For those who do not want to read my long rambly trip report:
Here's my verdict on Thorpe's stuff this year, mild spoilers.
STITCHES:
Stitches i went into with a fresh virgin mind, and i am glad i did. If i had to describe it, it is basically a scare maze that plays with the psychological aspect of mazes. It has a lot of gore, a lot of creepiness, and the actors all have disgusting costumes. Some of the costumes are beyond disturbing, and the atmopshere is creepy. The dim lighting and the heavy use of smell pods just ice the cake. The use of smell pods are very well done here, and it really is immersive when you can smell the putrid smells. The theming is also really good (the first room is lush!). I really enjoyed the length of the maze, and the idea of the ending. In a small group (our second run through) it is brilliant, but in a normal group of 10 per se, the reveal just kinda falls flat. Maybe with three actors in there? Overall a very good maze, maybe my favourite. It has such an eerie and creepy theme, and overall manages to be a perfect compliment to the more brash Surival Games.
SURVIVAL GAMES:
Survival Games is wild. While in the queue we watched two actors dragging people into the maze group by group. This was very fun, just the spectacle of seeing the actors drag willing patrons into their doom was very fun, and horrifying when it becomes you. The maze was intense as usual. You get dragged, pulled, and pushed as you make you way through the arena. It is a short maze with minimal theming, but when you have a hoard of agressive actors pushing you in different directions, who cares? It is honestly such a brilliant maze, which now feels more complete with a good old fashioned finale. It works all too well in this maze. My only critique is that it is very inconsistent. I always find my group can literally have opposite opinions to each other. This can be damning if you get a bad runthrough, and you have to pay £10 to get back in.
TRAILERS:
I gotta be honest. I usually do not like this maze. I find it really segmented, too well lit, and generally not scary. Today though, it was great. The cast really brought it alive tonight, it seemed they were really good on numbers tonight in Trailers, actors were everywhere and anywhere, more often running on high energy. It still is my least favourite maze of the bunch, but the maze was brilliant tonight. I really enjoyed the doll room and the one way mirror in the Big Top section, they were both brilliant scares.
THE CROWS:
I loved this! They have basically created a mini maze with this. I loved the indoor sections mixed with the outdoors, the lighting, and overall the crazy hiding spots that the crows use. Maybe we can see a full scale maze next time around?
DEATH DOORS:
I really enjoy this one. Sure it is completely inconsistent, the door concept is impractical at times, but it just has a real element of fun to it.
Lucifer's Lair:
I love this. A bunch of show's, some good roaming actors, and a good atmopshere. This is exactly what Thorpe needs! It really gives a good hub area, and somewhere to make it feel like a Halloween event.