Fright Nights 2016

[Cian]

DRAMA ALERT

[MachoMachine]

I can not confirm nor deny if I was doing something today...

 

[L7123456]

Very excited for these spooky things!

Very excited for Fright Nights!

Let us hope that this excitement isn't let down by average and dreadfully inconsistent mazes like last year..

[Cian]

Let's pray we don't see black drape mania this year!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Coaster]

My enthusiasm for Fright Nights has dwindled after last year, The Big Top was a complete flop and the other mazes weren't up to standard.  I much preferred it when the park had their own original ideas for mazes rather than the Lionsgate ones (or clowns... because no-one's done that before).

 

With that said, I'll give the new maze a go this year, hopefully it'll be better than I'm expecting.  Also it'd be great if they didn't all have powercuts every 20 minutes.

[JoshuaA]

TBH Fright Nights hasn't been been all that good recently..

When the market is ever so growing, and scare events are coming up with amazing ideas, Fright Nights just seem poor..

Thorpe need to do something amazing, something like Experiment 10, something which pushes the bar of Scare Attractions..

Instead of sh!tting out unfinished mazes like Big Top.

 

[Coaster]

2 hours ago, imindetonator said:

TBH Fright Nights hasn't been been all that good recently..

When the market is ever so growing, and scare events are coming up with amazing ideas, Fright Nights just seem poor..

Thorpe need to do something amazing, something like Experiment 10, something which pushes the bar of Scare Attractions..

Instead of sh!tting out unfinished mazes like Big Top.

 

I agree, when they opened Experiment 10 back in 2011 it blew everyone away, nobody had ever seen anything like it and everything was brilliantly thought-out.   The idea was original, the entire maze had a fantastic atmosphere due to the audio & theming and it really pushed the boundaries of what could be done with scare attractions in the UK.

 

...Fast forward to 2015 and we got a sub-standard clown maze with scaffolding and curtains for theming.  Thorpe need to put some creativity back into the mazes... oh, and actually make them scary again.

[RobF]

If you compare thorpe and towers last year the events quality were on two different scales . Sub terra was amazing, TOTT was good. Molly crow was interesting with a great finally. Thorpe was just same old poorly executed event

[MachoMachine]

I'm excited to see what this year holds, will definitely be an improvement from last year but I think it's best to go into this year trying not to dwell too much on the previous! Changes are happening and I'm excited to see what platform 15 entails with storyline and whereabouts on park. Big Top should be much more promising this year and I'm very much excited to see what spooky thing they do for hotel guests after Campfire stories was fab! If it all goes wrong I'll dress up and hide on the beach every night, don't worry pals

[JoshC.]

I think people are being a bit harsh on Fright Nights as a whole here.  

 

Yes, Big Top last year wasn't great theming-wise (though I believe that was more down to Scruffy Dog than Thorpe, but that's neither here nor there when it comes to the experience).  And I think Thorpe will know and accept that, and take action to improve upon it.  Let's also not forget that Big Top is the only example of Thorpe not 'finishing' a maze to a high enough standard.

 

However, from a creative standpoint, Thorpe have been pretty out there.  Since Experiment 10 (a maze which, whilst brilliant, was something which would only ever have had a short life span anyway in my opinion), we've seen...

-The Passing.  Cheap, but effective and reasonably well received once the flaws were ironed out.

-Cabin in the Woods.  An award winning maze which gained a lot of attention within the industry.  Did something that wasn't really done in the past.

-Blair Witch Project.  Not great in its first year, but massively improved in 2014/15 and a very different maze.

-My Bloody Valentine.  Nothing special in all honesty, but the claustrophobia thing seemed to work for many people.

-Studio 13.  Bog standard maze.

-Containment.  Catching on with the escape room craze, hopefully sees some improvements / adjustments this year.

 

Okay, they weren't perfect and had their flaws (some more than others), but they all showed flairs of orignaility, an attempt to push the boundary or just try and do something really well.  On top of that, there's been a massive increase in roaming actors, Face it Alone and overnight experiences.  So as a whole, Fright Nights has really grown recently, and really does have potential to be something special, with the right push.  

