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[2023] The Curse at Alton Manor

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Trooper Looper said:
You're right that being inside the dolls house is quite creative, but i think it potential could limit the creativity a bit as well as every scene has to be themed to a house whereas the original HH had so much variety in its scenes, from a possessed room, a gothic hallway with giant hands crashing through windows, a endless void of screaming heads, a swamp full of man-eating creatures and the environment trying to kill you. No way scenes like that would work in a dolls house, which personally for me really limits to what they can do on the creative and idea side of things. I don't want just spiders and toys in there, I want all types of paranormal beings that stick out from one another.

I simply want the ride to have a lot of variety and not just a single theme with every scene based in a simple victorian house with creepy toys placed throughout it. Yes, the Grand Hall is my favourite scene and would definitely fit in a dolls house, but it would get pretty boring with every scene set in a typical old house like most Ghost Trains.
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To play devil's advocate a tad here; how is being inside the doll's house any different to being inside the haunted house facade that the ride has been taking riders inside for the past 30 years?

The haunted house facade of the last 30 years is a house just as the doll's house would be; a doll's house is simply a different kind of house, is it not, so how does the doll's house idea constrain creativity any more than the HH ever did?
 
Matt N said:
To play devil's advocate a tad here; how is being inside the doll's house any different to being inside the haunted house facade that the ride has been taking riders inside for the past 30 years?

The haunted house facade of the last 30 years is a house just as the doll's house would be; a doll's house is simply a different kind of house, so how does the doll's house idea constrain creativity any more than the HH ever did?
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Just from the promotion poster of just a creepy girl, spiders, toys, and dolls, nothing else. No Ghouls, no Monsters, no creative and original beings, just things you'd find in an old dolls house. Hopefully I'm proven wrong though and we'll see proper variety to make every scene unpredictable and stand in its own right.
 
Matt N said:
To play devil's advocate a tad here; how is being inside the doll's house any different to being inside the haunted house facade that the ride has been taking riders inside for the past 30 years?

The haunted house facade of the last 30 years is a house just as the doll's house would be; a doll's house is simply a different kind of house, so how does the doll's house idea constrain creativity any more than the HH ever did?
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I understand what you are saying, but I think there is potential for some really cool, unique visuals.

There could be a cool illusion where the car goes into the doll house and it looks tiny but somehow, we fit through. Also if you think about it, on this ride through a doll house we could be the size of a toy. The rooms could have not little dolls, but giant, creepy human-sized dolls and other toys. Maybe there will be brief sections where we look out into a giant playroom.

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Batzy said:
I understand what you are saying, but I think there is potential for some really cool, unique visuals.

There could be a cool illusion where the car goes into the doll house and it looks tiny but somehow, we fit through. Also if you think about it, on this ride through a doll house we could be the size of a toy. The rooms could have not little dolls, but giant, creepy human-sized dolls and other toys. Maybe there will be brief sections where we look out into a giant playroom.

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I agree with you; if this is the new theme of the ride, I think that the idea has a lot of potential myself.

I was more responding to the suggestion from @Trooper Looper that the doll's house theme constrained creativity compared with the original HH theme.
 
Danscott22 said:
I think this seems plausible ( and likely)
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Could we maybe see a press announcement at either midnight tonight or tomorrow maybe, similar to what Merlin have done in the past with Wicker Man and Jumanji that I can think of? With the press receiving packages today, surely they wouldn't want to wait too long for any official press releases/annoucements in case of any leaks?
 
Matt N said:
I agree with you; if this is the new theme of the ride, I think that the idea has a lot of potential myself.

I was more responding to the suggestion from @Trooper Looper that the doll's house theme constrained creativity compared with the original HH theme.
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I agree with you too, creative potential could be restrained to that "creepy girl in horror movies" vibe. If you aren't scared of dolls, this ride may not be that scary, though it looks like it will definitely deliver some great theming at least!

But I have a good feeling that Merlin will use the restraints to think outside the box.

