Thorpe Park proves yet again why Fright Nights was the winner of the UK’s Best Theme Park Halloween event!

We were invited along to the VIP Preview event of Fright Nights, which took place the day before the start of Fright Nights this Friday, which we also attended. Fright Nights this year was absolutely incredible, with more quality and more variety added to the park yet again!

New for this year was DeadBeat, an indoor maze themed to an underground rave, although there are soul-sucking ghouls around every turn. On top of that, Creature Campus returned with a brand new and revitalised routine, Trailers saw new scenes and the IT 4D Experience floated its way into the Sunset Cinema.

Review

New for 2024

There were several changes for the 2024 event, all of which were refreshing and welcoming.

Although there wasn’t a new “disciple of fear” this year, the new scare maze for the year – DeadBeat – didn’t suffer for it.

Housed behind Slammer, in the space which has held several mazes before, there’s a real buzz around the queue line, playing loud, thumping music to really make you feel like you’re about to enter a nightclub. You enter a pre-show area where you’re told that DJ Canistro is holding the best party ever, and that no one ever wants to leave. A short check from the club’s bouncers, and then you’re in.

The maze is clever with its use of space, with a winding layout that still features open spaces. It’s also designed so that the same actor can scare groups multiple times. Another very clever design of the maze is that some scenes are designed to look very similar, making it feel like you’re going round in circles.

The maze features a loud soundtrack, fantastic theming throughout and good sound, smoke and air effects.

Unfortunately, the story is a little lost. The maze blends together zombified club goers and “Viscerals”: demonic characters who are there to suck your souls. Whilst all actors look incredible, the reason behind the Viscerals isn’t explained, and certainly could be presented clearer. However, we’re confident that the park will develop and tweak this.

The maze really comes into its own in the final third, with jump scares galore, special effects, actors literally flying over you and an intense finale which is complete and, whilst not unique, feels very fitting for the maze!

DeadBeat will continue to grow and bed in, and we are excited to see how it continues to go over the rest of the event and in years to come. More importantly, this offers a very different feel and vibe to Fright Nights, with this style of maze never being presented before. It’s certainly a welcome addition!

Whilst not “new” for 2024, Trailers has received significant changes, with 3 new scenes and a new pre-show. The pre-show features the Director character, who introduces you to their cinema and all the chaos that will follow.

As for the new scenes, these are:

-Creek Freaks, replacing Hell Cell

-Knock Knock, replacing Vulcan Voodo

-The Sleeper Express, replacing Ship Happens and Nightmare on Staines Street

The new scenes keep the same layout and essence as their predecessors, but feature new theming, characters and scares. Creek Freaks features lively Buckwheats from Creek Freak Massacre. Knock Knock features the wonderful costumes from Death’s Doors. The Sleeper Express features a scene mimicking the train route, before entering the famous village section from the maze. This, along with the pre-existing scenes, creates a fun-filled, high impact maze full of fantastic moments. This is definitely one of the best years of Trailers yet!

Creature Campus: Looks Can Kill continues to dance show storyline by Stealth. This, however, is the first year without the vampires of Amity High, and also there are no werewolves from LycanThorpe High. Instead, it is Witches vs Gorgons! The dance show is high energy, excellently choreographed, and features a cool sorority house set piece. The music tracks are more modern, bringing a fresh and new feel to the show!

The final new thing for 2024 is the IT 4D Experience, playing every half hour in the Sunset Cinema. This gives highlight from the recent IT films, with 4D effects, which is cool to see. There’s also some cool pieces of theming outside the cinema…is Pennywise hiding in the sewers of Thorpe Park?

The park have also introduced a slightly spookier version of Big Easy Boulevard, sponsored by Fanta. With a couple of bits of theming, and a pop-up Fanta-scare experience (with no actors), this is a tasteful and simple sponsorship which further adds to the event!

Returning Scare Mazes

Stitches returns for its second season. There are minimal changes inside the maze, although they have kept it fresh and breathed life into it. The maze remains long, creepy and atmospheric, and still features hilarious and unnerving takes on childhood toys (the Barbra Doll has returned!).

Now in its third season, Survival Games remains as the “different” maze, with it being hands on from the start, splitting groups up and featuring an intense “battle arena”. The maze has received a new theming piece in the pre-show, to help build the tension. Inside, actors remain hands up, brash and in-your-face, with the free flow arena remaining a highlight!

It is currently not running a chainsaw ending like last year, but we’re aware the park are working on this!

Other Returning Attractions

The Crows of Mawkin Meadow is back for its fourth season too, and is an absolute staple of Fright Nights. In fact, with the removal of Amity High from Creature Campus, The Crows are now the longest-serving characters at Fright Nights (first introduced in 2020 as roamers).

This year again features a new layout, an incredibly dense amount of fog and a wonderful array of actors and “fake crows”. You never quite know which Crow is real or not… On top of that, the attraction has a choice of two routes, including a heavily fenced area, which is used as a kill area, with carcasses and bodies hanging from high above!

The final returning attraction is Lucifer’s Lair. With the stage now in the opposite place, the area has been opened up more. There are a variety of shows throughout the evening, including Lucifer and Lilith unleashing minions around the area, circus acts, live music and an epic dance and fire show which we think is one of the best shows ever to grace Thorpe Park (both in and outside of Fright Nights!). It is a real testament that one of the crown jewels of Fright Nights is in the centre of the park, and free for all guests!

The Bottom Line

Fright Nights 2024 once again proves why the event won Best Theme Park Halloween event at ScareCON, and would even be deserving of the best Halloween event in the country outright. The variety of attractions, in terms of themes and experience, is fantastic and unquestionable at this point. What’s more impressive is that the park continue to diversify, whilst keeping the quality high and consistent!

The park are offering a variety of Behind the Scenes Tours and VIP experiences this Fright Nights, and we’re very excited to see these.

The park have high-quality attractions where it is easy to see that time, money and thought has been invested into them, which isn’t always the case for Halloween events. Though the scare mazes are an upcharge, their costs are justified, especially when we see that money re-invested into new and existing attractions.

Bottom Line: You HAVE to go to Fright Nights!