 

Platform 15 is also again something original, something which will seemingly mix indoor and outdoor elements, and has the chance for a good in-maze story and length.

 

7 hours ago, Coaster Jamie said:

My enthusiasm for Fright Nights has dwindled after last year, The Big Top was a complete flop and the other mazes weren't up to standard.  I much preferred it when the park had their own original ideas for mazes rather than the Lionsgate ones (or clowns... because no-one's done that before).

 

With that said, I'll give the new maze a go this year, hopefully it'll be better than I'm expecting.  Also it'd be great if they didn't all have powercuts every 20 minutes.

 

In honesty, I haven't noticed much difference in terms of quality between the Lionsgate mazes and original mazes.  They've always had suitable theming, similar-ish lengths and used the same tactics.  I prefer the themes of the original mazes, but that's about it.  Clown mazes are done a lot, yes, but that's because they're well received by the public.  If there's a demand for something, why not play to it?

 

The copious power cuts last season were very frustrating, but I don't think it's anything that we can blame Thorpe for given it was problems externally.

 

1 hour ago, RobF said:

If you compare thorpe and towers last year the events quality were on two different scales . Sub terra was amazing, TOTT was good. Molly crow was interesting with a great finally. Thorpe was just same old poorly executed event

 

Towers did step their game up last year, but every other year, Scarefest was just a standard, unremarkable event, which ticked along.  Yes, it had decent attractions, but they were always very safe and just did things well.  Hopefully it does give Thorpe a push to up their game a bit though!

[JoshuaA]

1 hour ago, BaronC. said:

Yes, Big Top last year wasn't great theming-wise (though I believe that was more down to Scruffy Dog than Thorpe, but that's neither here nor there when it comes to the experience).  And I think Thorpe will know and accept that, and take action to improve upon it.  Let's also not forget that Big Top is the only example of Thorpe not 'finishing' a maze to a high enough standard.

 

However, from a creative standpoint, Thorpe have been pretty out there.  Since Experiment 10 (a maze which, whilst brilliant, was something which would only ever have had a short life span anyway in my opinion), we've seen...

-The Passing.  Cheap, but effective and reasonably well received once the flaws were ironed out.

-Cabin in the Woods.  An award winning maze which gained a lot of attention within the industry.  Did something that wasn't really done in the past.

-Blair Witch Project.  Not great in its first year, but massively improved in 2014/15 and a very different maze.

-My Bloody Valentine.  Nothing special in all honesty, but the claustrophobia thing seemed to work for many people.

-Studio 13.  Bog standard maze.

-Containment.  Catching on with the escape room craze, hopefully sees some improvements / adjustments this year.

 

Being creative is good, but it has to be effective..

Sometimes you can be totally unoriginal but if you do that maze to a high standard it will still be good.

Big Top is a total example of that, it is a very unoriginal idea, and even worse done to a poor standard..

Containment was IMO very mediocre, some puzzles where too complicated, some where too easy..

And the intro was a bore, I also didn't get a single scare.

 

2 hours ago, BaronC. said:

Clown mazes are done a lot, yes, but that's because they're well received by the public.  If there's a demand for something, why not play to it?

Clown Mazes are good when there done well, Big Top was poorly received due to lack of theming, and some exceptionally poor scenes..

Like the Clairvoyant Tent, which you walk straight into the tent, before the actors points you into the next section..

Which is loads of black felt walls, no theming, no actors in this section. This scene alone gives Big Top a bad name..

2 hours ago, BaronC. said:

I think people are being a bit harsh on Fright Nights as a whole here.  

Well Fright Nights has fell behind the market recently..

There's so many events right now in the scare industry, Screamland,Scarefest, Sceamfest Burton, which all wipe the floor with Fright Nights..

Thorpe's mazes are usually very short, and with the popularity of the event, waiting three hours for a poor maze like TBT is not worth it.

I like Frights Nights, but thinking about it, it was a massive joke last year. The event could/and has been so much better.

 

[Deleted Users]

Experiment 10 was so impactful because at the time every other maze had a conga line setup. Some people have some serious rose tinted glasses if they think it was a better overall maze than Cabin or Big Top.

[L7123456]

It's such a shame Experiment 10 is gone. It looked like such a great attraction!

