Fright Nights 2018 - General Discussion

[MarkC]

Surely it’s just the walking dead live extreme...

[Stuntman707]

Probably The Walking Dead : The Ride Extreme or something similar. Its practically half scare maze already. Just put some more panda eyed actors in old boiler suits and there you go, extreme!

[StevenVig]

I just need to clarify, that Terror at Amity High is not a maze or a scare zone. I don't know where people are getting this idea from.

 

It will just be roaming actors in the Amity area. Do not expect an "attraction".

 

Also, I wouldn't hold your breath on a final attraction reveal....

[JoshC.]

5 hours ago, StevenVig said:

I just need to clarify, that Terror at Amity High is not a maze or a scare zone. I don't know where people are getting this idea from.

 

It will just be roaming actors in the Amity area. Do not expect an "attraction".

 

Given it's listed as an attraction, surely it's fairly reasonable for people to expect a scare zone at the very least? Though arguably 'roaming actors in a specific area' is the definition of a scare zone in the first place...

 

But if they're listing a set of roaming actors as an attraction, then that's pretty poor, and shows how much they're scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to listing an attraction.

[Benin]

To be fair, half of the attractions at other Halloween events are scare zones with roaming actors, so Thorpe are just falling in line with everyone else...

[Mattgwise]

So the latest post on social media regarding the "annual pass preview" has caused a few issues with this offer of inviting friends along for £15 and them pointing out they may be able to use the mazes. Pretty much makes it no longer an annual pass holders preview for mazes. ??

 

☠️?ANNUAL PASSHOLDERS?☠️
Reminder – this Saturday (29/09) is your FRIGHT NIGHTS preview event where you'll be the first to scream your way through a selection of our mazes from 3-8PM.

PLUS - bring a mate along for 10 hours of adrenaline fuelled coaster action 'til 8PM FOR JUST £15! 

And who knows, there might even be a chance for them to join you as you take on our terrifying new FRIGHT NIGHTS mazes...

Keep your eyes peeled on the day for the chance to treat your mate to this exclusive sneak peek!

Book online now: http://thorpe.fun/W6xgp

[Ringo]

I get the feeling the park didn’t actually want to do a passholder preview event this year

[George]

is anyone there today ? 

[ItzAdam]

2 minutes ago, George said:

is anyone there today ? 

Il be heading down in a couple hours when the mazes open. Not expecting them to be running smoothly as it’s the first time the mazes will be open. Il be heading down to the press event though and il post my review of the event on here as well! 

 

[yeah]

About those pictures, unfortunately I can't post them now but I'm sure some better ones will be out today.

[ItzAdam]

To anyone that said fright nights will be rubbish this year... oh how I am so glad u are wrong

 

honestly this preview night was the best fright nights I have ever been to (and ive been to a lot) 

 

when they say “this year nowhere is safe” they mean it

 

everywhere I went there were clowns, clowns and oh look.. more clowns.

 

Props to the actors.. you guys were amazing! 

 

I wont review the mazes until ive done them all at press night but trust me, you do not want to miss this year. 

[Ringo]

I didn’t see any clowns but a few walkers. 

Not sold on audio, prefer The Director. 

 

Was expecting queues everywhere but was pleasantly surprised. 

[StevenVig]

Most of the audio hasn’t even been installed yet, please reserve your judgement until all the kinks have been ironed out

 

[ProudToServe]

20 hours ago, StevenVig said:

I just need to clarify, that Terror at Amity High is not a maze or a scare zone. I don't know where people are getting this idea from.

 

It will just be roaming actors in the Amity area. Do not expect an "attraction".

 

Also, I wouldn't hold your breath on a final attraction reveal....

You have just described a scare zone. 

11 hours ago, Ringo said:

I get the feeling the park didn’t actually want to do a passholder preview event this year

They weren’t expecting to have one untill

pass holders pointed out they actually listed a date back in March for a preview. So had no choice

35 minutes ago, StevenVig said:

Most of the audio hasn’t even been installed yet, please reserve your judgement until all the kinks have been ironed out

 

1. Why not? 2. Don’t be blunt with those who don’t have access to hear or know what the tracks are being created before they are actually played in the park. 

 

 It was a preview, surely all the tracks should have been “installed” or rather changed over (it’s pretty easy) for this event. No ifs no buts. All that was open should have had completed audio playing. 

[StevenVig]

1 hour ago, ProudToServe said:

You have just described a scare zone. 

