Coco

If anything like last year I would disagree heavily. I liked both events last year but I think The Howl is underated and actually has a more consistent lineup.
Mazes like Squealers/Shed are not like the flashiest but have pretty awesome scares and they have a good length. I feel the smaller size of The Howl compared to Fright Nights really helps as the crowds when I went were very mild and we walked into most of the mazes without queues in small groups. I love Thorpe and the rides really make it worthwhile but I do think The Howl does mazes better.

I did my usual FN trip with my pops on Friday/Saturday, and while it felt like a fairly decent event this year, it still doesn't give me the same buzz as it did back when stuff like Saw Alive and the face it alone thingies were still around.
 
[Pleasantly impressed]
The things that pleasantly surprised us were the nice lighting this year. And we were happy to see Lucifer's Lair return as we thought it was a brilliant addition last year in terms of entertainment. We generally don't watch show stuff, but everything at Lucifer's has been watchable (though it's no Circus of Horrors!) We both liked the Hell's Angels circus-style performers, but our opinion was divided on the dancers. My dad thought they were decent (but he also doesn’t think they're professional dancers, he reckons they're TP staff!) I thought they could have used more practice cos they weren't particularly in sync. The live band was decent.
 
[Dead Beat]
As for mazes, I think we maybe got a bad run through Dead Beat as there were a lot of empty rooms devoid of actors It felt very empty in general. Nice theming and stuff, but more like just wandering through a funky set than a scare maze since it lacked scares for most of it.
 
Sadly, we didn't see any of the stuff mentioned above in some of the other posts. And agree that the story was quite lost and confused after the initially impressive pre-show type start.
 
It seemed like a cool concept that fell flat due to the lack of actors for us.
 
[Trailers]
Trailers was the same sorta goofy fun we've always found it to be, more comical than creepy, plenty of actors, and the new nods were cool! 
 
[Stitches]
Stitches was our favourite this year just because it feels like the best value for money. It's pretty long and has plenty to see. It also had plenty of actors both times we went through there (with many of them switching places on our 2nd go). Some of the scares were passive, but we also had some brilliant in-your-face moments from energetic actors that wouldn't stop until they interacted with everyone in the group.
 
2 completely different actors with different approaches in the room near the end with the body on the table. 1, in particular, made the scene into a pretty epic set piece before terrorising the group. She was just brilliant and really the icing on the cake for us!
 
[Survival Games]
We had the free hotel 2nd day maze access, which states 1 single go on each maze, but in reality, it's 4 scans of the barcode. That's how come we did Stitches twice, as we chose to skip Survival Games this year due to neither of being particularly fussed about doing it. We've done it multiple times at previous Fright Nights, and assumed it hadn't changed much, if at all.
 
Don't get me wrong, Survival Games absolutely has its place, and the very first time I did it in a previous year, it did get my heart racing more than any of the other Fright Nights attractions. BUT, I go to 18 rated extreme scare stuff like Scream Camp when I want more hands-on thrills. For me personally, it's a bit of an in between kinda thing. Like the actors are more intense than the other FN attractions, but not really intense enough for me to make up for the lack of theming in the maze. It's a good bridge for anyone wanting a taste of something a bit more adrenaline fuelled, but it does feel a bit like a baby face-it-alone. 
 
Personally, I'd rather have an attration that is properly full-contact, 18-rated, requiring a waiver kinda thing. Alongside the other, less intense but more heavily themed attractions. I know that isn't likely to happen though!
 
My dad's reason for skipping Survival Games is somewhat similar. He hasn't done any full-contact scare stuff because he's not into that sort of thing at all. His reason for disliking SG is purely the lack of theming. He said he finds the style and actors of SG "annoying, not scary", haha. 
 
He said he likes scare attractions not necessarily for actually being scared (he generally just doesn't get scared by anything), but for the atmosphere. So he's only really impressed by the stuff that is more comparable to a movie set, like Doom Town at Tulleys. But even still, while theming is important to him, atmosphere matters more, so even with a drab set, if the atmosphere is good, he's on board! But he says SG lacks any kind of theming AND atmosphere.
 
Of course, everyone is gonna be completely different, and I get why SG has its fans, it's just not for us.
 