I completely agree with @imindetonator. Fright Nights last year was complete and utter shambles. Not one of the mazes (bar Saw Alive) were even average. They were all just so bad! MBV would have been an exception, but we were in and out within 90 seconds due to the shortening of it.

 

[TPJames]

14 hours ago, Amarghh said:

I'm excited to see what this year holds, will definitely be an improvement from last year but I think it's best to go into this year trying not to dwell too much on the previous! Changes are happening and I'm excited to see what platform 15 entails with storyline and whereabouts on park. Big Top should be much more promising this year and I'm very much excited to see what spooky thing they do for hotel guests after Campfire stories was fab! If it all goes wrong I'll dress up and hide on the beach every night, don't worry pals

I didn't see the point in going last year, I haven't been since 2014 and studio 13 and am not particularly interested in what's going on with FN this year(if I do visit a scare attraction this year it's likely to be Tulleys Farm instead).

 

The main issue I have with fright nights, and it seems even more an issue this year, is that the popularity of the event is ever increasing yet the number of mazes never actually expands! This year, they've even lost a maze and replaced it with a walk through attraction, meaning we only have the big top, saw alive, CITW and two walk throughs to accompany this. Thats a major issue in my eyes, with the mazes being so popular and all being relatively low throughput and suffering 'technical difficulties' all the time, only having 5 attractions, only 3 of them being mazes and two of them being walk throughs seems like a real issue. The event really should be expanding, and in fact instead it's stayed the same size, although feels like it's got even smaller with the fact they've replaced a maze with a walk through attraction. 

 

It it just implies that there will be completely horrendous queues, poor operations with too many fastracks sold and potentially sub-standard mazes. What the park really needs to be doing is putting on additional entertainment; shows, performances, street entertainment etc which will entice people to watch them and reduce the impact of the queues on the mazes. 

[Coaster]

2 hours ago, Loose Steel Bluth said:

Experiment 10 was so impactful because at the time every other maze had a conga line setup. Some people have some serious rose tinted glasses if they think it was a better overall maze than Cabin or Big Top.

Or just a different opinion...

 

[Marc]

12 hours ago, imindetonator said:

 

There's so many events right now in the scare industry, Screamland,Scarefest, Sceamfest Burton, which all wipe the floor with Fright Nights..

Thorpe's mazes are usually very short, and with the popularity of the event, waiting three hours for a poor maze like TBT is not worth it.

I like Frights Nights, but thinking about it, it was a massive joke last year. The event could/and has been so much better.

 

 

Im not saying any of these events are better / worse than eachother but Thorpe hit capacity on a number of times last Fright Nights which suggests to me the GP are still enjoying the offering.

[JoshC.]

19 hours ago, imindetonator said:

Well Fright Nights has fell behind the market recently..

There's so many events right now in the scare industry, Screamland,Scarefest, Sceamfest Burton, which all wipe the floor with Fright Nights..

Thorpe's mazes are usually very short, and with the popularity of the event, waiting three hours for a poor maze like TBT is not worth it.

I like Frights Nights, but thinking about it, it was a massive joke last year. The event could/and has been so much better.

 

 

I don't see how it is fallen behind the market, but I guess that's just a differing opinion.  

 

I think one thing which you're missing though is that, regardless of your personal opinion, Fright Nights is still loved by thousands of people.  Yes, the queues can be long and difficult, and yes the length of the mazes isn't the best.  But mazes are still well received and general adored by the vast majority of the public, and the fact still stands that it is the largest theme park Halloween event in the country, and one of the largest in general.  I'm not saying that any of this an excuse to be mediocre or anything, but it's something to keep in mind when enthusiasts are being so hyper-critical of the event.

 

9 hours ago, Loose Steel Bluth said:

Experiment 10 was so impactful because at the time every other maze had a conga line setup. Some people have some serious rose tinted glasses if they think it was a better overall maze than Cabin or Big Top.

 

Totally agree about the rose tinted glasses.  Everyone seems to forget that Experiment 10 had a poor second half, a lazy ending (and an even lazier one in its second year) and suffered with terrible throughputs, meaning that people eventually had to share the isolation rooms, losing their effect.  And it was very short.  

