SPOILERS: Fright Nights 2016

[JoshC.]

The spoiler thread for all things Fright Nights 2016.  No need to use spoiler tags, and be as in depth as you want!

 

Warning:  Unless filmed during Thursday's media night, POVs / photos of the mazes are not allowed and will be removed.  Don't try to record / photograph inside in the mazes.

 

 

[Jack]

how do the fright night mazes compare to tulleys this year? I've heard chop shop is like the final 30 seconds of cabin but with chainsaws and lasts about 10 minutes, if so if ****ting myself. Otherwise I think thorpes line up looks a lot stronger this year:

 

Clown maze: big top>pandemonium

Classics: saw>the cellar

Disorienting maze: Cabin>Hellements

 

although colony seems to be far superior to platform and Blair witch.

 

 

I'm just interested to see how the 2 compare

[JoshuaA]

6 minutes ago, Jack said:

how do the fright night mazes compare to tulleys this year? 

Clown maze: big top>pandemonium

Classics: saw>the cellar

Disorienting maze: Cabin>Hellements

 

although colony seems to be far superior to platform and Blair witch.

 

 

I'm just interested to see how the 2 compare

Going to FN tonight so I'll write back later on when I get back.

But so far I think Tulleys looks better, but Thorpe seems miles better than last year.

And after looking at a POV of Big Top it looks pretty great, especially compared to last year.

 

 

[400400]

We had no chainsaw ending in the big top and the group in front were really slow [emoji20] but I still really enjoyed it

What do people think they should change in there. Personally I think they should have clown costumes hanging down all over the dressing room. Because it seemed like the actors had no where to hide

[Coaster]

My reviews based on yesterday's experiences;

 

The Big Top

Wow, what an improvement!

Unlike last year the maze takes place in one tent, with no outside sections.  After the first scene there is a simple strobe maze which is a good idea, however I feel that the flash rate on the strobes was too infrequent; a few strobes going off at different times would work better IMO, as you couldn't really see the actors.  There was also light leaking in through the fire exits during the daytime, which spoiled the effect somewhat - and a few small items of theming on the netting wouldn't go amiss.

My favourite scenes were the dressing room and the prop room, both of which were very well themed and very effective.  I also liked the fact that the theming in the "clown wash" scene forces you to interact with it, as well as providing good hiding places for actors.

I felt that there weren't enough actors in the first section of the maze, with us only encountering two actors in the first half on our second run-through.

 

Overall, IMO it is a huge improvement on last year, but still not an "outstanding" maze - though there is room for further tweaks/improvements.

6/10

 

Cabin in the Woods

Cabin was good yesterday, though there hasn't been much in the way of changes aside from a few new items of theming.  The costumes were good with a pumpkin head, scarecrow and the 'mouth-face' all appearing on our first run-through, however by our third there were less actors wearing masks and more with just generic face paint.

The glass wall was only utilised on one of our run-throughs which is a shame, as it's a good effect.

I was disappointed to see that the spinning tunnel is still not working!  I think it has been broken for two seasons now which is a shame, as it added a lot to the maze IMO.

 

Overall Cabin was good, but not brilliant.  Like Big Top, it only needs some small changes IMO.

6.5/10

 

Saw Alive

Saw Alive remains virtually unchanged to previous years aside from a few small lighting changes, and in all honesty I've had much better goes through than yesterday's.  Whilst there are some great theming elements I feel that the maze has become quite stale, as after 6 years of operation there have been no scene changes.

Also, the actors weren't all in the roles of Saw - however some were.

5/10

 

Blair Witch

Blair Witch was alright.  It's similar to previous years however some new theming items have been added (illuminated by small red lights), which was a nice touch.  The "shed" is the same as in previous years which is a shame, as there could be so much more done to create a finale than someone banging on the walls.

The actors were good, and the overgrown nature of the maze means that they have plenty of hiding places.

 

I'm not sure why there are claims of "new scenes" on the park map.

4/10

 

Platform 15

Platform 15 is the new attraction for 2016, and a replacement for My Bloody Valentine.

 

The maze starts off with a talk from an actor which sets the scene well.  Following this, the walk up to the first scene has no theming aside from a corrugated metal wall on the left, and a few small items scattered around.

The train scene was good.  I liked the fire, however on our run throughs it went off well before we got near the train, therefore didn't have the effect it could have had.  The lighting was good, as were the bodies in the carriages - nice job there.

The following section is diabolical.  There is no real theming, and the actors cannot surprise you as the paths are far too wide for any scares to be generated.  The lack of shrubbery, or obstacles, means that there is nowhere for the actors to hide - and the path ahead is clearly outlined, removing any possible fear.

