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Your
coffin crashes through two sets of double-doors, bringing you
face-to-face
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with
a giant rat perched on a tree stump.
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As
you approach, he leaps at you, squeaking with the help of
a self-contained transistorized siren. To your left is the first
of many banisters; this one lined with gyrating skulls bearing
spider legs. True Tracy madness! |
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Entering
another set of double doors, you’re headed down one of Tracy’s
famous crooked chambers. Tracy’s use of off-center framing and
a deceptive illustration at the chamber’s end gives you the
forced perspective of infinity. Adding further credibility to
the gimmick, an unseen ramp tips your car to the side as the
digital sound bite of creaking timbers plays on.
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Next,
you’re sucked into a vortex - actually a bridge running straight
through a rotating barrel lined with day-glo patterns. No
ramps needed here.
The
gimmick makes you feel like you’re defying the laws of gravity,
getting pulled to either side of the barrel.
Straight
ahead is a stunt depicting the car in front of you: Two riders
watching helplessly as they’re swept up into the vortex’s
eye.
This
stunt is executed by mounting the rear of replica ride car
onto a spinning disk and exemplifies Tracy’s attention to
detail, including the “Rest in Peace” logo on the back of
the car.
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Apparently the vortex also has impacted one of the house’s rooms,
as a quick turn to right reveals a woman awakening to find her
whole bedroom turned upside down. All the room’s furnishings
are mounted to the ceiling, including an end table with a lamp.
It’s that lamp that clicks on to illuminate the bedroom and
the terrified woman.
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Leaving
the bedroom, your car makes a short descent to the right, passing
one of Tracy’s most bizarre stunts: Two disfigured clowns leaning
over a birthday cake with a severed head in the icing.
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Your
car continues its decent passing a wolfman figure (origin unknown)
and a family of trolls. It’s noteworthy that Mr. Trimper supplemented
his ride with additional stunts over the years. However, only
one Tracy stunt has been removed since the ride was built.
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Next
on the left is arguably Tracy’s most famous, yet controversial
stunt, the Saw Mill where a female victim strapped to a conveyor
belt is sliced in half by a table saw. Heard are the spinning
of the saw and the final scream of the victim as she reaches the
jagged blade. If you look back you’ll see the table tip backwards,
returning the victim to her point of origin. It’s also interesting
to note here that the sound for this stunt, like many others,
was furnished by Tracy on a sound cartridge repeater in 1962.
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Originally,
all the sound carts were amplified by playback units located at
the stunts and dioramas. But they were later moved to a hidden,
centralized workshop, extending wires to the speakers on the sets.
Then, with the advent of digital technology, he had all the sound
carts dubbed to digital sound repeaters, now stacked up in the
workshop.
“It’s much more efficient this way,” explains Scott Hudson, superintendent
of Haunted House. “We still play the original sounds without worrying
about the old tapes breaking. And we have every sound effect right
in front of us,” |
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