18 Certifiicate Fairground Rides?

Thorpe Park in Chertsey has recently come under fire for their new Saw - The Movie ride. For those that have never seen any of the Saw films they centre around a serial killer who invents increasingly grisly ways to dispose of his victims.

The fairground ride boasts such highlights as a man cutting off his own leg, another has his stomach sliced open and a manacled woman hangs from the ceiling.

The only warning given before going on the ride is that some sights may not be suitable for under 12's!

Do rides such as this have ANY place is a family theme park? Do we want to start seeing fairground rides coming with age restrictions or should a fairground be a place where parents can take young children without any worry of what they might see?

Whatever happened to just having a few men dressed up as Mickey and Goofy wandering about?

There is far too much violence in the world, kids watch the most gruesome movies, TV and computer games. No wonder the world has become such a violent place. I saw Saw one and had nightmares for weeks afterwards, if movies like like that effect adults, what are they doing to children. No, they have no place in a Family Theme Park.

I didn't really like the Saw movies either. To me the plots were just excuses to come up with more and more horrible ways to depict killing people.

What place they have in Thorpe Park is beyond me.

I think the 'Saw' films are a step too far....too gruesome for me. There are no boundaries anymore...a lot of films are horrible..what a world we live in now

I agree Dolly.

I remember in the 80's all the big hoo-hah about video nasties. When and how did we all suddenly become so desensitised to extreme violence? It's now got to the point where seening somebody in extreme pain and suffering is a fairground attraction?! WTF?!! Why not just bring back gladiatorial arenas and public beheadings for a bit of half term fun?

It seems the horror genre has got confused with some kind of sadist genre. There's a difference between a film scaring you and a film simply making you feel sick. One of the best horror films Ive ever seen is Skeleton Key and there's not a drop of blood in sight.

The Saw films aren't horror films IMO. They're nothing more than "socially acceptable" perverse indulgences.

There might just be Public Beheading pretty soon, Sharia Law has crept in under the radar. I also think that there would be pretty big audiences, as you say, people have become desensitized.