Given that this type of ride is based on a movie series where things go wrong, and dangerous dinosaurs are on the loose, there are bound to be some scares and intimidating moments. Not to mention that this is a ride where you get to come face to face with the colossal T-Rex.
Jurassic Park River Adventure
"If you can hear my voice, get out of there! It's in the building! IT'S IN THE BUILDING!"
- Right from the start of the ride, even the herbivorous dinosaurs are a bit unsettling, especially the Stegosaurus that suddenly shows up to the right of the boat.
- Even before you start seeing all of the bloodthirsty carnivorous dinosaurs, you know things are going to go downhill when you see another boat stuck at the entrance to the Hadrosaurus section, causing your boat to detour under a cut electrical wire, into a restricted area marked with danger signs.
- The Dilophosaurus is depicted here in all its glory, first acting all cute and innocent, and then switching to ferocious as it spits its venom at you (even if it's just water).
- Velociraptors popping out of the dark at you when you're inside the building. The Hollywood version even has a raptor that pops out at you from the ceiling.
- And of course, there's the massively imposing Tyrannosaurus itself getting so close to the boat that you could almost touch it, before you're sent down in 85 foot drop.
- The Japanese version is a lot more intense, the finale has you going through the shipping area, which is much bigger here, and you see shadow of the dinosaurs moving about and some trying to get into the doorways, which a few are rattling about. While it eventually has the dinosaurs pop out, it does a much better job at unsettling you and making you really believe you're in a danger zone before they even appear.
- For Halloween Horror Nights for Universal Studios Hollywood, the ride was retitled Jurassic Park - In The Dark, which, as its title implies, is a trip through the attraction with most of the lighting either lowered or turned off entirely. When it first started off, the ride was normal...except when you get to the raptors. Unlike the original ride, they have humans to feed on and the added strobe lighting effects illuminated scenes of Velociraptors gruesomely tearing apart JP scientists. Although the violent scenes were later taken out, the toned-down lighting in the ride still adds an extra fear factor to the whole experience.
- The commercials for the ride when it opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in 1996 can be scary, due to how perilous the ride's show elements were depicted and the terror that the riders in the commercial go through, especially with the drop.
Jurassic World: The Ride
There's a reason why she was the poster-dino for the 2021 update to the ride, and she's just as eager to see guests who've come.
With the Hollywood ride having been retooled into a Jurassic World version, there's a few more frightening additions and changes.- The Mosasaurus tunnel ends with the giant predator noticing the boat and cracking one of the viewing windows with a single impact of its snout. It's enough to send water leaking onto the riders.
- When the ride first opened, several dead, bloodied Pteranodons littered the spot to the left of where the ride boat turns the corner into Predator Cove, directly opposite the now-sundered Indominus rex pen.
- The 2021 refurbishment replaces them with a wrecked Gyrosphere. However, there are two Compsognathuses fighting over a hat with blood still on the wall, heavily implying that the people that were in that Gyrosphere met a grisly end eaten by the Indominus in her escape.
- The 2021 update to the attraction has the Indominus roar at the riders from a smashed wall before the boat ascends the lift. This can make for another effective Jump Scare for the first time rider, as well as add to the sensation she's after the riders.
- Going up the dark tunnel, it's no longer the Tyrannosaurus rex that lunges at the boat from the ceiling, it's Indominus rex, and she's very angry and determined to kill you.
- In the final section just before the drop-off exit, a Dilophosaurus and Blue the Velociraptor appear, snarling and calling. Then just before Rexy emerges from the waterfall, the Indominus rex looms up on the left and roars at the boat, even getting rather close to the riders before turning to Rexy as she appears to challenge her. Despite that, Rexy even tries to snap at the riders as the boat makes its plunge.
- Even scarier? This video
shows that in the event of a stall before the drop, the Indominus will lean upwards and sniff the air, and gradually be cast in shadow, almost entirely disappearing into the dark again. This takes advantage of the situation and adds an extra layer of fear, as once the boat moves, she will even resume her normal movements from the dark until Rexy appears. This pretty much means you get an extra scare in the form of the Indominus suddenly roaring at the boat from the dark. Even if the boat moves again before she slips back into the shadows, her suddenly moving and roaring as you seemingly pass by undetected can still make for an effective Jump Scare.
- Even scarier? This video
