Line #15 Characters/TheBoogieMan


1	!!Characters from The Boogie Man
2	Beware of Spoilers from VideoGame/TheCrookedMan and VideoGame/TheSandman2014.
3	!Introduced in this game
4	----
5	[[folder:Keith Baring]]
6
7	[[quoteright:107:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boogiekeith.png]]
8
9	The protagonist of ''VideoGame/TheBoogieMan''.
10
11	Keith is a tough and serious detective, with his mind often set on his job and nothing else. Due to his focused way of tackling his work and criminals, he has been harassed and vilified by the media.\
12	His boss sent him onto the castle tour as a means of vacation.
13	----
14	* AmicableExes: Becomes this with Helena in the ''Precious Box'' ending. [[spoiler:Subverted, however, when he kills her.]]
15	* AngerBornOfWorry: If David and Keith are able to save Sophie in time, Keith slaps her and scolds her for running off to find Helena on her own. Him yelling at her for worrying her father triggers a memory of his own son for doing something that worried him.
16	* BloodyTears: [[spoiler:Cries them in ''The Boogie's Fine Tonight'', when confronted with the man who killed his wife.]]
17	* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: With his wife, Helena. He’s the stoic, sullen boy to Helena’s soft, gentle girl.
18	* CharacterDevelopment: In ''Come Rain, Come Shine'', [[spoiler:he realizes that he is broken from not working through the grief of losing his son and vows to seek therapy and not let his emotions remain bottled up]].
19	* CowboyCop[=/=]RabidCop: The media has portrayed him as a mixture of these, more intent on catching criminals and refusing to think of the civilians and community that he is actually supposed to protect.
20	* CuttingTheElectronicLeash: Inverted, when Keith tries to find out about the investigation's progress from his subordinate and Dick tells him to not bother and just enjoy his vacation. Keith also has a terrible habit of not answering phone calls. [[spoiler:Justified, when he reveals that he was informed of his son's death from a phone call he answered. He's terrified that the next phone call he answers will give him news about a family member's death again.]]
21	* DeadpanSnarker: His main way of interacting with other people.
22	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Two of the Bad Endings involve him shooting himself out of despair for failing to protect his family.]]
23	* HappilyMarried: To Helena, until she drops the news of wanting a divorce.
24	* HiddenDepths: Helena says Keith is actually pretty funny. Hard to believe! In the best endings and even in ''VideoGame/TheHangedMan'', we get to see some of his humor.
25	* MurderSuicide: [[spoiler:''Precious Box'' has him kill Helena before committing suicide.]]
26	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Upon realizing during ''The Boogie's Fine Tonight'' that [[spoiler:he accidentally caused his wife's death]].
27	* MyGreatestFailure: He feels this way about his son dying in a car accident.
28	* NoSocialSkills: He's very blunt and straight-to-the-point.
29	* ParentsAsPeople: His stoic attitude stems from still not having come to terms with his son's death yet.
30	* PhotographicMemory: Keith has a very precise mind for details.
31	* OnlySaneMan: He's the only one that doesn't fly into a panic. Though he admits that he's aware of the fact that if ''he'' were to panic, the others on the tour would feel worse and make things more difficult.
32	* SanitySlippage: Shows signs of this throughout the game. [[spoiler:It's worst in the bad endings.]]
33	* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The manly man towards David.
34	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Delivers one to the Boogie Man in the finale.
35	* TheStoic: Keith rarely speaks above a monotone.
36	* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted, they exist, but Keith doesn't seek help. [[spoiler:He does, in the Happy Ending.]]
37	* UnableToCry: He didn't even cry when his son died. [[spoiler:Averted in the worst and best ending.]]
38	* UnreliableNarrator: It's hinted that his view of things in the castle might not be what the others see. [[spoiler:He can hear a phone ringing, while David can't. In the Happy Ending, the mothers also mention not having seen some of the red writing that Keith did.]]
39	* WhiteShirtOfDeath: Keith drops the jacket and his white shirt gets stained with blood later.
40	* {{Workaholic}}: His devotion to his job, to avoid having to think of his son's death, has led to tension between him and his wife.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Helena Baring]]
44	[[quoteright:123:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boogiehelena.png]]
45
46	Keith's loving wife.
47
48	Helena suffered badly when her son died and that, along with Keith's workhalic tendencies, has severely strained their relationship. She wanted to wait until after the tour, but decided to tell him about thinking of getting a divorce during the tour, because she felt like she couldn't take it much longer.
