For players used to horror games, a character chasing another character wielding an axe with a deranged smile may be a familiar, yet trite sight. The shock comes from the fact that the character with the axe is Andy.
Margret's minigame concludes, and she awards you your bonus sticker. All you have to do is press space to accept it! Oh, wait. The game isn't letting you proceed. Well, just press that space key a few more time-WHAT IS THAT?! What makes this especially scary is if you were bracing yourself for something scary, only to let your guard down for just a few seconds when the "glitch" shows up...
The game reuses this trick in the Christmas special when the friends come knocking, briefly flashing Isabella's face before revealing the character representing her, Melody.
Both interpretations of Peter Pumpkin are equally terrifying.
Provided Peter Pumpkin is a supernatural creature, the idea that a malevolent being with uncomprehendable power has chosen you to kill everyone you care about, possess your body, and trap you alongside the other lost souls that you ended in a videogame forever is Paranoia Fuel at its finest.
If Peter Pumpkin is a demon in the metaphorical sense, then this means that every scary moment with the so-called entity is what Thomas was going through possibly every day. The all-consuming irrational paranoia, the images of something that he can't convince himself isn't real, the downward spiral as everything falls apart… it's a too-real nightmare.
The way Peter sneers "caught you" if you lose when he's "it". Whether it means the entity has control or Thomas has been "caught" in an episode...it means nothing good.
When you finish hanging stockings with Felix in the Christmas special, Felix gives us another nightmare face, revealing dark ringed eyes with that same broad grin.
Any time Peter shows up is a good signal to brace yourself for some nightmare fuel. Who knew that a little pixelated smiling pumpkin man could inspire fear?
One of the last shots of the chapter two trailer shows Andy walking through a fun house, him and his reflection going mirror through mirror. Then his reflection turns into Peter.
In Rabbit Knight, similar to Claus's minigame in the basic game, someone comes chasing Rory from behind. It's Peter. But not just Peter, oh no! Peter has a big, gooey, black new body with at least half a dozen eyeballs poking out of it!
We get a picture of Jacob Eastwood in Rabbit Knight. His eyeballs have been blacked out. It may take you a moment to realize what's wrong with his picture, all while still feeling deeply unsettled. You just don't know why, so those few seconds of uncertainty before it hits you can hit hard.
The Halloween special climaxes when Melody, Felix, and Andy go to investigate the basement. Felix is the bravest and most eager to see something "scary"...until he sees something behind a door, which renders him speechless. When he recovers, he brushes off Melody and Andy's questions, insisting that they need to get out. Now. Then Melody, curious, peers behind the door to see what Felix is talking about...only to, exactly like Felix, be rendered to Stunned Silence and also insisting that it's time to leave. Only Andy doesn't learn what they saw and is left begging for answers as they search for Claus and Margret. At the end, there's some levity in which it's revealed at least some of the scares were a prank at Andy's expense.
Felix: Yeah, those bodies in the basement? Super realistic!
Margret: Felix...we didn't put any bodies in the basement...
