Caretaker

> "*Your Time Has Come*"
> ― Catchphrase
>
>

**Dr. Albert Caine** better known as the **Caretaker** is one of the icons and recurring characters of *Halloween Horror Nights*. Not including the unused Eddie Schmidt, he was the second ever icon of *Halloween Horror Nights* to be made for the parks.

## History

### Background

#### Origins

Dr. Albert Caine was once a skilled surgeon. Dr. Albert Caine came to be caretaker of the Shady Oaks Cemetery in Carey, Ohio at an unknown point in time. Doctor Caine renovated the nearby Victorian mansion which he and his family lived in to be the Shady Oaks Funeral Parlour. Caine also had a tendency to dress in Victorian clothing.

Albert also had a daughter named Cindy Caine, whose origins and continuity is unclear. In the haunted house *The Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes*, it was said that Cindy Caine was a pyrokinetic young girl in Carey's *Good Harvest Orphanage* who in the October of 1920, burned the place down with her pyrokinetic abilities. If/how this connects to her history as Dr. Albert Caine's daughter is unknown.

To further his knowledge of the human body, Doctor Caine, his assistants and his family began desecrating graves to use the corpses in their experiments. Caine desecrated over two-thousand graves, and his, "Family" was known to dance with the human remains, and even cannibalize them. When Doctor Caine required fresher specimens, he would lure away homeless people and then perform brutal procedures and experiments on them without anesthetic. The Caretaker's weapon of choice were large metal shears. Around the 1980s, he may have starred in a film with production connected to Carey called, "The Cult of the Beast Baby".

#### Screamhouse

One year (possibly around 1992 as the 2002 Haunted House said the events occurred ten years prior), a pair of teenagers wandering through the cemetery happened upon one of the Caine family parties and alerted adults about it. The townsfolk became enraged and burned the funeral home to the ground with the Caine family inside. The only body recovered by police was that of Albert's young daughter, Cindy Caine, while the others had disappeared. The authorities also discovered a series of seemingly endless tunnels underneath of the house, causing it to be unknown if Doctor Caine and his family had died or escaped.

The authorities closed off any access to the cemetery and the ruins of the Caine family home were set to be demolished. A year later, three rotting corpses were discovered on the premises of Shady Oaks. Authorities began sending in research teams to investigate, only for three of them to go missing in the premises (presumably being murdered by Doctor Caine and his family). Doctor Albert Caine would become a murderous being known as, "The Caretaker", though it is unclear if he was undead or a human serial-killer.

#### Islands of Fear

**Note**: *The continuity of this overarching Halloween Horror Nights event is unclear.*

In 2002, Dr. Albert Caine and his minions are associated as having been responsible for the, "Islands of Fear" incident. Along with his normal minions were the, "Treaks and Foons", humans whom the Caretaker had surgically augmented to neuter, render insane, give cartoonish appearances and massive enlarged smiles. These creatures may have been present in twisted and grotesque fairy-tales which the Caretaker may have created and/or brought to life.

The Caretaker's plans may have involved spreading his evil influence throughout the, "Islands of Adventure". The event began with the Caretaker having his henchmen forcing a man into a coffin, filling it with live snakes, and the Caretaker then carving out the man's heart with his shears. Claiming "the heart of Halloween is in our grasp", Caine and his allies began their plot. The Caretaker and his minions would capture different people in order for them to be tortured and executed, with him claiming them to be, "Non-believers".

The continuity of those he allied himself with, how he did so or where this occurred is unclear, though it may the super-villain Cletus Kasady AKA Carnage seizing violent control of *Superhero Island* with various super-criminals, and possibly the *Jurassic Park* scientist Doctor Burton who created "Dino-Men", possibly for the Caretaker's plans. One of the Caretaker's disciples was a demonic "Half-man/half-ram" being known as Nightmare/Knightmare who used power from the Caretaker to assemble an army of orcs and mythical creatures used to seize control of a magical island (possibly the *Lost Continent*), turning it into the hellish *Island of Evil Souls*.

That year in Carey, a research team was sent into the Shady Oaks Cemetery and funeral home to investigate odd noises being heard from within the building. This research team happened upon the Caretaker's minions, cruel experiments and murders. On a documentation of the Screamhouse incident, the Caretaker wrote, "This overlooks the true milestone of 2002...that my Followers discovered who was really buried in that grave...and that she would return as the result of my skill, my artistry and my obsession". This presumably referred to the Caretaker's followers locating and exhuming the corpse of his daughter, Cindy Caine.

#### The Resurrection

In 2003, the Caretaker moved from Carey to Nobel, Georgia and had his filing permits for a commercial/residential structure to act as the new Screamhouse were approved on November 2nd. The Caretaker had also dug up the corpse of his daughter, Cindy, and used a dark ritual to resurrect her within the new Screamhouse. Caine continued his other experiments and crimes from within said location.

#### Horror Nights Nightmares

**Note**: *The year setting of this haunted house is unknown, but it came out around 2004 so may be set around that time.*

At some point, Universal Studios did production on a film based on the, "Halloween Horror Nights" incidents known as, "Horror Nights Nightmares", produced by L. Surphlis and R. West, co-produced by W. Robinson, while written by K. Babel and M. Aiello. The Caretaker was amongst the real monsters/criminals used in Universal's production, acting in a morgue scene. The production crew made it a rule that no-one on the set was allowed to have sharp objects and that anyone feeling sick should remain calm and contact first aid. For his scene, the Caretaker demanded complete silence.

On the thirteenth day of filming, October 13th, Jack's presence seemed to cause special effects issues for his part of the shoot. For some reason, a VIP tour group was allowed onto the closed set and were attacked by the Caretaker as well as the other monsters.

