LukeP_8

So it looks like I'm finally heading down tomorrow night (30th) and I can't wait. Only issue is I can see it being mad busy. 
 
As someone who's never been, from what I've read here and seen elsewhere it seems like the ones to make sure I get done are Cellar, chop shop, wastelands, doom town and creepy cottage? 
 
Assuming I don't have time for all of the mazes is there any I should give a miss to make sure I get the better ones in? Hellements seems like one of those. 

I went tonight and was just as good as last year, if anything there seemed to be more actors tonight than I’ve ever seen at Tulleys. All mazes were the same, the only thing that’s seen changes this year is the hayride. 
 
The hayride was playing a mix in the queue which included the old Asylum soundtrack 😄
 
@MattyMoo Pretty sure I shared a run through with you on Coven if that was you who went on it first thing tonight 😂

I would look at train times from gatwick and three bridges rather than Crawley, 3 bridges is the closest station

Wouldn’t cost a lot though to rip it all out put some chain link fences in and strobe it all out and then bring back what fright nights was known for…..
 
I would love an anniversary year, when is the next one, whereby we got:
Asylum 
Curse
Ex10
Cabin - maybe reimagined with the black mirror theme 
Actors in animal masks - minus the movie theme
Big top 
Some nod to creek perhaps just a scare zone or a walk down by the still accessible part of monks walk.
 
And some sorta freak show or scary show which isn’t a dance party to top it all off.
 
For me fright nights became boring when it opened the doors to a family audience and the MAP group used it as childcare for a few extra hours in the evening…. You really shouldn’t see prams at this event that’s what Chessingtons for. I was watching Jacks video the other day where he remember the 2013 event I want to say and oh man do I miss those days.
Dance parties just don’t do it for me neither do entertainers pretending to be freaks. Get the real thing or don’t bother.

Lack of actors!!??
 
But...but... Mr Silkstone had LOOOOOOADS of actors around him in his videos!!
 
I'm sure thats got NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the fact he and all the "celebs" went on press night.....RIGHT!!??

I was eh on this year's event, let me review it deeper.
 
The Terminal:
This was awful- a waste of £10. It looks bad, it is boring, and has the worst ending to a scare attraction?
I like how they are trying something new, but when charging £10 you would expect something fully realized, but The Terminal is a failed experiment and the queueline tonight reflected it. The ending feels like some sort of crappy self help book. Being told to appreciate my friends in a scare attraction? I think if they are to experiment again, maybe make it free timed tickets? I am very sure anyone paying for this did not end the attraction feeling like their £10 was money well spent.. Just poor.
 
Trailers:
With the setup I really believe they could of mixed a room up or two, but it is the same, and it looks pretty. My main problem with it from last year is still there- it is simply not scary to me, and this year it felt even less scary as it had seemingly less actors. it just lacks a punch to it, with Trailers I never quite get into my flight or fight- I can't quite word it. I think the summer edition of this maze was WAY better as they used it more for laughs and made it way more camp. But yeah, Meh.
 
CF: I love this maze- actors always seem to know how to work the space and it feels like it is designed for the actors and not against them. The maze was intense as per usual, with buckwheats always being within sight in this attraction. It felt full, busy, and was fun. I have done this quite a few times so I generally know it pretty well now- but I can say it retains the position of being a really good maze.
 
Survival Games:
First off I know this has been mentioned by another, low-key superior Josh. But how did this cost so much? The theming does not exist- it is too dark honestly to even see the set, and generally the theming is a oil barrel or two. In ways I do wonder if Thorpe are falling behind a little on the theming front- just look at Doom Town or some of the mazes at Xtreme Scream.
Despite this though- Survival Games is a really fun maze, it has a pocket sized Sub Species vibe to it. Seperation, dark rooms, touching. It very much reminds me of Sub Species- which is a positive. I think its honestly a really strong maze for the event, and I hope they can expand on it.
 
I really liked Thorpe Park tonight- but I believe Terminal and Trailers need changing. I also found paying +£30 for 3 mazes and a shipping container with headphones a little too much. With an entry fee I have seen my friends spend too much money on one day- it also kicks that you only get one through, and if you want more you have to pay out even more. The scarezones though were great, and brought much joy. All four were great in their own ways- the high school in Amity seemed to really please families and seemed like some mild fun, the door knocking scare zone was actually a brilliant idea for a scare zone and ended up being something we did while walking across the park- we loved it! So yeah, it was a great night. But I do wonder if the pricing is a little extortinate.
 
