Eccentric illusionist Derren Brown is known for his dark yet entertaining mind games. Convincing people to push someone else off a building. Making others believe that the human race has been lost to a zombie apocalypse. Tricking hapless poor souls on their way to work into feeling like they’d actually really like to rob a bank.

So you can imagine why I felt just a little bit anxious about being one of the first people to take a ride on his new Ghost Train. I was scared. I was concerned for my sanity. But I was also excited to see what Derren might be capable of when armed with VR and a dizzying budget from Merlin.

The Ghost Train officially launches to the public today for £27.99 a ticket, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t already drummed up a significant amount of press and piqued the interest of Derren Brown and theme park fans alike for all of the right — and some of the wrong — reasons.

For starters, the master mind manipulator has put his seal of approval on it, allegedly playing a key role in the development and build every step of the way. There’s a huge restriction list that’s caused a stir, new VR devices play a prominent role and it’s billed as “the first multi-sensory theme park experience”. Oh and it’s also been delayed by months due to “creative” reasons, which may have disappointed some fans, but seems to have added to the pre-hype nicely. Almost as if it was planned.