49	----
50	* AmicableExes: Becomes this with Keith in the ''Precious Box'' ending. [[spoiler:Averted when he kills her…]]
51	* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: With her husband, Keith. She’s the gentle, kind girl to Keith’s broody, sullen boy.
52	* DecoyDamsel: She spent the majority of the game running around. [[spoiler:She admits that she did it to distract the Boogie Man from Keith as much as possible, to keep her husband safe.]]
53	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:In the ''Happy Dream'' ending, she jumps out of David and Shirley’s window because she can’t live without Keith.]]
54	* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Her considering divorce was for Keith's sake [[spoiler:because she knew that he couldn't accept their son's death, since he was too busy taking care of her the whole time]].
55	* ItsAllMyFault: She feels responsible over Keith's inability to deal with Tod's death [[spoiler:since she knows he's too busy supporting her emotionally]].
56	* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Several of the others wonder why she and Keith are together, considering how different they are and his repeated refusal to spend time together on the tour.
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Dick Anderson]]
60
61	Keith's superior officer. Gives him a month off from work and tickets for the castle tour.
62	----
63	* BaldOfAuthority: He's bald and a high-ranked officer in the police department.
64	%%* BenevolentBoss: He's very kind to his subordinates.
65	* HappilyMarried: He's married and seems to be a very loving father to his kids, judging by how he mentions them.
66	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Takes a pretty calm approach to getting Keith to take a break from work. He's also open-minded when Sophie implicitly mentioned her experience in Fairy Land from ''VideoGame/TheSandman2014''.
67	* ScaryBlackMan: Not that apparent with his sprite, but the in-game bio (which can be seen after completing the game) mentions he's physically intimidating. Subverted in that he's actually very nice to Keith and the other officers, as well as other characters in the game.
68	[[/folder]]
69
70	[[folder:Eric Simpson]]
71
72	One of Keith's coworkers. Ambitious, but not very organized.
73	----
74	* EarlyBirdCameo: Turns out he's the detective who investigated David's cases during the events in ''VideoGame/TheCrookedMan'', namely when David almost accidentally killed his mother and when David found Duke's hanged corpse. He also interrogated David's two friends, Paul and Marion. This provides Keith information about David's troubled past without David telling him too much about it. Eric also recalls that David's colorblind in one of the endings.
75	[[/folder]]
76
77	[[folder:Lance Kamal]]
78
79	A photographer working for a travel magazine, taking the tour as part of his job.
80	-----
81	%%* BerserkButton: Being called a 'chicken' or a DirtyCoward.
82	* EveryoneHasStandards: Insists that he's not like the sleazeballs who work for gossip rags, and refuses to take pictures of people. [[spoiler:In reality, it's less about having standards and more about losing his former job as a journalist for going too far in the past.]]
83	* {{Jerkass}}: Upon recognizing Keith, he immediately tells him that he's going to be watching him during their trip and sell information about him to his fellow paparazzi. He also makes sleazy comments about Helena, and [[spoiler:considered flirting with her just to provoke Keith into making a scene so he'd have some juicier stuff to sell]].
84	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's willing to help everyone survive, even though he keeps butting heads with Keith.
85	%%* OnlyInItForTheMoney: His excuse for tipping off the gossip-mongers about Keith being on vacation.
86	%%* {{Paparazzi}}: Claims that he isn't, but this seems to be a matter of semantics more than anything else, as he sees absolutely nothing wrong with taking advantage of Keith's presence to make some extra cash.
87	%%* WhatTheHellHero: Very quick to call out Keith on his more questionable behavior.
88	* YouMonster: Or rather, “you bastard”, but he says this to the Boogie Man when he forces Keith into a SadisticChoice between saving either Richard or Sophie.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Stevie Small (spoilers)]]
92
93	The group's tour guide for their vacation.
94	-----
95	* IHaveAFamily: He says this to Brendon to get him to spare him. Brendon just uses it as leverage.
96	* MadnessMantra: Brendon forces him to repeat "Turn on the lights..." while keeping him trapped in a dark room, intending to play a trick on Keith.
97	%%* KilledOffForReal: The only person from the tour that Keith cannot save in time.
98	* SacrificialLamb: He is the first named character that Brendon kills, and shows that he is serious about his DeadlyGame.
