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Busch Gardens does away with severed head display


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Growing up in the 80s I loved slasher films and other types of horror. I like Gore and violence (in an entertainment capacity of course) and appreciate it most at Halloween. Tis one of the reasons I don't care for Haunt at KI....way too tame.

People just NEED something to offend them so they can complain and force society to please THEM.

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Paramount's Kings Island once proudly installed a mini-water tower and put in a guest interactive shoot-'em-up show, over where Chicken Shack is now. The show generated numerous complaints from anti-gun types and groups. They were ignored.

Then a school shooting victim's grief-stricken parents tried to escape their misery by going for a day of escape at PKI. As they ate a quiet meal, they were suddenly charged by a coat clad mobster with a Tommy gun.

About a week later, the show quietly disappeared.

Perhaps....

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It's not the first time something like this has happened with a Halloween event. Far from it, actually. A few notable examples of recent events or public outcry changing a theme park's Halloween event:

  • In 2001, Kings Island's new The Morgue haunted house was renamed Maze of Madness following sensitivity concerns.
  • Also in 2001, following 9/11, Universal Orlando axed most guts and gore, as well as replaced all blood with green slime. The original mascot of the event, a demented chainsaw-wielding maniac, was also quietly replaced.
  • In 2002, the same event planned to have a creepy girl, Cindy, as its mascot. This was changed following a series of child abductions in the Orlando area.
  • In 2009, Kings Island did away with a display that featured late celebrities posed in the manner of their death, including murdered football star Steve McNair. There was immense public outcry, including a tweet from Billy Mays' son, that led to the display's removal.
  • In 2011, a year after the National Alliance of Mental Illness approached Cedar Point about renaming two of their haunted attractions that showed insensitivity towards people with mental illnesses (Dr. D. Mented's Asylum for the Criminally Insane and The Edge of Madness: Still Crazy), the park renamed both attractions (to Eternity Infirmary and The Edge of Madness: Six Feet Under, respectively)
  • In 2013, Kings Dominion discontinued its Miner's Revenge after members of the public found it distasteful to those killed in mining accidents
  • Also in 2013, Universal Studios Hollywood cancelled its Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure midway through the event after a Vice article criticized the show's portrayal of homosexuals. The show will not return this season, although it continues to run at Universal Studios Florida.

There's obviously a very fine, difficult line to walk for any theme park with a Halloween event. You want to host an event based on horror, but you have to be considerate of real-life horror.

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On a television show recently, they cut the scene of someone being decapitated. I don't recall it being done with Daniel Pearl, but it could also have to do with ISIS still having hostages, and the desire not to possibly taunt the families of those still in captivity.

I love horror movies, and am so used to things such as cinema decapitation, I didn't think of it until it was mentioned that said TV show cut a beheading scene.

And the thing to be beheaded was a robot.

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I've been a fan of cheesy horror movies from before I started school (my mom and I used to watch them together when my sister was at school). Halloween was tied with Christmas as my favorite holiday in my childhood.

However, following September 11th, I lost my taste for it for quite some time. Seeing real horror took away my ability to enjoy pretend horror. I'm back to enjoying Halloween again these past few years, and watching way too many horror movies in October.

My point is, though, I think most people who enjoy horror probably wouldn't want to see any of it actually happen. So it doesn't ask very much to have a little sensitivity and not do things that trigger people's memories of very real, recent, horrors.

Obviously, everyone is going to have their own personal triggers, and it is up to them to decide if going to a horror event is for them. When it is something so publicized, like the beheadings, though, it's fair to avoid things that reference it, at least for now. It's not as though there aren't fifty-billion other ways to depict death, gore, and creepiness.

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I've been a fan of cheesy horror movies from before I started school (my mom and I used to watch them together when my sister was at school). Halloween was tied with Christmas as my favorite holiday in my childhood.

However, following September 11th, I lost my taste for it for quite some time. Seeing real horror took away my ability to enjoy pretend horror. I'm back to enjoying Halloween again these past few years, and watching way too many horror movies in October.

My point is, though, I think most people who enjoy horror probably wouldn't want to see any of it actually happen. So it doesn't ask very much to have a little sensitivity and not do things that trigger people's memories of very real, recent, horrors.

Obviously, everyone is going to have their own personal triggers, and it is up to them to decide if going to a horror event is for them. When it is something so publicized, like the beheadings, though, it's fair to avoid things that reference it, at least for now. It's not as though there aren't fifty-billion other ways to depict death, gore, and creepiness.

I'm definitely an oddball. I can and will watch most horror movies unless it involves a cat or a dog in someway then I won't touch it with a ten foot poll (unless the movie is something like Cat's Eye where the cat was mostly the hero). o_o

faeriewench, who has never seen Pet Sematary and has no intention of doing so.

