SteveJ

You can tell they have had to use a very wide angle lens to fit the room in the frame, since all their faces are stretched. The room will look even smaller in person. I think this supersedes Storm Surge as the weirdest development at Thorpe Park in recent years.

Sponsorship is about money and advertising, it is not done for the benefit of the theme, at all. Tidal Wave was given a specific theme design, and sponsor deals have significantly undermined that design by adding their own slant to the ride. Tidal Wave has become more "naked" since its sponsors, who have covered over theming details, added pointless signposts and repainted large parts of the ride in their own corporate colours, resulting in a messy theme (made worse by the lack of care for all the original effects). And the BubbleWorks sponsorship was just to get some money to refurbish downgrade the ride and advertise it as new. It was a blatant effort to cut costs by taking out all the animatronics, not to find a "suitable" sponsor.

BOSE BOSE everything is BOSE But I meant what system the music is playing from, not the speakers. I wouldn't be surprised if it is still the same equipment from 23 years ago!

I thought I just imagined there being audio around the entrance! It stopped playing years ago, probably because of the proximity to the Monkey Puzzle. If I remember correctly it was mostly screams rather than music. By the way, there is only one version of the Vampire theme currently on the internet, and that is the ReRide version. Anything on YouTube would just be the same file reuploaded. The only way to get the real version would be to copy it from the computers on the ride itself (or whatever ancient device it plays from).

Thorpe Park never used those names, they are just the commonly used terms on the internet to describe the areas those rides are in. As in, the island they built the Swarm on = the Swarm island. Thorpe Park stopped using area names years ago; this was a good move I think because the park got too small to properly define area borders. Also the themes were pretty weak - Calypso Quay had nothing to do with quays, for example, and any new ride installed on the left side of the park immediately became part of Lost City whether it was themed or not. Now they focus on individual ride themes, which allows them to utilise their space more. I am glad they kept Amity Cove though.

You must be really easy to please if you find barbed wire fences amazing. I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy Saw, in fact good for you for enjoying it. But in context of the possibilities of what the ride could have been, Saw takes every opportunity to disappoint the rider. Personally, the ability to queue in fake barbed wire fences is not the reason I like theme parks. I think a lot of the reason that people claim that rides like Saw and The Swarm are "the best themed rides in the UK" are just because they have theming. Not necessarily immersive theming, well-integrated theming or exciting theming, just theming for the sake of theming. That does not make a ride well-themed at all, there is much more to theme design than just quantity. For example, even if Saw was coated from start to finish with barbed wire, swinging blades and squirting bodies, it would not be any better themed. My problem is Saw has no proper theme park spirit about it, and the resulting ride feels bland as an experience and is therefore unenjoyable. At least The Swarm is actually a good rollercoaster and has some humour in it.