[Overall]
We're hoping the maze tickets at Alton Towers work similarly to Thorpe since the Daz thing is included in the multi-attraction ticket this year, but neither of us have any desire to do it whatsoever!
 
Overall though, it was an enjoyable Fright Nights this year, but still not as good as it has been in years long gone by, and increasingly poorer value for money.
(not just for mazes, but rides considering we had unlimited hotel FT on Swarm, yet the FT queue was consistently 35 mins each time we tried to use it!)

I just have to say, that while I get the point that you're making here, my dad and I personally feel The Howl blows Thorpe outta the water every year, haha.

We haven't been to The Howl yet this year, but we've been every other year, and are saving it until last this year for a reason - it's our favourite local scare event! (we actually like it more than Shocktoberfest even though it's the baby brother because actor interactions have always been better at The Howl than at Shocktoberfest where it's understandably busier).

I totally agree that the sets of the mazes themselves aren't as fancy as some of what Thorpe has, but they have still always been much better mazes in our eyes at The Howl purely because the atmosphere and the actors have always been superior when we've been there. And at the end of the day, it's the actors that really make the mazes come alive. You can have the fanciest theming in the world, but if the actors aren't there, or their energy is lacking, it's just a casual walk through a cool-looking set.

For us, The Howl's actors have always been plentiful and lively every year, with the roamers being absolutely outstanding.

Whereas our experience of Thorpe's actors has been very hit or miss over the years. Sure, we've had some incredible interactions from exceptional individuals, some of which I will never forget! BUT, we've had soooo many attraction runs at Thorpe that were devoid of actors it's kind of insane. And roamers are practically non-existent nowadays.

The Howl may be much smaller than Thorpe, but as a scare event, we reckon it's easily better than Fright Nights if you take away Thorpe's rides.
 
Overall atmosphere at The Howl has always been electric for us. Whereas there have only been 1 or 2 years where the atmosphere at Thorpe has actually felt like it's supposed to be a Halloween event. This year is not one of them thanks to the soundtrack sounding waaaay too club-like. I get that it's probably supposed to tie into Dead Beat with it being their new maze, but still. It's just not a very atmospheric soundtrack. At least there's some nice lighting back this year though.

The fact that Thorpe has the availability of some pretty epic rides in the dark is the only reason we still return to Fright Nights year on year. If the only offering was mazes and the other event-related entertainment, we probably wouldn't bother >.< And it hurts to say that cos there were some fantastic iterations of Fright Nights in the past, just not much to write home about in recent years.

Both my dad and I were lamenting past Fright Nights while queuing for Saw, and we both said we can't understand how an event that's so big can have gone from being pretty damn epic to just getting gradually worse over time It should be the other way around! Other places we go to tend to get better year on year, but not Fright Nights, sadly.
 
I know everyone will have differing opinions, of course. That's just our experience. If we were forced one year to choose between going to Thorpe for Fright Nights or to The Howl as opposed to both. We would pick The Howl over Fright Nights in a heartbeat!

I did my usual FN trip with my pops on Friday/Saturday, and while it felt like a fairly decent event this year, it still doesn't give me the same buzz as it did back when stuff like Saw Alive and the face it alone thingies were still around.
 
[Pleasantly impressed]
The things that pleasantly surprised us were the nice lighting this year. And we were happy to see Lucifer's Lair return as we thought it was a brilliant addition last year in terms of entertainment. We generally don't watch show stuff, but everything at Lucifer's has been watchable (though it's no Circus of Horrors!) We both liked the Hell's Angels circus-style performers, but our opinion was divided on the dancers. My dad thought they were decent (but he also doesn’t think they're professional dancers, he reckons they're TP staff!) I thought they could have used more practice cos they weren't particularly in sync. The live band was decent.
 
[Dead Beat]
As for mazes, I think we maybe got a bad run through Dead Beat as there were a lot of empty rooms devoid of actors It felt very empty in general. Nice theming and stuff, but more like just wandering through a funky set than a scare maze since it lacked scares for most of it.
 
Sadly, we didn't see any of the stuff mentioned above in some of the other posts. And agree that the story was quite lost and confused after the initially impressive pre-show type start.
 
