Fright Nights 2018 featured the most amount of attractions for a Fright Nights event at the time, and still holds that record as of 2025. The 11 attractions which formed the event included 7 mazes, 2 scare zones, an escape room experience and a show.

The 2018 event isn’t remembered as the strongest event, but it came at a time when the park felt that a large quantity of attractions was needed to cope with the extreme popularity of the event. Instead, the park learnt moving forwards that quality over quantity is the way forward.

2018 was also the first year the park introduced something that they marketed as a scare zone since 2013. And, in practice, this year featured the first free roam scare ‘zones’ since 2002; an important step forward for future Fright Nights.

NEW – The Big Top: Showtime

The clowns from The Big Top have escaped their tent!

Review

Fright Nights officially starts today! TPM have been lucky enough to preview the resort’s offering this year both at the Annual Pass preview event, and the resort’s media event. But how do this year’s mazes stack up?

Returning mazes…

Saw Alive

Saw is now in its 9th season at the resort, making it the longest serving Fright Nights attraction. There are no changes compared to previous years, but the maze is very dependable. Scares come thick and fast, the lighting is perfect and generally it is set up to leave guests feeling scared!

The Walking Dead: Living Nightmare

Returning for its second season, and following stints throughout this season, Living Nightmare has seen some changes for this year’s event. Notably, these include a lot more swearing in the script (bringing to life the Negan storyline from the show), and a rewritten ending. The ending could perhaps be stronger still, but there were lively actors throughout who were good at using the space around them.

Containment

Back for its 4th season, Containment has not seen any major changes, keeping the same room themes and general theme. We hope to see this get a refresh in years to come, keeping the upcharge escape room experience relevant for returning visitors.

Platform 15

Platform 15 has not seen any changes to the route this year, but features a new story. The Sleeper Express was taking a group of people to a wedding in a town near London, but the train conductor crashed the train – killing all passengers – since he himself loved the bride. Perhaps not as strong as last year’s concept, but nice to see, and the maze has a slightly stronger ending.

New for this year…

The Walking Dead: Do or Die

Do or Die is perhaps the biggest new thing at Fright Nights this year. A reimagining of Sanctum, and taking place on the old Big Top location, it features indoor and outdoor section, as you visit a safe haven in the zombie apocalypse…where cannibals roam.

There are some very strong scenes here with some good characterization at points. The second half of the maze is a little weaker compared to the first, but we’ve been told this is being looked into and some different methods were tried throughout the night.

Blair Witch

Blair Witch returns with a shorter layout, starting behind the I’m a Celebrity building and finishing by the Nemesis Inferno exit. However, don’t let the short route fool you! Lots of trees and woodland have made the route long, and give actors plenty of hiding spaces. On top of that, the finale shed has intense strobes to disorient.

Blair Witch is never intended to be the scariest maze, but it does deserve a place in the line up.

Dead Creek Woods

A surprise last minute addition, using the Zombie Hunt route, Dead Creek Woods is based around an infection that’s taken over a once peaceful city. Sadly, there’s no changes to the layout, and the story is perhaps a little lost on the way, but there’s some nice jump scares moments. The maze also features a chainsaw run halfway through the maze – this will leave people who are used to these being big finales shocked when more of a maze happens.

It does unfortunately mean the ending to the maze doesn’t quite deliver. However, that memorable moment halfway through serves as a good scare moment for the attraction!

Vulcan Peak

Vulcan Peak is the last new maze for this year, and is a standard hooded attraction in the I’m a Celebrity space. Unlike the resort’s previous hooded maze, The Passing, you follow a rope round the course, and cannot see through your hood.

Sadly, Vulcan Peak is one of the weakest mazes to appear at Fright Nights. The maze is devoid of scares, features a voiceover throughout the soundtrack which sounds more like a safety announcement, and a confusing ending where the hoods come off too soon. The guide rope uses some nice height changes though.

The resort are aware of the weakness of the attraction, and we hope they can improve it as time goes on.

Terror at Amity High

Terror at Amity High is a scare zone based in the Stealth plaza. It is really cool to see this area finally used for Fright Nights for the first time. Amity High is a school for vampires, and the story is that of a Homecoming for the class of 1959 (a return to school for old students). There’s minimal theming around, and you very much get out what you put in – the more you interact with actors, the more they’ll interact with you.

Whilst there’s no “terror” here, it is wonderful to see a true free roam scare zone for the first time since 2002!

The Big Top: Showtime

It is such a shame that The Big Top, easily the highlight of the last two Fright Nights, hasn’t made a return for 2018. However, the use of clowns is still here. Whilst this is listed as a scare zone in The Dome, the crew of clowns roam around parts of the park, particularly the Beach area and bridge, and instead only use the Dome for a small show. This show highlights the clowns, before they then run into the crowd and cause chaos!

Showtime is more a set of roaming actors with a small show, but it’s lovely to see an energetic group of roamers which will always get people running and screaming!

Screamplexx Cinema

Screamplexx Cinema cycles through 4 different short horror films made by Bloody Cuts. We got a chance to watch one of them, and unfortunately the film was not in 4D as advertised (no 3D glasses, and no 4D effects). We look forward to trying out the cinema again later in the event!

Final Verdict

Fright Nights 2018 has a heck of a lot going on, and it’s exciting to see basically all parts of the park have something Fright Nights-y going on. With so many new attractions in one year, it is fair to say that some attractions received more attention than others in the planning stages, and so others need more time to bed in. We know the park are committed to continually improving the attractions over the course of the event, so we look forward to seeing what the park do in the coming days and weeks!