors out, talk to them, you'll get so fun conversations. If you walk through and the actors are already talking, it'll be like the zone doesn't exist. If they're free they will approach you, but if you don't put anything in they'll move on. It's fine for what it is. With mazes becoming more passive I think the jury is out whether this is what Fright Nights needs. And it remains to be seen how it will cope when busy. Creature Campus Another great dance show this year. I get that many aren't interested in it, but it oozes atmosphere. Would recommend. The Crows Longest and possibly best layout yet. It is basically an outdoor maze at this point. Theming and effects are cool. Music is perfect for it. It just works. Lucifer's Lair Say hello to the crown jewel of Fright Nights for the third year running. The area is perfect for what it is trying to be, the hub of the event. There will always be something going on, whether it is demons going round treating it like a scare zone, singing, dance shows, stunt shows or the best version of a Thorpe fire show yet. This is just it. Music is a bit of a mess right now. I'm sad they're not choosing to do more specific stuff for rides. Lighting is great. Stealth has a cool light at the end of the launch track in sync with the launch lights. All in it's another good event. It won't silence critics about the long term direction that FN has gone / is going. I'm less of a fan of the style of mazes Thorpe currently produce, but I'll still give them another go and see what changes. But genuinely, and wholeheartedly, the stuff included in the entrance ticket is worth the visit.

I wouldn't read too much into it. That poster is in a scene with 4 other posters, all of which were designed from the "Make Your Mark" VIP Easter Egg thing. The price included getting your name on a poster which related to an attraction of your choosing. Jake Clarke obviously likes Ghost Train, and The Last Train is a good discourse. There's another next to it which is Creek Freak 2, but don't expect a sequel to that maze. Obviously it's possible that it is closing, and this has been hidden in in such a way that it feels more subtle. But I don't think it's the nod people think it is.

Whilst I don't anticipate there to be significant discourse on here this evening, the Fright Nights Launch Event is this evening, so I'd expect there to be spoilers floating about ahead of the official opening tomorrow. Please share anything that could be considered a Spoiler here. If you want to follow along and get some updates of the event, and insights into what might have changed and the quality this year, follow along with your favourite fansite (that's Thorpe Park Mania, in case it wasn't obvious) on all good (and bad) social media!

I'd be surprised if it's related to the launch cable. They have a good routine for that which has worked for a number of years. My guess at this point is that there's another issue related to the extended closure it had earlier in the year. Hydraulic launch coasters are infamous for having parts or issues which need resolving after a fixed number of cycles. It would seem like this solution is the least worst scenario. I'd be very surprised if it was budget related. It is still such an iconic and well-received ride. If they were really in that position, I'd expect them to open something like Tidal Wave late, given that's a costly ride to operate.

Reviews I've heard from this weekend suggested that - outside of the first hour or two - mazes have been very quiet / practically walk on, despite the park itself being lively. I certainly don't expect that to be the norm - the last weekend of September was inevitably going to be quiet for scare attractions - but it's also possible that the high price point of the mazes in the first place will reduce queue times. Ultimately even paid-mazes will have queues. I don't think Towers (nor Thorpe) is a shining example of how paid-for mazes should operate in terms of queue times, etc. I'm not necessarily against Fastrack being an option for paid-for mazes (after all, I've paid for Fastrack for mazes for my visit to Walibi Holland this year). But having to choose a time slot for your maze and the corresponding Fastrack slot doesn't quite sit right with me either.

There's been no confirmation either way really. Obviously the plan was for it to be this year, but planning delays stopped that. They pushed through and it was approved in Spring. That at least signals intent for them to do it. But whether the plan has changed since then is up in the air. They technically have 3 years from the approval of the application to start the work, so if it doesn't happen for next year it could still happen later. This is a very long-winded way of saying "we don't know". At the same time, I still think the default for now should be to expect it to happen.

