Since we're in the midst of Halloween, let's get dark today, shall we? There are only a handful of classic dark rides left. We're not talking about big-budget extravaganzas such as Disney's Haunted Mansion. We're talking about old school ride-through attractions with spinning barrels, pop-up skeletons, and glow-in-the-dark spiders. Rides such as Whacky Shack at Waldameer in Pennsylvania.
The 1960s-era ride, which was created by renowned designer Bill Tracy, is featured in a new DVD from George LaCross and Bill Luca, the guys behind Laff in the Dark (motto: coasters and carousels get all the glory, but dark rides don't get no respect). Determined to present and preserve the legacy of the underappreciated park genre, LaCross and Luca give Whacky Shack the star treatment with an onboard POV ride, a chat with the park's amiable owner, and a behind-the-scenes tour of the ride. And by "behind-the-scenes," I mean the park's maintenance supervisor literally goes in back of the gruesome/silly/freaky scenes to show how prone corpses spring to life and how a seriously tilted room can deliver a seriously disorienting ride.
The DVD is a must-have for dark ride fans, for Waldameer fans, and for park fans of a certain age who fondly remember kitschy rides like Wacky Shack. It also profiles Pirate's Cove, a walk-through funhouse at Waldameer that Bill Tracy produced. A bonus feature offers a ride aboard Ravine Flyer II, a highly regarded wooden coaster that opened at the Pennsylvania park in 2008. For more information, visit Laff in the Dark.
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