SAW: Alive

[gerstlaue]

For me the Freezer is the one room that manages to scare me EVERY time. Also the sudden temperature drop and blue mist is very atmospheric

Really! I find the room too predictable I.e you know when the person is going to jump. Although saying that, I don't like it when the pig is hiding in the corner so always have to look out for that, as I have quite a fear of the mask. I agree, the room is atmospheric.

[JoshC.]

Well, went to the park today. This whole 'maintenance' thing. It didn't add or improve any effects, however, I was told by a member of staff working on the attraction is was to 'improve guests' experiences'.I must say, the attraction has improved drastically. Here follows a relatively in depth spoiler of what happened.Visit 1 - where I was at the very back. SWAT room had a female, which was a first for me. She's not as impactive as the male I've had in there, but they all seem to have their own flair to it. A nice touch was if you touch a wooden door (fire exits and actors' rooms), you WILL be decapitated. Bathroom. Very active bloke. He was rattling the chains before we were even in there. Once everyone was in, he sprung to life, touching everyone and circling round the group to the other side and jumping into peoples' faces. Very nice. Then, he follows us into the next room! He overtakes me at the back even! I then look at him and he tries to scare me, and when I think he's gone, he's still there grabbing at my trousers. Very good acting. Electric fence. Gawd, the vibrations of the gate are long and noisy. I'd hate to be the actor in there. She hid in the fake route and then just stroked people's face, etc. I get to the flaps, and she just pops up behind me and says 'leave..' Brilliant!Freezer room. 2 pig men, no actor changed up. A bit risky, considering I felt this was the best part of the attraction. However, the pig men were good and really got into peoples' faces and stroked them. Being at the back, they thought it was good to snarl at me and stroke my back. And then still follow me into the next room. Mausoleum Trap. We had caught up with the group in front of us, somehow, and the actor left that group and went straight to ours. She stopped us even to et the spacing even out. She was rattling her chain and doing quite a lot of strange things, staying in character well and not speaking. Just as we were leaving, I looked behind me, and she was still there, and then she started mumbling (not being able to speak, yet still interacting - brilliant!) - sounded like save me or something. Then, she strokes my head, pulls my ear and jabs me in the ribs! Fantastic. Pendulum Trap. Having being so focused on the previous actor, I wasn't surprised to see no actor on the table. I was surprised to see the actor already scaring the group and rattling against the cage. Like the others, she interacted with everyone. She picked on me and then lied back on the table. Carousel Trap. Still a weak ending. The actor was still good though, and chased us out, again leaving me to be picked on. Lovely. On my second visit, I was more or less in the middle. I decided to try out a little idea of mine, and tried acting scared. It worked, with all the actors interacting with me. Probably the highlight was when I was poked by the (same) women in the Mausoleum Trap, which caused my 'hide in fright', which caused my mum - who was behind me - to laugh. The actor then started poking her repeatedly, saying 'You think that's funny? I don't..' And my mum laughed harder, and the actor responded by saying 'I'm poking you and you're still laughing..' And poked her even more. Okay, so she was went out of character. Okay, she didn't scare us. But it added to the enjoyment and worked so well!Overall, the attraction itself appears to have become less passive and the actors are trying to scare you, whilst stilling keeping loosely to the theme of the room. In the end, I think that is the best thing possible. Being involved in a passive experience is no good. Being involved in a partially-passive experience is what this maze has to do. My 2 visits makes me give it a score of 6.5/10 - much better than my previous 3/10 I gave it at first. XDI hope there'll be even more actors in there on Monday!

[gerstlaue]

Thanks for the info, have been waiting to hear if anything happened! Like the sound of how the actors/actresses are acting, but I still feel like they should pretend to be in the traps a bit more.

[Ricky]

Maintenance never REALLY happened. It was closed because the boat needed to be pushed back 4/5 meters as it was hitting rocks on the banks. You may notice that there are some strange new 'concrete' blocked you walk over to get to the boat.

