Fright Nights 2024 - Spoilers

[JoshC.]

All spoilers for Fright Nights 2024 go here!

[Mark9]

Tonight - BEST FRIGHT NIGHTS EVER

 

Tomorrow - where did all the actors go?!

[MattyMoo]

MCDONALDS VAN.

 

Just watched the Deadbeat POV on TPM Twi....X - hmmmm. Visually it looks very impressive. But.... to me... it's giving Doom Town with a bit of Cellar: Imprisoned at the end. I remember seeing Survival Games on TOWIE Preview Night for the first time and thinking.... yep, can't wait to give that a go, that looks fantastic and intense. Deadbeat... not so much to be honest. Be interesting to see the reviews.

[JoshC.]

I'll give my honest immediate reviews now.

 

I'm honest here. This isn't "TPM Josh" talking. This is "JoshC., Thorpe Fan but fair" talking.

 

DeadBeat

Ehhhhh, not for me.

 

Visually it looks great; no dead spots. However, the story is a little...lost. The pre show talks about a rave being hosted by a DJ. But there's no reference to the DJ when you're in there. The maze is just going through a club / bar / similar areas. It's cool, but very incoherent.

 

The maze isn't the longest, but makes best use of its space. They've also cleverly designed the maze to make it feel like you're repeating yourself / going in circles, which I liked. However, this had a downside of a group thinking they'd gone the wrong way and turned back on themselves. That's just something which needs actor knowledge though, so no issues.

 

It's a bit of a passive experience too, with you watching clubbers and demons (known as "Viscerals") interacting with each other. There's nothing wrong with passive experiences / scenes, as they can create fear, but it's not for me. The final quarter is much more interactive, just focusing on the Viscerals, and is nice. The finale is great (some have said it's like The Cellar at Tulleys, of which they ain't wrong, but so what)

 

It does need time to bed in and the actors to really know what ticks. It needs tweaks with the presentation and story line too.

 

A big positive though: I did it 3 times, and it was very consistent. Consistency is a huge thing to sort out in mazes, and it's something directly within the park's control during the event (in that, they can encourage / coach / train actors to be consistent, they can't change say the space the maze takes). Based on today, it's great to see they had that right, as even on previous press nights, mazes haven't been consistent run to run. Hopefully that continues.

 

My personal opinion, is that the maze needs to start off completely as a rave. No scares. No viscerals. Just pure fun. There are already "dancers"/"ravers" actors, just make them happier, with a bit of an edge if necessary. Then have a scene where everything goes wrong, and it's purely demons. It involves you in the story, and creates the necessary distinction.

 

Stitches

This remains very similar to last year. Which means I don't like it.

 

It's a completely passive experience, focusing on creepiness and a fear of what is happening to others, as opposed to what is (or could be) happening to you.

 

Absolutely fine as a maze, and there's a place for those experiences as it gets people. but not for me.

 

Was a bit disappointed they didn't change the mirror scene at the start. They could have put something different there.

 

Survival Games

My favourite of tonight, although I will have extra bias as there was only 2 of us in the whole maze.

 

It remains intense, in your face and hands on. That's great. It's not for everyone (like Stitches), but it is for me. I heard some mixed reviews through the evening, so I think actors need to bed in and get used to what they can and can't do with guests, but that comes in time. 2022 Survival Games was exactly the same.

 

There's currently no chainsaws in the finale, for reasons I'm not sure I can say. I believe they're working on it though and they should return.

 

Trailers

A very good version this year. 

 

3 scene:

-Hell Cell has been changed into Creek Freaks

-Vulcan Voodoo has been changed into Knock Knock

-Ship Happens and Nightmare on Staines Street have been turned into The Sleeper Express

 

Knock Knock is a nod to Death's Doors, and re-uses the good costumes there. The pre-show is now no longer a cinema employee, but The Director. 

 

The pre show is a bit meh for me, but it is fan-servicey, which is what the whole maze is. However, they've completely cut the second pre show in the cinema screen - meaning the removal of what I unaffectionately referred to as the "orgasming actor" - HURRAY.

 

The premise of the maze is much the same.

 

Unfortunately, the new scenes aren't so much "new". They are just overlays of what was already there.

Creek Freaks still has the prison bars from Hell Cells, but they've got Buckwheat actors and some stuff added to the walls.

Knock Knock is still in a wooded area, but with doors added.

Sleeper Express has the same layout as the other two, just made to feel more like the maze.

It's fine, but don't go in expecting something totally new.

 

As I say though, strong maze. Good cast, and the maze works well.

 

The Crows

This hasn't quite hit the highs of last year yet, but it's still very good. 

 

The new fenced section looks cool from afar, as well as very big, but it's not.

There's two routes too: One which takes you in that fenced section, one that takes you round.

 

The ended is incredibly dense with smoke (I expect that might change soon tbh, but if it doesn't, great!). 

 

It's a great scare zone and I'm glad they've kept it.

 

One point of note: It now starts a little further down the pathway, with a little queue made of hay formed, which should help the batching into it.

