Marhelorpe

I won't do a huge rambling post like I just did for my blog, but I will say that the Liseberg Halloween event is incredible and I highly recommend it!

All 4 mazes are fab, and a lot of effort has gone into the event. The park is really well decorated, obviously night rides on Helix were a ride based highlight, and Valkyria is fab!

The Experiment was short but crammed in the scares, they also sent me round alone. 8/10

Zombie was longer, loads of actors, looked amazing, and the make up was spot on. Not wheelchair accessible as stated though.
8/10

Smittharden Gasten was the most beautiful maze I've ever been in, and I wish I'd had time to do it again, again lots of actors and lots of scares.
9.5/10

Vinden was a surprise, it included a very big and fast industrial lift, and some of the most impressive animatronics I've seen inside a maze.
9/10

There were also a tonne of actors in both the scare zones, and they really did interact with everyone, even children.

Probably the best event I've been to at a park, loved it.

Normally adding layers of story to the area music wouldn't be that bad, but at Thorpe (and more importantly Amity) where less than a half of all speakers actually still work, having guests have to wait around 15+ minutes to understand why the same music that plays all year round is playing is laughable. Especially in queues like Stealth where only two of the speakers in the plaza actually work.
 
If having a few 'theme park celebrities' (a very loose term - haven't heard of half of them, not sure many of Thorpe Parks target audience have either) is a cheap way of them getting some more guests in, that is laughable. Why not use the Imascore loop created for FN last year, and spend some of the money that was used to create the new loops on the mazes that lack quality or depth. I'm no expert, but Imascore can't be cheap, and it sounds a lot better than a couple of theme park fans creating a dream WWTP playlist. Why not use something for more than a month. 

This is why our Lord Sanbrooke was not invited to FN Press Night - he tells it like is bruv, he called Vulcan out as the worst halloween attraction ever #notimmersive.
 
Just to throw some positivity into the mix - as much as Big Top Showtime is an insult to the iconic Big Top, the kids who were in the Dome when the clowns did their thing did seem to be having a cracking time on Saturday, and I did like the atmosphere. Just don't pee on our mini doughnuts by referring to it as Big Top plz.
 
As I said after press night and has been said now so many times, general consensus is that it totally is quantity over quantity. The cheapness of dividing fences between P15 and Zombie Hunt woods, the black fabric "walls" in (what should be a prestigious IP maze) on Do Or Die - not good enough. Interesting thing is too, as soon as the mazes open at 3pm and 6pm, the biggest queues I've seen at those times are Saw Alive & Blair Witch respectively. And then later on, the biggest queue is at Guest Services after everyone has been on Vulcan Peak

Come on... if you put cheery 60s tracks in the mix that are used on the standard amity track, then people are going to assume its the same BGM or just pure laziness, just like I did as I walked through Amity in 4mins, hearing no FN related stuff at all. This actually ruined the atmosphere for me completely, as BGM plays a massive part in the mood. No one wants Big Bob, its Fright Nights for god sake.
 
You can't be on here defending the track saying "had you listened longer and closer" you would have heard the FN theme. Are you standing outside Thorpe Park telling all the other guests this? I'm not going to hang around for 10mins to hear some Halloween related audio. This just means the sound design is very poor. Just sounds like it's been created as it's something a bunch of fans wanted to do. You should be able to pick out the mood instantly when walking into an area, and the amity track isn't doing this at all, this is like the first thing that should be thought about. Not that you want to recreate more Big Bob indents or include theme park enthusiasts in in the mix. Hey, now it's all available online, for what, ego feeding? what utter rubbish. Why is this even a thing in the UK, I don't see Universal posting their tracks online. 
 
The park was built for 'islands' but everything is such a mash and islands are so close and mixed, with broken speakers and poorly levelled across the park, until this is fixed, adding zoned audio for FN's isn't effective and should have just been one or two park wide tracks, designed allowing the roamers to act along with, and actually make you feel like at 3pm, it's Fright Nights, and not normal TP. Regarding ride audio, you do it all, or non at all. Saying theres more to come, err the event opened last week, it should have been done.
 
 
Why would you theme only 25mins of the track. Why would you put a story into the track, in an area which no one is going to be around to listen, because the mazes are on the other side of the park. It shouldn't depend on what time you get there, it should be there ALL the time.
 
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This has to be the worst Fright Nights ever, everything has been thrown into it to make it the biggest, but it's all shoddy, low class, black walls, poorly designed atmosphere and mazes and then go to the lengths of using enthusiast to produce content across the park, including the vloggers, where I'm 100% sure have been paid to say it's the best Fright Nights ever, when it's the worst. I mean, 2017's top maze couldn't even come back, despite owning everything for it, apart from a tent to put it in. As for Scare zones... what scare zones? Fright Nights 2018 has nose dived. I feel extremely sorry for the Actors who are trying the hardest, as I saw in some mazes, but frankly they are not given the environment to make scares happen. Everything's so open. Instead I found them more of an annoyance, just standing there and then stamping in front of me.

