July 3 ,2008
The Doctor Is In
By Patrick The Patchman

Hello fellow Orlando buffs. I am back and ready to rock n' roll. Just when you thought it was safe to go searching information on Halloween Horror Nights. A new website update has appeared. More speculation has begun, now I want to make a warning to the readers of this article. This article contains some spoilers about the houses, so if you don't want to be spoiled, do not read.

So the other day my friend Jakemeister informed me there was a HHN update on their official website. I had to check it out. From first glance we see this picture:

We have a desk with a big mirror in front of it. We have a camera on it, a statue, a couple of books (case files), and a typewriter. To the right of the desk we have a file cabinet and two diplomas.  There are also two speaker boxes at the top playing very eerie, classical waiting room music. Gives me a PsyhcoScareapy feel.

The teaser actually tricked me at first, I thought, “CAMERA! MUST BE THE DIRECTOR!” Like an idiot, I did not pay attention to the quote on the page. After searching around a bit, I can make a clear guess on who the icon will be. It will obviously be a doctor, or most likely psychiatrist.

First off, the quote on the page. The quote reads: "The doctor should be opaque to his patients and like a mirror should show them nothing but what is shown to him."- Sigmund Freud. Mr. Freud is one of the world’s most famous psychiatrists. The quote actually adds to my theory about the event itself and what the icon will do. However, notice in the quote it says, "The Doctor". Think about the other icons names, aside from Jack. The Caretaker, The Director, and the Storyteller, all have names describing what they do. They have literal names. Could our new icon be named “The Doctor”. There is another route. Anyone familiar with the name Dr. Payne? HHN 14 /2004 had a very similar theme. Disorientorium was to be called Dr. Payne's Disorientorium. Was he an icon? Are we getting him back?

Ok, so I have a few theories about the mirror. Quote even says, “mirror” in it. A theory out there says it's a two way mirror, but I do not think so. The quote says, "..like a mirror should show them nothing but what is shown to him.". If you are familiar with leaked house, all of them have to do with phobias. Interstellar Terror, aliens. Dead Exposure, ghosts. Scary Tales 3, scary stories. Bloody Mary, mirrors/urban legends. Body Collectors, pain/death. Doomsday House, the end of the world. Creatures, monsters. The Hallow, legends/scary stories. All of these are phobias, our worst nightmares.

What if this shrink got pleasure out of showing people what he wanted them to see in the "mirror" to terrify them. That could be a possibility I would bet on. There is also a theory out there about the icon being a patient of "The Doctor." It would be interesting. There was a really cool idea on the internet that each house had a big mirror you would walk through to get in. Also, I think there could be a left out house that could be themed to the movie Mirrors coming out soon. Maybe? Eh, I do not think so..but hey, maybe. Why do I think mirrors are so important? At the end of a new teaser for HHN 18, a mirror was shown behind the logo.

The camera on the desk, I think the doctor used it to record the reactions of his subjects. I think we will watch some footage and it will be clickable. Why do I think it's clickable? Well, there is a clickable feature on the site… the case studies. If you click them there is a pen and microphone near. The case studies on the left say, "Case Studies March-June 1958". The one in the front, July- 1958. Hmmm, July is when the update happened. The room has a 50's feel so maybe we were put in the 1950's timeline for reason. The typewriter and everything else looks like it will be made clickable in the future.

Why do I think there will be a new icon? Well in a recent article, there was an interesting tidbit. We will have a new icon, "someone you've never met before but long-feared". Hmm, very interesting. It looks like the Doctor is in.