Darkride Classes

Pleasure railway – Built in the late 1800's until the 1920's or 30's, these were the grandparents of today’s darkride. They may have simulated travel via automobile, boat, or balloon, or a ride in a mine. Others had been used to present amusing, historic or informational displays

Traditional darkride - The ride uses single ride cars, long dark passages with “gags” or “tricks” consisting of the simple manikins and pop up monsters. Lighting in these rides is likely to be spot lights or black-lights triggered by the approaching ride car. These may have been constructed by on of the well know ride builders during the "Golden Age" of darkrides or they may have been built or remodeled by the parks themselves.

Modern darkride - This darkride is generally more illuminated than a traditional ride. The long totally dark passages are gone. Many use continual scenery throughout as opposed to “pop up” gags or unrelated scenes. A theme or story line ties the scenes together. These rides are generally not as scary as a traditional ride.

Interactive darkride - Riders participate in the ride by interacting with the scenes by “shooting” ghosts, monsters, or objects in the scenes. In some cases the length of the ride and path taken is determined how well the ride scores.

Water darkride - These generally meet the description of any of the above categories with the exception of the ride system being a waterway.

Hybrid darkride - These attractions have darkride like features but use a non-traditional ride system. While these rides may use roller coaster style track, log flume, a combination of both, or a unique ride system, they have been designed specifically as a darkride.

Crossover darkride - This is probably the most controversial and hard to define classification. It is based upon a well known stand-alone ride system normally not used as a darkride. To be considered to as a darkride these rides must use a unique and extensive theme. Enclosing a roller coaster, or drop ride, for example, could be considered a darkride only if it the ride has been themed with features consistent with the other darkride classes.

Sub Classes

The following sub classes apply to most of the above classes.

Classic darkride - Built in the Golden Age of darkrides from the 1930’s until about the mid 1970’s, these rides generally used dark passages with two dimensional “gags” and/or various three dimensional creatures, manikins, or monsters that would pop up, or that would suddenly be illuminated with a spot light. Sound effects consisted of buzzers, bells, and simple loud noises. These were built by certain well known companies of that era. Few of these original rides still exist today. Most have been removed or totally revamped. To be considered a Classic, the ride must remain basically the same as when it was built, containing the original ride vehicles and most of the original gags.

Fantasy darkride - These rides are based on a well known story, fairy tale, or movie.

Carnival darkride - Small trailer mounted versions of the above ride types.

Portable darkride - These rides meet any of the above criteria with the exception that they are non-permanent structures, designed with the ability to be disassembled and moved. They are larger and more complex than a carnival ride

While the term “darkride” may always be a subjective one, it is hoped that the above guidelines will shed some light on this dark subject and that some standardization of terminology will result.

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Funhouses and Walkthroughs

The funhouse is not a darkride since no ride vehicle is used. Traditionally, they were walkthrough attractions with features such as the Barrel of Fun, slides, moving walkways, mirror mazes, “Human Roulette Wheels”, trick stairways, etc. A variation of the funhouse had dark passages with pop up gags similar to those in a darkride as well as tilted rooms, and vibrating floor, and soft, cushioned floors. Some combined features of each.

Few traditional funhouses remain today. Most today are of the walkthrough “haunted house” variety.

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Other Attractions

Some other attractions related to the funhouse are listed below:

Glass Houses - Some times incorrectly referred to as mirror mazes, the walkthrough attractions are mazes constructed of glass sheets. As with most other attractions, they may be permanent structures or trailer mounted carnival style.

Haunted Swing - In general, guests enter a building or room and stand or sit on a platform (swing) the pivots between the walls of the structure. The ride is put in motion and the "swing" appears to rotate back an forth until it spins 360 degrees creating the illusion the the rider is upside down with respect to the room.

Illusion Attractions - A general classification for any attraction relying primarily on an optical illusion or other sensory tricks. Mystery Shacks and Haunted Swings are two examples.

Mill Chute - Similar to the Old Mill with the addition of a roller coaster like hill at the finale resulting in a splash down in the lagoon.

Mirror Mazes - Similar to the glass house, these are mazes constructed using large mirrors. In addition to creating a maze, the mirrors also create an "infinity" illusion with their endless reflections.

Mystery Shack - A "tilt house" illusion- by removing normal points of reference and tilting buildings and rooms an illusion of gravity gone awry is presented. Water seems to flow uphill, people seem to stand at odd angles, walking "downhill" is more difficult than walking "uphill".

Old Mill - An early water darkride dating to the early 20th century.

Scenic Railway - Early roller coasters that contained dark areas with scenery and other effects. Another predecessor to the traditional darkride.

Tilt House - See mystery shack.