Phantom Fantasia

Phantom Fantasia was opened in 1983 as part of the Central Park area, Thorpe Park's first large development into a theme park.[1] It was produced by Sparks in Colchester. The ride system was supplied my MACK rides and was an endless convoy 'doombuggy' system with clamshell-like hooded cars which rotated to show guests the ride's many Tableau. 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.[2]

The ride was refurbished as Wicked Witches Haunt in 1994 with a scenic overhaul in UV. A number of witch animatronic figures added, a new soundtrack and a new final scene in a cobweb-filled dungeon featuring giant hairy spiders with ghoulish faces. On-ride photography was also added [3]

The attraction was destroyed by a large fire in 2000, the cause of which was never publicly announced.[4]

• Full on-ride recording of Wicked Witches Haunt