Fright Nights 2025

[JoshC.]

Well it's time to start that thread...

 

Jack has shown a couple of new posters that appeared in Trailers' queue:

 

 

Now there's lots of room for speculation here. It could be for 2 new (rethemed) rooms. The left poster could certainly be a retheme of the first room (the dentist scene). The right poster is a bit more open to interpretation.

 

I've seen some suggest this could be a hint to The Walking Dead The Ride leaving, given that X was its previous name, and the right poster looks a bit zombie-like. Given the nod to the date (the start of Fright Nights), I think that's unlikely.

 

The right poster has the glazed-over eyes look, which is vaguely reminiscent of Dead Beat's advertising too.

 

I expect that whatever these posters are, they are some sort of hint to what is to come, even if very tenuously linked. But for now, they've done the job of getting some people talking about Fright Nights.

 

---

 

As for a more broad thing for Fright Nights, I've been told that this is the last year that Fright Nights will have an in-house Entertainments acting team. 2026 will see the park shift to having an external agency provide Ents, similar to how the other UK Merlin parks are operating this year. I do wonder if that will affect things.

 

On a personal level, the one thing I really want Thorpe to do for Fright Nights is a proper alone experience. Yes, we have Survival Games where you can be split up, but it's not the same as a proper alone experience. 

 

I'm not sure if there's demand for an experience like this. A proper alone experience is usually more theatrical and story-led, with less re-visit potential, and less jump scares. But they can be significantly scarier and more impactful than the types of mazes Thorpe offer. They warrant an upcharge, and a more expensive one at that, so can still be wildly profitable.

 

Even looking at those posters, you could fit in the story of an alone experience. Being alone in a medical ward where something bad happened. The "unearthing" poster could relate to being 'buried alive'. This is purely my imagination running wild here, but it's something which could really work.

[Mark9]

Do we have to? It's worse then Christmas in shops in August..

[Inferno]

The posters could be anything couldn’t they.  Wasn’t the exodus one a hint to angry birds leaving or something? 🤷‍♂️ 

Jack’s video brought these posters up while talking specifically about fright nights however so I suppose it’s more likely to be related to Trailers rather than elsewhere in the park 

[JoshC.]

4 hours ago, Mark9 said:

Do we have to? It's worse then Christmas in shops in August..

 

The only thing worse than shops putting Christmas stuff in shops in August is the people who moan about Christmas stuff being in shops in August like it's something new though... 😉

[Mark9]

2 minutes ago, JoshC. said:

 

The only thing worse than shops putting Christmas stuff in shops in August is the people who moan about Christmas stuff being in shops in August like it's something new though... 😉

 

I get the reference however..

 

The only thing worse than people moaning about Christmas stuff in shops in August is forums talking about halloween.

[Benin]

On 6/21/2025 at 8:58 PM, Mark9 said:

 

I get the reference however..

 

The only thing worse than people moaning about Christmas stuff in shops in August is forums talking about halloween.

 

Doesn’t help when its the only event the park has or has ever been popular/good at.

[Parm Pap]

bor bor cha, bor bor cha, bor bor cha and the bor, cha, bor

 

 

tick tock, tick tock, trailers, tick tock

 

 

paint nice paint nice nothing new budget's gone

[JoshC.]

Parm Pap is referencing the current repaint of Trailers' entrance, which was looking rather tired...

 

https://x.com/ThorpeParkMania/status/1947946070564368440?t=sTe6cAWh7v_3yI8gFwd9Mg&s=19

[MattL28]

I think there’s a discussion to be had around permanent maze spaces.

 

Theres a higher cost to create the mazes in permanent spaces. For stitches and survival games this is even more apparent. The quality of mazes has gone up and it saves them setting mazes up every year.

 

However because of the high cost and its that it’s a permanent feature. It has to operate for quite a few years and you start getting bored of mazes. Trailers for example, I see everyone complaining that it’s still here and it’s defintely one of the weaker mazes too. However it has to come back to make it worth it 

[JoshC.]

I think it's worth pointing out that Survival Games ended up costing more than Trailers. And Creek Freak Massacre was, at the time, the park's single highest investment for a maze and lasted 3 seasons. So high cost doesn't mean it has to be around for a long time, although I understand the point and broadly don't disagree. 

 

I've seen people on social media talking about how Trailers in particular is "old". It's a very interesting discussion point. It's had 4 seasons now, and last year was the first year we saw substantial changes to it (though arguably, those changes weren't really substantial, just a redress), and is the oldest in the line up. 

 

But in the past, the park had mazes last for several seasons...

Asylum - 9 seasons

Saw Alive - 9 seasons

Se7en - 6 seasons

Hellgate - 6 seasons

 

And there's even more recent examples of mazes lasting a few years...

Platform 15 - 6 seasons

Blair Witch - 6 seasons (with a brief gap)

The Curse - 5 seasons 

Containment - 5 seasons

 

Obviously the glaring difference right now is the fact the mazes are upcharge. But then, plenty of places keep mazes for a long time. Towers is a fine example. Lots of international parks (some of which have better Halloween events than Thorpe) do. And scream parks, some of which have mazes set up in situ all year round, have kept mazes for a long time (Tulleys has 5 mazes which are at least a decade old, have just retired one which was 15 years old, and have a couple which have been rethemed but are otherwise the same). My point is, keeping attractions the same for a long time isn't uncommon at other places either.

 

Thorpe certainly gets held to a high expectation with Fright Nights. And recently that's at least partially their own doing thanks to the high maze costs, and their own marketing hype. But at the same time, I don't think a maze potentially having a run of 5 seasons is that long or necessarily a bad thing.

 

 

It will be interesting to see what happens this year. The park have introduced a new maze every year since 2010 (if you include Saw Alive). Okay, there's a couple of loose definitions of new in that list  but still. It's the expectation that there will be a new maze every year. In the same way in the past there was an expectation of a new ride every year. 

 

But with changing budgets and a complete behind the scenes overhaul, plus this being the last year that Thorpe run Ents themselves, who knows what this means. But if they don't introduce a new maze, I'll be very interested to see how they market the event and where they place their focuses.