Alton Towers Dark Themes, time for a change?

[karlrichings]

Most thrill rides are meant to be scary / thrilling hence their collective name. Giving them a calm happy relaxing theme kind of goes against the whole premise of being there in the first place doesn't it?

Queuing for a highly thrilling coaster with a silly happy theme for me just doesn't work as well.

And also as others have said if you go with a darker theme the upkeep is lower as you can let the paint fade etc.

Personally I'd rather they stick with the dark themes. If you want happy go to Legoland. Hahaha

I mean look at Europa park, the four thrill coasters are themed around Vikings, Mercedes Benz, a russian space travel rave and a Nordic theme. Universal Orlando has rip ride rock it themed around music, same with rock n rollercoaster. Efteling has George and the dragon, and a steampunk mining themed dive coaster. Not saying they have to be happy but something more original than fear/monsters/sacrifice etc. I do feel it's just a way for them to leave it rotting and green and rusting

 

[Benjsh]

Thrill coasters bring excitement and pleasure, they bring a thrill. A family coaster can be a thrill coaster, the terms aren't mutually exclusive. Wickerman, Vampire and Thirteen are family thrill coasters, with dark themes. Spinball Whizzer is a family thrill coaster, but without a dark theme. You can't discount family rides because some of them conveniently don't meet your view of what a thrill coaster needs to be.

The act of jumping out of a plane, or bungee jumping, in and of itself is deemed to be thrilling. Is it scary? Yes, the act itself is a bit scary, the same as being thrown around a track at speed in a metal box; but is jumping out of a plane ever marketing in a dark way? No, not really. Again the two terms, thrilling and scary are not mutually exclusive.

In my previous list of 12 coasters, let's remove 4 of them (3 x Blackpool rides and SIK) because there's not really much theming going on there at all (but that's not most). With Icon that's actually on purpose, they wanted to market it more as an experience. Rita, arguably, worked better with its light theme of being an out of control drag car than it does as a dark themed coaster.

UK coasters have tended to rely on dark themes, as pointed out by others previously. I don't want to go on a massive listing exercise, but when we look further afield we can see that actually quite a few of the most thrilling coasters in the world, don't actually have dark theming.

Shambhala (themed around trying to find a land of happiness), Superman The Ride, The Incredible Hulk, Blue Fire, F.L.Y., Taron... heck even the fastest and tallest ride in the world Kingda Ka doesn't have a dark or scary theme. These rides are considered to be scary, because of how they look, definitely thrilling, but they're not themed specifically around a scary subject. No one's coming at you with a chainsaw, there's no creepy girl telling you not to go down to the woods, there's no mysterious alien, you're not being sacrificed and burned in a wooden effigy.

So no, I disagree with the statement "Most thrill rides are meant to be scary.". Thrilling is an experience of excitement and pleasure, as we've previously explored. Giving them a calm, happy relaxing theme doesn't necessarily kind of go against the whole premise of being there in the first place.

I didn't say you can't have non dark themes. I just said darker themes work better.
And as this is a theme park that is located in the countryside which is full of wooded areas....dark themes just fit in naturally.

I don't think loads of happy themes would have the same impact personally at towers.

 

[Benjsh]

I mean look at Europa park, the four thrill coasters are themed around Vikings, Mercedes Benz, a russian space travel rave and a Nordic theme. Universal Orlando has rip ride rock it themed around music, same with rock n rollercoaster. Efteling has George and the dragon, and a steampunk mining themed dive coaster. Not saying they have to be happy but something more original than fear/monsters/sacrifice etc. I do feel it's just a way for them to leave it rotting and green and rusting

And Vikings isn't a dark theme? Hahahaha.
What are the Vikings most famous for? Invading and brutally killing people. I'd say that qualifies as a dark theme for sure.

Space theme might not be dark as is in disturbing but generally speaking coasters themed to space tend to be in the dark as in pitch black which is definitely scary for some folk.

Not sure they are the best examples you've chosen there.

Ride to happiness is a good example of a thrilling coaster with a non dark theme.

 

[Ethan]

Air and Galactica, Hyperia, Stealth, Sik, The Big One, Hero, Icon, The Smiler, Rita (mk 1), Colossus, Mandrill Mayhem, Spinball Whizzer are just some coasters that spring to mind that don't have dark themes

What...
Smiler literally has the most messed up theme in the uk

 

[Alastair]

What can and can't be construed a dark theme is clearly extremely subjective - I think we've established that at this point. Can we please move on from this repetitive discussion? Thank you!

 

[JAperson]

My thoughts on this are that I think they perhaps need a family orientated coaster with a less dark theme but I don't see a major problem with it. I don't see them changing there stance on theming too much because they need to be able to market these new attractions, and there most successful attractions marketing wise involves dark themes.
That doesn't mean they couldn't design and market something without a dark theme but it's more risky for them and they need investments to succeed particularly at the moment when the price of investments is incredibly expensive.

 

[Blackhole_Sun]

Space is a theme which is successfully used in Disney parks and was used here at Alton to great success. I feel that the theme of space is sort of old fashioned now (which sounds strange) I can’t see them using it again. I would like to see something completely out of ordinary but original for Horizon.

 

[RIPCorky]

Once you've themed rides to these themes like Thirteen and Smiler, (Smilers theme has been somewhat toned down since the horrific crash) You're kind of stuck with them because it would cost too much to retheme either of these rides. UG land was great but the ride the area was themed around went. Can't see Dark Forest changing unless Thirteen is removed.
I didn't think Smilers theme fit into X sector anyway, the area was all about mystery and being subtle and quiet about what goes on there. Now a ride laughs in your face as you enter.