Fright Night 2013

[Hdutt2]

So I know that some people went to tonight's Fright Nights and would like if someone who went can post a really detailed review and not a small, weak one like some of the others. Full details of everything if you can.

[Reanimated35]

12/10 Saturday

Arrived around 5:15pm. Carpark was pretty empty surprisingly. Had no drama at all getting a park.

Ticket processing: probably around 15-20 minutes from joining the queue to having our season passes handed to us. (2 of us). Security were friendly and chatting to a few people in line about the mazes.

Atmosphere: Light fog to begin with as it was just starting up, still pretty daylight so nothing to report.

Opening show: Mixed feelings about that one. The devil type things at the start were alright, not entirely sure they were all women or just rather flexible men. They were then joined by a voiceover of the 'ringmaster' - don't know if he was actually there, didn't see him. Following that a bunch of the maze actors appeared from around the ice cream shop and made their way down main street. A couple of the female actors from the Evil Dead maze...not bad at all ;-P

Lockers: $10 for the night. Nice a quick as there's plenty to go around as usual.

On to the first maze of the night

Hillbilly Slasher 2 - Queue was about 20 minutes or so. While queuing for this one, take the time to look around at the upstairs window on the 'What's Up Rock' side of the western town and enjoy the brutal murder and beheading of a poor silhouette. The whole 'hold the shoulders of the person in front' thing is back. While I have no problem in doing it, it just seems a bit pointless. There's no way you can get lost in there and it's bright enough to see where you're going. The theming on this one was excellent and they've made really good use of the space available to them. A nice outdoors feel to it.

Walking Dead Maze: TBH, never watched the show. That doesn't change anything about the maze. Again, really well laid out. Another good use of space. They seem to be running a bit of an outdoors theme this year and like their trees in the mazes. More excellent theming. You never realise how loud car horns are until they go off right next to you in a small enclosed space. A few parts where you kind of wander around with no scare actors though.

The Darkness. I should also point out, moving around the park is really dangerous in some parts due to the blinding fog. It's great they're trying to cover the park in it, but there's no way, when the fog first gets shot out of the machines that you can see anyone in front of you, or if you're about to step off a kerb. Overheard a few complaints about that. Anyway, the Darkness.....or Gimp mask maze. This is one maze where a backstory would really help. Queue was a bit of a stupid design (see map later) but still only took about 25mins from gotham cafe through to the end of it. The maze itself? Well....it, just like the previous darkness maze, kind of sucked. Yes, it's dark, but having the scare actors wearing black, with black masks on, it's just pointless. You may as well just have a speaker with a recording of someone yelling at you. It's pretty hard to tell if there's someone jumping at you or not as you can't see them. I think it would be really cool if they had red glowing eyes or something when they jump at you. Oh yeah, also, guys, watch out for the nut-slappers.

Evil Dead - My favourite maze of the night. Great makeup on the actors, loved the theming, loved the nailgun, electric cutting knife (fairly certain that's real too)and the chainsaw chick, who by the end of the night would surely be high on fumes. Keep an eye out on the floor for the head appearing form the trapdoor too. A nice touch there.

All mazes, with the exception of the gimp parade were really well themed.

HS2 - 8/10

WD - 8/10

DK - 5/10

ED - 9/10

All losing marks for not having a full maze of actors. - In saying that, they're great mazes and it's just my opinion they could use a few more actors.

Overall park atmosphere - 8/10 - losing points for dangerous fog, not having justice league open when I wanted to sit down but still be doing something (it was a walk on last time I went to the park so assumed it would be the same tonight) and not having any theming to the queues, especially once you get to the soundstage area outside the park. There's no fog or anything. The only thing they had was a F&B cart between the ED and WD queues.

No comment on either shows as I didn't watch them. Will do that on one of the other nights.

General thoughts:

I did feel with all the mazes there is always a small section where you don't seem to come across any scare actors. Maybe that's done to build suspense, but it would be nicer with more in there. Throughout the queue, it would be nice to see a bit of a story about what you're heading into, the same way they do for Green Lantern. All it would take is just a couple of posters with a small back-story. When queuing for Evil and Walking Dead mazes, there is actually 2 lines, and Evil had a much shorter line, or at least it did when we lined up. Also don't believe the guys selling the fastpass at the end of the queue. They claimed from that point (I'll add a map later) it would take 45min-1hr to get to the maze entry. Started timing on my watch. Was through the line and back to the end of the line in just on 30 minutes. The lines look really long, but they also move really quick. All mazes probably take about 4-5 minutes to pass through.

