Line #15 NightmareFuel/TwistedMetal


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/twisted-metal_6176.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Hello, boys and girls. Now that I'm free, I'm going to be the ''greatest of all time.'']]
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4	Be careful what you wish for.
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6	!! Original four Twisted Metal games:
7	* The premise and the titular tournament itself. Just let that sink for a moment: a demolition derby taken to such extremes that each yearly contest has the possibility of ''wiping out the human race'', the scale of destruction being so high that Devil himself is pleased (and is a huge fan of it). They needed a nigh-omnipotent wizard to even organize the thing, let alone maintain it. Said wizard, mind you, had to cheat both Grim Reaper ''and'' the previous game master of Devil's playground, and that was ''before'' he was blessed with his new powers. Compared to that, the reward of any wish a mortal can think of, and all of the consequences of those wishes, is just a minor expense for the entertainment of the Lord of Hell.
8	* The wishes can be petty, poorly thought through and outright ridiculous, Calypso taking great pleasure in [[JackassGenie warping them into curses for his amusement]], more often than not killing the winner in the process: possibly another element of the show his master enjoys. He even goes out of his way to great creativity lengths to turn the wishes that piss him off into a lesson for all future contestants. But one type of wishes he does fulfill in generous goodwill: revenge. Pure burning hatred of those who enter the tournament for vengeance is so great that even Devil's own gamemaker decides it will be ''more'' evil and cause ''more'' suffering to let them have what they want.
9	* Souls of those who die during the tournament do not go into neither Heaven nor Hell. They are trapped in Calypso's fortress, their pain fueling the contest and likely Calypso's own power. Getting your wish may be a potential reward, but fail to win, and your soul is a payment for an entry ticket.
10	* Though {{Narm}} unfortunately plays a huge part in the first game's lost endings, [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/twistedmetal/images/e/e3/TwistedMetalCalypso.png/revision/latest?cb=20120205130020 Calypso's design]] can come off as creepy to some. He is supposed to have suffered a severe burn injury to his whole face in his backstory, but it instead ''looks as though he is completely missing the skin on his face in general''. Other than that, his design is just [[SoBadItsGood ridiculous]].
11	* Needles Kane's design in the first game may also count. He is drastically different in design compared to his later appearance, having green non-flaming hair, giant red lips and blue make-up around his eyes. What makes him creepy is his face, being that it looks horribly deformed and bumpy, compared to the simple clown mask in later appearances.
12	* Captain Rodgers in the second game is ghastly in appearance. Due to being severely elderly he has tons of wrinkles, pale blue skin, and has an eerie drooped face with [[DullEyesOfUnhappiness dull staring eyes]]. He essentially looks like a living corpse.
13	* Most endings in the second game are terrifying, for example:
14	** Mr. Grimm's ending involves him begging Calypso to make the people of Earth die faster so he can get more souls. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything The whole scenario is meant to reference drug withdrawal]], since the lack of souls he obtains makes him weaker. Once his wish is granted, everyone on Earth begins to kill each other in an endless worldwide war, until humanity eventually destroys itself. Mr. Grimm enjoys the vast amount of souls he obtains from this war... but after that, [[DidntThinkThisThrough since humanity is extinct, there are no more souls to gain]]. And like any other druggie does after the initial high, [[HorrorHunger Mr. Grimm soon hungers for another fix...]]
15	** [[ThoseTwoGuys Mike and Stu's]] ending, mainly the climax of it. Though the ending in general also counts as a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment\|s}}, the fact that we are given a still shot of the duo face-first against the crushed pavement with a pool of blood forming (after they jump off a high rooftop together under the belief that they can now fly) is a bit unsettling.
16	** Captain Rodgers' ending has him wishing he had the body of a young man again, being sick of his elderly appearance. Calypso, [[JackassGenie being the cheap bastard that he is]], grants his wish [[ExactWords according to these words]]. Rodgers is given the body of a young man like he wished for, ''but his head remains the same''.
17	** Ken Master's wish is to have his face be seen all over the Earth so he can be world famous. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Bad idea, though]]: Calypso complies with this wish, by '''[[BodyHorror literally stretching Ken's face all over the sky and around the Earth for everyone to see]]'''.
