Phantom Fantasia, later renamed Wicked Witches Haunt, was a dark ride opened in 1983 at Thorpe Park in Surrey, England. It took riders through a series of large animated horror scenes and illusions. The ride used an endless transit system manufactured by Mack Rides in Germany. The ride was refurbished in 1994 with a new blacklight style and was renamed 'Wicked Witches Haunt'. It was demolished following a fire in 2000.
History Phantom Fantasia was opened in 1983 as part of the Central Park area, Thorpe Park's first large development into a theme park. It was produced by Golding Leisure Design. The ride system was supplied by Mack Rides and was an endless convoy system with clamshell-like cars that rotated to face each scene.
The ride featured many animated characters, including a hunchback swinging from a bone chandelier, a torture chamber run by evil puppet people, a ghoulish seance with a levitating table, a pit and the pendulum scene, Henry VIII dining at his banquet table while ghosts of his six wives appear and disappear around him (using a Pepper's ghost effect), a knights crypt, a long-legged horror climbing out a well, a Victorian street scene featuring Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett's shop windows (could you spot the pies with fingers sticking out them), a black magic necromancer brewing a potion with his familiars, two witches around a cauldron in their cave, Mary Queen of Scots holding her severed head in her arms, and a ballroom of eighteenth-century bewigged and costumed waltzing skeletons.
Wicked Witches Haunt The ride was refurbished as Wicked Witches Haunt in 1994 with a scenic overhaul in UV. A number of animated witch figures were added, along with a new soundtrack and final scene featuring giant spiders. On-ride photography was also added.
The attraction was destroyed by a large fire in 2000 and subsequently demolished. The cause of the fire was never publicly announced.
References
External links Full on-ride recording of Wicked Witches Haunt