Fright Nights - 2015

[Reanimated35]

[Reanimated35]

Also, did one of your photo get chosen for the screen, Reanimated? I swear I saw your Lizardman photo up there just a few seconds ago

EDIT: Just noticed carousel music from RCT2 in the Freaks Precinct. I've been almost every weekend and the hype still isn't dying for me

mate of mine who's been there with me getting photos each night confirmed that there was at least 5 of mmine displayed on screen last night

[Reanimated35]

Edited November 1, 2015 by reanimated35

[Jay Jay The Jet Plane]

Seeing that FN 15 has now wrapped up, what do you guys like to see at the event next year? I would love to see something similar like the Terror Tram from Universal Studios Horror Nights Hollywood get carried over for next year's event..

[Cooper Olsen]

So we already know 3 of the mazes for 2016:

1. Wyrmwood
2. Friday 13th
3. Apparitions
4. ?

Edited November 1, 2015 by Cooper Olsen

[Reanimated35]

How do we know that 3rd one?

[Cooper Olsen]

Because Movieworld ran that Reel Horror film comp and the winning movie becomes a maze next year.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Cooper Olsen

[themagician]

They said scare maze or a scare precinct. It will come down to what the story of the film made is like. If it has a good story to it and good characters then I'd say it will become a maze.

[Brad2912]

I'm thinking it will be a precinct or panic room.

no way they are turning a independently made home movie into one of the 2 hero mazes next year!

[Theme Park Girl]

So my Fright Nights experience on Sat night was absolutely awesome!!!! <3ed it. Here's my review as a "first timer" to the event....

It was very busy (expected as much, given it was Halloween and all) and queues were ridiculously long for rides and mazes, but my friends and I still had a blast. We did the Wolf Creek 2 maze first, which I admit I don't remember a huge amount of as we were rushed through it pretty quick. I do remember some people dressed as bushes jumping out at me, hahaha  And also walking through a creepy house with classical music playing. And there was also a chick on the floor hiding around the corner at the end who was doing a good job of startling people who were on their way out and thinking it was all over.

A lot of time was spent at the blood transfusion bar by my mates, as one of them had turned 18 this year and wanted to make the most of being able to drink at this event since she wasn't able to at previous ones. I was the designated driver for the evening, so I didn't drink ;p The line for Scooby was not worth the wait (was right out to that outdoor queue area) so we then went down to the other 2 main scare mazes, I opted for the Wyrmwood one as I love Zombie apocalypse flicks and games Loved all the scare actors that were hanging around the queue for that one. At one stage I was watching a video on my phone I had just recorded minutes prior, when all of a sudden I realised I had this creepy looking zombie guy looking over my shoulder watching it as well He was walking through the line and surprising unaware guests who also weren't paying complete attention lol. There also was a dude dressed like Jesus in a group who came out of the exit of the Friday the 13th scare maze who got quite a lot of attention from everyone

Omg... the Wyrmwood maze.... now THAT one got me!!! I thought it was heaps more scarier than the Wolf Creek maze. Didn't get rushed through it this time round, in fact a 1/4 way through it, we ran into the group of people ahead of us who were going through at snail pace, so yeah, our epically long line pretty much fell victim to every damn scare actor in there LOL. LOVED the contamination room with the creepy guy in the hazard suit! I also recall Ned Kelly creeping out behind me at one stage and scaring the crap outta me with a loud "BANG BANG BANG" gun lol. Had numerous zombies jump out at me - and I think that was the bit that got me the most, because you'd initially turn away when they appeared, only to turn back and find they are still right there in your face I found the ol' "cover the eyes, duck down and keep walking routine" to be a popular practice of mine

The other thing I liked about the scare mazes - which I am sure everyone can relate to - is that you realise that you are constantly trying to see through the dark and the fog and identify any hidden actors before they have a chance to scare you... sometimes you may spot a figure or a shadow that you may think is one, then you creep past just waiting to see if it does anything (and mainly hoping and praying that they don't) LOL

I loved the atmosphere around the park, too... all the lights, the music, and omg... the FOG That red walkway leading up to the sound studios was AWESOME. Even randoms were managing to scare other randoms walking in the opposite direction because they couldn't see each other. Even funnier when it was a proper scare actor!

