Joey said:
This may shock you...
but the reason for Merlin's love of horror themes is that you get more bang for your buck with them.
Yeah, not just Merlin, but you are correct in this analysis. For example, it's much much much cheaper to create a broken down warehouse environment than it is to construct a mining themed attraction with rock work, wooden structures etc.
Fear is the most powerful emotion because it's a survival tool, so we respond instinctively to it, where joy is really hard to immerse an audience in as everyone's taste varies. Positive experiences are just inherently harder to get a reaction to.
Correct again regarding Fear as a great tool for an emotive response. Any form of horror, impact or malice son the guests that creates the notion that their very being is in danger creates a response, even for a split second before the brain reaffirms that you're in safe hands on a ride that's designed for this very nature - that split second response of the 'fight, flight or freeze response' is what immerses guests into the narrative. Positive emotions can be hard to create the same interactive emotive state to an experience, but with the use of music as an aid, it can also ver really quite easy. Alongside this, take a look at the Harry Potter rides, they use threat and malice throughout the experience with a huge positive pay-off at the end of the experience, the 'goodbye scene' as I like to call it with the theme tune and characters bidding farewell to the guests, it creates an uplifting end to the experience that isn't reliant on a negative notion.
Stories not built around some kind of peril are more often than not childish. And peril has to be convincing to not be laughable. One way to make it convincing is to make the audience feel vulnerable in the darkness, make them jump, etc. Compared to other methods, these horror tropes are cheaper and arguably more effective.
Yep, I sort of agree with you on this one, but look at some dark rides like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and even Bubble Works, they're not malice or threat abiding experiences, they're dark rides that rely on positive emotions from the guests. Yes, in dark experiences you may have scary characters/animatronics making sudden appearances as jump scares, or air blasts, loud noises, even atmospherics such as scents, heat changes etc. - on the flip side, compare a 'family friendly' dark ride with that, Alice in Wonderland at Blackpool (random case study, I know), they have a dark ride, with scenes, animatronics, characters appearing suddenly in lights, atmospherics such as haze, scents and music - on paper, if you look at the aspects of each of the rides, they're not actually that far apart, it's just the CONTENT that makes them different.
That's not to say horror attractions can't be more than cheap jumps and dark corners, the best of them clearly involve the audience further. But if you don't have to theme walls because they're shrouded in darkness. Or hide your monster Alien and Jaws style, only showing brief flashes amongst suspense, you've saved money and created a more powerful show.
Exactly, it's such a difficult topic to talk about because there's arguments for both sides, no matter our opinions, when we make a point, we're also making an argument for the other side. I do agree with some extent that the horror genre in rides relies on darkness and can get away with black walls etc., but as stated above, so do some dark rides catered towards the children's fantasy genre.
Not to mention, it's hard to make a joyful theme from man-made found materials that Merlin love. And Merlin love them because they're cheap. Shipping containers, wooden fences, etc. They're going with themes that match what they financially have access to. Which is smart. Just... Depressing.
This. I think they're on to a losing streak because there's only so far they're gonna be able to go before the containers just don't fit. I mean, look at Thirteen for example, a somewhat well conceived crypt and church building, then they put a **** shipping container as a shop. It's ridiculous.
