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Alton Towers | Wicker Man | GCI Wood

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Isn't the whole point of a wicker man that you burn it down? Though you could say that the man is flaming.
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Psycoshark1

Roller Poster
I was just looking back on the project from the very beginning and I found a laughable report from The Birmingham Mail. After looking at the No Limits recreations that a couple of fans made of the layout, the reporter was tossing around the possibility of SW8 breaking the wooden coaster world speed record. These awful reporters should really do some proper research.
 

Chris Brown

Mr CoasterForce 2016
Looks like Merlin are having a really good go at themeing the entire ride area and good on them. Whilst i dont think the ride will be particularly thrilling i do think it will look great and will do a good job as a low thrill / family coaster.
 

Chris Brown

Mr CoasterForce 2016
Shame it's looking like they're going going to completely alienate that audience with the theme.

Agreed, however i do think the intimidation factor of the theme is being exaggerated. Is The Wickerman going to be that scary for families / kids? Will they have seen the films? Granted its a bonkers theme / IP and its begs multiple questions about Merlin decision making but lets be honest its hardly Saw or DBGT!
 

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
Agreed, however i do think the intimidation factor of the theme is being exaggerated. Is The Wickerman going to be that scary for families / kids? Will they have seen the films? Granted its a bonkers theme / IP and its begs multiple questions about Merlin decision making but lets be honest its hardly Saw or DBGT!

It'll probably be along the lines of Thirteen in terms of scariness...
 

elephant58

Hyper Poster
Agreed, however i do think the intimidation factor of the theme is being exaggerated. Is The Wickerman going to be that scary for families / kids? Will they have seen the films? Granted its a bonkers theme / IP and its begs multiple questions about Merlin decision making but lets be honest its hardly Saw or DBGT!
This is exactly how I'm thinking. So far there's actually been quite little marketing for the ride, let alone anything over the top i.e. Thirteen. I think it's a bit unfair to slate the park for making that same error, when it hasn't actually happened.
 

Sandman

Giga Poster
Still, they made that absolutely horrendous video which was shared about 7 pages ago. **** me, that was bad. It's like a scar on the brain.
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
Agreed, however i do think the intimidation factor of the theme is being exaggerated. Is The Wickerman going to be that scary for families / kids? Will they have seen the films? Granted its a bonkers theme / IP and its begs multiple questions about Merlin decision making but lets be honest its hardly Saw or DBGT!

I disagree. The main things you'd know about the Wickerman without seeing the film are human sacrifice and burning a **** ton of wood. Personally, if I had a child and saw a giant wooden structure themed to being burnt, it might put me off. Also, I might be concerned about dark imagery in the queueline. And possibly bees.

Was telling the family about the theme earlier and showed them the wicker man under binbags. They asked if it'll be unveiled in time for bonfire night XD
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Yeah, I agree with Sue. The theme at its core is incredibly dark and undeniably horror.

Wicker Men have been around for much longer than the movie, and has stems way back to BC eras (Druids), so I think judging this from the movie alone is just a completely inaccurate way to look at it. I don't think that Towers are going to go all the way as to depict actual human sacrifice, but, you have to take into account that they've bothered to create a scare attraction experience at Halloween that's themed to it, just like they did with The Smiler (dark theme), so they obviously want to create the notion of horror within people from the get go.
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
Just to clarify, I don't think human sacrifice will be part of the final theme either. However, it would certainly jump into the head of a parent when they think of 'Wickerman' and work against the faimly vibe - theme or no.
 

Ben

CF Legend
It doesn’t really matter what the actual history of it is, what’s in popular culture is the films and that’s what people will know.

And those are horror films. It’s a horror film. There may not be blood and guts everywhere but it’s 100% dark.
 

Chris Brown

Mr CoasterForce 2016
Yeah, I agree with Sue. The theme at its core is incredibly dark and undeniably horror.

Wicker Men have been around for much longer than the movie, and has stems way back to BC eras (Druids), so I think judging this from the movie alone is just a completely inaccurate way to look at it. I don't think that Towers are going to go all the way as to depict actual human sacrifice, but, you have to take into account that they've bothered to create a scare attraction experience at Halloween that's themed to it, just like they did with The Smiler (dark theme), so they obviously want to create the notion of horror within people from the get go.


How many people actually know the Druid link though? I judged it on the movies because that’s the main thing the target audience have got to judge it on. I’d argue the majority of the target audience won’t even know the films let alone the true history of the Wickerman given the films aren’t particularly popular (with families). I dunno I’m just not buying this is gonna be that scary as IMO very little of the target audience (of the intensity of the coaster) will actually be able to relate to this in anyway?

What I’m basically getting at is I don’t think Merlin are going to do a full Thirteen again and go calling this thing the scariest thing ever.
 
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