Sidders
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Posts posted by Sidders
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Okay so. Here's the... 'thing'... with this year's Fright Nights.
It's incredibly unimaginative. Not always a bad thing, no, and granted, FN 2013 will be a marketing goldmine. Very little will need to be spent on marketing and promotion as Lionsgate is a recognised and respected force whose presence in the UK is enviable amongst most other film companies. So well done to Thorpe for this. It's absolutely fantastic marketing know-how and will most certainly reap them a vast revenue. This is partially why I think Thorpe befell a decline in attendance in 2012, because no matter how they dressed up "The UK's First Winged Rollercoaster", the general public still have no idea what one of those is or how rare and technologically advanced they are/were, let alone what makes it different from all these other coasters Thorpe offered at the time. It's just not something that was very easy to explain in a passing moment, as most advertisement should be.
However, regardless of the applause I give for teaming up with Lionsgate, I would have liked to have seen a better range of horror sub-genres explored with these mazes. Effectively, we have four slashers with only one (maybe two) receiving any form of critical and commercial acclaim (Cabin in the Woods/You're Next), and one cult film that founded the "found-footage" sub-genre (The Blair Witch Project). As good as the individual films might be, you have to question Thorpe range of ideas here.
What they've done, with the exception of the one maze I'm looking forward to (TBWP, excellent choice), is take four films where blood is the main ingredient and transform them into mazes that simply can't replicate the awesomely optimistic spectacle of CITW or the full-frontal, frantic bloodshed of SAW, for example. All the other films run through similar veins, with only very subtle thematic differences telling them apart:
- SAW is about a man who kills people who don't value their lives with makeshift torture devices.
- My Bloody Valentine is about a man who kills people because he went insane underground a long time ago.
- You're Next is about men in masks killing people and one of the better plot twists isn't even relevant.
- CITW is about a corporation who ritualistically sacrifice peculiarly attractive teens.
But do you see the problem? SAW: Alive is all about torture and gore; MBV certainly won't be any different; You're Next will follow a similar vein, and I don't think I've seen so much blood as in the finale to Cabin in the Woods, so that'll feature in that maze for sure (could actually be quite a good final room if what I hope they do comes to fruition). On top of this, all of these films rely on flimsy context that won't easily be established to those who have not seen the films (I.e. the Valentine's Day dance in MBV, Erin's past in YN or "The Ancient Ones" in CITW); and all of them focus on a finale that throws at the audience everything imagination and CGI can possibly create, which will be very hard to recreate in these mazes, especially in the case of CITW (I'm thinking the facility lobby scene).
I've said time and again - in fact it was the main point of my Slender-based maze - that Thorpe don't offer enough range at FN. They've only got one maze that looks like it will deviate from the same, stale framework as the horror film genre's less-inspired approaches. If Thorpe don't focus on establishing the difference between the mazes and their context behind them, they will just bleed into one another and be continuations of each other, with the names of some popular films attached, in different areas of the park.
However, the source material for The Blair Witch Project is very different, and shares more similarities with my idea for a Slender-based maze in that it focuses on the unknown and slow, subtle plot devices. In some parts, nothing happens for ages and when something does happen it doesn't make sense (e.g. - the appearance of the three cairns around the tent). No-one sees the Blair Witch. No-one really sees the main antagonist of the film - but they do hear about it, which gives the killer instant gravitas before we've even started. No-one knows the modus operandi; the killer is untraceable. Anyone who disappears is never seen again. You never find out how or even why they die. It's cleverer. There's fear readily manifesting in parts of the film where there is nothing happening. It's got more suspense than the typical five seconds of silence before someone dies. Contrastingly, the only slightly quiet moments in the other four are devoted to offensively stupid, badly-timed sex.
So, because the reputation of The Blair Witch Project rides almost wholly on legend alone, I would place money on it being the cheapest, simplest and most effective of the scare mazes this year. And because it's the oldest film, I'd also place money on it being the one most of Thorpe's clientèle have heard about but not seen, making it all the more mysterious too. All that would need to be done is to erect a few small camp-sites, an overgrown graveyard, and some cairns. Less is definitely more. Less means people will question themselves; wonder if they're going the right way. No obvious staff presence mean the guests can fully immerse themselves in the maze. Fewer "jump scares" from actors makes them think they're alone, re-evaluating the possibility that there might be something out there in the dark.
