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Fright Nights 2015


Jack F

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My review of last night, there will be spoilers!

 

Cabin In The Woods - Was easily the best maze yesterday, lots of smoke and lots of actors made it so much better than everything else. This maze is my favourite at the park as the rooms are themed well, there's different routes and the actors always seem to play the role well. I loved the scientist in there yesterday introducing me to his board of 'creations' (the list of the monsters on the whiteboard) and panicking that they were coming to attack us. It seemed to follow the plot of the film a lot better, starting off fairly calm and then hell breaking loose when going underground. 

 

8/10

 

 

The Big Top - Lots of nice ideas in this, doing the outside bit was cool. The first tent definitely needs a lot more going on in there. Also the mirror rooms were a bit meh, could probably do with more smoke and actors in there (even more mirrors really). But it definitely has potential and I'm sure it's going to improve a lot, I can see it becoming a fan favourite eventually (if only for the ending ;) )

 

5.5/10 (has potential to rise to 7.5 or even 8 out of 10)

 

 

My Bloody Valentine - Absolute dire, the beginning bit is better now with the sheriff being attacked and the groups being split through 2 doors. From there it just goes downhill though, walking through boring corridors and all the impressive theming from previous years has disappeared. The hospital scene has disappeared which is a shame as theming in there was a good quality.It's a shame as this was a good maze before, but now it's been stripped down so it's very short and very disappointing.

 

2/10

 

 

Saw Alive - This has definitely improved this year, the actors seemed to be playing their roles well with the theme of the film and not just randomly jumping around. Guy in pendulum room was very good and stuck to the original scene in the film. I've been wanting Saw Alive to step away from the random scaring route and go along the plot of the film route for ages, so hopefully they keep this up. -

 

7/10

 

 

Blair Witch Project - Another maze that has improved this year, there seems to be a lot more shrubbery and branches in the route of the maze meaning you have to duck more. Actors still do their random running around, but one actor stopped us and started telling us a story about the Witch about half way through the maze which was very cool. The only big disappointment on this maze is the shed ending has been ruined. now you can see light all the way through the shed, needs to have the curtain flaps at all entrances/exits and lots of smoke like before.

 

7/10 - Bring back the awesome shed and this will go up to an 8

 

 

 

Some extra points on the night -

  • The theming around the Bush BBQ area was very good and made the park seem like it was actually hosting a Halloween event
  • There needs to be a lot more of this around the rest of the park though, hopefully they will add more
  • The roaming actors were very good, entertaining people in queue lines etc. I saw at one point a ringleader type character choreographing a routine with the clowns and other actors
  • The actual queueline for MBV seemed very short, maybe they're expecting it to not be as popular this year 
  • I liked being able to film/take photos in the mazes for a one off, got some good footage/photos
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I have put my reviews of the mazes in a TR with photos, link here: http://forum.maniahub.com/topic/11027-thorpe-park-fright-nights-preview-evening-thursday-8th-oct-2015-ptr-with-reviews/

 

Be aware it does contain some spoilers!

(I have created a seperate TR so people can still browse through the general Thorpe Park Trip Reports thread without stumbling across spoilers for Fright Nights).

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Can someone answer me honestly here,is this year better than last year? because I have heard a lot of poor reviews from last night. I found last year very good so Is this year an improvement or has it got worse?

 

It's hard to judge on preview night, every single attraction will improve over the coming days/weeks, whether that's with physical effects/theming added or actors improving.

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It's hard to judge on preview night, every single attraction will improve over the coming days/weeks, whether that's with physical effects/theming added or actors improving.

Yeah your right. I'll find out tommorow what it's like and then I might go back in half term (or next Friday evening) to see if it's improved.

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Can someone answer me honestly here,is this year better than last year? because I have heard a lot of poor reviews from last night. I found last year very good so Is this year an improvement or has it got worse?

Going by the preview night, I would say no.  Hopefully it will improve as it was the preview, but I felt that last year the preview night was the best day in terms of the mazes!

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Just left the park tonight, so here is my reviews:

The Big Top - 2/10 - Awful actors, just did some weird clicking noise in your face. Rushed through, black curtain themeing. Awful.

Saw Alive - 6/10 - Much better than last few years, followed the story of the films more and showed more light so you could see the good themeing.

Blair Witch - 7/10 - Once again better than last year, more actors and a few more scares. The trees were more overgrown so you couldn't see where they was going to jump out as much.

Cabin - 9/10 - Another good year for the Cabin. First out of two run throughs tonight was amazing. Lots and lots of scare, loads of actors and it just seemed longer.

Bloody Valentine - 9.5/10 - Don't see the hate for it this year. Absolutely amazing both routes tonight. Lots of actors, lots of scares, wasn't rushed through so lasted a good 3 plus minutes. Last corridor was intense and good final jump scars. Overall my favourite maze this year easily. After all the bad reviews I wasn't expecting much but I was proven wrong. Amazing maze.

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So if the queue times website is correct, Colossus and The Swarm are both currently closed along with Tidal Wave, Vortex, Samurai, Rumba Rapids, Rocky Express and Loggers Leap.

Two major coasters down on opening night isn't great...

I left about 10 minutes ago and both was coasters will open. Both has small downtime though the day but was open.

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Views from last night featuring some spoilers...
 


The Big Top
I was really looking forward to this. I was a bit dubious about the going in and out of tents and was worried it might not work, but kept an open mind.