[gerstlaue]

Maintenance never REALLY happened. It was closed because the boat needed to be pushed back 4/5 meters as it was hitting rocks on the banks. You may notice that there are some strange new 'concrete' blocked you walk over to get to the boat.

Oh so that's what the concrete is for. Didn't notice it had moved back though. Thanks for the info

[d.m.k]

Was at the park yesterday and went into the maze twice like I usually do, once at the start and once at the end of the day.I noticed that there was a huge amount of smoke through-out the whole maze, I was at the front in the freezer room and had to feel around to get anywhere. Never experienced the smoke in Saw Alive before.Also, there were two pig masked men working all day, one who chased people out of the last room and the other was scaring people out of the photo room, even running across the bridge to get a good scare. Brilliant atmosphere around the ride thanks to one bloke, good work

[noob230]

My first time on this but never again. Its TERRIBLE.I queued 5 minutes and one thing is that it was to dark so you cant really see anything and the pig people kept avoiding us.The best room was the Freezer but the woman didnt do ANYTHING.Probably the highlight of the maze were the staff members at the entrance who were a great bunch and the woman playing the SWAT Team cos she was so serious and I actually thought she was part of the police force!2/10

[JoshC.]

The new music in there is rather annoying.Yes, I like it. It's good music. Reminds me slightly of the Saw theme itself. However, why in the maze!?I'm in a bathroom. There's a guy sawing his own leg off and trying to scare the heck out of me. SO what do I want to hear? A catchy piece of slightly creepy music of course! (Note the sarcasm). A complete atmosphere killer.Yes, it's fine in the photo point and before then. Heck, even the photo booth would have be fine. But not in the maze Use it for the queue line for some variation, but not the queue line. The maze has got worse as well. It's really scary to have people turn on a torch and go boo...

[Ricky]

The music is there to make the maze sound more fast paced! Tis why it is upbeat and very fast. On the other hand SAW Alive has been moved yet again due to the sudden weather change meaning the lake has decined rapidly and its hitting rocks again. You will soon be getting a rubber dinghy to paddle over to the boat soon!

[BigRob]

The music is there to make the maze sound more fast paced! Tis why it is upbeat and very fast. On the other hand SAW Alive has been moved yet again due to the sudden weather change meaning the lake has decined rapidly and its hitting rocks again. You will soon be getting a rubber dinghy to paddle over to the boat soon!

Hi Ricky!I go to Thorpe about once a month and each time I've been there, SAW Alive has been working and seems to never move. How do they get the maze back into place?And I have to agree that music in the maze isn't the best idea. I am an avid fan of these horror mazes and have been on many different types world wide. The best Saw maze is in Universal Studios and made it's début at their horror nights - 'Ripped from the silver screen'. That maze was silent apart from screams and shrieks from the public. I thought the same of the maze at Thorpe until the music was brought in, now it seems to be a cheesy Saw Rat-Race! Do you by any chance work at Thorpe Park?

[Ricky]

Hi Ricky!I go to Thorpe about once a month and each time I've been there, SAW Alive has been working and seems to never move. How do they get the maze back into place?And I have to agree that music in the maze isn't the best idea. I am an avid fan of these horror mazes and have been on many different types world wide. The best Saw maze is in Universal Studios and made it's début at their horror nights - 'Ripped from the silver screen'. That maze was silent apart from screams and shrieks from the public. I thought the same of the maze at Thorpe until the music was brought in, now it seems to be a cheesy Saw Rat-Race! Do you by any chance work at Thorpe Park?

I do not work at Thorpe Park, and Saw Alive has been moved 3 times this year and in total moved about 12 to 15 meters from its original resting place. Next time I go ill get a picture of its current position and its original position, then you will see how far you have to walk now in comparison to what you used to!

