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3. Sindy

Sindy Concept Art

In 2002, just one year after the massive changes to Halloween Horror Nights XI, the Art and Design department was ready to return to what it does best—creating an event packed with psychological horror supplemented by more than a little gore. The event moved to Islands of Adventure that year, where it would remain until its 2006 Sweet Sixteen homecoming. HHN XII was carefully designed to take maximum advantage of Islands of Adventure’s layout, and tying it all together was one little girl.

Sindy Bearer grew up in a funeral home run by her highly disturbed parents, Paul and Kara. Feeling overwhelmed by their workload, the older couple began hiding corpses rather than cremating them, which proved convenient when they needed to supplement their income. Paul acquired a white panel van and began selling his own brand of cured meat. As they descended further into madness, they started turning the corpses into a gruesome extended family. Sindy’s nights were often filled with elaborate dinner parties and balls, with long-dead bodies serving as the honored guests. Her only friend was an oversized porcelain doll, who Sindy treated as her sister.

When the local community caught wind of what was happening, an angry mob formed. They set fire to the funeral parlor, and the flames soon engulfed the family home. Sindy fled to the cemetery, her face ablaze. The next day, police found Sindy’s beloved doll, its porcelain face completely gone. Investigators found an elaborate underground tunnel system leading to more than 1,000 desecrated graves, but believed that the entire Bearer family had perished in the fire. They sealed the cemetery gates and closed the investigation. Yet Sindy’s essence lived on. Now purely evil, she learned to manifest malice through her twisted playthings. The Port of Entry would serve as the gateway into Sindy’s world, and every experience was another manifestation of her disturbed reality.

Unfortunately, a string of child abductions made national news shortly before HHN XII was to open. Due to the publicity and the need for sensitivity, the Art and Design team once again found itself making huge last-minute changes. They quickly swapped out Sindy for Albert Caine, AKA the Caretaker. He was largely a substitute for Paul Bearer, keeping the main back story in place. In this variation, Universal park guests were to serve as a research team investigating strange phenomena inside the sealed cemetery. However, some elements of the Sindy storyline remained, including the Treaks and Foons scare zone, which was supposed to have been her twisted variation on cartoon characters.

Sindy’s last name was changed to Caine, and she was recast as Albert’s daughter, for Scream House: Resurrection in 2006. That house featured several photos of her, as well as her appearance inside a casket. But Sindy did not truly come into her own until 2009, when she joined other icons in the Shadows From the Past scare zone. In 2010, she finally got her own house, The Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes. She also appeared alongside other icons in the HHN: 20 Years of Fear scare zone.

4. Extreme House

Extreme House Teaser

Howl-O-Scream, Busch Gardens Tampa’s contribution to the Central Florida horror map and arguably HHN’s biggest local competitor, has run an extra-charge extreme haunted house for years. Yet Halloween Horror Nights has never tried this option. As it turns out, that decision stems from somewhere other than the Art and Design department, as members of that team revealed plans that have been on the back burner for a long time.

Without spoiling what might yet come to fruition someday, it is safe to say that HHN’s extreme house would be aptly named. Guests would have to sign a waiver before entering, and would be taken in very small groups. Physical manhandling, yelled insults, separating individuals from their group, and even simulated electrocution are all strong possibilities. No one has been clear on exactly why it has never happened, but speculation continues to run rampant. If it ever does happen, however, the design team’s two decades of experience can virtually guarantee that their take on an extreme house would be able to compete with the best-known extreme houses across the nation.

 
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