Whilst we did have a great night and I do plan to attend again FOR SURE next year, I did have a couple of disappointments/complaints... the first being that some of the rides shut WAY too early! We didn't get to the Superman/Arkham precinct until after 8pm, given we had spent well over an hour alone in the queue for WC2 maze (and a bit more in the bar), and I was shocked and disappointed to find AA closed up. Thinking it had been like that all evening (ie. that it had, for some reason, not been running due to technical issues or something) I then went up to the entrance to SE to see what the queue was like... only to be faced there as well with a "RIDE CLOSED" sign. I asked the nearby attendant what the go was, who informed me that the rides had to be finished up by 9pm due to council regulations.

Seriously, are the local residents THAT iffy about noise over a couple of weekends per year that they can't handle an extra couple of hours of crowd/ride noise in the evenings? And on HALLOWEEN of all nights? (don't answer that... I already know the answer. But it still pisses me off ) But it sucked that they closed them even earlier than that, even though I am aware it is so they can process the remaining queue in time Meh. Because of this we missed out on going on any rides.

The other issue - and undoubtedly the most major one - was the freaking CAR PARK. Despite leaving MW 20 minutes before close in an attempt to avoid the impending traffic, I was still having to queue my car for a grand total of 1hr 20mins just to get out of the park! I've never seen such chaos before, and omg the amount of road rage. People were honking at each other and cutting each other off. Quite a few close collisions from impatient people all fighting to get out at once. Some cars in the back queue got so fed up that they opted their vehicles drive up the kerb and through the MW gardens in order to get out! Once a couple of people did it, pretty much everyone behind us did... there was a steady line of cars risking their bumper bars just to get home. My drunk friend ended up peeing behind a van (with their bewildered permission, I would imagine) because she was busting had nowhere to go to the loo and we were well and truly stranded in there, the park had since closed up for the night.

Now I understand that due to the design of the carpark and also being an exceptionally busy evening, some traffic congestion is to be expected at the end of the night. But that was just ridiculous! At the very least, MW should - like most major events which have a lot of people and cars attend - have some traffic controllers on site to help everyone get out smoothly and with less drama. It completely blew me away that they didn't have anything like that pre-organised, especially since this is hardly the first ever Fright Nights. Does this really happen every year? And they have done nothing about it?

It just sucked because we left on such a high note at the end of the evening, only to have a dampener thrown on that because we were so frustrated and bored being stuck in the carpark for so long. Oh, and I also ended up being over an hour late picking my husband up from work afterwards, with no means to contact him as he was working at a gig halfway to Springbrook with no mobile reception :/ So yeah, not happy Movieworld!!!

That issue aside though, the rest of the evening was fantastic and we had such a great time

ETA: Oh... here's a small compilation of all the videos I recorded that evening!

Also some pics I took...

(the epically long queue for Wolf Creek 2 maze... and this wasn't even the end of it XD)

 

[Reanimated35]

Don't most of us go to FN expecting the wait in the carpark?

Normal journey home for me is 

> Leave park around 2230
> Sit in car talking and reviewing the evening's photos
> Leave carpark around 2330
> Dinner at maccas stapylton around 0000. 
> Home around 0045 / 0100

 

Side note - maybe it's the time of day but the #mwfrightnights tag seems to be dying and I've still got a heap of photos to post  

[Theme Park Girl]

Don't most of us go to FN expecting the wait in the carpark?

Lol sure, a wait after a big event is to be expected. But given it was the first time I've done Fright Nights and I wasn't aware that, unlike most other professionally handled events, it was going to be left as a "free for all", I didn't expect it to be that chaotic, let alone that long a wait to get out. Even my friend who has been to FN over previous years said that the carpark has never been *that* bad before :S

ETA: Someone posted a video to MW's FB page complaining about the same issue happening at the end of the night on Oct 9th. They were told that the comments would be passed onto management. I think it's safe to say either they weren't, or they didn't listen, given nothing has been done about it :/ https://www.facebook.com/nick.burns.925/videos/10206356250642273/

Seriously, a couple of staff members staying back an extra hour with hi-vis jackets directing traffic is all they really need to significantly help with the current issue....

Edited November 2, 2015 by OceanGirl

[Reanimated35]

Ah right, you said you were going for the first time, sorry. 

Yeah, the carpark has always been a clusterfuck trying to leave. It's been that way every event. I guess not enough people complain for them to really do anything about it. There's obviously going to be a pretty decent cost involved in having TC at that hour, but it is something the park should look at. There's no point trying to leave until around 2330 unless you go at 2130 / 2200 while the event is still on. 