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I think sensitivity things get taken a bit far when it comes to Halloween events. I'm sure you could connect almost any element of them to some real world tragedy. This instance especially seems a bit strange that they'd remove all the severed heads but leave all the headless bodies, don't see how that's any different. Plus there's still all the dead bodies and stuff.

Though this case wasn't people so much requesting or petitioning Busch Gardens to remove it as it was them taking it out themselves. (Though I'm sure it would have eventually come up). The complaints were actually toward a newspaper that used a pile of severed heads on its front page to promote the event. They felt that was in distaste to display it like that as well as being a frightening image for any kid that would see the paper and they should have picked a different scene to promote the event.

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Most horror is conceived from real situations/dreams/ideas but enhanced with imagination...believe it or not even the Nightmare on Elm street has it's basis in reality. My understanding is that Wes Craven read an article about immigrants who were having nightmares and refused to sleep because of it. Eventually several of them died in their sleep. This combined with a Wes Craven nightmare of a strange man, gave birth to Freddie Krueger. Originally Freddie was supposed to be a child molester. But during the time of his writing the script, there were many molestations occurring, so Wes changed the plot (due to sensitivity of the issue) to Freddie being a child murderer.

All horror is based on basic human fears....right now reality is scarier than make believe for certain.

My thoughts on the sensitivity issue...If I knew someone who was murdered, I probably wouldn't be going to a Halloween event anyway.....

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It's important for parks to always be achieving a balance between horror and taste. And yes, world events need to be taken into account.

Like this season, parks all over the world should be more sensitive to beheading displays. It's a measure of good taste and sensitivity. I get that it's a Halloween display but they're supposed to take you out of the horrors of the real world, not remind you of them.

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Lol. Then there should be no blood, terror, death, etc of any kind at any display. It should all be puppies and kittens that way there is no chance of upsetting someone that has experienced something being shown. The feelings of some should dictate the rules of everyone? The only thing I like less than Kool Aid are Herds.

Wait, a lot of people are terrified of Dogs so there goes that idea as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A few notable examples of recent events or public outcry changing a theme park's Halloween event:

  • In 2001, Kings Island's new The Morgue haunted house was renamed Maze of Madness following sensitivity concerns.
  • Also in 2001, following 9/11, Universal Orlando axed most guts and gore, as well as replaced all blood with green slime. The original mascot of the event, a demented chainsaw-wielding maniac, was also quietly replaced.
  • In 2002, the same event planned to have a creepy girl, Cindy, as its mascot. This was changed following a series of child abductions in the Orlando area.
  • In 2009, Kings Island did away with a display that featured late celebrities posed in the manner of their death, including murdered football star Steve McNair. There was immense public outcry, including a tweet from Billy Mays' son, that led to the display's removal.
  • In 2011, a year after the National Alliance of Mental Illness approached Cedar Point about renaming two of their haunted attractions that showed insensitivity towards people with mental illnesses (Dr. D. Mented's Asylum for the Criminally Insane and The Edge of Madness: Still Crazy), the park renamed both attractions (to Eternity Infirmary and The Edge of Madness: Six Feet Under, respectively)
  • In 2013, Kings Dominion discontinued its Miner's Revenge after members of the public found it distasteful to those killed in mining accidents
  • Also in 2013, Universal Studios Hollywood cancelled its Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure midway through the event after a Vice article criticized the show's portrayal of homosexuals. The show will not return this season, although it continues to run at Universal Studios Florida.

Here's a new one to possibly add:

  • In 2014, Universal Orlando removed the "Human Sacrifice" show from its Bayou of Blood scare zone. Official reason was to use the actors to fill the scare zone better, unofficial reason is that there were a multitude of guest complaints about the content of the show.

Here's a video. As it's a human sacrifice, it may not exactly be safe for work (duh). You've been warned.

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Don't ask me. Since September 11, 2001, I've asked myself many times why people feel they need more fright in their lives.

I have yet to come up with any reasonable answer.

Then again, many never ride a roller coaster again after their children leave the house.

Remember, it was Cedar Fair's Kings Island that once proudly proclaimed that its Haunt had "no limits."

Then....it did.

To each her/his own.

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The 2009 incident was completely and utterly classless. I don't care if it was a publicity stunt or if it was truly intended to be a display. Call me sensitive if you want, but those were real people who were murdered, cancer victims, or people who lost their lives in their addictions. Excuse my hearty chuckle because that's some funny stuff right there. Some things ARE off limits, and to pretend otherwise is asinine. I would never try to gain publicity in an immoral way. Did the park ever issue an apology? *Slowly steps off soapbox and takes a deep breath.

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Did the park ever issue an apology? *Slowly steps off soapbox and takes a deep breath.

No. It did not. It did regret that some were offended.

It was one of those left handed apologies.

Actually, the park technically did. From here, Don Helbig said...

Kings Island has removed the celebrity scene from its Halloween Haunt event. We were not intending to be distasteful, and we apologize if we offended anyone

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