Altonadvocate1
TS Member
I remember going on various ghost trains and other dark rides as a kid and being scared half to death. Scaring younger children is easy. A few loud noises and jump scares in the dark and it's done.
As a more rational adult however, as much as I enjoy the art of the dark ride, they don't instill any fear any more.
Don't get me wrong, I used to get some anxiety on Sub Terra, but that was more in anticipation of when the drop in the dark would occur and it only worked the first couple of times until I had the timing sussed.
In any event, I don't consider it a true dark ride, due to the physical drop and the same applies to indoor rollercoaster hybrids.
So how do you scare adults on a slow moving transit dark ride?
One of the problems is that adults don't have the same suspension of belief as kids. When I was seven, I was always scared of the proverbial monster under the bed, but as an adult, I know such things do not exist. No matter how good the special effects for the ghosts, zombies, monsters are, as an adult I know they are not real, so they can be interesting and fun, but not scary.
So what other options are there?
Blood and guts... This makes the ride unsuitable for younger riders, whilst not scaring the adults as they know it's just tomato sauce, etc.
Jump scares... These can be very effective when not overused. On several occasions on various dungeon attractions around the country the lights have gone down for 20 seconds only to come back on with a scare actor literally an inch from my face. Can be really unnerving, but only works in very close proximity to the extent of invading my personal space. It's also very hard to implement to every rider on a transit based dark ride, and becomes less effective with use.
Sudden and unexpected loud noises together with strobe lighting can also provide a decent jump scare, but are usually associated with older, lower budget amusement parks (implemented quite well on Botton Bros Ghost Train in Skeg Vegas) and once again become predictable.
The slow build up... Start the ride with something very mundane to lull riders into a false sense of security then increase the isolation, unease and foreboding in small increments. This can reduce the "I know it's not real" defense, but also make a large part of the ride boring (or in the case of DBGT, all the ride boring).
Vary the timing of the effects and which ones are used.... Can result in sparse scenery and still becomes predictable with repeated rides.
Use common phobias as a weapon... The dark, Spiders, isolation etc... Can be effective, but don't effect everyone (I'm not scared of spiders (terrified of eye drops though)). Also the same issue crops up with adults... They know it's not real.
The problem is compounded when a dark ride has to apply to all demographics. Can you scare the adults without utterly terrifying the kids? I've seen movies with jokes than make the kids laugh, but also have jokes that go right over their heads to entertain the adults. How do you do this with scares on a dark ride? Is it even possible?
I think that making a traditional dark ride that scares the adults, particularly without terrifying the kids is a much harder thing to do than I previously realised.
I remember that John Wardley once said that scaring people is easy, but entertaining them is difficult.
Any ideas on how to proper scare adults on a traditional slow moving no drop dark ride, or recommendations from your travels?
Mods... Not sure I have put this in the right section, so apologies if it is in the wrong place and feel free to move it
BOO - Did I scare you?... No...?
As a more rational adult however, as much as I enjoy the art of the dark ride, they don't instill any fear any more.
Don't get me wrong, I used to get some anxiety on Sub Terra, but that was more in anticipation of when the drop in the dark would occur and it only worked the first couple of times until I had the timing sussed.
In any event, I don't consider it a true dark ride, due to the physical drop and the same applies to indoor rollercoaster hybrids.
So how do you scare adults on a slow moving transit dark ride?
One of the problems is that adults don't have the same suspension of belief as kids. When I was seven, I was always scared of the proverbial monster under the bed, but as an adult, I know such things do not exist. No matter how good the special effects for the ghosts, zombies, monsters are, as an adult I know they are not real, so they can be interesting and fun, but not scary.
So what other options are there?
Blood and guts... This makes the ride unsuitable for younger riders, whilst not scaring the adults as they know it's just tomato sauce, etc.
Jump scares... These can be very effective when not overused. On several occasions on various dungeon attractions around the country the lights have gone down for 20 seconds only to come back on with a scare actor literally an inch from my face. Can be really unnerving, but only works in very close proximity to the extent of invading my personal space. It's also very hard to implement to every rider on a transit based dark ride, and becomes less effective with use.
Sudden and unexpected loud noises together with strobe lighting can also provide a decent jump scare, but are usually associated with older, lower budget amusement parks (implemented quite well on Botton Bros Ghost Train in Skeg Vegas) and once again become predictable.
The slow build up... Start the ride with something very mundane to lull riders into a false sense of security then increase the isolation, unease and foreboding in small increments. This can reduce the "I know it's not real" defense, but also make a large part of the ride boring (or in the case of DBGT, all the ride boring).
Vary the timing of the effects and which ones are used.... Can result in sparse scenery and still becomes predictable with repeated rides.
Use common phobias as a weapon... The dark, Spiders, isolation etc... Can be effective, but don't effect everyone (I'm not scared of spiders (terrified of eye drops though)). Also the same issue crops up with adults... They know it's not real.
The problem is compounded when a dark ride has to apply to all demographics. Can you scare the adults without utterly terrifying the kids? I've seen movies with jokes than make the kids laugh, but also have jokes that go right over their heads to entertain the adults. How do you do this with scares on a dark ride? Is it even possible?
I think that making a traditional dark ride that scares the adults, particularly without terrifying the kids is a much harder thing to do than I previously realised.
I remember that John Wardley once said that scaring people is easy, but entertaining them is difficult.
Any ideas on how to proper scare adults on a traditional slow moving no drop dark ride, or recommendations from your travels?
Mods... Not sure I have put this in the right section, so apologies if it is in the wrong place and feel free to move it
BOO - Did I scare you?... No...?