Shadybrook Rest Home and Sanitarium

The **Shadybrook Asylum** also known as the **Shadybrook Rest Home and Sanitarium** (**SBRH&S**) or the **Shadybrook Psychiatric Hospital** is a recurring location from *Halloween Horror Nights*, most heavily identified with the, "Psychoscearapy" series of haunted houses.

## Description

The Shadybrook Asylum is located near the town of Shadybrook ("A Pleasant Place to Live"), and within Seneca Falls, New York at the address **133 Black Brook Road**. Shadybrook is often depicted as being cruel towards their inmates, using inhumane means of therapy, and being prone to various riots and break-outs. Shadybrook is also haunted by those who died within the building.

### Features

* **Shadybrook Estates**: The estates behind the main hospital building in-which the inmates lived.

## History

### Background

#### Origins

It is unknown when Shadybrook was built.

Born in the Shadybrook Asylum were Jack and Eddie Schmidt with a highly abusive family.

In the late 19th century, the asylum was terrorized by beings known as, "The Gentlemen" also known as, "The Body Collectors" during a blizzard. These entities functioned by harvesting the body parts of corpses. They also appeared to commit crimes such as slicing a man into vertical pieces, and craft a candelabra of human remains.

In the year 1911, the nearby town of Shadybrook was founded.

At some point (prior to 1939), Jack orchestrated a riot which he used to escape from Shadybrook while leaving Eddie behind.

#### Rest Home and Sanitarium

By 1951, Shadybrook was run by a woman administrator named Sybil Estep who was said to have treated Shadybrook as a tranquil rest home. By/around this time, Shadybrook has rebranded as the *Shadybrook Rest Home and Sanitarium*.

Around , Jeffrey Dietze admitted himself to Shadybrook for therapy after learning the secrets of the wax museum which he had inherited from his father. Jeffrey made claims about the wax museum sculptures actually being corpses which his father had dipped in boiling wax. October 15th of 1959, Sybil Estep sent the Dietzes' lawyer, Michael J. Hobot III, telling him how Jeffrey blamed the law-firm while also asking if Hobot could shed any light on Jeffrey's claims.

In 1965, Shadybrook was established as the, "Shadybrook Psychiatric Hospital". Since the institute had existed for decades by this point, it is unclear what this establishing year symbolized.

In 1976, a 15 year-old boy of previous wealth who lived in the Wyandot Estate of Carey, Ohio was institutionalized within Shadybrook. His closest-known relative was Carey-based TV personality (and murderer) Lawrence "Larry" Kurtzberg AKA "H.R. Bloodengutz". The boy's institutionalization may have been connected to how since 1968, he was obsessed with bringing about one night connected to Halloween which over the years involves amassing a following of killers to make offerings, occult haunted houses, "Scare Zones", worshiping "Icons" and the ideology that we should "Be excellent to each other and party on". This boy appeared to have been released from Shadybrook.

In 1979, the now 18-year-old patient from Carey was once against institutionalized in Shadybrook. Again, he appeared to have gotten out.

In 1986, the same male from Carey, now 25, was again institutionalized there. Once again, he got out of Shadybrook.

On the October 31 of 1991, the now 30-year-old patient from Carey had a psychological attack of extreme fear, motion sickness and dizzy spells. He was committed to Shadybrook and deemed a threat to others. This patient's psychological attack remained ongoing for at-least seven years, as a document was created detailing it in 1998. The boy's obsession with HHN traditions had apparently been going on for the past thirty years, with him slowly amassing a following which would commit ritualistic slayings and offerings.

In 2003, snuff-film director Paulo Ravinski shot a movie called "Psychoscareapy" on Universal Studios Florida property, revolving around the Shadybrook Rest Home and Sanatorium.

#### Maximum Madness

By 2006, Shadybrook changed owners after Sybil's death, and Shadybrook became more amoral. Sybil's daughter, Michelle Estep-Spencer, stayed working at Shadybrook as president.

