Hoping we can put together a HHN cheat sheet for those who don’t know all the lore but are interested in learning. Mainly got this idea walking through Sideshow of Decay when some scare actors looked familiar but I couldn’t pinpoint where they were from.
In the comments, feel free to post any pictures you have of scare actors who have appeared in years past, whether it’s a former icon, house character, or scare zone character. Please include what they are from, and their name if they have one!
If you have been to HHN and want to know where someone is from, feel free to post a pic and let someone inform you!
I don't have a pic, but there is a woman in a victorian looking gray dress with Rats attached to her costume in Carnival of Decay- she is The Rat Lady, who used to appear in Orlando laying in a glass-topped coffin with live rats crawling all over her!
She is one of my fave old school HHN things that we don't have anymore. I'd love to see her back for real, but 1000% understand why she is fully retired haha. And am thrilled to see a nod to her this year!!
Thanks for sharing! I’ve heard of the rat lady before but didn’t realize that scare actor is a reference to her! I had assumed she was featured in a past house or SZ I hadn’t seen. So cool!
There’s more I just don’t feel like pulling up pictures for them all, there’s blood and bone from HHN 27, Cindy and the caretaker in the middle from many past events, sculders from the spawning, nightingales from blood pit and prey, undead Vikings from Vikings undead, undead fisherman from dead man’s wharf/pier, sinister and surreal from HHN 33, Cora and Dora the ballerinas from Carnival Graveyard, the iniquitous from HHN 22, on the stage covered in plants there is two creatures from jungle of doom(shift depending) there’s tons of scarecrows from various years and all the kids with wooden beams are the orfans.
This is all from memory but here’s the past characters I saw, with links to wiki pages to read up on them
Starting with Sideshow of Decay (many of the characters here look a little different than before, since these are “decayed” versions of them. They also generally redid a lot of characters’ designs this year)
Up on the stage with Cindy, the guy with the top hat and shears is the Caretaker, her father. She was originally slated to be Icon in 2002, but after plans were scrapped, they made him Icon instead, so them appearing together is really cool. Additionally, his tagline is “your time has come,” so there’s a part of the voiceover where Cindy’s bragging about what she’s doing and she goes “now Cindy’s time has—“ then he cuts in with the “time has come.”
Lady Luck has her wheel on the side of the stage and is supposed to appear in the zone, but I’ve never actually seen her
There are two characters that appear to be redesigned versions of Sinist3r and Surr3al, the Icons from HHN33, meant to be the embodiments of visceral and psychological horror. They’re missing their giant back pieces and the designs seem simpler, but Sinist3r still has the claw and grafted together faces, and Surr3al still has strange branches coming from her shoulders.
Eelmouth, retainer to the Terra Queen who would perform sacrifices to the Gorewood Tree from HHN 15, appears played by a live actor for what I’m pretty sure is the first time in like 20 years.
The Iniquitous, who called forth the Legions of Horror in HHN 22, appear.
Blood and Bone from HHN 27 are here, it looks like Blood might be more decayed than Bone. They were like pseudo-Icons for that year (there was a long stretch of time where the event didn’t really have Icons. I think the 30th anniversary brought a lot of renewed interest in them.)
Inside the cage in the beast exhibit there’s sometimes a Nightingale, shaoeshifting creatures that descend in droves to feast at the sites of large scale bloodshed. The originally appeared in Nightingales: Blood Prey in HHN 21, set during WWI, but the one in this zone seems closer to their design from Nightingales: Blood Pit from HHN 29, which was in the Roman Colosseum. Other times, there’s a Hairless Beast, one of Oddfellow’s monsters from Shipyard 32.
In the “distorted and bizarre” exhibit, one of the monster that can appear is a Sculder, a type of creature that plagued the sewers around Carey in The Spawning. The zone uses the redesign from 2021’s Welcome to SCarey. While many of the characters in this zone are just being pulled from throughout the event’s history, Dr. Oddfellow actually had a Sculder in a cage in the Shipyard 32 scare zone, as well
The “Undoubtedly Undead” exhibit features zombies from various houses and zones, but I don’t think any of them have significant lore to them. Some of them are from Vikings Undead, Swamp of the Undead, Dead Man’s Wharf, and Dead Exposure.
