Phantom Manor - The Scarier Haunted Mansion
Phantom Manor is the Disneyland Paris version of the Haunted Mansion. We checked it out a few years back. The outside bears a strong resemblance to Mrs.Bates house from the Psycho movie even though it has nothing to do with it. I get the feeling they were trying to make the outside of the mansion look like the inside for once.
Ya see, the original Haunted Mansion in Anaheim is antebellum style, and the Mansion in Orlando and Tokyo are Tudor’s even though they all have Victorian interiors.
What sets Phantom Manor apart, (besides the ghost-host speaking French) is; it’s a little scarier. The scenes in the Manor follow roughly the same story as the other Mansions, but it’s the presentation that differs.
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The vignettes, sets and even the figures have more of an artistic spin. The style is spookier and has a vibe somewhere between a 19th-century spiritualist’s parlor and a chamber of horrors at a wax museum. The graveyard scene was the most striking difference. Instead of a “swinging wake” with silly ghosts, its a scary journey in the dark with creepy-ass animatronic ghosts and corpses!
Why the difference? I’m not sure. I’ve heard it had to do with differing European cultural concepts of haunted houses. There was also a great deal strife among Imagineers as to if the original Haunted Mansion should be spooky, or scary. Spooky rather than frightening won for the originals. Maybe Paris was the chance to finally try some of the more terrifying ideas? Or perhaps they just wanted to do something new; never the less, it was really rad to see such a different take on a familiar ride!
-Mike
