JoshC.

I visited yesterday, I'll start with the positives. Amazing operations on most of the major coasters. (I didn't ride Saw) Ops have been good on all of my visits this season but yesterday was top notch. Colossus was slow because the operator did not open the air gates until all of the previous trains riders had left the station. Hopefully that was a one off and not a new policy.

Mazes. Groups are far too big. 15 at a time for both Stitches and Trailers. Both experiences felt like being in a queue for large parts where nothing happened. Scares were impossible as you know from the reactions ahead what to expect.

Lucifer's Lair - highlight of this year's Fright Nights for me.

They need to address the size of the groups. Even when the mazes were free it used to be groups of four or eight Hellgate/Asylum. I understand high throughput is needed but it can't be detriment to the experience.

I am concerned that creature campus is a fan service at this point. The only people I see watching it are the creators of the sound track and Merlin pass holders.

The general public aren’t interested/ understand/ aware of this show. I think the show as good as it is to a fan of a scare event doesn’t really have anything stand out away from dancers. I think realistically it needs to be a full production with stunts and effects. It needs to be different and not dancing to a mash up, there is no reason for anyone really to watch that show.

Lucifiers lair on the other hand has got that draw and appeal particularly because of the location and the variety of shows put on regularly throughout the night. Fire effects are a big draw and shows that there is something different.

Purgatory Town is exactly what I thought it would be and unfortunately adds nothing to the event. I’ve visited scarefest at Alton towers with two walk through scare zones and they are both different. One creepy and one abrupt and jumpy. I think this is what Thorpe really need rather than just crows which get you because they are creepy.

I think this year on paper is a really strong year but with no new scare mazes. It won’t have the hype to compete with previous years.

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 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!

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!

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

I have some throughput timings from my trip to Thorpe Park yesterday that I’d like to report!

I managed to grab the following timings in the park yesterday:
Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains): 717pph (unknown number of trains, average of 3, 20th September 2025)
Hyperia (Theoretical: 1,050pph on 2 trains): 833pph (2 trains, average of 10, 20th September 2025)
Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains): 977pph (2 trains, average of 5, 20th September 2025), 1,024pph (2 trains, average of 4, 20th September 2025)
Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars/2 stations): 742pph (unknown number of trains/2 stations, average of 10 singular cars, 20th September 2025), 788pph (unknown number of trains/2 stations, average of 4 dual dispatches, 20th September 2025)
Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains): 975pph (2 trains, average of 10, 20th September 2025)
The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains): 1,046pph (2 trains, average of 9, 20th September 2025)
In terms of some specific insights:
Stealth had possibly the best operations I’ve ever seen on there; these operations were phenomenal! The staff were sprinting down the platform, and they were very frequently outpacing the 40s dispatch timer on the platform, something which I’d largely thought redundant in previous years! 70-75 second dispatch intervals were being hit very consistently, and the slowest I saw was about 80s, which is incredible!
The Swarm was also operated very well given that it seems to have been a tad inconsistent as of late. When I was in the area, the ride was consistently achieving minimal to no stacking, the staff were efficient, and I saw some dispatch intervals as quick as 90s or below. Great job!
Hyperia was operating well, and seems to have improved compared to its opening year, with 80-90 second dispatch intervals being attained pretty consistently where closer to 100-120 seconds seemed par for the course in 2024. From what I could see, the ride was consistently not stacking and was very often dispatching before the train in front hit the brake run; at its quickest, I saw them dispatch when the train in front was negotiating the final outerbank after the splashdown. I do think the slow brake run on here makes throughputs slower than they could be when the ride isn’t stacking; if the brake run was faster, I think it would shave at least 10 seconds off the dispatch interval!
Nemesis Inferno seemed to be operating well, with minimal to no stacking being quite frequent. I noticed the staff were trying to hurry people along on here.
Overall, then, I thought operations were broadly very good at Thorpe yesterday! Stealth was phenomenally operated, I also thought The Swarm was particularly well operated, and overall, most things seemed to be doing well! I’ve given up hope of Colossus ever attaining a particularly decent throughput at this point, but even that didn’t appear too slow by Colossus standards.

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.

I'm not really feeling it for FN this year, normally by now there is a bit of excitement, and although I think that trailer isn't bad I can't put my finger on it as to why i'm not feeling it. We shall see!