Fright Nights to say the least was interesting. Went to the meet on sunday really good fun thank you. Anyway attraction reviews. First up the Infamous Vulcan Peak. Scare Rating 1/10 Hilarity rating 8/10 I don't know if that's how the maze is meant to run with hands on shoulders. Felt around for a rope for a good half of the maze. I also don't think there were any Actors in the maze... Anyway Platform 15  7/10  This maze last year was really good fun. Still is really good fun some brilliant sections shame about the story change but the final is a big improvement and some fab scares inside the cottage section. Only downside is the uncomfy ground. wear decent shoes to events like these. Dead Creek woods. 7.5/10 this walk through was fun a bit abundant of Actors for the first half but sadly it felt rather short. I would say this was the best scare attraction at this place. It had a simple story line but sometimes that works. then Later on in the maze the Actors where very good with some great scares. Final attraction we experienced was Do or Die. 6/10 this had a very loose storyline. some good moments but most of the time felt like we were being rushed through. came out the end feeling a bit unsatisfied. This event overall was okay the rides in the dark are the highlight this year where as last year the highlight was, yep you guessed it the Big top. One issue I found at this years Frightnights is that it lacked a final big scare with the exception of Platform 15. they seem to put there best scare in the middle of the mazes most notable in Dead creek and Do or Die. so it could use some improvements, A maze with no ending feels like a film with a good beginning fantastic middle but a lacking ending making the overall film not that good or talked about because the ending is the last thing you remember after leaving the cinema. Also one thing to note is the Audio around the park is good although a little quite in areas notably in the center of Amity. The themed audio on rides like Colossus Stealth and Nemesis Inferno really stood out, Another great part of this years event is Inferno's queue line music with the chanting and deep jungle cannibalistic ambiance. Big Top Showtime was doing its thing scaring all the kids in the dome. Overall sad to say it but this year could use improvement and in my experience is the worst Fright Nights I have experienced. Hopefully they can improve for next year. Time will tell.

Couldn’t say it any better myself ?

- Fan boys ‘designing’ audio for Thorpe Park’s Fright Nights and then watching the forums for comments and getting all defensive because nobody really understands the complete lack of artistic or creative design. “Woo cameos from the theme park community - intense!”
 
- Flashing, multicoloured LED park wide  lighting with no design or thought whatsoever 
 
- Significant lack of maze design, coherent theme and complete lack of quality
 
- No Big Top
 
- A non-show in the Dome where actors chase guests to some music because the competency to build the maze was no longer available 
 
- Another laughable, confused, messy marketing “campaign”
 
- Black walled mazes (oh, they almost left Fright Nights)
 
- Vulcan Peak
 
 
Goodbye Fright Nights. 

As I said in my review for FN, I loved some of the new audio like Infernos and Colossus' station. Great atmosphere in both the stations.
 
I wasn't a fan of Amitys myself but admittedly have not listened to the 'story' I've only heard parts of it when walking around the area, which sounded the exact same as normal. 
 
Park audio is played way to quiet in places and there are so many dead speakers which just kill the atmosphere for me. Detonator for example, used to be able to hear the audio of Detonator from the top of the inferno queue by the station very clearly, now you can hardly even hear it next to the ride.
 
There are also soo many rides without FN audio, which again just killed the atmosphere. Why couldn't old FN audio be used for the rides which didn't have time for new audio? Even the director one would be better than them playing their regular audio.

Alright, I have now had two visits to this year's Fright Nights, the first on the preview night and the second last Saturday (13th October) and have finally tried almost the entire lineup minus Fanta's Twisted Carnival and the Screamplexx Cinema. I said a few weeks ago I predicted this was going to be the worst Fright Nights ever and 2 weeks later, I still stand by that statement as the entire thing has become a former shadow of itself and quite honestly, a joke. How can an event reach such a low after having some fantastic years and attractions in the past? Everything this year screams "quantity above quality" around every corner now where the mazes themselves were average at the very best, the audio management was incredibly inconsistent, the park lighting looks horrendous and there was virtually no atmosphere at night anywhere across the park.
 
Here are my mini reviews for each of the attractions Fright Nights have this year which I've tried. These are my honest thoughts and I'm not holding back exactly what went through my mind when experiencing each of them. Spoiler tags used not to hide what happens, but to reduce the size of this post as I've got a few things to say about this year other than the mazes:
 
Saw Alive: 4/10
 
Platform 15: 4/10
 
Dead Creek Woods: 3/10
 
Living Nightmare: 3/10
 
Blair Witch: 3/10
 
Sanctum Do or Die: 2/10
 
The Big Top: Showtime: 2/10
 
Vulcan Peak: 0.00000000001/10
 
So yeah, as you can see from the above reviews, all of the mazes were awful this year with some being so bad it makes 2010's Dead End Terror Zone look scary. As for other parts of the event, the park lighting this year was absolutely horrendous with bright white lighting everywhere across the park from Inferno, to Old Town, Dead Creek Wood's entrance where you can't read the flipping sign and Stealth. There were temporary lights installed in a few places, but unlike last year's nicely coloured stencil-shaded ones, these were all multi-colour changing LEDs going through all colours of the rainbow, similar to those approaching Swarm's area. It looked horrendous, and the ones used across the bridge were even worse, reminding me of the inside of X. Since when were disco lights associated with Halloween?!
 
As for the audio, I was optimistic about this year after hearing some of the preview clips found online from Nick Hutson as I was hoping we would see each and every ride having their own theme like it used to be when Midnight Syndicate ruled the park. Whilst some rides sounded great, Colossus' station especially which was my favourite, I noticed it was only some the coasters which had theme changes, no other rides across the park had them, so every single flat ride like Rush, Samurai, Vortex etc were playing their regular themes all day and night. As for Amity Cove's playlist across Tidal Wave and Stealth, it sounded identical to the regular one and did not work well at all in my opinion, especially at night. I understand the intentions behind why a FN dedicated playlist was made, but it failed in my view. I could also hear the director voice overs a few times across the park too in a few places. Why is he still being played across a Walking Dead themed Halloween event?
 
I keep on stressing this every year but Thorpe, for goodness sake, can you just bring back the Midnight Syndicate tracks used in 2007-2009 when the whole park used to sound amazing at night? This was what made you stand out from Alton and Chessington years ago during Halloween. Give every ride and area a consistent audio track to play, play themed announcements once again and less manual ones, only use the linked park-wide audio system for opening/closing nothing else and most of all, sort the damn system out. There are so many inconsistencies across the park with the audio this year that it's a joke. Are you all-in with regular audio like in 2010, or all-in with Fright Nights audio like in 2007-2009 Thorpe? Make your mind up.
 
Last comment to make is the park-wide theming. It's nice to see it in some areas like the entrance, Saw and Swarm but again, it is still not at the levels this event once used to be a while ago and likely never will. Just hoping one year we can see park theming being a priority for this park once again, but realise it's never gonna happen. Won't stop me calling them out on it every year though.
 
