The Black Widow Bride in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion who had a dark habit of beheading her husbands has traded in her axe for a new backstory that softens her murderous tendencies and makes her a more mournful and lovesick figure. Walt Disney Imagineering will introduce a new ghostly bride using projection technology in the Haunted Mansion’s attic scene when the classic dark ride returns today, Jan. 18 after shedding its annual holiday overlay. Sign up for our Park Life newsletter and find out what’s new and interesting every week at Southern California’s theme parks. Subscribe here. A ghostly new bride has materialized in the attic scene of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. (Courtesy of Disneyland) The new Haunted Mansion bride with a beating red heart and flowing gown appears to levitate in front of a shattered window while holding a three-pronged candelabra. Haunted Mansion riders will hear the sounds of her beating heart and see the ghostly flames flicker on the candelabra as they pass through the attic scene. ALSO SEE: Disneyland adds new show scenes during Haunted Mansion makeover The new storyline turns the attic bride from an axe murderer who beheads her wealthy husbands for their fortunes into a brooding bride mourning the loss of her husbands and filled with the overwhelming dread of lost love. Disney Imagineers heightened the saddened, lovesick and grief-stricken look on the new bride’s face, Imagineering creative director Kim Irvine told the Los Angeles Times. ALSO SEE: Look inside Disneyland’s new Haunted Mansion gift shop ​​“We thought, what if we change the story back a little bit to the original story that the Imagineers had about a lost bride in the attic mourning the loss of her husbands,” Irvine told the Times. “It was a sad thing. It was a story about lost love.” The new Haunted Mansion attic bride will be surrounded by portraits of past grooms who gradually vanish — leaving the reasons for their departure more to the imagination instead of her murderous intentions. ALSO SEE: Haunted Mansion at 50: Decades of delays and distractions nearly derailed Disneyland’s venerable dark ride The old Black Widow Bride, known as Constance Hatchway, showed up in wedding portraits with a series of husbands who lost their heads in the Haunted Mansion attic scene. The Hitchhiking Ghosts imagery that appears in the mirrors during the ride’s finale has also been updated during the removal of the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay. Related Articles Disneyland | Disneyland Magic Key passes are going back on sale; how to get them Disneyland | 5 best things to eat at Disneyland’s Lunar New Year festival Disneyland | Disneyland hotels housing 100 Disney employees displaced by wildfires Disneyland | Marvel super heroes take over It’s a Small World at Tokyo Disneyland Disneyland | Disneyland almost got Space Mountain before the Magic Kingdom