(will edit this post with pics soon)

HS2

This is where we lined up when it was the first maze we did. The yellow part is the window I mentioned earlier.

And this is where the queue was most of the night. The blue is the fastpass queue.

Darkness

This was where the queue was most of the night (scooby again using the overflow/old gremlins queue). The bit in yellow was really stupid. First, the only light available was from the glow of everyone's phone. There was lights on the wall but they weren't on. And the switchback itself was really thick and thin in some parts (due to guests I suppose) and idiots kept taking the ropes down anyway.

ED/WD

ED is the red line.

Always seemed to have a shorter queue - they had staff going down the line for WD and telling people to move up for ED.

Purple is the F&B cart

They have staff come to you in line and get/deliver your order.

WD is the blue line

The line were around the yellow/black line when we joined but most of the night WD was down along the brown line.

Edited October 12, 2013 by reanimated35

[Hdutt2]

Thanks for this, the review was the best so far and exactly what I wanted, thanks. Can't wait to go.

Also in the Darkness maze what do you mean by watch out for the nut slappers? And did you go and watch the shows, if you did were they interesting?

[kujotess]

The opening show was uploaded to Facebook here - http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=526045144143765

I can understand how you can miss the Ringleader, but he was at the top

[gdalby96]

I also went to Fright Night last night. This year was my first time that I had ever been so I did not really know what to expect, but my expectations were met. I got there at around 5pm and I got in straight away. Then we had to wait until about 5:45pm before they allowed people to move up the sides of main street. At 6pm these devil ladies came out and did a dance. Then the ring master came about and spoke out Fright Night. After he spoke all of the actors came out from behind Ben and Jerry's. They made there way down main street and waited at the end. Throughout the whole night these actors stayed out in main street and sometimes around the mazes. All of the makeup and costumes were done really well. I was in main street for about 20 minutes watching people get scared, while I waited for some friends to arrive. I first went on Green Lantern because I hadn't been on it for a while. I was in the queue for about 30 minutes, which I didn't think so too bad. After that I went to the Hillbilly Slasher 2 maze. I was in the queue for about 75 minutes (It went all the way down to the scooby-doo shop). Overall the maze was pretty good (I would rate it a 7/10). The layout, mixture of the different scenes and all of the actors were really good. After the maze I went and watched the Carn-evil show. The show was good, but I didn't think it was anything special. The show started with a couple of clowns coming out and telling a few jokes. Then ladies came out and danced a bit and then the ring master came out. After speaking a bit he went behind a small tent and went up a scissor lift to the top of the tent, where he stayed the rest of the show. More actors came out and did a few circus tricks. Then the motorbikes came out. They did a few tricks and then the show ended. The show went for about 15 minutes. I would give it a 7/10. After the show I got something to eat and then decided to go and do the Evil Dead Maze. The line was only about 30 minutes long and it was worth the wait. It was really well set out and out of the two I did it was the scariest. Every scene/passage way had an actor that would be there ready to scare you. It was really well set out and the detail was really good. I would give it a 9/10. By the time I had done this maze it was time to go.

Overall this years Fright Night was really good, even though I haven't been to one before, but after speaking to my friends they thought it was the best. Everything was really well detailed. I thought the placement of the mazes was really good, except for the Darkness maze. The positioning of the queue line sometimes restricted people from getting something from the gotham food shop. The use of the smoke was really good, but sometimes there was too much. I also believe they should of had a map for where the mazes are at the end of main street (There might have been one, but I couldn't find it).

I personally think that the rides should be left open until 10pm instead of 9pm. I was also disappointed that the justice league alien invasion ride wasn't open. I would highly recommend going to Fright Night this year. Overall I would give it an 8/10.

