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What made The Sanctuary so special?

Zeock

Zeock

TS Member
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I can't find much information about this maze so I would like to know why it was so highly regarded from 2012-2013?
In 2014, it seems like it either became worse or stale though as many people from the time complained about that iteration.
 
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Talking for myself it was a whole package, which in some ways resembled a Disney attraction. By that I mean it had everything you'd want from a greatly thought out attraction. I won't go into too much detail but I'll try to some it up...

- Every staff member inc. queue line hosts, actors, supervisors were in character and costume. Creating an un easy atmosphere (think ToT at Disney)

- The experience began as soon as you entered the queue line with music, screens, roaming actors and I suppose the main part, the building (Towers) actually matched the theme of the maze, so it brought an extra layer of realism to the story.

- The story: it had one. Instead of just being a block theme, The Sanctuary had a story which slowly played out as you went through which created a journey. Importantly this story was as important as the scares and they both came in equal measure.

- I suppose all the above came down to the fact that the attraction was believable. Jumping back to Disney, look at the Haunted Mansion or ToT, take out the ride system and you'd pretty much believe you were in a real mansion or hotel. The same went for The Sanctuary, if you stood in there without other guests you'd think you were in a 1930s abandoned hospital, in a real old building without any shipping containers or plastic theming.

Moving on to your last comment. When The Sanctuary returned for The Smilers replacement while it was closed it had lost the care and attention that made it so special upon its original run. Actors weren't wearing correct costumes, or to the standards that were upheld upon opening, hosts were no longer in character, theming hadn't been looked after or replaced and there were less actors generally in the attraction.

All of the above unfortunately meant the attraction was half of what it used to be and it lost what made in special in the first place.
 
I think the first scene with Dr Kelman welcoming you particularly set the tone for what you were about to experience. It was very well delivered, good high quality acting.

It was a bit similar to meeting the fisherman before darkest depths but I'd say much better executed.

The marmaliser really stands out in my memory too. You'd get into this really tight corridor and on our run we had this moment where we looked around as there was nowhere to go. Then the lights flashing and sound blaring started. You felt trapped and and as if your senses were abused, which just makes sense for the story.
 
I was too young to go in and I only developed an interest in the sanctuary a few years back so I don't have that much information however there are 2 videos I have found online with POV's of the maze and from what I can see it looked to be a fully immersive experiance with a long running time (compared to todays 5 min standard). I would love to see this return or to have a maze this year of the same high standard that the sanctuary had.


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2jrfE3KdKM



From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig62pnwARQU
 
Hazza said:
I was too young to go in and I only developed an interest in the sanctuary a few years back so I don't have that much information however there are 2 videos I have found online with POV's of the maze and from what I can see it looked to be a fully immersive experiance with a long running time (compared to todays 5 min standard). I would love to see this return or to have a maze this year of the same high standard that the sanctuary had.


From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2jrfE3KdKM



From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig62pnwARQU
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I have seen those now. They do give an idea of what it was like.
 
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It had a lot of thought put into it.

Little things like each room was deliberately smaller than the previous room so you got a sense of claustrophobia. Plus the used infrasound speakers and made good use of the aesthetic of the Towers without it being a “haunted castle” theme.

The only real weakness was the finale.
 
It was a very good maze and really set up the smiler.

Think what helps its reputation was it only ran for a short period of time wheras in recent years mazes have just remained the same year after year so regular visitors get fed up of them.
 
I have strong memories of that strobe finale, but only because the rest of our batched group legged it, leaving myself and my girlfriend stuck on our own. I think we ended up climbing through that caged window (seen in the above clip) to get out. Must have somehow ended up in the actors area.

Can't believe that was on my last trip to towers. It really has been a long time!
 
I think it was a great maze, but I have no idea why it gets talked about as if it's the greatest scare maze Alton Towers ever had. Fans still go on about it to complain about anything new, when I think Altonville and Attic bettered it.
 
NoSmoking said:
I think it was a great maze, but I have no idea why it gets talked about as if it's the greatest scare maze Alton Towers ever had. Fans still go on about it to complain about anything new, when I think Altonville and Attic bettered it.
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Really? I always found Attic pretty meh, and although I never did it The Sanctuary seemed much more intense and immersive
 
I suppose I only found it "special" because it was overall a decent maze that set the Smiler up well. Although the physical theming of the Smiler is absolute garbage (hence why some of it is made out of upside down dustbins) I've always liked the overall theme itself. I liked all the Orwellian Dr Kelman stuff. The maze itself was decent, but I wouldn't say it was anything spectacular for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it but I've enjoyed others like 1000 screams, Boiler House and Bloodfest Banquet more.

