This is not the dimension of imagination.
The Midnight Scenes is a series of short horror games with adventure elements created by Octavi Navarro. Much like The Twilight Zone and other Anthology Series, each game opens on a brief narration from the series' narrator, The Eye, before the player starts the game. The first game of the Midnight Scenes was released on July 15, 2020. All games are released on PC and can be purchased through Steam, itch.io and Octavi's website
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The games, and their associated tropes, are as follows:
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The Highway
"Claire Barnes is about to discover what kind of horrors lurk in the darkness of a deserted road."
The Highway was released on July 15, 2020 and is the first release in the Midnight Scenes.- Deliberately Monochrome: Much like The Twilight Zone, this was done to set the mood of the game.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: With this being the first game in the anthology, this was bound to happen.
- In contrast with the main characters in all future games, Claire is a Silent Protagonist who never utters a single word.
- The Highway also leans more heavily on adventure elements and has minimal story, which is especially noticeable considering this is the only game in the anthology where you have an inventory bar.
- The game is also very short, as it can be completed within 10-15 minutes. Compare to the other games, which can take double or quadruple the amount of time needed to finish.
- The Eye hadn't been introduced yet as the anthology's narrator, as such, the opening and ending monologue are done over Claire driving and a starry night sky respectively.
- Late to the Tragedy: Upon entering the farmhouse's bathroom with the lantern, Claire discovers the body of the owner who tried to do a hasty patch up of his wounds before succumbing to his injuries. It occurs again after cutting the electricity to the fallen telephone pole, this time with a horrific car crash involving a group of scientists who'd been transporting the son of the farm's owner to parts unknown.
- Psychic Children: Heavily implied with the son of the farmstead and that he was the cause of the car accident nearby.
The Goodbye Note
"Follow Dr. Richard P. Griffin during the scariest journey of his life."
The Goodbye Note (titled Midnight Scenes Episode 2 on Steam) was released on September 8, 2020.- Deliberately Monochrome: Much like The Highway, the whole game is in black and white and is the last game to do this is all future games are in color.
The Nanny
"Follow siblings Oliver and Tina in their quest to find their nanny after she disappears in the middle of the night."
The Nanny was released on October 27, 2021.- Annoying Younger Sibling: How Tina views Oliver.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Tina.
- A Deadly Affair: Implied to be the reason for their old nanny's disappearance, as Oliver finds evidence of his father's affair with her.
- Disappeared Dad: Thomas's father died only 2 months prior to the start of the game of what's heavily implied to be a terminal illness. Thomas recollects that Mr. Jordan spent his remaining days alternating between extreme depression and sleeping which had a profound impact on his wife.
- Downer Ending: The Nanny succeeds at abducting Oliver and Tina after mauling their babysitter Veronica to death.
- Foreshadowing:
- The game starts out with Tina enacting a scene with her dolls with the scenario being focused on doppelgangers. The Nanny uses doubles of Mrs. Jordan and Tina to lure Oliver into a false sense of security before abducting him.
- Thomas mentions that his mom is supposed to be in the bathroom before attributing his brief lapse in attention to his lung medication when Oliver brings up Mrs. Jordan coming to the front door. Then it turns out she really was in the bathroom, murdered by the Nanny to take her form.
- Harmful to Minors: Oliver discovers Mrs. Jordan's corpse in the bathtub which results in a massive Oh, Crap! realization that the Mrs. Jordan he talked with at the front door wasn't the real one. It happens once more with him finding Veronica's body in the forest mere seconds before his kidnapping
- Ill Boy: Oliver's best friend, Thomas Jordan, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis several months before the events of The Nanny. He's shown bedridden when Oliver comes to his room, mentioning how it's hard to walk without his lungs acting up.
- Mouthy Kid: Again, Tina.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: When Veronica calls out Tina for being mean to Oliver by using "Tina" to refer to her, the young girl informs her that her full given name is Christina and only her family addresses her as Tina. This continues in the sequel From The Woods where the news reports and other characters tend to default to her nickname when speaking of/about her.
- "Psycho" Strings: Present during the scene where Oliver finds Mrs. Jordan's dead body in the bathroom.
- Sequel Hook: The Eye notes in their narration after the Downer Ending that the detective assigned to the case is determined to solve it which leads in to From The Woods.
- Show Within a Show: Midnight Zombies, a horror program popular amongst kids to the extent it has a trading card series based on its' characters.
- Wham Shot: The shot at the end of the game, of the rock Oliver found in the woods with a crude drawing of the nanny, now showing the crude figures of Oliver and Tina drawn upon it as well.
From the Woods
"Disturbing incidents begin happening after the arrival of a new patient at Fernwood Creek Mental Health Center."
