Discover Top Posts Tagged with #surr3al

with the recent rise of popularity of modern Doctor Who from Mr Ring A Ding/Lux, it’s thankfully given me a good oversight over the franchise BESIDES the Daleks (them being my only view beforehand lmao)

& with that given oversight, it’s had me realizing more & more how much this franchise has similarities to something I hold dear to me personally..especially with the recent cast of “Whoverse” Gods even with my minuscule knowledge on them - SO SORRY if I get anything wrong or off with them btw

a setting with the impression on finding dopamine from a constantly changing face? both for the protagonist AND antagonists??? this just feels like an open area for me at this point

I wanna take this chance to finally give me an excuse to ramble on - hopefully even indulge people of the story involved in:

HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS

& ITS ICONS

Although I know the event itself isn’t all that niche, I never see that many people focus on the building blocks on how these houses & house/event characters came to be.. it’s a yearly fixation of mine to be one of the ones who study in what’s deeper to all these gross-out experiences; 5+ years & counting, I think next year might be 10 years of me doing this holy hell,,,,

Even with all of this “knowledge”, I know that this event has been relevant for years before the 2010’s - being in its mid 30’s currently!!

Because of this, it’s had time to build on itself, find a structure to keep balance whilst adding onto its ongoing plot, or hell, adding new ones into the mix for continuation. With the addition of me knowing how much longer Doctor Who has run for, its developmental schedule is such a good format for people new & old to the franchise can jump into any period of time & still have an understanding story; just like with HHN! There can be people either broadcasting their trip nowadays whilst people looking for traces of lost media (clips, in-house footage, etc) in means of ingesting more content..honestly a fun ride.

Enough with the overhauling background, what’s up with the story?? why do I think of this comparison?? it’s a much longer story than intended…but I still wanna start off in anyway I can.

Not only does this event revolve around houses, scarezones, IP’s, and anything scary, but it has a special addition to make the experience all the more remembering: Icons.

Icons (characters) are the center point of attention of the given year, being promoted like crazy to be seen as something you’re supposed to be afraid of; the whole reasoning as to why there are certain houses or events that you have the misfortune on stepping in on, and the main face of the overall event - not plural, given how many leaders and mascots have had the role prior. There can either be major or minimal in roles, the minimal ones more so being house-specific characters who were expanded on to be given more personality and depth to have it stand out compared to the rest of the line up; sometimes interacting with the major ones!! HHN’s character lineup is ever growing being given this information - and with the addition of “foreign” add-ons from Singapore, Japan, and Hollywood compared to Florida, there’s a huge array of almost personalized tastes being spalled out to be a favorite!

..But with me saying that there is a vast variety of characters, it’s almost TOO much characters to be infodumping about….even with that said, my purpose isn’t to immediately dunk down deep into what HHN has to offer, so I wanna at least talk about characters that I feel compare the MOST to certain Doctor Who elements whilst having importance.

Firstly: Boris Shuster

Boris is the proclaimed protagonist of the event; as much as one as he can be compared to the Icons at least.

He is very similar to the Doctor for his role as “protagonist”, being a private investigator and supernatural detective who dares to go deeper in the strange in means of destroying its origin to put an end to it. Additionally, wanting to give himself a “anonymous” facade.. do you know who else may wish to do that? I got a hint, & it rhymes with numbers 1 through 15

His role is one of the more crucial to the story of HHN overall - being a building block for creative reasoning as to why or how the event began to structure. With his adventurous footprint, he’s had very close dealing with the legions of horror & their totems - the legions are a future highlight, so keep that name in mind.

Having discovered a totem in 1948, he journalized his sighting as means of being able to archive the current paranormal event for him at the time; doing so with each of the legion’s house totem in means of keeping them “in shape”. Wasn’t until 1957 where his mission was finalized, trapping off the wickedness of the legions within the totems in safe keeping, not wanting the energy to be released back into public once more to torment anybody anymore.. it wasn’t until 1991 where a kid by the name of Tim Foyle got ahold of Boris’s now aged writings, almost following it as if it were step-by-step instructions on getting the totems for himself. Tim was just a geek not knowing any better on the grotesque and sinister, so his curious mind ended up reopening the legions from their tyranny.. accidentally killing himself in the process of the released monsters “hosting” Universal’s Fright Night that year!

Now, the Legions of Horror aren’t exactly a single character, but rather sections that group together multiple characters as a way or organization (as well as interactivity from these being used as a flash game when first announced).

Each legion carrying they’re own role, involving The Necromancers/Iniquitous (surrounding death & cemented imagery), The Vampires/Strengoits (surrounding well.. vampires), The Beasts/Cerebins (surrounding predatory creatures who’s only instinct is primal), The Warriors/Baccanoids (surrounding medieval horror), The Prisoners/Maschorians (surrounding revenge-thirsty captists close to death), The Traditionals/Morphans (surrounding the playfully sinister nature of twisted facades), and The Walkers/Kerezans (surrounding the ghoulish undead).

Why bring them up? I wanna bring the focus over to The Morphans, being one where most of the more notable Icons are stored - but also that group overall reminding me of another stored pair of characters under the same influence: The Gods.