As you can tell, I'm all for The Blair Witch Project, will probably give Cabin in the Woods a go, and completely miss the rest. I'd like to see more psychology in the mazes next year though. Something smarter than a film that just kills people on the spot in the most gory way imaginable.
- JackR, Glitch and Cornflakes
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Banned because I can't ban MarkC at the present time.
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Let me look into the future and answer those questions.
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As much as I love Thorpe for changing tack and as much as I realise this will help phenomenally with the promotion of Fright Nights as an annual event, I'm a little disappointed to think that the budget they had (which was said to be as big as their budgets for medium ride instalments) went mostly on Lionsgate's IPs.
Just had a thought. These guys need a maze.
If you don't know who they are then they'll come for you.
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I'm on hype train choo choo.
- MarkC and James & Co.
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bit late dara, tis already above
This I know. I was just making a comment.
I don't think the font is Futura. Futura's capital M's have pointed peaks. And the other one has a more curved C.
What am I doing?
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Interesting font.
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Bo
urnedJingle Bells or Batman Smells?
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Shark
- Jaws
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Apples!
Did I do a wrong?
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The difference is Gaga never said she was going for a different sound, katy perry did she said she was making dark mature music, don't even trying telling me roar is either of those, it's an off cut from teenage dream era!
Lol the same tired madonna argument, that's so 2011
, if were talking about anyones song being a blatant rip off, roar sounds exactly the same as sara barrelies brave and the lyrics are practically identicalP!nk once said she was going for a darker sound and then came out with 'So What'. People like you had a meltdown. Then she released her album and the darker, more mature sound was evident with 'Sober', 'Please Don't Leave Me', 'Ave Mary A', 'Glitter In The Air' and 'I Don't Believe You'.
Katy has said her album was darker and more mature, so I'm going to wait until this album comes out. But for now, I'm enjoying the momentary spotlight on her light-hearted pop song - something drastically absent from today's music is the necessity of a simple happy melody, and Katy's giving me what I want, so I like Katy's more.
GaGa's on the other hand is this generic, barely-audible tangle of ideas that effectively says no more than what she said during 'The Fame'. "I live for the applause" recalls the lyrics she had on long-lost album-end tracks of 'The Fame's knee-deep electro-banality e.g. - "Fame, fame, doin' it for the fame, fame". So who is it really who's repeating themselves?
GaGa is good, and she has the capabilities of providing so much more ('The Fame Monster' was flawless, save 'So Happy I Could Die'... and maybe 'Monster'), but instead she's alienated anyone not already a fan on hers, as well as anyone who left the GaGa 4 Da Gayz Bus during the ridiculous pretensions of 'Born This Way'. 'Applause' just doesn't cut the mustard. She's still trying to pretend she's purveyor of innovative, game-changing and exciting music, when really, we all want to hear something a little more exciting than "I live for the applause". I did not wait through 'Born This Way' for her to find her footing and come back with "I live for the applause".
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Actually, I have time now.
RIGHT. Here's the official leaderboard. The total column adds up the UMS marks (the ones with the bars in the cells), so that each round has the same number of marks proportionate to the original raw mark maximum. There's no UMS conversion in the last quiz because of the different scoring system making it complicated enough already. You're winner is...
Dan9!
Here's the leaderboard in order:
- Dan9: 217.8
- Peaj: 209.9
- scarycoasterboy: 198.6
- Cornflakes: 195.2
- JoshC.: 190.7
- pluk: 183.6
- Phill Pritchard: 180.4
- Luke_A: 177.7
- J.S217: 176.1
- EC!: 170.0
- Coaster Jamie: 168.7
- James & Co.: 160.4
- James_C: 157.6
- stretchy: 147.1
- coastergod: 146.9
- R1C4Y: 145.5
- Han30: 144.9
- coastercameron98: 144.2
- Matt Creek: 120.0
- MarkC: 103.4
- Mr Fish: 94.9
- Topsyturvy15: 77.6
- Holly: 34.6*
- Tiddlywinks: 25.9**
- MohammedAli: 12.1**
- Frog-Tastic98: 10.3**
* = Did not complete Rounds 3 and 4
** = Did not complete Round 2, 3 and 4
Hope you all enjoyed the quiz!
