As part of the recent Thorpe Park VIP experiences for Fright Nights we were able to have a behind the scenes tour of the Stitches scare maze with our host, the Toymaker herself! Let’s take you on this little journey of the Stitches scare maze behind the scenes.
Stitches has made an instant impact at Fright Nights in 2023 with rave reviews and instant customer satisfaction as one of the best Thorpe Park scare mazes in recent memory.
Attention to detail, long winding corridors and incredible jump scares combine for a scare maze completely different from any that have come before it.
Inspired by the doll corridor in the Trailers scare maze which currently resides at the park Stitches was originally going to be called Mr Clappy before marketing finally decided on Stitches.
Construction began around the time of the Carnival event and the finished article has an impressive facade that oozes quality.
The maze story revolves around a quaint toy shop where a toymaker has morphed her creations into tormentors of evil, not even her husband survived this eerie and sinister transformation.
Guided by the toymaker herself we were given the full tour of Stitches and even without any actors present within the attraction it really feels as though it’s alive and breathing.
Effects are still triggering via sensors such as air cannons and strobe lights. A quick button press behind the shop desk disengages a magnet holding a shelf up which sends it tumbling down to frighten those gathering in the pre-show and many more secrets were revealed along our journey.
One little secret that I’ll share with you today is that all of the teddies throughout the attraction are damp. No, there isn’t a leak.
Each and every single teddy throughout stitches has been sprayed with fire resistant material so that in the event of a fire the bears wouldn’t set the entire building alight.
Another little secret which I thought was rather interesting was a particular wall within the attraction that looked like a simple cartoon drawings wall, alas it was not.
This very wall that you can see in the below photo depicts the story of Stitches and the backstory of how the toymaker turned even her beloved husband into a nightmarish creature.
These fine details (not to mention creators and Merlin associates included in naughty and nice lists within the maze) go unnoticed by 99.9% of guests but the fact they’ve gone to this level of attention to detail shows the love and care that has gone into creating this maze.
Exploring each and every room and even the actor corridors that run around the entire maze is ever so interesting.
What’s even more interesting is that we’re being guided around by the Toymaker completely in character. It was definitely a unique VIP tour that’s for sure but it kept the illusion of the toy shop alive and no matter what question we asked it was answered in character and in depth.
The actor corridors link every single room together and simply seeing a wooden facade (similar to what you’d see inside a film studio) holding everything up almost shatters the illusion of what guests walkthrough.
Themed rooms that are simply wooden frames with pieces of paper stuck to the back of them letting actors know which room is which. It’s so simple but so effective in the way it is designed.
Cleverly designed and beautifully executed Stitches is the most complicated scare maze that Thorpe Park has ever built and the effort has been rewarded tenfold.
We have visited Thorpe Park three times during Fright Nights and all three times the Stitches scare maze was fully sold out!
Thorpe Park have many behind the scenes tours planned for 2024 but what a year it has been for this exclusive VIP club.
Gifted with a lanyard, pin badge and personalised name printed card you head behind the scenes of some infamous attractions.
Tours such as a behind the scenes of Saw the Ride and The Walking Dead Ride were both informative and incredible to partake in giving me a much higher appreciation of both independent rides.
We skipped the tour of the Ghost Train purely because it used to look better in its previous incarnation (in my opinion) so we didn’t really want to see a gutted experience but I’m sure that was equally as informative as the ones we have done.
To conclude our Stitches tour we were gifted a signed poster from the Toymaker herself, a nice little memento of our trip although with all three VIP tours we have done now a poster has been the gift.
I’d like them to switch this up in 2024 and have a little merchandise bag or similar to make the VIP experience feel even more VIP in nature. But that could be me just being greedy.
I cannot wait to see what they have in store for 2024 in regards to VIP tours and word on the grapevipe is that Chessington and Alton Towers will follow suit with these VIP tours after seeing how well they have been received at Alton Towers.
Sign me up for a Curse At Alton Manor and Tomb Blaster tour immediately! I’m already there!
Want to see a little glimpse inside our Stitches scare maze tour?
Check out the video HERE
Book yourselves onto a Thorpe Park VIP experience today! Keep your eyes peeled for more VIP packages and experiences by visiting the Thorpe Park website at – https://www.thorpepark.com/tickets-passes/extras/vip-experiences/