They weren’t expecting to have one untill

pass holders pointed out they actually listed a date back in March for a preview. So had no choice

1. Why not? 2. Don’t be blunt with those who don’t have access to hear or know what the tracks are being created before they are actually played in the park. 

 

 It was a preview, surely all the tracks should have been “installed” or rather changed over (it’s pretty easy) for this event. No ifs no buts. All that was open should have had completed audio playing. 

 

First of all, people are expecting a scare zone that has specific theming or special effects etc. That is not the case with Terror at Amity High, it is simply just actors, that's it, nothing more. 

 

Secondly, why should all the audio have been installed? There could be many reasons why nothing was ready, for an event the park threw together last minute, because they had no choice. Today was a preview, and a preview it was. A preview is never the completed product, from Thursday onwards will be the completed event in all its glory. 

[Ringo]

@StevenVig So what’s your involvement in this new audio that you keep defending?

[StevenVig]

1 hour ago, Ringo said:

@StevenVig So what’s your involvement in this new audio that you keep defending?

I’m not “involved” with it, I just think people should refrain from bashing audio at an event that was not complete....

[Ringo]

58 minutes ago, StevenVig said:

I’m not “involved” with it, I just think people should refrain from bashing audio at an event that was not complete....

I went with the exclusive preview expectation that Merlin built it up to. This means it should be exactly the same as press night and General Public, I said I wasn’t sold on the new audio and I stand by it. I much prefer the director theme. 

 

Opinion is meant to be individual and I can’t believe a few days work before press night will change my thoughts on it. 

 

However I will visit next week and if there is an improvement I will state that.

[ProudToServe]

2 hours ago, StevenVig said:

 

First of all, people are expecting a scare zone that has specific theming or special effects etc. That is not the case with Terror at Amity High, it is simply just actors, that's it, nothing more. 

 

Secondly, why should all the audio have been installed? There could be many reasons why nothing was ready, for an event the park threw together last minute, because they had no choice. Today was a preview, and a preview it was. A preview is never the completed product, from Thursday onwards will be the completed event in all its glory. 

A scare zone doesn’t specify that it requires theming, it’s an area where you can get scared. And this falls under it. 

 

I think you need to stop defending the audio. Someone didn’t like it, it’s personal preference just like you not liking imascore.  if it wasn’t finished, it shouldn’t have been published, pretty simple. People would assume it was a finished product. Would you expect to see 3/4 of a movie at a preview screening? You bashed imascore stuff when it first came out at the park and you bashed that, despite it not being finished. 

[JoshC.]

8 hours ago, StevenVig said:

 

First of all, people are expecting a scare zone that has specific theming or special effects etc. That is not the case with Terror at Amity High, it is simply just actors, that's it, nothing more. 

 

Let's look at what someone from Thorpe's marketing department say: http://www.cupcakesandcoasters.com/2018/09/halloween-2018-most-anticipated.html?m=1

 

More scare zones, more scare mazes, more madness on the Island than ever before. And a whole host of new attractions from Vulcan Peak to The Walking Dead: Do or Die to Terror at Amity High

 

People will expect what they're told to expect. They're told Terror at Amity High is a new attraction, and clearly fits the bill of being a scare zone. Don't blame people for expecting what they've told.

[jessica2]

Personally I expected terror at amity high to be a proper separated off area rather than roaming actors but I’m keen to see what they do with it regardless! 

 

On the audio, I’m glad they are updating it because having the director on stealth last year made no sense.

 

I do hope the clowns remain for every night of fright nights! I think I’m actually most excited about deadwood creek and do or die, less excited about Vulcan peak but who knows they could pull it out of the bag (literally). 

I enjoyed living nightmare last year, hope it’s still as good this year.

And, saw is saw. What more can be said. Can’t believe I’m going in a week today  

[Marhelorpe]

Contrary to the over-exaggerated praise I am seeing from many blogs/YouTubers about last night's preview everywhere online at present, if everything from yesterday remains in place and things are not improved upon considerably by the time the event arrives in just a week's time, 2018 is shaping up to be potentially the worst Fright Nights in the park's history through my eyes and here's why.

