"Hello everybody, my name is Markiplier… and welcome to 3 Scary Games…"
Markiplier: Charming, funny, all-around good... and scary as all hell.Works with their own pages:
- Some of the endings in his Five Nights at Freddy's videos have terrifying stingers that have no context behind them. One such example is the end of Part 6 of the third game
, where his horror outro music cuts out just after he signs off. This is followed by the lights in the animatronic heads turning back on, the droning sound from FNAF 2 growing louder, before it cuts to a close up of Phantom Marionette with the mechanical laughter from 2 echoing in the background. - Rage game videos are mostly hilarious to watch, but some games end up making Mark so mad that it can become outright terrifying to watch. Notable examples include his playthrough of I Am Bread, Part 5 of his Ben and Ed playthrough, and all of Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. It's in part because of his visceral reactions to rage games that he decided to stop playing them, realizing it was bad for him.
- During one of his slow-motion replays in Turbo Dismount, the "Flappy Bird" vehicle he's driving falls apart and the face lands looking toward the camera. It then slowly zooms into the bird's lifeless eyes, while the "ITS ME" hallucination from Five Nights at Freddy's flashes in the background.
- The intro for Part 12 of Mark's Yandere Simulator playthrough has him, Tyler, and Ethan acting out a happy anime intro while wearing Sailor Fukus, which would be funny under normal circumstances... except it repeatedly cuts to Mark murdering the other two, with the music and video becoming distorted every time it happens. It doesn't help that Mark was able to effortlessly replicate Yan-chan's infamous twitching.
- Popcorn is good fun sketch involving a microwave that turns everything put into it into popcorn until, when getting a knife to turn into popcorn, Mark accidentally stabs Ryan. Shortly afterwards, Matt arrives, so to cover up the grisly scene, he stuffs Ryan into the microwave. All that's left of him is his hat and a bunch of popcorn, which Matt and Mark are seen eating.
- Darkiplier becoming Ascended Fanon in "A DATE WITH MARKIPLIER", where he is canonized as an unnerving, unstable, full blown Yandere Humanoid Abomination who is nothing like the Draco in Leather Pants the fans had made him out to be.
- His 2017 April Fool's Day video, a 360 video where he plays Minecraft, starts off like a normal Let's Play... then the screen suddenly glitches out to a blue screen of death. When the video returns, Googleplier is there in place of Mark, slowly walking up to the screen and glitching out, before flashing a Slasher Smile to the audience.Googleplier: Having some technical difficulties? Would you like me to search for a solution to your p-pr-roblem? My p-p-primary objective is to answer questions as quickly as possible. My secondary obj-e-ective is to destroy mankind.
- Anytime creepy elements reminiscent of Darkiplier start showing up in Mark's videos out of nowhere, especially in otherwise funny or normal situations. What makes it scarier is that these moments have a tendency to happen whenever another installment of Who Killed Markiplier? is on its way, with it becoming more common as the release date draws closer.
- During "3 SCARY GAMES #20", Mark's camera ends up dying on him just before the 10-minute mark. He then leaves, telling the audience he hopes nothing scary happens as "that would be scary". What follows is the audio slowly going silent before the video begins to glitch out. Then, the screen goes black as demonic whispering starts up in the background, with demonic faces briefly flashing on screen. Finally, just before the video returns to the game, Darkiplier is seen flickering through heavy visual glitches. This would serve as Foreshadowing to DAMIEN, which would be released 2 months later.
- Speaking of DAMIEN, the whole video. From the reveal Damien and Celine have been in a Stable Time Loop the whole time, to the Jump Scare of Celine's body being replaced by a withered corpse with glowing red eyes. But this has to be the worst part, especially with Mark sporting a Voice of the Legion the whole time:Mark: You don't realize this place is a dream; a never-ending starring role as the hero. But what is a hero without... a villain?
Damien: What?
Mark: A villain! Every good story needs a villain!
Damien: (horrified) You honestly think you're the hero in all of this?
Mark: (Evil Laugh) Well, of course I am! Who else could I possibly be? - While many of the intros for the "3 Scary Games" videos are Nightmare Fuel of the highest caliber, the one for the 59th episode stands out for the sheer amount of Paranoia Fuel it exudes.Mark: You swear that there is...things lurking right behind you, looking at you, (screen briefly glitches) watching you. And you forget that you're supposed to not look at them (eyes slowly appear from the sides of the screen with a sickening squelching sound). You're supposed to not acknowledge them. The monsters in the corners of your eyes. They're very real. But you're not supposed to look at them...
