silenthillXD

Not even close. Nemesis is great, but it's nothing amazing. You have to ride it in specific conditions, in specific seats to get a genuinely mind-blowing ride. While Inferno isn't technically as good, it's certainly more consistent. My personal favourite is Montu. It's long, intense and snappy. The batwing is beautiful and the layout is packed full of great moments. Nemesis doesn't compare to Montu at all.

So after the disaster that was Fright Nights 2018 something really needs to be done for 2019. What I want them to do and what I think they'll do however are VERY different. What I want them to do Make it a separate ticketed event - I genuinely think this is one of the most crucial things Thorpe need to do to get Fright Nights up to the standard it should be at. First off, it would give them time to transform the park, it would also hopefully address some of the queue problems, then it would add an extra level of income from the tickets. Sure it's a risky move but I am sure it could pay off if done correctly. In my opinion the more Thorpe can do to emulate HHN the better. Cut the crap and put some budget behind the event - So Merlin's excuse for Big Top not returning is due to the cost of the tents? Yeah sorry not buying it. If Dr Frights a small independent event can build their entire event inside tents I refuse to believe Thorpe can't invest in just one. The simple answer is Merlin got lazy and thought they could get away with a skin and bones event. If they want it to grow into the successful event it should be (and has been in the past) they need to stop lying to us and put some budget in the event. Cut the number of outdoor mazes - Sure Thorpe is tight on space, but having 4 full on outdoors attractions with very little variety absolutely killed the event this year. It's hard to tell the difference between the four as there's very little theming in most of them (excluding Platform). Sure Do or Die had containers, but even they felt empty and pointless. It all felt like a very last minute event this year with the lack of effort that was put into the design of these attractions. Get rid of the IP's - All of the best mazes at Thorpe have been non-IP based. Big Top 2017 was an absolute blast, and I hear classics such as Experiment 10, Cursed and Seven were fantastic too. While the creative team behind all of these classics have gone, I think Thorpe needs to find some fresh young talent to reinvent the entire event and yes that does mean removing Saw Alive and both Walking Dead attractions. Get an external team to work on the event - Considering rumours state the creative team at Thorpe is a little bare bones at the moment wouldn't it be a good idea if Thorpe got in an external team to rework the event? There's quite a few teams who would be more than happy to work with Thorpe. AtmosFear and Tulleys seem like obvious choices, but my personal preference would be Unlocked Vision Entertainments the fab team behind FEAR Avon Valley and Tayto Park's Halloween event. They've worked with Thorpe before on the campfire stories show, so it seems like a perfect fit. Their mazes are unique and have some great intensity to them. I think they could deliver exactly what Thorpe need. What do I think will happen? Nothing - Call me pessimistic, but I doubt we're going to see some big reinvention of the event next year. If we're lucky Vulcan Peak won't return and Blair and Dead Creek might merge into one maze, but otherwise I can see very few changes coming. Shame really, I genuinely don't think I can be bothered to make the effort to visit next year if nothing major changes. Why put more effort into visiting than the creative team put into designing the mazes.

Has anyone actually got any conformation on this whole AHS rumour? Call me pessimistic, but I highly doubt we'll be seeing two new IP's this year, especially of such a large magnitude. They're not even owned by the same studio so they can't make a Lionsgate deal. Just a pre-warning, I think it will be one IP and from the promo art I think it's pretty clear what that is. I personally predict a maze in Cabin and roaming actors around the park. What I want to know, is what the hell is happening to Containment. It seems to have been totally forgotten (understandable considering how poor it is). Remember the days it was rumoured to be going year round? Whatever happened to that?! In all honesty I'd love to see it gutted and transformed into something different. The acting as with all Thorpe attractions is top notch, but the puzzles (if you can even call them that) are absolutely dire! All the puzzles seem to lack logic, the path to solve them seems to be through luck and guesswork rather than any actual sense. I've done quite a few escape rooms by now and Containment is by far the absolute worst. Thorpe really need to up their game if they are to bring it back. As for the others, Saw Alive has progressively been getting better year on year on year. I would love to see a change up in the scenery, but that's never going to happen. It will be great, they just need to ensure they get another fab show captain (please dear god get the one from 2016 back) and we'll be onto another solid year. Big Top will be great again, but as mentioned they do need to resolve batching. Though I think the two biggest issues for me were the lack of actors and the fact the tents let in light during the strobe scene. As long as these two issues are solved it will be great! And Platform... woah boy this is a tough one to fix. The concept is fantastic, but I just think the execution was appalling last year. I would honestly say the maze should be shorter. They're never going to have enough actors to fill that humungous duration, so why bother making it that long. There should be more setpieces/theming/indoor sections. Also they really need to think about providing the actors with more hiding spaces. It's all well and good hosting a maze out in the open, but if actors are visible for long stretches, there aren't going to be any scares. Also dear god does the finale need sorting out, puppet conductor was shocking. I think reversing the layout and having the superb sleeper express alongside a full on assault from the sleepers may be a better option. And brave it alone? Just make it more theatrical, it's never going to be Cracked or Snuffhouse so they shouldn't try make it too extreme (not that merlin would want that anyway) my Saw Alive run was at it's best when they got theatrical and utilised creative means to immerse me in the traps from the films. The brave it alone's are great, but would be amazing if there were more theatrics. With all that said, I'm super optimistic about Thorpe this year. I know this get's said every year, but I seriously think this could be the year everything gets turned around. Please Thorpe, don't prove me wrong! *Damn I am heavily opinionated about Fright Nights*