As I said, still unsure about when prizes will be with you (top three)! I'm still nagging Thorpe!
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FORENOTE: Please read the whole of the post. You can choose to scroll all the way down to the big reveal or build it up.
Right you merry lot! Nail-biting's of the menu as I can now reveal all! I shall say now that
MarcThorpe are being less than co-operative with the prizes at the moment, so they're still holding on to whatever they want to bequeath the winners. Bequeath is probs the wrong word but oh wells.OKAY. So that fourth round was a right ol' rollick wasn't it? Some great answers from you all, and I can tell the Internet was well and truly used by (some of) you! You know who you are, people who didn't read the instructions! Also, some of you forgot to read that I only wanted one answer per question, and so for those of you who gave more than one answer, I selected the first answer in your list as you final answer, even if that meant scoring lower than if I'd picked some of the other answers. Sorry, but that's the penalty for not reading the instructions!
So what we've got below are 20 tables, one for each question. The question is featured at the top of the table, the possible answers to the questions are just below, and to the side are the member names. The numbers in red just below the possible answers are the available points for that answer, and these vary between answer based vaguely on 'obscurity' (they're not just random numbers either; there is a formula). If an answer shows up in green, it means that only 1 of the 21 players selected it and received full points for their efforts. If an answer shows up in red, it means that the answer was not picked by any player. And if the answer remains in black, it will feature a number in brackets after it; this number denotes the number of players who selected that answer, and the available points have thereby been divided equally between them. If your name appears in red, it means you gave an incorrect answer. I've added a little "End of Question" cell to the bottoms of the question tables so you can scroll through them one at a time without ruining it.
After the 20 question tables there will be a 21st table, which shows all the points earned by all the players in this round. After that, the 22nd table is the final leaderboard with all the marks, both raw and UMS for every player in every round. This table shows the winner, who collected the most UMS marks over the four rounds.
Table 1: This one was fairly straightforward. The rule was that if you look at the coaster's track and it's either primary blue or more blue than green or purple, I've got it listed. Many of you were rather fond of GateKeeper, but Manta attracted a few votes too. There were four answers untouched in this question. My kudos to Adam (scarycoasterboy), who quite cleverly chose the Hungarian Horntail...
Table 2: Another straight-forward one with quite a few possible answers. Interestingly, Intamin and Gerstlauer, those both obvious, were completely avoided! Neither carried many marks anyway. Kudos to Phill Pritchard for selecting the correct manufacturers of Mr. Monkey's Banana Ride, as I understand Wikipedia lists it as HUSS. I love that four people ended up choosing N. V. Aquatics, (the creators of Neptune's Beach, Depth Charge and Wet Wet Wet), and it just goes to show how unpredictable this quiz can be! Some great unique answers on this one though, so well done to all.
Table 3: This one caused a bit of ambiguity on my behalf. Originally, I wasn't allowing Canada-based, Six Flags-owned theme park La Ronde, as an answer, because it wasn't prefixed with the "Six Flags" title. But I soon realised poor wording on my part meant it was an entirely valid answer. A lot of unique answers for this question too, although quite a few of you were very fond of Six Flags St. Louis!
Table 4: This one caused a little more confusion still. Some players were choosing theme parks or manufacturers who have held the record. I was of course, looking for coasters. This does mean that Journey to the Stars never held the record, because it only has eleven inversions and is not even open yet. The Smiler stopped it ever being a record-holder. Now of course, Vortex and Viper are very high-scoring because they are very tricky to find record of, because it was so long ago that they held their records, but well done to Han30, Cornflakes, Phill Pritchard, and Peaj for finding them!
Table 5: This was a popular one for people to give me more than one answer for. Even so, I love the division of points here. Each flag was worth the same amount of points as the source material is very easily to find, but purple seemed to be the most popular, closely followed by orange, and yet no-one picked pink! Green was also a Unique pick for Coaster Jamie, so well done him.