Even with my little knowledge on the modern antagonists, I have still seen enough characterization from each to say that The Toymaker, Maestro, and Lux resemble the most of what HHN has for famous characters: Dr. Oddfellow, Jack Schmidt - and his doll-born lackey hypegal, Chance.

Beginning with: Dr. Oddfellow

A strange man, really, for he always yearned for power for as long as he lived.

..Having lived to see both the 2020’s and early 1900’s, it wouldn’t be until 1920 where he’d found a rare artifact skull connected to the Zodiacs that’d granted him immortality whilst his time as an aspiring sorcerer - as well as tampering with souls to do as he pleased; manipulating anything and everything in his path to have it flow his way. Alas, there was a toll for him to keep his powers, needing to “feed” the zodiacs via sacrificial gifts through the deaths of innocents, leading up to his mutations and homicide whilst running a carnival to hide the deeper operation, removing any signs of himself from the crime.

Here’s where things begin to develop: before Oddfellow influenced the idea of gaining power, in the midst of the 1800’s, 2 brothers by the name of Jack & Eddie Schmidt were born in “Shady brook Rest Home and Santiarium” - in other words, an enclosed asylum. Oddfellow was under the influence of Jack escaping his toxic living scenario once he’d gotten older, becoming the main event of the circus as Jack The Clown.. his younger brother Eddie was left behind whilst Jack played a friendly facade while having a grease-covered face tinted fresh with his victims blood, later becoming a chainsaw maniac from his fascination of slasher films & his revenge after a “harmless” prank amongst his cheap horror house leaves him with permanent burn scars over his face.

Over the years, Jack had gotten worse & worse at hiding his own evidence, eventually leading the FBI to the carnival with the assumption of “missing children” being the cause. Oddfellow could only fear for the worst seeing at his own plans were seemingly on the verge of foiling from some insolent maniac, killing Jack on the spot not long after his confession. Unknowingly, Oddfellow’s blood did get infused into Jack’s from him scratching at the Doctors face; hence the scar in his design, foreshadowing Jack and his return for the near future.. for now, he’d been stuffed into a comically large lettered box that’d soon turn his name into a pun the moment he was reincarnated.

Once Jack had the ability to get to work, he got to WORK, i’ll say that. Taking over Oddfellow’s now abandoned carnival since getting his revenge kill, and traveling worldwide through his carnival of carnage for the pure purpose of entertaining through tortuous horror! And with his connection to Universal, it’s made it much easier for him to reunite with his younger brother, and befriend many freaks - no matter the variety. One of his more notable sidekicks would have to be one born from a simple ballerina music box: Chance.

Chance is like Jack’s Harley to his Joker, being his main assistant throughout the years & finding more & more development as time goes on. If it wasn’t notable from her personality, she’s freakish. Almost more loud than Jack is, and he’s already overwhelmingly obnoxious enough! She is very childish & happy-go lucky, almost the perfect balance for Jack & his default sadistic nature. Having been around him since the 2000’s, but it wouldn’t be until 2015 where all of the fun had to come to a halt for poor old Chance; having the death of their hostages luring in the police in means of catching the culprits. Jack abandons the scene at the moment, almost purposefully leaving Chance behind to have it seem as if she was the one who’d cauce all of the blood shed. Needless to say, she did NOT take any of that well, being sent to a mental institution as public isolation and for the crime she’d committed, Chance had surely gone mad given her growing spite..and growing hallucinations hearing her own voice talk to her. Chance had grown fully dependent by 2016, encouraging all of her equally “manic” peers to take over & run down the asylum she was put in, seeing out Jack in any means necessary as he kept himself hidden.

I may just be speculating too hard, but I’ve found a lot of connections between the Gods and the Icons listed beforehand.. even with me not knowing much of the story, I do know that Lux & the Toymaker have had their banters every once in a while; to the point where it traps him i’ve heard?? This makes for a fun comparison, really.

The Toymaker is similar to Dr. Oddfellow in means of powers and motivation, putting on a stand-up facade whilst twisting the boundaries of anything they can think of - all the while laughing like it’s just some sort of game.

Lux is similar to Jack in ways of how they’ve been treated on they’re ends mostly, hiding a deeply sinister persona over a cheerful and entertaining mask in means of getting through to manipulate and find the dopamine they’re looking for faster.

Maestro is similar to Chance from the ways they both express themselves and execute certain tactics, almost being the most preppy and playful when it comes to their tricks.. even with their own restrictions and flaws.

I haven’t even gotten to the REAL meat & potatoes HHN has to offer, I mean hell, there’s entities like Adura who’s the main embodiment of Fear itself - paralleling well with Sutekh and it being the God of Death.

As well as the twin sisters SINIST3R & SURR3AL being hinted descendants to Adura in means of showcasing fear either through physical means, or mental mind games.

& my favorite favorite FAVORITE ICON: The Pumpkin Lord; being the embodiment of Halloween itself & feeding off of fear to become this disgusting mutated pumpkin-like monster.

….but dude this really was just an excuse for me to ramble on about something that I would’ve assumed some people could find interesting.. wait till people hear that Jack kinda counts as a hidden sexyman as well with how often people fawn over him.