From the Woods was released on February 9, 2023. Unlike the other games, From the Woods serves as a sequel to a prior game, The Nanny in this case.- Air-Vent Passageway: How Tina is able to discover that Elijah is in danger to alert Oliver and attack the bullies.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Eric, Elijah's friend at Fernwood Creek, has romantic feelings for the latter though Elijah is unaware of how the former feels about him between Aiden's near-constant bullying and Elijah not really considering Eric as a potential partner. When Eric indirectly comes out to Elijah while the latter is resting in his own room post-Aiden gut punch, Elijah inadvertently rejects him by responding to the confession with silence. After Eric sees that Elijah has moved on from him with Oliver as his actual Love Interest (whom Eric had been talking bad and being dismissive of through the near entirety of the story), the pain of the earlier rejection leads Eric to rat him out to Aiden.
- Asshole Victim: Aiden and Theo getting brutally attacked (and possibly killed) by Tina was well-deserved, especially since the former spent all of his appearances treating Elijiah horribly and doing whatever they could to hurt him both physically and mentally.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The main reason why Oliver falls in love with Elijah as the latter was the one person in the Center who showed him genuine kindness/listened to his story about what happened to him and didn't shun him for the strange goings-on surrounding him from the moment they met.
- Big Sister Instinct: In the decade between The Nanny and From The Woods, Tina's views of Oliver have changed considerably, going from thinking of him as an Annoying Younger Sibling to being a protective older sister who makes a Heroic Sacrifice to ensure that her younger brother would receive proper medical care after he fell ill. As a shadow demon, she also extends this to Elijah after learning of his and Oliver's romance and promptly mauls the resident Jerkasses to near death when they corner him in the bathroom about their relationship.
- Bittersweet Ending: Elijah and Oliver survive the ordeal and end up a happy couple, but poor Tina is doomed to be a semi-feral shadow monster for the rest of her life.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Elijah wets himself when he hears strange noises in the bathroom and checks a nearby mirror after showering as a result of seeing Tina's presence there.
- Call-Back: Elijah finds a couple to The Nanny while checking the mail:
- A couple of Midnight Zombie trading cards, which was Oliver's favorite show as a kid.
- A postcard from Thomas, Oliver's Childhood Friend who shares how relieved he is to hear of the latter's return and mentions that he's now living with his aunt and uncle following his mother's murder at the hands of the Nanny in the previous game.
- Elijah can examine a bar of chocolate while walking Ms. Murphy the goose and notes that it has hazelnuts and something he likes eating from time to time. Hazelnut chocolate is also Oliver's favorite as shown when he talked to Veronica after being lured further into the forest by Tina's doppelganger then returned to her in a dazed state.
- Caught in the Rain: Elijah finds Oliver out by the old oak tree in the Fernwood Creek Mental Health Center's backyard during a stormy night, taking the latter back to his room where both boys share a romantic moment together showing that they've become an Official Couple by this point.
- Creepy Child: In the 10 years that he was missing, Oliver turned into this. Not helping are all the strange occurrences that began happening around the Center the moment he arrived. The strange occurrences that were happening were attempts by Mother to get him back into her clutches and Oliver starts to lean out of this as the story progresses.
- Deadpan Snarker: Elijah, especially during the introductory sections of the story.
- Electric Torture: Aiden and Theo use a taser on Elijah during the second bathroom scene to "shock away his queerness". They're about to continue until Oliver and Tina intervene just in time.
- Eye Scream:
- Joe is killed by Mother after he attempts to cut down the roots breaking into the Center. His body is found the next day with his eyes missing.
- What ends up happening to Aiden, courtesy of Tina. This is also immediately after he threatened to gouge Elijiah's eyes out with a knife.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Checking the movie poster in Elijah's bedroom on the fourth day has him mention that its' title is "Return of The Nanny". This alludes to The Reveal of Oliver's backstory which is shown shortly thereafter.
- Foreshadowing: The nature documentary shown at the very start of the story acts as this to the eventual reveal through Oliver's flashbacks later on.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Downplayed but since From The Woods being the sequel to The Nanny, this is the only episode where there is no closing narration from The Eye, instead having a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue sequence of pictures.
- Given Name Reveal: Oliver and Tina's family name is revealed to be Darnell through the second news report that opens the story.
- How We Got Here: Most of the story is framed as Elijiah retelling everything to Al, beginning with the day Oliver arrived at the Center to the day of Joe's murder. It's also apparent that Elijiah isn't being completely honest with most of the details.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In a desperate attempt to prevent Tina and Oliver from leaving her, Mother stabs Tina through the chest using a tree root.
