Fright Nights 2012

[BigBobJones]

Sounds a lot of hassle having to pre-book your £5 extra just to get in the park, I didn't have to do that with Alton Towers this weekend... I might not bother going to Thorpe to be honest

[Marc]

You dont HAVE to pre-book, its just recommended in case the park hits capacity so you dont have a wasted trip. You can pay the £5 when you get there and the events tickets windows.

[Dodge2002]

Just my own review of the mazes this year if anyone's interested, spoiler free too.

The Passing -

With Experiment 10 last year, they couldn't go back to a standard hands on shoulder maze, so obviously they turned to the bag-on-head idea. To be honest this added nothing to the experience other than a slight annoyance as it was way to big, and you can see right through it almost perfectly. The maze itself is fairly long, but has little on the way of real theming compared to all the other mazes. And halfway through you reach the horror of a massive glowing fire exit, which actually completely distracted me from an actor trying to grab my attention. Those who remember Hellgate will notice some familiar elements too. All this aside, the maze offers some real genuine scares though, and 2-3 twists that you'll probably yelp "What!? No way!", which is just enough to put it above the others in scare factor. Is it worth £3? In terms of money actually spent producing the maze: No way. It's definitely the cheapest maze on park. In terms of scarefactor and something different: Yes. It's a one of a kind maze for the park.

Experiment 10:

Last year I loved this maze. This year well, I like it, but something about it just seems off. And as for the new twist...well see below.

The queue although short, was a 40 minute wait. I can only assume because they had the option, they chose to elongate the introduction, as we spent a fairly long time inside. The first room remained unchanged with the quirky doctor, although the acting seemed a little out of character, one of the girls was too scared to move through, and she almost desperately said "come on you've seen the queue outside, you're holding it up", which was kind of weird...

As for the decontamination room, what was once a scary dimly lit room was now brightly lit and well...a bit naff really. A tiny puff of smoke comes out with the bright lights still on, then before we can even leave the room, 2 giant noisey extractor fans kick in and suck both the smoke, and the ambiance out of the room.

So into the rooms, these have also changed a tad, from what I gathered from my friends each room had something in it, two of my friends and mine had string dangling from the ceiling making it feel like something was on my head, my other friend had an air blaster. Now coming out of this room also didn't feel right. There was an unknown light source coming from somewhere and you could see the side of the shipping container, which again took away the feeling. The rest remained basically unchanged, the difference being this time solely the actors. I didn't spot any hazmat suites, just patients. That all more or less stood there doing nothing. Now last year all I remember is screaming and a distinct sense of urgency. This year the maze just had a sense of serene quietness to it...

And finally the new ending; I wont bother spoilering this because frankly its not even a spoiler. Unless I'm missing something, you literally just walk past a room with a TV in it. The TV has a doctor dismembering someone and that's it. The end. All in all, I was a little dissapointed by X10 this year to be honest, although because of the separation it still has its lure.

The Asylum:

Not much to say about this really. What was once their flagship maze still remains top notch. The interior was unchanged. The only difference is the queue line which now winds up and down until it meets the carousel, actually cutting off the path so you must was around. The acting was top notch, and the chainsaw seemed to actually be working this year, as last year all he really did was wave it at us.

The Curse:

I went into this with low expectations I'll be honest. To add to this, we had to wait an extra 10 mins as the maze had technical difficulties (to our amusement we spotted someone go into the back door with a ladder, so something had obviously fallen down or disconnected or something). Again the layout is unchanged, but that's to be expected. But the maze itself seemed different. What used to be a clear maze where you could see every dodgy prop in plain site was now full of a haze and clever lighting. Trap doors were out of site and full of actors. I don't know what they did, but the maze was definitely on top form this year. So hats off to them for bringing new life into the maze.

Saw: Alive:

5th and Final maze. I was always a fan of the maze when it ran full season. So I was literally itching to go back inside. Much of it was the same, although they seemed to have addressed one of my biggest annoyances which I was delighted by. The actors were actually in context for a change. By which I mean, they acted out the scene loosely based on the film. I.e the derelict bathroom, the man is actually "sawing" his foot off, the freezer room, the woman is actually asking for help, not just going "I'm actually freezing to death..BOO!", and there was actually a pig mask in there too.

Other than the mazes, we did spot the roaming actors on the bridge whilst riding Vortex, but never encountered them on park.

As for park ambiance, they lighting remained unchanged, I've heard some people moan about THE SWARM's flood lighting, but to be honest, it kind of actually fits in well.