 

Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but it would only ever have been a short term attraction.  The isolation stuff would have worn off and become a burden in the long run.  And with more mazes doing similar tactics, and Face it Alone about too, it just would have lost its appeal.  Though I haven't done it, part of me wonders how long Sub Species at Towers will last, especially if that style of attractions becomes more popular.

 

8 hours ago, TPJames said:

The main issue I have with fright nights, and it seems even more an issue this year, is that the popularity of the event is ever increasing yet the number of mazes never actually expands! This year, they've even lost a maze and replaced it with a walk through attraction, meaning we only have the big top, saw alive, CITW and two walk throughs to accompany this. Thats a major issue in my eyes, with the mazes being so popular and all being relatively low throughput and suffering 'technical difficulties' all the time, only having 5 attractions, only 3 of them being mazes and two of them being walk throughs seems like a real issue. The event really should be expanding, and in fact instead it's stayed the same size, although feels like it's got even smaller with the fact they've replaced a maze with a walk through attraction. 

 

It it just implies that there will be completely horrendous queues, poor operations with too many fastracks sold and potentially sub-standard mazes. What the park really needs to be doing is putting on additional entertainment; shows, performances, street entertainment etc which will entice people to watch them and reduce the impact of the queues on the mazes. 

 

I don't exactly see much difference between a maze and a walkthrough for Thorpe.  They're all marketed as the same, all operate the same (well, presumably Platform 15 will) and all appeal the same.  The only real difference is that what you're calling a maze is indoors, and what you're calling a walkthrough is outdoors.  They have similar throughputs and similar styles, so I don't particularly see why it matters in the grand scheme of things?  Also, let's not forget about Containment, even if it is an upcharge attraction.

 

Thorpe did do some 'street entertainment' in some sense last year.  The roamers would set up in certain areas of the park and invite guests to compete in games, for the chance to win Lionsgate DVDs.  They were always fun to watch too, so that helped.  And in the past few seasons, they did have small scale shows in the dome.  I totally agree its something which would help massively in so many ways, but I guess space is the big issue at the moment.

[holtjammy16]

On 8/11/2016 at 3:19 PM, jonny9403 said:

 

 

On 8/12/2016 at 2:36 PM, StevenVig said:

It certainly is a ride area, without a doubt. It shocks me that the maze will be in an actual ride area, I'm sure there's some H&S Risks there

 

Are those hedge/bushes new? Don't see why they couldn't have a maze go through there if all Saw's lower parts of tracks are fenced off, the path doesn't look any closer to the tracks then Colossus' pathways are

[mrmatt]

Do you think that the line up that has been revealed from Thorpe park is all we re getting or do you reckon they have something else up their sleeves? 

 

Also I can't remember last year, when did fast tracks go on sale?

[Matt10]

I don't know if this has been said, but since it is based on the railway tracks, could platform 15 only be a dusk opening maze? It seems a bit flawed if it is considering its the one that is being promoted the most.

[0wl]

I think it's safe to suggest platform 15 will include a chunk which is indoors since it's being branded as a maze rather than a scare zone

[KingNemesis]

30 minutes ago, 0wl said:

I think it's safe to suggest platform 15 will include a chunk which is indoors since it's being branded as a maze rather than a scare zone

 

A scare maze doesn't have to be indoors, it's just easier for theming purposes and suits oor british weather better

[Matt 236]

Who's to say there won't be tents or small marquees involved anyway. Or knowing Merlin, probably shipping containers.

 

Hopefully this will be better than Big Top was.

[MattyMoo]

I think Big Top got a lot of unnecessary flak - I quite enjoyed it last year - the Brave It Alone was certainly worth the extra money!

[KingNemesis]

3 hours ago, MattyMoo said:

I think Big Top got a lot of unnecessary flak - I quite enjoyed it last year - the Brave It Alone was certainly worth the extra money!

 

They tried to do a CoS and have an outside Barker scene but was in the wrong place as if a group was quick through the first section then he just palmed you off, There was about 2 actors most times and sometimes I walked through it without a single scare... Sometimes never saw an actor...

 

Did it about 3-4 times and had a crap experience everytime.

 

The right idea was there but felt very rushed and half arsed.