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The original Haunted House was top class and a great ride. Or at least, it was when it opened. As years went by, it became grottier every season. The chicken and the egg question is whether this happened because of falling ridership, or less people rode it because it was getting grotty. By 2002, the Haunted House was chaos in a very bad way.

2003 saw Tussauds giving the ride a refit. So would we see a unique new dark ride in the UK? No - they did exactly the same to the Haunted House as they did with Chessington's Tomb Blaster. Not a bad idea at all though, as Tomb Blaster is regarded as a very fine dark ride now. Some said however that this was fluke, and now with Tussauds doing the same again with another ride we could see whether it would work again.

Approaching the ride from outside, the Haunted House still remains in more or less exactly the same form it was in the previous season. Outside the house however, an old tomb has now been invaded by a member of the living dead (aka ZOMBIE!). A large stone presents the new DUEL target logo: "The Haunted House Strikes Back!" Our zombie holds a gun with which he points as us as we pass him on our way into the house. He really looks like he should be dead, but I should say that I am referring to the animatronics there. He is animated, but the animatronic is the poorest I have ever seen, amazing when you consider he is a new addition. As he shakes and rattles his head around, we dodge past and into the queueline.

The old queueline was one of Alton's best, through crumbling graveyard arches and gravestones with some amusing epitaphs. Expecting a surge of enthusiasm for the ride, Alton have extended the queueline but have not matched the theming. In fact, the new part has no theming, erm, whatsoever. Factoid Alert: In readyness, the queueline was actually extended before the 2002 season, oddly enough.

Up the front steps now into the house itself. Most of the exisiting hallways has been retained, however the slightly un-nerving family portraits of before have been changed into comic style drawings. The next room is slanted, and televisions, themed as paintings on the wall, tell us about a mad professor who was performing experiments on bringing back the dead. Through some cheesy news reports, we learn that not everything went to plan - and the house in infested with the living dead. Our job is to get rid of them! (Ed: Can you kill the dead? Such philosophical ramifications are not entered into sadly)

Further still, and we enter a corridor through which a stream of cars pass through. The cars are the same system as before but have been modified to hold guns and score displays. There are now 2 seats in the front row, and three in the back. The lap bars lower, we get ready with our guns, and we pass underneath a curtain. From this point until the end of the ride we hear a constant stream of music with a slow heavy beat. It is a glorious theme and whilst not quite as memorable as Tomb Blasters, obviously comes from the same school of thought. It accompanies the ride well.

In a glorious revisit to yesteryear, we find many old effects have been restored to former glory, as we pass through crumbling walls and lightning strikes littered with coloured lights to fire at. Into a ballroom, where we see a new addition in the form of a dining table laid out with food, but seemingly under the control of paranormal activity. How can we tell this? Well seats and food items are flying about like no tomorrow - could it be that even the dead enjoy a food fight once in a while? We pass and just as we stop thinking about the table, a huge ghoul leaps out from the left. This always used to start the ride off with a bang, and it certainly still does. As more ghouls jump out, more targets both on the creatures and littered across the walls appeal as we zap away. Remember : Yellow lights on creatures are worth DOUBLE points!

We enter a revolving tunnel, but just before we do so, a zombie pops out from the right, the first of several new models that have been put in presumably simply to remind us of the new story for the ride and prepare us for the finale. At the end of the revolving tunnel, that still remains one of the best around, a huge head high up suddenly opens and sticks it's tongue out at us. Sound familiar? No doubt it will - as this head used to be near the end of the ride. It was the one effect that no one liked, because it looked so fake. It still does - though not quite as bad as the fake tounge is bathed in strobe lighting that, rather unfortunately, also clearly shows up the fire exit doors right next to it. Ahh well.

The old Haunted House carries on from here, though with the addition of zombies popping out every so often. It is nice to see that unlike Tomb Blaster, individual effects have retained their own sound effects. One of the most senseless changes on Tomb Blaster were many skeletons and creatures who suddenly turned silent. However, on Duel bats still squeak around and the faces on the wall still scream and yell.

The old giant window has turned into, well not much, whilst on your right there is a particularly gory model of a zombie who looks even deader than his friends. Old Haunted House Jelly Fish Flying Screaming Things (I named them myself) have been replaced by yet more zombies. I should point out at this point that whilst most of the targets are green and turn red when you hit them, those targets that are on a creature are yellow, and gain you extra points. During this corridor that is full of the zombies popping out, you can actually see the yellow targets well in advance and so have no surprise when it finally comes swooping out of the darkness at you. A finer point that irritates me but I am sure bothers no one else in the slightest.