Last year, I wrote these comments for 2017's Fright Nights:
It took a lot for me to attend this year's event as I was adamant about not going after the poor experience I had last time, but decided to give it a try anyway in the vain hope something has improved, but no. Nothing this year is better than last year and has solidified my opinion about this event - I'm done with it. I'm honestly done. I cannot cope with seeing what this event has now become after knowing and experiencing it during a different era in the late 2000's when it used to be a fantastic event. Back then, the event and park used to pride itself as being one of the best, if not the best Halloween attraction in the country, but now it's just a commercialised piece of rubbish where sticking a famous IP on the name with poor marketing saying there are "6 new attractions" and making each and every maze a botch job seems to be enough to please guests these days just to they can get a few cheap scares. What happened to originality, dedication, imagination and effort?
 
It's now become painfully obvious that whilst Merlin and Thorpe are capable of turning out a product for guests at this park, they are not capable of turning out a product that is well done anymore. The fit and finish this event once had is now dead and is just a distant memory for those that remember and indeed experienced it during that time. I've given Thorpe 5 years now ever since the Lionsgate takeover in 2013 to get their act together with this event and whilst during that time a few little gems like Big Top and Cabin in the Woods were made, the rest of the other attractions made ever since that year have frankly sucked and none of them have ever reached the levels of Asylum, Experiment 10, Se7en, Hellgate and even The Curse. The focus of this event between 2013-2017 was all about the IP and the mazes nothing else, so audio, park theming, lighting and other factors started to degrade gradually, but 2018 has shown the park don't seem to give a damn about the quality of their mazes anymore either. It feels as though they believe only putting an IP on their product and having the biggest number of attractions is enough for guests to be happy these days, when in truth, it is not.
 
I've documented problems this event has had over the last few years in posts on this forum and are honestly tired of talking about it now by repeating the same things over and over again constantly, because it seems to be an endless battle I am fighting for here. I genuinely really want this event to be brilliant for all guests, so new ones can experience the delights and thrills of what this park is capable of during Halloween for those of us that remember how amazing this event used to be, but cannot do that right now. People deserve a great product when they are forking out good amounts of money to attend this event and currently, they are not.
 
Understandably, I know I rail on against Merlin and Thorpe an awful lot on this forum and are probably boring many readers with it by now, but want to establish I am not a hater and are not "bitching" for the sake of "bitching". I say these things because I care and believe people deserve a better product from the park, whether they know it or not and I want people to speak up about problems they are seeing or experiencing to let the park know when something isn't right. I commend the reviewers above for voicing their concerns about this year's FN and encourage others thinking similar to do so as well, as this year is an embarrassment on many proportions.

They are leaving Rumba Rapids empty of water for 2019, adding a rope to the side and re-opening it as a year-wide "Vulcan Peak II" due to the resounding success of the groundbreaking, immersive maze "Vulcan Peak".
 
Source: Lord Sanbrooke

Alright, I have now had two visits to this year's Fright Nights, the first on the preview night and the second last Saturday (13th October) and have finally tried almost the entire lineup minus Fanta's Twisted Carnival and the Screamplexx Cinema. I said a few weeks ago I predicted this was going to be the worst Fright Nights ever and 2 weeks later, I still stand by that statement as the entire thing has become a former shadow of itself and quite honestly, a joke. How can an event reach such a low after having some fantastic years and attractions in the past? Everything this year screams "quantity above quality" around every corner now where the mazes themselves were average at the very best, the audio management was incredibly inconsistent, the park lighting looks horrendous and there was virtually no atmosphere at night anywhere across the park.
 
Here are my mini reviews for each of the attractions Fright Nights have this year which I've tried. These are my honest thoughts and I'm not holding back exactly what went through my mind when experiencing each of them. Spoiler tags used not to hide what happens, but to reduce the size of this post as I've got a few things to say about this year other than the mazes:
 
Saw Alive: 4/10
 
Platform 15: 4/10
 
Dead Creek Woods: 3/10
 
Living Nightmare: 3/10
 
Blair Witch: 3/10
 
Sanctum Do or Die: 2/10
 
The Big Top: Showtime: 2/10
 
Vulcan Peak: 0.00000000001/10
 
So yeah, as you can see from the above reviews, all of the mazes were awful this year with some being so bad it makes 2010's Dead End Terror Zone look scary. As for other parts of the event, the park lighting this year was absolutely horrendous with bright white lighting everywhere across the park from Inferno, to Old Town, Dead Creek Wood's entrance where you can't read the flipping sign and Stealth. There were temporary lights installed in a few places, but unlike last year's nicely coloured stencil-shaded ones, these were all multi-colour changing LEDs going through all colours of the rainbow, similar to those approaching Swarm's area. It looked horrendous, and the ones used across the bridge were even worse, reminding me of the inside of X. Since when were disco lights associated with Halloween?!
 
As for the audio, I was optimistic about this year after hearing some of the preview clips found online from Nick Hutson as I was hoping we would see each and every ride having their own theme like it used to be when Midnight Syndicate ruled the park. Whilst some rides sounded great, Colossus' station especially which was my favourite, I noticed it was only some the coasters which had theme changes, no other rides across the park had them, so every single flat ride like Rush, Samurai, Vortex etc were playing their regular themes all day and night. As for Amity Cove's playlist across Tidal Wave and Stealth, it sounded identical to the regular one and did not work well at all in my opinion, especially at night. I understand the intentions behind why a FN dedicated playlist was made, but it failed in my view. I could also hear the director voice overs a few times across the park too in a few places. Why is he still being played across a Walking Dead themed Halloween event?
 