Edited October 12, 2013 by gdalby96

[j_m-kelly]

I as well attended Fright Nights last night and was a great night. I must say that it wasn't as good as last year (atmosphere wise) but was still an awesome experience. I arrived at 5:30 - 5:45, and was very quick to get inside. I caught a glimpse of the ringmaster on the top of Club Blood where he announced that "Fright Night was offically open." I started the night off with the Arkham Asylum and got the 2nd ride of the night, it felt quite different at night compared to day time! After Arkham, we headed over to the Walking Dead maze. The queue was right out to the entrance but took about 1/2 an hour to an hour to get on. In my opinion, it was quite a let down, and was a random set out, first you're in a hospital (I think), then you're in a forest etc. The scares weren't all that scary/ spectacular except the hand which reached over the wall got me good ahaha, overall I'd give it a, (7.5/10). After WD, we headed right over to Evil Dead was a 1/2 hour queue, this was by far my favourite maze of the night, they had great theming and the best scares, especially the staplegun (could feel the air on my arm) and the electric cutting knife. While lining up I could hear a chainsaw but both times I went through didn't see the actor with it... however I'd score this (9.5/10). We headed back down towards Main Street and I was amazed off how long the Walking Dead maze queue line was, it reached half way down Zombie Alley! TBH, while walking down Main Street, there was that much smoke I couldn't see what was infront of me for atleast 5 metres, and was a few centimetres away from walking in to the back of a zombie, my friend walked in to her though by accident, woops! Anyway, we headed for Hillbilly Slasher but to be confronted with the queue line reaching out towards the Scooby Doo, queue line (for Fright Nights). We decided to come back to Hillbilly so went on The Darkness instead, the queue was 1/2 an hour long but the maze itself was very good, it lives up to its name and had plenty of scares, (7.5/10). After TD we headed back down main street and grabbed something to drink and decided to on Hillbilly Slasher 2, it was a close tie to Evil Dead, but wasn't as good as ED. It has great theming, to be quite frank, the best theming! It had plenty of scares throughout and was extremely good maze, (9/10). After Hillbilly we went back on Evil Dead and it was 10:50 by the time we got out. I would highly recommend attending this years Fright Nights

[Brad2912]

Went last night as well.

Have to say for the most part Fright Nights has evolved and got better each year from what i saw.

we arrived at 5:30, walked straight in with our redemption tickets and as we had pre-determined we would head to the studio mazes first we waited near the fountain/dancing girls podium. At 6 the ringmaster guy appeared above Club Blood - could not hear a word he said, nor see the action that was taking place on main st so thanks to the previous reviewers because at least now i know what was happening. If they turned the speakers up a little it would be nice.

About 6:05 they dropped the rope and everyone surged, but we were stopped again by another rope under the covered walkway just before the SE entrance, 5 mins later, surge again to the gate leading down to the studios. Another 5 mins, gate was opened. i understand that the delay is likely because scare actors for the mazes/walkway were involved in the opening show on mainstreet, but its just feels slow and delayed when opening time is 6 and at 6:15 you are still waiting behind a gate to open.

headed to Evil Dead maze first, we waited about 5 mins as we were in the lead group heading down. Awesome maze, based on my recollections of previous years, i would have to say in terms of number of scare actors, intensity of scenes and genuine scares that it would be the best maze i have been to at Fright Nights over the 3 year period i have gone. Great detail, best scenes from the movie re-enacted and plenty of scares. 10/10

Headed from there over to Walking Dead, about a 25 minute wait. definitely better than last year in my opinion. Only disappointment was there were a few 'dead zones' (no pun intended) where nothing happened. There were obvious places where scare actors should have been or were meant to be, but just werent there (i.e. when you approach the lab doors and their is blood smeared on the windows and 2 perspex windows - no scare actor, and towards the end a clear hiding/scare spot with again no scare actor. Strangely on the final turn an attendant was standing on the walkway with a torch reading something on a clip board and literally blocked the scare actor from coming out from behind the curtain. All in all the theming was certainly immersive and made the maze moreso than the scare actors. 7/10

We then heading to Ricks for dinner - $15 all you can eat pasta, pizza, salad and desserts PLUS the skull glass with unlimited refills all night across the park (worth $8 so technically paying $7 for unlimited food). Great deal.