Great selection of events there! Never done Carnevil, but done all the others. Frightmare I thought was so so, not the best but had some really cool parts to it. Dr Frights was ridiculously good fun, very different to anything out there. It's rough around the edges (so don't go expecting the worlds most elaborate theming) but wow do their actors and concepts go the extra mile to make it amazing. It's like the grindhouse cinema of the scare industry. And Fear at Avon Valley... don't even get me started... Absolutely incredible. Easily my favourite event last year. Expect the unexpected, they like taking cliche themes and turning them on their head. You'll love it! If you're looking at trying other places than Thorpe, may I also suggest Tulleys Shocktoberfest, The Howl, Hide and Shirek, Screamfest Burton (near alton), Screamland and Scare Kingdom. But anyway, back to Fright Nights! I am very interested to see what happens this year. The event has been on a steady decline in quality, so they really need to pull this year out of the bag. As I have said before and will say again, Big Top 2016 was a step in the right direction, but there are still major issues. Design - The maze design of Thorpe's attractions seems slapped together. How they thought a long dark tunnel with no theming or interactivity would be interesting is beyond me. Likewise, how they overlooked the glaring issue of light leaking into the Big Top tent is also beyond me. Capacity - The GP love Fright Nights, I don't know if anyone else has picked up on this, because apparently Thorpe Park hasn't with it's lack of care that queues reach 3hrs long at peak times. I think it's about time they introduced a charge like Alton. Perhaps have one signature maze like Alton used to have and have that free. Throughput - Cabin in the Woods, thank god that's gone! Please may we never see bunching as bad as this ever again in a scare attraction. IP's Being Misused - IP's can be cool, sure they're not entirely my thing, but HHN seems to do a good job with them. I know, I know, Thorpe have no way near that budget, but they don't need to. Their past attempts have clearly ignored the strengths of each franchise. Look at Cabin in the Woods, most of the time you would just encounter zombies and the mythical monsters in the film would be a mere fantasy. Understaffing - If you have scripted scares, please ensure you have enough actors to fill in for the scares... I am looking at you Big Top. I could go on, and on, and on. But I think I have covered the most important things. I want to see Fright Nights succeed so bad. I really do. But as it was in 2016, I am nervous to say the least. Here's hoping the new guy brings a breath of fresh life into the event. (Waiting for the inevitable announcement of some crappy IP that will bore me to tears due to it's current decline in popularity) Prove me wrong Thorpe, prove me wrong.

Haha it's always worth ditching Fright Nights for Tulley's. Tulley's is one of the best scare events in the UK outside of Scare Kingdom, Screamland and Fear at Avon Valley. From what I remember seeing ScareTour post on Facebook there's... 'At least 1 maze will leave to be replaced1 will get a complete makeover2 will get extended Over 20% more actors will be added across the event, and something unique looks set to arrive from Europe' All of which sounds extremely exciting, especially if that means what I think it does! Anyway back on topic, yeah I can't really find any excitement for Fright Nights either. Sure the actors are fantastic, but the attraction design is pretty substandard. I have a feeling they're going to try and revamp the event after two years of diabolical reviews, but I am still skeptical. I am assuming whatever IP they get will be somewhat outated and will be an IP that's declining in popularity. I can also pretty safely say that after seeing what they did with the Lionsgate IPs, they'll completely miss the point of the IP and pigeonhole it into a generic scare attraction. Please Thorpe, prove me wrong!