#### Blood Masquerade

The Caretaker may have had a connection to vampires, particularly those of *Castle Vampyr*. In documents related to the vampire attack of the Tau sisters against a young woman in 2002, a message could be found from Albert Caine which read, "Bring the children of the night forward and set them free in the Blood Masquerade". This seemed to tie into an event known as the *Blood Masquerade* (possibly around 2006), in which several vampires roamed a street looking for victims to drain of blood and as sacrifices in their vows of power.

#### The Arrival

By (presumably the year) 2006, the Caretaker appeared to be nothing but a corpse in a coffin. Caine one of the individuals summoned by the demonic Lord of Darkness to celebrate the sixteenth cycle of Halloween Horror Nights. Darkness transformed the Caretaker's coffin with a skeleton inside, into a portal from which the Caretaker emerged (separate from the skeleton within). After being summoned, the Caretaker took his shears and performed a, "Living, breathing autopsy" on a man bound on a table to collect his organs. The other three brought forth were Jack the Clown, the Director, and the Storyteller, Elsa Strickland.

#### Twenty Years of Fear

In 2010, the paranormal-investigator organization Legendary Truth: The Collective inadvertently released the ancient deity *Fear* from his lantern prison at Universal Studios. On September 24th, Fear took over Universal to celebrate his, "Twentieth Cycle" and summoned five heralds, one of whom was the Caretaker representing *Death*.  Truth launched a mission to oppose Fear, and were ultimately able to trap him within his lantern along with his heralds and various other monstrous supernatural entities.

#### Icons Captured

While trapped within the lantern, the Caretaker and various other, "Icons" bound within terrorized some humans while performing his experiments.

### Development history

The Caretaker was not the original icon for Halloween Horror Nights 12, rather that was Cindy Caine who became his daughter. The Caretaker was chosen over Cindy due to a string of child disappearances occurring in Florida which would have made Cindy's character appear to be in poor taste. In the commercials, he is portrayed by Hank Stone. The Caretaker would be retroactively turned into the father of Cindy Caine.

## Appearances

### Halloween Horror Nights

#### The Cabin in the Woods

Jack the Clown and the Caretaker made a (likely non-canonical) cameo in the elevator scene, likely as monsters used by the Organization for their sacrifices.

##### Port of Evil

The Caretaker appeared live and projected on the screen while providing an opening narration for the event.

##### Screamhouse

This haunted house centred around the Caretaker and his followers within the Shady Oaks Cemetery.

##### Town Square of Tortured Souls

In this show, the Caretaker and his followers performed tortures and murders.

#### Halloween Horror Nights XIV

##### Castle Vampyr

On the website page for this haunted house was a bloody scalpel and a message reading, "Bring the children of the night forward and set them free in the Blood Masquerade" from "Albert Caine". This foreshadowed Castle Vampyr's sequel house, *Blood Masquerade*, in 2006.

##### Horror Nights Nightmares

The Caretaker was one of the HHN icons who appeared on the set, terrorizing guests.

#### Halloween Horror Nights: Sweet 16

##### The Arrival

The Caretaker was one of the icons summoned by the Lord of Darkness.

##### Screamhouse: The Resurrection

This was a sequel to the previous Screamhouses, set in Georgia rather than Carey.

#### Halloween Horror Nights 22

The Caretaker was identified as a member of the Baccanoids Legion. A sign by tombstone props in the Springfield area said "Please No Planting of Any Kind or Border Around Plots, Thank You - The Caretaker".

#### Halloween Horror Nights 25

##### Carnage Returns

Chance used the Caretaker's shears and made a comment about him.

##### Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters & Mayhem

The Caretaker and Cindy appeared on signs for Jack's circus.

#### Halloween Horror Nights 30

##### HHN Icons: Captured

Caretaker had a scene where he was in his mansion with his minions while directing bodies.

##### The Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin

The, "Caine Cemetery" was a location in this haunted house set in Carey.

#### Screamhouse: Revisited

This was a remake of the original Screamhouse.

#### Slaughter Sinema

The fictional film, "The Cult of the Beast Baby" starred one Albert Caine and was distributed from Carey, Ohio.

## Trivia

* Dr. Albert Caine has some similarities to fellow HHN icon, Dr. Mary Agana AKA Bloody Mary.
* In Icons Captured, Mary was shown to have been in possession of Sleepwell/Sleep-Well, a fictional drug from the 2007 haunted house *A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dreamwalkers* where it was used to prevent nightmares (and Freddy Krueger).
* The Caretaker was one of many serial-killers of HHN continuity active in the town of Carey (with some presumably being active around the same time). The Meetz family of *Meetz Meats* were also a family of serial-killers in Carey who performed cannibalism and targeted the homeless.
* The Caretaker has similarities to the Tall Man, the main-antagonist of the 1979 cult-classic horror film *Phantasm*. Both characters are grey-haired, dark suited undertakers/morticians with paranormal abilities who desecrate the corpses under their care.
* One of the tombs by the Caretaker sign in HHN 22 was for "Xena", referencing defunct attraction *Hercules and Xena: Wizards of the Screen*.
* The Caretaker would have tied into the backstory of scrapped HHN 18 icon, Nathaniel Crowe. It would have been revealed that the land on which the Caretaker's home was built was cursed land where nothing grew, and where wars were fought. After the fire burnt down the Caretaker's home, the land would go into the ownership of farmer Nathaniel Crowe.

## External links

* *The Caretaker on the Halloween Horror Nights wiki.*

## References

1. ↑ https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/47119-universal-orlando-resort-uso-ioa-discussion-thread/page/317/