• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Duel: The Haunted House Actually Strikes Back - Refurb Incoming

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
HH was a wonderful family dark ride, with stunning effects, theatrics and scene setting.
It was badly neglected over time.
Duel was a naff zombies and guns makeover.
It was badly neglected over time.
Bringing something close to the original back would be "brand new" to the vast majority of park users, and a brilliant new dark ride, something they are short of.
That or the Space Jam log flume in the dark.
 
I do have a hunch that it would be a return to HH as pretty much Duel is just sadly these days just a filler ride and it being out of action for a time would be treated with mostly indifference from the GP or probably even haven't heard of it in some ways so calling it HH would already be new to most guests.

Speaking of which, this might be Towers' 'new' attraction for 2023 which actually I'm not sure what new ride they have planned for next year unless there has been rumblings in the background and I have not noticed. I mean it wouldn't be the first time that Towers would call a rethemed existing ride 'new' such as Duel itself, Spinball and in some ways both Toyland Tours and Charlie so I have no doubt things will be repeated here.

Ofc, something extra for GW might not go amiss to help give the area a bit of attention and as I have said this before and probably get pelters for saying this buy had Thirteen been built in GW where that Vekoma bike coaster 'hoax' would have been then not only would had given that area new found attention but Duel would have not only acted as a main filler attraction to help with large crowds but might have been overhauled sooner. Heck, the ride might had started a new renaissance period in terms of popularity. Oh, what might have been...

I have heard of some even going for more radical of merging GW and KC into one with the former being annexed by the latter or a totally new theme altogether though personally I wouldn't want that.
 
The ride is 30 years old, it’s been ‘rethemed’ once already, the man that designed it has now retired.

What would make sense would be to gut it, and invest heavily into sourcing the next John Wardley to come up with the next haunted house. The facade, maybe the ride system could be retained but other than that, allow some new creativity to flourish.

I honestly think it’s at the point where whatever they do with it will be papering over the cracks and marketing the same ride as something new by simply adding a new gimmick or whatever.

What made the original ride great was creativity, humour and by a large investment in sourcing the right people for each individual job to make it as good as it could possibly be (or at least as good as budget would allow,) it’s that that needs to be retained for the next ride to be equally as good rather than actually brick for brick trying to replicate something which was made by a retired designer 30 years ago - they can still include a few ‘nods’ to the original if they wanted to (maybe an updated version of the trommel tunnel or whatever).

That’s what I’d like to happen, what will probably end up happening is very little with a tonne of hype and little difference in terms of the ride experience.

I grew up with the original haunted house and must have ridden it around 100 times, it was great and I loved it but there’s little to be gained from flogging a dead horse and I also don’t see the point in trying to revive it in its original format when the only people that have any lasting memories of it will be (at least) 25 and that’s assuming they were 5 when it changed to Duel. It’s not the same as retracking Nemesis which is largely the same as it was in 94, but reverting to a ride which closed 20 years ago which has, sadly, gradually eroded from its original form with nobody around who sits in Merlin’s target audience old enough to remember it.

There’s no point in nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, there’s certain rides around which would massively benefit from a trip down memory lane (the obvious one being a return to de le terre a la lune for space mountain in Paris,) but the Haunted House, for me at least, isn’t one of them.
 
Last edited:
Josh555 said:
invest heavily into sourcing the next John Wardley
Click to expand...
That won’t happen. John worked as a film and theatre designer before moving into theme parks as 35 years ago Chessington and Alton Towers were the first theme parks in the UK.
Now being a “theme park designer” is seen as a career choice in itself, but without that film background things are not approached in the same way.
It’s broadly the same with Disney, originally the Imagineers had worked with Walt as animators, nowadays the Imagineers are coming straight into theme park design.

There are some people in Merlin Magic Making who are the main “designers” now but they’ve learnt their skills working in Merlin generally. People like John Burton who was heavily involved in Jumanji at Gardaland are probably the key people in MMM for resort theme park design.
 
Last edited:
John Wardley was more the ride's producer, much like you need an experienced producer on a movie to pull all the pieces together in the right way (including the designers etc). Merlin don't procure projects in quite that way now.

MMM's creative leads are sort of like mini producers who are assigned projects and co-ordinate the creative aspects, who have a senior producer above them, and a creative director above that and a development committee. Without trying to downplay them, it's just a very different level of influence to John Wardley back in the day.

I totally agree about what made the Haunted House great in the first place, and that it's more about getting back that ambition and creativity that's really needed to make a great ride now. I really am not a fan of nostalgia for the sake of it (very popular trend currently).

However I also think there are some great setpieces and themes that still stand up today, which could fit right into the park if given a big refresh. Also thinking realistically, a lot of detail especially the garden (although in a worn out state now) you would struggle to get for your budget today. Gutting completely would just waste a lot of this.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
BritishThemeParkArchive said:
John Wardley was more the ride's producer, much like you need an experienced producer on a movie to pull all the pieces together in the right way (including the designers etc). Merlin don't procure projects in quite that way now.

