DUTCH fairytale theme park Efteling, famous for its family-friendly attractions revisiting childhood tales, is turning to the dark side this Autumn with a scare ride that will, quite literally, send shivers down your spine.

Two years in the making, Efteling: Danse Macabre will be set inside a spooky abbey which houses a scary secret. I first wrote about plans for the attraction, and shared artists’ impressions here back in May 2022.

But now new images have been released of the all-but-completed ride – it will open to brave souls aptly from Hallowe’en, October 31 – and it looks impressive, with plenty of attention to atmosphere and the devil in the detail.

Built on the spot where the Spookslot haunted house used to stand, the abbey has been fitted out with a huge church organ, choir seats and a floor which offers unexpected thrills to the music of French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.

His symphonic poem Danse Macabre – which translates as Dance of Death – was written in 1874, and received its premiere the year after. It tells how Death appears at midnight on Hallowe’en and calls forth the dead to dance as he plays fiddle.

The floor turns out to be a turntable, on which sit six smaller turntables, each with one choir seat with three rows, seating 108 visitors at a time. The large turntable will rise, tilt and fall, spinning like a coin before falling flat.

Danse Macabre‘s ride system is said to be the first of its kind, and the 20-metre-high abbey building housing it is located in a new 17,000 square-metre themed area: the creepy Huyverwoud forest. In all it’s cost more than £29 million.

Since opening in 1952, more than 130 million people have visited Efteling, in the south of Holland, and it has grown to become one of Europe’s biggest theme parks, with a unique fairytale atmosphere. For tickets prices, hours of admission and route, see here.