Thorpe Park 's Fright Nights 2017 are open to the public - so we went along to see what the hype was all about.

A group of sharp, young and self absorbed journalists believed they had nothing to fear as they stepped onto the theme park island, but soon things began to unravel.

Greeting them at the entrance was actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, wielding the bat he uses to crush the skulls of zombies in hit US TV show The Walking Dead.

Suddenly the show got very real, as the theme continued across the island.

The intrepid reporters continued through the dark and fog, unnerved slightly by the ominous music being played throughout the park.

The park has six horror mazes to try, each with their own theme and each scarier than the next.

Living Nightmare and Sanctum are the two new additions for 2017, both tie-ins for the launch of season eight of AMC's The Walking Dead this autumn.

Also returning are The Big Top, Saw: Alive, Platform 15 and Containment.

In all honesty, they not only had our reporters physically shaking but also more than a little uncomfortable.

Not only are the mazes themselves enough to make you recoil in terror with flash lighting and smoke, but actors playing as zombies or circus freaks appear so convincing in their roles that you might be forgiven for thinking we were on the brink of disaster.

And if you thought the rollercoasters were scary in the daytime, whizzing from 0-80mph in 2.3 seconds in the dark on Stealth is also in its own league of terrifying.

But if you're braver than us - and you probably are - you can visit Thorpe Park on selected nights until October 31.

For more information go to www.thorpepark.com.