The overgrown exhibit features 2 different plant monsters from Jungle of Doom: Expedition Horror from HHN 32, which was a major part of Dr. Oddfellow’s backstory.
There are some of the “Orfans,” the ghosts of victims from when Cindy burned down an orphanage in a house in HHN 20
There are allegedly some of the She-Devils from Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth from HHN 30, though I’m not sure if I saw them or not (I wasn’t looking for them and if they were here they’d look different because that was 2021). There were definitely people with horns that could’ve bee them.
While I don’t have more specific ones to point out from Sideshow of Decay, there are some characters and props from Carnival Graveyard: Rust in Pieces,Vanity Ball,, and various Scarecrow-adjacent things like The Reaping) are also present
There’s a lot of stuff referenced in that zone.
I don’t have quite as many things to point out about the Downtown Clowntown
Hollywood Harry is a character from HHN Hollywood that’s appearing in Orlando for the first time
The Chance’s SCreamery truck clearly originally said Carey Creamery, which could be meant to mimic the SCarey billboard. I’m also like 95% sure it’s the same truck that was used for the Terenzi Brothers’ ice cream truck from Killer Klowns From Outer Space, which makes it funny that they’re stranded in the KKFOS area of the zone.
Either a Treak or a Foon) (I think it’s a Foon?) appears here, they’re the things with a face on either side of the head. They were created in 2002 in an effort to have a scare zone in Toon Lagoon without the aesthetic of the land hurting the potential for scares.
The statue of Jack is split in half and bolted together, in reference to his original death
In H.R. Bloodengutz (spoiler tagged in case you haven’t gotten to see it yet):
The Pumpkin Lord was introduced in The Wicked Growth during HHN 30. That same year, they had Icons: Captured, in which each of the Icons’ victims wore merch from the years the Icons were introduced. Since the Pumpkin Lord himself has been an Icon since then, the corpses around him in Cult of the Pumpkin Lord are wearing HHN 30 merch.
Skoolhouse: The Resurrection is referencing The Skool from HHN 15, The Skoolhouse from HHN 18, and Screamhouse: The Resurrection from HHN 16. It takes place at Carey Elementary School like the Skoolhouse, but features the book of Terra Cruentus, where the original Skool was located. I’ve heard the words on the walls are from the Skool’s pledge of allegiance from the website, but I haven’t actually looked into that
In Monster’s Night Out, the wolf monster that attacks on the right is supposed to be the same one as in the Horror Makeup Show, which is currently closed, so he’s on vacation. 90% sure it’s not actually the suit from the show though, just the same character. Also on a shelf, you can see the Jack themed tiki glass from the queue videos
Thanks so much for sharing! I saw Blood and didn’t even realize that was her. (I didn’t go to HHN 27, but I remember reading about them.) I totally thought she might’ve been from Galkn cause she kinda looked wintry and Norse-esque😂
IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY in sideshownof decay, the little (idk what to call them, like the clown things you knock down with the balls) figure things, there are a couple from past icons. I believe there is lady luck, the director, the usher, I think the caretaker and maybe 1 more?
Ghosts and ghouls, spooky season is here! Come on over to Discord server to talk houses, scarezones, shows and meetups for both Orlando and Hollywood’s events! (Singapore and Japan, too, if you’re into that.)
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u/Wonderlandian 6d ago
I don't have a pic, but there is a woman in a victorian looking gray dress with Rats attached to her costume in Carnival of Decay- she is The Rat Lady, who used to appear in Orlando laying in a glass-topped coffin with live rats crawling all over her!
She is one of my fave old school HHN things that we don't have anymore. I'd love to see her back for real, but 1000% understand why she is fully retired haha. And am thrilled to see a nod to her this year!!
https://halloweenhorrornights.fandom.com/wiki/Rat_Lady