Relive the danger with this trailer for theme park documentary Class Action Park

By Alex McLevy | September 24, 2019 | 3:00pm

Aux Features Coming Distractions

Relive the danger with this trailer for theme park documentary Class Action Park

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“Growing up, we would try to die for fun.” That’s comedian Chris Gethard, talking about the allure of Action Park, New Jersey’s most dangerous water park in the new trailer for just-announced documentary Class Action Park. We’ve written about Action Park before: The danger of deeply unsafe rides was the whole appeal of this belief-beggaring amusement park that—at the height of its crowds—reliably generated five to ten ambulance trips to the hospital per day. It reopened under its original name in 2014 with completely revamped rides (thanks in part to co-director Seth Porges’ previous short film about the place), but the memory of Action Park and its legacy of injury and death lives on.

This film looks to get into the stranger-than-fiction details of the landmark, with the trailer teasing stories of phony liability insurance, teenagers rejiggering rides for maximum danger, and in at least one instance, someone dousing tennis balls with gasoline and firing them into an attraction, all in the name of Action Park fun. (Or “Traction Park,” as Jimmy Kimmel lovingly remembers it being dubbed.) There’s no release date announced yet, but in the meantime, the film’s website has more details on the place behind the project. You can watch the trailer—complete with explanations of the loop-the-loop water ride that cost numerous people their teeth—below.