Halloween days out: Upping the scare factor at Thorpe Park
Once upon a time - for most people, at least - Halloween meant pumpkins, trick-or-treating and the Walt Disney classic Hocus Pocus.
Red food-colouring provided a non-gruesome version of fake blood, and a white bed sheet was an easy answer to the question of a spooky costume the fear factor hardly discernible behind the sugar-coated merriment and games.
Enter if you dare: Thorpe Park's Fright Nights bring a certain ghoulishness to the Surrey theme park
But Halloween has now ceased to be a simple one-night affair. It is now - almost - a season of its own, a curious corner of the calendar where autumn seeps into winter, and things go bump in the increasingly cold and dark nights.
Halloween has certainly become more than a 24-hour thing in one small corner of Surrey. Each year Thorpe Park - the theme park just off the M25/M3 interchange - stages an elaborate celebration of all things ghoulish and grim. It calls it Fright Night - which is something of a misnomer, because it runs throughout October. But we won't let that spoil the fun.
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This decidedly devilish extravaganza has proved extremely popular, and this year celebrate! s its te nth anniversary. Not only are the public invited to experience some of Europes most extreme rides after dark, but the park also offers the fiendish concept of the live-action 'horror maze'. Enter if you dare.
Well, dare I do. Standing at Thorpe Park's main entrance, I survey the distant silhouettes of its rollercoasters, and feel a comforting wave of familiarity. I wonder how frightening I could find a park where I once won a life-sized cuddly toy monkey. 'Tidal Wave' might be shrouded in darkness and 'Nemesis Inferno' might cast foreboding shadows over the throngs of thrill-seekers filling the walkways - but my mind reaches back to the exhilarating days I spent here in my school holidays.
As I walk over the bridge to the ticket gates, my mind is resolute: Fright Night is not going to frighten me.
Determinedto maintain my composure, I try a few of the attractions. The furious jerks and dives of Nemesis Inferno coax a few screams, the 100-degree beyond-vertical drop of Saw - The Ride sends my heart racing, and the ten loops of Colossus reek havoc with my stomach. But, within seconds I jump at the chance to hop on again. Forget frightening, this is fun!
Catching sight of scattered fire-eaters, magicians and actors adorned in white make-up andfake blood, I boldly dismiss them as mere props to dissolve the theme parks buoyant atmosphere.
Frightfully good fun: Katie has a close encounter in the Saw maze
However, the announcement that it is now time for the first of the live horror mazes soon explains their presence.
'Live mazes' are a relatively new, but burgeoning, trend in the world of theme parks - Alton Towers' equivalent Halloween event Scarefest is home to three. Fright Night boasts an impressive five - of which I will sample three: 'The Asylum', 'Saw Alive' and (new for 2011) 'Experiment 10'.!
S trictly speaking, these are not mazes. This is not a matter of attempting to find your way out of a labyrinthine space, but rather a case of following a leader around a carefully planned route through a chamber of horrors.
The maze is usually housed in existing buildings, which have been transformed for the occasion (although Saw Alive, based on the notoriously gory series of Hollywood movies, is open all year round).
First comes The Asylum - and I feel anxiety creep in as I hear manic screams and the wails of 'disturbed patients'. For all my earlier smugness, I am actually frightened.
Before my eyes have a moment to adjust to the flashing strobe lights and smoke, I am greeted by a snarling, blood-stained inmate, who - to my horror - stalks me with feverish interest.
Palms sweating, cowering slightly, I begin to adjust to the erratic lighting, and remind myself that the patient rattling at the bars is a teenager earning a bit of extra cash for a new iPod. But the longer I spend in The Asylum, the more wary I become of dark corners, and their potential for ambush.
Emerging unscathed, I move on to the Saw Alive maze - in which you visit six rooms based on the elaborate (and horrific) traps that appear in the film franchise. Horror movies are not my thing, and I'm rather grateful - some of the 'flesh-mangling' contraptions on show here chill the blood.
Kept in the dark: Fright Night visitors also get the chance to ride Thorpe Park's rides at night
Finally, I move on to Experiment 10 -which is based on the idea of a government test laboratory where the last project has taken a sinister twist. An unsettling German doctor greets me at the entrance, all piercing stare and repetitive ramblings. Irealise that no amount of nervous laughter will conceal my fear.
Asyou pass through the 'laboratory', masked workers dictate y! our fate as the latest test subject. After being 'sterilised' in a gas chamber, I am ushered into solitary confinement. The isolation is genuinely terrifying. Frantically, I reach for the door handle, but find it locked. In the darkness, I squeeze my eyes shut - and after what feels like eternity, the door behind me opens.
The journey through the laboratory continues with further twists and jolts - and after an uncomfortable few minutes, I breathe a sigh of relief as I reach the exit.
Never before have I been so thankful to see the boarded-up outline of a Donut Shack. There it is, the theme park I remember and love. Experiment 10 has done it. I think I might have been - dare I say it - frightened.
Travel Facts
Fright Nights run at Thorpe Park on October 6-9, 14-16 and 21-31, 10am until 10pm.
Adult tickets from 36.60 (children from 30) when booked online.
Tickets must be booked in advance for October 28-31.
More information and bookings via www.thorpepark.com.
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