I keep on stressing this every year but Thorpe, for goodness sake, can you just bring back the Midnight Syndicate tracks used in 2007-2009 when the whole park used to sound amazing at night? This was what made you stand out from Alton and Chessington years ago during Halloween. Give every ride and area a consistent audio track to play, play themed announcements once again and less manual ones, only use the linked park-wide audio system for opening/closing nothing else and most of all, sort the damn system out. There are so many inconsistencies across the park with the audio this year that it's a joke. Are you all-in with regular audio like in 2010, or all-in with Fright Nights audio like in 2007-2009 Thorpe? Make your mind up.
 
Last comment to make is the park-wide theming. It's nice to see it in some areas like the entrance, Saw and Swarm but again, it is still not at the levels this event once used to be a while ago and likely never will. Just hoping one year we can see park theming being a priority for this park once again, but realise it's never gonna happen. Won't stop me calling them out on it every year though.
 
Last year, I wrote these comments for 2017's Fright Nights:
It took a lot for me to attend this year's event as I was adamant about not going after the poor experience I had last time, but decided to give it a try anyway in the vain hope something has improved, but no. Nothing this year is better than last year and has solidified my opinion about this event - I'm done with it. I'm honestly done. I cannot cope with seeing what this event has now become after knowing and experiencing it during a different era in the late 2000's when it used to be a fantastic event. Back then, the event and park used to pride itself as being one of the best, if not the best Halloween attraction in the country, but now it's just a commercialised piece of rubbish where sticking a famous IP on the name with poor marketing saying there are "6 new attractions" and making each and every maze a botch job seems to be enough to please guests these days just to they can get a few cheap scares. What happened to originality, dedication, imagination and effort?
 
It's now become painfully obvious that whilst Merlin and Thorpe are capable of turning out a product for guests at this park, they are not capable of turning out a product that is well done anymore. The fit and finish this event once had is now dead and is just a distant memory for those that remember and indeed experienced it during that time. I've given Thorpe 5 years now ever since the Lionsgate takeover in 2013 to get their act together with this event and whilst during that time a few little gems like Big Top and Cabin in the Woods were made, the rest of the other attractions made ever since that year have frankly sucked and none of them have ever reached the levels of Asylum, Experiment 10, Se7en, Hellgate and even The Curse. The focus of this event between 2013-2017 was all about the IP and the mazes nothing else, so audio, park theming, lighting and other factors started to degrade gradually, but 2018 has shown the park don't seem to give a damn about the quality of their mazes anymore either. It feels as though they believe only putting an IP on their product and having the biggest number of attractions is enough for guests to be happy these days, when in truth, it is not.
 
I've documented problems this event has had over the last few years in posts on this forum and are honestly tired of talking about it now by repeating the same things over and over again constantly, because it seems to be an endless battle I am fighting for here. I genuinely really want this event to be brilliant for all guests, so new ones can experience the delights and thrills of what this park is capable of during Halloween for those of us that remember how amazing this event used to be, but cannot do that right now. People deserve a great product when they are forking out good amounts of money to attend this event and currently, they are not.
 
Understandably, I know I rail on against Merlin and Thorpe an awful lot on this forum and are probably boring many readers with it by now, but want to establish I am not a hater and are not "bitching" for the sake of "bitching". I say these things because I care and believe people deserve a better product from the park, whether they know it or not and I want people to speak up about problems they are seeing or experiencing to let the park know when something isn't right. I commend the reviewers above for voicing their concerns about this year's FN and encourage others thinking similar to do so as well, as this year is an embarrassment on many proportions.

Alright, I have now had two visits to this year's Fright Nights, the first on the preview night and the second last Saturday (13th October) and have finally tried almost the entire lineup minus Fanta's Twisted Carnival and the Screamplexx Cinema. I said a few weeks ago I predicted this was going to be the worst Fright Nights ever and 2 weeks later, I still stand by that statement as the entire thing has become a former shadow of itself and quite honestly, a joke. How can an event reach such a low after having some fantastic years and attractions in the past? Everything this year screams "quantity above quality" around every corner now where the mazes themselves were average at the very best, the audio management was incredibly inconsistent, the park lighting looks horrendous and there was virtually no atmosphere at night anywhere across the park.
 
Here are my mini reviews for each of the attractions Fright Nights have this year which I've tried. These are my honest thoughts and I'm not holding back exactly what went through my mind when experiencing each of them. Spoiler tags used not to hide what happens, but to reduce the size of this post as I've got a few things to say about this year other than the mazes:
 
Saw Alive: 4/10
 
Platform 15: 4/10
 
Dead Creek Woods: 3/10
 
Living Nightmare: 3/10
 
Blair Witch: 3/10
 
Sanctum Do or Die: 2/10
 
The Big Top: Showtime: 2/10
 
Vulcan Peak: 0.00000000001/10
 
So yeah, as you can see from the above reviews, all of the mazes were awful this year with some being so bad it makes 2010's Dead End Terror Zone look scary. As for other parts of the event, the park lighting this year was absolutely horrendous with bright white lighting everywhere across the park from Inferno, to Old Town, Dead Creek Wood's entrance where you can't read the flipping sign and Stealth. There were temporary lights installed in a few places, but unlike last year's nicely coloured stencil-shaded ones, these were all multi-colour changing LEDs going through all colours of the rainbow, similar to those approaching Swarm's area. It looked horrendous, and the ones used across the bridge were even worse, reminding me of the inside of X. Since when were disco lights associated with Halloween?!
 
As for the audio, I was optimistic about this year after hearing some of the preview clips found online from Nick Hutson as I was hoping we would see each and every ride having their own theme like it used to be when Midnight Syndicate ruled the park. Whilst some rides sounded great, Colossus' station especially which was my favourite, I noticed it was only some the coasters which had theme changes, no other rides across the park had them, so every single flat ride like Rush, Samurai, Vortex etc were playing their regular themes all day and night. As for Amity Cove's playlist across Tidal Wave and Stealth, it sounded identical to the regular one and did not work well at all in my opinion, especially at night. I understand the intentions behind why a FN dedicated playlist was made, but it failed in my view. I could also hear the director voice overs a few times across the park too in a few places. Why is he still being played across a Walking Dead themed Halloween event?
 