Table 6: Here's one that seemingly had endless answers. I find it quite amusing that no-one picked Rita or Furius Baco: two of quite possibly, the worst intamin launchers in the world. Fairly even spread of answers here actually, and especially well done to pluk for Senzafiato (basically a faster and slightly altered, Spanish version of Rita), to Dan9 for Skycar (the birth-child of StormRunner and Blue Fire) and to JoshC. for Kanonen (Liseberg's not-so-spectacular launched coaster).
Table 7: As there's only four answers to this one, each answer is worth a lot of points. Thankfully, there was a fairly even spread, though California Adventure's Tower of Terror seemed the most popular. A moment of silence for James & Co., who sadly couldn't name one of Disney's flagship attractions.
Table 8: This one didn't throw as many of you as I'd hoped! The obvious one is Cedar Point, the first of the Cedar Fair parks. But then again, all other answers were one or two results into a quick Google search, except Michigan's Adventure and Gilroy Gardens, so excellent work to Dan9 for finding the latter. Valleyfair! was worth quite a few points, but the 10.8 available pittered out a bit when four people chose it! Well done also to Luke and stretchy for their Unique answers here.
Table 9: I thought I'd trick a few of you on this one too, but I guess this quiz is just as predictable for me as it is for you guys! Three players opted for Batman la Fuga and shared 14.9 points. Although it translates as exactly the same as "Batman - The Ride", it's still called Batman la Fuga, and so was a possible answer. In the practise quiz no-one had even heard of Lightning so Dan9, Peaj, R1C4Y and scarycoasterboy have a bittersweet victory there. Extra special congratulations to James & Co. though, for bagging the highest-scoring Unique answer in the whole quiz!
Table 10: This is another big one. With 16 possible answers and 21 players it's quite a shock to see some of the Shared answers in this question! It seemed the oddly named Jr. Gemini attracted a fair few, as did the original Gemini. But all in all this is a very rounded turn out of answers. Interestingly, some of Cedar Point's most notable coasters were left completely ignored (Raptor, Maverick, Millennium Force).
Table 11: Another basic question, but quite a few Shared answers meant that this one turned into a low-scoring question for most players. The Incredible Hulk and joint highest-scoring answer Bizarro (formerly Medusa) were left untouched. Kudos to Adam once more for selecting another Unique answer with SeaWorld's Kraken, bagging 8.7 points to himself.
Table 12: Shocking. Shocking. Shocking results! Not one of you picked the Superman B&M flyers! I mean, I know they're rubbish right (A pretzel loop, three turns and a flip? Waste!), but come on! The result was quite a few votes spilling over into Escape from Krypton, Ride of Steel and el Ultimo Escapé. Only one Unique answer here, awarded to pluk for picking Ultimate Flight - the Premier Rides launched loopy inversion-of-death-and-hang-time thing at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
Table 13: Quite interesting results here, and as Dan9 pointed out, I think this question may have required further explanation. I was looking for slogans used in marketing, such as those appearing in adverts or on posters, etc. For instance, "If you go down to the woods today, you'd better not go alone". That sort of thing. Quite a few of you missed quite a few of the possible answers, such as Inferno of The Swarm's slogans. Excellent work to JoshC. and R1C4Y for remembering Colossus' slogan!
Table 14: Plenty of choices available here! Although there were still quite a few that were ignored. Dollywood, Gardaland, PortAventura, Six Flags Great America and Cedar Point were left untouched but there was still room for three unique answers. Heide Park's available points were lowered due to the high-profile B&M Wing Coaster currently being built, as well as the fact that since 2010, it was the park's second B&M build. Excellent work to Han30 and Phill Pritchard for their 9.9 points apiece for Carowinds and Ocean Park respectively!
Table 15: This one was quite tricky, despite looking very simple. I can imagine you guys having RCDB up on your screens showing the names of some of these theme parks and thinking... Wut. This turned out to be quite a tricky one, so all available points were standardised at 7.1. Even so, three Unique answers came from it so well done to J.S217, Dan9 and Peaj.
Table 16: I didn't realise just how many Disney attractions are based on mountains, and when I did I made this question, which stumped a few of you! Nobody picked any of the Big Thunder Mountain Railroads, with the exception of Hong Kong Disneyland's version - Big Grizzly Runaway Mine Cars. This ended up being the question with the most Unique answer though, so well done if you got one!