At some point (likely around 2006), Jack was institutionalized within the Shadybrook Asylum where he was born (against the wishes of president Estep-Spencer). Jack may have sent letters to his brother, Eddie, in San Francisco. These letters were stamped to be returned to their sender. Around this time, health inspectors deemed the asylum too unsanitary to live in due to smeared feces across the restrooms. Jack amassed a large following within the asylum and was imitated by other inmates, and he used this power to throw riots.

On the September 13th of 2006, Michelle Estep-Spencer resigned from Shadybrook with a warning for the new owners about Jack. Jack later lead a mass breakout of the asylum. While out of Shadybrook, Jack sent his former Shadybrook psychiatrist post-cards from the Bates Motel, Camp Crystal Lake, 1428 Elm Street, and the Hewitt House, teasing his scheme to assemble the forces of various slasher characters.

#### Home for the Holidays

At some point (possibly in 2007), Shadybrook's board of off-site community trips voted on taking a van of inmates to attend a Holiday Concert at the *Rest Vale Senior Center* in Seneca Falls. This decision was mainly opposed by Dr. Kameron Andrews who requested that his disapproval be noted on all documents. On the December 24 of 2007, a van load of Shadybrook inmates set for a, "Holiday Field Trip" crashed causing the inmates to escape into Seneca Falls. That New Year's Eve, the inmates went on a murderous rampage through a quiet neighbourhood where the massacred and mutilated various innocents.

#### Echoes of Shadybrook

**Note**: *It has yet to be identified when the 2010 haunted house PsychoScareapy: Echoes of Shadybrook takes place in the timeline*.

At some point, a wrongfully convicted man named Floyd Mercer was transferred to Shadybrook from Hellgate Prison. Floyd was actually faking his insanity in-order to escape from the entity, *Lady Luck* while writing about Lady Luck in his journal.

Floyd Mercer hanged himself to death. A year Larter, Shadybrook asylum was closed down (seemingly/possibly by the August 27 of 2008). When Mercer's journal was discovered, it caused Lady Luck and her minions to then become active and violent.

Fifteen years after the closure of the asylum, several teens on a dare entered the asylum only to find it to be haunted.

#### Later history

In the year 2010, the asylum was investigated by *Legendary Truth: The Collective*. They recorded footage of ghosts which they then sent back for study.

At some point (possibly around 2015), a transport vehicle of Shadybrook inmates crashed into the Halloween Block Party of the town of Shadybrook. These inmates went on a murderous rampage through Shadybrook.

On the June 27th of 2016, it was announced by newspapers that Jack the Clown's protégée "Chance" was being institutionalized in Shadybrook. Here, Chance entered a, "Theatre of the Mind" where she had nightmarish delusions. She would recruit several inmates of Shadybrook for her murderous plans.

At some point, the patient from the Wyandot Estate was either released or escaped from Shadybrook. It might be implied that he did so within a transport vehicle which crashed into the township sign of his home-town, Carey where he hid out in a haunted house home, making deranged ramblings of predictions.

## Appearances

### Halloween Horror Nights

#### A Chance In Hell

The story of A Chance In Hell surrounded Chance recruiting Shadybrook inmates for her evil schemes.

#### Body Collectors: Recollections

This haunted house took place in 19th century Shadybrook during a blazed while the Gentlemen invaded.

#### Halloween Horror Nights 2007 (Hollywood)

Shadybrook was part of this event's backstory.

##### Terror Tram: Horror Comes Home

Jack's Shadybrook psychiatrist was a narrator on this tour.

#### Halloween Horror Nights XIV

The website mentioned Shadybrook with a connection to the story of the haunted house *Horror in Wax*. The overall theming of this Halloween Horror Night was to an insane-asylum (tying into the theming of the *Disorientorium* haunted house) and the website showed boxes of case files in this asylum tying into the various shows, scare zones and haunted houses of the Horror Nights experience that year. Horror in Wax was the only one of the houses to explicitly state the asylum to be Shadybrook, though it has been theorized that the others resulted in characters being sent to Shadybrook as well which would tie the asylum into: *Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure*, *Castle Vampyr, the Disorentorium, Festival of the Dead Parade, Field of Screams, Ghost Town, Hellgate Prison, Horror Nights Nightmares,* and *Midway of the Bizarre*.

