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Duskull — S&V Shrouded Fable #68

Illustrated by: James Turner

I hate that I’m always trying to find cool biology themed stuff to wear but all the “nature inspired” clothing companies just have like two crossed arrows or a minimalistic mountain on a sweatshirt. Fucking lame, that’s barely even nature-adjacent. Put the life cycle of a salamander on a jacket, put hyena skeleton patterns on leggings, put a damn field guide of birds of prey on a peacoat and THEN you can have my money. Do NOT give me a shirt with a leaf on it that says “stay wild” or some bullshit I would much prefer clothing that broadcasts to everyone around me how many teeth an adult Jaguar has or how some pitcher plants can catch and digest rats.

An apple a day doesn’t keep me away. Start running.

Yay, I finally found a HHN lore expert on Tumblr! So this question technically doesn't have to do with the lore, but it also kinda does. Do you know if The Usher was inspired by any particular horror movie or horror icon? I've been trying to find behind the scenes info on him, but I've come up with nothing. And if there's a horror movie out there that led to the creation of my favorite Icon, I definitely want to know about it!

Ok now this is a fun question! Buckle up because it's lore dump time! So Julian Browning the Usher actually is perhaps the most original icon of the bunch in terms of not being overly inspired by a film character in appearance. His inspiration comes the most from Universal's own The Phantom of the Opera, which just so happens to be his favorite movie. What Julian lacks in a Christine Daae he makes up for with his obsession with his job at The Universal Palace Theatre. The main inpiration for the character of the Usher came from the simple notion of "How can we present an event year where the headlining line up of attractions are big name horror movies?" Ofcourse they opted not to use The Director and instead come up with another movie themed icon character, figuring this icon would be USHERING guests into the horror movies that year. This quickly turned into a movie theater employee that snowballed into a full fledged character still present at the event today. Here's some more fun facts about the inspiration behind our beloved Usher.

Inspiration for The Usher's Name: Julian Browning's name was actually inspired by Rupert Julian (The Director of Universal's 1925 Phantom of the Opera) and Tod Browning (The Director of Universal's 1931 Dracula) putting the two director's names together to make a new one for HHN's original icon The Usher.

Inspiration for The Usher's Backstory: His death (accidently hanging himself backstage) was inspired by actual IRL tragic accidents that happened at old theaters back in the day, Universal's HHN Team just turned up the ghost lore aspects of it by alluding to an evil force inside the theater caused the accidents. Also some of the creative directors have noted that inspiration for Julian's strict enforcement of the rules stemmed from their own bosses at movie theaters they worked during their own teen years. Inspiration for The Usher's Personality: The actor who plays him the most in commercials and interviews has stated he took inspiration from the character Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and decidedly creepy old people when deciding how best to personify the undead usher. Many other actors who have played the character often point to inspiration from the original actor himself as well as a "chill version" of The CryptKeeper from the TV show Tales from the Crypt.

Inspiration for The Usher's Appearance: Surprisingly enough Universal's HHN Artists designed Julian's costume to be unique, not realizing until after having made countless duplicates for the event that the costume bares a striking resemblence to Disney's Tower of Terror bellhop uniforms. They literally shrugged and just went with what they had already designed. The flashlight was inspired by the actual flashlights used in movie theater ushers back during the 1940s. Julian's makeup was designed around the idea that he was dead, you'll note that Julian has a more yellow tint to his skin during 2009 that turns to a more regular pale shade as the years progress. This is because the makeup director wanted Julian to look like a real corpse who's skin had yellowed, cheeks had puffed while cheekbones had sunken in, and eyes had sunken in and darkened as well as lips had darkened. They actually researched actual images of dead people for reference when designing his makeup. The scar on his neck from his death seems to have become a sort of after thought after the 2009 event because occasionally you'll find images of actors playing the Usher where he's missing his most noteworthy wound and when it does appear anymore it's usually just a mark across the neck and not an actual prosthetic.