It seemed like a cool concept that fell flat due to the lack of actors for us.
 
[Trailers]
Trailers was the same sorta goofy fun we've always found it to be, more comical than creepy, plenty of actors, and the new nods were cool! 
 
[Stitches]
Stitches was our favourite this year just because it feels like the best value for money. It's pretty long and has plenty to see. It also had plenty of actors both times we went through there (with many of them switching places on our 2nd go). Some of the scares were passive, but we also had some brilliant in-your-face moments from energetic actors that wouldn't stop until they interacted with everyone in the group.
 
2 completely different actors with different approaches in the room near the end with the body on the table. 1, in particular, made the scene into a pretty epic set piece before terrorising the group. She was just brilliant and really the icing on the cake for us!
 
[Survival Games]
We had the free hotel 2nd day maze access, which states 1 single go on each maze, but in reality, it's 4 scans of the barcode. That's how come we did Stitches twice, as we chose to skip Survival Games this year due to neither of being particularly fussed about doing it. We've done it multiple times at previous Fright Nights, and assumed it hadn't changed much, if at all.
 
Don't get me wrong, Survival Games absolutely has its place, and the very first time I did it in a previous year, it did get my heart racing more than any of the other Fright Nights attractions. BUT, I go to 18 rated extreme scare stuff like Scream Camp when I want more hands-on thrills. For me personally, it's a bit of an in between kinda thing. Like the actors are more intense than the other FN attractions, but not really intense enough for me to make up for the lack of theming in the maze. It's a good bridge for anyone wanting a taste of something a bit more adrenaline fuelled, but it does feel a bit like a baby face-it-alone. 
 
Personally, I'd rather have an attration that is properly full-contact, 18-rated, requiring a waiver kinda thing. Alongside the other, less intense but more heavily themed attractions. I know that isn't likely to happen though!
 
My dad's reason for skipping Survival Games is somewhat similar. He hasn't done any full-contact scare stuff because he's not into that sort of thing at all. His reason for disliking SG is purely the lack of theming. He said he finds the style and actors of SG "annoying, not scary", haha. 
 
He said he likes scare attractions not necessarily for actually being scared (he generally just doesn't get scared by anything), but for the atmosphere. So he's only really impressed by the stuff that is more comparable to a movie set, like Doom Town at Tulleys. But even still, while theming is important to him, atmosphere matters more, so even with a drab set, if the atmosphere is good, he's on board! But he says SG lacks any kind of theming AND atmosphere.
 
Of course, everyone is gonna be completely different, and I get why SG has its fans, it's just not for us.
 
[Overall]
We're hoping the maze tickets at Alton Towers work similarly to Thorpe since the Daz thing is included in the multi-attraction ticket this year, but neither of us have any desire to do it whatsoever!
 
Overall though, it was an enjoyable Fright Nights this year, but still not as good as it has been in years long gone by, and increasingly poorer value for money.
(not just for mazes, but rides considering we had unlimited hotel FT on Swarm, yet the FT queue was consistently 35 mins each time we tried to use it!)

I went with my pops this Friday/Saturday just gone, and I didn't have all that much to grumble about besides a few things I miss from previous years. However, we were staying in the hotel since that seems to be the best value option after declining to renew Merlin passes. We both said that it was brilliant we were able to get all the upcharge attractions done within the allotted free entry time for shark cabin guests between 3pm-4pm. We weren't expecting to manage that on a Saturday. Especially not after the problems we faced with mazes last year after buying tickets (2 and a half hours queue for Trailers that resulted in us missing our Platform 15 entry, and since the park was closing, we had to get tickets replaced for the following day. Good job we were planning on being there 2 days on the trot!) I was going to say that the queue problems from last year seemed to be solved, but then Survival Games had an 80 min queue when the park was supposed to be closing according to the app on Saturday.
 
But anyways, we both said we had a brilliant time. We just don't think we would have been too impressed at paying for Creek Freak in particular this year.
 
Trailers
We started out with Trailers, and props to the queue hosts for getting everyone ready to enter so fast that the 1st group went in a minute early. They were so smooth with organising the queue line pre-3pm that we were kinda blown away by that.
 
