The ''Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company'' is an entertainment company based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, United States. The company has created temporary and permanent scare attractions for

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

s and

traveling carnival A traveling carnival (US English), usually simply called a carnival, or travelling funfair (UK English), is an amusement show that may be made up of amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chance and skill, thrill acts, ...

s across the globe.

History

The ''Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company'' was founded in 1991 by Lynton V. Harris. Harris was born in Australia and began his career as a DJ at age 15. From there he worked up the ranks to be marketing director for 10 Australian radio stations. In 1991, he travelled to the United States and discovered the money that could be made in entertainment attractions. Harris started the ''Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company'' with an aim of operating attractions at

Madison Square Gardens Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylvan ...

. In 1996, the company began a four-year season of Madison SCARE Gardens selling approximately 250,000 tickets. In the early 2000s, the company was ready to open their attractions in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, however, due to the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

and the Beltway sniper attacks (in 2001 and 2002 respectively), these plans were shelved costing the company and Harris millions. Sudden Impact began to focus on attractions in Australia with the opening of several temporary attractions at

s and

s. In 2009, the company began to deviate from the standard scare attractions with the opening of themed indoor laser skirmish games such as

AVPX AVPX (short for Alien vs. Predator vs. You) was a themed indoor laser skirmish attraction at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The attraction was based on the ''Alien vs. Predator'' films (mainly the first film). It was th ...

at Dreamworld.

Attractions

Shows

* Ice Age on Ice

Scare School

Almost all of ''Sudden Impact! Entertainment Companys attractions feature live trained actors, commonly known as "scare actors". To be hired in this position, scare actors must complete the Scare School program. The Scare School is a 40-hour program where actors are trained to become the best "scarers" they can be. The Scare School has travelled the globe and has been featured in its own television series. The majority of the training is done in broad daylight with very little done indoors or at night-time.

References

External links

* {{Amusement rides Amusement ride manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in New York (state) American companies established in 1991