Theming was once again nonexistent, however with a week of non-fright nights days to go, I would say this could be the reason for that, but don't get your hopes up.

And for the first time in who knows how long the park sound system was working 100% glitch free, and it sounded GOOD! Custom FN's dispatch and boarding announcements all worked as expected, the park had a consistent blanket of themed FN's music, with certain queues getting their own FN's track. No crackling or cutting out. So great job whoever sorted that out.

All I will say is by 8pm the park was dead, bar a few of the mazes. Which kind of annoyed me, because Merlin will only use this as justification to cut opening hours. The park was probably not even that busy either, however Colossus and THE SWARM both opened with one train operation, which both led them to having 1 hours queues. Eventually THE SWARM put on train #2 and swiftly ploughed through the queue. But later in the day Colossus peaked at 90 minutes. This is on a relatively off peak day, if they don't sort this kind of thing out by half term its really not going to be pretty...

Anyways, all in all I would say because of EX10's changes, and the missed potential of The Passing, but with the saving grace of a new lease of life to the old mazes, and a fixed ambient sound system, this years Fright Nights is probably just about on par with last years in terms of satisfaction, and is definitely worth a visit.

[Coaster]

Thank you for the review. Are there still actors with gas masks on in Experiment 10 like last year?

Because for me really that was the main fear factor of the maze.

Also is the queueline music for The Asylum still the same?

[Linkin Park]

I've never been in Experiment 10 but the actors with gas masks was the thing I knew I'd fear the most! Hope they haven't gone

[MarkC]

Hey dodge do you mind putting spoiler tags in the review as not everyone wants to know what they shall face in the mazes!

[jammydodger]

11 days till I'm going cant wait!!!

[noseyelephant]

Spoilers ahead Spoilers ahead!

Sorry, first post here and not sure how you put in your spoiler tags, someone can feel free to tell me so I can edit, or a team member can do it for me if you wish!

But remember, Spoilers ahead! You have been warned!

Sunday 14th

Me and 3 friends from work went, and expected it to be heaving. To our delight, despite getting there at 11 the park was incredibly empty and we didnt have to queue to pick up annual pass tickets etc.

Atmosphere during the day was good, mainly because the 3 people I was with had never been to fright nights before and were ridiculously excited! There were travellers on park all day though so every 2 seconds you had girls walking past you wearing little more than bra and pants!

Park theming:

I have to say, I was expecting more. The website made it sound like the whole park was in "prison lock down" which during the day excited us because we kept seeing posters saying "reward if you find this person" with a picture of a criminal so we were making metal notes as we wanted to win a prize or something! All day we waited and waited to see them and eventually they appeared at around 6.30, but the ones on the reward poster was not there!

The prison actors were very good however, posed for photos if you asked and if you didnt they tried to scare you. All of them were very enthusiastic and very well dressed.

Other than that, no other theming really stood out. Noticed a few audio changes on a few rides, Loggers Leap and Deternator were the best, and not all rides had a music change.

Queue times:

Not including the mazes, longest queue for a ride was Colossus at 90mins. This was mainly due to it breaking and only running one train. We avoided this ride all day because it just keep breaking and the queue built up and up. All other rides practically a walk on Longest was Saw, 20 mins max.

The Curse:

Started with this maze as last year it was my least favourite.

Queue 15mins (walked past it several times throughout the night and at one point only around 10 people were in the queue!)

Not a great maze. Too much fog meant you couldnt see anything, and to be honest I think it meant the actors couldnt see us!! Not a good beginning, middle or end, and to be honest the whole line just kept stopping wondering if anyhting was going to happen. Never a good maze when you have to find the scares yourself! Also at one point we ended up walking at the fire exit by mistake as the pure amount of smoke meant we couldnt see which way to go and so the leader of the group accidently went the wrong way!

Overall maze experience: 4/10

However a special well done to the actors. We saw them walking to the maze at 10 to 3 in full costume and all in character. One sailer was dragging his legs along the ground and was particularly fantastic. Just a shame we couldnt see any of them in the maze itself!

Saw Alive:

Very long queue for this, 45mins. Wouldnt normally mind but the maze was not worth the wait.

The rooms were very well themed as usual and the actors were enthusiastic. However, its a saw maze and thats all about torture etc and the acting didnt reflect that, they were trying to get in jump scares and it didnt work.

