The Curse at Alton Manor at Alton Towers review, ride info and photo gallery

Theme Park	Alton Towers
Park Area	Gloomy Wood
Type	Dark Ride
Audience	Older Families
Opened	18 March 2023 (replaced Duel: The Haunted House Strikes Back!)
Manufacturer	Mack Rides
Designer	John Burton & Carl Hackett
Duration	6 minutes
Extras	Fastrack On-Ride Photos

Alton Manor

The Curse at Alton Manor tells the story of Emily Alton, the spirit of a little girl who was left unloved and unwanted, and is now out for revenge. Just as the house is being put up for sale following a mysterious repossession, she is out to find a set of new playmates to entertain her. At the same time prospective buyers are being welcomed inside the Manor for a tour...

The dark ride sits deep within Alton Towers' spooky Gloomy Wood area, with the Manor's imposing gothic exterior dominating a clearing in the trees. Guests queue through a graveyard before climbing a short staircase and entering through the front door and into the house itself.

Upon entering the house, visitors will find a preshow room which tells the ride's backstory by way of a doll's house and some fascinating special effects which really bring the story - and the room - to life. It is easy to walk straight through the preshow, but it is well worth lingering and watching so that you will fully understand everything you see in the ride itself.

Backstory

The preshow tells the story of Alton Manor

The Curse at Alton Manor's backstory takes visitors back to the closing years of the 19th Century when the house was home to the Alton family - a mother and father, plus their young daughter Emily. The family would throw parties for members of the local high society, with much feasting, music and fun.

Emily, though, was not invited: She was kept out of the way, sent to the attic to play with a doll's house her parents had bought for her to keep her entertained. Over time Emily became disenchanted and lonely, forgotten and left out of the merriment and laughter which echoed through from the floors below her attic hideaway.

Darkness began to surround her, creating a hatred fueled by anger and bitterness which brought evil forces to pervade every corner of the Manor. On New Years Eve 1891, the evil finally took over. The Alton family's party guests all disappered without a trace, along with Emily and her dolls.

And now, over a century later, the former Alton Manor is up for sale after being repossessed under mysterious circumstances. The public is being invited in to look around, with those interested being able to make offers to purchase it from the local Burton and Ward Estate Agents. But beware: Rumour has it that the possessed spirit of Emily Alton still roams the corridors of the house in her neverending search for someone to play with her.

Ride Experience

WARNING: Spoilers ahead - This section reveals details of the story played out within the ride. You may wish to skip to the next section to avoid spoiling the surprises, or click the button below to reveal the secrets.

Reveal Spoilers

Following the preshow, guests will find themselves in the ride station, where they will board one of the ride vehicles which constantly crawl slowly along the platform. Each car seats up to six people in two rows of three. Riders will notice paper chains hanging above their heads and a large banner wishing them a Happy New Year 1892. Travelling underneath the banner, they journey into the house proper and the real story of Emily Alton begins to unfold.

The ride station

Early on they come across the remnants of the party banquet. The festivities of 1891 are long since over, however, and now long-dead skeletons sit at the tables, appearing to watch the guests as they travel past. Things turn quickly darker as the ride cars move into the blackness, with riders hearing the voice of Emily for the first time as she declares "this is my house now".

The further the ride cars travel into the Manor and up towards the attic, the more twistedly evil things become and it is evident that the spirit of Emily has taken over. Through various scenes visitors encounter frights such as giant spiders, dolls and even briefly become entangled within a huge spinning timepiece. There are loads of hidden Easter eggs to spot, with many clever nods to previous Alton Towers rides to be seen.

Emerging into the moonlit garden, we start to realise the fullness of Emily's plans: Oversized dolls heads are scattered around, bound together with gigantic needles and threads. We fleetingly spot Emily on the garden swing but when we turn back for a second look she has disappeared, the empty swing swaying by itself.

Turning a corner we see the front of Emily's doll's house ... but it is now ginormous and we are sucked inside. This, the climax of the ride, notches up the intensity to its maximum. Surrounded by colossal versions of dolls, a rubber duck (originally seen in the tunnel of The Flume many years ago!) and other toys, riders are trapped inside the doll's house, destined to be Emily's eternal playthings.

Racing through the house riders make a dash for freedom, dodging Emily's monstrous hands trying to grab them as she becomes increasingly angry. There's a bright flash of light followed by black, eventually pierced by an anguished scream from Emily, and we come head-to-head with her enormous face peering down. A simple bit of misdirection, but it is something which creates one of the best effects in the whole ride.

Thankfully it's now too late for Emily, as the riders make it safely out of her version of a Haunted House and find themselves ready to disembark their ride vehicles at the exit platform.

The Duel Is Over

The Curse at Alton Manor is not an entirely new ride for Alton Towers, but is instead the second retheme their original 1992 Haunted House has undergone. Most recently the ride was known as Duel: The Haunted House Strikes Back, which pitted guests against a horde of zombies that had invaded the house. Duel closed in September 2022 to allow for the transformation into The Curse at Alton Manor to begin.

Duel's zombie crypt has been replaced by Emily Alton's tomb outside the front of the ride

The building and ride system remain the same, although the previous interactive laser gun element has been removed and the whole ride has undergone a substantial retheme. While regular visitors to Alton Towers will recognise some of the old Haunted House/Duel scenes and props have been kept, much been completely replaced or significantly altered to fit with the new Emily Alton storyline.

Duel's trommel - the large spinning tunnel which makes riders feel they are being flipped over as they travel through it - has been effectively rethemed and reused. We just have to hope it will prove to be more reliable than in years past where it was all too often out of action. The infamous monk in the garden scene has been retained although the figure is now covered over (and doesn't have laser targets for eyes anymore!).

More easily missed, although perhaps most significant for its impact on ride throughput, are the ride cars which now seat three riders in the front rather than two, with the extra space made available thanks to the removal of the bulky laser guns of the Duel era.

This Is My House

Given that The Curse at Alton Manor was the main new attraction at Alton Towers in a low-investment year (especially seeing as the park are outlaying substantial amounts of cash on the Nemesis track replacement project), what has been achieved with what actually amounts to "just" a retheme of an existing ride is really astonishing.

Night falls over Alton Manor

While there are scenes where it is easy to see reflections of the old Duel peeping through, overall the level of retheming - not to mention the invention of an entirely new storyline - is incredible and goes a long way to make The Curse at Alton Manor feel like a whole new ride. The Merlin Magic Making team, headed by Creative Lead Designer John Burton and Senior Creative Lead Carl Hackett, have done an outstanding job. Their work is a real credit to them, and also to the legacy of the original Haunted House designs from Keith Sparks and John Wardley (who apparently helped out with a little consulting for Alton Manor).

Harking back to 1992, the dark ride in Gloomy Wood is firmly amongst Alton's more senior rides in their lineup, but as The Curse at Alton Manor it has been given a new lease of life. The standard of storytelling and theming is wonderful, and it is fantastic that the overall ride system has been retained. It is, after all, one of the park's highest throughput attractions and also a welcome place to shelter for a few minutes during periods of inclement weather.

Perhaps the only downside is in the potential re-rideability: Interactive dark rides encourage visitors to go back around for another go to see if they can beat their previous scores or just because they are fun to play. With the removal of the interactive element, it remains to be seen whether the ride can continue to attract the crowds.

Overall, The Curse at Alton Manor is a high quality dark ride befitting of one of the UK's major theme parks. While not on the scale of some of the modern high-tech dark rides, it shows just how much can be achieved with strong storytelling and detailed theming.

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