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Yet, in the darkest alleyway, Halloween Horror Nights has managed to creep up on the opposition and slaughter them all. Frankly, by the time we got to Halloween Horror Nights V, it was a bloodbath, with the event already offering five mazes, two scarezones and three shows with admission jumping to almost $40 USD.

By the time you read this, this year’s Halloween Horror Nights will have opened. This season’s admission is nearly $60 USD for the event alone, but includes seven mazes, four scarezones, two shows and a cast of thousands of so-called scareactors. 

Furthermore, each Halloween Horror Nights revolves around a central theme, and almost every maze and scarezone is transformed annually. This is no modest undertaking – HHN doesn’t just slap victims around the face, it bludgeons them into submission.

Of course, to compare Universal and Tussauds is unfair. It is also a folly to expect British events to ever become as popular as American events. Not only does the unpredictable weather conspire against us, but so too does British apathy towards special events.

But that isn’t to say a similar undertaking at Thorpe Park wouldn’t be as popular, it is just a case of building on the already established interest. Fright Nights already have a captive audience, the mazes are popular beyond belief, and while measured steps such as limiting people to one go per maze help the cause, it seems a false economy to reign this majestic stallion on the first bend when it could be charging the final furlong.

One of the biggest problems is that the mazes open late afternoon. This is because it is unreasonable to expect the cast of monsters and ghouls to work in such miserable conditions for the entire day, so this means that everyone in the entire park is forced to descend upon the mazes in the evening.

So, with more mazes giving more people more options, it also increases the overall capacity of Fright Nights without having to increase the operating hours of either the park or event.

Of course, more mazes mean more actors, and more actors means more expense on the part of the park. So, while the event matures, I think it would be a completely reasonable proposition to charge visitors £10, maybe even £15 for a wristband or ticket that enables you to do the extra shows, an extra attraction or two and maybe three or four mazes.

The constant rumour that Tussauds are considering charging for the mazes has been met with hostility from enthusiasts, which – to a certain extent – is understandable, but it seems they’re angry for fairly selfless reasons, where-as in my case I cannot understand Thorpe’s reasoning behind charging.

Thorpe Park have before justified the proposed charges as being their solution to deal with the overcrowding of the two mazes; think of it as a tax, where by charging people, it puts them off joining the queue. As the event becomes more and more popular, it seems a complete nonsense to try and limit the success of an event that could be allowed to mature much like Halloween Horror Nights has been.

I fear that without a single charge for the entire event (creating a clear self-perpetuating budget), the money will be lost in bureaucracy as opposed to being reinvested into Fright Nights.

This isn’t to say that Fright Nights isn’t growing; since the first year, Circus of Horrors has been added, and this year should see the addition of another show. But the heart and soul of Fright Nights remains with the mazes, and while Thorpe Park have hardly neglected them, it is on this front that the event needs to grow.

Halloween Horror Nights was a success from the first year, but Universal refused to let that success be a limitation. They used Halloween Horror Nights’ popularity as a fuel to drive the event forward into the future. They acted upon HHN’s popularity, added more and more every year and made measured steps to ensure that it became the best of its type.  

Thorpe Park should embrace Fright Nights, and on a local level identify the very most popular aspects of the event, and build upon them proportionately. As the event matures, people will become more and more willing to pay more and more money for it, and the event’s popularity will snowball. Continues...