99	%%* WalkingSpoiler: His main role is to die to Brendon.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Brendon Dumont (spoilers)]]
103
104	[[quoteright:115:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boogieman.png]]
105
106	The current owner of Livingstone Castle, who inherited it from his parents. Hopes to turn it into a vacation hotspot.\
107
108	In truth, he is the antagonist of the game. Disguised as the Boogie Man, he decides to play an entertaining game with Keith: he kidnaps the rest of the tour group and will kill them one by one, until Keith is either the only one left or has managed to thwart all of the Boogie Man's traps.
109	----
110	* BadBoss: He murders his nine servants and mutilates their corpses, even hanging one of them by their entrails, just to scare Keith.
111	* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: At one point, he beheaded a dog and presented its head in a box to Keith and David, purely as a sick joke.
112	* BigBad: He is the one who traps the tour group in the castle and challenges Keith to rescue them from his grasp.
113	* BreakThemByTalking: His favorite tactic to use. The Boogie Man loves to talk and often talks about [[BerserkButton the thing that hits one's nerves the most]] and sends them into a frenzy.
114	* BreakingTheFourthWall: He not only says he's challenging Keith to a game where he is 'the player', he also presents him with a 'tutorial mission' and refers to himself as the 'final boss'.
115	* CardCarryingVillain: He outright refers to himself as 'the bad guy' during the scene with Lance, and his motivation is to [[FameThroughInfamy make himself a monster feared by the public]].
116	* DeadGuyOnDisplay: His modus operandi; he loves to display the corpses of his victims, often theatrically, and leave them in the most open and easiest way for Keith to find them.
117	* DramaticUnmask:
118	** ''Come Rain, Come Shine'' reveals him to be none other than Brendon, the owner of the castle that was [[FakingTheDead 'killed']] at the beginning of the Boogie Man's little game.
119	** In ''The Boogie's Fine Tonight'', he takes the mask off and turns out to be [[MindScrew Keith himself]]. Though this is indicated to be Keith's insanity screwing with him.
120	* ExpressiveMask: His paper-bag mask changes with his emotions.
121	* FakingTheDead: He supposedly died in the beginning, but really just used a mannequin to make it look like he died.
122	* FameThroughInfamy: His goal is to use his planned massacre of the inhabitants and tourists in Livingstone Castle to become a feared killer throughout the world.
123	* FreudianExcuse: Near the end of the game, Keith and David can come across different rooms in a basement hallway. In one of the rooms is a stack of papers filled with rewritten Bible verses, and a diary entry where the writer mentions that they hate their life in the basement, as they are not allowed to do anything else but study the Bible and listen to their parents. Going by a locked room with shelves of movie tapes and movie posters all over the walls, it can be inferred that the writer of the diary entry was Brendon.
124	* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Unlike ''The Crooked Man'' and ''The Sandman'', whose antagonists are a dead man's spirit and a fairyland creature, respectively; this game's antagonist is a normal human — [[TheSociopath and easily the most vile in the series thus far]].
125	* LackOfEmpathy: He really doesn't care about the people he's killing.
126	* LargeHam: Very theatrical in his speech. [[SubvertedTrope Or not]], given how he talks to Sophie — it is indicated that his voice is actually monotone, and Keith [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness just imagines it as hammy]].
127	* ManipulativeBastard: He knows every character's personal BerserkButton to push, and will often use this to taunt them and break them down — for instance, he brings up David almost killing his mother.
128	* NightmareFetishist: Doesn't seem particularly bothered by Livingstone's tragic history, nor does he see anything wrong with trying to turn it into a tourist destination. Also, he has a fondness for {{Death Trap}}s and literal bloody murder.
129	* OffWithHisHead: How the Boogie Man offs him. Subverted, as he ''is'' the Boogie Man.
130	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When he talks to Sophie, his voice is quite monotone, indicating that this might be how he really talks and the hammy theatrics are just a projection of Keith's.
131	* PungeonMaster: He makes a few puns throughout the course of the story. For instance:
132	** The first obtainable VHS video made by him says 'this tunes you on'.
133	** At one point, he makes David believe that Shirley's body was hacked apart and stuffed in a box. When Keith opens the box, he sees the decapitated head of a dog and a note saying to David, 'Don't worry, this isn't your bitch' (bitch as in female dog).
134	* SackheadSlasher: He wears on his head a paper bag with a painted-on face, and is somewhat of a tribute to B-movie slasher villains.
135	* SacrificialLamb: Subverted. The Boogie Man seemingly kills Brendon to show Keith that he's serious about their little game, but the corpse was a fake used by Brendon himself.