Unfortunately, our first go was a bit of a drab. Predictable scares (so predictable in fact that I was surprised they are even making them, like in the Fortune Teller scene), little in the way of anything exciting or special and very meh. The second go, however, was much better - more actors, more understanding of the maze and just in general better quality!

Apparently the actors only got inside the maze for the first time at 4pm yesterday, which would explain the average-ness of the first go, and the better-ness of the second go (since actors had settled in more). The maze doesn't seem to be finished yet (I hope not at least!) as there's loads of blank spots crying out for bits of theming.

One of my biggest issues with the maze though is how when you go outside after the first two tents, there's no real scare. It's all very blasé and you simply walk out into the open. It just doesn't give a good impression to guests watching (either from the queue or from the bridge). Hopefully this will come with time. The cliché chainsaw ending is there, but it doesn't seem to really fit with the maze. Plus, this sort of ending never really 'gets' me.

So all in all, it's a nice attraction and will hopefully grow into something more. But right now, it needs more theming, a bit more story and a bit more actor knowledge of the route. These should all come though..

Blair Witch Project
My favourite attraction of the night. Started off with a nice little back story. There's then quite a while of little happening, building up suspense, before plenty of actors appear and give a nice eerie feel. I like how the route gets quite narrow at one point too, thanks to the heavy amount of trees. The ending again feels like a cheap way to finish an attraction, but it seems to do the job.

Saw Alive
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for this, despite many others never really liking it. This year, however, it really seems to have stepped up a notch. There's good levels of light / smoke / etc. which display the attraction's theming very well. But what is really making this is the set of actors - VERY good, fitting in with the films' general idea and all very strong in general. This really helps.

A bit of a bug bear - I feel like they need to have a female actor tied up in the Freezer room. They get a lot of things right from the films, and yet don't take full advantage of one of the more well-known traps!

Cabin in the Woods
This remains more fun than scary, which is no bad thing. It's nice to be able to choose your route, but I don't think it's as effective as in it's first year (possibly down to throughput issues I guess?). The spinning tunnel wasn't spinning, which is a shame. The ending only had one or two actors, but needs a good 4 or 5 to actually be effective and memorable.

Again, the thing which made this for me was the actors. They were very good at creating some brilliant, atmospheric moments, and knew the maze well enough to be able to create some very creepy / jumpy moments. Also, a massive shoutout to the female actor in the queue line area - which was incredible!

My Bloody Valentine
In 2013, I didn't particularly like this. It suffered from the problems of Experiment 10 in 2012 of not having enough actors and being too dark at point. It was my joint least favourite attraction, along with Blair Witch.

In 2014, unlike Blair Witch, things didn't really improve. It even felt cheapened compared to the previous year.

This year, things have gone downhill again. A shorter route (presumably due to the location), seemingly less theming, and not so many actors make it very weak maze in my opinion. I just can't see why this has a 5/5 scare rating.

I get that the attraction is very enclosed and claustrophobic. It does that well, and it does even get me feeling a bit worried. But the trouble is, these narrow points make it hard to place any actors there. The actors are in scenes that are too open, which just means their scares loose effect. Having the split point at the start meant there was no risk of separation (a great thing in the past), and it was even worse that there was one side which was completely void of actors.

The main positive from this though is the first scene, giving a back story and featuring a great jump moment (and indeed, one that I genuinely wasn't expecting). It certainly sets the tone for how the maze should be - unfortunately it just doesn't make it.

In general, MBV just needs a massive re-design in my opinion.

---

Roaming actors were great, and did a great job at doing general interaction, set show pieces and scaring; a good sign. I particularly like the Bearded Lady.


So all in all, my experiences reflect the fact that this was (technically) a preview night. Big Top in particular needs more time to settle in, and a bit more theming (I believe some more has already been added!). However, one big plus is the fact that all of the actors seem to be very good at their job! In past, there's always been a few who just haven't really been up to the standard you want (not necessarily a criticism here by the way - this can be understandable, especially if it's their first time working in scare attractions). But this year, all the actors seemed very good, and hopefully can really grow into their roles as time goes on.

I look forward to trying everything again, and especially seeing how Big Top develops, and experiencing what Containment is like. Also interested to once again be experiencing Face it Alone!

And finally, just a ranking of the attractions, best to worst...

Blair Witch Project
Saw Alive
Cabin in the Woods
Big Top
[6:50am cycle to work in fog this morning]
My Bloody Valentine

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Tonight was rubbish compared to preview

MBV - 1/10 needs to be scrapped

TBT - 2/10 it's funny, I want to be scared

SA - 4/10 nowhere near as good as last night

CITW - 6/10 pretty intense, gets a bit boring if you do it too much

TBWP - 9/10 only maze that actually scared me tonight

Whereas last night (preview night)

MBV - 1/10 just as bad

SA - 7/10 great theming and some good acting

CITW - 9/10 So intense, walked through the whole maze alone!

TBWP - 10/10 I don't know why but I have a soft spot for Blair witch, I just love it, it's amazing

(Didn't do big top)

Let's hope we see some improvements for tomorrow!

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My top ten scares this year so far are:

10-Big top

9-HELLEMENTS (tulleys)

8-haunted house (tulleys)

7-saw alive

6-chop shop (tulleys)

5-colony (tulleys

4-cabin in the woods

3-haunted hayride (tulleys)

2-Blair witch

1-the cellar (tulleys)

I'm so excited to get down the scarefest for sub species the end games.

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