Started walking over to do Hillbilly 2, and BOOM. in 3 years of fright nights i'd never seen a queue so large. The queue was back through the numerous switchbacks, down towards the video games arcade, and then snaked up to the entrance of SCSC which is where we joined the queue. For those that have been previously to mazes in the show stage (Hillbilly Slasher 1 and Arkham/Batman in 2011) the queue line was positioned differently in it didnt go past the Scooby exit, but was on the other side of the graveyard/smokers hut as if heading to WWF. took about 90mins, but eventually got it. I'd say in terms of scares it was on par with last year, but i think the new theming was an improvement. The sewer entry at the start was good, but we found after about 2 mins of walking there was a logjam as we'd caught up to 2 further groups because someone had the smart idea that there would be a park photographer in the maze taking group photos with the hillbilly lady, mid-maze ???? quite possibly the stupidest idea ever. All up i'd give it a 8/10.

The darkness maze line was horrendous by the time we got out of hillbilly, and given a few lukewarm reviews i really couldnt be bothered waiting another hour + so we headed back to do Evil Dead again, only to find the line half way down the walkway between SE and the studios (was the same for Walking Dead as well) so given it was 9:45pm, we called it a night.

There was a good amount of fog and scares on main street throughout the evening. The dancing girls in cages were toned down on last years attire, in pants and tops as opposed to skimpy outfits. Depends on your individual opinion if that is disappointing or welcomed. Didnt get a chance to do any rides with queues, as most i'd like to see ride operating times extended, but that wont happen with noise restrictions unfortunately. One thing i dont understand - why would you go to fright nights and line up for 2 hours to go on Scooby when the experience is identical during the day?? Its an indoor coaster people, dont waste your time. Arkham, SE, GL sure, new experience in the dark, new thrills.

i'd like to see MW find a way to further limit numbers, it was just too busy, maybe the addition of a 5th maze in the future may break the crowds up a little, but really they just need to cap attendance a little earlier.

[Zanstabar]

Nice Reviews Everyone! I'm going to Fright Nights soon and was wondering what would be a better plan; Going straight for Evil Dead and/or Walking Dead, or going for Hillbilly Slasher first. What would be best?

[Brad2912]

Everyone will have a different opinion on that Providing you are in the park prior to 6 and focus purely on mazes to begin with, you will probably get on your first maze relatively fast, second with a moderate wait & then long waits for 3 & 4. I always head to the studio mazes first as you avoid the Main Street crowds that get held up bu the show intro and scare actors

[Reanimated35]

Nice Reviews Everyone! I'm going to Fright Nights soon and was wondering what would be a better plan; Going straight for Evil Dead and/or Walking Dead, or going for Hillbilly Slasher first. What would be best?

Based on my night, I'd say Slasher first, then straight to WD, immediately to ED, then finally Darkness, depends on how hungry you are though. If you get through the mazes, it's probably somewhere between 7:30 and 8:15 I'd say. Re the crowds - my mate and I figured it's probably a higher guest count than last year (almost certain on that) so that the maze queues seem longer and the fastpass seems more like a good idea. If you're only going 1 night and want to do rides AND mazes, probably best you get the fastpass. If you're going more than once, skip the rides and just do mazes one night so you dont have to pay the extra for the pass.

[j_m-kelly]

Nice Reviews Everyone! I'm going to Fright Nights soon and was wondering what would be a better plan; Going straight for Evil Dead and/or Walking Dead, or going for Hillbilly Slasher first. What would be best?

Hi Zanstabar, I would recommend WD first because the queue line reached half way down Zombie Alley

[gdalby96]

Nice Reviews Everyone! I'm going to Fright Nights soon and was wondering what would be a better plan; Going straight for Evil Dead and/or Walking Dead, or going for Hillbilly Slasher first. What would be best?

Personally I would do the Hillbilly Slasher Maze first, unless you want to be queued for 80 or more minutes. Once you have done that maze go and do Walking Dead or Evil Dead and then the Darkness. It also depends if you want to go on rides and if you want to watch the show. If I went again I would do everything in this order:

1. Hillbilly Slasher 2 Maze

2. A ride (What ever you feel like going on)

3. By the time you have done these you probably could go and watch the Carn-Evil show at 7pm. If you do miss it then there is the 9pm show.

4. Maybe another ride (Depending on queue lengths)

5. Walking Dead or Evil Dead

6. Walking Dead or Evil Dead

7. If you missed the first show then you will probably have time to watch after the mazes.

8. The Darkness Maze

9. You probably will have time for eat or drink at the end or after the show if you want something.

Overall it depends on what rides and mazes you want to do, if you want to watch the show and if you are going to have something to eat.

