Fright Nights 2022 show that the money made turning mazes into paid-for experiences is being directly reinvested back into the event. What’s more, this year’s event was diverse and had a really strong line outside the mazes too! Scroll down to see out review!

The Crows of Mawkin Meadow

Where The Crows go…nobody knows

Review

New for 2022

There were 3 new additions to the 2022 event.

We’ll start with the big new addition, Survival Games. Located behind The Swarm, this is set up in several shippining containers and a giant marquee structure, and it sure looks intimidating from the outside. The story is simple: you are trying to join a new elite social network, and to prove your worth, you have to make your way through “the survival games”, where a group of assassins try to kill you. You literally will join the network, or die trying…

Survival Games is very intense, seeing you split up from the start and potentially facing the entire maze alone. The first half of the maze is fairly linear, and features scares coming at you at a steady rate. The second half, however, kicks things into overdrive. The maze is completely freeflow, with no obvious path to follow, meaning you could go back on yourself several times. The actors in this section regularly will get in your personal space, and send in you a variety of different directions to confuse and disorientate you. The theming and story in this section is minimal, but it works in context: any more would take away from the chaotic nature of the experience. Only when the actors are ready are you released from this ‘arena’ area into the finale, which is a suitable run out to complete the maze!

Survival Games is something that feels very different to pretty much any previous Fright Nights attractions, whilst bringing the intensity and chaos that Fright Nights needs!

The second new addition is The Terminal, an audio-led experience designed in conjunction with Darkfield, a company who specialises in such experiences. Located next to Rush in a group of shippining containers, The Terminal sees you go on an intergalactic journey, where things don’t go quite right…

Where The Terminal excels is in its fantastic use of technology. Whilst it’s perhaps obvious that an audio experience will use very good headphones, it shouldn’t be understated how much the experience is enhanced by the headphones, and how well the audio is produced.

At the same time, The Terminal requires a level of buy in from guests that no other Fright Nights attraction has ever required. The experience at its core is sitting in the dark, listening to a story. If you don’t invest into the story, or don’t find this sort of thing something you can buy into, it makes it harder to enjoy and appreciate it. But if you can, The Terminal is an experience which will be one of your favourites!

Whilst this is not the strongest attraction in this year’s line up, it will certainly get a reaction from people. And we feel like with a few extra sensory effects, this could become a firm Fright Nights favourite in years to come!

Finally, Death’s Doors is a new scare zone, taking place next to Mr Monkey’s Banana Ride. This is an interactive scare zone, where you walk past 21 different doors, and are invited to knock on as many (or as few) as you dare. This is basically trick or treat, but always with a trick!

Behind the doors are a variety of characters. Some are your more classic scare characters, a deranged hilbilly, ghosts, etc, whereas others are a bit more humorous, such as an evil Easter Bunny, an elf who has decapitated Father Christmas or even a wailing Siren! This bit of humour, mixed with scares, works really well and creates a great dynamic, and mixes things up from other attractions.

Returning Scare Mazes

Two mazes return to this year’s line up. First up is Trailers, back in its second year. After having its ‘Breakout at Bozo’s’ overlay in the summer, this returns back to its original incarnation from last Fright Nights. Minor changes to the pre show script aside, the maze is exactly the same, and swarming with scares, whilst also remaining on the fun side, making it a great addition to the line up. We also liked the little touch of giving all the scenes new ‘sequel’ posters, and hope this is a tradition the park keep up year-on-year!

Back for its third, and final, year is Creek Freak Massacre, with the tagline The Final Cut. Again, minor changes to the pre show script have been made (referencing Project Exodus tearing down the sawmill), which also in turn make the pre show more fast paced, whilst keeping the flow very well. The maze itself remains unchanged, with lots of tight spaces, energetic actors and chaotic scenes. The maze will have up to 4 chainsaws in at any given time, which in such a small space is bound to get people running for the exit in no time!

Other Returning Attractions

The award winning The Crows of Mawkin Meadow returns for its second season, with new scenes! The scare zone walkthrough remains the same at heart, but an additional scene of a burnt down village has been included, allowing guests to walk through parts of the disused Saw Alive queue line. This adds suspense and creates a mini ‘outdoor scare maze’ experience, but could benefit from extra theming. The park have looked into removing the Saw Alive queue line too, to make the scare zone even bigger, so something for the future perhaps?

Two other scare zones / shows return: Amity vs LycanThorpe High: Graduation Sucks and Birthday Bash. Both feature lively actors roaming their respective areas, interacting with guests and getting them to buy into their stories and watch their shows. Graduation Sucks features a brand new flash mob routine, with a very good lighting package, and Birthday Bash features a completely new show celebrating Hattie and Hugo’s 21st birthday. It seems likely that Graduation Sucks will be ending the story of vampires and werewolves fighting against each other outside Stealth, so we wonder what will happen next year there!

Creek Freaks Unchained has moved away from being a scare zone to being a roaming crew, with The Crows also roaming the park between 3-5pm (and the scare zone itself opening at 5pm).

Finally, in an unexpected twist, Legacy, the park’s fire and light show, has also returned this year, with a new stage set up on the smaller side of the Beach. The show was only available for the second half of the event.

Legacy is completely different this year, with a focus more on current Fright Nights attractions and – more importantly – a screen introduced in the middle of the set up. The accompanying visuals help sell the audio more, and give everyone something else to look at. Whilst it has moved away from being a love letter to Fright Nights’ history, seeing a fire and light show of this scale at Thorpe Park is still brilliant!

The Bottom Line

Fright Nights 2022 builds on the successes of the last couple of Fright Nights, and has introduced new attractons which continue to diversify the line up, whilst also adding real quality to the event. With the mazes and The Terminal being upcharge experiences (£10 per attraction, £8 for Annual Passholders, and with package deals available), Fright Nights has become a premium and costly event. However, it is clear to see that the revenue generated by charging for these experiences is being reinvested into the event, and that is making the event better as a whole!

Fright Nights runs on Friday-Sunday in the first half of October, and then daily between 14th-31st, with the park open 10am-9pm!