With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 96%, this documentary is an absolute must-watch.
“A cock-eyed Valentine to a place so outrageous that death or dismemberment was an actual acceptable risk — but so was the chance to live, as one former security guard fondly recalls, in ‘an ‘80s movie that was real life. And it will never happen again’.”
So goes Entertainment Weekly‘s review of the feature-length documentary, Class Action Park, a movie that is as likely to have you cackling at the hubris as leave you gasping in horror.
Action Park was based in New Jersey and it was a bit of an 80s legend, allowing teenagers pretty much the entire freedom of the park to ride the insanely dangerous rides pretty much however they liked. To the adults watching on in fear, the entire place seemed like a very obvious death trap.
The park soon became infamous for both the guests and the staff being intoxicated, while the staff were also undertrained and underage. The rides became must-visit destinations for thrill-seekers, especially once word of Action Park’s notoriously poor safety record became public knowledge.
And that was all before the six recorded deaths all related to mishaps on the rides at the park.
As the Chicago Tribune put it, “Everything about Action Park could kill you. And it sometimes did, as the wittily appalling HBO documentary Class Action Park makes clear.” The movie debuted on HBO Max last year, but is finally available to watch in Ireland.
Class Action Park is on Sky One and Sky Documentaries tonight (Monday, 6 September) at 9pm.
Clip via HBO Max
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