136	* SoftSpokenSadist: Keith imagines his voice as hammy, but when we see him outside of Keith's perspective, he's instead very soft and quiet when talking about cruelly killing people.
137	* SpreeKiller: In one night, he brutally murders his nine servants [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals and a dog]], then kills Stevie Small and puts the tourists in death traps; whether he succeeds in killing them depends on the player’s actions.
138	* WalkingSpoiler: The Boogie Man actually being Brendon is a major reveal.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:The Boogie Man (spoilers)]]
142
143	The supposed antagonist of the game, a creature who stalks children in their closet to kidnap them. In truth, he is unrelated to the main incident, as the Boogie Man seen is a fake.
144	----
145	* EarlyBirdCameo: The Boogie Man appears for a brief stint in ''The Sandman''. Subverted, since the antagonist is not the ''real'' Boogie Man. Sophie reveals that the real Boogie Man's hands were ice-cold, while the fake one has warm hands, like a human's.
146	* WalkingSpoiler: A major reveal is that he is a different person than the Boogie Man terrorizing the tourists.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Tod Baring (spoilers)]]
150	Keith and Helena’s deceased son. He was killed in a car accident prior to the main story.
151	----
152	* DeathOfAChild: He was five years old when he died.
153	* LikeFatherLikeSon: He had dark hair like his dad and he wanted to become a police officer when he got older.
154	* PosthumousCharacter: The game is set after his death. The best ending is Keith coming to terms with his son’s death.
155	* WalkingSpoiler: His involvement in the story explains a lot about Keith’s character and the reason why his marriage with Helena is waning.
156	[[/folder]]
157
158	!!Introduced in prior games
159
160	[[folder:David Hoover]]
161
162	[[quoteright:105:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boogiedavid.png]]
163
164	The protagonist of ''VideoGame/TheCrookedMan''.
165
166	David seems to have gotten married to his fiancée, Shirley, after the events of ''VideoGame/TheSandman2014'', and the two are currently vacationing together. He originally intended to have his friends, Paul and Marion, join them on the tour, but because Paul became sick, he instead invited the Grundlers to come along.
167	----
168	* BerserkButton: Insulting his mother's death or mentioning his father's [[ParentalAbandonment parenting]]. [[spoiler:The Boogie Man ''and'' Keith purposefully trigger David at certain points. While the Boogie Man did it just to rile him up, Keith did it to verbally slap some sense into David and prevent him from doing something stupid.]]
169	* BigBrotherInstinct: He feels like a responsible, older sibling to Sophie.
170	* DistressedDude: Keith needs to rescue him twice from the Boogie Man's traps and prevents his death during cutscenes.
171	%%* HappilyMarried: To Shirley.
172	* HeroicBSOD: Falls into a brief one when the Boogie Man [[spoiler:leaves behind a box and heavily implies that he chopped Shirley up and left her head inside it]].
173	* MistakenForRomance: Sophie’s father initially believed that David was Sophie’s boyfriend. This misunderstanding is cleared up, though.
174	* ParentalAbandonment: David's father left his wife and son years ago.
175	* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: He was the protagonist of ''VideoGame/TheCrookedMan'' and had a cameo role in ''VideoGame/TheSandman2014'', and in this game, he has the largest role of the minor characters.
176	%%* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: The sensitive guy to Keith.
177	* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: Can die in a gas chamber [[spoiler:if the player doesn't realize how to avoid the toxic puddles and inhales too much of the gas]].
178	[[/folder]]
179
180	[[folder:Shirley Webber]]
181
182	[[quoteright:122:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boogieshirley.png]]
183
184	David's wife.
185
186	Shirley is the opposite of her husband and is a very level-headed, independent woman that can and prefers to do things on her own. She was knocked out by the Boogie Man and left for David to find, before the Boogie Man got him, too. She becomes the de facto leader of the others.
187	----
188	%%* CoolBigSis: Plays this role towards Sophie.
189	* CrucifiedHeroShot: She is tied to a cross in the castle's chapel.
190	%%* HappilyMarried: To David.
191	%%* KillItWithFire: How the Boogie Man intended to kill her.
192	* MyGreatestFailure: In ''Happy Dream'', she reveals to Helena [[spoiler:how she was actually quite close to David's mother. But because Shirley had her own abandonment issues, she broke up with David and regrets not only that, but also that she only returned after his mother had already died]].
193	* OppositesAttract: She's willing to state her mind, while David is a people pleaser.