The Sanctuary back story carried over to the Smiler itself relatively loosely. Although it is consistent with it (for now) I doubt many people know about the back story, not that I'm complaining because I think themes of coasters in particular should be left quite ambiguous open to personal interpretation and imagination. Maybe in a few years time when Merlin try and retheme it to some boring military theme, some of the young 'uns around these parts will understand why I think what they're doing to Nemesis now ruins much of what made the ride what it is and will use their experiences of The Sanctuary and the Smile Always promo videos to express that opinion.

Not that I think The Smiler will be remembered as fondly. It'll probably rip itself apart in a few years time.
 
WickerwomanH said:
Really? I always found Attic pretty meh, and although I never did it The Sanctuary seemed much more intense and immersive
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Then maybe you'd have found the Sanctuary pretty meh too, if it wasn't for all the hype around it. I think the scenery is better in Attic, there's great suspense and a great theme/story. It lacks repeatability maybe. The Sanctuary was very good, but it's put on a strange pedestal by most fans. The Dr Kelman character was nothing particularly memorable either in my opinion.
 
NoSmoking said:
Then maybe you'd have found the Sanctuary pretty meh too, if it wasn't for all the hype around it. I think the scenery is better in Attic, there's great suspense and a great theme/story. It lacks repeatability maybe. The Sanctuary was very good, but it's put on a strange pedestal by most fans. The Dr Kelman character was nothing particularly memorable either in my opinion.
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Ah fair enough! I wish I could hae experienced it but I've only pretty recently started doing mazes
 
Matt.GC said:
I suppose I only found it "special" because it was overall a decent maze that set the Smiler up well. Although the physical theming of the Smiler is absolute garbage (hence why some of it is made out of upside down dustbins) I've always liked the overall theme itself. I liked all the Orwellian Dr Kelman stuff. The maze itself was decent, but I wouldn't say it was anything spectacular for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it but I've enjoyed others like 1000 screams, Boiler House and Bloodfest Banquet more.

The Sanctuary back story carried over to the Smiler itself relatively loosely. Although it is consistent with it (for now) I doubt many people know about the back story, not that I'm complaining because I think themes of coasters in particular should be left quite ambiguous open to personal interpretation and imagination. Maybe in a few years time when Merlin try and retheme it to some boring military theme, some of the young 'uns around these parts will understand why I think what they're doing to Nemesis now ruins much of what made the ride what it is and will use their experiences of The Sanctuary and the Smile Always promo videos to express that opinion.

Not that I think The Smiler will be remembered as fondly. It'll probably rip itself apart in a few years time.
Click to expand...

That topic is now metastasising to other topics, god help us all!
 
I've now heard that there was a part of the attraction where there is a fireball as a result of a TV breaking! I think I know why it was so special now.
 
zeock said:
I've now heard that there was a part of the attraction where there is a fireball as a result of a TV breaking! I think I know why it was so special now.
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Yeah there was in the first room, however I seem to remember that was only there the first Halloween, and wasn’t there when it returned the second season or when it was open before the smiler opened
 
I've done some more research on this. Gerry Cannell (Dr Kelman actor) seems like an absolute legend!
djtruefitt said:
Yeah there was in the first room, however I seem to remember that was only there the first Halloween, and wasn’t there when it returned the second season or when it was open before the smiler opened
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Not sure about the second season, but apparently the fireball was moved to the kitchen when it was open before The Smiler opened.
 
My best experience was through the extreme runs of The Sanctuary, a full account room by room of the experience can be found here.
www.parksscaresandglitter.co.uk

Revisted: Extreme The Sanctuary 22/10/13

For today’s first ever Throwback review we revisit Dan’s experience of The Sanctuary Extreme at Alton Towers in 2013. Entrance Ok so after my last ride of the day which was Hex, With only 4 others-great experience- I headed to the archway to be met by a small crowd, The rain was coming down...
www.parksscaresandglitter.co.uk www.parksscaresandglitter.co.uk
 
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