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| “ | Not afraid of the dark? You don't know Jack! | „ |
| ~ The quote on the Halloween Horror Nights X commercial. |
Jack Schmidt, better known by his alias, Jack the Clown, is a character created by Universal Studios Florida's Halloween Horror Nights. He was the Halloween event's first-ever icon. According to his twisted sense of humor, he is a circus clown and serial killer who killed his victims. He first appeared during the tenth year, Halloween Horror Nights X, and was used five times as an icon due to his popluarity, He was formerly a carnival perfomer who loved to entertain children with his practical pranks. To run away and join the circus, he has had a poor and highly abusive family. He betrayed his younger brother Eddie.
Backstory[]
Jack Schmidt was formerly a carnival performer who had the joy of the ability to entertain children with pratical pranks and prat-falls during his stint with Dr. Oddfellow's Carnival of Thrills. He escaped a poor and extremely abusive family including the fact to betray his younger brother Eddie in order to run away and join the circus. Underneath his greasepaint and clown nose, there was a very dark secret about him becoming a twisted murderer. Throughout the Southern states, for the disappearance and abduction of a huge number of small children, he was wanted for both of them. Police officials and the F.B.I. soon caught on that the missing children followed a pattern that had let them closer and closer to the traveling freak show. On October 31st, 1920, the police have been closing in on the psychopathic clown killer. Fearing the capture, Jack revealed the sinister secret of his to Dr. Oddfellow in the hopes of possible concealment. Dr. Oddfellow himself has became wanted by the police for the accidental death of several patrons in a freak cirus accident years earlier under a different name, was not sympathetic to Jack's cause. He quickly admonished him for potentially bringing the police down upon the entire band of miscreants. He asked Jack to show him what he had done with the bodies of the children. Jack revealed the bodie sof thirteen children hidden in the confines of three small trunks that were kept in his traveling coach. Fearing the worst, Dr. Oddfellow had Jack murdered and his body hidden within the traveling carnival's house of horrors as an exhibit, along with the bodies of the children. Years later, the carnival was sold by Dr. Oddfellow, and the various dark rides and exhibits were split and sent to various owners around the states, including the house of horrors and its grisly secret.
Sixty years later in Fall 1980, a television crew from the BBC was documenting the great Dark Rides of America. They journied throughout the eastern seaboard loking for forgotten carnival rides and attractions, and also stumbled upon the House of Horrors as it sat abandoned in a Louisiana junkyard. The crew asked permission to film the interior, and pried open the doors of the forgotten relic to step inside. The smell of decay was overpowering as the bright camera light illuminated the darkned corridors. Moving past the faded walls and hanging fabric, the smell began to increase. The cameraman retched as he panned his camera towards a series of trunks. Behind the trunks was a large wooden box stenciled like a children's toy. One letter was filled in every single side of the box that says "J-A-C-K". The cameraman steadied his camera s the host of the show investigated the box. He found a large crank on the side of the box and turned it. It started to move with some resistance, but after a few twists, it freely moved in a clockwise rotation. A clunky musical melody played out as the host turned it. Suddenly however, the music stopped and was incapable of looping with continued rotations. The camera light suddenly died, and then the crank rotated a few spins on its own. The top of the box flew open and a form sprung out. Affixed to a giant spring was the decomposing body of Jack Schmidt. After a thorough poolice investigation, the bodies of thirteen children as well as the body of Jack were shipped to the local Louisiana coroner's offie for further examination.A round midnight on Halloween, the van carrying the body and box of Jack has disappeared into the Louisiana swamp in a freak accident. Later that week the bodies of both the BBC cameraman and host were found as the victims of a grisly and unsolved murder.
Throughout the following years, an urban legend retelling of the tale started with a corresponding story about the decomposing body of Jack the Clown killing again. The legend has told that Jack will have the desire to reward anyone who releases him from his toy tomb by turning the crank with a very special reward.