- During "3 SCARY GAMES #20"
- "I AM THE WORST!!" has Markiplier tell the audience a story of his time spent on a movie set while in Austin, Texas. The location they scouted was apparently known to the locals as "Spider Woods", which he repeatedly insists wasn't an exaggeration, as he and his film crew soon found out after turning on a single floodlight late at night. The light drew in not only spiders, but also moths, mosquitoes, and whatever other bugs were in the area (oh, and also snakes), and later the crew discovered a literal breeding ground of mosquitoes close by Mark and another YouTuber, who were there in short shorts with no bug spray on (due to costume requirements), came to the slow realization that they were probably not getting off the set unscathed. Whether or not one fears bugs and/or snakes, his story will likely at least set off goosebumps.
- Who would've thought that Lixian, Mark's editor and fun little animated companion, could dish out some nightmare fuel for us? In recent videos, Lixian has started to riddle in jumpscares and spooks of his own. It eventually culminates in 3 Scary games #46. Just looking at the thumbnail should give you an idea of what you're in for. Lixian's avatar appears in flashes and glitches across the screen at random, toting human eyes and bloody human teeth. The video itself is very creepy, with an unsettling atmosphere. The end of the video has Lixian stabbing Mark to death, which, although it is animated to seem somewhat humorous, can catch people off guard.
- Hell, even the description falls under this, with Mark calling out for help and stating that "The old [containment] methods aren't working anymore," it makes it sound like Lixian is a goddamn SCP! The fact that Lixian is sometimes accompanied by Scare Chords taken directly from encountering SCP-173 in SCP – Containment Breach further heightens these similarities.
- Related to the above, Lixian, however frightening he can be sometimes, still at least remains fun and light-hearted most of the time. The same cannot be said about his counterpart, the Eldritch Abomination that is Lunky. Created (in- and out of universe) by Mark while Lixian was on a brief hiatus to fill in his role, Lunky was quick to grow into a very separate, absolutely mortifying character of his own without a single humorous moment to his name.
- In his introductory video and "3 Scary Games #60", he remains a minor part of the videos, but still gives several Jump Scare moments at random, his facial features becoming mutated as he suddenly screams at the camera.
- After Lixian returned from his hiatus, the video released immediately afterward, 3 Scary Games #61, has him trap Lunky in a cage to take back his editing role. Not long after, however, we got He Escaped..., a short video where Lunky escapes by exploding out of his cage before killing Lixian with a giant fireball. Both Markiplier and Lixian also made changes to correspond with this video, with both YouTube channels experiencing a Hostile Show Takeover by Lunky, and Lixian's Twitter was even renamed to "LIXIAN IS DEAD".
- In the video "3̴ ̵S̸C̸Ȧ̴̜͍̤̉R̷̜̣̄Y̶̰͛͝ ̴̠͛́G̷a̸ḿ̴̡̡͎̯̩̦̪̮͍͗̆͋͒e̷S̵̙̭̪͒", it becomes clear that Lunky isn't planning on stopping at killing Lixian. Throughout the video, his trademark jumpscares appear once more, and at the end, he tries to attack Markiplier himself before being suddenly bifurcated by Lixian, finally killing him for good...
- ...at least, up until "3 Scary Games #69", which begins with perhaps his most terrifying moment yet; a dark, unseen figure resurrects Lunky as a still-bifurcated monster connected loosely by strands of flesh with fangs now coming out of the sides. During his intro, Markiplier reintroduces him, claiming that there's nothing to be afraid of, but Lunky continues to jumpscare the viewer throughout the episode, now with a mask of Lixian's face. Even worse, he apparently Came Back Strong, too, as twice during the video he causes Laser-Guided Amnesia in Markiplier before once again jumpscaring the viewer.
