Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Spook-A-Rama vs. Ghost Hole
Highlights from my recent trip to NYC (Coney Island) where I was of course ready to stroll the beach and boardwalk and ride the classic Cyclone wooden roller coaster, but even more psyched to check out some spooky dark ride action! Spook-A-Rama was a ton of cheesy animated horror prop fun, jam packed with zombies and skeletons and jets of frozen air loudly blasted right into your face. Wonderfully designed on the exterior with a giant leering dragon and Death tearing ticket booth, PLUS you gotta love the lurid, eye injury gore on the spinning doom buggies! Ghost Hole unfortunately is either permanently closed or maybe just wasn't open yet for the season, but as with most of these dark rides, 9 times out of 10 the heavy metal album cover inspired painted facade is cooler than the inside anyway, and I seriously do love that pot stirring devil and horned monstrosity backed-up by a nice Cryptkeeper swipe and hilariously off-model Freddy Krueger painting. So come on, get your ticket and climb aboard for a fast little bang around in the dark-- this is basically what a ride version of Haunted Horror is after all! ;)
Nice shots! Of course I love the off-model stuff like the Freddy, and both the skeleton and the ape are great!
ReplyDeleteAwesome pictures! Thanks for posting them!
ReplyDeleteThat skeleton pirate attacking with the twin candelabras is pretty damn heroic, and it's impossible not to bow down before that horned monstrosity; but I have to admit that, including every awesome thing in these photos, it's the badass wallpaper I kind of want the most in my own house.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures, Karswell. I really like the mix of horror, imperfect design and just a hint of shlock/Grade B horror element look and feel of the whole thing. Horror fun no matter what your age.
ReplyDeleteI love these rides. Have you ever gone to the carnival that comes to the South County mall? They used to have a really cheesy dark ride (I have pictures somewhere), but they didn't bring it last summer.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments, glad to see some fellow dark ride enthusiasts chiming in here :) And yes, Tom, I documented the SoCo Fair dark ride at my other blog back in 2008 right here:
ReplyDeletehttp://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2008/06/haunted-mansion-darkride.html
Excellent, I didn't know of your other blog. That's the one. You're right, it was pretty lame for adults on the inside, but it still scared my youngest kids which is what it's all about.
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