Thorpe park Fright Nights - 2007
The first thing that strikes you about Fright nights at Thorpe – is that nothing strikes you. Entering the park at 3pm there was no obvious sign that the event was open and no real indication of what there was to do. Granted as the sun set the spooky lights and music came on but it felt just a bit “too little – too late”.
But that’s a minor grumble – we went of course to experience the mazes again:
Se7en is a hard maze to review. On one hand it is sly, psychological and thought provoking but it just doesn’t offer up the real heart pounding scares of the other two mazes. It’s great that there is such a mix of attractions at the event and patrons seemed to be enjoying it, but it has probably turned out to be the weakest maze of the three. We found that the scares were quite predictable (seven rooms, seven actors, etc.) and that there were no real surprise attacks or real shocks. Also compared to the other two mazes, it is noticeable how quiet Se7en is. With no soundtrack the rooms feel quite empty and soulless.
We have ALWAYS loved this maze, just for its sheer intensity. The flashing of the lights and the cacophonous sound make for an incredible assault on the senses that never fails to deliver. The talent on opening night in this maze were the liveliest and enthusiastic we have ever seen and worked really hard to create multiple attacks, preying on weaker guests and throwing themselves all around (and above) the whole party. We were also pleased to see the return of the chainsaw. Granted we only saw it on one of our goes but it was nice to actually be chased from the maze by a chainsaw wielding lunatic! (yes, ok we are sick and twisted!)
Are they feeding this maze steroids? From a weak start in 2005, we were blown away by the change in 2006. This year things have just gotten better and this attraction oozes class, sex appeal and great down and dirty scares! Like Asylum, this was filled with enthusiastic actors who would often work closely together to attack guests from all angles. With impressive scares all the way through, this was probably the only maze to really get people running out the door at the end!
Maze overview
With no major changes this year to any of the mazes we weren’t expecting a lot so were really surprised just how scared we got at a number of places. Hellgate and Se7en stand equal as intense, visceral attractions that aim to terrify whilst Se7en feels like a Fright Night wannabe that hasn’t quite yet worked out what it wants to be.
We must also state that the park was VERY quiet on opening night. Many times we went through the attractions in just a group of three and of course this will change the way the actors scare and the amount of time they spend with each visitor. It’s a shame, due to capacity, that people are forced through in larger groups but this event is HUGELY popular and queues do get very long. At least this year the park should be commended in extending its run by a week in an attempt to reduce the queues around Halloween week.
Park Wide
As stated before the park appeared almost barren of any theming, although after 4pm the music took a turn for the worse and the spooky Halloween lights came on. Also there just seemed to be nothing stating that Fright Nights were even occurring. We saw many people walking past the mazes asking “what is it?” or “is it a ride?” In a previous year a park map was created to explain some of this and is a shame that this still isn’t repeated years after.
Several of the rides had received some localised theming (mainly in their stations) and some sick individual has placed a blood splattered corpse underneath the top hat of Stealth!
The best area we saw was on the Canada Creek Railway. Decorated with skulls and tarpaulin the ride goes around its new simplified lap (the farm closed in 2006) and the ride ops have filled the scenery with pumpkins and other effects.
This would make a great family attraction and could be marketed quite easily to young families (and even turned scary after dark with the addition of several characters). We were also pleased to see some theming on the log flume, which again could be utilised more for Fright Nights.
We have been visiting Thorpe’s Fright Nights for six years now and to be completely honest we really weren’t looking forward to doing the same three mazes again this year. In fact we nearly didn’t go – which would have been a huge mistake as we would have missed out on the sheer scary fun that we experienced in The Asylum and Hellgate!
But that’s a minor grumble – we went of course to experience the mazes again:
Se7en is a hard maze to review. On one hand it is sly, psychological and thought provoking but it just doesn’t offer up the real heart pounding scares of the other two mazes. It’s great that there is such a mix of attractions at the event and patrons seemed to be enjoying it, but it has probably turned out to be the weakest maze of the three. We found that the scares were quite predictable (seven rooms, seven actors, etc.) and that there were no real surprise attacks or real shocks. Also compared to the other two mazes, it is noticeable how quiet Se7en is. With no soundtrack the rooms feel quite empty and soulless.
We have ALWAYS loved this maze, just for its sheer intensity. The flashing of the lights and the cacophonous sound make for an incredible assault on the senses that never fails to deliver. The talent on opening night in this maze were the liveliest and enthusiastic we have ever seen and worked really hard to create multiple attacks, preying on weaker guests and throwing themselves all around (and above) the whole party. We were also pleased to see the return of the chainsaw. Granted we only saw it on one of our goes but it was nice to actually be chased from the maze by a chainsaw wielding lunatic! (yes, ok we are sick and twisted!)
Are they feeding this maze steroids? From a weak start in 2005, we were blown away by the change in 2006. This year things have just gotten better and this attraction oozes class, sex appeal and great down and dirty scares! Like Asylum, this was filled with enthusiastic actors who would often work closely together to attack guests from all angles. With impressive scares all the way through, this was probably the only maze to really get people running out the door at the end!
Maze overview
With no major changes this year to any of the mazes we weren’t expecting a lot so were really surprised just how scared we got at a number of places. Hellgate and Se7en stand equal as intense, visceral attractions that aim to terrify whilst Se7en feels like a Fright Night wannabe that hasn’t quite yet worked out what it wants to be.
We must also state that the park was VERY quiet on opening night. Many times we went through the attractions in just a group of three and of course this will change the way the actors scare and the amount of time they spend with each visitor. It’s a shame, due to capacity, that people are forced through in larger groups but this event is HUGELY popular and queues do get very long. At least this year the park should be commended in extending its run by a week in an attempt to reduce the queues around Halloween week.
Park Wide
As stated before the park appeared almost barren of any theming, although after 4pm the music took a turn for the worse and the spooky Halloween lights came on. Also there just seemed to be nothing stating that Fright Nights were even occurring. We saw many people walking past the mazes asking “what is it?” or “is it a ride?” In a previous year a park map was created to explain some of this and is a shame that this still isn’t repeated years after.
Several of the rides had received some localised theming (mainly in their stations) and some sick individual has placed a blood splattered corpse underneath the top hat of Stealth!
The best area we saw was on the Canada Creek Railway. Decorated with skulls and tarpaulin the ride goes around its new simplified lap (the farm closed in 2006) and the ride ops have filled the scenery with pumpkins and other effects.
This would make a great family attraction and could be marketed quite easily to young families (and even turned scary after dark with the addition of several characters). We were also pleased to see some theming on the log flume, which again could be utilised more for Fright Nights.
We have been visiting Thorpe’s Fright Nights for six years now and to be completely honest we really weren’t looking forward to doing the same three mazes again this year. In fact we nearly didn’t go – which would have been a huge mistake as we would have missed out on the sheer scary fun that we experienced in The Asylum and Hellgate!
This review was written by Michael Bolton and originally appeared on Haunted Attractions UK.
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