The Carnival of Carnage

"The cold October winds are bringing the dark Carnival to town."

The Carnival of Carnage (alternatively known as The Dark Fantastic) is a traveling fair usually used by Jack Schmidt, which contained a plethora of monsters of horrors hiding in the carnival tents, freakshows, circuses, and spooky funhouses.

Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida both utilized this place as the background for their events in 2007.

Universal Studios Hollywood

"Where do you think Jack is? Where do you think he's gonna go? He's already told me where he's gonna go!"

This year, Jack Schmidt, a.k.a. “Jack The Clown,” an inmate who escaped while doing time at the Shadybrook Asylum for the Criminally Insane, will relish his role as “Terror Tram” guide. Jack, who once basked in the glory of imitating these madmen, will now stand tall alongside his most revered idols, Freddy, Jason and Leatherface where together they will haunt the areas surrounding the studio landmarks, Psycho House, Bates Motel and the “War of the Worlds” plane crash scene and prey on unsuspecting guests.

On the Shadybrook Rest Home and Sanitarium, an patient by the name of Jack Schmidt killed a guard and broke out of the asylum. His psychologist started having "gifts" by the demented madman, which detailed letters from various locations such as Camp Crystal Lake.

Believing that horror and evil was born from the Universal Backlot, Jack traveled to Universal Studios Hollywood and held a Carnival of Carnage where The Ringmaster brought a plethora of freaks upon unsuspecting guests.

The Carnival of Carnage contained The Ringmaster's favorite "heroes", The Carnage Killers, where they had their own realms of terror where they preyed upon victims. A collection of monsters prowled the streets in search of prey, and Schmidt could be seen prowling the park and the backlot.

Universal Orlando Resort

Jack worked as a clown in Dr. Oddfellow's Carnival of Thrills. He was a serial killer who had murdered thirteen children, and as the police began to close in on Halloween night in 1920, he attempted to enlist Doctor Oddfellow's help in hiding the evidence before showing him where he hid the dead children. Rather than bring down the police on the carnival (as Oddfellow himself was wanted for the deaths of several in a freak circus accident), he killed Jack and hid his body along with those of the children inside the carnival's "House of Horrors" exhibit. Several years later, Oddfellow had the carnival sold off and its assets split between numerous people. 60 years later, sometime around the 1980's, a BBC crew doing a documentary on the great dark rides of America uncovered the "House of Horrors" and accidentally discovered the corpses inside a giant jack-in-the-box. Around the time of Halloween, the crew was found dead, and the van carrying the corpses disappeared into a swamp.

Following that event, numerous urban legend retellings of the tale arose, the legends also stating stories of this clown corpse killing again, in thirst of vengeance against Dr. Oddfellow for his betrayal. The urban legends concluded with the statement that anyone who releases Jack from his oversized jack-in-the-box by turning the crank will receive a "special reward" from the clown himself.

In the year 2000, the "House of Horrors" exhibit was recovered and bought by Universal Studios for their annual Halloween event. Knowing of the urban legend, one employee attempted to put the claim of a "special reward" to the test and turned the crank for the infamous box. Jack, now fully unleashed and back from the dead, proceeded to kill the employee; and in celebration of his return, led a take over of the entire park in order to create a Halloween event that no one would soon forget.

Choose Thy Fear

When Jack started a mass riot in Shadybrook Asylum in 2006, he found evidence that his murderer, Dr. Oddfellow, had managed to stay alive all these years. Infuriated, he walked down the road to his boss's traveling circus. There he finally enacted his vicious vengeance, and with a few of his things (such as the red jacket) he enacted plans for a Carnival which would celebrate years of terror wrapped in a clownish package.

He chose a certain land on which the festivities would take place. The land had a long history of bad luck on bloodshed; a perfect place for The Ringmaster to live up to his alternate name, Chaos. But first he gathered freaks and sadists for his 3-ring circus. He enlisted the help of the Carnage Killers; The Sensational Slasher, The Machete Master, and The Chainsaw Wizard; to attract potential victims to The Dark Fantastic. After ages of preparation, The Carnival was open to people of all ages; unfortunately.

Jack's Carnival of Carnage contained the Carnage Killers, The Thing, Mary Shaw, and the Ringmaster himself as they played in their own funhouses. Ringmaster Jack brought back the Treaks and Foons, along with Paulo Ravinski and inmates for the fair, and had his own set of freaks such as clowns on motorcycles, French vampire clowns, and Killer Karnies.

The centerpiece of depravity came full circle at The Circus, where Jack the Ringmaster of Chaos called upon Chance and Tiny to enact a bizarre show of horrors.

While there was no Hall of Mirrors (unless you count the one in A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dreamwalkers), a certain ghoul with a gimmick with mirrors unleashed her own Realm of Fear in 2008.

Chaos

Jack was still dressed in his boss's Ringmaster outfit as he and 4 other individual frights unleashed the Greatest Freak of all; Adaru, The Sumerian God of Fear. Jack's carnival tent which contained ephemera from his masterpiece could be found in Fear Revealed.

"1991-2015"

Jack was thought to be imprisoned in the lantern forever. But with the help of a witch who seemed to have also escaped from her realm, the clown and the rest of Horror Nights' Greatest has returned to wreak havoc.

Jack still wore a red Ringmaster's outfit, but in a variation of leather. he returned to the land of folly and anguish, and brought forth a revamped version of the Carnival of Carnage. Freddy and Jason reunited with Chaos as they squared off, and various freaks of the silver screen (such as Walkers) played in their funhouses. His icon friends (minus that one, who was probably taking a demented vacation elsewhere) had little carnie shows of their own, and Jack unleashed his version of The Chainsaw Drill Team, Chainsaw Klowns.

Once again, the Harley Quinn of Horror and the Man who Laughs took center stage in the centerpiece of the fair, The Carnage Returns, a circus even more circus-y than the original.

Trivia

• The backstory of the land Jack put his carnival in would have been explained with the planned icon in 2008, before Crowe got scrapped for Bloody Mary.

References

• https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1aw2gCNsiu4