[Zanstabar]

Thanks Everyone! Fast Track is looking really tempting at the moment, but I think I wont get it. Rides don't really matter for me, seeing I'm going up to the park the day before. From your help, I think I might go Hillbilly first, then the two Sound-stages, and finally, I'll probably skip Darkness seeing how its being hated. Thanks for your help!

[joz]

I wouldn't skip the darkness, but my advice would be if the queue is nearly to Gothom cafe, skip it and come back later.

[kujotess]

Here's a vlog from last night (not mine), now i understand even more why you couldn't see the ringmaster reanimated35, as others mentioned he was on top of club blood (shown in video)

Edited October 13, 2013 by kujotess

[daniel_burke97]

I also attended last nights fright night with 7 of my friends and had an awesome night! I'm gonna skip the whole opening show thing cause its all been said. But personally I preferred last years dance! *WARNING MINOR SPOILER ALERT* So after walking through Main Street for a bit checking out all the characters and people getting scared (not gonna lie I was one of those people), we walked up to the Hillbilly Slasher. The line was entertaining with the projection as mentioned above, and a view of the exit of the maze where pig people were bounding out at the people exiting. Finally we were let into the maze with approximately 12 - 15 of us as a time. Very much the same as last year with a few added/altered scenes. First off you walk into a sewer and past a few fences etc. I was expecting a lot more from the scene but was disappointed! No scare actors at all and we found ourselves nearly falling over due to the shape of the wall. Continuing on all was very similar, being invited into the hillbillies home, the car in the bushes. A few more scares were added in near the end where last year you walk past a guy working on a body but this year the body now had a pig face sown on, the same pig face as in the saw movies. Now anyone who has seen Saw will know that the pig is bloody scary! So as we are walking down this hall way, a bunch of guys with pig mask (probably recycled from the previous saw maze in whatever year it was) pop out and get extremely in your face! I found this pretty scary cause personally I don't like the pigs but its your own view. Overall I still loved the maze as I did last year but didn't see much of a difference. Next we made the journey over to the Evil Dead / Walking Dead line and decided to go the Evil Dead maze. I wish I had saved this for last cause it was definitely the best maze of the night in terms of scares. (Details of the maze are a bit hazy) Entering the maze you start walking through the forest like in the movie. A man in a bush suit jumps out at you, but then blends in extremely well. I think they captured the idea of "possession" of the people and the paranormal activity well in the maze. Walking up to the cabin we were stared down by the main girl from the movie (can't remember her name) as she sat on the porch swing. She played the part very well and looked very much like the girl from the movie. Most of the maze was based inside the house so we went past the girl cutting her tongue, but found she just had a small knife not like in the movie with the electric knife. Others have said that they saw her with an electric knife so I don't know what happened. Finally we entered the room where the girl in the floor looks up in the movie, played by a robot. To be honest it was disappointing! You could literally see the pole that the head raised up with and the same with the arms. But it did act as a good distraction to let someone else jump out at us and make your heart skip a beat. The second last scene was the most scariest of the maze in my opinion. You walk past one of the girls but I didn't realise she was holding something in her hand until she reached up and starting shooting at us! Im pretty sure it was a nail gun. At this point everyone in the room jumped over to the wall and everyone was pushed up to each other trying to escape. The sound was phenomenal and definitely made everyone scared. Lastly we were chased out by a girl with a chainsaw which you could hear from the outside so it was expected but still rather scary. Exiting the maze everyone breathed a sigh of relief and shared a laugh. Overall the maze was amazing (no pun intended)! Plenty of scares and great set design. Had me jumping constantly! After ED we went and watched the Carnevil show @ 9 which was alright. Just a few bikes doing some stunts and some average jokes. But the fire effects were cool. After that we decided to go to The Walking Dead for the final maze of the night. This maze was awesome! Although it didn't have as many scares as Evil Dead, when they did get you, they got you good! The layout was good and scenes were faithfully recreated from the show! First off you go through a hospital with barely any to no scares at all through this bit. I don't know if this was because it was 10 o'clock or if it was meant to be this way. Anyway we found our self in what was meant to be a waiting room and were stuck as we didn't know where to go. There was a door over to the right so we eventually walked over there. The next scene was a few fences with a zombie just walking slowly and growling at us. Walking past a fence a zombie did jump up at the top and reach out for us and provided a good scare followed by the very loud beep of a car horn next to us. We then went on to walk through the caravan and the barn then to the jail with a few scares in between and then we were suddenly at the end. Only problem was the fact that we caught up to the group in front so we stopped for a few seconds but that didn't help. Overall all mazes were awesome. In terms of scares, Evil Dead definitely topped the list. But The Walking Dead had great set design and extremely similar scenes to the show. And hillbilly was just fun! I also recommend hillbilly first cause the line was huge half way through the night while the ED/WD lines moved fairly quick for their size. Also I give credit to the street actors as they do there jobs awesomely and cop a lot from people but still do awesome! Cannot wait for next year!

