In last week's article in this ongoing series on Creepypasta, I examined the infamous ‘lost’ Walt Disney cartoon known as suicidemouse.avi. This week I return once more to the House of Mouse with a look at one of my very favourite Creepypasta stories — Abandoned by Disney.
On 12 December, 2012 (yes, that’s 12/12/12) a story by ‘Slimebeast’ (AKA Christopher Howard Wolf) was submitted to the Creepypasta Wikia.
You can read the story over at Slimebeast’s website here. If you haven’t read it, I’d very much recommend checking out the link above and reading it, but to summarise, it follows the misadventures of an urban explorer who decides to check out the abandoned Disney Resort of Mowgli’s Palace at Emerald Isle, North Carolina.
‘What resort at Emerald Isle?’ I hear you ask.
Well, the story goes on to tell the tale of the struggles in building Mowgli’s Palace, a luxury resort themed around the titular character from the Jungle Book, with lush greenery and the ornate and intricate attention to detail for which the Disney Corporation has become so well known.
However, the locals took exception to the construction of the resort, especially its theme, and vehemently protested the development, especially after the land was unscrupulously acquired for a bogus highway.
However, the corporation proceeded regardless of the adversity and bulldozed ahead, completing the construction of the resort and even opening it up to guests.
Then, without warning, they closed the resorts and abandoned the premises.
After the writer details the tale of the abandoned Disney Caribbean island resort of Treasure Island in Bakers Bay in the Bahamas, he goes on to tell of his decision to visit an equally fascinating location a little closer to home in NC. Upon reaching the resort he is able to gain access and he describes plenty of surreal and bizarre sights. It’s creepy and atmospheric, but things don’t take a turn for the truly nightmarish until he discovers a huge and striking snake statue. As he prepares to take a photo, the 50ft long ‘statue’ turns its head to look at him, then slithers off into the undergrowth.
Yikes.
Understandably shaken, the writer then heads into the Palace where he discovers a locked door bearing the words: MASCOTS ONLY!
Forcing access to the basement beyond the door, the writer discovers a wealth of memorabilia and interesting artefacts… and then something far, far worse than he could ever have imagined.
The story is incredibly well written, it flows naturally and realistically. It also covers all of its bases when it comes to doubters with the following passage:
Over the course of that year, I did a lot of research on the Palace resort... or rather, I tried to.
Naturally, no official Disney site or resource made any mention of the place. That had been scrubbed clean.
Even odder, however, was that nobody before myself had apparently thought to blog about the place or even post a photo. None of the local TV or Newspaper sites had one word about the place, though that was to be expected since they had all swung Disney's way. They wouldn't be out there lauding their embarassment, you know?
Recently, I learned that corporations can actually ask Google, for example, to remove links from search results... basically for no good reason. Looking back, it's probably not that nobody spoke of the resort, but rather their words were made inaccessible.’
Furthermore, Mowgli’s Palace isn't the only abandoned Disney property out there. The article mentions a resort in Bakers Bay that I’ve yet to find any serious corroborating evidence for. Most stories about it seen to stem from a single iMockery article, which is pretty convincing but is hosted on a website that deals primarily in humour. Plenty of other sources claim it isn’t real, while others back up iMockery’s feature. Conflicting evidence aside, there are at least two genuine abandoned attractions, both of which are in Florida on Bay Lake. Discovery Island was originally planned as a fun interactive zoo while Walt Disney World was still in development (long before Animal Kingdom came along), while River Country Water Park was an active park up until as recently as 2001. Both were closed suddenly and both still stand. They’re even visible to tourists from some Disney cruises.
So with these strengths going for it, the story spread like wildfire. After Slimebeast shared the story on his own site, YouTube user Mr. CreepyPasta uploaded a dramatic reading of Abandoned By Disney on 12 January 2013, which has since gone viral. The story was then linked to by the FunnyJunk site where it attracted a huge number of readers. Yet even as this story spread, Slimebeast was not resting.
On 11 January 2013 he posted the story A Few Suggestions, a transcript of the cards discovered in the staff suggestions box at Mowgli's Palace which reveal the truth about what happened in the final days of the doomed resort.
In August 2013 he followed up with the story, Room Zero, sharing the haunting stories of others who have experienced sinister goings on at Disney Parks, plus the harassment he had experienced from several mysterious individuals since telling his tale.
