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2023: The Curse at Alton Manor

Hide and seek scene is much better, it has really improved the ride. The blue and yellow skull I'm not sure fits into the ride and the flying heads scene is still very poor, they were very mistimed on Friday. Still the part of the ride which needs improving but if they could do that then it would be a solid 10/10.
 
Saw the new additions and changes this weekend. Overall very positive apart from the projection of the skull on the plain black wall at one point which looked very cheap and fairground like. Liked the flying heads and the additions to the hide and seek section. Queue line was amazing at night.
 
Yeah the skull projection looks like something they've gotten off a royalty free stock footage website.

It's definitely a case of "we need to throw something in this empty space, and quick".
 
Burner said:
Yeah the skull projection looks like something they've gotten off a royalty free stock footage website.

It's definitely a case of "we need to throw something in this empty space, and quick".
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The skull is literally the main antagonist of the ride, it's his voice we hear chanting in the trommel, appearing in the grand hall and in the flying heads scene and the shadow Emily Transforms into in the hide and seek section . Emily summoned him from the fireplace which is why he is surrounded by flames in the scene. When Emily's eyes turn black towards the end of the ride that's the demon taking more control over her as she becomes more aggressive
 
The worse bit of the skull is it seems to be badly projected on a half white half black wall. Like they’ve added a bit of white projector material, but it then projectors on the black painted wall as well, and does look out of place
 
djtruefitt said:
The worse bit of the skull is it seems to be badly projected on a half white half black wall. Like they’ve added a bit of white projector material, but it then projectors on the black painted wall as well, and does look out of place
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I believe it's just a black wall but two different textures/ materials making one look brighter
 
The skull projection is laughably bad. Looks like it’s on to a projector screen but it’s misaligned. Looks poor quality and out of focus or something. That won’t last long.

The new scenes in hide and seek don’t do much. The peppers ghost is better then the animatronic. Both scenes are too small. The animatronic needs like a strobing effect or something as the movement is so slow and pointless. Looks bad.
 
Blackhole_Sun said:
The skull projection is laughably bad. Looks like it’s on to a projector screen but it’s misaligned. Looks poor quality and out of focus or something. That won’t last long.

The new scenes in hide and seek don’t do much. The peppers ghost is better then the animatronic. Both scenes are too small. The animatronic needs like a strobing effect or something as the movement is so slow and pointless. Looks bad.
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Hard to please.

You go past the animatronic in the hide and seek section so rapidly, that unless you are fixating on it, you will barely notice.

They could, of course, enhance things.
 
AstroDan said:
Hard to please.

You go past the animatronic in the hide and seek section so rapidly, that unless you are fixating on it, you will barely notice.

They could, of course, enhance things.
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To be fair considering it's the only thing that's in that part of the ride it's difficult to "barely notice" it. Additions like this need to not look like last minute ideas.
 
RIPCorky said:
To be fair considering it's the only thing that's in that part of the ride it's difficult to "barely notice" it. Additions like this need to not look like last minute ideas.
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As far as I am aware, they have been working on the additions for many months. In fact, almost from the day it opened. Half of me even wonders whether it was always the intention to have stuff there. but the budget wasn't there.

I still maintain the view that for the second that it's lit up, 99.9% of people aren't going to be concerned that it's just sideways moving. Garner Holt would be a bit overkill.
 
AstroDan said:
Hard to please.

You go past the animatronic in the hide and seek section so rapidly, that unless you are fixating on it, you will barely notice.

They could, of course, enhance things.
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I get that, it’s just such a small scene that you are drawn to it. I would do away with the complete blackout and try with some lighting or additional projections etc.

Any alterations are welcome to improve the ride this is just an opinion that’s all.
 
Is the scene not a jump scare then? It’s hard to picture exactly what it is. Surely a few cheap mannequins in sheets flashing up to loud sounds and projections would have been so easy to achive and more effective in that scene.

Am i of understanding the people who tweak the ride are in house staff at AT. Not the original Merlin magic staff, as they must work all other the country and Europe?


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TroySmith1 said:
Is the scene not a jump scare then? It’s hard to picture exactly what it is. Surely a few cheap mannequins in sheets flashing up to loud sounds and projections would have been so easy to achive and more effective in that scene.

Am i of understanding the people who tweak the ride are in house staff at AT. Not the original Merlin magic staff, as they must work all other the country and Europe?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I would have thought the tweaks would be done by MMM. Especially in it's opening year. Putting Mark, the highly skilled mechanical engineer, in charge of theatrics and show design is exactly what led to the ride becoming the mess it was, pre revamp.

Nothing to say that won't happen later in its life, but in the opening year, they will have the people who are skilled to do that type of work, tweaking it. They spent alot of cash making it what it is, they won't want to ruin that overnight..
 
I think the new scenes in the hide and seek section are actually pretty good. She appears on the left as she says "I'm over here" and then on the right as she says "or am I here" and it works pretty well in my opinion 🤷‍♂️ looked to me like shes in some sort of window in a house but hard to tell as you only see it for a number of seconds.

A few more tweaks over winter and it'll be a 10/10.
 
The hide and seek scenes could do with some fans to blow air from where she appears maybe, but that area itself could do with some improvement so the narrative flows better.

The Skull projection before the flying ghosts defo needs improving, but remember has to be suitable for everyone and not to petrify younger riders!

I think AT and MMM are going to continue to improve this ride, as a way of delivering continuous value to the customers, instead of finishing the ride and then no more investment.

This way it also keeps us all talking about it and wanting to visit the park and the attraction itself - our comments here are most likley read over as parts of the ride do improve.

We have to remember the ride is meant to be suitable for kids of all ages - not just us enthusiasts where we want it to scare and disrupt our mature minds! 🤣🥴

Like any business, they have to give other creatives and partners within the team a chance to prove out ideas and technology in a real world setting - sometimes they’ll get it wrong, sometimes they’ll get it right.

It’s going in the right direction, just with lots of plates spinning and other high profile projects like Nemesis (which have to be delivered right!), we can’t expect the future improvements overnight since the original investment has been completed on the attraction.

Excited to see what changes are made within the Curse over the 6 months its closed before the 2024 season! 😎
 
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