Halloween Horror Nights 35 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[Legacy]

As the self-proclaimed Caretaker expert: As far as I know Cindy was an orphan in Carey Ohio and got taken in by the Good Harvest Orphanage where the adults were neglectful of the children...because of course they were. One Halloween, Cindy, who for whatever reason has telekinetic powers, set fire to the Orphanage killing everyone inside and used the fire as a chance to escape. Somewhere along the way she gets adopted by the Caretaker, who was as the name implies, the Caretaker of the Shady Oaks Cemetery in Carey Ohio. (Though if you find press material from 2002 it claims he lives with his family in Williamette Georgia, because this was before A&D decided to center most of their original lore in Carey Ohio.) Cindy lived with the Caretaker and his family up until the townspeople figured out that he was using the bodies of their deceased loved ones in the cemetery for his experiments and research into the human soul and how to resurrect the dead. In an act of vengeance they burned his house to the ground. While the Caretaker was able to escape, Cindy perished in this fire and as a result the Caretaker redoubled his research into brining the dead back to life with the express purpose of using it to bring Cindy back to life. Somehow, someway he has succeeded as that's how she's able to pop up at the event as a living scareactor every now and then, and not as a mannequin like she was in 2006.

Her history isn’t that consistent, as she appeared in Screamhouse Revisited in 2003, which is AFTER the fire.

In her original, pre-Caretaker-icon story (2002), Cindy is the only survivor of the fire and Screamhouse (as presented) was basically an indistinguishable blend of ghosts and zombies. As such, there are actually two “canons” for Cindy. The first puts the events of Orfanage before Screamhouse. This canon (to me) doesn’t fully jive with Cindy’s visual changes and casts’ understanding of the characters for both houses.

The second canon (my canon) hews closer to her original story where she is the only survivor. She flees, and the trauma of the Screamhouse fire is what makes her pyrokinetic. She gets captured and is put into the Orphanage. There, her power manifests and kills everyone (herself included). Meanwhile, Fear resurrects (and relocates) the dead Caine family to Ohio (he doesn’t bring back Cindy because she died separately). Albert doesn’t realize that’s the disconnect, and strives to resurrect her separately.

I’m a fan of the second canon because it explains why she’s older between Screamhouse and Orfanage, and integrates Fear (who wasn’t planned during of this) to better align with the overarching narrative.

 

[Tobias]

assuming the grandfather clock that's upside down is Stranger Things. Do we think this could be solely focused on Season 5, or could they try to make it a compilation of all season for the final hoorah?
My preference would be greatest hits from all seasons because season 5 was too weak for a house imo.

Hard to say at the moment, while a greatest hits house would be fitting...ultimately the house is in a shared soundstage and not by itself in a standalone location. My gut feeling is it's based off Season 5.

It is an interesting point of why Caretaker specifically, especially in a carnival year.

For me, a thing to consider is while I.C.O.N. is the visual theme, you have to remember that at the events core, it's still very much an Anniversary Year. (A&D has been open about that since last year.) So they're gonna' use the Icons/past characters/themes however they want. It's also no secret that A&D is quite fond of the Caretaker, after all they wanted him back in 27. So it also makes sense they'd want to feature him whenever possible.

And a graveyard zone is rather perfect to feature Caretaker and Cindy, much better than throwing them into a grab bag anniversary zone. It's more fun when characters are in their element, and the way I see it, a potentially gothic/moody graveyard zone can be a wonderful contrast to the most likely colorful and chaotic clown zone.

 

[Legacy]

For me, a thing to consider is while I.C.O.N. is the visual theme, you have to remember that at the events core, it's still very much an Anniversary Year. (A&D has been open about that since last year.) So they're gonna' use the Icons/past characters/themes however they want. It's also no secret that A&D is quite fond of the Caretaker, after all they wanted him back in 27. So it also makes sense they'd want to feature him whenever possible.

I also think giving Albert and Cindy their own zone is a good way to test response… 2027 is 25 (calendar) years since Screamhouse, which was a big step forward in the scale of their houses. Its success was a bit of a turning point for way their house designs went. It’s worth revisiting, but the characters but prove to be popular.