18	** The climax of Mortimer's ending where Calypso looks into the window of a moving plane and scares a little boy [[TearsOfFear to tears]] with his NightmareFace.
19	** Minion's ending, where he steals back his power from a cowering Calypso, then throws him into Hell. Counts as a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome though, since we get to see Calypso get his [[KarmicDeath comeuppance]].
20	** Amanda's ending involves her traveling at the speed of light as she wished. Unfortunately, she neglected the fact that her car needed fuel to function, and once the tank's empty she finds herself trapped in prehistory and ends up getting [[GiantFootOfStomping crushed to death]] by a giant T-Rex.
21	* Speaking of the second game, the encounter with Dark Tooth can be pretty scary for first-time players. Since you fight him in the Hong Kong stage, which is basically a maze of buildings, you don't see him at first so you go looking for him to finish the game... and then, if you turn around a corner or wait to ambush him, you see a MASSIVE (and really detailed) black version of Sweet Tooth's ice cream truck complete with a BIG flaming clown head moving around (which is fully modeled as opposed to regular Sweet Toot's 2D sprite). The sheer unexpected PRESENCE it has is enough to make anyone jump.
22	* Granny Dread in ''Twisted Metal 3'' started out wanting to just end the tournament, but when she wins, she declares instead that she just wants to do "nothing but watches daytime TV". Calypso gives her this wish, by strapping her to a chair with eye-opening gizmos in the manner of ''Literature/AClockWorkOrange'' and forces her to watch daytime television endlessly. Even worse, she can't change the channel and is given nothing else to watch but SMPTE color bars, and it's so tedious that she ends up begging Calypso to make it stop.
23	* Plenty of the character endings in ''Twisted Metal 4'', even with the game having the [[{{Sequelitis}} reputation]] that it has with the fanbase. Examples:
24	** Goggle Eye's wish ends with him having to spit bugs out of his mouth at a no ending rate, all because he wanted to contain all bugs in the world to kill them.
25	** [[Music/RobZombie Rob]] [[AsHimself Zombie]]'s ending is an odd one. Rob doesn't speak for himself, but instead has a very disturbing disembodied floating version of his own head speak for him, much like the small clown speaking for Sweet Tooth. Zombie's wish is to [[OhCrap "let this world hear the wails and war cries of a dead man's soul."]] [[ScaryMusicianHarmlessMusic Don't fret, though.]] His wish is granted as only a brief clip from the [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic "Super Beast" music video]].
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29	!! Twisted Metal Black:
30	* Really, what in this game ''isn't'' NightmareFuel? Compared to the previous games and even the ones to come afterwards, ''Black'' is easily the only game in the series to take itself completely seriously. The atmosphere, character backstories, setting and premise are presented in a dark, grim, depressing and [[RealIsBrown almost colorless]] fashion. It is also the only game in the series to be completely [[PlayedForDrama devoid]] of any humor even in the slightest.
31	* When it comes to NightmareFuel heavy characters in ''Black'', the following people are especially worthy:
32	** For starters, ''this'' is the game that introduces Needles Kane's clown mask design. You know, the one that is '''used as the picture for this very page'''. Is an explanation even needed? The mask alone is NightmareFuel enough, but this is the game that also introduced his serial killer persona. No longer is Needles depicted as a [[PlayedForLaughs goofy]] sociopath or an ice cream addict, but a serious bloodthirsty killer with disturbing motives. These features would become the [[CharacterizationMarchesOn definitive depiction of the character]] that would carry on in the later games.
33	** Cage is one of the creepiest characters in the game, even when compared to the guy with both his [[MouthStitchedShut eyes and mouth sewn shut]]. The man's ambition? [[ToBeAMaster To be the greatest killer the world has ever known.]] But what does he want from Calypso? Brain surgery to remove that part of him that feels sad whenever he kills. Calypso's feeling generous, so he throws in something extra for a man with [[LackOfEmpathy his conscience literally stripped away]] - his hands replaced with metal razors and blades.