 

Creature Campus

Only caught a glimpse of it due to how busy the night was, but it looks nice. The removal of the werewolves and vampires has meant they've brought the music into a more modern era, and it seems pretty cool. Will be watching properly tomorrow.

 

Lucifer's Lair

My absolute highlight of the night. There's a fire / dance show which is INCREDIBLE in my opinion.

 

It's only 8 minutes long, but there's so much crammed in there that it felt twice the length (in the best possible way). The concept of the zone is perfect. The actors are fab. I expect I'll spend a lot of time round there this year.

 

IT 4D 

Didn't watch. Will watch tomorrow. Little bit of theming dotted around the cinema. Is cool.

 

 

This is a strong Fright Nights. Maze-wise, they do have 4 mazes which are good. And I will say this again as I have done in previous years: If you take any maze this year and put it in any other FN line up from before 2020, it would almost definitely be the highlight and best received. If not, it would rival Big Top, Ex10 or Asylum. That's the quality of the mazes on show.

 

I don't think any of them are worth £10 still. The £5 mark would be best. £6-8 is reasonable. But beyond that is pushing it. And I think Thorpe are very formulaic now: pre-show, wander around highly themed sets in a linear fashion, flashy ending. It's another reason I like Survival Games so much: it breaks that formula. I hope we see something different next year.

 

There's still stuff to iron out, and not all of it is for me, but I think this is again a good showing. I hope it stands the test of time for the event.

[Inferno]

Oh interesting....

I wonder how things will develop during the event.

[MattyMoo]

Thanks for the in-depth review JoshC Thorpe Park Fan. Have to say.... I don't really feel too bad about not doing Fright Nights this year. I think I did the same thing when Trailers was new and then went the next year when SG was new so the effort and expense was worthwhile  I know this is unlikely to change, and keep repeating myself, but the £10 a maze fee I just can't entertain when every FN seems to be busy now as there are purposefully no "quiet days" meaning the likelihood of a "busy" run through in a massive group is always a risk. Plus I still feel burned by paying out for all the mazes last year, and nearly not getting them all done (by mere minutes).

 

Impressed that Lucifer's Lair is evidently so good when it's not an upcharge. Bit of a shame there's no Death's Doors either this year, that was a fun - free - addition.

[Glitch]

Is the McDonald’s van around all event or has Burger King blocked it

[yeah]

Was there yesterday. Ride wise had a bit of a nightmare, only got about 4 I think, mostly due to Hyperia messing us around, but got on it in the dark and it was HAULING. Seemed much busier than previous first days of Fright Nights.

 

Experienced almost everything Fright Nights wise, here are my thoughts

Dead Beat
I really liked Dead Beat, didn't think it was particularly unique as I saw some people say, but it's a theme that doesn't get done often in mazes. Do think the whole "music that steals your soul" thing was a bit lost in the maze, but I don't think the storyline was very coherent honestly. Think it's a bit of a missed opportunity not to have a more sound-based attraction, although the soundtrack is great. Think it lacks a few things, especially a better ending.

Spoiler

The creature flying above your head was an amazing scare that really got me, also noticed on our second run through a really cool effect in which a demon lifts a club goer into the air. Do wish the strobe section at the end was a tad longer, as it lacks a really good ending. There are also a few very similar scenes to Stitches.

Trailers

Trailers on it's opening was one of my favourite mazes ever, had a bit of everything and was incredibly fun. Over the years it got a bit less intense each year, to the point I was scared for it's future, so I'm glad it's been refreshed in this way. The rooms that have got the "chop" are mostly the rooms I was expecting/hoping would go, with the exception of Staines Street which is kept mostly the same. I always thought Ship Happens was a particularly weak room, partially due to it's length, so I think the two rooms being one continuous room helps massively. Similar with Vulcan Voodoo not really having any good hiding places, whereas Knock Knock now has about six. The one thing I'm surprised they didn't add was a fake train scare, similar to the last Platform ending, but space probably would've been an issue for that.

 

My first run through on Trailers was one of my best on any maze, with it being well populated with actors who used the space incredibly well, and it had me running out of there at the end.

 

Stitches

The exact same as last year. Not much to add. Could do with more actors. The weakest of the four for me last night.

 

Survival Games

Thought Survival Games was very weak in it's first season, then last season was my favourite maze. This season my one run through was sort of in the middle, the group was massive so we were never really split up at all, walking through the first half in one long line. When we got to the labyrinth, I think we only had 2 actors in there, who were trying their absolute hardest, but this maze just needs a huge amount of actors in this section to get a good run through. I appreciate that they (I think) changed the layout a bit for repeat visitors, but I still find it has the same issue it's always really had in that you need to go and find the scares yourself sometimes rather than them happening naturally. Fair play to the actors, who tried to prolong it as much as possible, I had one in particular who I recognised from a few Fright Nights gone by basically drag me to the exit, where an actor there separating people to the exit, room next door or back into the maze sent me back, before the same actor from before dragged me back again, where the actor at the exit told me to stand against a wall for about 2 minutes where nothing happened. Then no chainsaw at the end, which I appreciate was probably out of their control.