+ points for good ride ops tonight as well
 

So I went to fright nights yesterday, and given the constant rain the park seemed to empty out rather quickly and was generally rather quiet... and so were the mazes 😬 I apologise for the negativity in advance.
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So first was creek freak massacre in which we didnt hear nor see a single chain saw, which is meant to be the signature theme of the maze. For large portions the corridors were empty, and even though there were absolutely no queues and was just me and a friend in there it lacked the intensity I felt it had in 2019 when I last went to the event. However on a positive note some of the individual acting was solid. But ye, disappointed to say the least.
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Next we did trailers which I didnt do last year as I didnt attend the event. But this was for me just as poor as creek freak. The pre show story about everyone having being "sucked into the screens" was a bit odd and some of the scenes didn't actually have actors in them. I will say though that some of the theming was impressive. 
 
But ive certainly never walked out of the exit to that building so relaxed before 🙄
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Last was survival games which was easily the best maze of the night. The start where someone comes up behind you and pulls you away was something I didnt see coming and was really effective. However the rest of the maze still suffered from a lack of actors but just to a lesser degree with some of the maze feeling empty. However being completely alone and lost looping back on myself was good fun and quite daunting. However the maze just didnt scare me one bit aside from the beginning.
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So overall as of 30/09/22, very poor event. I havent been back to the event since they began upcharging mazes and I really hope with a change of heart they'll stop doing it. They are in no way worth the money and non of the mazes had any sort of queue to them or any element of apprehension given I was already set up for disappointment given I just spent a tenner to walk through an empty queue. 
Again I apologise for the negativity but just going by **my personal** experience I won't be paying for mazes again. An upcharge maze should surely mean more revenue to invest into actually having actors and more than 3 mazes. They really  need to go back to 4 or 5 free mazes that were actually good and bouncing with activity. But the event still somehow finds ways to become worse 😂
 
Hopefully this was all just down to thorpe anticipating the park would be quiet and the mazes will be better during peak weeks.

Really interesting - thank you for posting this!
 
The very obvious and self-inflicted rise and fall of Thorpe Park, and the reputation damage following the Smiler crash are the standouts for me.
 
Its also mad how erratic Alton Towers’ attendance has been over the years compared to the others.
 
I echo what’s been said above - this is evidence that the public want to come and see new coasters and rides - NOT walkthroughs and stupid gimmicks. Semi-regular ride additions appear to increase attendance according to this graph.

So I went to fright nights yesterday, and given the constant rain the park seemed to empty out rather quickly and was generally rather quiet... and so were the mazes 😬 I apologise for the negativity in advance.
---
So first was creek freak massacre in which we didnt hear nor see a single chain saw, which is meant to be the signature theme of the maze. For large portions the corridors were empty, and even though there were absolutely no queues and was just me and a friend in there it lacked the intensity I felt it had in 2019 when I last went to the event. However on a positive note some of the individual acting was solid. But ye, disappointed to say the least.
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Next we did trailers which I didnt do last year as I didnt attend the event. But this was for me just as poor as creek freak. The pre show story about everyone having being "sucked into the screens" was a bit odd and some of the scenes didn't actually have actors in them. I will say though that some of the theming was impressive. 
 
But ive certainly never walked out of the exit to that building so relaxed before 🙄
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Last was survival games which was easily the best maze of the night. The start where someone comes up behind you and pulls you away was something I didnt see coming and was really effective. However the rest of the maze still suffered from a lack of actors but just to a lesser degree with some of the maze feeling empty. However being completely alone and lost looping back on myself was good fun and quite daunting. However the maze just didnt scare me one bit aside from the beginning.
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So overall as of 30/09/22, very poor event. I havent been back to the event since they began upcharging mazes and I really hope with a change of heart they'll stop doing it. They are in no way worth the money and non of the mazes had any sort of queue to them or any element of apprehension given I was already set up for disappointment given I just spent a tenner to walk through an empty queue. 
Again I apologise for the negativity but just going by **my personal** experience I won't be paying for mazes again. An upcharge maze should surely mean more revenue to invest into actually having actors and more than 3 mazes. They really  need to go back to 4 or 5 free mazes that were actually good and bouncing with activity. But the event still somehow finds ways to become worse 😂
 
Hopefully this was all just down to thorpe anticipating the park would be quiet and the mazes will be better during peak weeks.

