Duel

Revision as of 19:02, 21 June 2010

Duel (also known as Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back, Dual, Dool or Nazi Zombies: The Ride) is a shooting dark ride operating at Alton Towers. It originally opened in 1992 as The Haunted House, but was rethemed to include laser guns in 2003, as part of "The Great Dark Ride Laser Reformation of the 21st Century". To this day, the ride remains a mysterious and relatively unknown ride, mostly because of the fact that Alton Towers forgot it existed for several years. It is, however, a suprisingly high-tech and world class dark ride, rivalling such rides as Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal Islands of Adventure and The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Also, the ride features extremely detailed theming and convincing ghosts, most of which are Halloween decorations from Tesco.

Construction

It was decided that something should be built on the pathway from Katanga Canyon to Forbidden Valley (then known as Thunder Valley), ready to open in 1992. John Wardley was called in to design a new dark ride for the area, resulting in the concept for an extremely clever and unique experience. The area now known as 'Gloomy Wood' was originally intended to be theme around a haunted swamp, but this was quickly changed after it was realised that the idea was not gimmicky enough.

On completion of the finished ride, John Wardley stated: "This is my dream ride. I have taken into account every aspect of what may happen to it in the future, and am certain that the Haunted House will not be botched up in about ten years."

Ten years later, the Haunted House was botched up. Once again it was decided that the general public were not intelligent enough to understand "Theatrical Brilliance", so the ride became based around "Tacky Gimmickiness" instead. The retheme included the addition of zombies, laser guns and a Michael Jackson Thriller-style queueline video, just to really rub it in the enthusiasts' faces.

Ride Experience

Famous Figures

The Electric Bill animatronic became famous in Western popular culture after appearing with John Wardley in an interview by the Pope about the religious validity of Wardleyism. The animatronic was seen annoying the Pope by repeatedly turning off the studio lights. Its popularity then accelerated after a statue was sculpted of the skeleton and put on display in Trafalgar Square. After strong demand from many Duel fans (estimated to be six, one of whom was pretending to be five different people), it was decided that Electric Bill should canonized and become one of the first modern day saints of the Wardley Church. At the Thirteen Evening event held at Alton Towers, John Wardley was spotted wearing a tee-shirt with the words: "I'm with St Bill." It was later reported that Morwenna Angove would be handing out free "Bill shot first" tee-shirts, "...for people who's clothes had melted under the extreme forces of NEW white-knuckle, gut-churning, vomit enducing scare ride, TH13TEEN".

Other famous figures include:

• The Not-That-Big Spider (a moderately-sized house spider that can sometimes be seen making a few webs in the corner and annoying the cleaners).
• The Lunatic (an escapee from England's criminal mental asylum, who somehow found his way into Duel where he spends his day breaking wind).
• The Undertaker (famous for his arm which occasionally moves or falls off).