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[2023] The Curse at Alton Manor

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The clear difference between her face and her hands is a nice touch as if she's actually a demon or something luring you in.
EDIT: The ride page on the website now uses the new image, and contains a new description about the Manor alongside the one I posted in here earlier.
 
RIPCorky said:
Where? Show me? We've seen a couple of bits that have been removed from the garden and the trommel facia, what else have we seen?
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If you look at some of the drone footage and closed season updates, there have also been quite a considerable amount of skips filled with scrapped theming shown behind the ride. There certainly looks to have been quite a bit removed, by the looks of things; those skips must surely have been filled with something!

There’s obviously no way to know for sure, but I predict that the attraction that opens on 18th March will be materially very different to both of the prior iterations of that ride, and I don’t see much remaining of the original theming. Contrary to my previous belief, I’m thinking that the Grand Hall set will probably be reutilised in some capacity given the teaser materials, but other than that, I’m predicting that very little will remain of the original theming.

To be honest, I’m struggling to see how many of the scenes from the previous ride would really fit the new storyline, and it does sound as though a storyline will play a heavier role in The Curse at Alton Manor than it did in either of the previous iterations.

I’m hoping that The Curse at Alton Manor offers something totally different to both The Haunted House and Duel, and I’m optimistic that it will. The marketing makes it sound as though the ride has had plenty of enhancements to make it more befitting of the modern era, and I’m confident that technologies such as projection mapping should really enhance it.
 
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George W said:
But if you're going by what we've seen ourselves then there's not going to be anything Duel with some of the props and scenes torn out
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I'm sure the Duel scenes have been removed yes. I expect the end scene to be the attic where she was locked away, I don't feel like the whole ride is going to be a trip through a dolls house going by what's been seen today. Doesn't make sense that she was locked in an attic whilst her parents entertained below now suddenly the whole house has transformed into a toy.
 
Given the concept images, I actually feel like the previously expressed theory of everything up to the Trommel being the regular house and everything after the Trommel being the doll’s house could be a solid one.

The concept image shows Emily Alton opening a doll’s house and guests riding into it on a ride car. With that in mind, I don’t think it’s too much of a reach to suggest that a scene in the ride may see guests riding into a doll’s house, and I think that that could very well be where the Trommel used to be, with the opening house door seen in the concept art being the new frontage for the tunnel.
 
Matt N said:
Given the concept images, I actually feel like the previously expressed theory of everything up to the Trommel being the regular house and everything after the Trommel being the doll’s house could be a solid one.

The concept image shows Emily Alton opening a doll’s house and guests riding into it on a ride car. With that in mind, I don’t think it’s too much of a reach to suggest that a scene in the ride may see guests riding into a doll’s house, and I think that that could very well be where the Trommel used to be, with the opening house door seen in the concept art being the new frontage for the tunnel.
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The Trommel would work as a sort of 'portal' between the regular house and the doll's house.
 
I also wouldn’t be surprised if Alton Towers have grown wise to the drones and done things like taken theming into the building overnight or something.

And as @Dave says, new theming is unlikely to be left sitting outside for drones to photograph. It’s most likely taken into the building almost instantly; Alton Towers/Merlin would not want brand new theming to risk being damaged by exposure to the elements.

Just because something hasn’t been captured by drone or reported by an enthusiast on social media, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it hasn’t happened.
 
Matt N said:
If you look at some of the drone footage and closed season updates, there have also been quite a considerable amount of skips filled with scrapped theming shown behind the ride. There certainly looks to have been quite a bit removed, by the looks of things; those skips must surely have been filled with something!
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You have to remember that removing a single scene from Duel would equate to many, many skips... the lab scenes alone would account for more skips than have been seen in images over the closed season.

I would agree with @RIPCorky, we haven't seen that much removed that is verifiable as existing scenery except for the entrance to the Trommel Tunnel, death's Gazebo, a single column from the Hall of Spiders and those skips that look like the walls from the lab.

As ever, I would expect something in between... more stuff switched out than some are expecting, but less than those who are thinking everything after the trommel will be striped.
 
To be honest, I have grown less averse to the idea of them reusing elements from the previous iterations.

Those who remember the earlier debates on Duel might remember that I was an advocate for considerable change to the ride, and I was highly sceptical of the success prospects of a nostalgia-driven Haunted House "revival" that reused absolutely everything. Originally, I was quite against the idea of significant reuse of previous scenery or any significant reliance on the minutiae of the old HH.

However, I must admit that now the park have made it abundantly clear that The Curse at Alton Manor will be a very different proposition to either of the previous iterations, I have grown significantly less averse to the idea of some scenery reuse. Watching a 5K POV recorded by Attraction Source made me realise that there are actually some really nice sets within the ride, and seeing as those sets are likely to be put to very different use within the refurbished attraction given the storyline that the park has hinted towards, I see no reason why some sets couldn't be reused successfully within The Curse at Alton Manor.

Personally, though, I see sets being reused rather than props. Some of the sets in the ride were still genuinely really nice, and easily transferable to any haunted house-style ride, whereas I feel that the props aged more quickly than the sets, and at face value, few of the props within the previous ride (if any) would appear to fit the new storyline. Given that The Curse at Alton Manor appears to be vastly more story-driven than either of the previous two iterations, I think that is an important element to consider.
 
Sorry to double post, but I just had a thought… looking closely at that promo image shown yesterday, Emily Alton’s face almost looks a little bit cracked.

With this in mind, could Emily Alton herself be a doll?

I could be overthinking it a bit, but it’s just a thought I had.
 
Matt N said:
To be honest, I have grown less averse to the idea of them reusing elements from the previous iterations.

Those who remember the earlier debates on Duel might remember that I was an advocate for considerable change to the ride, and I was highly sceptical of the success prospects of a nostalgia-driven Haunted House "revival" that reused absolutely everything. Originally, I was quite against the idea of significant reuse of previous scenery or any significant reliance on the minutiae of the old HH.

However, I must admit that now the park have made it abundantly clear that The Curse at Alton Manor will be a very different proposition to either of the previous iterations, I have grown significantly less averse to the idea of some scenery reuse. Watching a 5K POV recorded by Attraction Source made me realise that there are actually some really nice sets within the ride, and seeing as those sets are likely to be put to very different use within the refurbished attraction given the storyline that the park has hinted towards, I see no reason why some sets couldn't be reused successfully within The Curse at Alton Manor.

Personally, though, I see sets being reused rather than props. Some of the sets in the ride were still genuinely really nice, and easily transferable to any haunted house-style ride, whereas I feel that the props aged more quickly than the sets, and at face value, few of the props within the previous ride (if any) would appear to fit the new storyline. Given that The Curse at Alton Manor appears to be vastly more story-driven than either of the previous two iterations, I think that is an important element to consider.
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People forget the rides size, to remove every single set and prop is more than 3-4 skips worth of material. It will be interesting to see what remains, not long now until we find out.
 
Matt N said:
Sorry to double post, but I just had a thought… looking closely at that promo image shown yesterday, Emily Alton’s face almost looks a little bit cracked.

With this in mind, could Emily Alton herself be a doll?

I could be overthinking it a bit, but it’s just a thought I had.
Click to expand...
If you look at her hands they look different too, so maybe she's a ghost or something?
 
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