YMMV / Alton Towers

• Awesome Music:
  • The wonderfully atmospheric score for Hex.
  • The Smiler's soundtrack has a haunting yet catchy industrial tune with instances of melodic laughter that wouldn't be too out-of-place in a Circus of Fear.
• Broken Base: Rita tends to be this for many people - while some view it as fun and intense, with special praise going towards its launch, others often blast it for its pointless layout, short duration, and how out-of-place it feels in the Dark Forest area.
• Creepy Awesome:
  • The chilling preshow for the Wicker Man coaster is both terrifying and utterly spectacular.
  • Hex, full stop.
  • The splitface in Duel is as spectacular as it is grotesque to look at.
• Everyone Is Satan in Hell: One person caused controversy over whether a TV advert for the Nemesis Sub-Terra ride was racist. The advert in question showed an alien egg hatching (with people watching, including a black man) and then cut to an extreme close-up of the (sweating and clearly scared) black man's face; this was seen by them as implying he was the monster within the egg. It also had a white woman running away from the monster, which they thought was her running away from the black man. Alton Towers had to clarify that the man was scared of the alien.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Wicker Men were a thing since the ancient times. The ride is not based on the movies.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The main mind control device at the center of "The Smilier" is known as "The Marmaliser", with the brainwashing process being known as "marmalisation". The term is based on the British slang word "marmalise", which means to "destroy, demolish or beat someone up". This would become scarily fitting in light of the infamous incident in June 2015, where riders ended up becoming severely injured due to a rear-end collision with another car on the coaster.
• Misaimed Marketing: Th13teen was a notable victim of it. It was heavily advertised as not just the park's next "Secret Weapon", but as the scariest rollercoaster of all time, with a range of promotional stunts that included suggesting that guests would need to sign a waiver to ride it, or that it was a new type of ride known as a "psychoaster". When the ride opened, it turned out to essentially be a family-friendly rollercoaster with a single neat gimmick. The general consensus today is that it's a good ride, but the attempts to hype it up only hurt its initial perception, and that the gimmick would have been better served if it was used on a ride that fully embraced the thrill aspects of coasters.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The roar on Nemesis: Reborn.
• Overshadowed by Controversy:
  • The Smiler holds the world record for the most inversions in a rollercoaster (14) and had a wonderfully creepy advertising campaign. What is it most known for? The terrible crash in 2015 that led to multiple guests being injured and a couple of people having their legs amputated as a result. It had a detrimental effect on the park as a whole, as attendance dropped for a few years after the incident .
  • Th13teen opened with the world's first vertical freefall drop, on which the track and train freefall approximately five metres in darkness. What is it best known for? A case of false advertising on Alton Towers' part, with the coaster's pre-opening hype claiming it would be the scariest rollercoaster of all time, along with a range of promotional stunts that included suggesting that guests would need to sign a waiver to ride it or that it was a new type of ride known as a "psychoaster", only for it to turn out to be a family coaster with a single neat gimmick.
  • Nemesis: Sub-Terra is a dark ride that tied in with the lore of Nemesis: Reborn, Alton Towers' most famous rollercoaster. The original version closed just three years after opening due to budget cuts resulting from the Smiler crash. Nemesis: Sub-Terra is mostly remembered for fans' disappointment that it wasn't another rollercoaster in the Nemesis line (Thorpe Park also has one, Nemesis Inferno).
  • The now-defunct rollercoaster Corkscrew is still beloved among fans of the park and was the signature roller coaster at the park when it first opened back in 1980. As the years went on though, Corkscrew developed an infamously uncomfortable ride experience. Riders would often hit their heads on the safety bar at a certain point, and would have their heads jerked around all through the ride. It wasn't unusual for people to complain of headaches and/or neck pain for an hour or so afterwards. Concerns over safety were part of the reason why Corkscrew was removed in 2010. The Corkscrew element was later installed at the parks entrance and served as a tribute to the iconic but rough attraction.
• Special Effects Failure: A common complaint with Duel:
  • The frames that swing the Hall of Spiders zombies are overlit by the strobes.
  • Since 2018, flying bats and laser banshees have the same problem with the UV strobes also illuminating the mechanisms, ruining the impression of them floating.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some enthusiasts views on the Haunted House changing into Duel due to the addition of guns, zombies and the newer strobe lights. Taken further now that almost all the discharge strobe lights are gone and replaced by the brighter LED strobe lights that light up the frames for the banshees in the Screaming Room.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Enough to make the Dark rides hold up today:
  • The creepy treeface in the Hex ride is very effective during the crescendo of the haunted swing experience.
  • In Duel, the hologram of the green spirits leaving the Undertaker's hearse is flawlessly executed.
• Win Back the Crowd: The opening of the new Wicker Man rollercoaster seemed to have turned the tide back in the park's favour.

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