- During the second part of his return to Minecraft series, Mark is exploring a mineshaft when the game plays one of its standard ambient sounds, a wailing note similar to the wind blowing through the mineshaft. Mark is taken off guard by it, as he has been with other ambient sounds when they crop up. But, out of playfulness, asks Lixian to mess with the audio a couple of ways, speeding it up, changing the pitch, playing it in reverse, anything to just take the wind out of it. Then he offhandedly asks Lixian to play it alongside Siren Head's warning Siren. The two damn near sync. The face Lixian makes shows how jarring it was to find something like that in an otherwise light-hearted play session.
- Mark’s rage playing Pogostuck. While he hasn’t thrown or broken anything (yet), he has gotten close.
- In “The Source Of All My Misery,” Mark becomes so furious he starts shouting uncontrollably. Right before it cuts to the outro, his eyes turn black.
- The thumbnail for “Earth Shattering Rage!” gives the viewer a clue as to what they’re in for. After losing a significant amount of progress, Mark silently gets up and folds his yellow blanket. Putting it on the back of his chair, he then starts shaking the chair so much you think he’s about to throw it across the room.
- Mark's playthrough of Phasmophobia brings out some surprisingly good scares, despite Mark, Bob, Wade, and Sean usually managing to bring about Nightmare Retardant. It speaks to how frightening this game is that these four are often left utterly terrified by the end of every map.
- In their first investigation, after Sean has already died, Mark returns to the van briefly, and he and Wade realize that Bob isn't responding on the radio. After several seconds, Bob briefly makes contact and says that he's trapped in a room somewhere in the house. Suddenly, Mark loses radio contact with both of them. He approaches the house to investigate, seeing only flickering lights inside the house and hearing only static on the radio, and slowly backs into the truck with a look of pure horror on his face. After several terrified seconds, he regains contact with Bob, but immediately after hears Wade screaming "Nooooo--!" before being cut off. Bob, audibly panicking, repeats that he's still trapped inside and can't find Wade, and Mark opens the door to find Wade dead. He frees Bob, and the two of them flee. It's the ominous music that really drives the scene home.
- When they return to base and Wade and Sean respawn, Wade says that he could see the ghost stalking Mark and Bob while they made their escape, which horrifies Mark.
- Their second investigation sees the boys attempting to move the ghost to anger by repeating her name over and over. Mark notices an object on the table moving, followed by seeing a ghost child running in the distance. He and Sean follow, only for the two of them to be ambushed and chased. To make matters worse, Bob, who was armed with the crucifix which be believed would stop the ghost, inexplicably loses it, causing Sean's death at the ghost's hands in front of everyone.
- In the third investigation, Mark discovers fingerprints all over the master bedroom and concludes the ghost is inside. He and Bob discover that the closet doors, which they previously left open, are closed. Mark attempts to open them, only for the door to keep on closing. Then the doors stay open, and Mark hears a croaking sound. He panics and attempts to escape, but the door is locked. Then Bob draws his attention to the center of the room, and Mark sees the ghost standing dead center, framed by shadow. Mark and Bob immediately decide to leave the house.
- Arguably the worst moment of all comes in the second video, amplified by Lixian's editing to make it look like a scene out of a horror movie. The investigation starts to end on a surprisingly upbeat note after a (relatively) quiet mission that ends with the four all heading back to the van, Mark in the lead, ready to categorize the ghost as a revenant and be on their way... and then Wade shrieks "SEAN!" in a legitimately horrified voice. Mark turns around to see the front door's shut and locked, the lights are flashing on and off all over the house, and Wade and Bob are racing around the front porch trying to open the door. As Sean screams in horror inside the house, Mark bolts for the van to grab the crucifix, snatches it up, and turns back to the house... which has gone totally dark. Sean has stopped screaming. Wade and Bob finally get the door unlocked, Wade yells "The door's open, Sean, the door's open!" but as Bob enters the house, and quietly says "...Sean?..." there's no reply at all from the darkness.Wade: Bob, we're gonna... we gotta go.
- One Redditor decided to take the scene- this time, from Sean’s perspective- and edited some creepy music over it. The result takes an already terrifying scene and turns it into something out of a goddamn horror movie.
- One Redditor decided to take the scene- this time, from Sean’s perspective- and edited some creepy music over it. The result
- Mark has a similar incident later on, unwittingly getting left inside by the others while trying to gather materials to defend against the ghost before it hunts. Just as Mark realizes he's alone. his flashlight starts flashing and the front door slams shut. Mark is helpless to do anything other than plant himself in the corner of the staircase and watch both sides for signs of the ghost. However, the ghost never appears, bringing out full Nothing Is Scarier vibes. Shortly after in the same investigation, the EMF Detector goes off inside the truck with only Sean present.