Thought we were gonna have a naff run due to being grouped with quite a large bunch of very loud, very pushy young lads. As we always do in situations like that, we just let them go first and stayed at the back to avoid being shoved. We weren't together for long as one of the early actors chased them out of the room pretty swiftly before preventing my dad and I from proceeding by blocking our path and saying a lot of creepy stuff, haha. The result was us doing the rest of the attraction as a group of 2, so that was a win! We never saw anyone ahead or behind us for the rest of it, and every single actor was full of energy really giving it their all in there. Any time we get to run a maze minus the rest of a group is generally a fantastic run, though I feel for the actors in situations like that >.< But I'd have to put it as my favourite Fright Nights attraction this year.
 
Creek Freak
Creek Freak was sadly fairly weak on our run. It seemed a little sparse on actors which was odd for one of the first runs on a Saturday. It just felt really flat after coming out of Trailers. The actors still scared most of the group successfully, but for the most part I just wandered through it unphased, which is generally not how I feel when at the head of a group. It's just there were too many long corridors that I walked down where nothing happened. No one was there. And that persisted throughout most of the start and middle of the maze. It was only towards the strobe section at the end that things got lively. It's not really an attraction that I'll miss. 
 
Survival Games
My dad and I had differing opinions on Survival Games. I absolutely loved it, but my dad found it sort of meh. The concept and story were cool, and we were both a little disappointed that it sort of vanished after the intro scene, but it's totally understandable given how the attraction works. Not many mazes make me anxious from beginning to end these days, but this one did. I can't even remember the last time I got so sweaty going through a scare attraction xD It was utter chaos of the most delightful variety.
 
Being split up from the beginning was great, and I was expecting for that not to last, but I wound up pleasantly surprised by how persistent the actors were in keeping people separated! I tagged along with 4 different splinter groups of strangers, only to be torn from each of them. I was even reunited with my dad at one point, for all of about 15 seconds before an actor physically pulled him away and sent him off in a different direction xD It reached a point where I began to wonder if I would ever get out of there. Now, my sense of direction isn't great, so that probably played a part in it. I was relieved whenever I came across other people, which is generally the opposite of how I feel in scare attractions considering my social anxiety! Eventually, I made it out with a group of 3 young lads. My dad was waiting. I'd taken 5 minutes longer than him. We reckon I was in there for about 20 minutes xD I know I saw the same rooms a fair few times. It's the most lost I've ever been in a maze though I think.
 
Saw some weird stuff in there too and I still don't know if they were other guests, or actors playing the part of fake guests, haha. I asked my dad if he noticed the monitors cos they were pretty neat with what was playing on em, very much like Black Mirror Labyrinth. He said he didn't see them though >.<
 
It absolutely reminded me of Sub Species! For me though, it felt superior. That's likely because I only ever did Sub Species once though, and it was a disappointingly uneventful run. I'm really surprised to read here about the cost of Survival Games though, as both my dad and I were saying it must have been quite cheap to make in comparison to other attractions at Fright Nights! >.<
 
His main reason to dislike it was the lack of set design and stuff. He much prefers attractions with elaborate designs. He said Survival Games felt somewhat cheap and a bit tacky. I loved it though! Sure, I too adore gorgeous attractions with beautiful sets and great storylines, but I equally enjoy ones like that which just get your heart racing from the pure chaos of it all. So yeah, personally, I enjoyed it equally to Trailers, but my dad would put Trailers 1st and Survival Games 2nd.
 
Terminal
As for Terminal, I have mixed feelings. As a big fan of Darkfield, I was expecting it to be brilliant. As much as I wanted to love it, I just can't say that I did.
 
I first encountered Darkfield's work when we attended Seance at Warwick Castle a few years back. That was so good that we decided to book tickets for Darkfield's containers in London and did both Flight and Coma. We also paid to do all the shows on Darkfield Radio through lockdown and beyond. I think what they do is absolutely amazing, and while some shows are better than others, they're generally all entertaining and thought provoking.
 
Terminal seemed like the weakest one of all. I wouldn't necessarily say I thought it was bad, but I certainly didn't think it was particularly good either. It pains me to say that, but it just wasn't up there with their usual storytelling standards. Which sucks for me as a fan, but I feel it sucks even more for anyone encountering their work for the first time because it doesn't leave a great impression! Had Terminal been my first Darkfield experience as opposed to Seance, I probably wouldn't have bothered looking then up or attending any of their other events.
 