34	** Charlie Kane. First of all, he's a reanimated corpse. No, not a zombie; he's very much dead, but his body is being controlled by [[TheKidWithTheRemoteControl his 8-year-old savant son]]. This is disturbing enough on its own, but then the game presents you with very creepy close-ups of Charlie's corpse, [[BoomHeadshot complete with a stained hole where his brains were shot out]], when you look at his character info, as well as in every single loading screen. It's all incredibly unsettling.
35	** To add some more horror to the mix, that means that this kid is the one that kills the other contestants. [[CreepyChild And he doesn't seem to feel remorse about it]].
36	*** And his ending? [[spoiler:Calypso breaks the boy's remote and abducts him, with the intention of raising him to take over the tournament. Oh, and guess what? The kid's big brother is Needles "Sweet Tooth" Kane.]]
37	** Mr. Grimm in this game is also quite disturbing, even taking into account that he was essentially TheGrimReaper in the previous games. In ''Black'', Grimm is a Vietnam veteran who, upon getting captured by Vietcong, is forced to eat his fellow soldier and friend Benny to avoid starvation as a form of torture by the capturers. He even sews his comrades skull to his own face as a helmet. Wanting revenge for the man who ruined his life, he fights through Calypso's contest to gain his reward. Once he wins, [[spoiler: he is given the chance to eat the Soviet advisor who ran the camp he and Benny were imprisoned in. Afterwards, Grimm admits overtime he has ''gained a strange craving for human flesh'']].
38	** [[MouthStitchedShut No Face]] might be one of the more sympathetic characters ''Black'', but that doesn't mean he can't be rightfully freaky. His backstory involves him losing a boxing match, and because of this the facial doctor that works on him afterwards disfigures his face because No Face made him lose money on the match. As his reward for winning Calypso's contest, [[spoiler: No Face gets the chance to murder said doctor, by '''[[IronicDeath punching him in the face]] [[NoKillLikeOverKill with a scalpel and knife covered boxing glove]]'''.]]
39	** Preacher's story is pretty creepy, especially the depiction of the "demon" tormenting his mind. The whole story gets worse once it is found out that[[spoiler: the demon ''is his own psyche''.]]
40	** Minion doesn't have a story in this game, but looking at his [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/twistedmetal/images/c/c8/Screen_Shot_2021-04-25_at_11.30.57_AM.png close-up image]] will probably give you nightmares on its own. (especially when you realize that the thing he's using as a mask is literally the mutilated head of a cow.) Maybe it's better that he didn't get a story after all.
41	*** While Minion does not have a proper story, his coded loaded screen messages are pretty unsettling. [[spoiler: "We are trapped in his head." It probably says something that Marcus Kane ''misses'' the colorful world that he initially tried to run away from.]]
42	** Bloody Mary. Taken just at face value, while disturbing, her plot can seem a bit silly: an overly-jealous woman who is permanently "always a bridesmaid, never a bride". What puts her over the edge, however, is her loading screen snippets. She just comes across as so cold and unnatural.
43	-->My daddy used to say I was the prettiest girl in the world. Even after he killed my mom, he still said I was beautiful.
44	-->Kristen's parents are sad she's dead. But I know when I find my true love, they'll be so happy for me.
45	* All the music in the game (and we do mean '''all''' the music) is unsettling. Most of it falls into fast and boisterous industrial music with emphasis on DroneOfDread with plenty of loud percussion, while other pieces are slow and ominous. Some examples include:
46	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmMu02B5Tn8 The main menu music]]. It's just plain disturbing. It's very industrial and nonsensical, and the fact that it plays over some also quite creepy still shot of our drivers fighting and flying out of their cars doesn't help.
47	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvZC8SwVVIE The "Snowy Roads" theme]]. It gives a genuine aura of being stranded in a bleak and hostile environment; the ominous ambience in the beginning with the OneWomanWail can really send shivers down spines.
48	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izTBPI2JVpk Junkyard Battle]]. It's loud, its fast, and its menacing. Really sets the mood for the battle ahead, though.
49	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_c6InKre-k Minion's Stadium]] isn't much different.