 

The Crows of Mawkin Meadow

We only had one run through of Mawkin this year due to unfortunate timing, but I feel like I'm okay with this going soon. The costumes are amazing and always have been, but I'd like the Crows to return to roaming actors. Granted we went left so didn't get to go through the house, but the constant flow of guests combined with the lack of real hiding places makes it incredibly hard for the actors to give proper scares, and it relies a lot on the creepiness of the Crows and their costumes, which lessens each time you go through. 

 

General

Didn't see much of Lucifer's Lair or Creature Campus, so can't comment on them. I'm aware Creature Campus has it's fans but it's never really been for me, I don't think either really work as scare zones and I'd rather have another, more "linear" scare zone akin to Mawkin or Death's Doors (although that never really worked despite the cool concept) as a second free, proper scare attraction. That's just a personal thing. Lighting was REALLY good, something they haven't really bothered with for a few years, so that was a big plus. Shame they seem to have stopped doing the event ride overlays, always enjoyed those and thought more parks should do things like that. I prefer each ride/area having it's own Fright Nights soundtrack and announcements as opposed to one parkwide soundtrack.

 

Overall, I think it's a very strong year maze wise for Fright Nights, it's just lacking a few little things and, in my opinion, another free scare attraction to be a very strong year across the board.

[JoshC.]

For anyone wanting some photos inside the mazes / to read the official TPM review, it's now live: https://www.thorpeparkmania.co.uk/index.php/2024/10/05/fright-nights-2024-begins/

 

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13 hours ago, yeah said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I haven't notice the second effect you mentioned there in any of the 4 runs I've had. An interesting thing, but definitely a cool visual.. I think again that's my issue with the maze (along with Stitches) in that that's a very "show-y", passive thing. It looks cool and is memorable, but does it in any way create an atmosphere which is scary? If it was a clear show scene that everyone's paying attention to, yes. But just in passing as you walk through, not so much, and those 2 actors could be better used elsewhere.

 

I think the ending works well, but it does need at least 2 actors to work. But that might be because of my aversion to strobes, so I'm happy for it to be short but sweet.

 

13 hours ago, yeah said:

The one thing I'm surprised they didn't add was a fake train scare, similar to the last Platform ending, but space probably would've been an issue for that.

Even a loud train horn would be good! But I guess also for the fact that scene-wise you go from the train to the village, it doesn't quite flow nicely.

 

13 hours ago, yeah said:

We only had one run through of Mawkin this year due to unfortunate timing, but I feel like I'm okay with this going soon. The costumes are amazing and always have been, but I'd like the Crows to return to roaming actors. Granted we went left so didn't get to go through the house, but the constant flow of guests combined with the lack of real hiding places makes it incredibly hard for the actors to give proper scares, and it relies a lot on the creepiness of the Crows and their costumes, which lessens each time you go through. 

 

The house section isn't much longer, and whilst it has extra theming, isn't much different either really. 

 

I think this year they've tried changing things a bit with the house section featuring body bags / animals hanging from the ceiling. Almost like they're trying to tell you that The Crows are cooking / killing people in a way. It doesn't quite work.

 

The Crows work best as a supernatural-esque identity, of people who have been turned into Crows. Last year's version was so strong thanks to the tight, winding layout and a story of there just being loads of Crows, with one actor also in the process of being mysteriously changed into one. This year is more open and the Crows feel a bit more attacky.

 

I'd very much like it to stay, but they need to take a step back with the direction they're going. But yeah, if it does go, using them as roamers is preferable.

 

13 hours ago, yeah said:

I prefer each ride/area having it's own Fright Nights soundtrack and announcements as opposed to one parkwide soundtrack.

I do hope this is on the cards. Lighting has been a longer-term project which they've nailed this year, audio should be the next step.

 

A few years ago, the major rides had overlays which were related to fears / phobia. For example, Inferno had announcements of "Pyrophobia is the fear of fire...". That concept would still work well given the park is the "Home of Fear". Even just FN announcements / dispatches, and keeping the same audio, would be a step in the right direction.

[yeah]

8 hours ago, JoshC. said:

I haven't notice the second effect you mentioned there in any of the 4 runs I've had. An interesting thing, but definitely a cool visual.. I think again that's my issue with the maze (along with Stitches) in that that's a very "show-y", passive thing. It looks cool and is memorable, but does it in any way create an atmosphere which is scary? If it was a clear show scene that everyone's paying attention to, yes. But just in passing as you walk through, not so much, and those 2 actors could be better used elsewhere.

Yeah, we didn't see it the first time round. It's in the "VIP area" section, to be fair it works as a sort of distraction scare as well as you see the clubgoer and then the "Visceral" (a name, which, like most of the story, isn't made very clear to you) comes from the other side, before the effect starts. I see what you mean about it being passive, for me, it's like a middle ground between Stitches, which can be very passive, and mazes like Survival Games and Trailers. I feel like it can work, I just don't think the "music taking your soul" thing is made clear enough. Besides, we're in a nightclub with the music blaring out, why are all the clubgoers wearing headphones??