Table 17: Another straight-forward question here, and with two high-scoring Unique answers, congratulations are in order for Peaj and stretchy! Strangely, no-one picked one of the newest additions to the SEALIFE chain, the HUSS-built SEALIFE Tower at Weymouth. Boo all you West Country haters!
Table 18: Bit of confusion here, with whether Drayton Manor's Shockwave should be considered a B&M Stand-Up. It certainly looks like a B&M, and B&M did technically work on it, but they didn't build it. It was designed by Intamin and built by the now-defunct company Giovanola. Both Bolliger and Mabillard were working for Intamin, so really, they only designed it. They fabricated none of the actual coaster. Other than that, a lot of you were very fond of Riddler's Revenge! And since no-one picked Apocalypse at Six Flags America, there was definitely room to even out those scores!
Table 19: Who knew there were so many drop towers exceeding 300ft!? I certainly didn't so the Internet helped me here. Still, nearly half of the possible answers were left untouched, including one of the high-scorers, the imaginatively-named 'Big Tower'. Well done to Cameron on this one for bagging the only Unique answer.
Table 20: I thought I'd end on a tongue-in-cheek one. Nine! Nine coasters with black or grey track! Seven of which have been built in the last six years! Of course, those are the obvious ones. Well, those and Oblivion. Heide Park's Desert Race managed to sneak past most of you, as did X! Well done to Dan and Cameron for getting those, respectively!
Which means that this is what the results table for the Multiple Choice Round only looks like:
Congratulations to Peaj who has scored the highest in the fourth round! And well done to everyone else who gave such good answers. Hope you enjoy/ed looking over who voted for what.
Have to dash out now for a wee bit, and this has taken most of the day to write, but stay tuned for the final results! - Mitchada04, Phill Pritchard and JoshC.
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Haha, love the enthusiasm CG! You're right though, this is taking much longer than I thought. I want you all to know how you did individually in the last quiz, and unfortunately there isn't good enough infrastructure in Excel to do it quickly.
There's a table for each question! -
Sidders - absolute loved reading the Slender maze concept!
Couple of things though - isn't the route between 2 and 4 crossing over Monk's Walk and off park property? Would mean that, in reality, there would need to be a couple of tweaks to the route. Even if you were to tweak it, maybe so you go around the building where the CCR trains are stored (ie the tankers), then I think the experience would still be pretty darn scary. The torches could possibly utilise Bluetooth technology so they 'work' and 'cut out' at different points in the maze (I believe The Passing used Bluetooth for the sounds inside the helmet, so it's more than achievable) and the maze could be a lot more theatrical than the other mazes. With an appropriate charge and explanation, I reckon it would go down a treat.
Also, I think regardless of what themes the mazes have, having a couple of roaming actors around the park dressed as a character from a maze would be amazing. Imagine that, regardless of the maze, you feel like you're being tormented by a character from it all the time, not just inside the maze, and that there's no escape. It would be great.
Very true there Josh. I completely missed that. The two vehicle are obviously not as big as they appear on that map as they would be in real life, so it wouldn't be too hard to place them along the stretch from points 1 and 2. Then just cut that loop out near 3 and the rest of the route should be fine. I agree with the availability as well. It would be a paid-for maze and would have time slots as well. This would ideally attract the right audience.
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So Katy Perry's 'Roar' is better than GaGa's 'Applause'.
I feel I have really made a difference to other people's opinions by comparing these two artists.
Bt srsly Katy's is bettr.
SOME THINKING TIME L8ER
Also, wow, 'Brave' is a great song. Such a great back-story to it as well. You can really hear Jack Antonoff's (drummer in Fun.) influence on the track's production.
And finally, this song is certified excellence. I always prefered The Naked & Famous when they did shimmering electropop like 'Punching In A Dream', 'Young Blood' and 'Girls Like You'. This is the lead single from their new album and its a corker.
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Ooh, it is quite close at the top really, as the final round could throw up some serious twists and turns for the points. That Records Round looks to have cost me quite a bit; shoulda done me homework!
Looking forward to the final result!
Oh yes Josh! The Multiple Choice Round has changed quite a bit of that board! It's not over yet!