As much as an IT attraction would be amazing, I can't see them doing two killer clown attractions. I wouldn't be surprised to see IT go to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal though. I am still clueless as to what the IP's are. I just can't really think of anything that would really suit Thorpe's style.

Oh nice, Ike your thinking, guess it could be something other than films! Resident Evil would be amazing what with RE7 having just been released! Could see that happening to be honest. Have Thorpe even done proper Zombies before? Also the RE7 escape room was a massive critical success, could see them reacting to that by trying to get the IP. I would say silent hill would be cool, but there's no way Konami would give that IP away any more. Film wise, get out, rings and Alien are probably the biggest horrors so far this year. Not quite sure if any of them would really fit in at Thorpe, but it would be cool to see any of them appear. Honestly I'm liking your RE idea!

Wouldn't surprise me if we saw this as a summer opening. I mean it's not like it draws huge crowds so there's no real rush to get it open. Shame really it's a fantastic flat ride. I would hope Thorpe wouldn't close it without letting fans know, I mean it is the last sky swot in the world.

It would make sense, but are there actually many studios that have a large horror catalogue other than Lionsgate and Universal? I kinda doubt we'll see any Universal properties coming over, so in all fairness if they do get two IP's I can see them being from different studios. Still wracking my head as to what they could be. But to be honest, I'm not exactly hyped at the prospect of IP's making a big return. Here's hoping they pick something good. Also is there confirmation it's more than one IP? Because if so, that's pretty interesting.

Haha who say's I'm not one already In all seriousness though, it just seemed kinda obvious? I mean there was no way it would be some form of new ride, as we would've seen planning, or heard some marketing hype by now. Likewise, smiler VR? Nah too many people would hurl. I mean we kinda knew it would be something they wouldn't be investing in as they've got all the ceebeebies stuff and towers loving care stuff going on this year. Also it was inevitable the Big Six Challenge would come back, they're not going to waste a good marketing tool just because of the unfortunate smiler incident.

Not going to lie it's rather funny seeing people freak out over something that's pretty obviously just a rebrand of the Big 6 challenge.

Wait... aren't Big Top, Platform and Saw Alive pretty much all but confirmed to be returning alongside a new IP? And as everyone else has said, Thorpe is landlocked, there's no way they can fit in 8 attractions. Also they'd have been working on Fright Nights 2017 for a long time already, especially if these discussions on huge IP's actually go anywhere. I personally think we'll see Saw and Big Top unchanged, Platform (hopefully) with some major changes and something new in place of Blair and Cabin. Also I would be surprised if we didn't see Containment return now it's permanent. What major IP's? Well I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'm not all that excited about the prospect of them using IP's again. But in all seriousness, I have a lot of hope that the new management will revitalise the event. God knows it needs it. I guess I am cautiously optimistic? After all they've got a solid acting team, they only need decent attractions (outside of Big Top) and voila, they'll have a decent event.

I had Saw Alive on my run, and the people in my group said their experiences were some of the best they've had in 2016 FIA. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, but it just felt repetative and lacked impact. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the experience, but it just lacked any real excitement for me. The entire thing felt like a very immature attempt of making something 'extreme'. They relied too much on fake blood, spitting and swearing. Not that I have a problem with any of these, but when that's all an attraction has, they loose any form of impact they would've otherwise had. I totally agree Brave it Alone shouldn't turn into Cracked or Snuffhouse, but a few more interactive elements wouldn't go amiss. Snuffhouse Alone has some particuarly neat scenes that aren't extreme, more psychological. If you've been through it, the chair, the knife and the bug scenes would work particualry well at Thorpe Park in a brave it alone fear level setting.