 

One thing I do feel like Stitches nailed, was the use of sound effects/lighting to provide scares even when actors aren't there. It won't get everyone, and on repeat run throughs the impact lessens. But I remember being really on edge my first time going through, and the little musical stabs really got me a couple of times.

8 hours ago, JoshC. said:

A few years ago, the major rides had overlays which were related to fears / phobia. For example, Inferno had announcements of "Pyrophobia is the fear of fire...". That concept would still work well given the park is the "Home of Fear". Even just FN announcements / dispatches, and keeping the same audio, would be a step in the right direction.

I remember these, would've been from my first couple of FNs, especially remember hearing Detonator's from literally anywhere on park (as usual), Stealth's speech which was very good. Also remember hearing "the irrational fear of fire" and thinking... that is actually a very rational fear. Perhaps the most rational.

 

I remember thinking last year that they would come eventually, but I'm not sure they ever did. It's a shame, as I remember Inferno and Swarm in particular having really cool atmospheres a few years ago, with Inferno's drums and the Swarm Invasion theme. Really hope this comes this year, as I cannot stand the music in the Inferno station being interrupted by "PLEASE HOLD TIGHT". In general I think they've taken a bit of a step back this year with the whole "disciples of FEAR" theme, which is a shame as I feel like there's a lot you could do with that and Hyperia this year. Oh well. 

 

I'll be back a couple of times over the next few weeks, and then once or twice towards the end of the event, so I'm looking forward to see what changes take place.

[Glitch]

How does an event go from getting amazing reviews on press night to disappointment?

 

[Benin]

3 hours ago, Glitch said:

How does an event go from getting amazing reviews on press night to disappointment?

 

 

No one could've predicted this!

 

God that's some clickbait influencer nonsense. 

[Inferno]

20 minutes ago, Benin said:

No one could've predicted this!

 

God that's some clickbait influencer nonsense. 

Is it?   I've seen a few similar 'reviews'.

 

I've just looked at prices for me and my wife for Saturday (Not going, but just out of interest) - it's £160 for both of us - for those prices people expect something special to be honest, and I think anything less than "very good" is not going to get a good reaction out of many people.

 

Have the maze prices dropped a little?  They are coming up for me at £8 a maze - I thought they were £10?

 

It's interesting to see in that video that the queues for the mazes were fairly short. I wonder if they have backpedaled on price a bit?

 

I'm interested to hear the views of others on here who have been to FN this year so far.

[Benin]

I mean we have a similar conversation every year about this. Media night is always fancier.

 

It also never helps that the mazes themselves are very luck based. Run through when breaks are hitting? Perhaps an incident has occurred with another group? Batching is crap? There are many more variables that affect an individual run through on a standard day compared to rides themselves. It means a bad run can put a real bad taste in the mouth.

 

 

As for the clickbait? That video oozes it. All that's missing is the vlogger's face looking angry on there for the complete bingo.

[Cal]

34 minutes ago, Inferno said:

Have the maze prices dropped a little?  They are coming up for me at £8 a maze - I thought they were £10?

 

It's interesting to see in that video that the queues for the mazes were fairly short. I wonder if they have backpedaled on price a bit?

 

Nope same price, £8 for afternoon slots and £10 for evening slots. 

 

I've noticed lower queues for mazes this year too. Friday in particular, none of the mazes seemed to have a queue all evening and the park wasn't dead. 

 

Whether this is because a 4th maze has relived a bit of pressure on queues or people just aren't as willing to pay for them anymore? Not sure. Time will tell I guess.

[JoshC.]

I visited Thorpe on Friday and Sunday. I did the mazes again on Sunday. 

 

Friday was an interesting one: park was surprisingly quiet, as were maze queues. Not sure why, but just one of those things.

 

Sunday was...less good.

 

Bought the Fearsome Four package for 3-7pm. The park wasn't that busy, but it took us the full 4 hours to do 4 mazes.

 

-Survival Games was walk on at 3pm. I was a bit disappointed that they double batched the cages. At that point, it's completely unnecessary. I'd rather wait a few extra minutes and get a smaller, more personal experience (and that's for any maze). Maze was more hands-ony that on Thursday though.

 

-Trailers was next. Advertised as 60mins, took almost 2 hours. There were 2 shutdowns, although you wouldn't know that as they didn't do any announcements or update the app. I could tell from seeing staff going in and out of maze and not hearing anyone leave. But to someone less aware of FN operations, you'd have no clue why it wasn't moving.

There's also a hidden queue line behind the building for it now, to stop the queue spilling out. Seems like a very poor design, and rushed, as there's no lighting, audio or cameras there.

Maze was just as good as Thursday, though a couple less actors.

 

-DeadBeat was a 15 minute wait. Same again as on Thursday.

 

-Stitches was another long wait. Always seems to be, but can't figure out why.

