The Haunted House Aromas

A Vortex machine works by heating up the oil aroma that is placed within. The Haunted House had many of these machines situated throughout the ride. The first Vortex machine is situated in the entrance hall or gallery as it is known see image opposite. Alton Towers Haunted House used two mains aromas the first being 'Musty' It gives the house that old and decaying feeling. The second is 'Garden Shed' which is used within the Ghoulish Garden. Theses smells are an excellent enhancement to the theming!

Moving Hand

The Hand in the bell jar is an old favorite of mine and is currently non operational. Originally the fingers on the hand would move rather slowly to give the illusion that the hand although removed from the body was still somehow alive. This was made operational by a small motor under the table that the bell jar sits on. This motor would turn cogs that would then pull levers that were connected to the fingers giving the spooky twitching movement

Currently the hand has been removed from the haunted house.

Moving Eye Portraits

An old illusion done really well here at Alton Towers. Simple to achieve and one that could be used to great effect in the home for Halloween parties. I have managed to recreate one of the old haunted house portraits at home using this same techniques. This is how its done. Firstly you need a large picture with good eye area see images opposite. Attach this to thin plywood or thick card and remove the eye area with a sharp scalpel. Construct a rebated frame and attach some eye images to the back board of the frame, in line with the eye openings on the picture. Then illuminate the inside using low wattage bulbs. This just illuminates the eyes that are set back and gives the illusion that the eyes follow you around the room.

This is a great haunted house effect. This image is taken from one of the portraits that was inside the haunted house.

Original By Les Edwards

Ghostly Book

The Ghostly Book works with a little motor that is incorporated in the cushion of the chair, it turns the steel spindle that can be seen at the base of the book see picture opposite. This in turn turns the pages, when the book reaches the end it catches a switch that puts the motor in to reverse and causes the pages to return. Excellent effect that is no longer working.

Emily Alton's Dolls House

Another spooky effect that works using the old 'Peppers ghost' illusion. Look at the house to the left and you can see the angled glass that catches the reflection of the ghostly apparition which is projected from a small monitor housed within the closed off upstairs room. The image is on a loop and continually plays, it also had its very own sound track of Emily Alton humming a lullaby; no longer in use. This effect only plays well in a dim light and is strategically placed to avoid glare.

Sir Henry Alton

This effect was fantastic and sometimes caught unsuspecting on lookers by surprise, the fire would look quite normal until there was a crash of thunder and a flash of lightening and sparks would appear in the fire and the decapitated head of Sir Henry Alton would say: 'Within these flickering flames lies the secret tortures that exist in your mind! and 'Are you furtive frightened minds playing tricks inside your brain'.In front of the fire place stands a small table set out for tea by the fire place and underneath lies the secret to the workings of this once great effect. A monitor hidden under the table plays the whole thing on a loop that is reflected against the glass screen that cover the fireplace opening. Another Pepper's Ghost effect use well.

The Rocking Horse

The Ghostly rocking horse works by a simple motor hidden under the floor as the motor turns it pushes a bar up and down which is then attached to the rocker of the horse making it look like it is being rocked by unseen hands.

The Blue light / Lightening Effect

Although not a special effect the blue light had two roles first it made the room eerie and gave a strange dimension to the room it also highlighted people who used the disabled rider queue and gave the impression that there was another sinister corridor that you had to travel down.Also the lightening effect worked well within this room and added atmosphere, simply done by a pulsing strobe light and another sound track using thunder.

Bats!

The Bats are operated by a motor that spins them over and over, this combined with the black lighting makes for another simple but great effect.

Tommels Tunnel

This old fairground illusion makes the rider feel as though they are spinning over and over. The tunnel is supported on rollers that move the tunnel around the track which is suspended through the center of the tunnel. At the far side of the tunnel is a piece of static arched stone that gives the rider something to focus on whilst traveling through, this fixed point gives the rider that turning over feeling. Unfortunately now at the end of the tunnel is the screaming head, that originally came from the stoneface garden section of the old house. This now spoils the spinning sensation as the eye is drawn away from the fixed stone arch.

The Giants Fingers

Designed to crash through the windows as the cars went by. This is the mechanism for the finger movements. It works by lifting one the fingers which in turn uniformly lifts the others, as they are all joined together. Set off by sensor as the cars move by and works on hydraulic pressure.

Giant Spiders

The Hall of Spiders was an extremely dark area which was only illuminated with black light and low level spots. This helped hide the rigging used to support the spiders and the mechanisms used to make them move.The small spiders are all suspended and moved by a motor which causes the supports to twitch.However the large spider which you travel under is operated by a large arm that drops down making the body and head move. These effects only worked well in low level lighting. Unfortunately the introduction of strobe lighting and zombies in this area have really spoiled the illusion.

Undertakers Hearse

This effect was classed as a fantastic effect which equaled the effects used by Disney. It was only recently that I found out how it was achieved. It's another 'peppers ghost' effect. The image of a deathly soul is attached to a spinning disk that is attached to the wall opposite the hearse. The Disk rotates slowly whilst being illuminated by black light. The reflection is captured in the glass side of the hearse. Making the soul of a the dead man in the coffin seem to float upwards from the coffin.