I keep on stressing this every year but Thorpe, for goodness sake, can you just bring back the Midnight Syndicate tracks used in 2007-2009 when the whole park used to sound amazing at night? This was what made you stand out from Alton and Chessington years ago during Halloween. Give every ride and area a consistent audio track to play, play themed announcements once again and less manual ones, only use the linked park-wide audio system for opening/closing nothing else and most of all, sort the damn system out. There are so many inconsistencies across the park with the audio this year that it's a joke. Are you all-in with regular audio like in 2010, or all-in with Fright Nights audio like in 2007-2009 Thorpe? Make your mind up.
 
Last comment to make is the park-wide theming. It's nice to see it in some areas like the entrance, Saw and Swarm but again, it is still not at the levels this event once used to be a while ago and likely never will. Just hoping one year we can see park theming being a priority for this park once again, but realise it's never gonna happen. Won't stop me calling them out on it every year though.
 
Last year, I wrote these comments for 2017's Fright Nights:
It took a lot for me to attend this year's event as I was adamant about not going after the poor experience I had last time, but decided to give it a try anyway in the vain hope something has improved, but no. Nothing this year is better than last year and has solidified my opinion about this event - I'm done with it. I'm honestly done. I cannot cope with seeing what this event has now become after knowing and experiencing it during a different era in the late 2000's when it used to be a fantastic event. Back then, the event and park used to pride itself as being one of the best, if not the best Halloween attraction in the country, but now it's just a commercialised piece of rubbish where sticking a famous IP on the name with poor marketing saying there are "6 new attractions" and making each and every maze a botch job seems to be enough to please guests these days just to they can get a few cheap scares. What happened to originality, dedication, imagination and effort?
 
It's now become painfully obvious that whilst Merlin and Thorpe are capable of turning out a product for guests at this park, they are not capable of turning out a product that is well done anymore. The fit and finish this event once had is now dead and is just a distant memory for those that remember and indeed experienced it during that time. I've given Thorpe 5 years now ever since the Lionsgate takeover in 2013 to get their act together with this event and whilst during that time a few little gems like Big Top and Cabin in the Woods were made, the rest of the other attractions made ever since that year have frankly sucked and none of them have ever reached the levels of Asylum, Experiment 10, Se7en, Hellgate and even The Curse. The focus of this event between 2013-2017 was all about the IP and the mazes nothing else, so audio, park theming, lighting and other factors started to degrade gradually, but 2018 has shown the park don't seem to give a damn about the quality of their mazes anymore either. It feels as though they believe only putting an IP on their product and having the biggest number of attractions is enough for guests to be happy these days, when in truth, it is not.
 
I've documented problems this event has had over the last few years in posts on this forum and are honestly tired of talking about it now by repeating the same things over and over again constantly, because it seems to be an endless battle I am fighting for here. I genuinely really want this event to be brilliant for all guests, so new ones can experience the delights and thrills of what this park is capable of during Halloween for those of us that remember how amazing this event used to be, but cannot do that right now. People deserve a great product when they are forking out good amounts of money to attend this event and currently, they are not.
 
Understandably, I know I rail on against Merlin and Thorpe an awful lot on this forum and are probably boring many readers with it by now, but want to establish I am not a hater and are not "bitching" for the sake of "bitching". I say these things because I care and believe people deserve a better product from the park, whether they know it or not and I want people to speak up about problems they are seeing or experiencing to let the park know when something isn't right. I commend the reviewers above for voicing their concerns about this year's FN and encourage others thinking similar to do so as well, as this year is an embarrassment on many proportions.

Alright, I have now had two visits to this year's Fright Nights, the first on the preview night and the second last Saturday (13th October) and have finally tried almost the entire lineup minus Fanta's Twisted Carnival and the Screamplexx Cinema. I said a few weeks ago I predicted this was going to be the worst Fright Nights ever and 2 weeks later, I still stand by that statement as the entire thing has become a former shadow of itself and quite honestly, a joke. How can an event reach such a low after having some fantastic years and attractions in the past? Everything this year screams "quantity above quality" around every corner now where the mazes themselves were average at the very best, the audio management was incredibly inconsistent, the park lighting looks horrendous and there was virtually no atmosphere at night anywhere across the park.
 
Here are my mini reviews for each of the attractions Fright Nights have this year which I've tried. These are my honest thoughts and I'm not holding back exactly what went through my mind when experiencing each of them. Spoiler tags used not to hide what happens, but to reduce the size of this post as I've got a few things to say about this year other than the mazes:
 
Saw Alive: 4/10
 
Platform 15: 4/10
 
Dead Creek Woods: 3/10
 
Living Nightmare: 3/10
 
Blair Witch: 3/10
 
Sanctum Do or Die: 2/10
 
The Big Top: Showtime: 2/10
 
Vulcan Peak: 0.00000000001/10
 
So yeah, as you can see from the above reviews, all of the mazes were awful this year with some being so bad it makes 2010's Dead End Terror Zone look scary. As for other parts of the event, the park lighting this year was absolutely horrendous with bright white lighting everywhere across the park from Inferno, to Old Town, Dead Creek Wood's entrance where you can't read the flipping sign and Stealth. There were temporary lights installed in a few places, but unlike last year's nicely coloured stencil-shaded ones, these were all multi-colour changing LEDs going through all colours of the rainbow, similar to those approaching Swarm's area. It looked horrendous, and the ones used across the bridge were even worse, reminding me of the inside of X. Since when were disco lights associated with Halloween?!
 