Inspiration for The Universal Palace Theatre: The Palace Theater Arcade inside of Universal Studios Orlando park was a clear inspiration for the name of the setting of Julian's backstory. While the building/facade of the arcade is nothing like The Universal Palace Theater. In the early days, Universal, unlike the top-tier studios, did not own any theaters to market its feature films. It wasn't until 1928 that Carl Laemmle Jr. (then head of Universal Studios) bought and built theaters that could technically be owned under the Universal Studios name. However as the Great Depression hit, the theater chain was scrapped entirely. Universal Studios never owned a theater again until modern day partnerships with CMX theaters in their City Walk areas outside their theme parks. So sadly there is no real Universal Palace Theater and there never was, but that didn't stop Universal Art and Design from researching other ritzy hollywood movie palaces that Universal didn't own. A movie palace is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped, while the rising popularity of large multiplex chains signaled the obsolescence of single-screen theaters. There are three architectural design types of movie palaces. First, the classical style movie palace, with its opulent, luxurious architecture; second, the atmospheric theatre which has an auditorium ceiling that resembles an open sky as a defining feature; and finally, the Art Deco theaters that became popular in the 1930s. Specifically Art Deco was the design type Universal Art and Design went with for The Usher's Universal Palace Theater most probably because it set a time era visually, instantly recalling the olden days of when the theater would have been in it's hay day. Many IRL movie palace theaters inspired The Universal Palace theaters but to name just a few:

The Alameda Theatre (Almeda, California)

The Castro Theatre (San Francisco, California)

The El Capitan Theatre (Hollywood, California)

The Los Angeles Theatre (Los Angeles, California)

The Hollywood Pantages Theatre (Hollywood, California)

The Warner Grand Theatre (Los Angeles, California)

and of course it wouldn't be HHN lore without inspiration from Ohio!

The Palace Theater (Canton, Ohio)

and most notibly architecture wise

THE AKRON CIVIC THEATRE (Akron, Ohio)

Fun Facts: Actors cast as Julian Browning must meet the height range of 5'10" - 6'2"

Julian Brownings hair is officially listed in canon as brown/brunette, however actors who have played the character have appeared with dirty blonde and auburn hair colors.

In 2009 most of the flashlights were surprisingly heavy for cast members and apparently broke easy, as the event went on less and less flashlights were seen in characters' hands.

In 2010 Julian, Paulo, Jack, Albert, and Elsa all appeared with markings on their face (makeup) to denote their positions of Herald of Fear to Adaru the Lord of Fear. Julian's makeup design was apparently the easiest to work with for makeup artists applying the roman numeral XX branding overlay onto his makeup design.

In 2015 Julian was for the first time seen without short brown hair, however this was an allowance/oversight from the scarezone director for an actor who didn't want to cut his hair.

In 2021 Julian is the only icon in the Icons:Captured house that was seen with an entirely burgundy red covid mask, matching his burgundy red uniform. This was also the first year guests could see his cold dead lifeless corpse hanging from the ropes behind the torn screen in the Universal Palace Theater. His corpse was a dummy/static figure.

I’m Mr. Red Christmas, I’m Mr. Blood.

I’m Mr. Period Cramps, I’m Mr. On-the-rug

the complete collection of saw hazard signs!

ADDENDUM: you can get these as stickers here!

video essays about horror, fear and dread

Films That Feel Like Bad Dreams

The Nightmare Artist

Fear of Big Things Underwater

Control, Anatomy, and the Legacy of the Haunted House

House of Leaves: The Horror Of Fiction

Monsters in the Closet: A History of LGBT Representation in Horror Cinema

The History of Insane Asylums and Horror Movies

The Saddest Horror Movie You’ve Never Seen

Fear of Forgetting

Slender Man: Misunderstanding Ten Years Of The Internet

The Real Reason The Thing (1982) is Better than The Thing (2011)

The Bizarre Clown Painting No One Fully Understands

The Little Book of Cosmic Horrors

The Disturbing Art of A.I.

Fear of Depths

Goya’s Witches

David Lynch: The Treachery of Language

The True History That Created Folk Horror

The Existential Horror of David Cronenberg’s Camera

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