 

Almost every year I have attended Fright Nights since 2007, I have always enjoyed visiting this event to try some of the exclusive attractions the park offered and most times, these mazes were thoroughly enjoyable as they felt very polished and delivered on what makes a good scare attraction, especially for the likes of Asylum, Big Top and Experiment 10. Back then, the park used to pride itself with the event. However, the mazes last night had none of these qualities at all. Blair Witch being a perfect example. It was horrendously and laughably bad and I kept on thinking "why is this back?" the whole time going through it.

 

As for the audio, my question is "what audio"? If you take away Inferno and Canada Creek, along with the bizarre speech coming from Vulcan Peak's empty queue line, not a single other ride or area had music or ambience which matched the event. Everything was playing it's regular version, so you would scarcely think this was a Fright Nights evening if you were on-site. I understand there are more audio changes on the way but come on now, adding at least something to every area whether it's IMAscore's 30-minute Fright Nights loop, or a bit of Midnight Syndicate would've been an improvement. Not impressed with the audio and frankly haven't been with this event since 2011 in all honesty.

 

Park-wide theming was non-existent other than across the entrance bridge, so clearly this is still not a priority for the park when it comes to Halloween. I still miss the days of 2007 - 2009 when this used to matter to them...

 

As for operations, this was the most concerning area. Even on a preview night they were terrible in terms of queue management regarding Fastrack/disabled guests and I dread to think how much worse they will be when the event is in full swing next week when even more people are attending. I'll post these problems experienced in the "Park Operations" topic with examples.

 

The overall vibe I was getting from last night was the park only cares about having the largest number of scare attractions possible now, not about the quality of the mazes and the event itself anymore. Not a single maze impressed me, the audio was a right mess and very inconsistent, the queue management was awful and there was simply no trace of anything resembling Halloween at this park at all, thus having no atmosphere anywhere. There is no "go-to" maze anymore and I doubt Vulcan Peak or Do or Die will change that when they finally open.

It truly saddens me that the park is now going down the route where "more equals better" because last night has proven this not to be the case at all. People everywhere are falling over themselves because of the quantity and as a result, the mazes we are likely going to see this year are going to be both short and poor in quality for many guests, especially in comparison to previous years with excellent attractions such as Big Top, Asylum, Experiment 10 etc.

 

For example, Blair Witch didn't need to come back and I would happily have sacrificed this entire attraction and picked a longer version of Dead Creek Woods over this if it meant delivering a better maze. Vulcan Peak feels extremely lazy as it's just gonna use I'm a Celeb's building and route for the most part, just with some changes inside with the props and theming. Do or Die looks to be extremely short and is just Sanctum under a different name, and as for the misleading advertising for the park to class Terror at Amity High an attraction when it's just actors...... no comment needed.

Maybe this is an outdated opinion, but I would much rather see fewer attractions of higher quality than more attractions of less quality as we are now seeing. My worry is when the event arrives next week, people are not going to care about the fact the event might have some very poor mazes and will instead focus on the fact there are (supposedly) 12 attractions altogether, which is more than other competitors like Tulleys Farm for example. I guarantee those with a position of influence like bloggers and YouTubers are gonna keep mentioning this in all their reviews and forget everything else at the event (such as the mazes, atmosphere, audio etc), which is going to be sub-standard.

 

As others have said, it was just a preview night, so things might improve and I really hope they do so everyone can enjoy it. But I'm concerned with the way things currently look, this year's quality control will be at an all-time low for them.

[Stuntman707]

We should organise a seperate trip to Tulleys. I'll definately be going to that, not so sure about Fright Nights, especially when the FN meet is about £45 (£50 + parking) indicating it will be busy. Would be nice to go to Tulleys with some of the meet regulars though if anyone's up for it? Got an open dated ticket so any date would be doable.

[Glitch]

3 minutes ago, Stuntman707 said:

We should organise a seperate trip to Tulleys. I'll definately be going to that, not so sure about Fright Nights, especially when the FN meet is about £45 (£50 + parking) indicating it will be busy. Would be nice to go to Tulleys with some of the meet regulars though if anyone's up for it? Got an open dated ticket so any date would be doable.

Setup a Tulley's Park Mania. Let's stay true to our roots.

[Jack]

26 minutes ago, Stuntman707 said:

We should organise a seperate trip to Tulleys. I'll definately be going to that, not so sure about Fright Nights, especially when the FN meet is about £45 (£50 + parking) indicating it will be busy. Would be nice to go to Tulleys with some of the meet regulars though if anyone's up for it? Got an open dated ticket so any date would be doable.

 

I’m  going Saturday the 13th if others are up to meet?