As for the audio, I was optimistic about this year after hearing some of the preview clips found online from Nick Hutson as I was hoping we would see each and every ride having their own theme like it used to be when Midnight Syndicate ruled the park. Whilst some rides sounded great, Colossus' station especially which was my favourite, I noticed it was only some the coasters which had theme changes, no other rides across the park had them, so every single flat ride like Rush, Samurai, Vortex etc were playing their regular themes all day and night. As for Amity Cove's playlist across Tidal Wave and Stealth, it sounded identical to the regular one and did not work well at all in my opinion, especially at night. I understand the intentions behind why a FN dedicated playlist was made, but it failed in my view. I could also hear the director voice overs a few times across the park too in a few places. Why is he still being played across a Walking Dead themed Halloween event?
 
I keep on stressing this every year but Thorpe, for goodness sake, can you just bring back the Midnight Syndicate tracks used in 2007-2009 when the whole park used to sound amazing at night? This was what made you stand out from Alton and Chessington years ago during Halloween. Give every ride and area a consistent audio track to play, play themed announcements once again and less manual ones, only use the linked park-wide audio system for opening/closing nothing else and most of all, sort the damn system out. There are so many inconsistencies across the park with the audio this year that it's a joke. Are you all-in with regular audio like in 2010, or all-in with Fright Nights audio like in 2007-2009 Thorpe? Make your mind up.
 
Last comment to make is the park-wide theming. It's nice to see it in some areas like the entrance, Saw and Swarm but again, it is still not at the levels this event once used to be a while ago and likely never will. Just hoping one year we can see park theming being a priority for this park once again, but realise it's never gonna happen. Won't stop me calling them out on it every year though.
 
Last year, I wrote these comments for 2017's Fright Nights:
It took a lot for me to attend this year's event as I was adamant about not going after the poor experience I had last time, but decided to give it a try anyway in the vain hope something has improved, but no. Nothing this year is better than last year and has solidified my opinion about this event - I'm done with it. I'm honestly done. I cannot cope with seeing what this event has now become after knowing and experiencing it during a different era in the late 2000's when it used to be a fantastic event. Back then, the event and park used to pride itself as being one of the best, if not the best Halloween attraction in the country, but now it's just a commercialised piece of rubbish where sticking a famous IP on the name with poor marketing saying there are "6 new attractions" and making each and every maze a botch job seems to be enough to please guests these days just to they can get a few cheap scares. What happened to originality, dedication, imagination and effort?
 
It's now become painfully obvious that whilst Merlin and Thorpe are capable of turning out a product for guests at this park, they are not capable of turning out a product that is well done anymore. The fit and finish this event once had is now dead and is just a distant memory for those that remember and indeed experienced it during that time. I've given Thorpe 5 years now ever since the Lionsgate takeover in 2013 to get their act together with this event and whilst during that time a few little gems like Big Top and Cabin in the Woods were made, the rest of the other attractions made ever since that year have frankly sucked and none of them have ever reached the levels of Asylum, Experiment 10, Se7en, Hellgate and even The Curse. The focus of this event between 2013-2017 was all about the IP and the mazes nothing else, so audio, park theming, lighting and other factors started to degrade gradually, but 2018 has shown the park don't seem to give a damn about the quality of their mazes anymore either. It feels as though they believe only putting an IP on their product and having the biggest number of attractions is enough for guests to be happy these days, when in truth, it is not.
 
I've documented problems this event has had over the last few years in posts on this forum and are honestly tired of talking about it now by repeating the same things over and over again constantly, because it seems to be an endless battle I am fighting for here. I genuinely really want this event to be brilliant for all guests, so new ones can experience the delights and thrills of what this park is capable of during Halloween for those of us that remember how amazing this event used to be, but cannot do that right now. People deserve a great product when they are forking out good amounts of money to attend this event and currently, they are not.
 
Understandably, I know I rail on against Merlin and Thorpe an awful lot on this forum and are probably boring many readers with it by now, but want to establish I am not a hater and are not "bitching" for the sake of "bitching". I say these things because I care and believe people deserve a better product from the park, whether they know it or not and I want people to speak up about problems they are seeing or experiencing to let the park know when something isn't right. I commend the reviewers above for voicing their concerns about this year's FN and encourage others thinking similar to do so as well, as this year is an embarrassment on many proportions.

Long time since I've posted here sadly, but I've just got home from Thorpe Park and my god... I feel the need to post here after reading other people's experiences.
 
To be fair on the park, at around 3pm hundreds upon hundreds of travellers arrived and the park and caused a bit of a stir, however security and police were very good as keeping things as orderly as possible. It was clear that all the staff were getting progressively more agitated throughout the afternoon and evening, but to be honest, I don't blame them for a second. I visited Fright Night from 2010 to 2015, and today in 2018, and this year is by far the worst. It's a shame as it's an event me and my friends have always felt close to, and we loyally attended for years. But sadly this year there was just no magic.
 
Do or Die was a travesty. Very unfinished and I spent most of the run through cringing and just feeling pretty uncomfortable. Saw Alive was decent. I've never been a fan, however the actors seemed to try a little harder than they have done during previous visits. As for Dead Creek Woods, I'm assuming this was a joke? It was just a path with some toilets on the ground.
 
Living Nightmare I actually enjoyed. We did two runs through, the first being superior. Theming was good, good enough that it made the other mazes actually feel quite sad to walk through. One thing I did notice was the use of a microphone in the first scene with the headlights. Being able to hear the actress speak clearly without her having to shout made it appear far more polished and professional in my opinion, something I wish they would utilise more often.
 
Platform 15 is laughable. I'd never done it before today, and will never do it again. It's just a tunnel of nothing. Oh, and Vulcan Peak doesn't deserve a review.
 
I will say however that the roaming actors and the performers in the Dome were fantastic on my visit today. They were all so enthusiastic and seemed up for a laugh, definitely a highlight of the day for me. It's really a shame. Like I said earlier, I used to be so loyal to this event. But after this year, I just don't think I can bring myself to go anytime in the foreseeable future, which sucks because I've had so many fantastic experiences at FN. So yeah, just thought I'd put my two cents in.

Vulcan Peak.
I’m going to write a review of this as I have never laughed so hard in (or at) a maze before (Fright Night meet yesterday).
 
