Fright Nights 2024

[Cal]

Just seen roaming actors will only be between 3:00 - 4:30pm. Shame as I do miss a team of them going round all night. 

 

https://www.thorpepark.com/explore/events/halloween-fright-nights/#will-there-be-roaming-actors

 

I assume the reason they're only around till 4:30 is cause they'll be used for a scarezone/show opening slightly later. 

Speaking of which, no construction of Death Doors or the Crows scarezone so far this year. I'd love to see the Crows come back, was great last year one of the best scare zones they've done. But they seem to be cutting it fine with less than a month till opening now.

[JoshC.]

2 minutes ago, Cal said:

Just seen roaming actors will only be between 3:00 - 4:30pm. Shame as I do miss a team of them going round all night. 

 

https://www.thorpepark.com/explore/events/halloween-fright-nights/#will-there-be-roaming-actors

 

I assume the reason they're only around till 4:30 is cause they'll be used for a scarezone/show opening slightly later. 

Speaking of which, no construction of Death Doors or the Crows scarezone so far this year. I'd love to see the Crows come back, was great last year one of the best scare zones they've done. But they seem to be cutting it fine with less than a month till opening now.

 

Likely the same as last year: Crows roaming 3pm-4.30pm (ish), actors getting a short break, then heading to the scare zone.

 

Whilst Mawkin Meadow hasn't "officially" been confirmed as returning, it featuring on the VIP Make Your Mark offering confirms it will return. The pathway was shut off today for construction, which is about the same sort of time it would close.

 

 

As for roaming actors: I can take them or leave them. They're a nice extra, but I didn't like when Thorpe specifically listed them as an "attraction". Through no fault of a guest, you can go about your day and have no clue of a roaming cast's existence, simply because you never cross their path. And with scare zones and a more balanced spread of attractions across the park, roamers aren't a be all and end all.

 

I'm reckoning with a 4th maze Death's Doors (which effectively operated a small, outdoor maze) has been cut with no like-for-like (ie scare zone) replacement. So that would leave a line up of 4 indoor mazes (Trailers, Survival Games, Stitches, New One), 1 outdoor scare "zone"/walkthrough (Crows) and 2 scare/entertainment/show zones (whatever Amity High is called this year and whatever takes place in Lucifer's Lair).

I'd fully expect them to just carry on the Amity High story in one way or another (as Creature Campus 2: Electric Boogaloo), and Lucifer's Lair was a little gem of last Fright Nights, so would be great to return.

 

With just under a month to go, there's a fair bit to do, but no more or less than they've been in other situations really (depending on how the 4th maze is going).

 

The interesting thing is the park still haven't made an announcement. In the past several years, the full announcement would have been made by this point. Here's the dates when we had a full, confirmed line for the last several years:

2023: 31st August

2022: 31st August

2021: 26th August

2020: 3rd September

2019: 3rd September

2018: 11th September (technically, but they added in a "surprise, but not a surprise" maze on the 21st)

2017: 5th September

 

So we're creeping towards 2018 territory with an announcement...hopefully we're not getting 2018 quality.

 

It's interesting as the last couple of years have of course had a big teaser campaign with multiple videos crafted by Jack/Kieran. They certainly had their pros, but also some cons too. A change of pace is nice to see them experiment with if nothing else. To be fair, I expect for a majority of the audience, they don't care about the line until around now, when they're considering their visits. And even then, specifics aren't of much interest until much closer.

 

In terms of a full line up reveal, I've seen Friday thrown about as a suggestion. It's Friday 13th (spooky), and the day after Jack releases his 'Behind the Scenes of 2023 Fright Nights'. So it fits.

[JoshC.]

Following Jack Silkstone's documentary, it seems that an announcement / teaser is coming tomorrow. We've also got some form of logo:

 

 

[Glitch]

Excellent to see I got something correct. Prediction for the event is that Jack becomes a scare actor for a video.

[MattL28]

Just seen the line up, 

- Amount of up charges at an all time high.

- The amount of free scare zones at an all time low since 2020.

 

In 2020, Thorpe had a good amount of scare zones and genuinely thought they were going to go further with it and that would be the winning formula: lots of scare zones alongside mazes.

 

Its a big shame to have scare zones go, it does really make the event. It feels lesser now unless I buy the £99 maze pass

 

 

[MattyMoo]

I'll take that as a win.

 

.

 

That said, I have no intention of going this year unless I can snare some cheap/complimentary tickets as it's basically best part of £90 including parking for one person, with every chance your run through of a maze is going to be ruined by the group you are forced to be with as the staff try and battle ridiculous queues because off peak Fright Night days don't exist anymore

Grim:

 

[JoshC.]

