IN GENERAL: Now, I've read a whole load of reviews stating that fright night is 'over-rated' and the queues are 'too long'and the 'scenery isn't good enough' ect ect. I disagree wholeheartedly. When visiting a theme park, you cant expect to not have to queue, it is merely a fact of life. However, when my my three friends and I went on the 2nd of November this year, this problem did not even arise for us. In fact- we managed to get on thirteen rides (only two of which were fasttracks)and two mazes and we didn't get there until after lunch! The park was not 'themed' in a halloween style as such, but that didn't take away from the atmosphere- live actors roaming around, different ride music (most noticably on Detonator on which they played a sound track stating that the guests were about to be hung)... that was enough for me xD The rides in the dark were fabulous, most notably Nemesis which was even more disorientating after nightfall! As for the mazes, we only went in two: Saw Alive and The Curse which we chose at random (we were on our way back from the swarm and my friend was complaining about how we hadn't gone in a maze yet. I was just like 'FINE HERES A MAZE- LETS GO xD ) THE CURSE: Although many people say that this is the worst maze and that the actors are boring and the atmosphere bad I highly disagree. I much preferred it to saw alive. It cannot be denied that the smoke, the strobes and the complete dark sections were effective as well as how narrow the corridors were and the overall theming. People say that it needs themeing on the outside but I disagree- the fact that me and my friends had NO IDEA what we were walking into just made it even scarier! As for the actors, they were fantastic and they were EVERYWHERE. From the second we walked in, we saw a girl being dragged away screaming and then the second we rounded the corner we were bombarded! They appeared from doors we didn't know were there, from gaps in the wall. They came out of places you thought were roped off, they crawled along the ground and grabbed your legs and ankles. There were so many of them it was hard to keep track of where they were! Not only that, but they made so much contact with us. They would whisper things in our ears and come up and grab hold our our faces, forcing us to look at them. One of them blocked our way for a while and scared my friend half to death! It was amazing- if everyone says the asylum is way better I can't wait to try it next year! 10/10 SAW ALIVE: I found this maze a bit short and less scary than the curse but still amazing. There were less actors and less smoke and effects so it was easier to see them so there was less surprise and suspense. It was fantastic how the actors broke free from their chains and ran over to us. The hilight of the maze for me had to be when the guy in the first room came over to me (I was at the back haha) and held onto my shoulders saying 'you- stay here! please!'. It made me feel genuinely sorry for his character and afriad at the same time! My only criticism of the maze is that even though they did a fantastic job of recreating scenes from saw, the maze was mostly full of victims and thepeople in pig masks barely did anything. In fact, I told one of them not to touch my hair in a jokey way and they totally left me alone haha! Still though- a very fun experience. 7/10 I think the main reason I found The Curse scarier is because it was more claustrophobic and I HATE small spaces, especially when you can't see well xD That place is every claustrophobics nightmare! THE STAFF: This sounds like a strange thing to write about, but the staff were particularly nice and engaged with us particularly well. The man running Detonator kept telling us our seats were broken and then approached us later that night with a massive fake cut on his face. He said "do you know where I got this?" and we replied "let me guess- your seat was broken?" to which he replied "yes!" haha. It was amazing. We also had many other conversations with staff memebers, all of which were very friendly and helped to make our day great. Overall, I would reccommend Fright Nights to anybody who enjoys a good scare and a fabulous day out.

Fright nights is Thorpe park's annual halloween event. It is good because you can experience rides in the dark and go in some horror mazes. I would say that the main reason for going to Fright nights is the horror mazes so I am going to review each one individually. (These are based on experiences at the event in 2011) THE ASYLUM By far the best maze, Asylum never fails to deliver. The theme is of a mental Asylum where you come face to face with the patients. The main part of the attraction is a massive room with loads of winding chicken-wire fencing and mirrors that form a path. While you are navigating this there is loads of smoke, scenery and huge strobe lights. These make walking through the attraction very disorientating and it means that the live actors can move only when the lights are off, so they get closer to you each time. The ending is the best part of this maze though, although I won't spoil it for you. While not the scariest, the Asylum is the 2nd scariest but BY FAR THE BEST horror maze at the park. EXPERIMENT 10: Experiment 10 was a new maze for 2011 and it was the scariest. It was about a test laboratory gone wrong and you are the victims. It features seperation from your group, very scary actors, confined spaces, gas corridors, water effects and a lot of bloodthirsty props and people. This maze has lots of things that seperate it from the others for example there is a part where you get locked in a small pitch black room on your own while things appear in front of you. If you are brave enough then get your wits about you and enter the horror that is EXPERIMENT 10! SE7EN Se7en is a maze that provides you with a different kind of scare. It is based around the 7 deadly sins and features different rooms, with each one being a sin. These are more vile and disgusting than actually scary, although this is a maze that you will walk through unphased and not scared but later you will think back on it and it will scare you. By this I mean that seeing people suffering from their past (sins) is horrible and very thought provoking and although it is not scary at the time you will be scared later when you are trying to get to sleep. This maze however is more suitable for kids as they will not understand it, as long as the adults keep quiet. CURSE The curse is the worst of the mazes. Once inside there are very little actors, and the actors there are do not make full use of the props and scenery. There is actually loads of good scenery in here as I know from previous years, but this year almost the whole maze was pitch black and it was very difficult to walk because you ended up walking into walls. Also it was a shame because there is lots of scenery but this year you couldn't see much of it at all. SAW ALIVE (All year round horror maze) Saw alive is a year round horror maze that is based around the Saw films. It relies more on jumpy scares than anything else although the rooms you walk through are quite well themed and are interesting and scary to look at. Unfortunatley you are rushed around the maze too quickly to actually see most of it, and often they use too much smoke which hides it too much. Also, apart from more live actors the maze is not any different for Fright nights so if you have been on it before then queue for one of the Fright night ones. Overall the event is very good but small children should avoid it, especially Experiment 10. People who get scared at night should not enter se7en and The Curse is not worth queueing for, so unless it has got no queue it is not worth bothering with really. The maze with the fastest moving queue is Asylum, and it is also the best so I would reccomend it the most.