Fright Nights 2013
in The Past
Posted
You seem to be suggesting that I'd prefer Thorpe's older mazes, but when I say I would like to see more range, I don't mean I dislike the new maze ideas so much that Thorpe should just return to The Passing, The Asylum, Experiment 10 and The Curse. What I mean is the whole thing should be ousted and replaced with a broader range of scares. Keep some gore, add in some hauntings, add some psychological horror, add a kitschy Halloween-based maze even (possibly something for that mythical family market Thorpe are 'aiming' for now?). Original ideas that will actually make the Merlin Magic-Makers' work for their paychecks.
Yes very true Marc, except Thorpe aren't making it their own, they're making it Lionsgate's. And certainly, if you measure the success of an event by the amount of revenue it rakes in then that is one of the few certainties we can call right here, right now: this Fright Nights will be an astronomical financial success - but how much money will Thorpe actually make? And besides, there are far better, more complex measures of success than simply quantitative means such as revenue/profit.
I'd like to see Thorpe create something of nothing, and I mean that in every sense. The IPs mean we already know to a certain extent what will feature in these mazes, leaving very little in the way of surprise as we guess and over-analyse about which scenes and story-lines will appear and where the mazes will be held. Creating something of nothing regarding the mazes, and the scares inside those mazes. Regardless of how poor it regularly was, when The Curse was announced to be replacing Hellgate, there was tangible mystery about what it was going to be. There was excitement at the prospect of not knowing anything (except it was on a boat). Creating something of nothing. Anyone seen the Paranormal Activity films? 'Course you have. And you'll know that in each of them there are moments where the actors look absolutely dumbfounded at say, the pool cleaner repeatedly jumping out of the pool at night. Nothing else happens. There's just moments of silence, with small exchanges and looks of confusion. There are moments where you expect something to happen, but nothing does. It's these 'false scares' that get you worked up, on your toes when you needn't be, adrenaline pumping, anticipation working up your sweat, and then leaving you too exhausted to prepare yourself for the real scares, hence why the franchise was so successful. There was a range of scare. Merlin's best horror maze - The Sanctuary - has no jump scares at all. It forces you to use the scariest and most advanced scare technology you can get - your own imagination.
And then of course there's the infrastructure that comes inherent with that comparison to Halloween Horror Nights. Sure, they're rated as some of best in the world within the theme park industry. Many independently-run mazes are far scarier and much, much clever. Broadditch Farm's Halloween events, for example, are quite frankly, astoundingly well-themed and absolutely terrifying, and all run by one little family in Broadditch. But regardless, whilst there are some great things about HHN, there are some terrible things, such as continuous conga-lines and strict H&S policies dictating that there should be, under no circumstances, any physical contact between actors and guests, leaving most of the scares as jump scares. I'm sure Thorpe will see sense and not do this though, as it is completely derailing of any feeling of vulnerability.
Thinking about it - another thing Thorpe have been doing wrong this whole time are the conga lines. Conga lines in narrow corridors (which are bound to return for CITW, MBV, SAW and YN if BWP is indeed the maze on the CCR path) leave only two open areas of attack (front and back), save for a few little hidey holes in the walls. It's not a natural position to be in. It's too much order when there should be chaos. And it's constantly reminding you subliminally that you're in a maze and there's a way out. If, like I predict for whichever maze ends up on the old CCR path, conga lines are less stringent and nucleic groups form, then it'll automatically serve as the scariest maze. In a group in a wide open space, not only are you vulnerable to attack from all angles, but you can see the other guests' faces and feed off their fear and their reactions, second guess where to be looking, be overwhelmed by the vast expanse of dark that your eyes simply can't cover all at once.
So if any of these mazes is going to be any kind of interesting, it'll be the one on the CCR path, with is bound to be BWP. Those thinking CITW should be there clearly haven't seen it. And next year, Thorpe, let's go for more paranormal and psychological scares. There's more that just the gore sub-genre when it comes to horror.
EDIT: And as for the acting in SAW: Alive. Well it's just rubbish. I don't expect to go in seeing GCSE students with white body-socks and paled-up faces crawling, hissing and leaping around like Gollum. I want to see them dying.