JoshC.

A short article about a Hunger Games theme park and what potential attractions could possibly work... http://entertainment.time.com/2013/11/18/that-hunger-games-theme-park-here-are-5-attractions-we-want-to-see/ One thing which stands out massively to me is the large amount of space required to make even just one or two of those attractions successful. However, I think it's achievable and could suit itself to a family environment to some degree. Whilst I hate the possible deductions that could be made from this, but Thorpe Park's marketing director did tweet this link on his Twitter page, so who knows?

After a few lengthy discussions, I've sorted out my uni accommodation for the next academic year! I'll be staying in the same house I'm at this year; the 23 person house of amazing-ness. Surprisingly, pretty much everyone has got on with one another and there's been no real problems (apart from a couple of 'teething issues' when we first moved in). Unfortunately, out of the core group of 17 of us that moved in, 6-7 are deciding to try and look elsewhere to move into a smaller house for various reasons. It's a shame, as I do want to live with everyone, but after weighing up the pros and cons, staying in the same house with the 10 or so people from the main group I was with seems like the best option. Even then, the people looking may not decide to leave; they're just actively looking for somewhere else to go. So yeah, I haven't signed a contract or anything, but the group of us wanting to stay have emailed the landlords with out intent to stay, and it's part of our current contract that we're given priority to rooms over people if we decided to stay on. Took a few long talks with everyone, but things have worked out.

As I said earlier, I'm not sure there's many types of attractions which could work for it. Even a scare attraction would require a lot of space to be executed well (I think in some ways turning the park into a 'battle arena' and have roaming actors fighting, and picking on random people, in a similar fashion to the You're Next characters would probably be the best way for Thorpe to go about it if they wanted to explore that route). Some form of dark ride where you're in the training zone and trying to get your 'score' from the judge could be one way of going about it. You could even be in a battle arena, and just being attacked from all edges leading to loads of special effects and such, and you're just trying to defend yourself. Then you'd incorporate the feel of the film and not have a need to actually see the deaths (or just minimise it as much as possible at the very least). It definitely could work, and it could indeed be tailored to a family market with older children, but I do agree it is difficult to do. Difficult, but not impossible.

Well, Thorpe are aiming for an audience which attracts families with older children, so Hunger Games is indeed a perfect fit the park in my eyes. The books have a broad audience, but I'd assume were written with a teen / mature pre-teen audience, and they're a lot more detailed with the deaths. Absolutely nothing wrong with the idea working in a theme park environment the way I see it. They wouldn't even need to focus that much on the deaths for it really to make it successful. The Harry Potter world has a fair few deaths in it (granted, no where near as many as Hunger Games and the entire series doesn't revolve around it), but all HP attractions seem to be able to avoid the deaths from what I'm aware? So yeah, just because it involves deaths, doesn't mean it's incompatible with a family theme park.

The basic idea of Hunger Games is that in a dystopian future, there's a country with a very rich capital, and 12 poor 'districts'. Each year, the government (in the capital) forces each district to offer up 2 children to compete in a 24 person fight-to-death battle (the 'Hunger Games'), which is televised across the entire country. There is training and other things which happen as well. A Spiderman-style ride is definitely something which could work given enough space and budget!

Even as someone who has watched the film and read the books, I can't really think of what attractions would utilise the theme well. In some ways, a wingrider would suit well, as you could 'fly' through one of the battle arenas or something. Of course, that sort of attraction is probably not on Thorpe's cards due to Swarm. An interactive dark ride which is 'training' you for battle is another option which could come about. Something similar to Battle Galleons could work as well actually. Everything I can think of would require some form of interactivity, be that through many near misses on a roller coaster, or where you actually have to do something whilst on the ride. A scare zone would be a brilliant idea as well, but would require a lot of space to be executed well in my mind. Certainly something which could fit into Thorpe perfectly considering their current direction, but I personally can't think of many attractions which the theme could work well with. Would love to be shown wrong though!

The trouble I had with BWP is because our group split up into two quite early on (due to the speed at which people walked, so quite natural really), it was so easy to see where actors were and what they did, and so any interaction they had to offer to us was already expected. There also felt like a lack of anticipation due to the fact it was 'too quiet' - a couple of speakers with the sounds of rustling leaves, gusts of winds, sticks breaking, etc. would have done wonders to the feel of the area. Considering it was only a 2* rated attraction, it's alright, but it's hard to get a good location on park which would've suited this type of attraction I guess

I don't think this has been posted yet... A full walkthrough of the Blair Witch Project in night vision. One thing which has dawned on me is how the park seem to be trying to 'do an Asylum' with how some of their attractions end, and try and create this one huge scare that will get people running out. The trouble is, it doesn't work with the likes of Experiment 10 / MBV or BWP because of their free-flow style. It only works for Asylum because you're in a conga line, so it happens to everyone at once (and the fact that the finale involves being attacked by a guy revving up a chainsaw by your face...). Relying on people staying together so they can all experience the finale, or by forcing a free flow maze to group together for the end, doesn't work well, and I hope the park take that into consideration next year!

It's opened with the park for the past couple of seasons, so I think it could be a safe assumption to say that it'll be open. They'll probably want it to be working for AP Day as well (if it happens), which would be the Sunday before then probably. It's been down since July, so if it takes them more than 8 months to have decided to keep it, get the relevant parts, and then actually fix and test it, you do have to question if it really is worth the effort.

I keep meaning to give an official word, but am a maybe at the moment due to other things cropping up and having to save money for things I've got planned for next year. If I do go, I won't do Winter Wonderland due to the cost that it would inevitably entail, but would be up for the rest of it.