^
I'm not either, in fact I've only just watched that trailer for first time which shows my excitement level.

I don't think thats a this year only thing though, for me Fright Nights was good in the old days of the stronger mazes and being able to lap them till 10pm free of charge. I don't have an interest in the dance shows, scare zones, or paying money to stand in queue to get a weak runthrough in a maze. I miss the old intense Fright Nights days, getting locked in cupboard in experiment 10 and having actors in queue lines etc..

I do appreciate that times change though and theres clearly a market for what they do now though, and I do think that Fright Nights is in a much better place now than it was a good few years ago. Its a strong lineup again this year so I hope they have another successful year.

I will still go to Fright Nights this year multiple times for the longer hours for rides and general atmosphere. I might give the odd maze a try if it has no queue and I'm with someone that wants to, but certainly won't be going out of my way to do so.


I do get the vibe that they've just added this scarezone for the sake of having something new this year.

I'll reserve my judgement until we see what it is but its a shame if that is the case, as everything else on the lineup is of high quality and will be a shame if they've just added this for the sake of it.

Would rather they just use them actors and have a couple in Swarms area and SAWs queue for example. Would add more than a weak scare zone IMO.

On another note, I do hope they make more of an effort with ride soundtrack overlays this year. They've been redundant for a good 2-3 years now which is a shame.

Unfortunately I agree with the above posts - other than the night rides, I just can’t get excited for FN anymore, and the teaser trailer does nothing for me at all. These new style trailers they’ve been doing over the past few years are so vague, and rarely bear any resemblance to the event what so ever.

FN is massively successful, so it would be wrong to suggest that the event has lost its way. I suppose it’s more accurate to say that its new format with highly themed walkthroughs and more passive scares (at sky high prices) just doesn’t appeal to my tastes.

If this new scare zone is going to be similar to Swarm Invasion however then I’m not sure it’s just me that it won’t appeal to… it was genuinely crap, and honestly was barely recognisable as a scare zone.

I have to say as well, the relentless flow of throwback scenes is tedious. Clearly the past has been very much left in the past by this new direction - it’s best to leave the old stuff behind and move on since realistically FN isn’t about out and out scares anymore.

I miss the genuine scare opportunities that the mazes used to offer the actors, and as mentioned above I too really miss the ride overlays, even if it is just a bit of nice dispatch music. I miss the simplicity of it all - not long ago the mazes were designed to be scary, and elsewhere in the park efforts were made to level the experience up with different music and simple smoke machines etc. Although to be fair the lighting across the park is very good now isn’t it.

Having said that, I’m very aware that the event hasn’t even started yet this year, so who knows, perhaps some of this has been considered and addressed. I look forward to hearing about it!

I hope it’s a successful year for Thorpe this FN, and I’m pleased to see that so many people do seem to love this new style of scare event.
I’m sure it will be well received.

This is a perfect summary of my thoughts as well.

It’s quite an interesting subject really, because now that they’ve chosen to go down this new route of highly themed walkthroughs and dance shows etc I imagine it would be difficult to change course.

The Asylum, Experiment 10 and Cabin in the Woods are examples of excellent Thorpe mazes in my opinion at least - but I imagine they would be poorly received if they “came back” exactly as they were, even if they were still “free” (or included in the event ticket price as I prefer to say!).

I think now people have grown used to what a Thorpe scare maze “is”, and something like Asylum would probably now be seen as lazy, as it had next to no theming and just 2 stock songs playing in the queue, even though it could be an extremely intense experience.

I also wonder if these sort of “more basic” attractions won’t be able to compete now adays due to the need for things to look good for social media etc, especially with Universal a few years away, Thorpe need to have impressive looking attractions I suppose so they can directly compete with HHN.

I expect however, the real reason is that they need to justify the prices they’re charging for a run through, so it needs to look like it’s worth paying for, more so than the need for it to be scary.

As you say Cal, times have changed I suppose.

Had my first ever visit to Gröna Lund last Saturday.

It’s a nice little park, and really impressive how much they’ve managed to cram into such a small space.

Monster is a brilliant little B&M Invert. It’s amazing how well they’ve made it fit in the park - it just looks like it’s always been there. The underground station is really unique, and so is its layout for an invert. That airtime hill completely took me by surprise and was easily the best airtime moment I’ve had on an invert before. It’s silky smooth and definitely sits high on my invert list.

