Saw – The Ride

Saw – The Ride is a custom Euro-Fighter roller coaster in the Thorpe Park theme park in the United Kingdom. It is themed around the Saw horror film franchise.

Background information

The codename "Project Dylan" was used during construction to keep the movie tie-in secret, until the full details were announced on Friday 13 October 2008. The name 'Dylan' in fact came from the project director's cat, with no actual relevance to the ride. A small tag reading "PRO. D9LAN" is printed on the side of the Saw Store.

During construction, a large section of the Canada Creek Railway had to be rebuilt, a small section of the Samurai queue was also affected. Competition winners and annual pass holders were allowed to attend a preview event, before it opened to the public on Saturday 14 March 2009 a day later. Saw – Alive, a live-action horror maze, was opened at the park in 2010 to complement the ride.

A Police Ford Crown Victoria is displayed next to the SAW ride.

Ride experience

The ride starts with an indoor section, where riders pass Jigsaw's equipment and Billy on his tricycle, who laughs at you as the train passes by (although if you are on the second dispatched car, the vehicle will stop while Billy gives a speech, informing you that there is no escape, and proclaiming 'here's what happens when you lose' before allowing the train to pass). Riders then come across two swinging blades which appear to get closer, before a previously unseen nearly vertical drop saves the riders from hitting them, plunging them directly into a pit of spikes which are narrowly avoided. The train travels along a straight piece of track and the riders are blasted with air firing from crossbows giving the effect of the syringes loaded in the crossbows firing over the riders' heads. The train goes into a barrel roll, as riders can see Jigsaw in a pool of blood. 'Blood' (water) is sprayed at the train from the body, then the train exits the building and travels towards the 100 feet (30 m) vertical lift hill.

Before going up, riders pass two large TV screens and a digital clock. When the digital clock counts down to zero, Billy appears on the TVs and Jigsaw says "Game over". Billy's evil laugh can be heard as the train travels upwards. The cars then dive down the 100° drop (reaching 55 miles per hour (89 km/h)) and pass under large spinning blades. The second inversion then takes place, an Immelmann loop, which delivers three seconds of weightlessness. This is followed by a tight overbanked corner and an airtime hill. The on-ride photos are taken as the cars rise to the left into a set of brakes. Then they descend a steep drop into a dive loop and the ride ends with a banked turn into the final brake run. The train makes a turn to the right into the station to be unloaded.

It is also possible for riders to buy a DVD of their ride experience, using cameras mounted to the front of the car and the back of the front seats. The ride is extremly rough for riders, especially at the bottom of the major drop and various corkscrew elelments throughout the ride.

Queue

The entrance is situated at the back of the Saw Plaza. The exterior queue line consists of razor wire fences and various large torture implements rusting on the ground (most of which come from the films). Walkie talkie announcements are heard from policemen inside the building, often sounding as if they are panicking. Loud ambient music is played throughout the area. The queue travels around the back of the warehouse and then into the building itself. Inside, riders walk through a dimly lit corridor, with four shotguns hanging from the ceiling. The guns 'fire' every few minutes to give a jump effect. The corridor leads up some stairs past a cage with a trap (the Rack from Saw III) seen in it. On special occasions, live actors are placed in this cage and act as Jigsaw's victims. Above the queue, a body is seen tangled in barbed wire (referencing the first Saw), before the queue goes into the station. In here, mannequin parts are fixed in various small devices or hanging from the walls, and misted windows flash on the wall opposite the queue.

Once finished, riders exit the cars and walk back down another stairway. The two industrial fans on the exterior of the Saw warehouse are seen on the wall by the exit path. A short video of Billy plays at the end of the stairs. More mannequin parts hang from above, as well as a severed head on a weighing scales (as seen in a poster for Saw IV). Riders then exit the building and pass the Saw Store and Photo Booth.

Incidents

On 11 March 2009, the ride was scheduled to be launched by a group of invited celebrities, including the director of Saw II, Saw III and Saw IV Darren Lynn Bousman, who posted an account of his experience on his Facebook profile. The ride experienced a delay, a barrier shut-down and a subsequent stop, blamed by park officials on a computer programming error. An ambulance was called when one woman suffered a panic attack.^[1]

On 14 March 2009, the ride was scheduled to officially open to the public. However, less than two hours after the park's opening, the ride was shut down due to technical difficulties (braking and sensor failures) and did not re-open for the remainder of the day, and was also closed for the following day. Thorpe Park offered complimentary tickets to all guests who had bought tickets at the gate, and free priority passes for the ride to all annual pass holders.

Other Saw attractions

• Saw – Alive is a live action horror maze located near Saw – The Ride. Guests walk through a scene from each Saw movie: the Bathroom, the Electrified Corridor, the Freezer, the Mausoleum Trap, the Pendulum Trap and the Carousel Trap. The walk-through attraction is dark throughout and uses lighting, smells, mist and make-up to add effect. Parts of the maze were gutted by fire in early April 2011 and was shut for work. It was reopened to the public on Friday 27th May 2011.

• Saw – Movie Bites was a temporary attraction as part of the park's 2009 Halloween 'Fright Nights' event. It consisted of a compilation of clips from the Saw films, played in the theatre usually used for Time Voyagers. The attraction did not return for the 2010 Fright Nights event.

Gallery

References

External links

• Saw – The Ride Official Page
• Saw – Alive Official Page
• Saw – The Ride at Total Thorpe Park