JoshC.

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.

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.

Glad to see that they've now changed the soundtrack on a lot of the rides for Fright Nights, after not doing it for a number of years. They're in the same/similar voice as the advert for this year.

Unfortunately no change on Stealth or Samurai though, and you can hardly hear it in Colossus' station as its very quiet.

The park is looking amazing in the dark this year. Lots of lighting changes and additional smoke machines making the park look the best it ever has done at night. A lot of Swarms effects have been restored and Infernos mist is pumping.

I love this smoke effect on Colossus.

Streamable
Watch IMG_3720 | Streamable









Hyperia is lit up in red from 7pm, and the lights go off as each train goes down the first drop.





Really not a fan of the music that starts blasting out at 9:20 park wide though, including in the Hyperia queue 🤣

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Watch IMG_3747 | Streamable

Also really not a fan of the new scare zone and just seems like that was added for the sake of adding a new scare attraction. Would love to see another Crows/Towers style scare zone. Why not use the old Blair Witch route from Trailers to the Nemesis Inferno exit like before?

I do get what you mean, and think a lot of people will think the same. I still think its well worth a visit for the general atmosphere and rides in the dark, but I do wonder if people in general will be put off visiting this year as there isn't a new maze?

Will be interesting to see what they do next year to change things up.

The Independent
October is the new summer for these major UK tourist attr...
Halloween thrill-seekers are transforming October into a peak month for theme parks, with Merlin Entertainments revealing the period now rivals August for profitability.
This article is quite interesting and really shows how important Fright Nights is to Thorpe now.

Not sure how accurate it is, but Thorpe makes 46% of its annual profit in October and sees 20% of its yearly visitors in the month.

It also mentions how October visitor numbers surpassed August in 2024.

I actually really disagree on the scare actor sentiment as someone who has done it for about a decade. Imagine being able to have creative freedom to scare how you like, make interesting noises, and be able to try different scares and interactions with different groups. And in between a group, while like 30 seconds, you can have a nice drink of water and get ready for the next group.

HHN has endless people, no creative freedom, jump out, reset, all night, no improvisation. Endless boredom. I also worry it being such a big corporate company would make it less desirable than let's say the nearby Howl, which is run by a pretty tiny company.

I actually think Universal are going to have to make some adaptions, the UK audience are very used to being batched into groups, having unique interactions with guests, and theming is only going to reach so far. Obviously you have IP's, but I don't feel IP's are enough to carry HHN in this country. Even quantity of attractions might be tough, Howl is now on 7 attractions with a live circus to add. I would argue theming in our industry is also actually pretty good now. Stitches for example, or especially Doom Town at Tulleys, which basically has HHN theming without the HHN downsides.

I actually think HHN might start off like Disneyland Paris did, if they assume what they do Stateside will work perfectly in England, they're wrong. But if they adapt to use group batching, and/or give their actors creative freedom, maybe then they will dominate over Howl/Xtreme Scream/FN/Shocktoberfest

.... back open today!

its a interesting quirk of Stealth and a few other coasters like it.

The magnetic brake fins have a couple of brake pads on them so in the event of a rollback the train will stop on the launch track so the train can advance the moment the launch fins are up rather than once the train has cleared the top hat which allows for the ride to operate as quickly as possible.

Source below

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 😃