[Reanimated35]

Am I the only one who isn't actually scared by the stuff in the mazes/people dressed up? I go purely for the entertainment value and seeing the mazes and work they put into each event and enjoy the atmosphere. Even had one of the devil style actors standing behind me in the queue, didn't realise he was there as I was talking to someone. Turned around and he was about 5cm from my face. I just said "oh, how you goin'?" and he walked away.

edit - Did anyone get one of those IV drip drinks? If so - 1 - what was in it 2- are they refillable 3 - if you still have it can you please put a pic up

Edited October 13, 2013 by reanimated35

[Brad2912]

i wouldnt say scared, certainly not by the dark/gruesome theme anyway or scare actors you get a visual on before they jump at you. Get a bit of a fright when someone unexpected jumps out though, as im sure most would.

Similar to you i just like the atmosphere and seeing the effort and detail that goes into the mazes, that was all i was thinking of in Walking Dead given the scares were minimal, was "wow it would have taken some time to get all these cars in here and positioned right, and the campervan etc etc

The IV drinks looked awesome, unfortunately didnt pick one up as they didnt look maze friendly in terms of chucking it a bag while you go in a maze

[kujotess]

Even had one of the devil style actors standing behind me in the queue, didn't realise he was there as I was talking to someone. Turned around and he was about 5cm from my face. I just said "oh, how you goin'?" and he walked away.

Edited October 13, 2013 by kujotess

[Reanimated35]

i wouldnt say scared, certainly not by the dark/gruesome theme anyway or scare actors you get a visual on before they jump at you. Get a bit of a fright when someone unexpected jumps out though, as im sure most would.

Similar to you i just like the atmosphere and seeing the effort and detail that goes into the mazes, that was all i was thinking of in Walking Dead given the scares were minimal, was "wow it would have taken some time to get all these cars in here and positioned right, and the campervan etc etc

The IV drinks looked awesome, unfortunately didnt pick one up as they didnt look maze friendly in terms of chucking it a bag while you go in a maze

Yeah the only time I jumped slightly was when the guy in the ghillie suit jumped out screaming. I don't get the ones who see the people in makeup and have to run off screaming. Surely it's put on?

Can I have Katie instead of the stupid award thing?

[kujotess]

Haha definitely not put on, my 18 year old sister couldn't begin to explain how petrified she and her friends were in the ED maze. Oh and that "stupid award thing" was a grammy

[Hdutt2]

Some people are better than others when it comes to horror.

[daniel_burke97]

I did go to see the sets that they created and the entertainment value but I am not used to the whole haunted house thing. This was my second year and had an idea of what to expect but still found myself jumping which was all part of the fun. I also like when people react to the actors. I saw people just stand there and thought it didn't look very fun for them. It was fun to run and jump when they came at us. I guess people just take it differently. I also bought one of the Iv drinks for $6. It wasn't that good a drink but the idea was awesome. It tasted like watered down cordial to me. If it wasn't in the blood pack I wouldn't have got it as a normal drink.

[aaronm]

Hey guys - long time lurker, first time poster here. Looks like I'll have the chance to check out Fright Nights this coming Saturday - coming up from Melbourne and staying down near Surfers Paradise. Does anyone know if there are buses running to and from the event? Movie World's website mentions there should be but I can't find any detail anywhere...

[Gary86]

Check out http://translink.com.au/ but I had a quick look and couldn't find anything.