The park need to re-think the queue for this. There were multiple instances of people ducking under barriers and getting into the queue. That meant that people were getting in without paying and were queue jumping. Worse, when reported to security (as these people were being rude to other guests too), nothing was done.

Maze itself was fine, again little difference compared to Thursday.

 

Crows had improved compared to Thursday, and Lucifer's Lair was as fun as ever.

 

 

There were a few operational issues too. Some of this is teething issues, some of this is staff frankly not being trained properly, of which I reported / complained at Guest Services. Needs sorting out.

 

There were a few shutdowns too, which doesn't help when you've got the main coaster on one train.

 

So yeah, not my greatest Fright Nights visit. FN attraction quality good, but outside of that, somewhat burdenous.

 

I haven't watched the above vlog, because frankly I don't care to spend 20 minutes of life watching some randos talk about their day at a theme park. Especially if they wrote it all down and I could read it in 5 minutes. But there will be different opinions and all that. But honestly? I don't think the maze quality was that different between Thursday and Sunday.

 

The bigger issue is that the park has struggled operationally. Not great security choices. Bad batching intervals. Dodgy operations and communication. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and right now Fright Nights' weakest link is not the attraction quality. The good thing is it means they can resolve that quickly, if they take action.

 

 

On a tangential note, I went to The Howl (the little brother of Tulleys this weekend). I paid £30 for 6 mazes, as opposed to the £27.20 for the 4 at Thorpe (with discount). The mazes at Thorpe are vastly superior in terms of theming, scare and overall quality. The Howl is the second-closest Halloween scare event to Thorpe (after Tulleys), and it showed to me how far ahead Thorpe are on that front. 

In terms of UK theme parks, Thorpe's only potential competition is Towers, which has been a mixed bag for a while.

Yes, there's much better events than The Howl out there, but Thorpe can only compete with what they're up against, but Thorpe are leagues ahead. I think it's easy to forget that sometimes.

[Inferno]

Good to hear different points of view

Hopefully they can sort these operations issues out, as this seems to be an issue year in year out.

 

The lighting across the entire park looks to be absolutely incredible this year.

[Coco]

I did my usual FN trip with my pops on Friday/Saturday, and while it felt like a fairly decent event this year, it still doesn't give me the same buzz as it did back when stuff like Saw Alive and the face it alone thingies were still around.

 

[Pleasantly impressed]

The things that pleasantly surprised us were the nice lighting this year. And we were happy to see Lucifer's Lair return as we thought it was a brilliant addition last year in terms of entertainment. We generally don't watch show stuff, but everything at Lucifer's has been watchable (though it's no Circus of Horrors!) We both liked the Hell's Angels circus-style performers, but our opinion was divided on the dancers. My dad thought they were decent (but he also doesn’t think they're professional dancers, he reckons they're TP staff!) I thought they could have used more practice cos they weren't particularly in sync. The live band was decent.

 

[Dead Beat]

As for mazes, I think we maybe got a bad run through Dead Beat as there were a lot of empty rooms devoid of actors It felt very empty in general. Nice theming and stuff, but more like just wandering through a funky set than a scare maze since it lacked scares for most of it.

 

Sadly, we didn't see any of the stuff mentioned above in some of the other posts. And agree that the story was quite lost and confused after the initially impressive pre-show type start.

 

It seemed like a cool concept that fell flat due to the lack of actors for us.

 

[Trailers]

Trailers was the same sorta goofy fun we've always found it to be, more comical than creepy, plenty of actors, and the new nods were cool! 

 

[Stitches]

Stitches was our favourite this year just because it feels like the best value for money. It's pretty long and has plenty to see. It also had plenty of actors both times we went through there (with many of them switching places on our 2nd go). Some of the scares were passive, but we also had some brilliant in-your-face moments from energetic actors that wouldn't stop until they interacted with everyone in the group.

 

2 completely different actors with different approaches in the room near the end with the body on the table. 1, in particular, made the scene into a pretty epic set piece before terrorising the group. She was just brilliant and really the icing on the cake for us!

 

[Survival Games]

We had the free hotel 2nd day maze access, which states 1 single go on each maze, but in reality, it's 4 scans of the barcode. That's how come we did Stitches twice, as we chose to skip Survival Games this year due to neither of being particularly fussed about doing it. We've done it multiple times at previous Fright Nights, and assumed it hadn't changed much, if at all.

 

Don't get me wrong, Survival Games absolutely has its place, and the very first time I did it in a previous year, it did get my heart racing more than any of the other Fright Nights attractions. BUT, I go to 18 rated extreme scare stuff like Scream Camp when I want more hands-on thrills. For me personally, it's a bit of an in between kinda thing. Like the actors are more intense than the other FN attractions, but not really intense enough for me to make up for the lack of theming in the maze. It's a good bridge for anyone wanting a taste of something a bit more adrenaline fuelled, but it does feel a bit like a baby face-it-alone. 