194	* ParentalAbandonment: The Boogie Man reveals that [[spoiler:Shirley was abandoned by her parents. In Japanese, she's referred to as a 'coin-lock baby', a phenomenon of parents leaving their babies in coin locks]].
195	[[/folder]]
196
197	[[folder:Sophie Grundler]]
198
199	[[quoteright:111:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boogiesophie.png]]
200
201	The protagonist of ''VideoGame/TheSandman2014''.
202
203	Sophie has become much more outspoken after the events of ''The Sandman'' and is trying to make the best of her relationship with her father now. The two were invited by David to join them on the castle tour, after his friends couldn't make it.
204	----
205	* ACupAngst: Keith invokes it on her in an ending, teasing her that she shouldn't fill up her head with fairy fantasies, but rather her chest because 'they look so pathetic that [he] can't even look at them'.
206	%%* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Sophie is briefly playable.
207	* BrutalHonesty: Says exactly what is on her mind, clearly having learned from her prior experiences not to bottle up her feelings.
208	* CassandraTruth: She knows about fairies and their existence, compared to the others. She even mentions having met the Boogie Man once before, [[spoiler:except it was the real one and not the fake in this one]].
209	%%* CoolBigSis: She sees Shirley as one, now that they have become friends.
210	%%* DaddysGirl: Obviously, since he's her last remaining family.
211	%%* DamselInDistress: She has to be rescued twice.
212	%%* FieryRedhead: She's much more outspoken and assertive, compared to ''VideoGame/TheSandman2014''.
213	* TheFirstCutIsTheDeepest: She used to have a crush on David, but gave up. In a cutscene, she tells Helena that she feels like she cannot fall in love anymore. [[spoiler:It's hinted at that the pink jewel she made in ''The Sandman'' contained her love. Since the Sandman still has it, he might return it to her when she's older.]]
214	* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: She was the protagonist of ''VideoGame/TheSandman2014'' and is briefly playable.
215	* SadisticChoice: The Grundlers' first trap. Sophie and Richard are suspended over a hole, filled with sharp spikes at the bottom by rope — choosing to pull one rope will have the other dropped, meaning one of them has to die. [[spoiler:Both get saved.]]
216	* StepfordSmiler: In ''VideoGame/TheSandman2014'', she was very passive and chose to never voice how she actually feels about things in her life and bottled everything up. After those events, though, she chose to speak up, toning this trope down a lot.
217	* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: Can die from being attacked by dogs if [[spoiler:the player finishes that sequence with 30 HP or less]].
218	[[/folder]]
219
220	[[folder:Richard Grundler]]
221
222	[[quoteright:107:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boogierichard.png]]
223
224	Sophie's father.
225
226	He's trying to better his relationship with his daughter after the events of ''VideoGame/TheSandman2014'' and is more open about how much she means to him. He came along for the tour, after David invited Sophie and him.
227	----
228	* BoundAndGagged: Done to him [[spoiler:by the others, if Sophie dies]].
229	* BoyfriendBlockingDad: The game's bio states that he initially thought David was Sophie's boyfriend and got angry that he was dating his daughter. The misunderstanding was cleared and he's obviously okay with their friendship.
230	* PapaWolf: When Sophie goes missing, he's determined to venture the castle alone to find her. [[spoiler:Gets worse if she dies.]]
231	* SadisticChoice: The Grundlers' first trap. Sophie and Richard are suspended over a hole, filled with sharp spikes at the bottom by rope — choosing to pull one rope will have the other dropped, meaning one of them has to die. [[spoiler:Both get saved.]]
232	* SmartBall: [[spoiler:Richard reveals in ''Come Rain, Come Shine'' that he had a suspicion that Brendon was the Boogie Man. When Sophie went missing, Keith calmed Richard down by saying that the Boogie Man would have widely proclaimed and presented her, had he caught or killed her. Those words made Richard realize that perhaps Brendon's supposed death was nothing but a fake. He didn't mention it, though, because he thought his amateur opinion may be stupid.]]
233	* TakeMeInstead: During the above choice, Richard begs Keith to drop him, so Sophie can live.
234	* WhenYouComingHomeDad: He was mostly absent in ''The Sandman'' because of his work.
235	* {{Workaholic}}: Richard was one in ''VideoGame/TheSandman2014'', though he also did it because he felt like Sophie didn't want him around. With him being on this vacation, he's obviously trying to work on this.
236	* YouMonster: Says this to the Boogie Man upon learning that he [[IHaveYourDaughter kidnapped his daughter]].

Context Characters / TheBoogieMan