50	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpqF8p18XIo Downtown]]. It is somehow able to make ''flutes'' creepy.
51	** Ladies and gentlemen, presenting [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiJsNtD_WFQ&list=PLAE4949A2F32C3AFC Sweet Tooth's ice cream truck music.]]
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53	* And if you think the music is creepy enough, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh9A5uvfAp4 the SFX are a whole new level]] . Aside from the usual stuff you can expect (dogs barking, crows cawing, police sirens going off in the distance...) there's also domestic violence (Heard at 1:40-2:02 and 2:23-2:41). The fact that these sounds are muted by the carnage and chaos ensuing from the main drivers killing each other doesn't make this less scary...
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55	* Special mention goes to this installments reimagining of the health pickups that drop from a destroyed vehicle. It's not a health crate or a glowing green wrench. Here it's the [[ManOnFire burning driver]] of whatever car just got wrecked, with the kill confirmation punctuated by them screaming in pain, and to "collect" the bonus you have to run them over. It's a terrifying yet perfectly logical result, and for every time it happens to someone who probably deserves to burn to death, like Needles or Cage, it'll happen to someone innocent or noble of intent, like Dollface or Stone.
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57	!! Twisted Metal Head-On:
58	* Outlaw's ending. Carl & Jamie Roberts argue over what to do about Calypso. [[spoiler: Carl shouts "I wish you'd shut up" and Calypso... takes it literally and grants the wish. As a result, Calypso seals Jamie's mouth closed in a similar fashion to the first ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' movie.]]
59	* Gene Ruttish's ending has him wish to be "the most desirable man on the planet". A few women start to approach him on sight, followed by another. And then another. And then another. Sounds fun to have the ladies at your beck and call regardless with how you look or act, right? But his wish ultimately leads him to have every woman attracted to him, and it really meant ''every woman'', and he slowly becomes annoyed, then horrified at the realization as more and more just can't keep their hands off of him. We can hear him scream, very clearly, for them to "'''GO AWAY!!!'''" (with subtitles as he usually speaks unintelligibly), but to no avail. Calypso, naturally, laughs evilly at his wish gone wrong. The implication of this wish becomes more horrifying when a city's worth of women want a piece of you. To drive the point home, the last part of the ending is a bird's eye view of an ever growing hundreds of women gathering around him, and Gene is increasingly out of view.
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61	!! Twisted Metal 2012:
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63	* Calypso in this version is a lot more powerful and sinister than in previous incarnations. In other games, he gets his powers from a demon. In this one, ''he's'' the devil. That painting in his office is utterly chilling.
64	** To elaborate, Calypso keeps the souls of everyone who died in the contest inside of the painting (including the Preacher), [[AndIMustScream keeping them locked up in asylum-like cells screaming]], which can only be faintly heard outside of the painting itself.
65	* Sweet Tooth slaughtering the entire staff of a hospital in the 2012 game, all in the name to finish off the woman [[spoiler: [[OffingTheOffspring his own daughter]], mind you]] who managed to get away the first time he tried to kill her. [[VillainProtagonist This is the character you control for a third of the Story Mode by the way]].
66	** Fittingly, in his ending [[spoiler:he demands Calypso to send him to her, to which Calypso grants. Sweet Tooth demands where he is, and Calypso reveals to him that [[DespairEventHorizon his daughter was unable to cope after her near-death experience, and the death of her family and she]] [[AteHisGun ate her gun ten years ago]]. Sweet Tooth then realizes that he was BuriedAlive with the remains of his daughter, and spends the last minutes of his life vowing revenge on Calypso before eventually suffocating. The focus is then shifted above ground, where his daughter's gravestone has his own name spray-painted over it, as a creepy music box jingle plays, which slowly dies down.]] And ''then'' Calypso makes Sophia Kane dig out the burning mask and take it as her own...
67	* Both released and original endings, which were cut due to time constraints: although the game only features 3, which is ''ridiculously'' few for the series, they are all horrifically detailed and symbolic; Dollface clearly taking the cake.