To be fair, most of their Halloween days sell out, so it's much the norm. The operations are pretty slick. It was 6 years ago so I can't remember exact timings, but they were very tight with maze slots: if you arrived before your slot, you were turned away. If you arrived after, they would put you in a standby queue and only let you in when everyone from the current time slot was cleared. That meant that realistically you never waited more than 15 / 30mins. But their mazes are HHN/ continuous conga line esque

Plopsaland de Panne recently rebranded themselves to Plopsaland Belgium. This follows suit of the company rebranding other parks, including Holiday Park to Plopsaland Germany. More interestingly, it has been revealed that in 2027, Plopsaland Belgium is getting a Flying Theatre attraction from Mack, called Airific. It will be located near the entrance plaza of the park: https://www.instagram.com/p/DO8LbZ_jH27/?igsh=YWgwcmR4Nndjdmdn

I only got one ride on Red Farce due to the terrible operations and wanting to get back into the park. Was near the back and it's notably juddery, and the brakes at the end I found very harsh. I find that Ferrari Land is a singular ride (Red Farce), which they stretched out into an area, which they stretched out into a "park". It's nonsense really. Seems like you had a decent trip to PA though. I think everyone I know who's done Hotel Roulette has ended up in Hotel El Paso too, but it's a decent little place

Jack Silkstone has posted his Behind the Scenes documentary for FN 2024... It's much the same as his previous BTS, looking at the creation of the marketing video for Fright Nights 2024. One thing I found interested is how - almost in a throwaway comment - Jack mentions how he had been documenting the build for DeadBeat. I've said this a couple of years now, but it would be neat to see a BTS focusing on the coming together of a new attraction. It's probably not as exciting as people expect, but even a timelapse just showing the interior come together is pretty neat (I think the creators of Big Top did one in 2016/17). Aside from that, this video simply shows the labour of love that KA Creative have for creating the videos. I'd argue the after some point, the amount of effort they put in becomes unnecessary / misplaced energy, but there we go.

I think there's a bit of a rose-tinted specs here to be fair. 2013 was the only year when maze queues had actors. Saw The Ride had a couple of actors in the queue on and off (both during and outside of FN). But it was more the exception than the rule in the past. The "getting locked in cupboards" only happened in one maze, for 2 years. Now, the likes of 2011 and 2013's Fright Nights still remain some of the strongest editions of Fright Nights even now. So it's completely valid to miss those editions and compare to them. But they weren't always like that, and still had their own issues. Queue times back then were very long even back then, outside of a few select dates, making lapping mazes uncommon. Sadly, anyone under the age of 20 won't understand what those amazing Fright Nights of yesteryear were like. Even anyone under the age of 25 won't fully appreciate what it was like. We're in a complete new age of Fright Nights, and of Halloween attractions. This certainly should be a focus for a quieter year. Spending time, resources and money on ride soundtracks - whether it's a park-wide idea or ride-specific takeovers - will really add to the overall atmosphere of the event. It's not exactly necessary (many parks don't do it at all), but it will improve an event like Fright Nights. In the past, simply using Midnight Syndicate (which of course is royalty free) did the job. That could still work now to be fair. But if they wanted to be more original, that would work too. I think it's easy to forget the shortcomings of each of the mazes you listed (as well as other well-loved Thorpe mazes from the past), and those may be highlighted more in the current line up, even if they were including in the ticket price. -Asylum is repetitive, and it's 'trick' (a strobe, mesh maze) is used as scenes in so many scare attractions. I get why people loved it (even if I didn't), but a maze which is an elongated scene from other mazes might not capture people's imagination. -Experiment 10 was short, even by 2011's standard. It worked, and the first half made up for it. It might work well as a free maze now, given the other mazes would be notably longer, but its length would be an issue. -Cabin in the Woods suffered from a very congested second half. It also got progressively worse each year, with the first half becoming further and further away from the original design and plan. This is me trying to be objective and nit-picky, yes. But I think there's lots of discourse about previous mazes in general, and people do look back too fondly. Give it a couple of years, and I reckon there'll be people crying out for the returns of Do or Die, Roots of Evil and even Vulcan Peak. But yeah, there is now a clear identity of what a Thorpe maze "is". It's very similar for Tulleys - everyone knows what a Tulleys maze "is". It's fine to have an identity and to do what works for you and your audience. But it does create a bit of a 'same old, same old', doesn't it. The social media thing is a good point, with the rise of it all. Prior to 2015, you never had anyone allowed 'officially' to take footage inside mazes except the park really. I'd argue that leaves us with these rose-tinted specs more, but that's a different point. People do judge on the look things a lot more. It will be interesting to see how Universal manage HHN in the UK. The near continuous flow of guests is very uncommon across European Halloween attractions in general. So I wonder how the public will react to that compared to how we usually operate. I don't think Thorpe (or any scare attraction in the UK) should try to play the same game as HHN though. They'll lose. Better to craft out a niche than play someone else's game and lose terribly. I imagine many guests however will look at it as a direction competition regardless though, so they'll have to compete. I think the biggest issue that Thorpe will face, at first at the very least, is that I expect actors will be chomping at the bit to work for Universal. If I was a scare actor, the opportunity to work at the first HHN UK would be something I'd be hugely tempted by. And if Thorpe is my otherwise closest major event, Bedford isn't exactly a huge upheaval to my life for a couple of months.