MMM's creative leads are sort of like mini producers who are assigned projects and co-ordinate the creative aspects, who have a senior producer above them, and a creative director above that and a development committee. Without trying to downplay them, it's just a very different level of influence to John Wardley back in the day.

I totally agree about what made the Haunted House great in the first place, and that it's more about getting back that ambition and creativity that's really needed to make a great ride now. I really am not a fan of nostalgia for the sake of it (very popular trend currently).

However I also think there are some great setpieces and themes that still stand up today, which could fit right into the park if given a big refresh. Also thinking realistically, a lot of detail especially the garden (although in a worn out state now) you would struggle to get for your budget today. Gutting completely would just waste a lot of this.
Click to expand...
I'd only like to see them preserve it as much as possible, not because of nostalgia, I wasn't even born when it became Duel, but I'd like to see it preserved because of its incredibly unique style and take on a ghost train. I can't really think of a other Dark Rode that shares it's style from a design and lighting perspective.


I'd just like to see them revert to its original state before Tussauds messed with it, and give it new life and scares over the years. So, allow people to experience the original version of it for a couple of years, then start giving it additional changes.
 
Depending on the level of work they are planning to do on Duel, I highly doubt they’ll have it done if they close it straight after summer to have it ready by Scarefest.

From what people who know more than I do are saying on here coupled with the rumblings going around the socials, I think we’re in for a fairly substantial overhaul.
 
s_g_k said:
Depending on the level of work they are planning to do on Duel, I highly doubt they’ll have it done if they close it straight after summer to have it ready by Scarefest.

From what people who know more than I do are saying on here coupled with the rumblings going around the socials, I think we’re in for a fairly substantial overhaul.
Click to expand...
Especially with Hex down. They are gonna need it open till end of season. I hope so at least....with both down I'd be out of my chills man. 😉
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I would assume a closure at some point in or just after summer and through to next years opening, maybe a little later.

Some of the work that needs doing is hefty, for instance if they plan to replace the trommel that will be a heavy lifting job in itself.

As for the rumours no one knows for certain but my guess is bringing the core ride back to HH but with some modern plussing. So maybe not a carbon copy of 1992 HH
 
Dave said:
I would assume a closure at some point in or just after summer and through to next years opening, maybe a little later.

Some of the work that needs doing is hefty, for instance if they plan to replace the trommel that will be a heavy lifting job in itself.

As for the rumours no one knows for certain but my guess is bringing the core ride back to HH but with some modern plussing. So maybe not a carbon copy of 1992 HH
Click to expand...
I've always wondered why the trommel doesn't work anymore. Is it because of the actual shell of the tunnel being bent when it wasn't ran during closed season, or the mechanics had make it spin being broke and ther aren't any spare parts for it?


Talking about a Modern HH, I still lfind it a bit odd that all of the HH animatronics have been kept up with maintenance. Electric Bill was broken for a couple months, but now its back on working order, while selling of Duels zombie props are going into despair, along with the speakers for them.
 
Trooper Looper said:
I've always wondered why the trommel doesn't work anymore. Is it because of the actual shell of the tunnel being bent when it wasn't ran during closed season, or the mechanics had make it spin being broke and ther aren't any spare parts for it?


Talking about a Modern HH, I still lfind it a bit odd that all of the HH animatronics have been kept up with maintenance. Electric Bill was broken for a couple months, but now its back on working order, while selling of Duels zombie props are going into despair, along with the speakers for them.
Click to expand...
I’m sure I heard it was warped and I guess it’s just happened over time. If you were to run it now it would just break more. I guess you’ll have to take it out completely to sort it.
 
Skyscraper said:
That would require part of the roof to be removed!
Click to expand...
I don't think that's a given. It really depends on how the trommel was built and what is wrong with it.

You've got to imagine they would avoid doing anything involving cranes unless they absolutely have to.
 
Sorry, double posting, like a bad'un. But I've just stumbled across this vid, which is from 1993 after the first season upgrades:


The vid is filled with lots of other gems, and both also feature the dinosaurs in the log flume along with quite good footage of inside the flume tunnels complete with dinosaurs and prehistoric family.
 
Last edited:
Squiggs said:
Sorry, double posting, like a bad'un. But I'm not sure if I've ever seen this footage of the Haunted House before. It's quite hit or miss in quality, but I'm pretty certain it's from 1992 and features the ghost corridor and some quite interesting snippets of the swamp:
<video removed>

Also, this one, which I think I have seen before from 1993 after the first season upgrades:


Both vids are filled with lots of other gems, and both also feature the dinosaurs in the log flume along with quite good footage of inside the flume tunnels complete with dinosaurs and prehistoric family.
Click to expand...

That first one, when I checked it out, it had some 'uncensored' and inappropriate elements to it. Might wanna crop it and replace it with a different version only including the HH.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top