- There's also the tendency for the ghosts to constantly target and terrorize Sean specifically. He's died more often than the other three, dealt with some of the scariest hunt phases in the entire livestream, and is most likely to be alone once activity in the location starts spiking. This is most notable in the second location, where ALL of the ghost's activity targeted Sean alone.
- In a later incident, Mark, Wade, and Bob are tackling the game on Professional difficulty. Bob is already dead, and Wade and Mark are collecting all the evidence they can. The moment they get the last clue, they book it for the exit. Mark is in the lead, and Wade is being oddly quiet (and he admits to Mark that he's literally too scared to hit "V" to talk in-game), but he's right behind Mark as they head toward the stairs to the first floor. Mark bursts out the front door of the house, turns around... and Wade is nowhere to be seen. Though it quickly becomes Nightmare Retardant when Wade comes out after a few seconds, admitting he was delayed checking a sink off the hallway for dirty water. Mark chews him out in full Anger Born of Worry mode.Mark: Oh my God, Wade, I thought you were dead, you were behind me, and oh m- YOU ASSHOLE!
- In the same video as above, Mark and Bob are both leaving the haunted school while their sanity is at 0. Bob, already outside the door, decides to say the ghost's name repeatedly and attempts to close the door on Mark. While it's all fun and games at first, the exact second Mark steps out of the doorway, the door slams shut and is locked. Mark was literally an inch away from death.
- In the same map as the above, Mark uses a smudge stick to (unsuccessfully) cleanse the ghost room. Almost immediately after, the ghost starts hunting. Bob quickly retreats into a nearby room, but before Mark has a chance, he hears footsteps and groaning right behind him, forcing Mark to sprint as fast as he can, the ghost hot on his tail for the entirety of the hunt. Mark is left completely rattled by the experience.
- In their first investigation, after Sean has already died, Mark returns to the van briefly
- Hello Kitty Island Adventure + Markiplier's Kubrick Stare + unsettling commentary + dissonant music that plays alongside a colorful, cheerful game. The creepy part? His camera wasn't frozen. He was just sitting there the entire time, not moving at all, and slowly grinning wider and wider as the video went on. For the entire two minute and eighteen-second video, he did not blink once!
- BIGFOOT is BACK starts out funny, with Mark, Bob, and Wade clowning around with the game's axe-throwing mechanic (which culminates in a Knife-Throwing Act with predictably hilarious consequences). As they're still laughing, they suddenly hear rustling noises from the bushes nearly, and the laughter quickly stops as they move to investigate, soon finding a brutalized corpse in the underbrush. While Wade and Bob soon resume their shenanigans, Mark keeps staring into the forest with an apprehensive look, as if just remembering that they're playing a Survival Horror game. It's quite a cinematic moment in an otherwise funny video.
- BIGFOOT AFTER DARK has Mark playing the game solo in the dark, which is, needless to say, far more unnerving than when he had Bob and Wade to keep him company. One memorable moment comes around halfway through the video, when Mark — trapped outside after dark, with Bigfoot hunting him — sets down a motion-sensor camera at a crossroad before moving on, and it goes off twenty seconds later. Mark dives into the bushes and readies his flare gun... but Bigfoot doesn't appear. Mark is left pretty rattled by the close call.
- A bit later on in the same video, Mark finds a group of abandoned cabins, with the lights on in the window of one particular building. Mark creeps over to inspect it, and when the lighting glitches out for a moment, he mentions he thinks he might have seen a figure in the window. After picking up some ammo from a picnic table outside, he looks up just in time to see Bigfoot charging right at him from across the clearing.
- After THAT, Mark has set down a number of camera traps around the area where he's hiding out atop a high cliff, near a zipline for a quick getaway. Eventually, he decides to test out his drone for some "night flying", and then one of the camera traps goes off. Mark notices Bigfoot is really booking it for somewhere... and then realizes where the camera is. Bigfoot isn't stalking or hunting or searching for him, the monster is coming right for him at top speed. Mark retrieves the drone right before another camera trap goes off at the base of the path leading up to him. He takes one pot shot at Bigfoot before using the zipline to bolt... and then nervously hopes the monster can't use the zipline, too.