68	** Dollface originally wishes for her mask to be removed and her beauty restored. In the evil (released) ending, though, she just realizes that at best it would put her back where she started, and instead [[CuttingTheKnot wishes to walk the biggest and brightest runway]]. Calypso sends her onto an ''airport'' runway to be crushed underneath a landing airplane, finally removing her mask, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard after breaking her heel like her original rival model victim]].
69	** Hardly gets any better in the good ending, though: she gets her mask removed and sees that her face is now perfect, but her mind is so twisted that even that is seen by her as a warped, infested mess. Calypso first tells her there is no problem, but then simply offers her to don the mask ''again'', locking it on her head forever, which she does. She is then DrivenToSuicide.
70	** And then there [[WhatCouldHaveBeen was supposed to be the in-between ending]] where her face underneath the mask becomes NightmareFace for real, reminding her of every murder she committed so badly she smashes the mirror and yells for Calypso to make it stop. When he refuses, she goes onto a murder spree of supermodels that makes her original killings look like a child's play.
71	* [[MonsterClown Sweet Tooth's]] [[CircusOfFear Carnival]] [[MilitaryMashupMachine of Carnage]]. After Sweet Tooth [[spoiler: died after getting his wish]], his followers built a giant clown and carnival themed moving battle fortress in his honor. The whole damn thing is horrifying to look at: for starters, its a massive tank like contraption that can only be accessed through an elevator lift at the bottom guarded by a [[KillItWithFire flame spewing]] clown head. Once inside you have to fight through a giant pinball machine while being attacked by ''[[ChainsawGood chainsaw wielding]] [[MonsterClown monster clowns]]'', then race through a long tunnel filled with giant blades and saws, then finally take flight in a helicopter where you must fight essentially the FinalBoss of the game. The final boss by the way is a '''[[GiantMecha giant]] [[KillItWithFire fire breathing]], [[ScaryTeeth sharp toothed]], [[EyelessFace eyeless]] clown head that will lunge at you in an attempt to take a bite out of your helicopter if you get too close'''.
72	* The [[GiantMecha Iron Maiden]], Dollface's menacing flying robot she uses against Mr. Grimm. The sheer size of the thing is horrifying, especially for the fact that ''you have to fight it''. It doesn't help that it has the ability to [[ExorcistHead rotate its head]] from having a standard cute baby doll face to [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0Hicwyv3E6M/T7AG6KmeWXI/AAAAAAAADKw/U2GVbJz3lD0/s640/ironmaiden.jpg this]].
73	* Several special weapons involve killing a hapless innocent as a matter of course for their use. Meat Wagon's "Gurney Bomber" launches out a rocket powered gurney loaded down with TNT and a person strapped down to it, while Shadow's "Death Casket" deploys a whirling, rocket laden casket. For the former, the occupant of the gurney seems to come out of a daze and begins struggling against their restraints in vain before they explode, as if they'd been drugged. In the latter, you can clearly hear someone inside screaming in terror, which doubles as a proximity warning in-game if you're near one. Imagine the sheer terror of those people who get forcibly used as part of these weapons for no apparent reason other than just to up the body count even higher.
74	* The Metro Square course takes place in a bustling shopping district at ''Christmas time'' in what appears to be New York City. Slaughtering holiday shoppers is utterly unavoidable, and hundreds will die over the course of a typical match, all running in blind fear and desperation. If you ever had any doubts that the drivers in this new incarnation of the tournament are '''all''' evil, this battleground will put them down for good. Imagine how many innocent families are shattered just in time for Christmas because these monsters are willing to do anything to win that wish.
75	** Not helping matters is Calypso's own thoughts on the matter, where he explicitly wants happy families to suffer during a time where they should be happy.
76	** This also serves as a CallBack to the intro of ''2'', where Calypso mentions that the climactic battle of the previous tournament took place on Christmas Eve and reached such a furious pitch that it flattened Los Angeles. While all this means for him is that he'll need to find a new battleground for the next contest, we are shown that the few who survived the chaos are reduced to a desperate, brutal existence amongst the burning ruins of their homes. Merry Christmas.

Context NightmareFuel / TwistedMetal