Genuine Question:
I never believe a word from any reviewers/influencers/whatever from press night posts as they haven't queued and haven't paid whilst the park will have ensured it was abolutely overkill on actors etc. for them.
Is FN good this year? People seem to be all over it.
Last time I went (2018) it was absolutely rubbish, as was the time before (2011). Cheaply done mazes, horrific waits, nasty.
Advice.
I'm someone who went on Press Night and Passholder Preview Night. I paid for the mazes on Passholder rate (albeit at the reduced rate). Feel free to take the following opinions however you want, but keep in mind the following things:
-I've attended Press Nights at Fright Nights since 2015. I try to avoid making full opinions on the mazes until I've tried them in "normal" settings, for the reasons you note. But I do have a rough gauge on how an attraction compares between Press and Regular Nights.
-I always use the Press Night to give an honest opinion to management, etc. They may not be able to act on anything, but I'll say what I like, what I dislike, what I think will do well, what I think will struggle, etc.
-The following things I say are from the opinion of me, as a guest, and not as someone writing a review for a website who was invited to the Press Preview.
Fright Nights this year is one of the most varied and complete line ups as a whole. There's a strong mix of different themes and styles throughout each attraction. The mazes and scare zones have good levels of theming (mostly). The acting is strong. And in general it feels like a proper Halloween event, and not a 'here's a couple of mazes thrown into a theme park' event.
Trailers is a great maze imo. It's not the scariest, it doesn't do anything new or groundbreaking. But it's a maze which takes the basics of a scare maze and does them all brilliantly. The ending could be stronger, but all in it's great. If you've done a large number of mazes, you'll see it as it is: nothing special, but strong.
Creek Freak Massacre is something which isn't for me. The scares and layout and concept just isn't something that interests or scares me. But it is very well themed and the masses enjoy it.
Platform 15 is in one of its strongest incarnations yet. The maze starts off very slow, but does a good job and building up the atmosphere and scares throughout.
The scare zones look great. I think they may struggle when there's a large number of people on park. But the heart and concept of them is good.
The shows are bare on the theming side, and a little bit on the long side, but they're well designed and enjoyable. They're things you can stop and enjoy for the whole thing, or dip in and out of for a couple of minutes and still enjoy it.
2018 was one of the (if not,
the) weakest Fright Nights events. Quantity over quality. It's completely different now. 2011 was one of the better years for the event imo, but there's always bad times I guess.
In terms of the mazes more specifically. Creek Freak and Trailers have had big budgets, and it shows I think. Platform is a cheaper done maze, and outdoors of course. Personally I prefer Platform over Creek Freak, but I'm in a minority there.
Are any of the mazes worth £10? Honestly, no. Are they worthy of being upcharge mazes though? I reckon so. A price point of around £5-7 would be more reasonable in my opinion. Sure, I'd rather them be free like in the past, but I think going forward, a couple of upcharge mazes plus the scare zones is something which is better for the event.
Feel free to take my views as you will. Obviously the event has only had 1 normal day of operation, and things change as the event progresses. But I genuinely think this will be one of the better Fright Nights events and it is worth the visit.