The queueline wasn’t too bad, it was 40 minutes or so but the walls outside were lined with some neat looking wheat, forgetting the cheap looking plastic human hearts that seemed to have faces hanging in the bushes.
At the end of the queue, our group were guided by an attendant (TP staff) to stand outside the ‘entrance’ (a standard fire exit) where we were given a speech to “never take our hats off in the maze”, then we were left there. After about 3 minutes still standing there waiting, the attendant came back round the bend in pure horror shouting directly at us “Didn’t I tell you to move?? Go inside I said!!”. Did we miss something?! 
So we sat down in a room already filled with other people sitting down watching a screen and a TP staff handed us small bags that were inside-out, mine had foundation smears and marks showing on it. Once the film finished people walked towards the first corridor. There was no mention of putting the bags on our heads and I noticed at least 5 bags still laying on the seats behind where some people had left them! It wasn’t particularly dark and there was no instruction of what was going on, we just followed the crowd. It became apparent that this must be the actual maze now so some people put on the bags, but the theming of IAC could be seen clearly and the bags weren’t even needed. The only “scary” part of the walk was the slightly uneven flooring. We kept stopping due to congestion ahead and the atmosphere was ruined dreadfully, we were just walking through a leafy corridor. No actors, forgettable sounds, and the lighting was still bright enough to see everything without the hood.
After a few meters, we came to a tiny corridor/room with a cheap, bright white strobe light that was dreadfully placed and was lighting up the ugly ceiling, wires, and goodness knows what. We were stuck in this room for a couple of minutes just standing there due to some serious hold up and eventually the next group caught up too, causing a jam. I don’t even remember any sound at that point (was there even any??), I was laughing too hard at the ridiculousness of it all. Then, a member of staff just came finally and roughly ripped the hoods off of our heads, pulling some of my hair!! When we finally started moving again, we entered another corridor with a half deflated blow-up tight passage, and then.... the Inferno shop. 
 
That was it. It was just the most dreadful, disorganised, least atmospheric maze ever that was so bad, it was almost good. I for one could not get over the ridiculousness of it, I laughed so unbelievably hard my stomach hurt and it became a highlight. Later, the unknowing queue was coming out the entrance and slithering about 30 steps further... I’m not sure if they had as much fun as I did!!
 

My thoughts based on this evening unfortunately echo the above, parkwide atmosphere felt poor (apart from some decent audio in places) with flood lights completely killing the atmosphere, no attempt made to disguise mazes from the queuelines, the entire event felt very rushed, last minute and lazy.
 
Dead Creek Woods
A few actors here and there doing a decent job, not much in the way in the theming aside from some old toilets.  Ehh.  1/10
 
Vulcan Peak
What.  The.  Hell.  This has to be the laziest most poorly executed scare attraction I've ever come across, there were no actors (apart from a Thorpe Park staff member holding some noisy box thing) and it was just generally an uneventful walk through IAC without being able to see the theming.  1/10
 
Blair Witch
Much shorter than previous years, and lit up far too much meaning that the previous ambience and element of surprise was completely lost. 2/10
 
Platform 15
Sadly we were ushered through the first section without being told any of the storyline, the only dialogue we got from the actor was "stay together" - extremely poor when in previous years there's been the storyline told, a short walk followed by another stop before completing the rest of the maze.  A few actors in the last section, house section was still good. 3/10
 
Living Nightmare
Some nice theming but felt very dull and not many actors, the ending seemed to not work properly (it was clear the actor went to try to set something off, but alas nothing happened). 3/10
 
Walking Dead Do or Die
If the brief was to use the shipping containers from MBV/E10 but strip the theming out first, they're onto a winner.  The section where you were forced to push through the hanging meat was well executed and there were some decent props here and there, but overall it felt very lazy with the majority of the maze being made up of black hanging cloths and floodlights illuminating everything way before you approached. Also what is "do or die" actually referring to?  What does it mean? 3/10
 
 
Sadly I'd have to say it's probably the worst year I can remember, we're talking about an event that has produced gems such as Asylum, E10, Cabin and Big Top (the latter version) yet this year felt like the laziest most ill-thought out scare event ever.  Everything feels like it's been done on a shoe-string budget with no effort put into making sure actors know their lines, awfully "thin" sets and just a general lack of care.  How have standards been allowed to fall this far?
 
On a completely separate note it was also a shame that night rides weren't possible as almost everything was closed for the majority of the evening due to weather; this also created a backlog of people meaning the maze queues were much longer than they would have otherwise been.
 
Didn't get time to do Saw Alive unfortunately.

So I went to Fright Nights last Sunday, having been going to Fright Nights every year now since 2012 I must say this is the worst one I have experienced. It's been said loads, but its very clear Thorpe went for quantity over quality and it does really show, and is such a shame as I'm sure most people would agree but would just prefer 4 or 5 high-quality mazes than this. Hopefully, the event is completely revamped next year as it really needs it. 
 
First of all I must say, I stayed at the Shark Hotel and was very very good value. Was £110 for 2 of us, bearing in mind I didn't buy an annual pass this year it included park tickets, car parking, containment, breakfast the following morning, and they even gave us unlimited fast track all day for rides and mazes!? The fast track alone is worth £300 (£150pp.) 
 
Park atmosphere felt very dead this year, I liked the sound of some of the new audio but it's either just played way too quietly or speakers are broken so in some places it can hardly be heard, some rides not even playing any music at all? 
 
Walking dead Do or Die - Yes it was better than last year, and I liked how you went inside the shipping containers this year but it just didn't feel complete? Parts of this was really good and parts of it are just lazy. A shame as this attraction has high potential.
 
Walking dead living nightmare - Pretty much the exact same as last year for me, dislike this maze as although the theming is good its just too short and just lacks scares. Still don't know what's going on with the ending but its awful? 

Dead creek woods - Don't know why some people have rated this highly? Just a walk through the woods with some old toilets used as themeing, lacks scares as actors have nowhere to hide? Worst out of all of them for me. Oh actually haven't got to Vulcan peak yet ?
 