In the first room youre in some manky old bathroom (not a fan of the films so dont know what saw film its from) and the actor was cutting his own foot off. This was great to begin with as he made it seem very realistic and it was some uncomfortable viewing. However he ruined it by then jumping up and running to the other side of the room screaming.

I think the maze would work better if they followed through with whatever torture they were meant to be doing (so dont "cut" your foot off and then leap up and run arund on it trying to make a "jump" scare) Had the maze had continued with the torture elements it would not have been scary as in "woah I just jumped out my skin" but create unease and discomfort.

They never seem to get this maze right: 4/10

Experiment 10:

Queue time 20 mins, later that evening signs said 70mins, it was so good we wanted to do it again and the queue was only 15mins max so dont be fooled by the queue time update signs!

This was a huge let down for me last year as the ending was pathetic, so I was looking forward to the new twist this year!

The girl outside the entrance who was setting the scene did a great job, really freaked out some younger girls infront of us and created a good atmosphere.

We then went into the first room where a doctor introduced herself and explained we were new test subjects. She was fantastic, and when some traveller started swearing she was very stern and srict, remained in character, and said "Gobby, want to stop that language or leave now? you might have volunteered to be a test subject, but I make the final pickings and you might not make it past this initial test!" Good on her!

Anyway, moved onto the "gas/cleansing room" and were in it for much less than last year. A bit of smoke, lights off, lights on and then BAM, doors slams open and this guy comes rushing in, yelling "Hands on yes heads! Hands on yes heads" Literally grabbed people and chucked them towards the door. (At this point you either get to go left or right, we went on twice and went on both sides so I'll break this into 2:)

Right side Get shoved into a little booth and locked in. All my friends had a different experience here, personally I was locked in, and water was being pretty much chucked at my feet whislt someone was hammering the life out of the door. It was quite intense. Different variations from my friends, Sam was shut in with another theme park guest and metal chains were being dragged along the floor outside her door whilst a light kept flickering through a hole in the door, Paul was shut in with an actor, who kept proding him and whispering in his ear, and finally Boy was alone like myself, but he had water flicked on his head and his door flew open to reveal a dead person before quickly slamming shut again.

Brilliant brilliant brilliant!

Left side:

Bit of a let down compared to the right, in my cell I was with another guest and we just had a chat as nothing happened, Sam was by herself and just had banging on her door, Paul was in with a guest and they had water splattered on them, and Boy was with another guest but his room had latches on the walls and arms kept poking through to grab them.

After being realeased form your cell (either left or right) youre marched down into a very small dark room with a scientist who tells you where to go next. You either go down a tunnel or a corridor.

Tunnel

Not as cramped as I thought it would be, and rather short, but you felt the need to rush through as someone was yelling at you to "move move move" and people behind you were in such a panic you just had to zoom through! It was pretty fun, but where some people had gotten wet the tunnel floor was also quite wet so your knees got soaked!

Corridor

Pathetic. A fake arm sticking out the wall, and a sheet above you that brushes on your head.

Tunnel or corridor, you make it out into another room were you can all regroup with your friends.

You then go into another well lit room that is like a hospital ward, not particularly scary, but the actor did a convinsing job that he was in pain, and one other guy tried to stop us going past by blocking the way in his wheel chair.

The go into another room with a tv screen. It shows a patient losing it with a saw, killing her doctor and then part of her bed. She then leaves the screen, and youre all left wondering what happnes next. We all stood around puzzled and she then burst through the door and chased us out with her saw.

The next part was the ending, running from the saw lady we forgot that others may lay wait infront of us so we had many jump scares and to be honest it was brilliant.

9/10 (could be improved in places, like more consistancy in the cells and a better corridor if you dont get to go through the tunnel)

The Passing:

We were all nervous about this one, but didnt have long to wait, only 5 mins (we had tickets for 7pm)

As we were only a group of 4, a couple joined out group to make a cosy group of 6. This worked well.

First room was a fantastic actress pretty much telling us we were going to be killed for the crimes we had committed. She told us our rights, and seemed to be on her side, but the BAM she laughed, said she didnt care and said she hoped we rot in hell. She then turned nasty, yelled at my friend for smiling, pushed me around for not standing with my hands by my side and was just truely brilliant.

Next room was not so good. Half hearted actors pretended to examine us, and measure us up for death, but didnt even touch us to do so, just stood back and pointed. They then put bags on our head.