 

Personally, I'd rather have an attration that is properly full-contact, 18-rated, requiring a waiver kinda thing. Alongside the other, less intense but more heavily themed attractions. I know that isn't likely to happen though!

 

My dad's reason for skipping Survival Games is somewhat similar. He hasn't done any full-contact scare stuff because he's not into that sort of thing at all. His reason for disliking SG is purely the lack of theming. He said he finds the style and actors of SG "annoying, not scary", haha. 

 

He said he likes scare attractions not necessarily for actually being scared (he generally just doesn't get scared by anything), but for the atmosphere. So he's only really impressed by the stuff that is more comparable to a movie set, like Doom Town at Tulleys. But even still, while theming is important to him, atmosphere matters more, so even with a drab set, if the atmosphere is good, he's on board! But he says SG lacks any kind of theming AND atmosphere.

 

Of course, everyone is gonna be completely different, and I get why SG has its fans, it's just not for us.

 

[Overall]

We're hoping the maze tickets at Alton Towers work similarly to Thorpe since the Daz thing is included in the multi-attraction ticket this year, but neither of us have any desire to do it whatsoever!

 

Overall though, it was an enjoyable Fright Nights this year, but still not as good as it has been in years long gone by, and increasingly poorer value for money.

(not just for mazes, but rides considering we had unlimited hotel FT on Swarm, yet the FT queue was consistently 35 mins each time we tried to use it!)

[Coco]

13 hours ago, JoshC. said:

The Howl is the second-closest Halloween scare event to Thorpe (after Tulleys), and it showed to me how far ahead Thorpe are on that front. 

In terms of UK theme parks, Thorpe's only potential competition is Towers, which has been a mixed bag for a while.

Yes, there's much better events than The Howl out there, but Thorpe can only compete with what they're up against, but Thorpe are leagues ahead. I think it's easy to forget that sometimes.

 

I just have to say, that while I get the point that you're making here, my dad and I personally feel The Howl blows Thorpe outta the water every year, haha.

We haven't been to The Howl yet this year, but we've been every other year, and are saving it until last this year for a reason - it's our favourite local scare event! (we actually like it more than Shocktoberfest even though it's the baby brother because actor interactions have always been better at The Howl than at Shocktoberfest where it's understandably busier).

I totally agree that the sets of the mazes themselves aren't as fancy as some of what Thorpe has, but they have still always been much better mazes in our eyes at The Howl purely because the atmosphere and the actors have always been superior when we've been there. And at the end of the day, it's the actors that really make the mazes come alive. You can have the fanciest theming in the world, but if the actors aren't there, or their energy is lacking, it's just a casual walk through a cool-looking set.

For us, The Howl's actors have always been plentiful and lively every year, with the roamers being absolutely outstanding.

Whereas our experience of Thorpe's actors has been very hit or miss over the years. Sure, we've had some incredible interactions from exceptional individuals, some of which I will never forget! BUT, we've had soooo many attraction runs at Thorpe that were devoid of actors it's kind of insane. And roamers are practically non-existent nowadays.

The Howl may be much smaller than Thorpe, but as a scare event, we reckon it's easily better than Fright Nights if you take away Thorpe's rides.

 

Overall atmosphere at The Howl has always been electric for us. Whereas there have only been 1 or 2 years where the atmosphere at Thorpe has actually felt like it's supposed to be a Halloween event. This year is not one of them thanks to the soundtrack sounding waaaay too club-like. I get that it's probably supposed to tie into Dead Beat with it being their new maze, but still. It's just not a very atmospheric soundtrack. At least there's some nice lighting back this year though.

The fact that Thorpe has the availability of some pretty epic rides in the dark is the only reason we still return to Fright Nights year on year. If the only offering was mazes and the other event-related entertainment, we probably wouldn't bother >.< And it hurts to say that cos there were some fantastic iterations of Fright Nights in the past, just not much to write home about in recent years.

Both my dad and I were lamenting past Fright Nights while queuing for Saw, and we both said we can't understand how an event that's so big can have gone from being pretty damn epic to just getting gradually worse over time It should be the other way around! Other places we go to tend to get better year on year, but not Fright Nights, sadly.

 

I know everyone will have differing opinions, of course. That's just our experience. If we were forced one year to choose between going to Thorpe for Fright Nights or to The Howl as opposed to both. We would pick The Howl over Fright Nights in a heartbeat!

[a guy]

16 hours ago, JoshC. said:

On a tangential note, I went to The Howl (the little brother of Tulleys this weekend). I paid £30 for 6 mazes, as opposed to the £27.20 for the 4 at Thorpe (with discount). The mazes at Thorpe are vastly superior in terms of theming, scare and overall quality. The Howl is the second-closest Halloween scare event to Thorpe (after Tulleys), and it showed to me how far ahead Thorpe are on that front. 

In terms of UK theme parks, Thorpe's only potential competition is Towers, which has been a mixed bag for a while.

Yes, there's much better events than The Howl out there, but Thorpe can only compete with what they're up against, but Thorpe are leagues ahead. I think it's easy to forget that sometimes.