Vulcan peak - Don't really need to give my opinion on this but worst fright night maze I've experienced to date. Don't know how they get away with calling this a scare attraction, just a walk through IAC with a bag on your head and 1 or 2 Thorpe park staff standing there with a feather to try and scare you. No atmosphere at all as way too light in there and there's annoying music/ announcements the whole time.
 
Saw - Same as every other year, I've never been a fan of Saw but was one of my favourites this year.
 
Blair witch - Not much happened and was way too short.
 
Platform 15 - Although I prefer last years version of Platform, purely because of the storey and the ending, this was my favourite maze of the night. The ending was really poor, should've kept it the same. Apart from that though not a lot has changed since last year (not a bad thing), could have done with some more actors in the tunnel as there seemed to be quite a few more last year. The mid house section is still very good.
 
Big top showtime - Was actually pleasantly surprised by this, yes it wasn't a show but I liked the idea and it worked quite well, was nice to still have clowns at the park. Just sad hearing the big top music and seeing such good actors wasted running around the dome when they could be in the big top maze
 
Terror at Amity High - About 4 actors standing around chatting with each other/security around Stealth. This is not a scare zone. Didn't even try to be scary? 
 
It was lovely to speak with some of the management and owners of Tulleys, look forward to experiencing their event this year to see what's changed
 
It's such a shame to see Fright Nights just get worse and worse, and other events like Tulleys and Scarefest get better and better. To think this used to be one of my favourite events and have made such high-quality scare attractions such as Big top, experiment 10, asylum, cabin in the woods its a shame to see the event fall apart. 

I need to voice my honest opinion. This year's Fright Nights is the worst I've ever been to. Compared to last year, which in my opinion was damn near the best year of Fright Nights in the now 5 years I've been visiting for, this year is shocking. I've tried to squeeze as many positive aspects out of this year's event but the truth is there simply isn't many.
A positive to start: Platform 15 is genuinely great. In my opinion it's the best it's ever been. The cast are fantastic, set is fantastic, even the tunnel is scary this year. 
I have to say as well, I have had some great runs in Blair Witch too. Admittedly this has definitely been more hit and miss and yes, it is VERY short. But as a maze in general, it's okay. This is where most of the positives end for me. 
Zombie Hu... I mean Dead Creek Woods. It's lazy. It's there just to say it's the park's biggest lineup ever. Quantity over quality is a phrase said many times in this thread and for good reason. There's no set, there's... nothing. The cast are great and are trying their best to make a poor maze the best they can, but you simply cannot fix a poor maze, no matter how good the cast is.
Saw Alive is Saw Alive. I don't mind it, the theming is fantastic. I don't find it particularly scary and I've done it so many times at this point it's just boring.
Living Nightmare is Living Nightmare. The extreme version was terrifying, and the maze really should be running at that intensity. Obviously not with the amount of actors it had during the extreme run, that's not possible. It's short, Negan has gone and walkers just are not scary. The sets are brilliant but that's about the only redeeming quality.
Do or Die. It's worse than Sanctum. I'm sorry, but it is. Sanctum was bad, but it was funny! The cast threw in some brilliant improv dialogue that made the maze just great fun to go in, as bad as the theming and overall scare quality was. Do or Die is Sanctum, but with all of the fun sucked out of it. Black walls, awful Chop Shop rip off soundtrack, very little scares. Sure you go in a few shipping containers but literally nothing happens in either. To be fair however, the bus scene at the start is pretty good. As a whole though, it's very unimpressive.
I'm not even going to talk about Vulcan Peak because it's actually disgusting that it's even allowed to operate. It's the worst scare attraction that I have ever done in my life. Seriously, who the f*ck thought it was acceptable to open that?
The Big Top: Showtime is just depressing. Why is it not a maze? Why? Why!? I don't understand why it was decided that the best at the park for the past two years should go? I'm all for the idea of a show in the Dome but it should not have been The Big Top. The best part is hearing the soundtrack blared in the Dome. Saying that, I do love the roaming team this year and again, I'm all for having a set of roamers but it should not have been Big Top. I can't judge Amity, Screamplexx or Containment as I've not done them but I doubt my opinion on the event will change.
Sure, 7 attractions is a great idea in theory. But when only three of them are all indoor and four of them are either partially or entirely outdoors, it doesn't work. And when the majority of those scare attractions are the lowest quality of scare attractions in the country, it doesn't work. 
It's quite depressing that the worst maze at The Howl, a low budget scare event on a small farm, is better than all but one of the mazes at Fright Nights, one of the biggest scare events in the country..
I've tried to see as many positives in this years event as I can, but the truth is there is not many. Platform 15 is genuinely great and I have had some good runs on Blair Witch. Those aside... well what can I say? I feel sorry for the casts that have been put in some of these mazes, they are all great actors but the quality of mazes they've been given to work in is simply awful. If the lineup remains the same next year with no sign of improvement, I won't be going back. And I won't go back until the improvements that are desperately needed are made. Bring back The Big Top, scrap Vulcan, Sanctum and Dead Creek. Bring back longer, quality indoor mazes that we had in previous years! I would much rather the smaller lineups we've had in previous years which have had quality mazes, than the bigger lineup with the absolute dire quality we've had this year.
I'm going back tomorrow, for no other reason that I promised to go with friends months ago. Should've convinced them not to waste their money and go to Tulleys instead. I'm honestly more excited to get a Bacon King meal from Burger King than I am to go in the majority of the mazes. At least a burger is enjoyable, unlike half the mazes the park have installed...

Reminder! Just a reminder! 

Let me guess, they couldn't find an actor again? ?

Just completed the ride. Fake gift shop ending was skipped though! Pathetic.

Let me guess, they couldn't find an actor again? ?

New theming spotted today lads.

Is that where the VR headsets are stored?

Just remember, this is all better than nothing...