Saw is one of the least imaginative roller coasters I have ever been on in the UK. It has barely any substance to it and just relies on the Saw IP to be popular. At first, the novelty of Thorpe Park having a 'dark ride hybrid' coaster was exciting, but even back in 2009 it confused me as to how anybody could think Saw was the "best ride in the world". You queue through an endless maze of tall metal fences. It's in a very secluded area of the park so you feel appropriately abandoned when walking around, and this feeling is aided by the tense ambience loop. Annoying American police voice overs and rusty traps to illustrate the theme. Ok. By this point, you would have noticed that the warehouse is just a big box decorated with rusty metal and broken wood. Architecturally it is incredibly boring, offering no interaction with the surrounding paths and it sticks out like they simply plonked it on the flat ground.. Then your entrance to this 'warehouse' consists of a rectangular hole cut in the side of the building, with a CCTV camera above it. The opportunity for suspense is completely missed. The interior corridor seems promising with the gun effect, which often provokes reactions from guests, but the atmosphere is ruined once you get to the stairs and the Fastrack entrance floods the room with light. Meanwhile noisy TV screens play an inevitable queueline video which adds nothing to the overall experience. There is no sense of approaching danger as you climb the bare stairs, and a plastic dummy in fake barbed wire does nothing to rectify the lack of atmosphere. Things get better once we enter the station, since it actually gets quite dark in there and there are many details to look at, such as the trap drawings and flickering windows. You board your car and for a moment there is a genuine sense of impending terror, as you see the track curve off into darkness and the set of cogs/wheels suggesting some kind of nasty machine. The car sets off, but immediately you are disappointed. The Billy doll is a laughable animatronic whose primitive mouth movement is more amusing than frightening. It's a gamble whether you will even be able to see Billy work, since only 1 of the 2 cars stop and he's positioned so badly that the huge restraints block most of your view. Who care's what he is saying anyway, he's obviously just there to pass the time while the car in front reaches the next block. So we continue on our terrifying ride on the "scariest roller coaster in the world". Swinging blades - a credible effect. Suddenly there is a surprise drop - wow some creativity! It packs a punch, but the weird air guns that follow fail to maintain that excitement. There is then an unforeseen (but half expected) barrel roll, over a dead body lying in the middle of nowhere. So, this is supposed to be the bathroom scene from the film, not that you would notice it because the set decor is rendered invisible by the restraints. The body proceeds to spray water in your face - a pointless effect, but fun anyway... And before you know it, the dark ride section is over. There was no real reason to be scared after all - it was just a secret drop and a hidden inversion. I can think of far scarier rides already. Now the roller coaster really begins, could this make up for the underwhelming start? Well, no, it's a pretty cheap Gerstlaurer euro fighter, designed to be compact and unintimidating by its very nature. Nevertheless, the towering vertical lift is a threatening image, purposefully placed at the front of the building to grab attention, one of the ride's only examples of interaction with its surroundings. But to actually ride the lift, it's not that memorable. The spinning blades barely even register when you are actually on the ride, which is a shame because they look exciting from the path. The rest of the ride is just a concrete car park area over which you perform a few uncomfortably tight inversions, in a coldly calculated manner. Hill, turn, break run, drop, loop... It's just a bunch of elements put in sequence and isn't interesting. This is all made worse by the ever-tightening restraints, which often seriously affect my enjoyment of the ride. The end. That is the entire ride. It was fun, but not in a memorable way. I have nothing against Saw as such, but when people somehow conclude that it was "superbly done" I just don't get it. What did I miss? The theming is not amazing - it's just the bare minimum: illustrative props scattered around and decoration. The ride bares little resemblance to the Saw franchise (maybe that is a good thing), and you could imagine how much better an American attempt the Saw theme would be. There are missed opportunities everywhere, and they fail to exploit the potential of the abandoned building to create any kind of tense environment. Sure, I like the effects they do have, but it's all done in such a bland, humourless way that it's difficult to enjoy. Rides are supposed to be enjoyable right? Even frightening ones. Saw is just average.

The instruments are placed differently, so there's a slightly different tonal quality to the whole track (though this could just be the added reverb of the station). The difference is most noticeable in the guitar and drum machine parts, I think. Also, the screams, laughs and thunder sound effects are completely different, and the bell rings five times rather than seven. I assume the version online was first made available on ReRide.net, and everybody has been posting the same version since. I heard somewhere that the screams and laughs were actually added later c2000, but I'm not sure whether that is true. Graham Smart composed another pipe organ piece to play in the Black Forest Chateau, which I have never heard.

The version of the Vampire theme widely available on the Internet is a very noticeably different mix to the track used in the station. I don't know why different versions were produced.

No, it was "Original Source"'d for a number of years until 2010, when the sponsor changed to FANTAAAA Dr Pepper oops It kind of sucked the fun out the ride having shampoo logos everywhere.

What you heard was incorrect, he is a hired actor, although he did do some other voice work for the park before Oblivion I think. See his website here.

^^No it wouldn't? That unit has been there for years and there has been no problem using the gateway entrance. You literally just need to build a fence, connecting it back to the queue that's already there. It would mean you just walk through the doors, turn right and walk straight out again from behind the wall - but it's still far better.

It's because they "needed" a fastrack queue, which had to be shorter than the main queue. So they brought back the original 'tunnel' queue and designated the archway as the Fastrack entrance, then moved the main queue up the path a bit and plonked on the bar. (As if Fastrack riders had the privilege of a themed entrance because they paid more!) I remember going through the gates once with Fastrack, but now they don't even open the doors and send you round the side. Of course, that is a silly reason to disuse the entrance. They could have easily allowed Fastrack and non-Fastrack to use it, because both routes branched off from the same entrance. It would be perfect if this year the whole Vampire queueline was replaced. I have realised how ugly it is now, all purple peeling bars and wonky concrete sprawled across the forest floor. The actual route itself could be quite nice if they tried, you get right into the trees and have good views of the ride appearing and disappearing around you.

