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Scarefest 2014

Crikey this post is mighty pessimistic!

I know you guys are massive Alton Towers goers and of course i'm sure you could well be right but do we actually know FOR SURE what's going to be in these 2 mazes/attractions?? Maybe Merlin have kept the same funding aside for this but wanted to put all their efforts into 2 amazing mazes/attractions instead of 3? Or perhaps the money saved from the 3rd maze will be into other areas of the park to improve the Holloween theme?

Unless you guys are certain then it's all just guessing and the complaints should therefor come AFTER Scarefest, not before.

Just my 2 pennies worth.
 
We can only judge by their past record at this point. Sadly, that does not bode well.
 
I wouldn't be so bothered with the maze changes if I arrived on park and every area had some kind of Scarefest theming, be it cheap filtered lights if anything, just something to improve the park wide atmosphere! Nemesis should be glowing red! Dark Forest should have up lighters at the base of the trees, Katanga Canyon should be a colourful jungle. Take 2010 lighting and better it!
 
I wouldn't be so bothered with the maze changes if I arrived on park and every area had some kind of Scarefest theming, be it cheap filtered lights if anything, just something to improve the park wide atmosphere! Nemesis should be glowing red! Dark Forest should have up lighters at the base of the trees, Katanga Canyon should be a colourful jungle. Take 2010 lighting and better it!
I'm hoping thats the way Scarefest goes this year, it's just a shame that the budget is so small that they have to cut an attraction in order to do this, for a major event like this the budget should be large enough for a solid line up AND a well presented park.
 
Think of how many people will buy combo tickets for the mazes each day, and more so at weekends. Now that's £12 a pop (£9.60 with MAP, which isn't a huge difference). Surely that money would pay for 3 mazes in itself, then there's entrance fees on top for everything else!
 
Whilst I am also reserving judgement, (a whole park lit thematically, and traveling things such as the photos below would, in my mind, be better than a third maze) I am starting to think that money is the basis of this though. The accountants have probably gone. Lets cut back here and here and here and therefore make more money. My heart bleads at decisions like this. Dont Merlin realise that reputation is as important if not more in making money?
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I know Towers have given up a bit this year, but... I did both FrightNights and Scarefest last year. Scarefest has better mazes, better actors, and overall a better atmosphere. Not all of Thorpe's mazes put together were as good as one of Towers'. They look cheap, and until three in the afternoon Thorpe just looked like the giant, ugly, heap of concrete it is, and after three, it looked like a giant, ugly, heap of concrete with some lights. The roaming actors at Thorpe had blatantly been given some masks from the 99p shop and had some awful fake blood splattered on their cheap masks and cheap, plastic 'weapons'. Blair Witch was so dreadful, they may as well have not hired actors for it. Cabin was a brilliant idea, but with poor (Merlin) execution. Saw had almost not changed at all since it was an all year round scare maze, apart from it had a queue this time. My Bloody Valentine/Experiment Valentine was just Experiment 10 minus the boxes and with a different bad guy. Asylum was disorientating, but not in a scary way, the chainsaw guy had lost all of his effect, and I strolled out, no care for it whatsoever.

Be thankful that some effort and care goes into the mazes at Towers, they aren't all bought in, cheap looking objects. The actors have decent make up and costumes.

Basically Scarefest > Sh*teNights
 
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Be thankful that some effort and care goes into the mazes at Towers, they aren't all bought in, cheap looking objects. The actors have decent make up and costumes.

Basically Scarefest > Sh*teNights

Let's be fair to Thorpe here, they don't have a whacking great big folly to base their mazes in and create atmosphere, as an irritating to the degree of driving people to the verge of insanity fan boy of The Sanctuary and Dr K. even I have to admit, the Towers played a HUGE role in this being so effective.

I thought Cabin being based in an old queue line giant triangular shed was absolutely brilliant for it's first year, we had a right laugh in it! The roaming actors were a bit... what the? TOTALLY agree with Experiment 10 thoughts - which was way better, understand why they changed it but I seem to recall much preferring X10.

Blair witch was more like, which witch? Because I think I saw one actor, I waited till later expecting a big queue and NO ONE was queuing for it and it ended up being a short cut to get to Stealth. That really WAS awful - it was a slightly nervous walk expecting someone to jump out (went on my own) but no one did!

The change to X10 and Blair Witch does leave me nervous for Asylum one of my first ever mazes and one that left me with a real love of them.
 
The Asylum will always be what everyone remembers from Fright Nights, it's pretty much their signature maze, like ToTT is for us. Sad to see it go!
 
My (limited) understanding of this is that enough funding was made available for Carnival to return, but there aren't enough people in the tech team at the moment to actually build three mazes this year - there's some big staff shortages at present. The money not being spent on Carnival is instead going towards making investments in park lighting and gels that should last beyond this year.

I know I'd rather drop a maze this year (an ageing one at that) if the overall event atmosphere would be better for multiple years to come.
 
I thought Cabin being based in an old queue line giant triangular shed was absolutely brilliant for it's first year, we had a right laugh in it! The roaming actors were a bit... what the? TOTALLY agree with Experiment 10 thoughts - which was way better, understand why they changed it but I seem to recall much preferring X10.
But, even Carnival beat anything at Thorpe, and Carnival wasn't in the Towers. Cabin WOULD have been amazing, had there been better execution. But, no... It was cheap and tacky, and even when we found 'The Control Room' we weren't allowed in it, cause the other half of our group was in there! CHEEK.
Oh, and I don't like it when people touch me in the mazes, and of course, they can't in Towers, but will grab ankles, hair, arms, and just the whole of you to pin you up against a wall at Thorpe.
ToTT and Sanctuary have so much character. Carnival was a great maze, although there were a couple of ways I think we all would have improved it. I mean, I've got so much love for ToTT and Sanctuary, last year was my first Scarefest, and about my fifth FrightNights, the differences between the two are astounding. I beg anyone here who is moaning to go to FrightNights this year, and see the difference.
 
Oh, and I don't like it when people touch me in the mazes, and of course, they can't in Towers, but will grab ankles, hair, arms, and just the whole of you to pin you up against a wall at Thorpe.

You wouldn't like Horror Nights then... ;)
 
I don't mind being touched in mazes, as long as its expected. :p

Although personally I think being touched/man-handled in mazes should be left for more 'extreme' attractions, rather than a bog standard maze.
 
I personally think touching/invading personal space is a really cheap trick and is often applied to scare attractions that lack imagination as an attempt to ratchet up the tension, when all it really does is make you uncomfortable rather than scared.
 
I personally think touching/invading personal space is a really cheap trick and is often applied to scare attractions that lack imagination as an attempt to ratchet up the tension, when all it really does is make you uncomfortable rather than scared.

I TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH YOU!!!!

Sorry. Been to long mate, had to do it :D

Seriously though, I do agree it gets a little bit "samey", and it does make you feel a bit uncomfortable... unless it's some hot goth girl doing creepy which is oddly attractive to me!

They do have limitations though and on the whole I think it works quite well, then I must say my general experience of mazes isn't the most comprehensive so it's highly possible you have a good point.
 
In my opinion, being touched is a big part of the "danger" in horror mazes. I always find the mazes at Scarefest less impressive than Fright Nights for that reason, and also because there are a lot less actors in the Scarefest mazes compared to the Fright Night ones.
The Asylum will always be what everyone remembers from Fright Nights, it's pretty much their signature maze, like ToTT is for us. Sad to see it go!
I agree, I am really sad to see it go as it was by far the best, most popular and most impressive scare maze in the UK.
 
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