Step into history and witness the rise of a powerful foe in Dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origins at Halloween Horror Nights 32. Dr. Oddfellow, introduced in 2000, has entered his Icon era and has been given a full backstory, spread across the house and all five scare zones.

Dr. Oddfellow, until now, was largely known to be the former employer and murderer of Jack the Clown.

Dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origins

You won’t be able to resist going inside Dr. Oddfellow’s menacing menagerie of twisted oddities. But the price for you and your friends is steep: the cost of your souls to feed his immortal power.

His story may be told across the park, but here in the house is where it all begins. The year is 1933, and guests are heading to the big top to see Dr. Oddfellow’s collection of horrors. Carnival guests are invited back at night for a twisted, sadistic show. Entering through a side door, we see a clown with a hand attached to the top of their head with a bloody stump on top. Oddfellow greets guests from a stage with two bullheaded men at his sides. Behind him is a star chart with the Zodiac signs. Oddfellow seeks to sacrifice souls in exchange for the power of the Dark Zodiac.

This is a very visually interesting house. As you pass into backstage dressing rooms, you are confronted on all sides by clowns, including animatronics that turn their heads in your direction. More murders occur, including a decapitation, after which the body approaches onlookers. Oddfellow holds the Cane of Souls with a skull on top glowing green. Subtle Zodiac symbols are on the walls but they become more overt as you go, until they are glowing green. Then, Oddfellow tells a clown to kill the guests.

Banners represent each of the mutilated performers, including Gemini twins with conjoined bodies, a sea goat man, and a person with crab-like claws. They each represent a different sign of the Zodiac. After seeing their banners, you encounter them in person. The scareactor designs are great. The wolf/chupacabra puppet from the old “An American Werewolf in London” house appears as a lion.

Jack the Clown does not star in this house, though there are references to him. His silhouette is behind the tent when you enter. You see his dressing room with his box and trunk. There is a Jack’d Up sign and a giant flat of his box with the J side showing. Oddfellow’s murder of Jack is shown via projection at the end.

This is our favorite house at Halloween Horror Nights 32 (so far). It was a great expansion of the Dr. Oddfellow character.

Backstory

Oddfellow was introduced in 2000 for the tenth anniversary of Halloween Horror Nights. He was created as part of the backstory for Jack the Clown, and their tales are still intertwined.

In expanding Oddfellow’s history to bring him to the front of the story this year, some of the old lore has been altered. We won’t spend much time on it, but here are the essentials that stayed the same: Oddfellow ran a carnival where Jack Schmidt worked. After Jack killed a baker’s dozen children, Oddfellow began to worry that the authorities might look a little too closely at his own twisted operations. He had Jack killed, stuffed his remains in a Jack-in-the-box, and went on his way.

HHN fans will know that is not where Jack Schmidt’s story ended, but we’re not here to talk about Jack. (Okay, we might a little., though you can’t really have one without the other.)

The new, extended story gives us more of Dr. Oddfellow. The night he killed Jack, he was also responsible for a gruesome massacre of the members and patrons at his circus in a twisted ritual to gain the power of the dark zodiac. After using the power to become immortal, he dealt with Jack, and in their scuffle, Jack scratched Oddfellow’s face. Not only did the blood gift immortality to Jack, but the scratch remains on Oddfellow’s face, no matter what form he takes.

Dr. Oddfellow’s Collection of Horror is the start; it’s the circus of horror before that fateful night. The massacre plays out in the house, and the rest of the scare zones walk us through decades of Oddfellow’s life as he welcomes the masses and invites them to follow his path through fear and death to become immortal.

Location

Dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origins is located on the backlot behind Men in Black: Alien Attack. The entrance can be found between Men in Black and the former Fear Factor amphitheater (currently showing Nightmare Fuel Revenge Dream).

The house entrance is located at G on the map below.

For more Universal Studios news from around the world, follow Universal Parks News Today on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. For Disney Parks news, visit WDWNT.