When it comes to vacation destinations,theme parks are among the most popular for tourists. With rides, food, long lines, and high prices, they are everything people love and hate about vacations. So naturally, they make for prime material in other media, especially movies set in fictional parks.
They can show guests involving themselves in hijinks to make it to their destination or the people who run the park themselves dealing with problems that arise during the day-to-day operations. They are films that, whether directly or not, showcase how theme parks are money-making tourist traps, dangerous death traps, meaningful cornerstones of one’s youth and life, or in some cases, all of the above.
10’Action Point' (2018)
D.C. Carver (Johnny Knoxville) runs Action Point, a popular, poorly designed, rundown amusement park popular with the local kids. Attempting to balance keeping the park open, overcoming rivals, and spending time with his daughter, he deliberately removes all the park’s safety features, so people canhave a great time while getting seriously injured.
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Made by the team behindJackassandBad Grandpa, this comedy took much of its inspiration from the real-life Action Park in New Jersey. While the tragedy that came with the park’s real-life controversies is downplayed or removed for the sake of levity, it keeps much of the actual rides' designs and poorly maintained structure.
9’Rollercoaster' (1977)
As the film begins, a mysterious young man (Timothy Bottoms) plants a bomb on a rollercoaster in Ocean View Amusement Park, killing dozens of people as a result. But, of course, just one coaster isn’t the only target of this mad bomber, as his activities extend to different rides at various real-life parks, including Kings Dominion and Magic Mountain.
Now it’s up to a safety inspector (George Segal) and the FBI to deduce when the bomber will strike again. During this suspense thriller’s initial release, the audio was edited with a specific frequency that made audiences feel the rumble and power of the rides and explosions.
8’Hell Fest' (2018)
An abandoned carnival is already creepy, but a park specifically designed to scare people? Now that’s a heck of a ride. Such is the case with the traveling carnival Hell Fest, a place where nightmares come true. As such, it’s the perfect place for Natalie (Amy Forsyth) and her friends to have a little Halloween fun.
But things become a lot scarier when a masked figure kills seem to be a lot more realistic than the other workers seem to intend. What began as a simple, fun Halloween night at the parkbecomes a terrifying battle for survivalas “The Other” (Stephen Conroy) turns the park’s attractions into deadly traps.
7’Scooby-Doo' (2002)
Mystery Inc. has solved crimes indozens of abandoned theme parks, but their first live-action outing had the spookiest of them all. Two years after the gang has broken up and gone their separate ways, they are suddenly called back to deal with an ancient evil on a theme park called Spooky Island.
With a script written by future DC Studios headJames Gunn, it makes fun of its source material while never forgetting the heart of what makesScooby-Doowork. Spooky Island is a fun, well-designed park, inspiring a real roller coaster at WB Movie World in Australia.
6’Carnival of Souls' (1962)
Theme parks have provided ample settings for horror films for many years, as thisbeloved low-budget classic shows. Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) has moved from Kansas to Salt Lake City after a traumatizing car accident. Not adjusting well to her new life, she is drawn to an abandoned carnival.
What follows is a suspenseful journey into the unknown as Mary contends with a mysterious, monstrous figure (Herk Harvey) that nobody else can see. Is she going crazy? Is something genuinely supernatural at stake? Or is something else going on?
5’National Lampoon’s Vacation' (1982)
Before the Griswolds went to Europe and Vegas and had a family Christmas, this trip to Wally World started it all. Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) has decided to take his family on a road trip across the country to get to Wally World, America’s favorite family fun park.
Along the way, they stop to visit the Grand Canyon (briefly), frequently run into a bombshell in a Ferrari, catch up with old relatives, and make it to Wally World – only to find it closed. It’s a madcap comedy that only National Lampoon andHarold Ramiscould provide.
4’Adventureland' (2009)
James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) has just graduated from college and is stuck working at a local amusement park called Adventureland while he gets money to go to Europe. While most of his fellow workers treat him with mockery and disdain, he makes a friend out of Em Lewin (Kristen Stewart).
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As he develops feelings for her, he must contend with caretaker Mike Connell (Ryan Reynolds), her current partner, who’s already married. It’s a story of young, small-town love that focuses more on the people who run the park than the park itself.
3’The Way Way Back' (2013)
Trent (Liam James) is a 14-year-old stuck with a new potential stepfather (Steve Carell) who’s not exactly keen to be friends with him. Facing a miserable home life while on vacation in Cape Cod, he makes friends with Owen (Sam Rockwell), who introduces him to the staff of Water Wizz, Cape Cod’s resident Water Park.
As things with his family become more and more miserable, he spends more and more time at the park with his new friends, with the park being the only true emotional safe haven for him. While he must leave eventually, he becomes a more confident and assured person as a result.
2’Jurassic Park' (1993)
The park may have opened in a future sequel, but the original film trumps them all. Billionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has built a theme park on an island near Costa Rica where he has done the impossible – brought dinosaurs back to life. The first half of the film is done to show the majesty and wonder of why a park like this should exist.
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Then everything starts to go wrong. The power goes out, the dinosaurs get loose, and people start dying. It’s a film about how a park like this is managed, with all the dangers showing why putting these animals separated by 65 million years of evolution isn’t the best idea.
1’Westworld' (1973)
BeforeMichael CrichtonwroteJurassic Park, he wrote and directed a similar story about a theme park gone horribly wrong. In a park called Delos, the rich can choose between spending a day in Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, and the old American West. Rather than using actors, the parks use realistic androids that act as if they exist in these specific periods.
But when a virus begins to pass through the androids, they start targeting the guests. It becomes a fight for survival as first-time visitor Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) must make his way out alive, hoping to avoid an overzealous gunslinger (Yul Brynner).
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