Quick reveal:

 

 

Straight off the bat, I like the splitting up of a quick reveal video, confirming what's at the event, and what each thing is, and a longer, story-focused video for the event. I'm sure in a year's time we'll hear stories of the months of preparation it took.

 

So, to break down the event.

 

New maze for 2024 - Deadbeat

"New for 2024! It's two minutes to midnight, and the clock is ticking. Will you surrender willingly or dance the night away, embracing what may well be your final night on earth? But beware this is no ordinary venue—here, the music doesn’t soothe the soul; it devours it."

 

Solid concept. I have expectations that I won't enjoy it, because it seems like it will be a strobe-heavy focus maze. I also have reservations about how a standard maze can justifiably be an £10 upcharge in that space, but we will see what happens (there could be surprises after all). Also seems like there's a lot of threads in the maze: nightclub, ghostly entity (called The Visceral it seems), zombified people, etc. Will be interest how they tie it all together and communicate it within a 5-8 minute experience.

 

Also seems to be another reason for the "terrifying new lows" tagline, as the park seem to be putting a spin on 'getting high at nightclub' by saying you will experience an "all time low".

 

Trailers is returning with new scenes. Seems to be a Platform 15 room and a Creek Freak room (or potentially an Old Town room combining the two). Wonder what they'll scrap. Previous rumours suggested the Big Top room, which tbf has a lot of space. 

 

Survival Games, Stitches, Crows and Lucifer's Lair all returning.

 

Creature Campus returning as "new", with the tagline "Looks can kill!". The website says that Gorgons, led by Medusa, are on the scene to tackle the witches. No mention of vampires or werewolves. I guess in story, they were basically defeated last year, so it could be they won't return this year / ever again in the ongoing storyline.

 

Also the IT 4D experience comes to Thorpe. Good use of the cinema. Good 4D film (I've seen it before at other parks, assuming it's the same). Adds extra to the line up. Currently set to run every 30 minutes from 3pm, will be interesting if that changes.

 

 

It's a good line up. There will be complaints about the cost of the upcharge. Ultimately, I have no problem with paying for mazes if they have quality that reflects that. I will bang on about this every single time, but when I went to Walibi Holland's Halloween event, with admission and for all the experiences, it cost me about 90 euros. These days, it would cost over 100. But I had no problem as the quality was there.

 

The issue Thorpe face is simple though: is the quality there to justify the cost. No Thorpe maze last year was worth £10 in my books. £5-7.50 is the range we're looking at. And that doesn't even address the inconsistencies the mazes have. Hopefully the park can continue to increase the quality of the mazes, as well as the consistency of them. No use having a maze worth £10 if it only runs like that every other day.

 

 

I'm happy with the number of free things across the park. Crows is like an outdoor maze as opposed to a scare zone. If they can build on last year's successes I'd be very happy. Lucifer's Lair is a great central entertainment hub. Creature Campus is a show which is well received (it would be nice to see them roam outside of show times more though).

 

56 minutes ago, MattL28 said:

In 2020, Thorpe had a good amount of scare zones and genuinely thought they were going to go further with it and that would be the winning formula: lots of scare zones alongside mazes.

 

Its a big shame to have scare zones go, it does really make the event. It feels lesser now unless I buy the £99 maze pass

 

I see your point, but I don't think it's that bad.

Fearstival Arena has grown into Lucifer's Lair.

You had Amity High and LycanThorpe High in separate areas, but the Lycans scare zone was basically dead. They've been merged into one.

Creak Freaks Unchained was great in its first year, but meh in the second. The Crows replaces the gap that that left.

Swarm Invasion (in both years) was just an extension to the story line of Swarm. Lovely to see, but it never felt like a scare zone.

 

I think a mix of mazes and scare zones is the way to go, and a mix of free and upcharge attractions too. But we have 4 paid mazes and 3 free scare zones, plus a 4D film. That's a really good mix, and certainly a lot more than many other theme parks offer (something which is easy to forget).

 

 

Again though, as I say, the only way this really is a success is if the mazes are worth £10 a pop. We'll see what happens.

 

[Inferno]

Intrigued to hear about the new maze - looks like a very interesting concept!

It does look a good lineup this year with quite a variety.

 

Unfortunately my broke ass will not be in attendance, as that price is just absolutely hysterical for a day at Thorpe Park, fright nights or not.

[Coasterfreck]

Super excited that Trailers is going to feature Sleepers this year, as Platform 15 was my favourite scare maze.

[MattyMoo]

15 hours ago, Inferno said:

Unfortunately my broke ass will not be in attendance, as that price is just absolutely hysterical for a day at Thorpe Park, fright nights or not.