After this we approached the final tunnel, which takes place under a section of Saw: The Ride.  This consisted of a walk through a dark tunnel in a straight line.  No corners, no theming, and only one actor.    Despite the layout being boring, they could have still done more with it; they could have had theming elements on the walls lighting up as you walk past, things dangling from the ceiling, which would have been better than nothing.

At the end of the tunnel there is a small turn into a finale scene.  During this an actor tries to summon the "dead conductor" and then something from above lights up and you walk under it to the exit.  This had no effect on me, however others may enjoy it.

 

Overall, for me, there were two positives; audio was good throughout the attraction, with speakers lining the majority of the walkthrough.  Lighting is also good in the train scene, as is the fire effect.

The layout of the maze is boring, with little happening throughout.  The train scene is the highlight, and the only real item of theming; however it's something they already had!

I find it saddening; we used to get fantastic new attractions like Experiment 10, why has the quality been reduced to this?

 

Overall I can categorically say that Platform 15 is the worst scare maze I have ever experienced.

2/10

 

General event

It was great to see more parkwide theming this year, with some great displays around the bridge, outside Cabin's entrance and other locations around the park.  With that said, it was a shame that the ride stations didn't have anything.

 

Audio was good, with most mazes having audible queue music creating a big atmosphere; especially Big Top!  I found it interesting that the director audio has been reused despite it not being a heavy park-wide theme, but I'm glad they're using that dispatch music again!

 

I saw the roaming actors twice, however only one of them was wearing the E10 gas mask.

 

Overall the event feels better than last year in some ways, but in my opinion, far lower than the standard it has been in previous years.

 

 

 

[Matt A]

So are all the rides which usually have Fright Nights themed dispatches using the Director/Studio 13 one's this year? 

[Jack]

1 hour ago, EpicSmatty said:

So are all the rides which usually have Fright Nights themed dispatches using the Director/Studio 13 one's this year? 

 

I had 4 rides on stealth on Thursday media night and unusually I heard both twice. Director was being used for the first 3 but when we rode at 9:30 it had the big top one

[JoshC.]

8 hours ago, Coaster Jamie said:

The Big Top

however I feel that the flash rate on the strobes was too infrequent; a few strobes going off at different times would work better IMO, as you couldn't really see the actors. 

 

Interesting, as I felt this is why it worked so well.  The strobe timing was perfect at making things disorienting, and the actors already seemed to know how to take advantage of it - I regularly felt like I was seeing two of the same actors when in fact I was facing mesh fencing and the actor was standing right next to me.  Different strobes at different times would lose that effect for me I think.  It's still a surprise I like that part as much as I do given how I disliked Asylum (and also TotT's strobe scene in 2012..).

 

May as well chuck in a few more spoilery stuff...

 

Big Top

I like the new take on the story this year; feels a bit more 'backstage at the carnival', than a journey through the carnival.  The Madame Mephisto sequence is a nice start.  I like how the end of the mesh maze is really open, which made it quite unclear where you had to go.  After that, all the scenes were really well themed, and the clown wash room was fab.  Chainsaw ending was good too; both Ryan and I turned the wrong way to almost walk into the actor which was a bit of a shock.

 

Platform 15

The beginning sequence is fun, and it's nice to see  a good story at the beginning (Studio 13 did this very well for example, so it's nice to see the idea replicated when there's more space).  The train sequence is alright, but nothing of note really.  The maze leading up to the tunnel is too open and lacking in actors, making it difficult for their to be any real scares, and it loses any chance for the creepy feel I was really expecting since you can see too many people.  The tunnel is very long and needs more actors, and the ending can be ruined if you catch up with the group in front of you (like we did).

 

Definitely a work in progress, but I think with some more actors and some more stuff in the middle it could be a fun attraction!

 

Containment

Completely different this year and a lot of fun; my second favourite attraction of Thursday night.  Actors were brilliant and the clues actually made sense this year!

 

Saw Alive

Saw feels like a dependable maze now, and the actors really did a great job.  Much like last year, it very theatrical as opposed to in your face scary, which is exactly what it should be!

 

Cabin in the Woods

I'm not sure what it is about Cabin, but it seems to slowly get worse every year.  I remember in its first year, there was an actor and a special effect in every room.  Since then, there haven't been actors in all the rooms and some of them you walk through waiting for something to happen, before getting nothing and leaving disappointed.  It's a shame as there's so much potential and scope, but it just isn't fulfilling it.

 

Blair Witch

Maybe after being my favourite maze last year I hyped this up a bit too much, but I didn't like it much this year.  Actor positioning was a bit off, and it just felt a bit wasted in places.  Something which feels easily fixed though!

 

So I really enjoyed 3 attractions, and the other 3 have issues which can be fixed reasonably quickly.  It must be said I found all the actors to be of good standard, though I had very few touch me.  It's not necessary to scare, but it felt like there were places where it was appropriate to do so, but they just didn't seem to take advantage of it?  Maybe it was just settling in stuff, but we shall see.