I think the reason it fell so flat for me was it's overuse of sound effects. To me, what makes the other Darkfield experiences great is the interesting dialogue and compelling scenarios. Terminal lacked both of these for the most part. It started out well enough, but as soon as the main actor's piece was over, it all went downhill from there.
 
Also, I'm not sure why the containers were so plain. I know the story didn't call for all that much, but with the Flight, Seance, and Coma containers, you really feel as though you've stepped into another world. Like you're there in the story. I didn't get that feeling from Terminal. I guess it's harder to do with a sci-fi sorta scenario, but still.
 
Even if we hadn't managed to experience it without paying extra during our hotel free entry hours, I would've purchased a ticket based purely on the fact that it's a Darkfield thing. However, I don't think I would've been particularly happy about it! 
 
The Crows
The Crows were just as fun as last year, though weirdly there seemed to be less of them on Saturday compared to Friday, and waaaay too many people with their phones out trying to get selfies. I do love them a lot though. I find them to be some of my favourite newer Fright Nights characters even though they can't speak!
 
Death's Doors
Death's Doors was a lot of fun. We did it 5 times over the 2 days. A couple during daylight hours + some in the dark. There were a few different characters between the two days, so that made 
it even more interesting! Even with large groups in there, it still seemed to function just fine, if a little chaotic. Some of the actors were spouting out some pretty funny lines reminiscent of the sort of stuff you hear at The Dungeons attractions, which we thought was hilarious. I wouldn't really say it was remotely scary, but then that's personal. I saw one or two older kids crying in there, so I imagine they'd beg to differ! What it was though was good, spooky fun I'd like to see more like it.
 
The crazy alarm only went off once in the multiple times we went through, so that would be a shame to miss if you only did it once because it was quite amusing to see all the actors leave their doors and run around as though all hell has broken loose. I heard one person near us say "What the **** is going on?" in a voice filled with awe. And that's exactly what I was thinking as a beekeeper being chased by a swarm of invisible bees ran by followed by several other characters charging about to the siren and flashing lights like a psycho flash mob. Kinda reminded me of that scene in Cabin in the Woods where all the creatures are released from where they're being held and everything goes to **** xD
 
Birthday Bash + Amity Stuff
I can't comment on Birthday Bash, as we only saw bits of it. Same with the Amity stuff with the werewolves and vampires.
 
Legacy
We did watch Legacy while waiting for coffee to cool down, and it was okay if you don't have anything better to do. I have no idea how it compares to last year since when we visited in 2021, Legacy wasn't operating that weekend and nobody we asked seemed to know why. I assume it's different this year though just based on the fact that it's telling the story of the locksmith and showing trailer-type scenes for this year's attractions before moving on to a series of throwbacks for attractions of the past.
 
It was fairly funky, but seemed more like one big piece of advertising more than anything to me. Also, I don't know if it was the speaker setup or some of the tracks themselves, but the audio quality was quite crackly and just bad in places. I don't know much about audio tech, but I have ears, and decent enough hearing to know that something can't have been right with how the sound was setup.
 
Other
Definitely noticed more roaming actors on Saturday compared to Friday. The Creek Freak wagon was amusing!
 
The main thing I wish would come back is more of the atmospheric lighting + soundtrack + alternate station sounds on rides. I know they're only small things, but added altogether, they make a big difference to the atmosphere. I really miss the soundtrack changing once Fright Nights attractions kick off. It used to make me so excited because it was like a signal to say **** was about to get spooky! As far as I could hear while we were there, it was the same soundtrack all day. Just similar style music to what's used in Trailers, including a twisted sort of happy birthday theme. It kinda did my head in listening to that all day >.< And yeah, no change to ride station lines and stuff, which was disappointing.
 
I also don't understand why the party island sorta vibes were still present in some of the decorations like the big green walls with neon signs on. They're ugly as heck and could be replaced with some sorta Halloweeny decoration for Fright Nights.
 
