![]() The guests slowly fade in and out of sight, seemingly in time with the hostess’s repeated attempts to extinguish the candles on her “death-day” cake. A group of otherworldly revelers have gathered at a long banquet table to celebrate a swinging wake. The Doom Buggy leaves Séance Circle and travels onto a balcony overlooking a spectacular, panoramic view of the aptly named Grand Hall. If one peers closely into the darkness, one might make out the top half of the cabinet to be the head of a demon the clock’s face sitting inside its gaping maw, and the swinging pendulum the demon’s forked tongue… The hour and minute hands spin madly around the face as the shadow of a claw scrapes over the clock. Unfortunately, the knight’s armor was not as protective as real armor, and he and all the other live characters were discontinued shortly thereafter.Īs we depart from the frightening Corridor of Doors, we creep past an ornate grandfather clock that is perpetually struck on thirteen. Some were so surprised by the knight’s sudden appearance that they unwittingly struck back at him. This experiment proved to be a little too scary for guests.and Cast Members. Later, a vampire, bridesmaid, and groundskeeper were introduced elsewhere in the attraction. The idea was for these characters to pop up in different places at different times, adding a decidedly unpredictable element to the attraction. In the mid 1980s, Imagineers teamed up with Entertainment to populate the Mansion with live performers for the first time, including a Phantom of the Opera-like character that would roam the queue, and a living suit of armor in the Corridor of Doors. The eyes and faces in the wallpaper also reflect The Haunting’s influence, reinforcing the sense that the Mansion itself is watching you… An eerie red light is cast from each of the chandeliers, as if to almost blur the lines between reality and imagination. His design of the original corridor and many of its effects, especially the “breathing” door, were inspired by Robert Wise’s 1963 thriller The Haunting. The Corridor of Doors is one of the darker and scarier regions of the Haunted Mansion, and clearly holds the influence of Claude Coats. Perhaps most frightening of all, we catch the sight of a sorrowful female spirit, frantically pounding from behind the glass of an ornate mirror… A knitted sampler reads “TOMB SWEET TOMB.” A monstrous arm bursts through one final door in a relentless attempt to break it open. Dreary, post-mortem “family photos” line the walls, which, in actuality are black-and-white photos of many of the “pop-up” ghosts found later in the Mansion. Some of the entities are not confined to their rooms: countless eyes glare at us from the corridor’s sinister wallpaper… The music has silenced. Another door even has the face and hands of a tortured soul pressing against the wood, bulging out in a perfect outline. One door appears to breathe, bulging out as a powerful force acts upon it from within the room. Otherworldly creatures snarl, growl, howl, shriek, laugh, moan, and groan, dying for escape - loudly. Unseen presences pound unmercifully on doors from the other side. Doorknobs and handles twist and turn every which way, and knockers in the shape of spiked maces bang against their doors - by themselves. The spirits begin to grow more restless and make their presence known as our Doom Buggy turns down the long Corridor of Doors. When lit from behind, the busts appear to be completely three-dimensional, facing out into the library. One day, Rolly and Yale happened to stroll past the backside of the face, and, as they did so, realized that from the reverse angle it appeared as though Honest Abe’s eyes were following their every move. ![]() The Imagineers had previously created a mold of Abraham Lincoln’s face for the Hall of Presidents, an artificial life mask of sorts. The Moving Bust illusion was one of Rolly Crump’s so-called happy accidents. Lovecraft, Lord Byron, and Gaston Leroux. True to our Ghost Host’s word, the busts are indeed of “retired” ghost writers - Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.P. ![]() And among the shelves, ubiquitous marble busts glare at us as our Doom Buggy crawls past… Eerily, each bust follows our every move - up, down, backward, and forward. A book “crawls” along the floor, whilst an open book by lamplight flips pages on its own accord. A chair rocks gently back and forth, and a ladder slides to and fro as an unseen force searches for some late night reading. Phantom hands pull books from the shelves. The second floor “Hall of Infamy” opens into the Library, which is filled from floor to ceiling by shelves lined with hundreds of books.
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