Personally this is the kind of thing that creeps me out. I had no problem in the Scarefest mazes but this will be a bit of a challenge XD

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Morgan Price said:
Could we maybe see a press announcement at either midnight tonight or tomorrow maybe, similar to what Merlin have done in the past with Wicker Man and Jumanji that I can think of? With the press receiving packages today, surely they wouldn't want to wait too long for any official press releases/annoucements in case of any leaks?
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Not so sure it’ll be that soon, but within the next 7 days I find it highly likely
 
Danscott22 said:
Not so sure it’ll be that soon, but within the next 7 days I find it highly likely
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Yeah, I suppose on second thought midnight tonight would be a bit soon haha. Maybe a teaser campaign over the next week with an official announcement on Friday/Saturday?

I'm studying digital marketing at university so I'm loving the way both Merlin and Alton Towers are going about promoting and marketing this ride! It's got me really excited to see what they've got in store for us come March.
 
Something I've just noticed.

The girl covering her eyes has cracks on her face. Could this mean that the girl, if Emily, is also a doll? Maybe thats the curse? Emily is cursed to posses this doll?
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NoSmoking said:
I think (and seems most would agree) it's best for Alton Towers with an imaginative mix and family appropriate
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I don’t really think many people agree with this in all actuality other than you and @Trooper Looper. You also may not have been saying the concept can’t be reimagined, but you certainly implied it.

I also don’t understand why you think it’s best for Alton to go down the family route? As if they don’t already cater prominently towards the family market already. Other than the big thrill coasters, what can you honestly say on the park is not family friendly? We need more thrilling attractions, not just coasters.

There’s lots of family friendly attractions at Alton, but other than the coasters there’s really not much else thrilling on offer.

The whole concept of a ghost train is to be thrilling, when I ride a ghost train i’m not thinking if it caters to a family audience or not - because imo scare attractions should never be that.
 
If you want originality I feel like theme parks are the wrong place to look, the vast majority of themed attractions are based on pretty well worn tropes (this isn’t a bad thing either!)
 
The last post I read was a picture of a doll's head in a pizza box next to bacon, eggs and horrifying sausages. There's been over 100 posts since. So I don't have to read through tonnes of comments about hopes and dreams for the original Haunted House to return from people who weren't even born when it closed, anyone care to summarise what the hell is going on? Would be much appreciated.
 
Josh555 said:
Where I’m going with this is that I don’t think the source material is really going to tell you too much about how good this is, although from the little you can take from that marketing add I think it’s probably on the right tracks, it’s all about execution, creating a narrative and, if the intention is to up the fear factor a bit( realising that less is more and working on the audience (riders) fear of whatever the protagonist is, which I assume is Emily Alton (or at least a girl anyway).

It’s one of the reasons that the original 90s Haunted House was more of a ‘laugh in the dark’ type ride and not genuinely that scary, there was so much going on you become acclimatised to it, and that isn’t a critique of it either as it was clearly intended to be that type of attraction, even if I personally prefer the more subtle horror.
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I don't think we necessarily need a narrative. But yeah, I agree on the 'less is more' point. What happened to horror where you didn't actually see what happened to the person who got caught by the creature/villain etc? The idea of the unknown and uncertainty is what creates fear, and things aren't 'unknown' when you see what happens, or as is typical nowadays; every grizzly/gory detail .

But yeah you have a point, the setup for Haunted House was never about making people feel afraid or fearful to any extreme degree. It was just spooky fun at the end of the day. And hopefully that original formula is followed through with here. Although with Merlin and their relentless obsession with themes of torture, human sacrifice, alien attacks on cities, zombie attacks, fracking damage, teenage girls being attacked in the woods etc. maybe we are putting our hopes in the wrong place.
 
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From that marketing image it clearly looks like:

1. The main theme is a house with dolls (that's not to say it's ALL dolls).
2. The facade is staying the same (maybe with a couple of little artistic changes).
3. Well, what more is there to say really? I like the slightly more sinister theme, to be honest.
 
"Coming, ready or not!"

The hide and seek theory seems to be solid then. Also I can see now the girl doesn't have cracks on her face, she just looks undead.

So excited! I have high expectations for the soundtrack and theming!

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