Fright Nights needs a complete and total overhaul. The best attraction there is Big Top and even that is only Good. Compared to other events Thorpe is extremely behind. You only need to look at the quality of events like Scare Kingdom, Tulleys, Screamland, Fear Avon Valley, Hide and Shriek Scream Park and Alton to see Fright Nights is lagging behind in the scare industry. The attractions just aren't all that well designed in my opinion, which is a shame as the actors are generally pretty damned great! Big Top (2015) was dire, and they've clearly learnt nothing from their mistakes as Platform 15 had many of the same issues. It's evident Thorpe need to take a step back and visit their competition. I'll admit The Big Top (2016) was a huge step in the right direction, hell I enjoyed it. But it wasn't mind-blowing. If it were from any other event I'd rate it lower than I do. It's sad I expect so little from Fright Nights that a pretty average scare attraction is the most exciting part of the event. I think Thorpe need something with a high throughput and plenty of jump scares, which are two things that most of their attractions lack (especially Cabin). If I were Thorpe I'd: . Big Top - Keep it mostly as it is, but fix the light leakage issues and ensure actors activate key scares. (I'm looking at you clown interupting the crystal ball scene and clowns in the jack in the boxes) . Platform 15 - Gosh this is going to be hard to fix... The premise is great but the execution is poor. I'd keep the initial train approach scene, but everything else needs re-working and the finale needs a total overhaul. An indoor section (tent similar to Big Top) wouldn't go amiss. . Containment - The acting is great in here, but the puzzles are shocking compared to other escape rooms. Thorpe's creative team really need to visit other escape room attractions to fix these issues. The puzzles in containment are unimaginative and lack sense. . Saw Alive - Probably as good as it's ever going to get, don't see it being removed or changed. . Cabin - Whatever takes its place needs to loose the format of cabin. If it's to remain free-flow it should really become more like sub species (no cumbersome doors, clearer flow through, faster paced). . Blair Witch - Eh honestly I don't know how much can be done with the space they have, it's hardly exciting but it's probably as good as it will ever get. . Brave it Alone - Tried it for the first time this year, it was enjoyable, but lacked impact. I'm not saying it should go full Snuffhouse Alone on us, but perhaps drop the repetative crawl, spit, fakeblood routine that got tiresome towards the end.

I'm guessing the space will be left open till their next major investment year, which considering DBGT probably cost a bomb being closed for so long, having so many technical issues, and being a bit of a disaster all around, may be a while. I wouldn't expect to see anything there for at least 4 or so years. I hope I am wrong. Just saying though, I really hope they move that Colossus spinning jump thing over to Old Town and rename it Loggers Leap, imagine the salt that would inspire from the enthusiast community! It would be hilarious!

Did anyone else do the BTS tour of Platform 15? The staff there did say 'RIP Loggers Leap' as we were walking past it, as did the person who emailed me from the VIP team who reffered to Platform 15's queue as being where the 'former' Loggers Leap ride was. Not that staff are always 100% in the know, but I would be genuinely surprised if it came back.

Considering Skin Snatchers is a scare attraction and SW8 is a family thrill coaster, I think we can expect no correlation.

Yeah just saying I prebooked the VIP tour of Platform 15 and when I asked where the entrance of the attraction was they reffered to Loggers as 'what used to be Loggers Leap previously'. Take from that what you will, but yeah not looking like we'll be seeing a return of this classic. Shame really, it's by far the best traditional log flume I have ridden, and was easily the best water ride on the park. RIP Loggers.

Ha don't expect to hear anything solid back. I have been at them for ages on the maze fast passes as well as the containment and brave it alone tickets. I've just been told, they'll be on nearer the time. It's less than a month till I visit, pretty poor they aren't available yet to be honest.

Oh definitely, Tulleys is consistantly better than Fright Nights despite the fact the actors there can't touch you. Chop Shop, The Cellar and Haunted Hayride are outstanding attractions which are far superior to anything Thorpe have ever churned out. If you're prepared to travel though, I would definitely reccomend Screamland at Dreamland Margate. I personally think that's one of the best events in the entire country. Anyway, back on topic, has anybody noticed that there appear to be solid chipboard walls inside The Big Top from the photo's we've seen? It looks like we may have seen the end of the scaffolding and black felt from last year. Definitely a promising sign that The Big Top will be significantly improved from last years shambles.

Ha just found that too, sounds awesome if you ask me! Still leaves a lot to the imagination, but gives us a rough idea of what it could be. Can imagine it will leave some people disappointed as it sounds rather scare attraction-esque to me, but I am totally up for it! Hopefully Thorpe can pull this one off! If they're using HTC Vive we should be in for one hell of a treat, they're apparently the best VR headsets out there and won't make people sick.