- BIGFOOT AFTER DARK
- heh.exe is Mark's Milestone Celebration for 30 million subscribers but in an utterly creepy way that makes anything Darkiplier has done in the past look tame.
- The entirety of his video on Maple County and the Mandela Catalogue is nightmarish, but special mention goes to the end when his face starts to heavily distort, Alternate-style.
- an experiment. Mark was curious about how low a bitrate he could stream at, and the answer turned out to be just 100kb/s. The low framerate, distorted audio (especially when he laughs), and creepy red lighting are unsettling enough, but it takes a turn for the terrifying when Mark decides to stream Aka Manto and Five Nights at Freddy's, the former with his camera and microphone disabled. It's probably for the best that the video is unlisted.
- During the outro of his playthrough of sonic.EYX, he makes sure that there is nothing behind him sneaking up slowly and is trying to steal his soul. He goes on to say that he did not unleash an infection that will affect him or the internet before he continues to talk to the viewer that there is nothing trying to get them like it already did to everything else and that he is just a pre-recorded message that is no longer him. As he does this sonic.EYX is slowly peaking into his room through his door and the screen and mark's voice continue to distort as he continues on. The video ends with mark grinning before we get jump scared by the EYX version of Amy Rose which is for a game that is still in development.
- The thumbnail for "The Heilwald Loophole". Facial Horror doesn't even begin to describe it — it's Mark's face, but his eyes and a lot of the skin on his head are missing, exposing the bloody flesh beneath, while his mouth is twisted into a Slasher Smile. Thankfully, it's just a thumbnail and doesn't appear in the video proper.
- Mark, Bob, and Wade's Lethal Company playthrough wobbles between hilarity and horror on a dime.
- Mark seems to have very bad luck with the Forest Keepers; during one early trip, Mark is literally inches away from the opening of the ship that would have saved him when one snatches him up from behind.
- On a later trip, Bob and Wade are waiting for Mark in the ship and making fun of him, joking that another one is coming to get him (though Bob immediately clarifies he’s just kidding). Seconds later, as Mark approaches the ship, they all hear the pounding footfalls of one of the giants approaching. Mark makes it in safely, but they never even see the creature on the radar…
- While searching around, Mark hears the low laughter of a Bracken – a very unusual event – in one of the darker parts of a building. He never does see the Bracken itself, and is left wondering what the noise was. It unnerves him enough that he leaves shortly afterwards.
- After a relatively smooth visit to one world, Mark and company land on another world that ends in catastrophe. First, Mark ends up guarding the entryway to the building against THREE Coilheads who show up very quickly one after another, blocking off two of the doorways into the room, and then things get worse when a Hygrodere starts slowly oozing into the room, giving Mark and Wade less than a minute to get out before it’s completely blocked off – and Mark can’t move at all without dooming Wade, who’s much deeper in the building, resulting in a tense few seconds while Wade races back to the entrance as the blob slowly creeps towards Mark. While trying to return to the ship, Mark has to come back alone with the last of the scrap, and then realizes they’re surrounded by Eyeless Dogs, which are blind, but have excellent hearing. Mark sees one of the Eyeless Dogs entering the ship’s silhouette from a distance, and while he can’t see what’s happening in detail, Bob abruptly stops trying to talk to him over the walkie-talkie. When Mark finally reaches the ship, he tips off his location when the ladder lets out a loud bang, and he loudly races into the ship… only to see Bob and Wade have already been found and torn apart. He doesn’t QUITE get the ship going before the creature comes back into the vessel behind him and kills him, too.
- It actually gets WORSE from Bob and Wade’s point of view. A dog entered the ship, but Bob and Wade kept quiet long enough for it to wander back out before Wade shut the door behind it. Bob and Wade had just enough time to catch their breath before it glitched back in through the walls anyway, killing them both.
- On a later excursion, while acting as Mission Control, Mark sees a massive red dot on the radar monitor, bigger than any they’ve seen yet, revealing a huge creature right outside the ship, but despite looking outside, he can’t see it at all. Wade returns to the ship a few minutes later, barely dodging the unseen monster along the way. As they fly off, Wade admits he knows what the creature is, and offers to tell Mark, but Mark replies he doesn’t want to know, igniting major Nothing Is Scarier vibes. The part ends without an answer as to what it was, or why they couldn’t see it. (Though seeing the incident from Bob’s POV subjects it to Nightmare Retardant, as he complains that he DOES want to know.)