It had the issue of slowing on the brakes before that last turn quite a lot at the start of last year. They did correct and I haven't noticed any issues since. Hopefully not starting to happen again. The vests had tweaks done a couple of years ago I believe to stop the locking/tightening.

So let's dissect this a bit more / share some of my thoughts... I really like that they're making Lucifer a central figure this year. I've said repeatedly that this is something that park should look to do - have a headline character who is prominent in both marketing and on park. When the park introduced the Director character in 2013 and 14 (and even the Governor character in 2012), it was a nice touch. It didn't necessarily fully hit the mark as there was a lack of consistency due the character (naturally) having to be played by different actors. And the on-park character didn't quite marry up with the marketing character. But the park have had form there, and it worked. One criticism that occurred in 2015 was that the Figaro Bros were featured so heavily in marketing, but had no on-park presence (even in the original Big Top), which is why the park veered away from central characters. They've slowly reintroduced the concept of headline characters with "Fear" in 2021, the Locksmith in 2022 and the Toymaker in 2023. Again, they featured heavily in marketing. But aside from the Toymaker (who was only used for a special BTS tour of Stitches), had no physical on-park presence. Lucifer's Lair - in my opinion - has been the highlight of the past two Fright Nights. And given the plan to have the stage on the Beach this year, it wouldn't be surprising if they were hoping to turn that zone into a bigger thing this year. Having Lucifer has that central figure just works for the current Fright Nights set up. As a slight critique (possibly even a long-term suggestion), I'd rather the park have an 'original' character, as opposed to 'just' the devil, but they can make it work. I've banged on about this enough times on here, but if you look to Walibi Holland, their Eddie the Clown character has been a headline character for much of the park's Halloween event's history. Eddie the Clown and Walibi are synonymous now. And it leads to great marketing (and more recently, merchandise) opportunity. Thorpe can recreate that, in their own way. Now, the actual event. Upfront, I'm not enthused by Purgatory Town. It's being marketing as an 'interactive' scare zone, or a speak-to-characters zone. I'm getting a bit of a Swarm Invasion vibe, in that I expect there will be minimal theming and minimal actors, and guests will 'get out what they put in'. That is, you can walk through the zone and have basically no interaction with the actors, or you can spend time chatting with them and find out their story and lore and build up from there. The key difference is Swarm Invasion had an actual coaster with a backstory to help it, whereas Purgatory Town has...well, no pre-existing lore. Another issue is that Fright Nights has become quite...passive. A common discussion point on here, at the very least, is that the mazes are like walkthroughs of very well-themed sets, with less actual engagement. I'd argue Stitches and Trailers highlight that extremely well, but even DeadBeat has its moments. Now whether that's a good thing, a bad thing or just a thing is almost a mute point. If the reason the park are creating these passive experiences is because that's what guests enjoy and respond best to, then creating a scare zone which is the opposite to that is a hard sell to guests. Again looking to Swarm Invasion, that didn't exactly light the world on fire, and that could be because of the high engagement level required. The fact we're less than two weeks from the event starting and we have no theming or build is also telling of what to expect on that front (ie: not a lot). I'm certainly not writing it off, as we don't really know a lot about it still. But all signs point to this being little more than a nice experiment for the park to try. However, it is great to see Fright Nights further spread out across the park. Next thing to note is Survival Games changes. Hard to know what expectations should be, but the video and promo image make it look like the characters in the maze will be different at the very least: There's mentions of a "toxic twist", and any part of the marketing related to Survival Games does feature a strong electricity motif too. Trailers getting two new scenes is perhaps not unexpected given the new posters that appeared. A little excerpt from the park's press release gives us a bit more on what to expect... Evil experiments could be Experiment 10 (which could be the X poster seen) Forbidden Forests could be a Blair Witch throwback I hope that - unlike last year - the new scenes are more than just a redress of existing scenes. I know it's a less-common opinion, but I'm fine with a quieter year with no major new attractions as a one off. I'd argue that Purgatory Town isn't even necessary this year. But we'll see what happens!