Living Nightmare Extreme - SPOILERS

[JoshC.]

The Walking Dead - Living Nightmare reopens this May half term, and is advertised to be more extreme than last year, and featuring "double the number of Walkers". And who knows what other changes and surprises lie in wait? The maze opens for previews to passholders this evening, 6-10pm.

 

Use this thread to discuss and review the maze. And of course, there will be spoilers!

[btcc1721]

Been lurking here for a while. Decided to post an account for this. 

 

Was in the third group to go in. Really good. Huge amount of actors, and think a few bits have been rethemed, and first scene is a little different. 

 

All in all, definitely worth doing. Just worth noting queue was moving excruciatingly slowly. Hopefully that will improve as they get going. 

[ProudToServe]

30 minutes ago, btcc1721 said:

Been lurking here for a while. Decided to post an account for this. 

 

Was in the third group to go in. Really good. Huge amount of actors, and think a few bits have been rethemed, and first scene is a little different. 

 

All in all, definitely worth doing. Just worth noting queue was moving excruciatingly slowly. Hopefully that will improve as they get going. 

increase of actors means less guests can be in there at one time, might be the reason why.

[Jack]

I'm assuming the actors are still allowed to touch you...?

[btcc1721]

5 minutes ago, Jack said:

I'm assuming the actors are still allowed to touch you...?

Absolutely. Getting shoved and pushed around everywhere

[Mark9]

12 hours ago, btcc1721 said:

Absolutely. Getting shoved and pushed around everywhere

 

Just try getting the Central line from Tottenham Court Road on a Friday night. The two experiences sound very similar.

[Stuntman707]

It was just more of the same really. The maze wasn’t any bigger. The groups of actors made it a little better than usual.

 

Didn’t start off good as seeing the derelict Slammer up close kind of pissed off a few of us. Then we were separated from everyone we were queueing with. Then I was separated and sent around on my own which had some good interaction with all the actors but my girlfriend was not happy about.

 

I think Thorpes rule of letting the actors touch you takes away takes away some of the psychological fear. You had to push your way through at some points. I kind of get you’re being mobbed by walkers but it’s kind of awkward that they just block you as in reality they’d be trying to bite you which they obviously can’t do. It doesn’t help either doing the maze in May rather than around Halloween where I’d be more in the mood.

 

I wish it was more clear if we were going to be sent through alone before going in. Left rather disappointed and annoyed. If that’s the extreme version (best version) of a fright nights maze, I don’t think I’ll be coming back for fright nights this year. The maze is just too short. I’d happily visit Tulleys instead this year with thier huge mazes, loads of actors who can scare you without touching, themed disclaimers and descriptions of the maze before going in.

[Marc]

Being held back and sent through alone is nothing new - saw it happen a few times at Fright Nights last year!

[ProudToServe]

1 hour ago, Stuntman707 said:

It was just more of the same really. The maze wasn’t any bigger. The groups of actors made it a little better than usual.

 

Didn’t start off good as seeing the derelict Slammer up close kind of pissed off a few of us. Then we were separated from everyone we were queueing with. Then I was separated and sent around on my own which had some good interaction with all the actors but my girlfriend was not happy about.

 

I think Thorpes rule of letting the actors touch you takes away takes away some of the psychological fear. You had to push your way through at some points. I kind of get you’re being mobbed by walkers but it’s kind of awkward that they just block you as in reality they’d be trying to bite you which they obviously can’t do. It doesn’t help either doing the maze in May rather than around Halloween where I’d be more in the mood.

 

I wish it was more clear if we were going to be sent through alone before going in. Left rather disappointed and annoyed. If that’s the extreme version (best version) of a fright nights maze, I don’t think I’ll be coming back for fright nights this year. The maze is just too short. I’d happily visit Tulleys instead this year with thier huge mazes, loads of actors who can scare you without touching, themed disclaimers and descriptions of the maze before going in.

I don't see why they feel the need to touch and push, to me thats not being scared, maybe more of an annoyance.  Love to know where these extra rooms are.

"THORPE PARK Resort’s Divisional Director Dominic Jones said, “We’re really excited to open the most terrifying live action horror maze in our history. With more rooms, more zombies and more surprises than ever before the Living Nightmare Extreme is a dead cert to scare the bravest of horror fans. It’s here for one week only, once it’s gone it’s never coming back so if you’re brave enough we can’t wait to see you.”

 

It's very odd that you have a year of walking dead, but have the extreme version of the maze for a week...?

[Glitch]

2 hours ago, Stuntman707 said:

It was just more of the same really. The maze wasn’t any bigger. The groups of actors made it a little better than usual.

