A chance to take the weight off and watch a terrifying short film in Thorpe's Halloween cinema.
A chance to take the weight off and watch a terrifying short film in Thorpe's Halloween cinema.
| Theme Park | Thorpe Park |
|---|---|
| Park Area | Angry Birds Land |
| Type | Cinema |
| Audience | Thrillseekers |
| Season | Fright Nights |
| Debuted | 2018 (replaced Barry and Stuart) |
| Retired | 2020 |
| Location | Angry Birds 4D Cinema |
Screamplexx Cinema
Taking over the Angry Birds 4D Experience theatre for Fright Nights is the Screamplexx Cinema.
The attraction features short films from Bloodycuts.co.uk, with rach show lasting around 30 minutes. Effects from the usual 4D experience are manually set off by a staff member to "enhance" the film show.
The films are fun and a little bit scary, but parents should be warned there are some instances of bad language that may be unsuitable for young children.
Screamplexx Cinema's best quality is probably that its an indoor attraction - a welcome fact in the often cold, sometimes rainy, late October evenings.
The whole thing was rather bizarre. We entered the cinema, seeing a member of staff already sitting in a seat right in the centre. Once everyone was settled, another staff member welcomed everybody to the film show. She pointed out the seated guy, apparently a dummy that people were encouraged to take selfies with for some not very convincing or well explained reason. She then went on to explain that the film wasn't actually in 4D at all. It was an independently produced short film, "so it doesn't have a Hollywood budget" ... she seemed to be actively trying to play it down and encouraging the audience not to expect to much.
Finally once she was done, the film started. It was actually not bad - possibly a little bit arty for some of the audience members, but an entertaining enough ten minutes. As the lights came up at the end, depressing woman was back for more bizarreness as she explained that the dummy wasn't a dummy after all and was actually a real staff member, so we should give him a round of applause for sitting still. Erm, yeah, still no real idea what all that was about. A few years ago, the building hosted Carnival of the Bizarre over Fright Nights. I think they may have left her behind...
The experience in 2019 was better than the previous years, with the cinema's 4d effects being manually triggered by a member of staff and loosely timed to fit in with what was on screen. They were a little overly enthusiastic though, sometimes going overboard with the effects. While the water sprays enhanced the blood spatters nicely, a shower of bubbles did nothing to help the scary plot!
There were a choice of two film shows, both double bills. The one I saw featured Don't Go Down to Wildor, a very short film about a boy who enters an abandoned house after getting a message on his phone. This was followed by Don't Move, the same film shown last year, about a monster that stalks its prey by detecting their movements. Last one to move survives!
