There’s something about amusement park disasters that never fails to fascinate me. One of my most anticipated movies in recent years was Seth Porges and Chris Charles Scott III’s Class Action Park, an expose on the infamous amusement park, Action Park, regularly regarded as “Accident Park”. The park was widely known for its dangerous attractions, lax safety standards, and six distinct deaths that occurred as a direct result of the park’s attractions. Fun times. Recently, horror maestro Mike Flanagan took to Letterboxd to log a documentary on another worthwhile amusement park tragedy docuseries: Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire.
Check out the trailer and synopsis below:
Per Netflix:
This three-part documentary series explores the mysterious details surrounding the Sydney Luna Park tragedy that took seven lives in 1979.
While the series was released on Netflix in 2021, it likely flew under the radar at the time. Netflix hosts plenty of content, most of which is, in fairness, true-crime or genre content of some capacity. Mike Flanagan recently checked it out, and if you haven’t, I would encourage you to do the same.
The infamous tragedy took seven lives in 1979 when a fire broke out on the ride the night of June 9, 1979. An estimated thirty-five people were on the ride at the time, and it took over an hour for the fire to be brought under control. Afterward, seven bodies were found inside.
Park management (really mismanagement) bears a great share of the responsibility. Poor staffing, low water pressure, and inadequate coverage allowed the fire to swiftly and completely consume the ride. More sinister theories expand blame further, contending arson was responsible for the fire that night, despite it having originally been blamed on electrical faults.
True crime fans will have a field day with the sundry theories, new insights, and baffling and frustrating accounts of park and police mismanagement. The odds of Mike Flanagan working on a fictionalized account of the tragedy are slim to none, but now I can’t get the thought of Mike Flanagan entering his true crime era out of my head.
Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire is now streaming on Netflix
What do you think? Did you ever watch Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire? Do you follow Mike Flanagan on Letterboxd? Do you follow me on Twitter? Let me know, naturally, on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
Categorized: News
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