Attic

"Here comes the bride..."

The Attic is a room found in each of the Haunted Mansion attractions.

Attractions[]

The Haunted Mansion[]

Leaving the Grand Hall, guests ride through a dark, dusty and cluttered attic, where the sound of a beating heart and a sinister piano rendition of "The Wedding March" can be heard. Among the brick-a-brac are several pieces of wedding paraphernalia and decor, and five different marriage paintings, depicting the same bride but with a different groom in each. As guests watch, the heads of each of the grooms disappear, only to reappear moments later.

After passing the source of the music, a broken-down piano with an invisible pianist (only a shadow of a man cast on the wall and keys), guests come face-to-face with the ghost of the bride, Constance. She recites macabre allusions to wedding vows and laughs while, periodically, a spectral hatchet appears in her hands. Guests then escape from the attic through a window and onto a balcony overlooking a graveyard, where they are met briefly by the grinning Hatbox Ghost before descending to the cemetery below.

Phantom Manor[]

Phantom Manor does not have an attic scene, which is instead replaced with the bride's boudoir.

Haunted Mansion Holiday[]

During the Halloween and Christmas seasons in California and Tokyo, the sttic features many spooky and macabre toys from the Nightmare Before Christmas, as well as an Oogie Boogie toy that crashed symbols like a toy monkey. Three of the old pop-up ghosts have been reworked into jack-in-the-boxes, one being a black cat with another as a skull, and still another as a jack-o-lantern. There is also a long Naughty-Nice List that stretches across the right side of the room, right into the mouth of the large snake from the movie, whose bulging body rises up to form an arch over the exit window.

For a time until the 2006 refurbishment in California, a tribute to the original bride could be seen in the form of a tiny monkey figurine that resembled the Bride with the beating heart. The 2023 season also included a small Candle Man figure with a gift tag for "Rolly" as a memorial for Rolly Crump's death that year.

History[]

Though it has changed since the original ride opened, the attic has always been wedding-themed, always featuring a character dressed up as a bride, but this has changed over the years.

When the original Haunted Mansion opened, it featured a Bride with a red, beating heart that could be heard throughout the room, appearing to the left of the Doom Buggies approximately halfway through the room. However, for a few days, she had a suitor: the Hatbox Ghost, who appeared just to the right of the exit. The figure was removed a few days after opening because it did not work as expected, and the Bride was moved to where he originally stood. There were also pop-up/blast-up ghosts that were hidden throughout the room in old trunks, boxes, and even hatboxes. They would shriek and groan in order to startle guests.

In the 1995 the Attic was altered, adding a new ghostly pianist (similar to the one in Walt Disney World's music room). The pop-up's shrieks and groans were changed to haunting “I do's”. They seemed to be mocking the bride by saying the two words that she could never say. A new bride stood in place of the Hatbox Ghost, and had a face and hair. The Bride now appeared to be forlorn and taunted, unlike her homicidal predecessor. In 1996 at Walt Disney World, the bride was given a face and new hairdo, and the pop-ups were redressed with tuxedos and top hats. In addition, the trunks that they leaped out of were removed, so they now appeared to be jumping from behind piles of junk. The Shadow Pianist was not added, though, and the pop-ups still shrieked as they leaped up.

Then in 2006, the attic was reworked once again. The Bride was given a name, Constance Hatchaway, and a new storyline. This incarnation of the Bride is known as the “Black Widow Bride,” as she killed several of her husbands for their wealth and power. The headless groom theme returned to the Attic, with the inclusion of changing portraits in which the grooms' heads would disappear from their bodies. The bride was moved back to the left side of the vehicles, just as she had been in 1969. However, she remained at the back corner of the attic rather than in the middle like she originally was. In California, the ghost pianist remained, but the pop-up ghosts were removed from their hiding places. These changes were brought to Walt Disney World in 2007's re-haunting, including the phantom pianist's music, which is only heard throughout the scene.

At both Disneyland and Disney World, the pop-up ghosts were removed following the changes made to the attic with the arrival of Constance. At Disneyland, however, the three pop-up ghosts' mechanisms were still kept in place so they could be used for the jack-in-the-boxes that appear in the Haunted Mansion Holiday.

The new Bride is brought to life through the use of animation projected onto a mannequin, which is borrowed from Madame Leota and the Singing Busts in the Graveyard. Constance is voiced by voice actress Kat Cressida while she is portrayed by actress Julia Lee in the wedding portraits.

In 2015, as part of Disneyland's 60th Anniversary Diamond celebration, the Hatbox Ghost returned to the Disneyland mansion after a 46 year absence. He now stands on the balcony just outside the attic, laughing as guests pass him. His disappearing head effect is now achieved via projections. Because the "beating-heart" bride no longer appears in the attraction, his head does not disappear to the rhythm of her heart; instead, it simply shifts between his shoulders and his hatbox every 5-6 seconds.