 

Was saying to Josh - I can afford to go this year, but, I don't think it's good value. £10 a maze is a lot. No maze at Tulleys is worth £10. If it was nearer £5 I'd go for it, but as I've said before, the Fright Night's model is not for me - I don't like the idea of one - paid - run through that can easily be ruined by the group you are batched with, or actors being misplaced/on a break etc. Am happy paying ~£90 for Tulley's VIP, because we normally get 20-24 runs in total on a night - so around £4 a run, and that's before you take off the £15 merch voucher and food and drink token. There's been times at Tulley's where we start a maze and straight away we'll be like "We'll do this again later because the group are slow/annoying/ruining it" (you know what I mean) whereas that is not an option at Thorpe unless you want to fork out again to roll the dice again for a good runthrough. And you know that run through is going to be nothing like the POVs from press night - whereas, genuinely - run throughs I see from Tulleys are at the same level for us mere mortals as that of the press night.

[Inferno]

Yeah I totally agree.   It’s the same for me tbh, we could go, but that’s just too much money for what it is… FN is always a very hit or miss event.

 

I know they’re LONG gone and never coming back, but I do miss the days where the mazes were included with entry.

[MattyMoo]

4 minutes ago, Inferno said:

I know they’re LONG gone and never coming back, but I do miss the days where the mazes were included with entry.

 

I wouldn't mind paying more for entry if it was unlimited runs on the mazes - like, the current price point would be acceptable if that was an option.

 

I went to the Blue Light day for Fright Night's the year before last with a mate - was just like the glory days, multiple run throughs with no stress!

[JoshC.]

I would personally love the park to experiment with a free indoor maze.

 

It wouldn't be a case of just not charging for a maze. But a maze that is designed to be free in the current FN set up. So high throughput (maybe even continuous conga line style a la HHN), minimal actors but more triggered scares (sound effects, flashing lights, etc). It wouldn't be designed to be "as scary as" the other mazes, but just give you a flavour of them. 

 

Doing that gives people a gateway into Fright Nights. It might discourage some sales of tickets for mazes, but it might also encourage people to buy them on the day more. If it is a high throughput (a continuous conga line maze could easily get 1000-1500pph, making it the highest throughput attraction on park), it would still have a queue, but it would give people options.

 

I don't imagine it would ever happen, given it would take a lot of resources and staffing still, which would be taken away from the paid mazes. And to the wider audience it might not be a good advert for paid mazes ("you've done this average maze, now pay more to do our scary ones!!"). But it is a bit of a pipedream of mine right now.

I guess right now, Crows sort of fills that gap. It is more akin to an outdoor scare maze than a scare zone (narrow, singular route), just batched in huge groups. But a more controlled, indoor environment feeling more like a maze would be cool.

 

 

One thing I do think though, is that the quality of the mazes has improved since they became upcharge. Not £10-worthy, but they are better. It's a difficult one. I'd rather what we've got last year than what we had a lot of in the previous decade. I genuinely think that if you put any one of last year's mazes, for example, in the Fright Nights line up anywhere from 2010-2019, it would be right up there as the highlight maze.

[tactic]

Not sure what I think about the pricing, even with the passholders discount on the mazes (I'm assuming they're doing that this year, although I haven't looked yet) paying about £8 each for 4 mazes is quite a big asking price for me. Although, I don't think I'm going to be able to make it this year, which I'm really disappointed about, I always look forward to my yearly FN trip. But then I guess it's partly my own fault for making myself so busy over the October holidays...

[Inferno]

10 hours ago, JoshC. said:

One thing I do think though, is that the quality of the mazes has improved since they became upcharge. Not £10-worthy, but they are better.

See, this is an interesting one to me.

 

I agree, the actual mazes themselves are a lot better in terms of theming, duration, and overall quality.

But as guests, are we having a better time?

I’d argue that no, we’re not necessarily. Yes, of course we are having a very good time, but better?

 

The standout mazes from the past for me have been Experiment 10, Cabin in the Woods v1, and the beloved Big Top v2. While they were far simpler and shorter than todays mazes at thorpe, they were just utterly fab, and I thunk because they were at no additional cost there were no great expectations - it was just a good time with no stress, which you could also repeat several times if you wanted.

 

I don’t know if I can put my finger on it, but something about paying this much for a single go at a maze just sets expectations higher than they need to be for what a scare maze is.  I sort of think it’s all lost its way a little bit if you know what I mean?