- Jerkass: Aiden, besides looking the part, is a huge dick. And because Elijiah, the main viewpoint character, is always the target of his abuse, all of Aiden's screentime is dedicated to him committing non-stop assholery.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Elijah learns of Oliver's story through Eric during the first dinner section, one of his dialogue options is "I remember that case." which is a small nod to those who already know The Nanny''s story.
- Mirror Scare: Which leads to the aforementioned Bring My Brown Pants moment. Examining the same mirror near the end of the game has Elijah state that he's never looking into it again.
- Monochrome Past: Played with. When Oliver is showing Elijiah his past, both of them are monochrome while the actual flashbacks are shown in color. When a flashback isn't being shown during this, the scenery is monochrome.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Subverted. Elijah is seen commenting within a few sentences mini horror stories from his observations of the world around him during the more peaceful moments of the plot.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Elijah and Grace, the latter being a patient at a nearby mental health facility with who the former regularly talks with via a drainpipe.
- Spoiler Opening: The game mostly serves as a continuation of The Nanny and opens on a news report that tells what happens at the end of that game, which could spoil people who played this game first.
- Supporting Protagonist: While Elijiah is the protagonist and viewpoint character, he's more of a bystander to the plot as it focuses more on Oliver and the aftermath of The Nanny.
- Unnamed Parent: While Mrs. Darnel's given name is revealed (Ann), Mr. Darnel's first name is never mentioned.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: During the credits, there's a short montage of photos depicting Oliver's 20th birthday along with him and Elijah as a loving, married couple with Elijah having found success in his writing career and them having adopted a baby girl who's shown playing with the now adult Grace with Tina appearing in the background of each picture.
A Safe Place
"Phil's life has crumbled to dust. The four walls of his room have become his safe haven. He yearns for sleep...but terrible nightmares haunt him."
A Safe Place was released on March 19, 2024.- Abusive Parents: Phil and Piper's father regularly abuses both of them emotionally and their mother passively accepts this. It gets so bad that Piper murders both of them after finally snapping from having to put up with their abuse.
- All Just a Dream: This is the case for whenever Phil gets attacked by the shadow people haunting him, in which the game cuts to him jolting from his bed.
- Cat Scare:
- One of the movies Phil and Noelle watch has one, which the latter easily predicts. The cat is even named "Trope cat" by the dialogue.
- Later in the game, Phil himself gets scared by a cat appearing while he was Window Watching.
- Dead All Along: Phil's family has been dead long before the start of the game and is the reason why Phil locked himself in his room.
- Downer Ending: The reason Phil confined himself to his room and couldn't leave is the trauma of watching his teen sister Piper, after a lifetime of severe emotional abuse from their father and their mother's passive acceptance of this, finally snapped and murdered both parents with a hunting rifle before turning the gun on herself, sparing Phil as he was the only really good thing in her life. When Phil remembers this repressed memory, it's too late, he's presumably been institutionalized. His relationship with Noelle, his only friend and love interest, is most likely irreparably damaged and she's already moving to Chicago to be with her dying father.
- Driven to Suicide: Piper, right after killing both her parents with her dad's hunting rifle.
- Foreshadowing: The Nightmare Sequences that involve the shadow people breaking into Phil's room via a crack in the ceiling or shooting someone at another house with a hunting rifle hint at The Reveal at the end of the game.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Compared to the previous games, A Safe Place is the first game where there are no elements of the supernatural. Any strange occurrences only happen because it's being viewed from Phil's perspective while he's either having a nightmare or hallucinating.
- Hikikomori: Phil has literally barricaded himself in his room for the past 30 days prior to the start of the game, and he'll continue to spend most of it remaining in there. He does leave his room at one point, but that turns out to be All Just a Dream. When he leaves the second time at the end of the game, it is for real, and he has to confront the very reason why he turned into a hikikomori.
- Lightswitch Surprise: When Noelle visits Phil's house to check up on him, she comments on the smell of the foyer. When she turns on a lightswitch, she's treated to the sight of the rotting corpses of Phil's parents and sister.
- Show Within a Show: Apparently, Midnight Scenes is an in-universe TV show. Instead of being made by Octavi, it's written and directed by a Sylvia Gardner, and the episode being advertised is called "Dance of Spring", which is about a woman's house being invaded by a hive of mutant alien ants.
- Wham Shot: Noelle discovering the rotting corpses of Phil's entire family near the end of the game changes a lot of the context behind Phil's interactions with his family throughout the game and why Phil barricaded himself in his room.
- Window Watcher: Phil has a telescope in his room, which is the only way he could see what's happening outside his house.