Possible further evidence for this could be that the unofficial icon of this event "The Asylum Patient", made a cameo as an electrocuted patient and pepper's ghost effect/scareactor patient of Shadybrook in the haunted-house *PsychoScareapy: Echoes of Shadybrook*.

#### HHN Icons: Captured

An asylum similar to Shadybrook appeared within Fear's lantern as a hunting-ground/prison for Jack the Clown and Chance with references to Eddie along with Bobby the Blade from a non-Shadybrook related haunted house.

#### Lunatic's Playground 3D

The plot of this haunted house surrounded Chance being institutionalized in Shadybrook.

#### Psychoscareapy

This haunted house took place in Shadybrook during a riot.

#### PsychoScareapy: Echoes of Shadybrook

This haunted house took place in a haunted Shadybrook, fifteen years after the asylum's closure.

#### Psychoscareapy: Home for the Holidays

In this attraction, various inmates escaped Shadybrook and rampaged through a town on Christmas Eve.

#### PsychoScareapy: Maximum Madness

This haunted house surrounded Jack the Clown's escape from Shadybrook in 2006.

#### PsychoScareapy: Unleashed

In this scarezone there was a crashed Shadybrook vehicle and several escaped inmates.

#### Halloween Horror Nights Tribute Store

A vintage flyer for the Rat Lady at Doctor Oddfellow's Circus in the 2020 Tribute Store mentioned Oddfellow's Circus as performing just south of the Shadybrook Sanatorium.

The 2021 Tribute Store had messages scattered around from a mysterious patient of Shadybrook, left throughout a haunted house. One of the props in the house was a crashed Shadybrook transport vehicle, wrecked on a Township of Carey sign. Also present was a document from Shadybrook detailing the patient's closest relative is H.R. Bloodengutz in the Wyandot Estate of Carey, Ohio.

## Trivia

* In *PsychoScareapy: Echoes of Shadybrook*, there is a bottle of the fictional drug Sleep-Well spilled across the floor. This is 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 name of Nurse Wallace from the "NURSE WALLACE MUST DIE" message in PsychoScareapy: Echoes of Shadybrook was a tribute to one of the haunted house's designers.
* Various other asylums/mental-institutions which have appeared in Halloween Horror Nights have had theorized/speculated/alleged but unverified connections to the Shadybrook Asylum.
* In *Legendary Truth the Collective Case Investigation: Boris Shuster*, there was a newspaper with a story on Shadybrook shutting down. As the stamp on these documents is from August 27, 2008, it could be taken that the asylum had shut down prior to said date (assuming this merchandise and its details can be taken as cannon). The text from this newspaper is largely omitted and obscured but mentioned some kind of: evil, a boy, someone's grandmother's house, a skull, something being found in a "Ghoulish" location, and a grim 1991 evening which involved some kind of contact.
* The identity of the 2021 Tribute Store's Shadybrook patient is still unknown.
	+ One theory is that its a character who has yet to be met/truly introduced.
	+ Another speculation is that he may be "The Asylum Patient", the unofficial icon of *Halloween Horror Nights XIV* who was a perpetually terrified insane-asylum patient of unknown identity.
* The Fertility Idol from *Raiders of the Lost Ark* (1981) made an easter-egg appearance in Body Collectors: Recollections.
* A licence-plate from the town of Shadybrook appeared in the *Custom Gear* shop for Universal's "Scarecrow Stalk". In a Marvel Superhero Island store, the comic "Sweet 16 Horror Comes Home" was published by *Shadybrook Comics*.

## External links

* *Shadybrook Rest Home and Sanatarium on the Halloween Horror Nights Wiki.*

## References

1. ↑ Established years on Shadybrook vehicles found in ''Psychoscareapy: Home for the Holidays''
2. ↑ https://wdwnt.com/2022/08/legendary-truth-the-collective-album-by-midnight-syndicate-arrives-for-halloween-horror-nights-31-at-universal-studios-florida/
3. ↑ https://touringplans.com/blog/s6\_evenmorehhn25/
4. ↑ https://universalparksnewstoday.com/2021/09/photos-scarecrow-stalk-brings-trick-or-treat-fun-to-universal-orlando-resort/