This week Alton Towers invited me down to be one of the first people in the world to experience the new Alton Towers Dungeon. A journey through the dark and morbid history of Staffordshire. Guests will be taken through a variety of sequences such as being sentenced by the Bishop of Stafford, surviving the plague, enduring The Torturer, riding the black river and also making a stop at the Witch of Burslem’s haunted cottage.
Recommended for guests aged 10 and upwards the Alton Towers Dungeon is located in the same building where The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rides were situated. The building has been repurposed and the boat ride re-themed in dungeon fashion. Sadly during the press day, we weren’t able to experience the boat ride. We managed to check out two key sequences for the attraction which we will explore in more detail later.
Creating the Alton Towers Dungeon
Over 200 people worked on the creation of the Alton Towers Dungeon with work beginning in September 2018. Usually, a dungeon takes around 18 months to deliver. This project had an incredibly fast turnaround however and was completed in 6 months. This was no doubt due to the fact that the building was already in place with a boat ride implemented raring to go.
A total of 45,000 man hours is all it took to transform the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Ride into the murky dungeons. The black river is 2.2 meters wide and 750mm in depth and will surely be the highlight of the experience.
Alton Towers Dungeon Outdoor Theming
Barrels and skeletons are hanging around the entrance and we were told more theming will be added throughout the entrance and queue line including a photo-op piece that will be added within the next week.
With the dungeon attraction being so close to Cloud Cuckoo Land they have naturally had to tone down the entrances usually more sinister nature. Being so close to a children’s area this was to be expected. The dungeon attractions are usually more intimidating in nature from the outside. It’s when people dare to step inside that the dungeon adapts its horror-themed persona. With Dark Forest rides such as Rita and Thirteen in the vicinity it certainly feels more at home amongst those rides.
Alton Towers Dungeon Indoor Theming
With two weeks to go before opening, there was still much to be done during our tour. I was very impressed with the visual quality and attention to detail of the sets inside. The Judges’ courtroom and the operating room certainly looked the part. The grand finale cottage sequence which I believe is the last sequence of the experience is certainly the most heavily distressed and detailed.
Props are scattered throughout the attraction including cages, rats, skeletons and even life-like human organs! The dungeon is set to inhabit 25 rats which took 4 hours to create and 7 skeletons in various different states of distress. The blood used throughout the dungeon is a mixture of ink dyes mixed accordingly. I was very impressed by the level of detail on offer at this early stage of development. When the actors are in their environment it really will bring the stories to life.
Actors
Throughout the dungeon, there will be 12 actors located inside at any given time. A total of 23 actors were recruited and put through 240 hours of training. Getting ready for the 240 shows (roughly) that they will be performing every single day!
The level of detail in the actor’s costumes are also a sight to behold. All garments had to be heavily distressed and all costumes are maintained and washed in-house by a dedicated costume team on a daily basis. It really is a rolling theatre production in motion and it reminds of me various Scarefest shows but rather than dedicated to Halloween this train will be rolling all throughout the year.
The Alton Towers Dungeon Experience
We had the honor of watching The Judge and The Torturer sequences. Both actors did an incredible job of immersing you into the morbid (yet humorous) stories. The Judge interacted well with the audience and brought people out of the crowd to be sentenced for their crimes. You can really see just how vigorous the audition process must have been to find the right actors. With us only being able to experience two scenes on the day the full length experience is said to last around 55 minutes.
The Torturer sequence was certainly more a comedic scene. One poor audience member was locked in a cage for the duration of the segment. Another audience member was shackled to a dungeon chair. We were shown various torture weapons and the poor volunteer had to offer his tongue, neck and other unmentionable body parts in front of a cackling audience.
When the full attraction is completed there will be a variety of special effects incorporated into the experience. Smell pods will also be heavily used throughout the attraction. Rotten corpse, burnt flesh, stale ale, and putrefying bodies scents will be roaming around the airways.
The last scene advertised on the Dungeon experience walkthrough is the heavily detailed Burslem cottage. Home of the witch Molly Leigh. The ghost segment was built up as the grand finale and has been incorporated into other Dungeon attractions. I have no idea just what that ghost finale will be but I imagine some form of projection and special effects will be involved.
Pricing for the Alton Towers Dungeon will be £5 if booked online or £7.50 on the day. A normal season pass will strangely not include dungeon entry. A special £70 premium season pass includes x1 Dungeon entry for every visit and includes Scarefest and Summer weekend entry. A feature which the standard pass does not.
Conclusion
After coming out of an incredible 2018 for the park including the introduction of the highly successful Wicker Man ride 2019 seems to be a subtle segway year for the park. The Stargazing Pods and now the Alton Towers Dungeon are rather nice little additions for the new season and it’ll be interesting to see the full show come opening day on March 23rd. We’ll be sure to post a full review as and when we’ve experienced the attraction.
I want to express a big thank you to Alton Towers for allowing me to be one of the first people to enter the attraction. Also, thanks to Chris Carter (Head of Entertainment) and (Right) Eddie Saul (Head of Creative Partners) for giving us the guided tour of the facility.
For more information on the Alton Towers Dungeon CLICK HERE
For our opening day review of the full experience CLICK HERE