They had TC there on the 24th before the event, but they didn't do much apart from tell you to turn right when you could really only turn right anyway.

[Brad2912]

Any night event at MW I arrive early and park as far from the park as possible basically - either in the final row right on the exit lane or usually on the grass so you can get straight out! Learnt that lesson early.

 

 

[Zanstabar]

Could it be that the car park just wasn't designed for a mass exodus of this size? Don't get me wrong, I found it quite a pain to get out after a long night, but I also don't think there is much that management can do without major changes to the parking situation.

[themagician]

Yeah it is a massive pain, and I've learnt that you need to park on the far right or on the grass. If you park close to the park gate it takes a very long time, took one of my friends 90 minutes to get out. When I've gone past MW at about 6, trying to get into the park seems rediculous. I do think they should add another entry point (cutting the garden bed just past the MW sign) and another couple of exit point (cut through the garden bed). But the carpark is owned by council and MW lease it from that, so maybe modifying the garden beds isn't possible.

[BNErider]

I have always found the carpark horrible. Until we started parking WAY up the back, pretty much as far as you can go. Not only are carparks easier to come by when you enter, you literally leave and drive on to the service road before any of the other rows try to exit.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Seriously, a couple of staff members staying back an extra hour with hi-vis jackets directing traffic is all they really need to significantly help with the current issue....

Not that simple. 

Although the carpark is not a public road, MW would be lynched for throwing hi-vis onto some staff members to direct traffic. Professionally qualified traffic controllers are whats needed - and they are not cheap.

[Reanimated35]

[rappa]

So every other park in the world with regular staff as parking attendants is getting linched?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Where a park has a permanent, full time parking attendant crew, who are trained for, and do their job every day - no.

 

Where a park uses staff trained in making hotdogs, selling flashy crap and operating rides to stand in front of moving vehicles at night with no prior training - then I should think so.

If a staff member directs a car in any way, and that car has a collision as a result - that employee is liable for the damage.

We train traffic control in the SES and believe me there is a lot more to it than people think.

[Levithian]

There aren't enough exit rows for the carpark that feed on to the actual road out to the sets of traffic lights. What you end up with is a bunch of people wedged into place because you have 8-10 rows trying to spil out into 1 single lane of traffic. Thats maybe a few hundred cars at a time all trying to exit on the same little row.

The secret for events at movie world is to use the shape of the car park to your advantage. It's kind of diamond shaped and tapers off dramatically the further you go towards the creek end. Not only is the exit road closer then, but it also means you only have 1 or 2 rows of traffic trying to exit on the same little single lane. Means that even if you get stuck in the rows, you don't have far to travel to make it out on to the road. Once you reach the road you don't have anyone to give way to on the way out, and the lights at either intersection change pretty quickly. We got out of there in under 5 minutes, got to the car about 10:20pm.

[Theme Park Girl]

Yes, well, we made the mistake of not getting there early enough as my friends took a while getting ready! I actually arrived at her house in Pimpama at 5pm but we didn't leave till around quarter to. Was about 6pm when we took the Helensvale exit off the M1 and by that time traffic was already backed up to the highway itself.

By the time we got into the MW carpark the centre area was full and spreading out to the sides... had to settle for a park on the far right, at the very end of a center isle near the entrance road.

So yeah, as you can imagine it was probably one of the worst places to get out of at the end of the night ? Not that it stopped the 4WD owners or the numerous people who couldn't care less about scraping/damaging their cars... they were happy to just climb the curb and drive out via the rear gardens. 

 

Edited November 5, 2015 by OceanGirl

[Levithian]

Maybe next time if you were real late, just avoid the carpark and head straight to the grassed area across the road they use for spillage from the car park. Its a bit more of a walk, but you can see (thanks to the gravel entrance) where they direct traffic through into the grassed area when the carpark is real busy, just position near it and you should be able to avoid massive waits.

We found quite a few parks down the far end of the car park when we got there about 5:30. Everybody seems to want to try and park as close as possible to the entrance gates. I mean who wants to go to a theme park and walk anywhere?

Reminds me of visiting the ekka as a kid. Back when people used to actually drive into fortitude valley instead of catching the train. Complete madness.

[FoolishMortal999]

If they did an AHS maze, what scenes would they use?