[JBdaWonderLlama]

I personally think Thorpe could've added better scenes from Saw II and Saw VI. I think the furnace trap from Saw II would've worked better as you could have an actor bursting out of the furnace when you're in the room. And the Hanging Trap from Saw VI could've worked well. There could be a narrow corridor with a glass window, a mannequin would swing at the window and you could have the dude who has to make the choice of who dies in the room with you to freak you out more.Also, does anyone know if a scene from Saw 3D is going to be added onto the maze?

[ThrillSeekerMatt]

Any chance they will add another room (or 2) for Fright Nights?I seem to remember reading somewhere that there were a few unused rooms at the moment.

[MikeyT]

Not sure about Fright Nights, but there is the opportunity to add to the attraction if they want to.

[JoshC.]

Mhmm. An interview with Haunted Attractions did say that they could add another room, but I don't know how exactly it could work out.

[AdamY]

There were 7 rooms. The seventh was called the actor's changing room

[Andrew H]

I've been told countless times that the addition of more rooms sink the boat.. x)

[ThrillSeekerMatt]

I thought I read somewhere that there were originally 10 rooms on the boat? Because I remember people were talking about how the attraction will develop and grow over the years as Saw Movies were released.Hmm.. maybe I just imaginged that

[Andrew H]

Heard lots of stuff flying around about how the upstairs section will be used as part of the attraction during construction. With extra weight or not, sooner or later that bridge leading up to it will flood...

[holtjammy16]

I personally think Thorpe could've added better scenes from Saw II and Saw VI. I think the furnace trap from Saw II would've worked better as you could have an actor bursting out of the furnace when you're in the room. And the Hanging Trap from Saw VI could've worked well. There could be a narrow corridor with a glass window, a mannequin would swing at the window and you could have the dude who has to make the choice of who dies in the room with you to freak you out more.

I completely agree! I'm not even sure what trap the saw 2 room is meant to be?

[jjh123horry]

I personally think Thorpe could've added better scenes from Saw II and Saw VI. I think the furnace trap from Saw II would've worked better as you could have an actor bursting out of the furnace when you're in the room. And the Hanging Trap from Saw VI could've worked well. There could be a narrow corridor with a glass window, a mannequin would swing at the window and you could have the dude who has to make the choice of who dies in the room with you to freak you out more.Also, does anyone know if a scene from Saw 3D is going to be added onto the maze?

I feel your pain my friend :)I also feel there could have been a few more better scenes used, if I did the maze this is how I would have planned it out.The Queue: At this moment in time I feel the queue is a bit lost, I mean it does look good in some respect (the cattle pen linking the ride and the maze, some of the rusty traps), but it looks more like a dumping yard. I feel that the art designers should really go back and look at the saw films in a lot of detail. They could have included a small indoor section in the queue containing a trap from one of the films or from the game e.g.

• Pound of Flesh (Saw VI)
• Police Headquarters with interrogations playing (Saw III) and the teddy bear Hoffman gives to Jeff's little girl (Saw IV) and photographs with records of the victims of all the traps (Saw V)