Unfortunately, I got spited by Insane, which didn’t operate all afternoon/evening while I was there. I was particularly looking forward to it since I’ve never had the chance to do a Zac Spin. Not sure why it was closed or how long it’s been down?



As a big drop tower fan, I was really impressed with their lineup - three towers all offering different experiences. Definitely the best drop tower selection I’ve seen at any park, and it makes sense given how limited their space is.



The S&S tower was solid. It starts with the “shot” mode, then slowly takes you to the top for the drop. I like the towers that do both rather than just one or the other.

Ikaros is an Intamin Skyjump, and after doing some research in the queue I learned Falcon’s Fury is the only other one, which I've also ridden. Surprised Intamin hasn’t sold more of these. The views were fantastic, but I found the ride itself pretty forceless. Hard to compare directly to Falcon’s Fury since it’s been 10 years, but I’m pretty sure Ikaros breaks lower down and swings a lot more on its return. Falcon’s still looks more intimidating though.

Fritt Fall was my favorite of the drop towers - an Intamin the same as Apocalypse and Condor. These never fail to deliver and this was no different.

The park also had a nice bar with views over Stockholm. You’re not allowed to leave the bar areas with drinks though so they can “watch” you, which made me laugh.



‘Vilda Musen’ the parks Gerst bobsled is decent, and Twister the gravity group woodie was okay. Smooth and a decent family coaster, but nothing to write home about.

The day ended on an annoying note. The park closed at 10pm, and while I was at the front of a queue for my last ride, the host came down the queue to tell us their boss had said they had to close now and we wouldn’t be able to ride. The time was 21:57. Bit annoying since it was still before 10 and I was already in the queue, but it is what it is. On the way out I also saw them turning people away (already in the queue) for one of the drop towers too.

Its a great compact little park with a great selection of rides, Monster being the obvious standout. Not somewhere I’d rush back to without a good reason to or in the area again, but I enjoyed my time there and do recommend a visit 😃

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!

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!

No difference.

The park run both events on the same day, but it doesn't matter whether you buy a Spooky Days or Fright Nights ticket. You still get access to park from 10am-11pm.
Officially Spooky Days runs till 5-6pm, with HFN starting at 6pm. In practice all that means is the scare zones are friendlier until 5pm, and then scarier after 6pm.

Just as an update, I've just purchased my Halloween attraction tickets for Walibi Holland. The absolute cheapest way of buying tickets for all the Halloween attractions (which consists of 4 mazes, 3 experiences and 2 outdoor walkthrough) costs 116.50euros (just shy over £100). That includes a "before dark" ticket where you have to do 3 mazes and 1 walkthrough before 7pm, which is very tight to do since most open at 5pm.

It is experience, but genuinely I think is worth it.

Walibi Holland (when I last went in 2019) was by far the best Halloween event outright I've done. Their standard mazes are good quality. They excel with their 'experiences' (of which they have 3), which are more intense, smaller groups / alone. Their scare zones, which they have several of, are brilliant, along with whole park atmosphere. It gets CRAZY busy though.

I'm returning there this year for the event. I've had to budget to include ride and maze Fastrack - whilst it's possible to do all the Halloween stuff without extras, you will be rushed off your feet, and will almost definitely not get a chance to do any rides in the dark without it.

I did Traumatica at Europa Park last year. Given it's Europa, the operations leave a lot to be desired (their Fastpass is necessary), and the quality of the mazes is very mixed. Atmosphere is very good though. You need to book in early September to have a chance of getting Fastpass / doing the alone experience.

Linnanmaki have a fun event, but nothing to write home about.


I haven't done any more, but some notable ones...
-Walibi Belgium rebranded their event last year into Ibilaw. The best years of their Halloween event are arguably behind them, but they still do well (the Zombie Bar hasn't been around for a while)
-Spanish parks tend to do great Halloween events, if you can deal with the queues / atmosphere. There's also a very well received scream park, Horrorland
-Liseberg is pretty consistent

This sounds like most of Thorpe's flat ride line up 🫠

Parm Pap translation service:
 
Wait, this one actually makes sense. These must be troubling times.