Another irritating point in this section is that the strobe lights set up to catch the new zombies actually catch an awful lot more - and with each one we get a lovely view of the mechanics working to move each one and no attempts to mask these have been made. This really shows up the production values between the new and the old parts of the house.

We pass another Haunted House icon, Bob the Skeleton. (Who named him Bob anyway?) who flips an old electric switch, that controls a set of strobe lights (Never did figure out what he would want with strobe lights...) and then cackles with delight as we are thrust into the garden of the Haunted House. On our left a crumbling stone veranda is guarded by a hooded creature who slides about slowely. This was in the HH before, though I cannot remember his moving so whether this is a new idea or a repair of a long ago broken effect. Strangely enough, this simple idea works very well.

A man who doesn't actually look that dead brandishes his brand new index finger at us and beckons us towards him and his ghoulish cart just as we slide off in the other direction. The garden has had bits removed and other bits kept. Monstors still apear from pillas (albeit with absolutely no targets on them whatsoever, but witches have dissapeared. We now slide suddenly into the new finale.

You will remember that we have just been in the garden of the Haunted House. However, it is not clear where this finale takes place - all that is evidant is that there stone walls and lots of oil drums. Yes, oil drums. In fact, it looks more like an industrial estate in Luton than anything else, with metal balconies. Out of these oil drums burst zombies, whilst many more stand around firing at us with their own laser guns. These zombies must be closer to death than we thought, as it would appear that they are unable to move at all. They are all static - which is a very strange contrast to the rest of the house we have just been through.

More zombies, more oil drums and more industrial goo oozes about until we approach the exit platform. In a break in the wall, suddenly a huge skull pops into view dazzles us with his green lazers. One of the nicest features of the old house was the ending with the dragon looming at us with a past guest's recently severed head in his mouth. This has gone, to be replaced with... a spinning light. Progress in action there.

As we slow, above our heads is our photo. After we have looked at it, we look our displays to see our scores... to find that they have already reset to "SCORE" - which in other words, means 0. Has this trip all been for nothing? Thankfully not - as we can still find them out by looking at the brand spanking new photo displays as we exit the ride, but it seems to be an obvious oversight that the in-car displays reset before we get a chance to look at them.

The old cramped photo display where anyone buying a photo blocked the exit passage has been removed - and replaced with nothing except a very tall room (which is oddly atmospheric). We exit into the tacky giftshop and having resisted the temptation to buy a SCREAM mask, we reflect on the ride.

GOOD POINTS:
- Lots of restored effects
- Ride is bursting with energy and has lost the minutes of blackness that the old ride became infamous for.
- A glorious soundtrack

BAD POINTS
- Targets seem to be looped meaning that you hit one and 5 turn off.
- New strobe lights show up exits and machenisms behind the animatronics.
- Loses the plot at the end

So we have two important questions to answer. First of all, is Duel better than the Haunted House? And secondly - is it as good as Tomb Blaster?

Well on the first count, the answer is an absolute YES. I worried at the concept of changing the HH - but it has paid off, and the ride is all the more entertaining for it. Admittedly the last scene doesn't match the rest of the house at all, and a rather major plot inconsistency occurs as we enter the new finale, but otherwise the ride is much better. It is interesting to note however that all the reasons for it being better are because of the fixing of old effects, and the new additions don't really make much difference at all. (Apart from the shooting aspect of course - which brings in the punters.)

On the second count, I think the answer must be NO. There are too many bugs in this ride. The only step up has been regarding the sound effects and getting the end-of-ride photo screen to match up with the appropriate car - something that Tomb Blaster has not yet mastered. Tomb Blaster got ride of a complicated plot which was a good idea, but Duel seems to have gained one. In my view, this zombie story clutters the ride. The new last scene doesn't match the rest of the ride at all though lets be honest... the shooting aspect means that no one is paying attention to anything other then little green lights anyway.

The ride gets a thumbs up though, simply for clawing it's way to having, just like Tomb Blaster, a massive re-ride factor. It also seems to have developed it's own style, and the combination of scares AND shooting is a real hit. It is a great dark ride despite my small nitpickings, and we could do with many more of this quality. Recommended.

Ride Music @ Towers Times Download Duel's ride music here