The now-mortal Jack was soon caught by the authorities and committed to the Shady Brook Asylum For They Criminally Insane, an instiution that had suffered an inmate escape a few years earlier. Though often isolated in the Maximum Security Ward, Jack's mere presence seemed to have an adverse affect on the unstable popluation, who started emulating the crazed clown, much to the staff's dismay. Eventually, the inmates started a mass riot, gruesomely tortured the hospital staff, and put Jack in charge of the facility. During the chaos, Jack the Clown found records that his former boss and murderer, Dr. Oddfellow, was still alive and running a small traveling carnival.
Jack left Shady Brook, traveling ot the depravity of Dr. Oddfellow's Dark Carnival and Emporium. In the dark of night, Jack stalked into the tents and took his long-overdue vengeance. When he emerged, he has changed. During incarceration, Jack got a taste of what it was like to the run the show, and he desired to be the ringmaster of his own carnival. He dressed himself in the bright red coat and boots of a proper ringmaster. He also adorned himself with a crude top hat and terrible trinkets of his liking. He completed the transformation with Dr. Oddfellow's prized possession which also presumably what kept Odd fellow alive and in motion for eighty years: a silver-headed cane of souls. Putting the carnival on hiatuds, Jack spent the next few months traveling the world to find the right sideshow acts for his deadly Carnival of Carnage. He gathered a plethora of monsters, mutants, madman, and maniacs, many with included nearly as large as his own, luring them with promsies of fame, fortune, show business, and plenty of fresh victims. After nearly a year of preparation, Ringmaster Jack opened his dark Carnival of Carnage in Orlando, Florida.
Appearances at Halloween Horror Nights []
Jack has spawned a colossal amount of appearances throughout the event. As mentioned above, Jack first appeared at Universal Studios Florida in 2000 for Halloween Horror Nights X as the event's icon. During the following year, 2001, for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights XI, he replaced his younger chainsaw-wielding brother Eddie as the primary icon for the event due to the 9/11 disaster. Universal Studios also toned down the event during the same year, given for the reason of replacing blood with green "goop". Jack has appeared at the haunted house Horror Nights Nightmares at Halloween Horror Nights XIV, along with fellow icons the Caretaker, the Director, and his brother, Eddie. The next year, at Universal Studios Florida and the Islands of Adventure, Jack appeared in Rat Run, a preview at the following year at Halloween Horror Nights: Tales of Terror, where he stood on a roof platform cackling and insulting guests, while his fellow icons the Caretaker, the Director, and the Storyteller scared guests during the maze. A surprise about this maze was that they have all carried chainsaws, no matter which icon it was. Following Halloween Horror Nights: Tales of Terror, he and the other past icons returned to Universal Studios Florida in Fall 2006 for Halloween Horror Nights: Sweet 16, where they have all earned haunted houses of their own and appearances at The Arrival, a liveshow hosted by the Lord of Darkness, a Satan-like character from the movie Legend.
Trivia[]
- During a press interview, Jack claimed that his appearance at Halloween Horror Nights: Twenty Years of Fear in 2010 was his final bow. However, members of the Universal Art & Design Team, who were in charge of Halloween Horror Nights, have stated that he and the other previous icons are "on hiatus for a few years".
| Halloween Horror Nights characters | |
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 Primary Icons: Bloody Mary | The Caretaker | The Director | Fear | Jack the Clown | Lady Luck | The Storyteller | The Usher Other original characters: Bobby "The Blade" Galletta | H.R. Bloodengutz | Cindy Caine | Chance | The Inmates of Shadybrook Asylum | Knightmare | Meaty Meetz | Sam Meetz | Eddie Schmidt | The Terra Queen Singapore Icons: The Crone of the Forest | The Daughter of the Undead | Doctor Dementia | High Priest | The Maiden of the Opera | The Undertaker Alternate versions of popular characters: Carnage | Dracula |
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