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[2023] The Curse at Alton Manor

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immelmanloop said:
Can we appreciate the fact that it has taken us less than a day to give this thing an acronym. 🤣

In all seriousness, I am very excited for this. It is the first time in a while that I have seen Merlin/ towers market an attraction with good, solid content, and not worlds first, or overexaggerated rubbish. It also appears that they are going to move away from that stupid "scariest ride ever, PG-13, Waiver signed ride" angle that has consistently ruined attractions that have absolutely undelivered to their marketing. The little touces suggest that this is being made by people who respect the attractions history, but clearly shows a strong new angle, which Duel nevermangaed to achieve. The change of theme is significant enough to suggest that a fair portion of the interior will be reworked, and the new effects for the UK sounds interesting. Overall, this is the first project for a while, where I haven't spent the entirety of my time thinking "Oh my god they made an absolute mess of the marketing for this didn't they." And no IP!
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I totally agree, and the marketing for this ride seems to be appropriate, unlike for certain attractions.
 
Curious to see how much change there is to the ride vehicles. Not long before closure it felt like a good number of them had been removed from the circuit.

You would typically only do that if you were running something into the ground and swapping parts between units or if you were going to make significant changes to them and perhaps wanted a headstart on some of the fleet. The latter would seemingly be more likely.

The same happened in 2002 as I recall.
 
Rick said:
Curious to see how much change there is to the ride vehicles. Not long before closure it felt like a good number of them had been removed from the circuit.

You would typically only do that if you were running something into the ground and swapping parts between units or if you were going to make significant changes to them and perhaps wanted a headstart on some of the fleet. The latter would seemingly be more likely.

The same happened in 2002 as I recall.
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Considering that there are train tracks in the promo image, perhaps the vehicles will be themed to something similar to a model railway set?
 
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Just clocked that in the letter O in Manor, there’s a silhouette of a girl holding a doll.

More confirmation that this is now going to be set in the dolls house?
 
We know that Emily Alton is involved, it sounds like she wants to play a game with us, there are creepy dolls everywhere, this is giving me Jigsaw VIBES. (Just not as horrific luckily).
 
I’d call the first glimpse of this revamp a win already - a little dark, less goofy than before - but nevertheless it feels like AT are employing and listening to the right people - a sign of things to come? Maybe Wardley was right about Towers’ direction for the future
 
And why am I thinking IMAscore are currently strumming their strings in Germany, prepping new music for the ride? 🤔

Oh why couldn’t they leave Duel alone?! It was fine as it was. They ruined Tomb Blaster down at Chessington a few years back when they made a few changes to it. And we know how Bubbleworks ended too. Tussauds opened some great indoor rides and Merlin have brilliantly transformed them, but I do feel they have this knack of also ruining some classics.
 
RyanUK said:
And why am I thinking IMAscore are currently strumming their strings in Germany, prepping new music for the ride? 🤔

Oh why couldn’t they leave Duel alone?! It was fine as it was. They ruined Tomb Blaster down at Chessington a few years back when they made a few changes to it. And we know how Bubbleworks ended too. Tussauds opened some great indoor rides and Merlin have brilliantly transformed them, but I do feel they have this knack of also ruining some classics.
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Oh, my poor friend, if you think Tomb Blaster is good, get a load of this!


From: https://youtu.be/HJ5g2gcDABI


Pinnacle of Dark Rides and would still be very good in todays standards if they didn't turn it into Tomb Blaster!
 
NoSmoking said:
It was absolutely terrible and had been going from a mess to an embarrassment over 20 years. 20 years!
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If that’s how you saw it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Trooper Looper said:
Oh, my poor friend, if you think Tomb Blaster is good, get a load of this!


From: https://youtu.be/HJ5g2gcDABI


Pinnacle of Dark Rides and would still be very good in todays standards if they didn't turn it into Tomb Blaster!
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Oh I know all about Terrortomb. I don’t remember it, although many people said it was better.
 
RyanUK said:
And why am I thinking IMAscore are currently strumming their strings in Germany, prepping new music for the ride? 🤔

Oh why couldn’t they leave Duel alone?! It was fine as it was. They ruined Tomb Blaster down at Chessington a few years back when they made a few changes to it. And we know how Bubbleworks ended too. Tussauds opened some great indoor rides and Merlin have brilliantly transformed them, but I do feel they have this knack of also ruining some classics.
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They do have a knack for ruining classic rides, but Duel was in dire need of at least a refurb. The lighting in Duel was awful, especially if you compare it to the lighting in the HH. The guns, and the targets for those, also majorly detracted from the immersion. It was not fine as it was.
 
Can we stop with the lamenting about how people miss Haunted House/Duel please? Those who are doing so have made their views clear already multiple times over multiple pages. It's tiresome and adds absolutely nothing to discussion.

This is a topic for discussing what's coming up, not what has now been and gone.
 
Traditional dark ride > blaster dark ride. This sounds incredibly promising and has the potential to bring back the more menacing tone of the original Haunted House. John Wardley also said in a recent interview with Lift Hills and Thrills that the attention to detail in the new attraction would likely require repeat rides, so here's hoping for something on par with the likes of Symbollica. I find the prospect of discovering new details on each consecutive ride through the 'Manor' very exciting indeed.
 
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I’m loving the look of this! That promo image is brilliant, and I also really like the name!

Though I must admit that if I’m being pedantic, the use of “at” rather than “of” within the name isn’t the most satisfying to my ear, but that’s a tiny nitpick; I’ll get used to it, and it’s totally unimportant if the ride is good!

There are numerous things that I find interesting from the announcement, and there are numerous thoughts that I had. These include:
  • Based on the promotional image and the gifts sent to journalists yesterday, it would appear that dolls will be quite a prominent motif within the ride. With that in mind, I reckon that the theory about riders going into Emily Alton’s doll’s house from a couple of months back could well end up being correct.
  • I've heard others suggest that hide and seek could play some role in the ride, and given some of the evidence we have, I think that that sounds very plausible. The girl in the promotional image has her hands covering her eyes as though she could be counting, and the park's use of phrases like "Coming, ready or not!" and "the countdown has begun" could certainly allude to something to do with hide and seek, in my view. Some of the earlier teaser materials, such as the Gloomy Wood announcements having the letters "POSSESSED, WANT TO PLAY" spelled out on them in blood, would also line up with this, in my view.
  • Interestingly, Alton Towers have referred to the ride (in the press release) as "the park's most immersive dark ride to date", placing particular emphasis on "state-of-the-art special effects never seen before in a UK theme park". I wonder what these could be?
  • It does sound as though the ride could have a rather in-depth backstory seeing as though the park have apparently said that they will "announce more about the history of the Manor" in February.
  • Also, I think that the lack of "The Haunted House" within the name could be rather telling. Given that even Duel technically had "The Haunted House Strikes Back" as a suffix, could the park going with a name not containing "The Haunted House" imply that the ride experience will be more greatly divorced from either of its predecessors?
Overall, though; this looks brilliant, and I can't wait to ride it!
 
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