By Ben Bussey
There’s always a special charm to horror movies set in amusement parks. The two institutions share a lot of common ground; we go there to let it all hang out, cathartically unload our anxieties, confront our fears in an ostensibly safe environment. Of course, we’ve all heard stories about rides going wrong, resulting in people trapped upside down on a rollercoaster for hours, or worse yet, crashing to a firey death; and the curious thing is, such stories often make us that bit more eager to give the ride a go. Sitting down to watch a horror movie and stepping onto a white knuckle ride are both, in their own small way, the participant’s way of acknowledging that – as John Dies At The End told us – we must ultimately face the unimaginable, whether we want to or not.
Or, I dunno, maybe it’s just the bright lights, big noises, thrills and spills. Bottom line: horror movies are fun, theme parks are fun, put them together the results should hopefully be fun, right? And I’m happy to say this is the case with Scream Park. It’s another microbudget slasher movie following the standard formula, without the resources to really bring the vision to life as well as anyone would like, but if you can accept it on those terms it makes for an enjoyable 80-odd minutes of cheap and nasty fun.
It’s the last night before closing at sleepy theme park Frightland, which is facing bankruptcy in the face of dwindling crowds. Naturally, the mostly teenage staff don’t give a shit either way; they’d all rather be off pursuing their dreams, not to mention getting wasted and/or laid. To this end, they manage to persuade their uptight supervisor to let them stay after closing to party in the park that night; but when he reluctantly agrees, the night doesn’t go quite the way they’d imagined. You know the drill; people saying “I’ll be right back” then not coming back; mysterious masked men popping up here and there…
From the opening titles which play out almost identically to those of the original Friday the 13th, to the cameo from the sainted Doug Bradley (don’t be misled – watch the trailer below and you’ve seen pretty much his entire performance), there can be no question that first time writer-director Cary Hill has a raging hard-on for 80s horror, and I’m certainly not about to tell him off for that. Happily, this doesn’t mean he bogs Scream Park down in obvious grindhouse/rewindhouse flourishes, or tries to present it as some lost film from the VHS era; the dialogue, soundtrack and contemporary references make it clear this is a product of the 2010s, even if one cast member looks as if he’s cosplaying Vyvyan from The Young Ones. The film also plays nicely on its heritage as a Pittsburgh production with nods to that certain other low-budget horror movie made in the city, Night of the Living Dead.
Obviously it’s riddled with flaws. Many of the set-piece kills don’t play out as well as they might have due to obvious practical constraints; the performances are largely stilted; the few brief attempts at sex scenes are rather awkward; and the film doesn’t really take full advantage of the theme park setting. I was also a bit underwhelmed by the killers themselves, once they’re properly revealed. The overall format would seem a good fit for taciturn Michael Myers/Jason Voorhees types, but instead Scream Park opts for the motormouthed backwoods hellbilly routine, which I’m not sure was the best choice under the circumstances.
Still, if you’re after an undemanding DIY slasher, you could certainly do worse than Scream Park; and I’m pleased to see that Cary Hill has a Return To Scream Park on the cards. Here’s hoping that with the lessons learned from this movie, he might be able to really do the concept justice on the second one.
Scream Park is out on DVD on 25th April, from Left Films.