 

Didn’t start off good as seeing the derelict Slammer up close kind of pissed off a few of us. Then we were separated from everyone we were queueing with. Then I was separated and sent around on my own which had some good interaction with all the actors but my girlfriend was not happy about.

 

I think Thorpes rule of letting the actors touch you takes away takes away some of the psychological fear. You had to push your way through at some points. I kind of get you’re being mobbed by walkers but it’s kind of awkward that they just block you as in reality they’d be trying to bite you which they obviously can’t do. It doesn’t help either doing the maze in May rather than around Halloween where I’d be more in the mood.

 

I wish it was more clear if we were going to be sent through alone before going in. Left rather disappointed and annoyed. If that’s the extreme version (best version) of a fright nights maze, I don’t think I’ll be coming back for fright nights this year. The maze is just too short. I’d happily visit Tulleys instead this year with thier huge mazes, loads of actors who can scare you without touching, themed disclaimers and descriptions of the maze before going in.

 

Were you expecting the maze to bigger? I certainly seeing as it's the same space which has been used for years.

Sounds like the name "Living Nightmare Extreme" has done it's job by sending you around alone.

So you want the actors to bite to live up to the extreme name?! - think that would at least require a wavier and imagine how gross that would be.

BTW lets just spoil one of the mazes possible surprises to live up to the extreme name and not know potentially what may happen inside.

 It's very simple to have more actors in May where they have a whole pool of Fight night actors to pick from.

 

Oh and I'm sure you won't be missing fright nights this year. Also lets remember this is May, the parks open til 10pm and we have an additional attraction which Thorpe did not need to put on. What is there to criticise about a free attraction?

 

[Stuntman707]

- The maze was advertised as having more rooms. 

- I’m not criticising being sent around alone, I don’t like the fact that there are no warnings at the entrance / before you enter that you may be sent around alone. There were disabled people with wristbands who were quite distressed from being separated from their carers and forced to go alone despite objecting.

- My point was that part of the fear is being chased by walkers who would be trying to bite you in the tv show. I said that they would obviously never do this. You lose that fear of being chased when they’re just pushing you around awkwardly.

- This topic is titled SPOILERS

- It may be simple to get actors at this time of the year but it’s hard to feel the ambience of Halloween on a warm, light summer evening.

- Fright Nights was so overrated and overcrowded last year with a terrible preview event, a handful of mazes of which one was only a decent length that had multiple e-stops both times I went. (None at Tulleys) Fortunately it was the first year I went to Tulleys which is a far superior event to fright nights. (With 8 mazes, 9 this year as well as staying open to midnight) I’m certain that unless there are significant changes, I will most definately be missing Fright Nights. Hence this is why I am criticising this free attraction in good time for October.

 

[JoshC.]

I guess you could argue that if you're told "you will be split up during the attraction", it takes out the shock and fear factor. When Experiment 10 opened, all other mazes were conga line mazes, whilst Ex10 split you and locked you in a cupboard - the safety speeches were exactly the same! If you were told 'you will be split up / locked up', it would take away the scare factor.

 

In saying that, actors certainly should be trained and able to recognise when someone can't be seperated, especially with yellow wristband people. 

 

 

Zombie themed mazes will always have the issue of storytelling. Zombies attack and eat people, which clearly can't be done, so how do you communicate that. Actors I guess should be chasing you, be behind fencing, etc, and then have scares built upon atmosphere and special effects, with actors just complimenting that. Chucking in more actors just makes the storytelling even more difficult, unless you have a huge amount of space (which Thorpe don't).

 

 

Thorpe and Tulleys (and many other independent scare events) will have very different operational procedures. Because of Thorpe's / Merlin's position and intense H&S focus, they will have to e-stop for the tiniest of reasons; a light which doesn't work, a guest having a panic attack, someone who trips and gets a splinter, whatever. Tulleys, and many others, can gloss over these things a bit. It doesn't necessarily make them any less safe or anything, it's just Merlin have a stricter guidelines. So you'll always see more maze stops at Thorpe. Most e-stops are because of guest action anyways, so not much they can do.

 

 

Thorpe of course are limited in space, which means they're never going to be able to make super long mazes. But that of course gives opportunity for creative attractions, such as Experiment 10, or creative sections, such as Big Top's strobe maze which is an actual maze. Long mazes aren't always good mazes.

[TPC]

What has actually changed in the maze?

[Stuntman707]

The amount of actors. That’s it as far as I could tell.