They could also have kept it a little bit tidier, because it looks like a house has been knocked down before the queue was placed there. Less bricks IMO.And the same soundtrack as SAW: The Ride may also help to create ambience if used. 1st Room: This room could be split into two sections, the small briefing area in place could be changed to be Adams apartment (Saw I) and in this room you would get your photo taken, as the group. This room is quite small so a restriction to 1 actor, either being a pig mask or Adam.The 2nd half of this area should stay as the bathroom, but with slight alterations.Firstly we move the jigsaw body into the middle of the room, and as we walk in we are squirted with water as a gun sound goes off this would come from the body area. We would then have to drift off to the right where we would have 'Dr. Gordon' on the floor sawing his foot and grabbing the passersby, trying to get help, not trying to kill the guests. Before entering the next room we have Adam hiding around in the little alcove area or in the bath tub and he jumps out to try and scare people into the next room. The smell of urine will be added again to the room and the amount of smoke will be lessened. The sound effects of sawing and screams shall also be added back in, to help the actors catch breath at times. Also the special effects could be brought back, to make it seem more real. 2nd Room: This room will be based around Saw II, and will be split into three areas.The first section will be the Michael scene also known as 'The Venus Fly Trap'. At this moment in time, when you enter the second room we find the words "Look Closer Detective Mathews". This implies that the Venus Fly Trap has some effect for this area, so part before you go onto the electric staircase could have Michael behind the fence before the trap goes off and it could have him screaming at the passersby wanting help. This then leads through into the second section. A small stair section (2 steps) which has vibrating walls to create the electric staricase. A sign will be displayed to say 'Mind your step' so then people will know to step up. A steady slope will the lead into the next section.This will be the house section there will be a vent which has smoke coming out of it, making it look like you are getting poisoned. To the left in the little alcove will be a person with a baseball bat, people will not see him/her and they will try to scare the people on. On turning left people will find either the furnace trap behind the fencing or the needle pit (I haven’t chosen yet), if the needle pit is used it will be raised to give the effect of seeing Amanda searching for the key at the bottom of the pit. If the furnace is used it will have Obi creeping out of the contraption all burnt and screaming, with another actor in the room also trying to scare guests onward, asking for an antidote. 3rd Room: Think that the Freezer Trap is brilliant atm, but it can be improved in places. Originally there was a Pigmask in there, but I’ve found there isn’t any more, or very rarely. In place of the Pigmask I would have someone acting as Jeff, hiding behind one of the hanging bags. H e would jump out to scare people towards the other actress in the room. There would be the woman hanging up ‘frozen’ and instead of her coming to life trying to ‘kill’ passersby, she would try to grab them to get help. Also the hanging bags will be changed to pig guts and pig carcasses, linking it to the pig vat scene after the freezer.There would also be two additions to the room. The first would be a low fog covering the ground and walls. This would really make the freezer seem extremely cold. The second addition would be sprays of water coming from the walls, making the guests feel even colder.In the small corridor continuing to the fourth room, will have the words “FACE YOUR FEARS” smeared in red paint on the wall, linking to the scene just before the freezer. There would also be a flickering light in the room, confusing guests.4th Room: At the moment the concept of the mausoleum is great, all of theming that is used and all of the props really make it look quite realistic, but unfortunately the special effects department lacks. Firstly, there are suppose to be two people, one with sown lips, the other with sown eyes, every time I have been in the maze, there has only ever been one actor and they have never had any of the original special effects make-up that we look out for. Another problem is that the amount of smoke pumped into the room is excessive, you cannot see any of the theming, it is hard to see the way and you cannot see the actors (good in some aspects, bad in others). I would firstly bring back the make-up and create an even more realistic experience. Secondly I would scrap the smoke in the room; I don’t feel that it is actually needed. There could also be a chance to change this scene completely. I would change it from the Mausoleum, to the Knife Chair scene. In the centre of the room would be the chair with Cecil in the chair, the room would have a spotlight only over Cecil, and the rest of the room would be dark. There would be things in the room, making it look like the jigsaw lair in the film. As the guests walk through the room, the light would go off with Cecil screaming, and the actor would get up, with the wooden clamps around his wrists and the blood on his face. He would try to scare people into the next room.5th Room: At the moment, I feel the Pendulum trap is a bit pointless, there isn’t a real pendulum in there for start, which I know is for safety reasons, but it really doesn’t look like the person is being chopped in to. Also the actor/actress already has there belly cut up before the pendulum actually goes off, I think they should find a way to hide it. There are a few scenes which I feel could take its place, with some using some really good special effects.The first scene I wouldn’t mind seeing is ‘Keys of Life’. This could be set out that the game players are running at the boxes, but no-one can reach them and are screaming to the guests to get them the keys. The wall to the right of entering will be the wall with the five actors/actresses waiting to scare the guests. They would run out, and as you walk around the room, much like the layout today, the glass boxes would be on the far wall meaning they will be on your right when walking past them, making it hard for the actors not to try and ‘grab’ you first. The other scene I would like to see would be ’10 Pints of Sacrifice’. In this we could have the two victims playing, the table in the middle of the room with the TV in the corner depicting an image of Billy laughing. The quickest path (left hand side) will be blocked by one of the actors lying on the floor, leaving people to go the long way round (right hand side). The other actor will be trawling over the table covered in blood, and as the guests walk past would animate and scare people forward. The actor who is lying on the floor would get up as guests approach the exit. The actor would be fitted with a fake arm, which looks cut quite far down and would chase people with the disfigured arm into the hallway to the next room.6th Room: This would be changed to ‘The Steam Maze’; this element would fit really well with the maze theme, as people would then have to search around to find the way out, to the finale. The room would have one actor, who is also trying to find a way out. They would have the contraption that is on the victim in the maze from the film, making it look like you are on the bottom level. Also to achieve this, the voice of an actor coming from above will be played to make the room seem larger than it is. The room will be filled with smoke and red and orange lights. Heaters would also be added, but there would be cool areas for the actor/actress, so they don’t over heat. Another aspect to introduce the room would be the corridor before hand, would be made quite warm and would have steam coming out of some pipes, making it seem hot, before entering the maze.Finale: This room will be nick-named ‘The Game Over Room’, reason being, you would see jigsaw exiting the room and closing the door on you shouting game over at you, before closing the door. The room would go dark and silent, the music ‘Hello Zepp’ would begin to play, and a door to the left would open, revealing your exit. The jigsaw exit would be a video which is played through a back screen, making it possible for people to move in the room, without getting in the way of the projection. Saw 7 (3D) Room: At this moment in time, I am unsure of what to add here. I have seen some of the traps, and they from what I have seen all seem too big to be put into a room, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did have a trap which we could in fact put into the maze.I hope you all like the ideas (This is the list of all the scenes/traps used in my version of the maze)