This little building at the bottom of Transylvania disappeared after one year. Well actually it is still there today, just hidden behind the Vampire Bites food outlet. Look down when you are on Vampire and you will see it buried in ivy. If the queue did turn left and head towards the station, it would have passed right behind this little building. You can also see the exit path coming out next to it under the blue balustrade, which is now hidden by game stalls. Also... did these tunnels under the crypt once serve a purpose as part of the queue or exit paths? The current bare, unthemed exit path struck me as being out of place. It's obvious that it was not designed to be like it is today, it's gone through so many alterations that the experience feels patchy. The queueline is a mess of concrete, the theming ranges from extremely cheap to fantastic, and the coaster itself is an odd cross between Arrow and Vekoma technology. So I'm trying to interpret the original ride experience as it would have been in 1990, and I hope that soon the ride will get closer to how it used to be.

If it's a dead brand - there's no point spending any money!

I see what you mean. To me that seems like the most illogical place to put the queue... John Wardley also mentioned that the intention was that you queue through a graveyard. I remember there used to be many tombstones, some with names of famous people jokingly written on them, but they were always just randomly scattered about (as in horizontal on the floor!) and the majority have been removed now. And then there's the question of what used to be in the crypt corridor windows. I vaguely remember actually queueing down there once, not just marching straight through. And there are other abandoned queues as well: the extra Dragon River queue bit, the Runaway Train balcony and waterfall... Yay I like investigating! It would be a lot better if I was physically there to rummage around, although I would probably be more concerned with actually riding it.

Thank goodness nobody cares about Saw anymore then!

Thank you! Perhaps the original queue simply followed the route that Fastrack now takes. I haven't used fastrack at Chessington for years, but if I recall correctly it travels through a tunnel of sorts, then goes up steps to the 'crypt' passageway (merge point). I guess they extended the queue soon after the first season to cope with the huge increase in guests, as they did with Bubbleworks. Although I don't understand what you mean by this sentence.

But Lionsgate can't really claim they own the rights to displaying toilets, dummies in razor wire or shotguns hanging from the ceiling. Yes, the indoor trap may have to be removed because I heard it was an old prop from one of the films, though it depends whether Thorpe Park just licenced it or bought it completely - in which case they own it and can use it. I think the only things Thorpe Park licenced from Lionsgate were the use of the name, logo and characters. Lionsgate had very little, if any, involvement in the ride itself or its theming, the props were mostly done in house so they have nothing to reclaim. Lionsgate will only get angry if Thorpe Park continue to associate themselves with the Saw franchise for their own benefit, since they will no longer be paying to use the brand once the contract has ended.

Out of interest, what route did the original queueline take exactly? It's obvious that it has had several alterations over the years. Like, from the old entrance, did it turn right and join up with the queueline near to where it currently starts, or travel underneath the break run where Fastrack currently goes? The presence of themed walls down the Fastrack route suggests it used to be used somehow. I have seen several bits of media that show parts of the queue but it's difficult to work out. But what you can determine is how open the area was before the trees grew. Compare these two POV stills from 1993 and 2010: Such a huge difference, and that is just one example. And the queueline looks like a flimsy metal barrier. Not purple though.

What theming? They will probably have no obligation to remove anything because toilets, dummies and blades are not legal trademarks of the Saw franchise. Only direct references to Saw like the puppet will have to be replaced.

The trees in front of the toilets next to the second drop have since been removed completely, judging by recent photographs. (not those actually on the path) In other news, I read elsewhere that work has been carried out near The Vampire and that there are 'further changes to come', which for me suggests that the old gateway entrance may be put back in use this year. If true, this would be the best thing Chessington have done for the last X years. It's quite believable, since they would simply need to install a fence reconnecting the gateway with the main queueline, then create a division behind the arch so that fastrack goes left and others go right. It would greatly improve the guest experience. A purple bar does not create any kind of impression on guests.

It's actually nothing like the Staffordshire knot really, since the ends do not cross each other on The Smiler, as well as it being upside down and having a cobra roll in the middle of it. However, it is a nice idea to link the ride with the local heritage so I will continue to call it the Staffordshire Knot.

This "debate" seems doomed to go on for eternity. After reading this topic, I feel lucky for the few times I have ridden Slammer. I knew it had been open perhaps only twice out of the many times I've visited Thorpe Park in recent years, but I wasn't aware of just how unreliable and indeed rare the ride really is. So true that it has become forgotten because of its poor reliability and geographical location, just compare it to Rush which is perhaps the most popular (and actually fun) flat ride in the park. Whenever it is open, I often see people in the queueline just give up and leave, even if they are really close to the station, presumably because that corner of the park is so dead and it takes forever to finish one ride cycle.

Do you work for Imperial Leather or something?