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Alton Towers | Wicker Man | GCI Wood

Sandman said:
But what baffles me and probably others is - why muddy the waters with a mature horror theme? If this coaster is an attempt to draw in the thrillseekers, then why wouldn't they build a coaster clearly designed for thrillseekers? They could have gone for something more cost effective and 'GP friendly' than this. Something that looks good to your average joe... I can't imagine teenagers/adults salivating over a 50ft (guess) woodie at Towers after The Smiler. And if they are actually aiming to please a family market then why go for this theme? Maybe I'm missing a trick here, but wouldn't Merlin gain more in the long term by going for a theme that caters to a wider family audience? I would have thought that was the safest bet, this seems riskier? Just trying to understand from a business point of view, I guess.
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To be completely honest with you, I have no idea. Maybe they just wanted something to go with the cheapest IP they could get. I mean, what child these days has watched "The Wickerman"? Maybe they thought that since Thirteen was a relatively family coaster with a horror theme yet had moderate success that this was a good idea? That's my best guess and I have absolutely no clue why they probably will go with The Wickerman, especially since the horror theming in Alton is abundant. It really is strange to me that this is not marketed as a family coaster and especially since it is in Mutiny Bay and close to Kantaga Canyon it would be fitting for it to be family themed? A simple pirate theme would be much more beneficial in my opinion, but who knows? Maybe Merlin have a trick up their sleeve here. It is certainly very confusing to me but who knows how this will turn out.
 
Efan said:
To be completely honest with you, I have no idea. Maybe they just wanted something to go with the cheapest IP they could get. I mean, what child these days has watched "The Wickerman"? Maybe they thought that since Thirteen was a relatively family coaster with a horror theme yet had moderate success that this was a good idea? That's my best guess and I have absolutely no clue why they probably will go with The Wickerman, especially since the horror theming in Alton is abundant. It really is strange to me that this is not marketed as a family coaster and especially since it is in Mutiny Bay and close to Kantaga Canyon it would be fitting for it to be family themed? A simple pirate theme would be much more beneficial in my opinion, but who knows? Maybe Merlin have a trick up their sleeve here. It is certainly very confusing to me but who knows how this will turn out.
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Have you watched it? :)
 
ATI said:
Have you watched it? :)
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My Mother's horror stories of watching it as a child have put me off a bit ;), but no, I wouldn't be adverse to watching it, especially if this turns out to have a Wickerman theme! Does look very interesting.
 
Mitchell said:
So to put a long story short Alton Towers is the M. Night Shyamalan of theme parks now?
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That or Zack Snyder. Did some amazing things in the past, but keeps making things darker, grittier, and simpler despite being consistently called out for it, and not nearly living up to the competitors there are no competitors, so they get away with it.
 
There shouldn't be many children who have seen The Wicker Man! Apart from it being old, this is the BBFC description of the 1973 version (contains spoilers):

THE WICKER MAN is a British horror film which tells the story of a policeman who is sent to investigate the disappearance of a young girl on a remote island where the locals practice a form of religion related to fertility.
Threat - Moderate horror includes undetailed sight of a man being burned alive.
Sex - Sex consists of a dimly-lit sequence, which reveals from a distance couples engaged in sexual activity. The lighting and distance conceal any details, the scene being presented in the context of a fertility ritual.
Nudity - Nudity includes sight of a bare-breasted woman dancing provocatively alone in her room. There is no full frontal nudity at this point.
The film also contains some very mild bad language ('hell', 'damn'), non-sexualised nudity and mild sex references. Certificate 15​
 
It's obvious Alton Towers haven't bought a licence to adapt the film, but the movie is based on the same folklore. Whatever way you look at it the new family coaster is based around the theme of human sacrifice and sexual awakening/fertility. Which, y'know, is a bit darker than Octonauts.
 
Robbie said:
It's obvious Alton Towers haven't bought a licence to adapt the film, but the movie is based on the same folklore. Whatever way you look at it the new family coaster is based around the theme of human sacrifice and sexual awakening/fertility. Which, y'know, is a bit darker than Octonauts.
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But this isn't what the theme is about at all. The theme is based on a secretive group within a forest that detest the advance of technology and are rebuilding a monument to their long lost saviour. There are no links at all between the wicker man movie (which nobody under 30 seems to have heard of) and this new ride. People seem to be over darkening the theme, because if we look at what has been released so far by the park, it isn't too dark or scary at all, more like mysterious.
 
In case anyone needed more proof that it will be called "Wicker Man", PicSolve's website leaked it earlier.
 
DelPiero said:
I've heard a rumour that it's a bit poo, but the usual slow during testing argument applies.
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Where did you hear that? As far as I know, nobody other than senior staff at Alton and GCI have physically seen it testing. People have heard it testing, I know, but I don't think anyone's actually seen it. This could have a really good pace to it for all we know.
 
Matt N said:
Where did you hear that? As far as I know, nobody other than senior staff at Alton and GCI have physically seen it testing. People have heard it testing, I know, but I don't think anyone's actually seen it. This could have a really good pace to it for all we know.
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I've been told by someone who has seen it test, they weren't impressed. First testing runs are always slow, we know that, I'm hoping I get a message at some point that it's not as sluggish.
As much as I've rained on this from the beginning, I obviously want this to be a good ride and a success.
 
DelPiero said:
I've been told by someone who has seen it test, they weren't impressed. First testing runs are always slow, we know that, I'm hoping I get a message at some point that it's not as sluggish.
As much as I've rained on this from the beginning, I obviously want this to be a good ride and a success.
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My layout recreation in Planet Coaster must have been way off then, because my recreation did not go under 30-35mph for the whole layout.
 
MakoMania said:
But this isn't what the theme is about at all. The theme is based on a secretive group within a forest that detest the advance of technology and are rebuilding a monument to their long lost saviour.
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Whatever spin Alton put on it, that's still the basic story of a group of pagans burning something for their God. There's no getting away from the fact that historically, among the things they've burnt have been goats and virgins.
There are no links at all between the wicker man movie (which nobody under 30 seems to have heard of) and this new ride.
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Yes, that's what I said.

But if your family ride has the same name as a famous horror film people are going to make comparisons, no matter how much you spend on marketing. It's like opening a boat ride called Titanic and just claiming it's about a big boat.

People seem to be over darkening the theme, because if we look at what has been released so far by the park, it isn't too dark or scary at all, more like mysterious.
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Secret groups burning things they don't understand is fairly dark, isn't it? You don't catch Postman Pat doing it.
 
elephant58 said:
Yeah 30mph isn't exactly fast...
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I more meant that I was expecting it to crawl through the layout at about 10mph in parts from other enthusiasts' limited enthusiasm for this project. I don't think 35mph is exactly crawling speed for a family woodie.
 
Robbie said:
You don't catch Postman Pat doing it.
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Would be a valid argument if the ride was targeted at children under 6 and was being built in CBeebies Land.

In my opinion, none of what the park has released has been very scary or inappropriate, burning a wooden statue doesn't scream dark and terrifying to me (the whole country does it every November) but perhaps people have different definitions of dark.
 
Matt N said:
My layout recreation in Planet Coaster must have been way off then, because my recreation did not go under 30-35mph for the whole layout.
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Dude, you can't rely on Planet Coaster or even an more accurate design sim like No Limits to give you a very reliable speed stat. NL gives a good indication but Planet Coasters building tools are not very scientific at all ;)
 
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