They haven't confirmed anything really, but said in planning applications it's "unlikely" that it will be built in 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uqaGE0Ugefc Seems like the park have taken a leaf out of Thorpe's book and do one of these fun little videos (well, this is the first I've ever seen AT do). Always fun to see!

If you look back at old park maps, the design usually changes every 2 years. This year was the fourth year of the current design (though you could argue the past two years were slightly different due to the slight 'Swarmification' of the map). So, I do expect the park map to change to some degree, and in honesty, I do think we'll see a notable change, not just slight cosmetic changes. With regards to the FN map, whilst it pretty much was the same, the little characters that were dotted around the map were no longer there, bar a couple 'running away' from the entrance of the BWP. So there was slight cosmetic changes.

^I haven't watched The Purge yet, but from what I understood of the story, it doesn't seem like one which you'd naturally expect a sequel to come out of. Will be watching it soon though! In more scary film related new, the sequel to Woman in Black, which was announced a while ago, has a release date: (From Woman in Black's FB page)

The thing with Face it Alone is the entire experience doesn't just revolve around doing a maze by yourself with 'extreme scares', it in itself has more to offer. Though, it does seem like the actual in-maze experiences use similar concepts and tactics.

I definitely agree with this. However, the thing is, Fright Nights isn't going to be for a family market. Regardless of whether the park as a whole are heading towards a family market, Fright Nights will always be 'that time' suited just for the teens / young adults. Things like pumpkins, draped clothes and spiders aren't going to fit in. If you want good theming which fits in, it's naturally going to be expensive, or there's not going to be a lot of it. We had body boxes by Saw, the mine cart by MBV, and then the usual barbed wires, fake CCTV cameras and a couple of signs about. It all 'fits', but it isn't enough, I grant you. I'd much rather that than loads of spiders stuck onto random buildings. So, for the time being, I'd much prefer to see more money invested in roaming actors (which, let's face it, more people would pay attention to than the odd bit of theming), lighting and audio which help create that Halloween atmosphere (of which lighting and audio were fantastic this year in my eyes). Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see good quality FN theming all around the park, but it's easier said than done, and something which I don't think would benefit the park as much as investing more in park-wide actors, for example.

I think a simple case of boosting numbers will do the job. There's been a obvious boost in numbers for actors in the mazes, so I'd expect as the event grows all the more, more park-wide roaming actors will come about. Hopefully the Lionsgate partnership will continue and there'll be willing to give as much financial support as necessary to make the Fright Nights feel like one of Europe's top Halloween events in the near future. More actors roaming will definitely make the park feel more like a Halloween event. Park wide theming has the issue of feeling cheap, so I'd much rather see audio and actors used to make the park feel 'Halloweeny', for the time being at least.

All the non-working image links for no reason makes me sad; hope you have the time to sort them out! I've heard really good things about Walibi at Halloween; Project Z in particular sounds like an interesting experience, though I'd have huge concerns about any sort of throughput it could have. From what I heard of it last year, it seems like a slightly tamer version of a Face it Alone experience offered at Thorpe. It certainly does seem like a good scare attraction though.

Looks like I'm in the few who would welcome a Saw 8! It's hard to say any more at the moment, as we don't know what direction they'd want to take it in, but I'd be interested and excited by it..

I think people's expectations of the You're Next characters were far too high. They're roaming actors, no different to the clowns from 2011 and the prison inmates for 2012. No one really complained when they didn't see those actors. They're not an attraction in itself, they're just actors going round the park. Their greatest success is also their biggest flaw - they go around in a large pack of people, which makes intimidating, but at the same time, not easy to bump into. I do think the park put a bit more emphasis on the characters than they perhaps should have. Hopefully next year, there'll have roaming actors who go around in smaller groups, so there's a bigger chance of seeing them, or there'll put less emphasis on them, so people see it as a bonus when they find them.

12-9pm over winter? That would be pretty darn cold! Would be nice to see it sometime, but I'd personally want to park to develop a little more, have a couple more enclosed rides / attractions. That way, you're not constantly freezing your butt off outside, but can still make the most of it. Must admit, 'Winter Nights' would be a great thing to do, and they could create a nice feel to it. I'd love to see a February Half Term event re-appear; I think they're getting to the stage where they can have more rides available which are reliable in the colder weather. I'd personally prefer to see them return for 2015, as I expect / hope there'll be a fair amount of general sprucing up done this closed season, and would much rather not see that rushed. Hopefully the 4D cinema will be in use again if the rumours are true, and then there's another attraction to add to the line up. I think after a couple of years of getting a Feb half term event to work, the park would be in a situation to at least try for small winter openings if they wanted to.

From what I've heard, that is the plan. I can see FN slowly developing into our own HHN.

Said it before, and I'll say it again - whilst it's nice to see the park gearing towards an entire family market, I hope they don't gradually lose the 'thrill capital' idea. I still think a park focusing mainly on thrill rides is a great idea; they just need to be a bit more family-friendly about it and still have a few relaxing rides. Also, Thorpe do like to push the fact they have 5 water rides as well. Maybe an Intamin Aquatrax is on the cards?

One reason for the 6 row trains could possibly be the tighter elements, especially when compared to other wingriders. Always surprises me how European parks get their coasters testing a lot sooner than ones in the UK as well..

Didn't Towers have their 'extreme' run on just Sanctuary last year? I think that'll almost definitely return. Face it Alone will have a very small target market, so the park probably aren't expecting many people from it. On my visit, about 10 people did Face it Alone - which doesn't cover all the actors' wages for stay to do FiA. In fact, they probably lose money from running it in the long run. But almost everyone I know who's done it is very happy with it, so I expect it'll continue!