After 30 years of screams, disturbances are once against appearing in Gloomy Wood at Alton Towers Resort. A message has appeared seemingly from nowhere within Duel: The Haunted House Strikes Back, potentially listing a date of 6th September, and a creepy statement, “This is my house”. Are the monsters and ghouls that dwell within Duel plotting something new?
Opening in 1992, the Haunted House at Alton Towers was a dark ride designed by the Sparks Group and John Wardley utilising a Mack Rides transit system. The iconic haunted house frontage and long ride duration quickly led to the attraction becoming incredibly popular and well loved by guests. Over the next ten years, Alton Towers would make sporadic and periodic changes to the scenes found throughout the ride, and by the end of 2002, posters popped up outside the ride stating: “Whatever you do, don’t miss! Duel – The Haunted House Strikes Back!”.
The start of the 2003 season saw the introduction of Duel featuring laser guns, a new soundtrack and a zombie theme that has sustained ever since. Duel has been host to a Scarefest experience called Duel Live, where actors were placed throughout the attraction and the blasters switched off, as well as having minor alterations made to its queue line over the last few seasons. However, ever since 2003, Duel has largely stayed the same, sitting in Gloomy Wood and left undisturbed.
But now, on 23rd August 2022, a simple sign has appeared within Duel: The Haunted House Strikes Back.
We believe that the message found within the ride could be coming from the ghost of Emily Alton who lives within the haunted dolls house in the queue line, but what she might have planned for the future of the ride is anyone’s guess.
This sign suggests the much rumoured refurbishment for Duel will begin after Tuesday 6th September 2022, when Duel will operate for the final time. Whilst there has not yet been any official confirmation of this from Alton Towers themselves, the presence of Merlin Magic Making vans in the behind the scenes area of the ride, along with the ever-present rumour mill together with the arrival of the sign, lend themselves to suggest that we will finally be seeing Duel receive some much needed love.
This begs the question, what might the redeveloped Duel / The Haunted House look like? Will the ride system remain the same? Will there continue to be an interactive element or will the ride return to its original form as a dark ride? Will we see the complete removal of the attraction, or will we see it return featuring an all new theme, look, and experience? And perhaps most importantly… will the Trommel Tunnel finally be fixed? To hardcore Alton Towers fans, Duel has never had the same appeal as the original Haunted House. The ride rarely attracted a queue, so we definitely feel it is the right time to restore some of the magic which made the attraction such a success in the first place. With John Wardley potentially providing consultation advice on the project, along with current Merlin Magic Making Creative Lead John Burton, there may be a lot to look forward to.
This certainly appears to be a very exciting time to be a fan of Alton Towers, with now a likely date for the commencement of Duel’s overhaul, the application earlier in the year for the refurbishment of Nemesis, and the first hints about the possibilities of Secret Weapon 9 starting to emerge!
TowersTimes will be sure to bring you all the details as they are released. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts about this latest news via our social media channels.