• Pound of Flesh (Saw VI) / Police Headquarters (All Saw Films)
• Adams Apartment
• The Bathroom Trap
• Venus Fly Trap
• Electric Staircase
• Nerve Gas House
• Needle Pit / Furnace
• Freezer Room
• Mausoleum / Knife Chair
• Keys of Life / 10 Pints of Sacrifice
• The Steam Maze
• Game Over Scene (Saw I)

Thank You

[JoshC.]

Firstly, great read, thanks for that.However, for Thorpe Park, it is far to unrealisitic.Firstly, the maze has to appeal to everyone. Your ideas focus too much on the specific details that only die hard Saw fans will care about. As it is, everyone can relate to the maze if they know the concept of the film. Secondly, the budget. They could not fit all that in unless it was a major investment.Finally, the boat would sink. 41 tonnes it already is; 45 maximum. Sorry, brilliant ideas but not for Thorpe.

[JBdaWonderLlama]

I completely agree! I'm not even sure what trap the saw 2 room is meant to be?

It's meant to be the electric staircase in Jigsaw's hideout :\

[jjh123horry]

Firstly, great read, thanks for that.However, for Thorpe Park, it is far to unrealisitic.Firstly, the maze has to appeal to everyone. Your ideas focus too much on the specific details that only die hard Saw fans will care about. As it is, everyone can relate to the maze if they know the concept of the film. Secondly, the budget. They could not fit all that in unless it was a major investment.Finally, the boat would sink. 41 tonnes it already is; 45 maximum. Sorry, brilliant ideas but not for Thorpe.

Thanks for the feedback I know its a bit out of Thorpe Park league, but it would be nice just to have a really detailed maze.I it was possible, it would be nice to se, but oh well it is a good idea though

[JBdaWonderLlama]

Finally, the boat would sink. 41 tonnes it already is; 45 maximum.

That's why I hate Alive being on the Belle