- When they start using Mods, things get even more chaotic. Inside a building, they open one box to find what looks uncannily like a Weeping Angel inside. Mark doesn’t dare take his eyes off it… even as Bob and Wade start freaking out about a creepy little ghost girl right behind Mark…
- As they explore the building, things get particularly creepy when Mark hears TWO Bobs talking at the same time. Mark catches on that something isn’t quite right immediately, and is visibly on edge. When the trio try to return to the ship, a Forest Keeper shows up pretty much immediately, splitting them up in the commotion, and Mark has to take refuge in a cabin. While waiting, Mark hears Bob tell him that everything is fine, and he should go out into the blizzard, then let out a creepy, echoing Evil Laugh. He soon returns to the ship when the Forest Keeper finally leaves, and meets up with Wade, who explains that Bob is dead… Something was trying to get Mark killed while impersonating Bob, and Mark is visibly rattled when he leaves the planet with Wade.
- In episode 7 Mark sees a Bracken (re-skinned as Freddy Fazbear) and tries to exit through a nearby fire exit... He then has the misfortune of finding out that it's a fake fire exit that proceeds to eat him, as Mark gives a scream he hadn't done in years because Wade forgot to warn him about that mod being a thing.
- For the next trip, things go badly when Mark, Bob, and Wade head back to the building through a blizzard to pick a few last things up. Mark takes a shortcut, and beats Bob and Wade to the building. While standing by the door, Mark sees his friends’ shapes come out of the snow; Wade, Bob… and someone else. Mark freaks out, and books it back to the ship while screaming that something is VERY wrong (though his screaming “WEE-WOO!” into the Walkie-Talkie is some major Nightmare Retardant). As he climbs the ladder and rounds the corner to get back inside, he comes face-to-face with a second Masked who was WAITING FOR HIM. Mark tries to kite it to get around the doppelganger, but at that moment, Bob, Wade, and the first Masked who was pursuing them both come out of the blizzard behind him, and the first Masked grabs him just as the part ends. In the next part, Bob beats the Masked away with a shovel, then he and Mark fend off the growing horde of monsters behind the ship while Wade takes off. Unfortunately, Bob gets dragged away in the commotion, and is left behind.
- In part 14, there's the moment when Mark suddenly realizes that the Wade staring at him from across a small chasm is actually a mimic, with the real Wade confirming over radio that he's back on the ship already.Mark: Uh, did you see the worm- uhh…Waaaaitaminute, waitaminute, wait a minute, wait a minute, we got a problem… Wade, you’re not in here, are you?Wade: Uhh, no, I'm not.
- The mimic then suddenly begins to jump across the chasm after him while mindlessly parroting something Wade had said about turrets earlier. Cue a very tense chase scene as Mark scrambles deeper into the structure to get away from it, briefly getting cornered in a storeroom, and then narrowly circling back to the emergency exit with the mimic in hot pursuit. He makes it out by the skin of his teeth.
- Upon returning to the ship, Mark begins to chew Wade out for scaring him, only for the two to realize that Bob is being stalked by a Sand Worm outside. As they shout for him to flee, they see his POV camera go blank as the worm swallows him whole. Wade's horrified "oh my god" says it all. And then their Stunned Silence is interrupted by a Forest Keeper walking right up to the open doors in the back, and Mark has to frantically pull the lever to take off. Again, they barely escape into orbit.
- Later on, things get so bad, with monsters spawning and despawning at the worst possible times, and characters getting teleported around, that Mark is reduced to sitting in a corner of the ship and whimpering in utter confusion, wondering what's going on. It's a lot less creepy when you watch Bob's point of view, that he's trolling them by spawning monsters in that he's fully in control of.
- The Project Zomboid video. The games perception radius and conical vision combines with the top-down aesthetic to give the illusion that you are safe right up until you turn around and see just how big the horde of zombies chasing you is. Oh, and these aren’t the sort of zombies that are mown down with ease, either. And then there’s the constant blustering Markiplier does and the way it just about resembles someone who is desperate and trying to put on a brave face despite being terrified…