 

If anything like last year I would disagree heavily. I liked both events last year but I think The Howl is underated and actually has a more consistent lineup.

Mazes like Squealers/Shed are not like the flashiest but have pretty awesome scares and they have a good length. I feel the smaller size of The Howl compared to Fright Nights really helps as the crowds when I went were very mild and we walked into most of the mazes without queues in small groups. I love Thorpe and the rides really make it worthwhile but I do think The Howl does mazes better.

[yeah]

Had a few more runs of each maze. 2 on Survival Games and Stitches, one on Trailers and Dead Beat. Pretty similar to last week, although had one good and one excellent run through on Survival Games. Had one good run through on Stitches, but the other three I've done this year haven't been great. Trailers has delivered every time and I really liked Dead Beat last night. On the whole, though, yesterday was not good. Not sure I've ever seen the place as busy and didn't get to go on Hyperia this time, had to bail after all the shenanigans at the end of the day.

 

Managed to catch a bit of Creature Campus, it's really not for me, we got bored fairly quickly and left. Some very "interesting" song choices. Enjoy Lucifer's Lair though, that should stay for as long as possible. Definitely in favour of Mawkin going now, it's had it's time and everyone I've done FN with this year or have spoken to about it has felt the same way, including some first time visitors. No sign of ride audio and I don't think it's coming unfortunately.

 

Don't know if I'll be back until the last 2 weeks or so, but plan on 2+ more visits. I think Fright Nights is in a bit of a weird place right now, with mostly good mazes across the board that each offer something different (Stitches utterly terrifies some people even if it's not for all of us), but the free attractions and scare zones are lacking a bit this year. I'm not sure a new maze is necessary next year, and I still think all four mazes have a bit more left in them. I certainly don't want to lose Trailers or Survival Games just yet. Free attractions need a bit of a revamp next year. Lucifer's Lair can stay but I'd like two proper Mawkin-esque scare zones with new themes please.

[MattL28]

I noticed last night Colossus is the only coaster with a Fright Nights soundtrack in the station. It’s very Vampire sounding like Chessington. I don’t really get it but it’s a thing…….

 

I agree with the above, realistically if you’re going to have scare zones. You need to add more zones or convert Creature Campus and Lucifiers Lair (I like the concept, so it could stay) to an actually scary zone without having to speak to them and rely on dialogue. The theming and types of creatures in a scare zone should mean every time you walk through the area you get scared. Thorpe probably lack the theming in their scare zones at the moment. The existing two can stay but I know they have issues with hiring actors 

[Cal]

So after doing Fright Nights a few times now, I'll give my review. 

 

Dead Beat

I did this for my first time yesterday. After seeing lots of mixed reviews I hadn't bothered with it before but kept it spoiler free for myself. But I was really pleasantly surprised with this, was my favorite maze last night by far. 

Its long, themeing is great, great smells, loved the soundtrack, lots of great scares (actors had some really good hiding places.)

 

The ending with the actor flying above your head was my favorite part by far. That got me good, never seen something like that in a maze before.

 

Survival Games

Did this on the opening night and last night. 

On the opening night it was great, pretty much the same as last year. It was having a lot of issues that night though and saw the area got evaced at least 3 times due to the fire alarm going off. 

Yesterday however, it wasn't so great. Absolutely no smoke in the main area which made a huge difference. Potentially due to the fire alarm issues? But they really need to sort that out. What made this maze great was that you couldn't really see where you where going in the main part and it was confusing. With no smoke, you can see everywhere you're going. Actors seemed very hands-off yesterday too. 

 

Stiches

Pretty much the same as last year. I don't know what it is but I feel like I've never had a particularly good run through in this maze. I want to enjoy it but its not for me and has never been one of my favorites unfortunately. 

 

Trailers

Another one where I've never been the biggest fan off. This year does seem consistent though, good amount of actors and its a decent length. Just always felt this has lacked scares though.

 

Bit cheeky calling them new scenes this year as not a lot has really changed. 

 

Crows

Decent scarezone, pretty much an outdoor maze. Not as strong as last year though unfortunately. Lots of security/staff visible throughout the walk really kills the atmosphere too. On the first couple times I went they were constantly telling us to keep moving which was annoying, less of that yesterday but still does kill the atmosphere having them visible everywhere. Hopefully they can improve on this next year or have a change up as Crows are getting pretty stale now.

 

Lucifers Lair and Creature Campus

Can't really comment on either of these as I haven't really spent any time in either of them. 

Luciers Lair is decent and creates a nice atmosphere at the center of the park.

I think its pretty cheeky calling Creature Campus a scarezone, its a dance show. I don't go to scare events to watch people dance to be honest, so not a bit of me. 

Not for me and I'd rather the budget was used for a different scare attraction instead, but I do understand the reasons for keep bringing it back as it does seem to be popular.

 

Everything else

Fright Nights will never be as good as it was in its old days, but overall its another strong year for Fright Nights. Yesterday in particular was great, got 3 mazes done in less than an hour. Operations across the park were great and didn't see a single breakdown or ride shutdown all day.