 

 

[joshjjj]

My personal scare factor ratings. In order of scariness.

Cabin In The Woods - 5

Saw Alive - 4

Blair Witch - 4

Big Top - 4

Platform 15 (after dark) - 0.5

Platform 15 (before dark) - 0

Seriosly do not waste your time with platform 15, we saw about 3 actors throughout the whole thing, bad actors and just very bland...

[400400]

We did a bts of cabin and saw. We were aloud to film everything so expect a video of it in the coming days

[noseyelephant]

Yesterday I started on the big top and it was truely awful. One actor in the strobe room and 2 in the prop room. Somehow caught up with the group infront of us and a group also caught up with our group so 3 groups ended up together which didnt help it be even the slightest bit scary. Really wanted to do platform 15 as it was new so joined the 90 min queue. I cannot stress how ridiculous this scare attraction is. It begins with an actor telling the group a story whilst walking down a pathway, me and my partner were at the back of a huge group (get the feeling they were increasing group sizes to eat the queue quicker as the fasttrack queue was enormous as well as the main queue) but this meant we couldnt hear a word she was saying. Think they could do with hooking this actor up with a microphone if they are going to let such large numbers through at a time! We then reached the train scene which gave us something to look at at least, but nothing happened. When walking the very long walk to the tunnel, again, nothing happened. You cannot drive and promote a maze praising it for its length if its literally a walk along a  gravel pathway with the occasional grave stone. When at the tunnel,  2 actors made groaning noises and then stood together having a drink of water whilst another told us to walk through the tunnel in a conga line fashion. The tunnel had plenty of scope to be scary as it was dark and confined but apart from the actor who was trying to summon spirits at the end,  there was noone in there. A light flashed and there was a bang and then we were asked to leave the tunnel quickly - we left and everyone just looked around wondering if that was seriously it. We did this in the dark expecting it to be brilliant but would have been better off doing it in the day as the queue was so much shorter!! 90 mins for an absolute joke of an attraction, honestly would only go to it again if it had no queue. Only positive I can say was that the music was my cup of tea, which was lucky as we heard it continuously for so long!!

Hopefully things will get better for next week but that shouldn't be the case - they are shut during the week so have no excuse to have such poor attractions in my opinion. If they want rehearsal nights, which this could have been passed off as, they should charge people less to get in and advertise it as such!

[RobF]

Reading your review of platform is quite sad, I have heard lots of negetivity towards it  but from the bridge at the back of loggers round was quite good, people in the tunnel with flashlights kept chasing and jumping in the faces of people in the conga line then the end scence is where the conductor is that gets lit up. I agree as an overall attraction it needs work and a mic system for the talking scenes ( sealife wearable pa used for talks ect would be good)

 

the train scence could have so much potential with some black felt screens creating a zig zag along the train would make some great hiding scare opportunities 

[MattyMoo]

Reading the FN reviews thus far make me glad to be swerving it this year - by contrast, I can honestly say that out of 8 haunts at Tulleys, only Hellements was poor - even the other haunts that were supposed to be less scary/intense ticked all the boxes for me. I think the minimum amount of actors I saw in a "haunt" was 6 or 7 from memory!

 

That aside though - the rides at Thorpe do look particularly good this year lit up at night!

[noseyelephant]

Glad you had a better experience in the tunnel than me RobF but my point is that if what you experienced is meant to be what happens, this should happen on everyone's run through!! So many people are going to be left disappointed if they had the experience I had, which is sad but TP need to pull their finger out and sort it out!

[JoshuaA]

On 08/10/2016 at 0:08 PM, Jack said:

how do the fright night mazes compare to tulleys this year? I've heard chop shop is like the final 30 seconds of cabin but with chainsaws and lasts about 10 minutes, if so if ****ting myself. Otherwise I think thorpes line up looks a lot stronger this year:

 

Clown maze: big top>pandemonium

Classics: saw>the cellar

Disorienting maze: Cabin>Hellements

 

although colony seems to be far superior to platform and Blair witch.

 

 

I'm just interested to see how the 2 compare

After going to both events, I'd say Tulleys is much stronger.

If I had to compare the events:

 

Old Classics: The Cellar>SAW

Clown/Circus themed mazes: Big Top>Pandemonium

Long inside/outside attractions: The Colony >>>>>>>Platform 15

Weaker attractions: Creepy Cottage>Blair Witch

Maze with Hillbillies: Chop Shop>Cabin

 

 

 

[Ryan]

The Ouiji board scene in Platform is pretty decent if you're at the front, but anywhere else in the conga  you can't see it. The tunnel is far too long and needs something in it (actors, strobes, inflatable walls etc.) but it's definitely better than when I went in on Media night.