We got lead into a large bright room with a video playing. It sarted off nice, with birthday parties etc, but then started to flash images of rotting bodies, and burning people. The lights went out and a shouty lady pushed us into 2 tunnels. Both were pitch black, and both joined into one tunnel in the middle. This lead to a pile up of people! At one point the tunnel slopes down, but its a full on slide and you zoom to the bottom and crash into everyone infront of you! You cant see a thing and the whole tunnel lasts forever. Once out, you go through the old x no way out/hellgate spinning tunnel. It didnt spin, Disappointing.

You then go through a maze with strobe lights and actors that are criminals saying youre now one of them etc. They were very good.

Its then the end and you take your bag off, greeted by a jolly lady saying "youre now dead" and she gives you a certificate. She told us to exit through the next room vis the door on the left. We went into the room, very bright, nothing on the walls. The door wouldnt open, and we were left stuck for ages as the door we came through had been locked. I think maybe the room had a sensor which didnt go off as there were so few people in our group, as the lights only went out after we nearly kicked the door down trying to get it open. So the lights went off, and the room glowed with writing on the walls for about 2 seconds, not even enough time for us to read it!

The door then opened to reveal the maze wasnt over, we entered a very dark maze filled with actors scaring us left right and centre. Top marks for these guys!

The maze then really did end.

Overall 8/10. Room for improvement. Needs more theming. Didnt see the reason to charge £3.

asylum

Queue 20 mins.

Fantastic from start to finish. Theming throughout was top notch and clearly showed the different parts of the hospital. Actors were top notch, some did jump scares, some just stared, some were just mental! Real good mix. At some points you laughed with actors, then they lead you to a false ense of security and scare you when youre least expecting it. They were all very interactive and all played different characters.

Maze was also a good length as always.

Chainsaw man at the end was better than last year, you could smell petrol as you approached so you could tell it was coming up, but then he appeared earlier than usual, took us all by surprised and we all ended up running like looneys out the maze. Hilarious!

10/10 Good mix of scares, great setting, great theming, great props.

[Dodge2002]

There was only one man with a gas mask on Ex10 when I went on it. The rest were just dressed as doctors and patients. However now that I think about it, the gas mask guy looked almost identical to the ones you saw on Sub-terra, only in white. Because last year his whole face was covered.

[Coaster]

I am going to Fright nights this Sunday so I will review all of the mazes on this forum.

(Could someone tell me how to add spoiler tags please? Much appreciated )

[Sidders]

I am going to Fright nights this Sunday so I will review all of the mazes on this forum.

(Could someone tell me how to add spoiler tags please? Much appreciated )

Just type the text you wish to place inside the spoiler box, and then write [ s p oi l e r ] and [ / s p oi l e r ] around said text, cutting out the spaces between the letters in those tags.

EDIT: I put the O and I together because otherwise the I is capitalised and looks like an l. herp.

[MarkC]

If you want a chance to win FREE fright night tickets, check this out: http://www.surrey.police.uk/keeping-safe/current-campaigns/halloween

[JoshC.]

So, I'm off to the park tomorrow, and I've AP tickets and The Passing tickets.

On the confirmation email, it says if arriving before 3pm, collect the AP tickets from the AP office (and Advance Ticket Sales after 3pm). At the same time, it says The Passing tickets must be collected from Advance Ticket Sales.. Seems like a lot of kerfuffle if I arrive before 3pm, as I'd have to go to both AP sales and Advance Ticket Sale before I can even go in.

So, are we able to collect Passing tickets elsewhere (AP building, fastrack units around the park, etc.) or does it HAVE to be this way?

Thanks!

[Dodge2002]

I tried to get my Passing tickets from the advanced ticket sales, and they told me I was in the wrong place. They then told me to go to Customer services in the park. Customer services once again told me I was in the wrong place and that you need to go to Sales and information. So just pick them up whenever you're near Nemesis, you don't HAVE to have them at the start of the day, after all.

[spurs-fan94]

Is anyone going to the behind the scenes tour of the Asylum on Sunday? Just got an email offering me two tickets...quite excited!!!

[jammydodger]

Is anyone going on the 26th???

[c1hrisin]

Lucky, I didn't get my tickets. they ran out of places

[Inferno]

I was there on Sunday, I picked up all pre-booked annual pass tickets, passholder friend&fam tickets, Passing tickets and Fastracks from Advanced Ticket Collection no problem at all:)

[Linkin Park]

Is anyone going on the 26th???

Yes, hoping its not too busy as its a 3 hour trip..