Same as I don't understand why they can't just put 1 zombie actor in TWD ride during Fright Nights in that section when you leave the ride. Pretty much everyone we rode with sighed in that room when they realised it was empty. 
 
Also, DBGT was awful. I wasn't expecting the demon actor to be back since that's been gone for ages now, but I don't know. I just thought they'd maybe do something to spice it up a bit for Fright Nights this time. But nope. It seemed like the shortest version ever. And the headsets could've done with better cleaning or ideally replacing, as the ones I got were falling apart on the headphones and scratched or extremely dirty on the lenses >.<
 
Other than those little niggles though, we had a fantastic time! I do feel like it was much better than last year. But also that it was nowhere near as good as other years gone by. 

I went with my pops this Friday/Saturday just gone, and I didn't have all that much to grumble about besides a few things I miss from previous years. However, we were staying in the hotel since that seems to be the best value option after declining to renew Merlin passes. We both said that it was brilliant we were able to get all the upcharge attractions done within the allotted free entry time for shark cabin guests between 3pm-4pm. We weren't expecting to manage that on a Saturday. Especially not after the problems we faced with mazes last year after buying tickets (2 and a half hours queue for Trailers that resulted in us missing our Platform 15 entry, and since the park was closing, we had to get tickets replaced for the following day. Good job we were planning on being there 2 days on the trot!) I was going to say that the queue problems from last year seemed to be solved, but then Survival Games had an 80 min queue when the park was supposed to be closing according to the app on Saturday.
 
But anyways, we both said we had a brilliant time. We just don't think we would have been too impressed at paying for Creek Freak in particular this year.
 
Trailers
We started out with Trailers, and props to the queue hosts for getting everyone ready to enter so fast that the 1st group went in a minute early. They were so smooth with organising the queue line pre-3pm that we were kinda blown away by that.
 
Thought we were gonna have a naff run due to being grouped with quite a large bunch of very loud, very pushy young lads. As we always do in situations like that, we just let them go first and stayed at the back to avoid being shoved. We weren't together for long as one of the early actors chased them out of the room pretty swiftly before preventing my dad and I from proceeding by blocking our path and saying a lot of creepy stuff, haha. The result was us doing the rest of the attraction as a group of 2, so that was a win! We never saw anyone ahead or behind us for the rest of it, and every single actor was full of energy really giving it their all in there. Any time we get to run a maze minus the rest of a group is generally a fantastic run, though I feel for the actors in situations like that >.< But I'd have to put it as my favourite Fright Nights attraction this year.
 
Creek Freak
Creek Freak was sadly fairly weak on our run. It seemed a little sparse on actors which was odd for one of the first runs on a Saturday. It just felt really flat after coming out of Trailers. The actors still scared most of the group successfully, but for the most part I just wandered through it unphased, which is generally not how I feel when at the head of a group. It's just there were too many long corridors that I walked down where nothing happened. No one was there. And that persisted throughout most of the start and middle of the maze. It was only towards the strobe section at the end that things got lively. It's not really an attraction that I'll miss. 
 
Survival Games
My dad and I had differing opinions on Survival Games. I absolutely loved it, but my dad found it sort of meh. The concept and story were cool, and we were both a little disappointed that it sort of vanished after the intro scene, but it's totally understandable given how the attraction works. Not many mazes make me anxious from beginning to end these days, but this one did. I can't even remember the last time I got so sweaty going through a scare attraction xD It was utter chaos of the most delightful variety.
 
Being split up from the beginning was great, and I was expecting for that not to last, but I wound up pleasantly surprised by how persistent the actors were in keeping people separated! I tagged along with 4 different splinter groups of strangers, only to be torn from each of them. I was even reunited with my dad at one point, for all of about 15 seconds before an actor physically pulled him away and sent him off in a different direction xD It reached a point where I began to wonder if I would ever get out of there. Now, my sense of direction isn't great, so that probably played a part in it. I was relieved whenever I came across other people, which is generally the opposite of how I feel in scare attractions considering my social anxiety! Eventually, I made it out with a group of 3 young lads. My dad was waiting. I'd taken 5 minutes longer than him. We reckon I was in there for about 20 minutes xD I know I saw the same rooms a fair few times. It's the most lost I've ever been in a maze though I think.
 