You know Thorpe have reached a new low when they’re making fun of their decline…

Well I first went to FN in 2012 and the Asylum was by far the scariest maze on the night. And you could say that 2012/13 is in the more "modern era" of the event. So I completely disagree with the idea Asylum would not be well recieved because it was levels above (imo) any other maze back then, and the rest of those 2012 mazes are better than the mazes (bar a couple) that we've had since then. Imo 90% chain link mesh is what the end of creek freak is, Asylum added a hell of alot of messed up detail to that strobe maze and it all added up to a terrifying experience. Also the chain link stuff was probably only a half of the actual maze in later years... There were many different scenes added to that maze each with their own unique detail and chaotic environment. The only thing that stayed constant throughout the whole thing was the soundtrack and strobes (which was a good thing).
 
As for overall past years being tinted by nostalgia I completely understand that arguement actually, but in this particular case also disagree with this aswell. I'm a big advocate for the past not necessarily being so much better than the present due to nostalgia bias but in this case the mazes in recent years have done absolutely nothing. I mean come on... Are we really suggesting the 2018 maze line up with those walking dead mazes is better than the 2013 lineup, or better yet, the 2011 lineup? Well I'd say most will agree that's not the case. 

Think I've said it often now but Asylum absolutely blew practically every other FN maze that ever existed out of the water.
 
I wouldnt necessarily say it is nostalgia that gives me that opinion, its the genuine fact that for me and 95 percent of the people that did it, it just did its job which was to scare. It was loud,chaotic,disorienting and the cast that was in it on most of my visits during its tenure absolutely went all out to deliver.
 
No FN maze that has came after it has came anywhere near matching it in those regards. 
 
Then we look at some other mazes the park historically had.
 
Experiment 10 created one hell of a sense of isolation that at the time was a breaking of the mold for UK theme park halloween mazes
 
Se7en was the single most disgusting and psychological maze I have seen on these shores. Those scenes,smells and sights to this day have stayed with me
 
Hellgate whilst not particularly unique in that it was just a generic haunted house themed maze, was an absolute jump scare ridden fun experience.
 
Those opinions to me are nothing to do with nostalgia. Its just as I remember them on their own merits during their time at the event. They did their jobs far better then MOST of the mazes that have been at the event since Asylum left. Aside from Big Top and Cabin, none of the other mazes that have been at the event have done anything for me personally. For all Platform 15 is worth, one might as well leave the park early and just head round to monks walk for an evening stroll....you're now doing Platform 15 for free.
 

Well I first went to FN in 2012 and the Asylum was by far the scariest maze on the night. And you could say that 2012/13 is in the more "modern era" of the event. So I completely disagree with the idea Asylum would not be well recieved because it was levels above (imo) any other maze back then, and the rest of those 2012 mazes are better than the mazes (bar a couple) that we've had since then. Imo 90% chain link mesh is what the end of creek freak is, Asylum added a hell of alot of messed up detail to that strobe maze and it all added up to a terrifying experience. Also the chain link stuff was probably only a half of the actual maze in later years... There were many different scenes added to that maze each with their own unique detail and chaotic environment. The only thing that stayed constant throughout the whole thing was the soundtrack and strobes (which was a good thing).
 
As for overall past years being tinted by nostalgia I completely understand that arguement actually, but in this particular case also disagree with this aswell. I'm a big advocate for the past not necessarily being so much better than the present due to nostalgia bias but in this case the mazes in recent years have done absolutely nothing. I mean come on... Are we really suggesting the 2018 maze line up with those walking dead mazes is better than the 2013 lineup, or better yet, the 2011 lineup? Well I'd say most will agree that's not the case. 

Ye indeed there used to only be 2 or 3 mazes in its earliest years. Which is why I didnt write off this years fright nights already haha.
The only thing is back then, all those mazes were top class (Freezer and hellgate for example) whereas there isnt one top class maze imo currently.

