Dante's Inferno was a

dark ride A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music and special effects. Appearing as early as the 19th century, su ...

created in 1971 by

Anton Schwarzkopf Anton Schwarzkopf (8 July 1924 – 30 July 2001) was a German engineer who founded Schwarzkopf Industries GmbH, a German manufacturer of roller coasters and other amusement rides that were sold to amusement parks and travelling funfairs ...

that was located at Astroland on Coney Island; a similar ride, Dante's Dungeon (originally also called Dante's Inferno), is at

Morey's Piers Morey’s Piers & Beachfront Waterparks is a classic seaside amusement park located on The Wildwoods' boardwalk in Wildwood and North Wildwood, New Jersey. The park has been family owned and operated since 1969 and is currently run by 2nd gen ...

Wildwood, New Jersey Wildwood is a city in Cape May County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area and is a popular summer resort destination along the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's year-ro ...

. Dante's Inferno is decorated with a purple

Cerberus In Greek mythology, Cerberus (; grc-gre, Κέρβερος ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring of the ...

in each tower, a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely ...

out of one window, and skeleton warriors in another, its exterior's centerpiece is a large

devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

holding a victim in his hand that is connecting to the tongue of an upside-down, lolling eyed creature, and a

pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

in the other. The ride's exterior resembles a castle, and its open area is decorated in graffiti style artwork including

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress"), also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those ...

's severed head held by a

Grim Reaper Death is frequently imagined as a personified force. In some mythologies, a character known as the Grim Reaper (usually depicted as a berobed skeleton wielding a scythe) causes the victim's death by coming to collect that person's soul. Other b ...

, as well as a

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or " insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly a ...

and several dragons. The passenger rides in a

bumper car Bumper cars or dodgems are the generic names for a type of flat amusement ride consisting of multiple small electrically powered cars which draw power from the floor and/or ceiling, and which are turned on and off remotely by an operator. Bumpe ...

-like device and is sent through a maze of dark hallways. Most of the interior imagery is behind glass cases, including a dead woman rising off a table, a shaking

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...

case, two

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or fi ...

s, a

popping out from behind foliage, skeletons, and various other horrors, in particular, scenes of a violent and gruesome nature such as a circular saw

dismemberment Dismemberment is the act of cutting, ripping, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise disconnecting the limbs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with ...

and a man bound on all four limbs begging for help. Suspense is built by relatively long passages of nothing but darkness, strobes that simulate lightning, and sound effects, such as screaming, though some of these are lined with small,

imp IMP or imp may refer to: * Imp, a fantasy creature Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Imp (She-Ra), a character in ''She-Ra: Princess of Power'' * Imp a character in '' Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony'' * Imp, a character in the '' Cl ...

ish wall tiles. Little direct influence of

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature ...

is to be found, though this was not always the case. The ride seems to have no particular theme in its current state. Across from the first gorilla is an unlit display showing a man with a crown opening a window, which appears irrelevant to a horror-themed ride. The ride has elements similar to a roller coaster, including hard-whipping turns and, midway through the ride, coming outside and being pulled down a steep slope before being plummeted through another set of doors to more horrors. Early in the ride, one specter is lowered before the tracks, but otherwise there is glass (or in the case of the begging man, mesh) between the rider and the various scares. Unlike either the

Ghost Hole The Ghost Hole was a horror-themed dark ride on Coney Island operated by 12th Street Amusements, a division of Li'l Sassy Anne, Inc. In 2021, the ride was removed and replaced by an expansion of Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, featuring a V ...

or the

Spook-a-Rama Spook-a-Rama is a dark ride from the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company located at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park on Coney Island and run by Million Amusement Corp. It opened in 1955. The rider is pulled around in a car resembling an old wooden ...

, the other Coney Island dark rides, nothing comes directly at the rider, or threatens to do so. The ride lasts one minute and forty-five seconds. The admission price was $5.00 at the time Astroland closed. The ride is portable, but its fate is unclear as Astroland closed after the 2008 season. It may be among the rides Astroland's owners have managed to sell for relocation elsewhere on the boardwalk. As of April 2009, the ride had been gutted. The entire façade was removed, leaving the ramp as part of the standing structure. This was removed before the opening of the new Dreamland Park. In 2009, the site housed a giant snake

freak show A freak show, also known as a creep show, is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with ...

attraction.http://shutterfreaks.com/gallery21/main.php/d/70784-1/_DSC6010-Giant-snake.jpg It was the only one of the three Coney Island dark rides to have snakes (not real) on the interior, although they were trim to the mummy display. In 2010, the area was renamed

Luna Park Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Island parks. Luna parks are small-s ...

and a small rollercoaster is in the area where Dante's Inferno was.

References

External links

* * {{Coney Island Dark rides Coney Island Cultural depictions of Dante Alighieri

See also

References

External links