The Raven

When I was a child, I always wondered why the Doom Buggies exited the attic scene and then turned around backwards before going downhill into the graveyard scene.  I surmised that it was primarily a comfort issue.  After all, leaning forward while slowly moving downhill was a bit awkward.  But it took me many years before I learned that there was a storyline parallel to this as well!  As it turns out, guests leaving the attic are actually falling out of the window and toward their doom!  It's the culmination of the entire ride, where spirits slowly reveal themselves but don't come forth en masse until the graveyard scene.

Well, during this descent, if guests look upward, they can spot a dark bird perched on a gnarled branch, cawing down to them.  This is the raven, an ode to Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven.  A traditional harbinger of death, the raven's presence fits with this morbid storyline arc. 

Of course, it seems un-Disney-like to suggest that the storyline actually has the guests die, especially since the later-appearing hitchhiking ghosts will be following the guests home.  But then again, guests are also later told that they have been selected to fill the Mansion's quota, so who knows, maybe they have passed beyond our mortal coil?

This is open to interpretation, and probably intentionally.  But it's interesting backstory, and something I wanted to serve as an excuse to post some photos of the Raven taken on the ride several weeks ago!

After guests "fall out of the attic" into the graveyard scene, they momentarily see the raven, seemingly taunting them.

A closer look at the sinister bird.