 

The Asylum for instance, while it was adored years ago, would risk being deemed a joke these days because it would lack all the backstory, “nods”, heavy theming and grandeurs that we now have - even though actually, it would still offer a very intense, disorientating, scary experience, full of jump scares, and would be included as part of your day.  I also think mazes a few years ago used to feel genuinely scary, whereas now adays dare I say that parts of some modern mazes can sometimes feel a bit like a tour through a highly-themed set…… (I know this is quite the hot take, I’m sorry!)

 

 

Anyway,, my apologies,

1. I’ve gone off topic.

2. I’m sorry for appearing negative - genuinely, I do think this year’s lineup looks amazing, and I am genuinely in awe of what the designers and actors achieve these days in such short spaces of time with limited budgets. There’s no denying that the scare industry is achieving amazing things! I’m just a bit sad that it’s all got this expensive that’s all, and I miss that it used to be simpler.  I very much look forward to the reviews etc and seeing what comes next  

[JoshC.]

That's a really, really good point actually.

 

The expectation on a paid maze is a lot higher. Those mazes from yesteryear which were so well received may be panned if they were in the line up today, because of that expectation, even if they are arguably just as good.

 

8 hours ago, Inferno said:

I also think mazes a few years ago used to feel genuinely scary, whereas now adays dare I say that parts of some modern mazes can sometimes feel a bit like a tour through a highly-themed set…… (I know this is quite the hot take, I’m sorry!)

I agree on the tour through a set at times actually. Trailers is a good example. The pre-show(s) spend so much time setting story up and showcasing the set, along with cramming so many Easter Eggs into the script (I think I rolled my eyes so hard during the first year I saw inside my head). Stitches is a very passive experience; it sets a very creepy tone and you see a lot of stuff happen, but that's just it...you are watching, not taking part. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as many mazes use that narrative. But you are just touring through.

 

I think Mat made a good point about Tulleys - and other scare parks. They are, mostly, one entrance for unlimited runs of mazes. That's a huge difference in overall guest experience. And whilst there's none that are particularly close to Thorpe, the likes of Tulleys do compete with them. It's interesting that the park have chosen to move in the opposite direction, potentially driving some people towards that one-fee-unlimited-mazes model.

 

 

On the other hand though, the park were increasing park entrance prices and charging Annual Passholders for entry into Fright Nights. Back in 2018/19, I think the park were charging around £35-50 online for a pre-booked ticket, and £5-20 for passholders. I would fully expect that the on the day, pre-book price following the same model would be £45-60 now for Fright Nights, and again £5-20 for passholders. At it's more expensive price, it's not much cheaper than these days. But still, if that's not resulting in a better time, there's a problem.

 

 

I would love to step into an alternate reality where Covid never happened. What would have happened with Fright Nights? Would we have still seen upcharge mazes? Would scare zones have become a bigger thing? What would the overall reaction be?

[Cal]

Nice well rounded lineup for this year, good to see a 4th maze, and a good mix of everything else. Crows was great last year and lucifers lair was cool too. Creature Campus has never been my thing, I don't go to a scare event to watch people dance but I can see why its back as its extremely popular.

 

My problem echos whats been said above though. I get enjoyment by having multiple run throughs on the mazes and getting to experience them properly. At the current price for mazes, I'm not really willing to do that.

 

I will still go to Fright Nights this year but my experience last year with the queues and then getting a weak run through really puts me off the mazes. I'll probably just buy the odd 1 shot when they have small queues and try to go to one of the private events at the end of the year where I can have unlimited run throughs of the mazes.

 

[coasterverse]

On 9/13/2024 at 5:35 PM, JoshC. said:

Previous rumours suggested the Big Top room, which tbf has a lot of space. 

 

I was at a Ghost Train behind the scenes tour last Tuesday with the initial presentation taking place in the hospitality tent thing - Fright Nights rehearsals were taking place next door and they were definitely rehearsing to the Big Top theme which I believe is used in the Big Top room in Trailers, so that seems to suggest it'll return this year.

 

Hoping that the scenes that remain inside Trailers are modified in some way too - Trailers was really showing signs of aging last year and was looking really, really exhausted.

[Glitch]

Is the maze SEB endorsed or is it just going to use the murder on the dance floor song. Either way odd choice for me personally I think of SEB as a family friendly festival act bringing fun to all! 

On the upcharges, it’s just to make more money isn’t it. The queues are still long and times lots don’t work. Let’s just go back to the fun years please and perhaps I’ll let you off charging me £3 for the passing…Happily going on bluelight this year so will be free but also hoping for my first ride on hyperia!

 

Still hate the fact that the event has become this family friendly day out. I want freaks roaming the park, not dance parties as you have Legoland and Chessington just around the corner for that….