Saw some weird stuff in there too and I still don't know if they were other guests, or actors playing the part of fake guests, haha. I asked my dad if he noticed the monitors cos they were pretty neat with what was playing on em, very much like Black Mirror Labyrinth. He said he didn't see them though >.<
 
It absolutely reminded me of Sub Species! For me though, it felt superior. That's likely because I only ever did Sub Species once though, and it was a disappointingly uneventful run. I'm really surprised to read here about the cost of Survival Games though, as both my dad and I were saying it must have been quite cheap to make in comparison to other attractions at Fright Nights! >.<
 
His main reason to dislike it was the lack of set design and stuff. He much prefers attractions with elaborate designs. He said Survival Games felt somewhat cheap and a bit tacky. I loved it though! Sure, I too adore gorgeous attractions with beautiful sets and great storylines, but I equally enjoy ones like that which just get your heart racing from the pure chaos of it all. So yeah, personally, I enjoyed it equally to Trailers, but my dad would put Trailers 1st and Survival Games 2nd.
 
Terminal
As for Terminal, I have mixed feelings. As a big fan of Darkfield, I was expecting it to be brilliant. As much as I wanted to love it, I just can't say that I did.
 
I first encountered Darkfield's work when we attended Seance at Warwick Castle a few years back. That was so good that we decided to book tickets for Darkfield's containers in London and did both Flight and Coma. We also paid to do all the shows on Darkfield Radio through lockdown and beyond. I think what they do is absolutely amazing, and while some shows are better than others, they're generally all entertaining and thought provoking.
 
Terminal seemed like the weakest one of all. I wouldn't necessarily say I thought it was bad, but I certainly didn't think it was particularly good either. It pains me to say that, but it just wasn't up there with their usual storytelling standards. Which sucks for me as a fan, but I feel it sucks even more for anyone encountering their work for the first time because it doesn't leave a great impression! Had Terminal been my first Darkfield experience as opposed to Seance, I probably wouldn't have bothered looking then up or attending any of their other events.
 
I think the reason it fell so flat for me was it's overuse of sound effects. To me, what makes the other Darkfield experiences great is the interesting dialogue and compelling scenarios. Terminal lacked both of these for the most part. It started out well enough, but as soon as the main actor's piece was over, it all went downhill from there.
 
Also, I'm not sure why the containers were so plain. I know the story didn't call for all that much, but with the Flight, Seance, and Coma containers, you really feel as though you've stepped into another world. Like you're there in the story. I didn't get that feeling from Terminal. I guess it's harder to do with a sci-fi sorta scenario, but still.
 
Even if we hadn't managed to experience it without paying extra during our hotel free entry hours, I would've purchased a ticket based purely on the fact that it's a Darkfield thing. However, I don't think I would've been particularly happy about it! 
 
The Crows
The Crows were just as fun as last year, though weirdly there seemed to be less of them on Saturday compared to Friday, and waaaay too many people with their phones out trying to get selfies. I do love them a lot though. I find them to be some of my favourite newer Fright Nights characters even though they can't speak!
 
Death's Doors
Death's Doors was a lot of fun. We did it 5 times over the 2 days. A couple during daylight hours + some in the dark. There were a few different characters between the two days, so that made 
it even more interesting! Even with large groups in there, it still seemed to function just fine, if a little chaotic. Some of the actors were spouting out some pretty funny lines reminiscent of the sort of stuff you hear at The Dungeons attractions, which we thought was hilarious. I wouldn't really say it was remotely scary, but then that's personal. I saw one or two older kids crying in there, so I imagine they'd beg to differ! What it was though was good, spooky fun I'd like to see more like it.
 
The crazy alarm only went off once in the multiple times we went through, so that would be a shame to miss if you only did it once because it was quite amusing to see all the actors leave their doors and run around as though all hell has broken loose. I heard one person near us say "What the **** is going on?" in a voice filled with awe. And that's exactly what I was thinking as a beekeeper being chased by a swarm of invisible bees ran by followed by several other characters charging about to the siren and flashing lights like a psycho flash mob. Kinda reminded me of that scene in Cabin in the Woods where all the creatures are released from where they're being held and everything goes to **** xD
 
Birthday Bash + Amity Stuff
I can't comment on Birthday Bash, as we only saw bits of it. Same with the Amity stuff with the werewolves and vampires.
 