Finally, on 20 April 2015, Slimebeast signed off his series with the story Corruptus, which not only revealed the true nature of the nightmarish ‘Negative Mascot’ of Abandoned By Disney, but also hinted at a far wider world of terrifying occurrences caused by the world’s largest entertainment brand, with references to genuine real-life incidents.
It’s an epic story that works, much the way that suicidemouse.avi does, by subverting the safe and familiar trappings of youth and instead reawakening the long buried irrational fears of childhood. The wonderfully descriptive prose conjures up some very visceral reactions while the abrupt switch in styles between the four individual parts makes it feel that little bit more authentic — itself a key component in cultivating frights. The series has drilled deep into the consciousness of readers, with an army of fans who have created plenty of great art celebrating the story.
But surely a tale this terrifying can't actually be true? Surely the horrifying events at Mowgli's Palace aren't based on fact?
Well, no, they aren't.
They are fantastic scary stories, but they are just that — stories.
How do I know? Because I’ve spoken with Slimebeast AKA Christopher Howard Wolf personally. This extremely talented young writer was kind enough to discuss the series with me and gave me plenty of thoughtful answers.
You can read the full interview below.
THE HOUSE: Thank you so much for speaking with me. I wondered if I could start off by asking you what served as your inspiration for the story?
CHW: ‘I had written a "micropasta" for a forum thread about two-sentence pastas. It basically went:
"Deep beneath Disney World, there is a photo negative Mickey Mouse. When he removes his head, there is only blood."
‘The idea seemed like something I could write a story around, so I drew inspiration from an article I had read on iMockery.net about Disney's abandoned Bahamas resort.’
H: Which writers, horror or otherwise, do you consider yourself a fan of?"
CHW: ‘I'm a big fan of the Twilight Zone, which is probably visible in my gratuitous use of twist endings, but in terms of authors my favourites would be Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allen Poe.’
H: There's a very different feel between each chapter of the story, was it difficult to change your style for each?"
CHW: ‘Not entirely. I feel like it would've been more difficult to restrict myself to writing the same way for each chapter. I prefer to change things up and try new stuff rather than continuing one ongoing style. Abandoned by Disney is the typical "You won't believe what happened to me" pasta, A Few Suggestions is more of a "found pasta" thing, Room Zero is sort of "Campfire tales" shared from a guy who knew a guy, and of course Corruptus is basically an end cap that borrows from SCP-style "secret organization" pastas, etc.
H: How does it feel to know that people are still posting questions to the web wondering if the events of Abandoned By Disney are real? Do you feel proud that your work was so well written that it's widely being spread as fact?"
CHW: ‘It's really fun to see it spread like that, but I always feel a little guilty when someone directly asks me and I have to let them down easy.
‘The best result I've seen so far was someone actually emailing Disney about Mowgli's Palace. They got back a stock reply that basically said: "We cannot comment on this."
‘It was just a standard auto-reply sort of thing, but it lent so much credibility to the story that it was fantastic.’
H: Finally, the story Corruptus, while marked as the final chapter, suggests that there's a far wider world of creepiness that you could explore in the future? Will you return to the series in the future?
What else can your fans look forward to from you in the days ahead?
CHW: ‘I don't plan to return to the Disney pasta "universe". My hope is that ending the series with loose ends and hints of more "Corruptus" cases will inspire other authors to branch off their own original stories. It's sort of my way of passing the torch.
‘If someone out there wants to know exactly what happened with all the other Corruptus cases, they can actually come up with their own story and share it with the world.
‘As for what people can expect from me in the future, I post a new story to my web site, Slimebeast.com, every once in a while when the mood strikes me and an idea pops up. You can also find me on TooSpooky.com, a site I've launched for Creepypasta and horror fans to discuss creepy content in a relaxed non-formal atmosphere. Our mascot is a skeleton who pops out and sprays hyper-realistic blood from his hyper-realistic eyes!’
So there you have it. As Slimebeast himself says, his work is clearly influenced by Poe and Bradbury, but his wonderful Disney series, as well as the other great stories at Slimebeast.com are also reminiscent of modern horror maestro Stephen King. Those of you who are aware of how big of a fan I am of King’s work will know this is a massive compliment, and a glowing testimony to the emerging talent honing their trade in Creepypasta circles.
Come back next week when I’ll take a look at another beautifully written web horror story.
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Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.
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