Please excuse me but I need to rant! I have just read a news story that has completely infuriated me and I need to let loose. I have long been aware that there are some people who will complain about anything and it is a major irritation. Whatever you do there always seems to be some idiot who will find fault and I have now found the zenith of ridiculous complaints. Someone has actually started a campaign to close a Fright Night attraction at Thorpe Park because it stigmatises mental illness.

Please tell me this is a wind up or another of Thorpe’s carefully orchestrated publicity stunts. The attraction concerned is The Asylum, a horror maze in which guests encounter deranged “patients”. I know some people get a little spooked by such experiences but I have never met anyone who actually believes they are real. The whole purpose of theme parks is to provide an escape from reality, a disconnection from normal life. They are supposed to transport you into fantasy worlds and induce an adrenaline rush and extreme emotions. What they are not is a reflection of the real world or a vehicle for social awareness.

I don’t want to experience Rush Hour Traffic the ride or Weekly Visit to the Supermarket the coaster. I want alien attacks, the zombie apocalypse and yes lunatics in the asylum. Nobody is trying to belittle mental health issues or to suggest that sufferers are inevitably going to turn into homicidal maniacs and chase people with a chainsaws. Where would it all end if we couldn’t show the darker side of an alternative reality? Would we have to close any attractions which featured unpleasant aliens in case we offended any peaceful intergalactic travellers who happened to be passing? Clearly Blackpool’s Wallace and Gromit ride would have to go in case it upset yorkshiremen and Steeplechase would be closed just in case guests got the impression that it was OK to run horses around metal tracks all day.

Midway attractions wouldn’t be safe either. I mean you couldn’t have those games where you try to hook ducks using rods to win a prize because that would be like saying it is OK to be cruel to ducks wouldn’t it?

Some people need to get real and get a life. In addition to looking rather foolish this campaigning idiot has simply managed to provide Thorpe with a copious amount of free publicity and no doubt encouraged many more people to experience the attraction. Good! Heavens knows what they would think of a little hobby I indulge in with one of my friends. Always pondering new ideas for rides, we decided we should come up with attractions that were in the worst possible taste. I doubt if 9/11 The Ride will ever make it into a park and I am not suggesting it should but banning the Asylum is ridiculous. The complainant is concerned about offending the mentally ill but they are simply offending the intelligence of theme park visitors. Methinks it is not the lunatics in Thorpe Park’s Asylum that have mental health issues.

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Article by Sally Stacey