Legacy
We did watch Legacy while waiting for coffee to cool down, and it was okay if you don't have anything better to do. I have no idea how it compares to last year since when we visited in 2021, Legacy wasn't operating that weekend and nobody we asked seemed to know why. I assume it's different this year though just based on the fact that it's telling the story of the locksmith and showing trailer-type scenes for this year's attractions before moving on to a series of throwbacks for attractions of the past.
 
It was fairly funky, but seemed more like one big piece of advertising more than anything to me. Also, I don't know if it was the speaker setup or some of the tracks themselves, but the audio quality was quite crackly and just bad in places. I don't know much about audio tech, but I have ears, and decent enough hearing to know that something can't have been right with how the sound was setup.
 
Other
Definitely noticed more roaming actors on Saturday compared to Friday. The Creek Freak wagon was amusing!
 
The main thing I wish would come back is more of the atmospheric lighting + soundtrack + alternate station sounds on rides. I know they're only small things, but added altogether, they make a big difference to the atmosphere. I really miss the soundtrack changing once Fright Nights attractions kick off. It used to make me so excited because it was like a signal to say **** was about to get spooky! As far as I could hear while we were there, it was the same soundtrack all day. Just similar style music to what's used in Trailers, including a twisted sort of happy birthday theme. It kinda did my head in listening to that all day >.< And yeah, no change to ride station lines and stuff, which was disappointing.
 
I also don't understand why the party island sorta vibes were still present in some of the decorations like the big green walls with neon signs on. They're ugly as heck and could be replaced with some sorta Halloweeny decoration for Fright Nights.
 
Same as I don't understand why they can't just put 1 zombie actor in TWD ride during Fright Nights in that section when you leave the ride. Pretty much everyone we rode with sighed in that room when they realised it was empty. 
 
Also, DBGT was awful. I wasn't expecting the demon actor to be back since that's been gone for ages now, but I don't know. I just thought they'd maybe do something to spice it up a bit for Fright Nights this time. But nope. It seemed like the shortest version ever. And the headsets could've done with better cleaning or ideally replacing, as the ones I got were falling apart on the headphones and scratched or extremely dirty on the lenses >.<
 
Other than those little niggles though, we had a fantastic time! I do feel like it was much better than last year. But also that it was nowhere near as good as other years gone by. 

Sorry for the double post, but this one does contain spoilers. I figured I should separate them! 
 
Trailers: Enjoyed this despite the long wait and gigantic group size (17 people) Pre-show was super rushed and didn't catch much of what was said. Loved all the tribute rooms, especially the part for Big Top because that was a favourite of mine so just hearing the soundtrack made me giddy. The group behind us swiftly caught up and formed a rather large blob of a group trying to squeeze through with a lot of swearing about being squished going on. By the time we reached the second room with a long speech, we were crammed in wall to wall like sardines. It certainly didn't feel covid safe in the slightest. Then we were ushered out. I'm not sure what the finale was supposed to be because there wasn't really one. 
 
Creek Freak: Seemed largely the same as previous runs in the past only with less actors. Not a lot really happened. 
 
Platform 15: Didn't get to use our ticket for it as stated above. 
 
Crows: Pretty cool idea but most of the actors seemed half-asleep aside from the last guy, who was pretty awesome. 
 
We didn't manage to see any of the shows or spot any roaming actors. 
 
Legacy show not in operation. 

Just to update on the maze queue situation, queues are pretty nonexistent today (Sunday 10th.) Hotel guests got free unlimited maze entry on 2nd day between 3pm and 4pm, and in that time, we managed to do Trailers x2, Creak Freak x2, Platform 15 x1. We only queued 5 mins for Trailers, the other two were walk on pretty much. So it's just a Saturday issue I guess! Even now, we just passed Trailers, and the queue is only like 15-20 mins long. I guess the queues could possibly be an issue during half-term also, but today has been fine. Less actors in Trailers today though compared to yesterday, maybe about half. 
 
And Legacy still not operating. 

If you can do Face it Alone, do face it alone.