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Bulging door in The Haunted Mansion

A bulging door in the Corridor of Doors

"Unfortunately, they all seem to have trouble getting through..."

The Corridor of Doors is an area of the Haunted Mansion and Phantom Manor, with little variation between the respective versions.

Description[]

Guests are carried backward down an ominous corridor, a series of doors on either side of the car. Growls, screams, maniacal laughter and pleading voices emanate from behind them, as if something is trying to get out. Doors bend, as if they are breathing, knockers clack and rattle, and the walls are adorned with some "family portraits" of corpses.

At the end of the hall lies a grandfather clock, with its arms spinning wildly backwards and the clock striking 13. A shadow of a clawed hand passes over the face of the clock, marking the end of the corridor and the start of the Séance Circle.

Haunted Manson Holiday[]

As guests float backwards down the hall, the doors on either side, just like the normal ride, make strange groans and shrieks, like someone on the other side wants to get out. The halls are covered in garlands and each door has a wreath and skull at the top. In the middle of the hall lies a vicious, man-eating wreath, with garland tentacles reaching out to the walls and two arms outstretched at passing guests. Small flowers sprout from it, singing Kidnap the Sandy Claws.

2003 Video Game[]

The corridor of doors along with its demon-face wallpapers as well as the grandfather clock appear in the 2003 video game adaptation as part of Downstairs Hallway. Some doors in the hallway are boarded up and have sentient clawed hands that try to harm the player character.

2003 film[]

A direct reference to the Corridor of Doors in the 2003 film is the presence of the bulging/breathing door. The door-filled hallway (with hidden Mickeys) which Jim Evers runs through to escape Madame Leota's chamber is a slight reference to this portion of the ride. There was also a scene directly based on the corridor filmed but ultimately scrapped, though the basic idea was used in the Virtual Tour feature on the film's DVD release.

Tales from the Haunted Mansion[]

The Breathing Door's origin is given in one of the three stories in Volume III as having been carved from a hangman's tree in Salem, Massachusetts used to execute witches during the witch trials, with a portal back into the past behind it.

The Haunted Mansion: Frights of Fancy[]

Screenshot 2024-06-09 013912

The Breathing Door is possessed by a shy ghost only known as "The Ghost Behind the Door" that is part of the group of misfit ghosts assigned to work with Sydney on the Mansion's anniversary event. The shy ghost can move elsewhere around the grounds, also appearing in one of the Scary Trees to talk to Sydney when she's feeling down.

Muppets Haunted Mansion[]

In this special, Gonzo is requested by the Ghost Host to go to room 999 in the Corridor of Doors to succeed in conquering his fear.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Imagineers have cited Robert Wise's 1963 film The Haunting as a key inspiration for various parts of the Haunted Mansion, particularly in the Corridor of Doors. Elements like the faces in the wallpaper and the breathing door were taken from the movie.
  • The shadow of the claw against the grandfather clock is a reference to the silent horror film Nosferatu.
  • In Tokyo Disneyland, family portraits were replaced with the portrait of a man in a top hat. As guests passed the portrait, the face of the man would become three-dimensional and grow out of the painting.
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