Phantom Fantasia

Phantom Fantasia
Thorpe Park
StatusClosed
Opening date1983 (as Phantom Fantasia)
1994 (as Wicked Witches Haunt)
Closing date21 July 2000 (2000-07-21)
Replaced byDetonator
Ride statistics
Attraction typeDark ride
ManufacturerMack Rides
DesignerGolding Leisure Design International (1983)
Rex Studios (1994)
ThemeHaunted
Vehicle typeEndless transit system
Duration5 minutes

Phantom Fantasia, later renamed Wicked Witches Haunt, was a dark ride opened in 1983 at Thorpe Park in Surrey, England. It took riders through a series of large animated horror scenes and illusions. The ride used an endless transit system manufactured by Mack Rides in Germany. The ride was refurbished in 1994 with a new blacklight style and was renamed 'Wicked Witches Haunt'. It was demolished following a fire in 2000.[1][2]

History

Phantom Fantasia was opened in 1983 as part of the Central Park area, Thorpe Park's first large development into a theme park.[3][4] It was produced by Golding Leisure Design.[1] The ride system was supplied my MACK rides and was an endless convoy system with clamshell-like cars that rotated to face each scene.[2]

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][4]

Wicked Witches Haunt

The ride was refurbished as Wicked Witches Haunt in 1994 with a scenic overhaul in UV. A number of animated witch figures were added, along with a new soundtrack and final scene featuring giant spiders. On-ride photography was also added.[5][2]

The attraction was destroyed by a large fire in 2000 and subsequently demolished. The cause of the fire was never publicly announced.[6][7]

References

  1. 1 2 "Phantom Fantasia DRDB". Dark Ride Database. Dark Ride Database. Retrieved 4 June 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Phantom Phantasia / Wicked Witches Haunt". Attraction Source. Attraction Source. Retrieved 30 August 2026.
  3. ↑ "Theme Park History & Heritage". Thorpe Park. Thorpe Park. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  4. 1 2 "Two Faces of Thorpe Park". Surrey Herald. 11 August 1983.
  5. ↑ "Wicked Witches Haunt DRDb". Dark Ride Database. Dark Ride Database. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  6. ↑ "Thorpe Park Fire Destroys Attractions". The Independent. The Independent. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  7. ↑ BBC News. "Fire hits London theme park". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 30 August 2026.

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