LukeP_8

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.

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. 

Yeah to be fair fright night is pretty tragic, after last night saw alive has gone from my least favourite maze in 2013 to my  favourite in 2018. Says it all

I haven’t been to FN - and I won’t be visiting - but the quality of attractions does seem to be lacking. 
 
Go back to 2013; you’ve got 4 very solid indoor mazes in Cabin, Saw, The Asylum and MBV - not forgetting Blair Witch.
 
This year, 3 of the 4 indoor maze locations are in use:
Saw is still Saw - which is surely getting stale.
The Asylum is now Vulcan Peak - which is quite possibly the largest downgrade in the history of mazes.
Cabin is now Living nightmare - which also must be seen as a downgrade; going from a critically acclaimed conceptually innovative maze to one which feels ‘almost’ there.
 
Elswhere, the park has replaced 1 outdoor maze with... 4?
Whyyy?
What do each of these mazes do that others don’t? Blair has never worked as well as intended. Platform is still a bit iffy. Sanctum seems as hastily put together as it was last year. So what do Thorpe decide to do? Open another outdoor maze of course, instead of putting all that enthusiasm, energy and money into their existing offering.
 
It seems like the overriding problem with FN at the moment is the lack of variety of actors. Both walking dead mazes use zombies, Platform has dead train people who act like zombies, Dead Creek throws infected people at you, who behave like zombies and Blair’s confused actors end up giving a zombie like performance.
 
If you look at the Villains of Europa Park’s traumatica - you’ll see there’s vampires, werewolfs, ghosts and a whole host of other characters. That what Thorpe needs, for each maze to be distinctly different - with actors acting distinctly different. 
 
There’s too many blokes with black paint around their eyes growling at you.... 

They wont get a fungle type ride back, And if a major ride was placed there it could result in the removal of their number one fright night attraction The Asylum, I'm not in favour of that removal, Best maze their is! If anything they will only put a small ride their, But I was thinking something like a lauched freefall coaster which could go down the back of nemesis and rumba :)So yer, I want something like that

Ahahaha. Tbh, I personally think Sub-terra was better... Despite costing so much less and taking up a much much smaller amount of space

Actors could literally grab you,push you,pull you,swear at you,carry you,cover you in all sorts of stuff like water and powder to name but a few. It was a complete departure from the feel of doing a standard go through the mazes during regular hours.
 
It was an intense experience when it was at it's peak and was a good addition to the event while it was about 

2013 face it alone Asylum... I cant imagine how scary that must have been. Id give anything to do that. 
As for guests being all creepy and sexual, I feel being tied and **** like that kind of gives opportunity for things to take a different path down that direction. So perhaps if they remove any things that could be interpreted sexually then Face it Alone could be less of an issue.
Hopefully it'll return one day as I think it hits the spot for guests who don't find ordinary maze experiences particularly scary anymore...
Great answer from Josh...

Isn't snowflake more a right wing buzz word relating to people caring for others or being emotive. People from the right wing often struggle with the idea of caring for others outside of their social circle because the idea of being nice to each other is so alien and foreign, it deserves to be ridiculed. See 'woke' and 'SJW' also.
 
People abusing a system full of flaws and potholes is not snowflake. It's scummy, it's taking the mick but it isn't 'snowflake'. 

I’d buy a Saw Alive smelly thing - always loved the smell of it in there - reminded me of bacon 😂

They've stopped because groundwork has started for the RMC lads.

There are lots of past horror mazes better than the Big top ever was. Experiment 10, My Bloody Valentine, Asylum/freezer. Big Top was good yes, but nothing like Asylum/EX10. They should strip out jungle escape and put another top horror maze in that area like its original purpose was. Or put Asylum/Freezer back in that building would be perfect.

I'm sure no body wants to see a whole political arguement as to why the whole thing was unnecessary and should never have occured, however I will say I disagree. There was little reason for it to be protested against. While I understand their points, its imo unreasonable (for many different reasons).

*Blows dust away* 2013 fright nights (and as a year in general) was an incredible year, the park needs to bring fright nights back to how it was around this time. Every maze was good rather than 1 great maze and the rest mediocre.

*Blows dust away* 2013 fright nights (and as a year in general) was an incredible year, the park needs to bring fright nights back to how it was around this time. Every maze was good rather than 1 great maze and the rest mediocre.

*Blows dust away* 2013 fright nights (and as a year in general) was an incredible year, the park needs to bring fright nights back to how it was around this time. Every maze was good rather than 1 great maze and the rest mediocre.

The issue with last year was precicely them not focusing on mazes. The mazes were awful and the mazes is the main part of the event. They need to focus on the mazes rather than the money involved in IPs. 
Over time the park theming for fright nights has improved alot, however thr event itself has become dramatically worse. Once again this is due to the lack in maze quality. 
2012 for instance was an unbelievable fright night year. Park themeing was awful, but mazes like Asylum and Experiment 10 MADE the event. They were INCREDIBLE.
 
They really need to focus on maze quality as 95% of people who go to the event go to get scared, which leads you to the mazes.

Why though, the tent mazes back in the day were so much better than all these outdoor mazes.

Ye I agree, but what can I say. Thorpe park has become lazy over the past 6 years. The park is going to **** tbh, 2012 was the last new rollercoaster. They need to pull their finger out and work harder, they have been batheing in the IP money and forgotten about us.

Ye I agree, but what can I say. Thorpe park has become lazy over the past 6 years. The park is going to **** tbh, 2012 was the last new rollercoaster. They need to pull their finger out and work harder, they have been batheing in the IP money and forgotten about us.

The fact that dark rides are not dark!  When you build a building, it should be dark inside the building as there is no natural light coming in.  The game should have lighting in the scenery section IMO.

It will have to be quite something for it to beat Experiment 10 and Asylum. Those 2 were the definition of extreme. Nothing since has ever been produced that can compete. 
They could be digging a hole here.

What I hope - a complete revamp of the event with priority on actual maze quality and original ideas for story/theming (goodbye IP’s) aswell as Freezer and Big Top returning. Would also very much like to see the return of park wide decoration and the atmospheric midnight syndicate tracks.
 
What I expect - Another lacklustre event with priority on using a damn IP to market the event with little to no quality in the mazes whatsoever aswell as Vulcan Peak and Big Top:showtime returning. This accompanied by those beautiful floodlights and ASDA Halloween sourced theming.

A complete revamp. Bring in someone with fresh ideas, money should be spent on the maze itself and not ip.  

Quality over quantity.
 
Better organisation, maybe a rethink on the maze queue system.
 
Close Derren Brown Ghost Train for good and create a haunted station themed maze. ?  
 
No more pound land theming  and less of these !!!!

The Asylum, The Asylum, The Asylum. By far the greatest maze they had their and that is not an unpopular opinion. 
I'm desperate to see that thing again, or if it's still controversial just name it what it originally was named... The Freezer.
Perfectly designed maze to make you feel disorientated and put you into pure panic.