Closed for Storm

Director: Jake Williams
Release Date:

Closed For Storm is a film detailing the incredible history of a massive, American theme park that was eventually left completely abandoned

4.3 (50 customer reviews)

The best documentary ever!!!

I have been watching Abandoned videos for years. Jake truly captures the heart and feel of each project, and this one is no different. Absolutely spectacular!!


Good idea but it feel flat on its face

As a native of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and survivor of Hurricane Katrina in my opinion this was a great idea however this documentary seemed more like a retelling story of Hurricane Katrina Here’s the thing some B-Roll shots did not fit into the story itself some stories where way over explained and way to drawn out The camera footage was awesome the drone shots where amazing unfortunately you missed the part where six flags bailed out of a massive 75 year lease and really failed to work with the city there really was not much research done in my eyes again it was a great idea however this documentary was not as great as I was hoping for


Boring

This was a 20 minute episode stretched out into 1 hour and 17 minutes, so boring, couldn’t finish watching it.


Wanted to love it.

I wanted to love this documentary. I am a big fan of bright sun films on YouTube. However as a feature documentary with a purchase price; I was expecting something more. I’ll start with the good elements. The drone work was excellent. The score/music was great. As far as the content I felt there was too much filler, focusing on minutia. Insignificant stories went on too long, looking at offices and water lines, felt more YouTube than feature film documentary. Dragged on. Discussing future plans for the park went in circles. This was 45 minutes of information that dragged on to get it to feature length. There also was no pay off the park is still standing, now obviously this documentary can’t control what happens, but maybe the documentary shouldn’t have come out until the park was at least removed, it seems like it’s closer now than before. So perhaps this wasn’t the right time for this park. I love Jake’s narration on YouTube, his voice and speech pattern and tone has improved over the years, but his narration in this documentary was featured inconsistently small bits here and there. A conscious effort should’ve been made either narrate the whole documentary, take us on the journey with your voice or, keep it narration free. Immediate events leading up to and after Hurricane Katrina could have been highlighted differently, notably absent was news footage which I’m sure was not included due to copyright restrictions. When I think of Katrina I think of the superdome, situation, there are iconic sub stories that could have been told along with the theme park’s demise that would have been far more interesting than listening to a council meeting’s telephone call that could have been summarized in 30 seconds. I forgot who was who by the middle of the documentary, a reset on graphics would have been helpful. Especially before the council meeting. The few times the producers asked interviewees questions that made it into documentary, should have been subtitled. All and all, I don’t feel I leaned a lot more than any other video on this topic before. And dare I say it even included less public footage than other videos on the topic, so we may have gotten less story. Perhaps this review seems harsh, but I am leaving it as a critique for BSF to succeed. Jake if you get even one take-a-way from this I know your next film will benefit, and I’ll be first to buy it and root for you. A good first effort, good luck on the next one.


Really disappointing and repetitive

I’ve been a longtime fan of Bright Sun Films’ Abandoned series on YouTube. Had expected this to be a notch up from those short form productions. Seriously, Jake and BSF do a great job with those videos and was excited that they took a shot at something bigger. But this was bad. Really bad. Highly repetitive, constantly revisiting the single statement of how horrible it was to just let the site deteriorate for 15 years. Agreed, but do we just have to hear the obvious over and over again? Some of those interviewed were interesting, having had a significant role with the park when open, or actively pursuing its redevelopment. But there were far too many people interviewed who really had no deep connection to the park and provided little insight into the park’s history or demise. Boring. Not insightful. And even veered off to being a sub-par Katrina documentary at times when it looked like they ran out of content on the park itself. Was almost nice to have a musical score, but the mixing was poor and Jake’s narration was almost buried at several points. His YouTube videos are much more tightly edited and mixed than this. Jake is usually a GREAT storyteller with a well planned script, but this “movie” went nowhere, and provided FAR less information and a less engaging story than any of his 20 minute YouTube videos. Was initially excited to support Jake with this purchase, but this wouldn’t have been worth a free YouTube viewing. Very disappointed in this expensive purchase.

Title
Closed for Storm
Director
Jake Williams
Release Date
Sales Price
12.99 USD
Rental Price
3.99 USD