Went to Thorpe today and got to experience the new Swarm stuff in person. The area soundtrack is strange, the spoken parts are pretty bland, sometimes it overexplains stuff a bit, and again the whole thing is so unrealistic to the actual situation depicted in the ride. Which is fine, if the area is also themed in an unrealistic and outlandish way. This works for WWTP Radio, the hosts are constantly cracking jokes and it's all a bit nonchalant given the town is being hit by multiple tidal waves, but not only are there actual jokes in the WWTP Radio audio, but the area isn't exactly a serious area, whereas The Swarm is literally themed to the end of the world. I'm seeing crashed vehicles and a destroyed church, yet I'm hearing a completely calm sounding reverend being interviewed by a newsreader who keeps casually mentioning that the entire country is under attack? It doesn't really work. The song choices also don't really work, unsurprisingly. I can't tell if it's some kind of attempt at humour to be playing 'Highway to Hell' on this fake radio station as the world is literally ending around us, but again, it doesn't work when the rest of the area and even the audio is entirely serious up until then.
 
The station audio is something else entirely though, it's actually really good. You can hear a clip of it here:
I really wish the area audio was closer to this than what we got.

I'm beyond disappointed with Platform 15's return however I'm not even slightly suprised by it. It's always been a boring eventless maze however by recent standards at fright nights I assumed Thorpe wouldn't go through the expenses of actually replacing it for a maze they'd put some care into.
 
A way of Thorpe minimising their spendings is all I can make of it.
 
Creek freak is good but they really need some great new mazes if they're seriously bringing back platform 15...

Jack Silkstone in disguise? 👀😂

Such a shame they are removing this. Sure it wasn’t the top coaster in the park (Cedar Point at least), but it was such a fun thrilling attraction with so much kick!
 
Cant really see what they could replace it with, unless they do up the whole area.

It would appear that the Jungle Escape building is being cleared out: https://themeparkguide.co.uk/news-page/Fright-Nights-2021-Construction-Work-Begins
 
And with UVE still around there, could we finally see the return of an indoor Fright Nights maze in that location for the first time in *7* years?!

So we've now got to listen to that awful rapping soundtrack all through the summer! Eurgh! 

The events for this year just got announced, only 3 this time around though. A new one called park vibes whatever the hell that is from 21st-25th of July was announced a few days ago I believe. Then obviously Oktoberfest was announced and Fright Nights also got confirmed as expected for the 8-10th and 15-31st.
 
Quite suprised theres only 4 days worth of events during the summer, I'd love to see summer nights return one day. They were a hell of alot of fun.

Well they need to actually make fright nights, scary, again to do that. But hold on, bit of an issue with that... They've not had a scary fright nights attraction since Asylum in 2013.
As much as I like your idea, the reason there were so many families is because Fright Nights now has a reputation for not being particularly scary. I mean at the end of the day, it is all about reputation. Back in the day, Thorpe would never have had to operate an ID system for under 13s etc as people knew what they were getting themselves into. You cant force a perspective by making it seem scary cus ur IDing people who may be too young for the image that you personally have about who can handle it, you have to create that image again by bringing in scary attractions.
 
Plus, it isnt fair to make it strictly 15 or over. Not only is that too old, I was that terrified 12 year old back in FN2012 and loved it. While I understand ur point, it isnt the right way to fix the problem.
 
However the idea of closing the part for day guests I actually think is a good idea. Do what Universal do, but dont shut out age groups. Its their problem after all. As you said, I'd love to hear stories of parents complaining about fright nights being too "fright"ening 😂. Which would eventually stop happening if Thorpe can build Fright Nights reputation again.

I have to agree. Had a fantastic time and I said the same, well at least my most enjoyable visit over the last 6 or so years. Great atmosphere, great staff and as well as that the audio improvements have made a huge difference.

Yup! Thats exactly what I could hear, that video shows perfectly how powerful those new speakers really are. Fastastic upgrade.
 
And ye, I really really don't like the new imascore music at all. So repetitive and all based on that same bloody island theme. Doesn't do anything at all. I dont mind the imascore music around the park, but really wish theyd leave the coaster music as it was. The 2 rides had perfectly unique and great soundtracks.

Yup! Thats exactly what I could hear, that video shows perfectly how powerful those new speakers really are. Fastastic upgrade.
 
And ye, I really really don't like the new imascore music at all. So repetitive and all based on that same bloody island theme. Doesn't do anything at all. I dont mind the imascore music around the park, but really wish theyd leave the coaster music as it was. The 2 rides had perfectly unique and great soundtracks.