To say I had high hopes for Fright Night would be an understatement. After checking out Carnivale earlier in the year, I had definitely set the bar exceptionally high after what was, in my mind, a really unique and great evening.
To say i’ll be keeping this short and sweet isn’t because I’m in a hurry to write this, rather, I really didn’t do a whole lot last Friday night at Movie World’s now annual Halloween event. Before I took the hour long drive down I had noticed on my Facebook News Feed that the park had mentioned that all the tickets were sold out – a grim sign of things.
To be fair, I rocked up late. Contrary to my own set of rules, I got caught up preparing for our Japan trip and lost track of time before getting stuck in traffic. Not a great start to be sure, but I quickly found my carpark and battled on through the entrance.
The first thing I did was sit down to checkout the night variant of Hollywood Stunt Driver, and given the show largely consisted of the MC spruiking his own line of limited edition merchandise give-aways (which he never really even gave away) we spent more time watching crowds walk out then watch bikes do flips. Mega let down. But would the mazes make up for it?
In a word, yes. But I only got to try one. And the one I waited for (The Evil Within) had a crazy-long queue that made Tokyo Disneyland on a public holiday seem like just another day at the office.
I’m not going to put any spoilers in, but from what I saw the maze itself, along with the atmosphere as a whole was superb. The fact that they’re coming up with new stuff everywhere should be worthy of a lot of praise for Movie World – they’ve taken some big gambles lately and i’m glad they’re paying off. But speaking of paying off, the last thing I want to hear while waiting for over an hour is a ride attendant try and sell $50 fast-track passes like door to door salesman. Doing that sort of thing lands as nothing but a money-grab, and don’t get me wrong, parks need to make money, and while i’m the sort of guy who doesn’t mind premium services and foods and whatnot being offered to make the night a success for the park, you don’t need to literally scream it in my face.
Overall the night was great, but marred by queues and a lousy Hollywood Stunt Driver show. My best advice would be get there earlier, by the fast-track passes and eat before hand if you want to get everything done a in one night.