 

Park wide audio I'm really not a fan of this year. Disappointing they haven't bothered with individual ride audio again too. Was always one of my favorite things about Fright Nights.

 

Lighting looks great though this year, great to see so much permanent lighting. Best the park has ever looked at night. Theres still improvements that could be made though. Detonator for example had programmed lighting not long ago which seems to have disappeared. 

Would like to have seen them do more with Hyperia too. Imagine if the lights flashed as it went down the lift hill? Or flashed a different color even? 

 

There used to be a lot more smoke machines around the park as well which was cool, so would be nice to be see them return, especially with the new lighting. Vortex is looking great with a smoke machine, but other rides would benefit from this too. Samurai was always a good one. Stealths hasn't worked the last few times I've been which is a shame. 

 

Oh and lastly, I'll keep saying this every year. But 10pm closes are missed as there isn't enough time in the dark. Even if it means doing 11-10 or 12-11. Or as Josh has said before, even keeping the mazes and coasters open till 10 would be good.

[JoshC.]

Lucifer's Lair has been an absolute crown jewel of Fright Nights this year. The atmosphere in the area resembles that of a scream park rather than a Halloween event at a theme park. The variety of shows makes it easy to re-visit on the same night, or just pass through. The amount of fire is wonderful. The actors and theme give the opportunity for a more dark humour and adult tone (whilst still keeping it PG given its an event anyone can visit), which isn't something that any other attraction on park achieves.

 

It's been my favourite FN attraction both this year and last. But tonight, when the park was heaving, just to be able to spend time there, watch a couple of the shows and see the electric atmosphere that there was, really does show that this is a superb zone, and I really hope the park continues to run it in future Fright Nights. 

[a guy]

I visited a few weeks ago on a Monday and Last Night (The 3rd) and here is my honest thoughts. No holding back here lol.

 

Stitches:

This is my favourite maze of the 4. I find Stitches very eerie to walk through and both run throughs I had were both very lively. I love some of the disgusting costumes like the oversized teddy bear, the puppet doll, and the gorilla. The actors also seemed more than happy to play off the already creepy vibe and give great startle scares. I found the scares varied and energetic on both runs, and the finale seemed a lot better than last year and managed to really work on both runs. Stitches is a long, well themed, and unique maze that should be kept for longer. 

 

Survival Games:

I had one run with no separation and on my second I was alone for the first half. In the arena on both times I found myself in a conga line of people and no actors in sight. The conga lines slowly lingered towards the exit, the conga line on both runs meandered to the end casually strolling through the equally flat finale. P*ss poor. I hope it goes next year as this year it just felt dead. The arena on both times just felt stuffed full of people and no actors to cause chaos- the arena is bloody lifeless now and it completely makes this maze a disaster.

 

Trailers:

This maze has grown on me over the years. It is not the scariest maze but I feel it has a nice variety of scares, mostly good theming, and the casts do really shine in here.

Even though we caught up with the group in front the actors still managed to power their way through our group. The acting quality was really high and I liked the new buckwheat scene. The new scenes are honestly a bit lacking in theming but the Platform and Creek actors both were totally great in their rooms which helped me forget. My conclusion is Trailers is a good maze that belongs in the line-up even if just for being a fun concept with some cool ideas.

 

Deadbeat:

Deadbeat is a frustrating mess of an attraction. I like the idea of the theme but I feel the design really is a let down with this one. The concept is cool but walking through it just doesn't make much sense? I find it is a little hard to follow and some rooms I wonder why they are there? It also is strange with the multiple slot machine rooms where not much happens, the room with a dancing girl?

 

I think where DeadBeat feels weak for me is seemingly the design for actors. The actors we saw were brilliant but with the loud dance music it made their great scares fall flat. A noise for an actor really I think is an important tool for grabbing those scares but all the actors are fighting against an overly loud soundtrack. I think a more sinister lowkey soundtrack after the initial rooms would be so much better. The maze also seems to lack much in the way of hidey holes, actor runs, and honestly it seemed not very actor friendly. A lot of the actors still made it work but even with brilliant efforts we still walked out thinking it was terrible, and quite frankly I would say it just feels poorly designed. I hope they "Big Top" this as like Survival Games, it was pathetic. To think I paid £10 for either makes me feel sick.

 

Lucifer's Lair/Creature Campus:

Great talent here with the shows. Both bring a lot to the park and the atmosphere, and I hope both of these are here to stay. I like the variety that Lucifer brings, and I feel like it gives Fright Nights a real meaty catalogue of stuff to see. Bored? Head to Lucifer's Lair there probably is something going on now or soon.

 

Crows: 

Though not too long and not many actors, The Crows were enjoyable. I do think a full scale maze would be really brilliant if it brought back. I do think it is worse than last year for sure in regards to amount of actors.

 

Overall: Good event with honestly very mixed opinions on mazes. Stitches and Trailers I feel like gives me hope but if DeadBeat is the new style we are getting, I want to get off the train lol!