Painted in bright colours, ‘Thrill Adventure’ seems the perfect fun spot for children. Ahead of its official launch on Wednesday, a staff at I play — the indoor entertainment zone at Phoenix Marketcity, of which Thrill Adventure is the latest addition — said that the trial run had been going on for a while.
All geared up to get a first hand experience, this reporter was initially let in to see a dark small room with an elevated floor and iron bars on four corners. “You might want to hold on to them,” said Bhairavan, a manager, pointing to the iron bars. One expected the floor to suddenly move to one side, but after a few seconds, there was an unexpected jolt and the floor shook.
Following a few such jolts, the door to the right opened, revealing a dark room, which Bhairavan said, was the lab of Frankenstein. Inside the room, there was a TV with flash news about a certain Doctor X who had been killed. A large, empty photo frame on the side wall rattled. If that was not scary enough, a portrait (of what could have been Doctor X) suddenly lit up and moved.
By then, those experiencing the automated walk got the hang of shaking boxes and photo frames, and became less wary and more confident about reaching the destination.
Part two of the nine-minute journey was through a jungle, which again, was dimly lit.
Models of trees, snakes that suddenly moved, crocodiles that made the participants stop dead on their tracks in fright, and the giant tarantula that made one of them shriek “Something’s there!” before realising that it was not a real spider, did make up for the shortcomings.
Priced at Rs 150, journey through Thrill Adventure is not advisable for kids below five years of age, heart patients and pregnant women.
One can have fun at Thrill Adventure alone or as part of the package that includes the remaining three attractions — XD Cinema, an advanced version of 5D / 7D Cinema; Snow Play, which has real snow maintained at minus five degree celsius; and India’s first holographic theater, where a real person can perform amid animated characters.
Speaking to City Express, Ravi Shankar from Beyond Boundaries, who was the brain behind the walk through, said that this was not for the faint-hearted and was probably the only one of its kind in India. He said it was expected to be a major attraction this summer.