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Haunted House - Behind The Scenes Documentary

A full behind the scenes tour of the ride from 1993 was uploaded today. Less of a documentary, more straight up behind the scenes stuff.

 
Really great documentary, the amount of work and time that has gone into producing it is outstanding.

I never rode the Haunted House so it's nice to see how it compares to Duel (and now Alty Mans). Interesting to hear Varney's views on the Duel retheme. Had to laugh at Wardley riding Duel too, probably looking around thinking of how could they butcher the ride this way.
 
James said:
Really great documentary, the amount of work and time that has gone into producing it is outstanding.

I never rode the Haunted House so it's nice to see how it compares to Duel (and now Alty Mans). Interesting to hear Varney's views on the Duel retheme. Had to laugh at Wardley riding Duel too, probably looking around thinking of how could they butcher the ride this way.
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He did not look impressed
 
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Watching this Haunted House documentary last night, and it was excellent! To say it is an amateur documentary made by an enthusiast, the production value and level of details is fantastic. I never got to ride the Haunted House and I learnt so much more about it watching this, it really must have been a special attraction when it first opened.
 
RIPCorky said:
Theme park worldwide appears to have acquired some props from Duel.....
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Oooohh! Can't wait to see what props he has, but I sincerely doubt its any of the big ones sadly. By the sounds of it, a lot of Duel/The Haunted House was carelessly handled during the refurbishment and probably damaged. I'll never understand when other Parks do their best to preserve pieces of older attractions in places like museums, exhibitions, etc, while stuff like this happens in Merlins parks. I guess they're too busy on other things.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Oooohh! Can't wait to see what props he has, but I sincerely doubt its any of the big ones sadly. By the sounds of it, a lot of Duel/The Haunted House was carelessly handled during the refurbishment and probably damaged. I'll never understand when other Parks do their best to preserve pieces of older attractions in places like museums, exhibitions, etc, while stuff like this happens in Merlins parks. I guess they're too busy on other things.
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Well the bookworm ended up snapped in half so I assume all the original 92 props have probably been destroyed or hopefully pulled out the skip by someone who cares enough to save them. I guess they don't have the storage to keep everything, would rather they left most these props in the ride to be honest :disappointed:
 
RIPCorky said:
Well the bookworm ended up snapped in half so I assume all the original 92 props have probably been destroyed or hopefully pulled out the skip by someone who cares enough to save them. I guess they don't have the storage to keep everything, would rather they left most these props in the ride to be honest :disappointed:
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I'll try to make this post not too wordy, but it's a real shame that it doesn't seem like Merlin are that passionate about the parks past, even Disney are better than them in that aspect, which is saying something. I've always thought Alton Towers having a museum would be a great idea, showing the old signs, set pieces, media, etc. A lot of missed potential there IMO.

Im sure you know this as you've seen the documentary, but the original Sculptor of the props when it was the Haunted House, Donald Owen, still makes props independently and has the maquettes for the original props he did. If you're a big die hard fan, maybe ask him to replicate some of them for your home, (if you're willing to pay over 1k that is XD. Not even I would go that far. Count me out thanks)

If you're interested in his works, he has his own website on what he's done. Very talented guy!!
 
The majority of the Haunted House props were in a state/beyond repair way before the refurbishment. Towers may have kept hold of some props from the ride and anything thrown out will have been because it’s beyond repair and of no use.
 
Trooper Looper said:
I'll try to make this post not too wordy, but it's a real shame that it doesn't seem like Merlin are that passionate about the parks past, even Disney are better than them in that aspect, which is saying something. I've always thought Alton Towers having a museum would be a great idea, showing the old signs, set pieces, media, etc. A lot of missed potential there IMO.

Im sure you know this as you've seen the documentary, but the original Sculptor of the props when it was the Haunted House, Donald Owen, still makes props independently and has the maquettes for the original props he did. If you're a big die hard fan, maybe ask him to replicate some of them for your home, (if you're willing to pay over 1k that is XD. Not even I would go that far. Count me out thanks)

If you're interested in his works, he has his own website on what he's done. Very talented guy!!
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Nothing would be better to have a replica of the demon just behind your living room door pop out at guests when they come round.

At least theme park world wide has a passion for preserving the past of Alton towers, even if they don’t. If you look at the past rides (Toy Land Tours for example) all the props are gone seemingly without a trace. Yet they kept some of the log flume boats behind duel.

It’s a lot of storage but even if the props are damaged they could preserve them and either give them out to collectors for restoration or build an on site museum.
 
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