Thorpe Park Fright Nights - 2010 review by Michael Bolton
Many of you will already know that I have been personally reviewing the Thorpe Park Fright Night events EVERY year since 2002. In this time I have seen new mazes, changes to existing mazes and a variety of different shows come and go. In all these years though, the park has mostly provided some good scares and some fun along the way.
Well that was until 2009. The year where it seemed to be generally accepted, that Thorpe had dropped the ball on the event. Nothing about 2009 seemed to work properly and my review at the time might as well have said “must try harder.”
So it was with a lot of trepidation that I went back to the park in 2010 to see if I was just being unfair, or had maybe had a bad night, or maybe worse – was I actually getting BORED with Fright Nights? Gladly, I am pleased to report that this years event is back with a bang and although I can find a few areas to fault, it generally created a fun and scary atmosphere that gave us all some great scares throughout the night.
Well that was until 2009. The year where it seemed to be generally accepted, that Thorpe had dropped the ball on the event. Nothing about 2009 seemed to work properly and my review at the time might as well have said “must try harder.”
So it was with a lot of trepidation that I went back to the park in 2010 to see if I was just being unfair, or had maybe had a bad night, or maybe worse – was I actually getting BORED with Fright Nights? Gladly, I am pleased to report that this years event is back with a bang and although I can find a few areas to fault, it generally created a fun and scary atmosphere that gave us all some great scares throughout the night.
So there in summary is the 2010 review of Fright Nights. It’s clear that there are some small rough edges but all in all it does its job well. There is a range of different scares across the park and as night falls and the spooky lights go on, Thorpe has a great atmosphere.
I do think that perhaps it might be time to retire or refresh some of the older mazes and replace with new and more diverse attractions. But while they keep adding new things and experimenting with the line up - we can't really complain! This year alone the park has 5 stand alone scare attractions and a scarezone, making it the biggest Halloween event in the UK.
Thorpe are clearly the king of theme park Halloween and while rivals such as Alton continue to open with just one attraction on park, Thorpe offer a whole lot more for your dollar.
And finally - 2011 will see the park celebrate 10 years of fear . Lets hope they recognise this fact and go out with a bang!
I do think that perhaps it might be time to retire or refresh some of the older mazes and replace with new and more diverse attractions. But while they keep adding new things and experimenting with the line up - we can't really complain! This year alone the park has 5 stand alone scare attractions and a scarezone, making it the biggest Halloween event in the UK.
Thorpe are clearly the king of theme park Halloween and while rivals such as Alton continue to open with just one attraction on park, Thorpe offer a whole lot more for your dollar.
And finally - 2011 will see the park celebrate 10 years of fear . Lets hope they recognise this fact and go out with a bang!
You Review - click here to add your comments

Asylum - Always the top attraction at the event. It's a high energy and high action maze.
The intense strobes, loud sirens and mirrors do a great job at disorientating
you. Some years the actors seem less energetic but even so it's a good maze over
all. The chainsaw finale is always good and it's fun to stand at the exit and
watch people come running out.
Hellgate - This maze is the opposite to Asylum. It's very dark, creepy and is lit by torches on the walls. It's built inside part of the old X:NWO queue so has a winding path and a revolving tunnel. The scares are a bit limited here because there's not many places for actors to hide. It's good fun because it's always funny but it's not always scary and you'll be lucky if you jump once or twice.
Se7en - The first year I did this was probably my favourite. This is more of a visual maze and has some good props. Some bits are gross to look at and the maze aims to disgust you in places. There's some clever effects in here as well. There's one part where the group almost always gets stuck.The finale is quite intense as well when they do it right. Sometimes it's a bit rushed though to get the groups through quickly.
The Curse - From the outside it looks a bit plain. Inside however the maze is well themed and sets the atmosphere nicely. Some of the scares here are good and the ropes and the portholes provide some good scares. It's lacking a major scare at the end though to get people running out the exit.
Hellgate - This maze is the opposite to Asylum. It's very dark, creepy and is lit by torches on the walls. It's built inside part of the old X:NWO queue so has a winding path and a revolving tunnel. The scares are a bit limited here because there's not many places for actors to hide. It's good fun because it's always funny but it's not always scary and you'll be lucky if you jump once or twice.
Se7en - The first year I did this was probably my favourite. This is more of a visual maze and has some good props. Some bits are gross to look at and the maze aims to disgust you in places. There's some clever effects in here as well. There's one part where the group almost always gets stuck.The finale is quite intense as well when they do it right. Sometimes it's a bit rushed though to get the groups through quickly.
The Curse - From the outside it looks a bit plain. Inside however the maze is well themed and sets the atmosphere nicely. Some of the scares here are good and the ropes and the portholes provide some good scares. It's lacking a major scare at the end though to get people running out the exit.
All reviews features and content are copyright of Michael Bolton and ScareCON. Any unauthorised use, distribution, linking of any whole or part will be taken as an infringement of copyright