[jammydodger]

Yes, hoping its not too busy as its a 3 hour trip..

Luckily I only live half an hour away from the park.

[JoshC.]

A full review in the next day or two, but quick reviews here (warning, could spoil experiences if you've yet to go in)...

Experiment 10 - let down. Lacking audio, lighting changes have taken away from the feel and the new ending is poor. Throughput is worse this season as well it feels.

The Passing - good, but room for improvement. A bit gimmicky with the bag on the head, but it works well. Okay length and nice twists. Story needs some work, and needs a bit more immersion at points.

[lee88]

Review on Fright Nights from Friday. ** SPOILERS ALERT**

The Curse.

Surprisingly really good! FULL of smoke and great actors! Could not see any of the themeing due to the amount of smoke but was total disorientation! Actors just appeared out of no where!

8/10

Experiment 10.

After hyping this up to everyone after such a terrifying experience last year it really did not live up to its standards this year. The actors were really laid back and it lost the 'rushed, panic' charm and atmosphere it created so well last year. There was no audio inside the attraction. The actors were boring and it just seemed to lack something. The new ending was just not needed and could have been done better. Also there where no actors in the queue line which really added to get people nervous before the maze itself.

4/10

The Asylum.

None of my friends has experienced the Asylum and when queuing were questioning as to why people where legging it out the exit... We went in and it still lives up to its name as to 'Chaos Reins' .. well in terms of lighting and audio.. the actors did not say anything or hardly move they just stood looking a little dazed... or drunk no sudden movements or scares which this legendary maze was designed to be with all the strobes and chain fences ect. Also we got to the end and there was no chain saw guy... Typical! I think in future years the Asylum needs a good rethink as technically its been there 12 years now since it was The Freezer and is well run its course. No smoke in this attraction either .

6/10

The Passing. - **SPOILERS ALERT**

Was really excited about this! The story, theme and general hype Thorpe Park put across was great! A really good strong attraction.

First of all this was Friday which was only the 4th day of Fright Nights and the brand new Passing Sign logo on the back of X was already not working.

So...our group is greeted by a Prison officer who tells us why we are here she slowly walks up and down the group making people feel uncomfortable by asking us how they feel about the crimes they have committed. Also picking on people who are laughing. You get your photo taken and then you move into the bagging room. You then have a bag placed onto your head and are then told its time to die... (This all happens in the old Hell Gate Queue tunnel which they have just added some wall paper with body draws and feet on the walls)... You then move into a room which is very open and a video is shown of random pictures of someones life. Then a video is shown on a screen above you of people throwing mud ... almost like you are in a coffin and people are looking down onto you... I guess this is the simulation of death... could be improved. You are then directed into a tunnel, 1 white or 1 black you crawl around and then you basically walk around the old Hell Gate maze... no changes at all...same spinning tunnel, same prison scene and same boring black corridors. Maybe this is the point of the bags on the head to cover up a low budget make over? You then reach a white room where someone in a Thorpe Park uniform, not a character hands you a death certificate saying well done guys... you go into a white room which is pointless and then go into a load of black blinds and out the old Hell Gate Exit.

The Passing is good in the sense that its unique. BUT from how Thorpe Park hyped it up it does not live up to it's name and could use some serious work in the sense of 'Passing' to the other side... and at least do Hell Gate up a bit! If people are paying £3 a pop they could at least make a few changes. You can see through the bags.

The bag on the head idea is not original. Tulley's farm do it a lot better, in the fact you cant see ANYTHING at Tulley's and have to go around the maze alone holding onto a bit of rope. This has been the case for the last 2 years. They also simulate 'Passing' a lot better to its like a blue tunnel of mist you walk up hill and you can just about see it through the black sacks. This with audio is makes a really great atmosphere.

7/10

The rain helped hold a few people off so queues were not to bad, Samurai even opened for the last 2 hours!! As for the park as a general 'Prison' theme I think it lacked a lot of effort. Only a small handful of audio changes around the park. A few actors and that was it. Would be good to have a few sirens and search lights at numerous places.

The Swarm at night is really good and if your lucky to experience the fire at night on the ride its something else!!

[Cornflakes]

Loved The Passing, wasn't expecting much, set my expectations low & they were just blown away, full review tomorrow.

[c1hrisin]

I found it rather dissapointing

[Cal]

Wow last night the ques were massive. Experiment 10 was much better last year but still good. Diddnt get on the passing as it broke down for abit then was sold out.