[jessica2]

8 hours ago, noseyelephant said:

Yesterday I started on the big top and it was truely awful. One actor in the strobe room and 2 in the prop room. Somehow caught up with the group infront of us and a group also caught up with our group so 3 groups ended up together which didnt help it be even the slightest bit scary. Really wanted to do platform 15 as it was new so joined the 90 min queue. I cannot stress how ridiculous this scare attraction is. It begins with an actor telling the group a story whilst walking down a pathway, me and my partner were at the back of a huge group (get the feeling they were increasing group sizes to eat the queue quicker as the fasttrack queue was enormous as well as the main queue) but this meant we couldnt hear a word she was saying. Think they could do with hooking this actor up with a microphone if they are going to let such large numbers through at a time! We then reached the train scene which gave us something to look at at least, but nothing happened. When walking the very long walk to the tunnel, again, nothing happened. You cannot drive and promote a maze praising it for its length if its literally a walk along a  gravel pathway with the occasional grave stone. When at the tunnel,  2 actors made groaning noises and then stood together having a drink of water whilst another told us to walk through the tunnel in a conga line fashion. The tunnel had plenty of scope to be scary as it was dark and confined but apart from the actor who was trying to summon spirits at the end,  there was noone in there. A light flashed and there was a bang and then we were asked to leave the tunnel quickly - we left and everyone just looked around wondering if that was seriously it. We did this in the dark expecting it to be brilliant but would have been better off doing it in the day as the queue was so much shorter!! 90 mins for an absolute joke of an attraction, honestly would only go to it again if it had no queue. Only positive I can say was that the music was my cup of tea, which was lucky as we heard it continuously for so long!!

Hopefully things will get better for next week but that shouldn't be the case - they are shut during the week so have no excuse to have such poor attractions in my opinion. If they want rehearsal nights, which this could have been passed off as, they should charge people less to get in and advertise it as such!

Glad I'm not the only person who was unimpressed by big top. I think it was due to going through it in a group of about 10/12 people, was too much! Meant it wasn't scary as actor to guest ratio was poor. First actor in opening scene was good but the rest overall I wasn't impressed by. Not joking a clown was literally just walking up and down, looked like a normal person tbh not scary at all. A few good actors but it was laughable how poor it was in many rooms due to lack of actors. 

I liked the music. But queueing for 90 minutes with it you probably would have lost it haha. Just glad I had a fasttrack but most of my group were unimpressed and didn't want to go in another maze after that.

Saw alive was a lot better even though I was in the middle of another large group. Only one actor in bathroom scene but she did a great job and was pretty scary, as did the guy on the bed in one of the rooms with the strobe lighting, very intense and lots of surprises!

Happy I'm going to Tulleys next week, otherwise I'd have wanted to do more of the Thorpe mazes but I wasn't that bothered given people's opinions on the others. Platform 15 had a 90 minute queue lol.

Roaming actors were good fun, we bumped into them several times, some were more scary/jumping out at people, some were more chatty asking 'what are you looking at' and things like that (which the lady with the clipboard asked just after I took the last photo haha)

[400400]

In big top go to the left of the table and go slow and u will be alone

[Ryan]

Yeah it's very easy to separate yourself from the group in Big Top, me and Amy went through just us 2 most of it today and it was great! 

[jessica2]

Should have done that! Though I tried going my own way in the strobe area but the actor turned me around haha though I was getting a bit lost in there. To be fair in the first room she shouted for us to go quickly so we couldn't stand around for long lol. That and before each room the other people didn't want to go first so caused a few build ups of people. Maybe if it was just us 4 it would have been a lot better!!

[MachoMachine]

I'll write some quick first impression thoughts 

Big Top -

fav. Literally loved this maze and it's such an improvement from last year. Even though there was a lack of actors the ones in it really tried their hardest. Lists of spooky moments and the room with the masks in was wonderful <3 got lost in the maze several times! Being front of the group really helps. Best scares. I wish they'd show off the theming  more obviously outside though!

Cabin In the Woods -

Actors in this really went all out. Despite it getting stale now after a few years they still use different scare tactics and after being trapped in a room with 'Terry' and having actors follow me throughout rooms was really intimidating. Super spooky.

platform 15 -

did this in the light for less spooky feels and it was ok! Not amazing but not awful. The tunnel was waaaaay too long and it just made it awkward. I loved the seance bit and the bit with the train! Hopefully I'll do this in the dark tomorrow to get super spoop.

blair witch -

nothing new really aside from the hanging witch signs but the jump scares this time were creative. People hiding in tents and crawling on the floor. Shed was bad as usual but smelt nice. 

Saw -

awful awful awful run through of this. No actors in first room and no scares. Gonna do this one during the beginning of mazes opening tomorrow to try and get a better go. 

 

Roaming actors werre spooky and interactive I love. 

Thars my A* review x

[400400]