Theme Park Discussion / dark ride idea

hello everybody

I'm a big fan of dark rides, but I realize that they are never actually scary at all. For some reason those walk-through haunted houses that pop up everywhere around Halloween actually seem to be scary, despite the fact that you are with hundreds of people and you expect people to jump out at you. I think the fact that you are restrained and transported in a dark ride really removes a lot of the fright because you know it is a planned, purposeful experience that is exactly the same everytime. So I was wondering how you could actually make a scary dark ride. It would have to take people out of the fact that they are at a themepark and on a ride and make the events seem 'chaotic' or out of control, and use the fact that the rider is restrained to its advantage. So I wrote up a little walkthrough of a dark ride I thought might actually scare some people, just for fun. Maybe later I'll do a little top-down ride layout sort of thing

It starts with standard dark ride stuff, maybe some sort of voodoo themeing or whatever for a minute
The car rolls up to a corpse/monster prop that pops out again and again (making the same 'boo' noise) in front of stopped car so it seems broken/ridiculous. crashing/braking sounds can be heard and then the lights flicker
Each half of the two-person car falls away to different side, spinning/rolling into fake maintenance bay
lights flicker on and off- creepy shadows/ breathing noises/ things being knocked over while the rider sits alone and helpless in their car
lights go off for an extended period and the breathing/footsteps get closer
lights flicker on and something touches you on the shoulder (like at the bugs life show at animal kingdom) at the same time as a scream
The track falls away like on thirteen
At the bottom, in a concrete transfer sort of tunnel, sign reads please wait for emergency evacuation, car rolls past cracked concrete walls and a little bit of steam
pulls into fake entrance- completely empty but identical, voiceover says 'please way to be evacuated', and the car waits a little with no change
All of a sudden the station shakes like earthquake, a wall collapses, and fire comes through, and a metal beam falls on operator table dispatching the car, and the voiceover says "please enjoy your ride"
car slowly rolls forward into mist and darkness
The other half-car reattaches, but there is a rotting corpse animatronic in it (same as the broken prop?), and its too dark to tell-it just makes breathing noises as the car slowly rolls forwards through the darkened first section of the ride
there is a loud exploding noise to the side where the corpse is, forcing the rider to look that way,
and at the same time the corpse is properly lit up, and it turns and screams (the same scream as in the maintenance bay)
the car launches into dive loop where it holds upside down for a few seconds before coming down and hitting brakes
the original side car reattaches with the other person in it
back to original dark ride stuff, but through a slow in-line twist- the whole building turns with the ride ie at upside down part, everything is upside down
meanwhile there is laughing and heavy breathing noises and the lights flicker
back in front of corpse/monster prop that pops out again and again
it stops in the 'out' position and says "please enjoy your ride"
the car rolls back into the real station. hooray


I imagine the cars would have to have x-coaster style lap bars, and in order to avoid potential finger squishing, there should be a few inches of seperation between each half-car, but it should be hard to reach above it anyway. Also, the logistics of this ride are a bit unrealistic, as you couldn't have too many cars on the track at once, because it stops so often. Also, you would need two of the middle section. So it certainly wouldn't be cheap
But this is just my sort of fantasy creation, who cares anyway.

So what do you think of the ride? Not scary? anything to add to it?

That is demented, but just ridiculously creative. When the riders detach would the rider be in the room with no one else? Because if so, then something like that would make me piss myself. Being alone like that within the elements of the ride just seems so bone-chilling. It seems that the ride itself would have to be pretty technologically advance to work as stated. And also, would there only be one car dispatched with 2 riders at a time? I don't know how efficient that sounds. But other than that, this is brilliantly thought out.

yeah, thanks, the idea is that you would be alone which makes it properly scary. efficiency would be a big problem though... I'm sure some smart technicians could figure it out

That sounded awesome dude. Idk what else to comment on.

These types of ideas are very interesting to think about, and yours in particular is very awesome in the sense that it pushes the bounds of technology and does things that haven't been tried before, like the cars that split apart. I sometimes give thought to these types of projects, one that I had thought about for a long time, and even had a few sketches on, was similar in that it was to be legitimately frightening attraction, involving a creative use of a turntable and various launched sequences with cool special effects as well. But I think this concept is a lot better thought out and psychologically terrifying.

I had fun reading it and could picture it, honestly not knowing this would be intended it'd scare a lot of people like to the point of soiling themselves...

Its a massive brainfart... but a good one

i guess we could put toilet seats in the ride cars

Diaper stations?

MCPR - Mid-course-piss-run.

Awesome idea with the cars splitting up, and I agree that being alone makes it much more terrifying. However, for me, what adds realism to rides is the use of live people, such as on the (sadly retired) Jaws and King Kong rides at Universal. If there were perhaps a way to implement live actors into the ride, I think it would take it to a new level.

For example, at the fake entrance part, two technical crew members (tech1 & tech2) could show up and escort the rider off the ride and down a fake backstage corridor. From there, the lights could go out one by one, and as tech1 hurries with the rider down the route to stay in the light, tech2 could become lost in the darkness. As his screams are heard from down the corridor, tech1 leads the rider into a repair bay for the cars. He struggles to open the emergency exit door, and then instructs the rider to board one of the stationary, malfunctioning cars. He goes to the control booth, starts up the car and tells the rider to get off at the next platform. At this point, when the car reaches this platform, the ride could continue at the earthquake part that you mentioned (perhaps with the ripped/skeletal/burned remains of tech2 showing up at some point).

Obviously, all of this would add a hell of a lot of time to the technical aspects of the ride, as well as bringing up the problem of uncooperative guests. But for me this would add a new excitement to the ride as I, as a rider, would feel partly responsible for the outcome.