[nashertvoffical_yt]

Here's my review of the Walking dead living nightmare EXTREME (Preview night)

Queue Line: this year the maze is using the Slammer queue line ,which is good for views of Slammer but operations is not as bad as Fright nights,the group sizes this year are smaller,I entered the queue at 6:02pm and I came out the at 8pm,the Black corridor from last year is Back

Pre show: the pre show featuring negan has been slightly changed,you still go on your knees,but then you are told to stand up,turn to the wall and put your hands on the back of your Heads,at the time this creeped me out because I had no idea who Negan was Behind,he split up the group,our group was originally 7 and it went down just 3,you then left the room after being told by negan to get out,I was at the Back of the group and Negan,me & Lucille got a little close (Lucille was really close to my Face)

Scene 1: the Hospital scene has not changed for 2018 however there was 2-3 actors in there

Rest of the Maze: no changes however lots of actors especially in the prison scene,between scene 1 and the strobe section I encountered 6-8 actors

Strobe Scene: the Strobe scene has not changed,there was loads of actors in this scene (7-9 actors)

 ,there was 1 actor at the end of the Bus who was very creepy

Finale: the finale has Slightly changed this year,with cloths hanging down and a good jump scare,the car headlights where you were chased last year,suddenly turned on and a actor came out of no where,after the cloths you just walking out into the exit corridor and there is a red Flashing light pointing at a red arrow and that's it

Rating:

Theming: 10/10

Queue Line Audio: 9/10

interior audio: 8/10

Pre show: 8/10

Finale: 7/10

Operations: 6/10

Scare: 9.5/10

Total rating:

57.5/70

what would I improve: 

more interior Audio

Better operations

Finale to be slightly improved

 

 

 

 

[Graw]

so they split you into smaller groups, you don't get forced to go on your own? or does only one person get put on their own? I'm confused and might be going sunday. also, is SAW alive also open during apocalypse weekends or is it just living nightmare? cheers

[nashertvoffical_yt]

they split you up in the pre show,the walker actors split you up,I was only split up for a short time,it's just living nightmare open during apocalypse weekends

[Rach666]

Well... I went on 3 times on Saturday....

 

The first run was awful... the worst I have ever had in the maze. Not many scares, did not enjoy the first scene as much as last year and thought there weren't that many additional actors. I'd like to point out that was in the day...

 

I then did an evening run and it was almost like a different maze! Still think last years opening scene was 10 times better (and with much better Negan's... I'm sorry but it is true..), but the rest of the maze was incredible! Found some extra rooms and the new scene of being forced into a chair and being interrogated by 2 of the Saviours. Loads of actors, lots of jump scares, and a really good ending! Was so good went round again!

 

 

[WWTPRadio]

2 hours ago, Rach666 said:

 

I then did an evening run and it was almost like a different maze! Still think last years opening scene was 10 times better (and with much better Negan's... I'm sorry but it is true..), but the rest of the maze was incredible! Found some extra rooms and the new scene of being forced into a chair and being interrogated by 2 of the Saviours. Loads of actors, lots of jump scares, and a really good ending! Was so good went round again!

 

 

I’m surprised you found extra rooms... given that there aren’t any. Are these ones you may have missed last year?

[JoshC.]

The start section after the Negan pre show was sort of multi-route for a bit (though they ended up creating a more forced route later in the event I think?), so that might be why you've seen extra rooms.

 

The chair scene isn't new, though I never had any interaction with it during my run-throughs last year.

[nashertvoffical_yt]

I was going to try the maze yesterday,but it was down in the afternoon,the queue board said BACK SOON,Staff said it was a E-STOP,then 5 mintues later they closed the queue line entrance?

anyone know what it was?

I'll Try and get back there before it goes (sunday)

[JoshC.]

If any attraction isn't open for whatever reason, they close the queue line so no one can enter. They're logic, quite sensibly, is that if an attraction is unavailable, people shouldn't be able to join a queue for it.

 

It's probably nothing serious. Mazes stop running for a variety of reasons, maybe an actor was accidentally hit, maybe someone was too scared and ran and tripped, maybe a lightbulb needed replacing. It was open again so it's no big issue and nothing to worry about.

[ProudToServe]

Well if you don't get round to experiencing extreme now, I'm very sure it'll return for Fright Nights. The only additional thing is more actors and a change in how the pre-show is done really...  I predict the marketing campaign be "You loved it so much, we're bring it back for Fright Nights". If that happens.. what will happen with Big Top? seeing as some of the props for that are the queue line for nightmare... ?

[Project LC]

I doubt it would be back for fright nights. They would have to employ more actors which they shouldn't be doing if they want to maximise profit. 

[ProudToServe]

1 minute ago, Project LC said:

I doubt it would be back for fright nights. They would have to employ more actors which they shouldn't be doing if they want to maximise profit. 

So they would revert it back to being non-scary for Fright Nights, the time when it should be its best? That would be a step back in the wrong direction imo