Fright Nights at THORPE PARK Resort celebrates its fifteenth gory year this year and to help mark the occasion the Resort has a whole host of scary surprises lined up. With a brand new maze, re-vamps of returning attractions, and some faces from Fright Nights past returning, this year’s event is set to be bigger than ever.
Headlining 2016’s event is the all new maze, Platform 15. Set in the park’s woodlands, this latest addition is set to be the Resort’s biggest maze to date covering 450 metres. Guests will set off along the last known route of the Sleeper Express, a locomotive which disappeared with all its passengers still on board. The railway line is now overgrown and as guests journey along it they will face séances, explosions, Ouija boards and may even find themselves hunted through the depths of the forest all the while trying to tread carefully so as not to disturb the grounds as zombie ‘sleepers’ hidden among the trees may awaken.
Also new for this year, and exclusive to guests staying at the Shark Hotel, will be Campfire Stories which will uncover some of the darkest secrets from the past 15 years of FRIGHT NIGHTS. Guests will be able to hear about some of the Island’s spookiest tales, including the legend of how the monks, who called the former Chertsey Abbey home, were possessed and that it is thought their spirits still haunt THOPRE PARK Resort with FRIGHT NIGHTS being a cover to disguise when they are most active.
To help celebrate FRIGHT NIGHTS’ birthday, roaming actors will be unleashed after 6pm. This year it will be down to the public to decide via the Resort’s Facebook page which of the fiends from FRIGHT NIGHTS past will make a return for another scare.
There will also be a number of returning attractions from past years. Last year’s new addition, THE BIG TOP, will return in a brand new location with the Figaro Bros. set to unleash chaos once more in their twisted carnival. Reimagined for 2016, the maze promises to be bigger and better than last year which was widely thought to have missed its potential. Blair Witch is also set to receive an overhaul for this year with the attraction being updated to coincide with the release of the brand new sequel to the classic horror film, plus classic mazes SAW Alive and The Cabin in the Woods also make a return.
Last and by no means least, CONTAINMENT, the Resort’s escape room experience, returns for a second year. This paid experience will see guests locked inside of four haunt rooms in groups of 10 and challenged to break the codes to find their way out, all in the hope of finding the antidote to a deadly infection. Costing £10 per person guests can either pre-book via the Resort website, or book on the day subject to availability.
As in previous years, a selection of VIP experiences will be available for guests to purchase. For those brave (or foolish) enough to want to take on the Resort’s scare attractions at their most extreme the Resort are once again offering the opportunity to ‘Face it Alone’. Costing from £20, guests will have one of the Resort’s infamous mazes selected for them at random, they will then have to enter the maze completely alone and be prepared to take whatever the creatures inside may throw at them. If uncovering the secrets behind the mazes is more to your taste, guests can book a Behind the Scenes Tour costing £20 and offering the chance to see how two of the Resort’s scare mazes work. This year’s event will run on 7th-9th, 14th-16th and 21st-31st October, with a Merlin Annual Pass evening on 10th October.
What are your thoughts on this year’s FRIGHT NIGHTS line up? Will you be heading to the Island to experience the scars for yourself? Have your say on this and more over on the Attraction Source Forum. We’ll be sure to keep bring you all the latest details as we get them.
