Saw – The Ride is a steel roller coaster located at Thorpe Park in Surrey, England. Manufactured by Gerstlauer, the Euro-Fighter model opened to the public as the steepest roller coaster in the world on 13 March 2009, with a drop angle measuring 100 degrees. It is themed to the Saw film franchise, featuring an enclosed dark section and line queue that make numerous references to the film series.
History
Thorpe Park announced plans for a new roller coaster on 14 October 2008. Thorpe Park created a dedicated website for the new ride, hyperbolically claiming it would be "the scariest ride in the world". The official press release detailing the park's fourth major roller coaster confirmed a development partnership with Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures, and it claimed Saw would feature "the steepest freefall drop in the world". The press release also revealed that "the world’s first ever horror movie-themed rollercoaster" would be marketed under the slogan "Face your Fears". During construction, the codename "Project Dylan" was used to keep the movie tie-in secret. The name 'Dylan' in fact came from the project director's cat, with no actual relevance to the ride. A large section of the Canada Creek Railway had to be rebuilt, affecting a small section of the Samurai line queue. Competition winners and annual pass holders were allowed to attend a preview event, before it opened to the public on March 14, 2009. Saw Alive, a live-action horror maze, opened at the park in 2010 to complement the ride. It caught fire in April 2011, but was repaired over the course of a month. A Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is displayed next to the ride.
Ride experience
The ride starts with an indoor section, where riders pass Jigsaw's equipment and Billy on his tricycle. Riders then approach two dimly-lit swinging pendulum blades which appear to get closer, before a surprise hidden drop that is nearly vertical, seemingly plunging them directly into a pit of strobe-lit spikes. Air blasts then fire out at riders imitating the firing of syringes from loaded crossbows, which appear to miss over riders' heads. The train then enters a heartline roll, where riders can seeJigsaw in a pool of blood. Water is sprayed at riders to imitate blood. The train exits the warehouse and travels towards the vertical lift hill. Prior to entering the lift hill, riders pass by two video screens and a digital timer counting down to zero. When it reaches zero, Billy appears onscreen and Jigsaw says "Game over". The lift hill engages the trains, which gradually accelerate as they ascend. After reaching the top, the trains dive down the 100° drop and pass under large rotating blades. Riders then enter a second inversion, an Immelmann loop, and into a tight, overbanked corner and air-time hill. The on-ride photos are taken as the cars rise to the left into a set of brakes. This is followed by 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 was originally possible for riders to purchase a DVD of their ride experience, produced from cameras mounted on the front and back of each car, but the cameras were removed in 2012.
Queue
The entrance is situated at the back of Saw Plaza. The exterior queue line consists of mock razor wire fences and various props that resemble torture elements from the films. Walkie talkie recordings of panicked policemen inside the building are played for guests waiting in line. 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. Travelling up the stairs, Billy the Puppet can be seen and heard on TV monitors, at certain times explaining the "rules" of the ride. Above the queue, a body is seen tangled in barbed wire, 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 scale. 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. Following an incident on The Smiler at Alton Towers on 2 June 2015 that resulted in its closure, Merlin Entertainment announced on 5 June 2015 that they were closing Saw – The Ride and two other roller coasters at Chessington World of Adventures for the "foreseeable future" while safety protocols and procedures were evaluated. The ride eventually reopened on 9 July 2015.
