Line #125 VideoGame/PhantasmagoriaAPuzzleOfFlesh


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phant2.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment I heard that, Curtis!]]]]
3
4	->''"You know, Curtis, you look a lot like your mother..."''
5
6	''Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh'', commonly known as "Phantasmagoria 2", is a 1996 InteractiveMovie and sequel to Creator/{{Sierra}}'s ''VideoGame/{{Phantasmagoria}}''. Although it appears to be an InNameOnly sequel, it does take place in the same canon as the first game.
7
8	It's been one year since Curtis Craig (played by Creator/PaulMorganStetler) was released from the asylum. He's done his best to readjust to normal life - securing a desk job at his late father's workplace, [=WynTech=] Pharmaceuticals, making friends, and even entering a relationship with his co-worker Jocilyn. Unfortunately, some scars don't heal easily, and it seems every day is a struggle against his [[TheMentallyDisturbed mental illness]] and [[{{Gayngst}} sexual]] [[CasualKink repression]].
9
10	Then one day, things change. One of Curtis's co-workers is found brutally murdered in the office, and Curtis's hallucinations start ramping up in both frequency and horror. Paranoid that [=WynTech=] is somehow behind it all, Curtis beings to investigate the company's shady dealings while desperately trying to hold onto his own sanity.
11	----
12	!!This game provides examples of:
13	* AbusiveParents: Curtis's mother physically and psychologically abused him. [[spoiler:It's because she somehow knew the "Curtis" that came out of the portal to Dimension X wasn't her real son, and she hated him and saw him as a monster.]]
14
15	* AllTherapistsAreMuggles:
16	** As his hallucinations steadily increase and more people end up dead, Curtis starts to visit a therapist, Dr. Harburg, to talk about his many, many issues. However, Harburg is ''not'' in on the conspiracy and thinks that Curtis is just a paranoid schizophrenic, right up until [[spoiler:the Hecatomb melts her to death]].
17	** Averted by Harburg's colleague Dr. Marek, who knows for a fact that aliens exist and is in league with [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Paul Allen Warner]].
18	* AllTheWorldsAreAStage: The BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind at the end of the game brings back locations and characters from earlier in the game, some slightly twisted, and the rest outright nightmarish.
19	* AlmostKiss: [[spoiler:Curtis]] and [[spoiler:Trevor]], in which [[spoiler:Trevor]] stops for some reason. [[spoiler:[[KillTheCutie Trevor then dies afterwards]], [[NeverGotToSayGoodbye much to Curtis' anguish.]]]]
20	* AndShowItToYou: [[spoiler:The hallucination of Therese]] can kill Curtis by ripping out his heart, which is then held next to him.
21	* BagOfHolding: Curtis spends the entire game wearing only some black jeans and a grey t-shirt with almost no storage space, but somehow he can hold numerous items varying in size from photos of his colleagues, to a massive toolbox which used to belong to his father, and even [[spoiler:alien creatures from Dimension-X]], which he is not shown carrying in the transition [=FMVs=].
22	* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: [[spoiler:the final confrontation with the Hecatomb. Curtis has to battle all his personal demons, ending with his abusive mother. See PowerOfLove further down the page for the outcome]]
23	* BedlamHouse: The mental institution Curtis was sent to is this trope on so many levels. This is why Curtis did not want to go into a mental institution when his problems started coming up. He should have explained to Dr. Harburg why he did not want to go into one when she advised him to. Then again, it is hard to say if she would have believed him or not, let alone done something about it. It also turns out the mental institution and Dr. Marek were in league with Paul Allen Warner and [=WynTech=]. Paul Allen Warner even brags to Curtis that Curtis was sent there so they could study him more closely. It is a wonder that Curtis can even function after what he had been through there, among other things.
24	* BettyAndVeronica: Jocilyn is the Betty (timid, steady girlfriend), and Therese is the Veronica (seductive, BDSM enthusiast). Therese dies and Jocilyn lives. It is up to you if Curtis gets Jocilyn or not.
25	* BodyHorror:
26	** The ultimate fate of [[spoiler:Doctor Harburg, who gets melted into a pile of goo.]]
27	** The Hecatomb looks as if he was put together by someone with only the crudest knowledge of human anatomy. It even has a ''beating heart on the outside of his chest.''
28	** [[spoiler:Paul Allen Warner]] ends up as a head with tendrils connecting to him. He can only make frightened gurgles. His fate may qualify as AndIMustScream.
29	* BondageIsBad: ZigzaggedTrope. Curtis actually visits an S&M club, and his psychologist finds nothing inherently wrong with Curtis's passing interest in bondage photos. The woman who is encouraging him to try bondage does, however, [[StalkerWithACrush come off as a complete nutcase]] and the term "safeword" never comes into the picture.
30	* BoringButPractical: In a gothic supernatural horror game, what's your most used item? Magic powers? A cross? [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim A gun?]] No, it's a run of the mill screwdriver, and you'll use it at least once in every chapter.
31	* BuryYourDisabled: Paul Allen Warner and Dr. Marek have been feeding mental patients from Marek's asylum to [[spoiler:extradimensional StarfishAliens]] because no one would miss them. It's implied that they were used as HumanResources.
32	* CatchPhrase: ''Beat it, Rat Boy.''
33	* ChangelingTale: [[spoiler: Curtis being revealed as an alien clone of the original Curtis who was stolen away has shades of this, just making it told from the changeling's point of view and making him sympathetic as a result. It just replaces fairies with interdimensional aliens.]]
34	* ContrivedCoincidence: Well, if Curtis's dad wanted his son to find this box, ''clearly'' the smartest thing to do would be to hide it in a small walled off room hidden behind a small closet in your workplace and hope that he works there too someday, and just ''happens'' to feel like checking out hidden tiny doors in the back of closets. ... and also shove a dress in there for good measure. The company has seemingly been looking after Curtis his whole life, as they'd want to keep track of [[spoiler:the extra-dimensional being that thinks it's people]]. But that still gives us no clue as to why Curtis would suddenly become interested in that particular door at the exact same time that the Threshold Project is ramping up again.
35	* CreatorCameo
36	** Lorelei Shannon has a cameo as the female patient in the mental asylum who tells Curtis that he's "{{Sick and Wrong}}!"
37	** Andy Hoyos cameos as a mental patient who shouts [[WordSaladHumor random words]] when clicked on, [[spoiler: and also gets fed to the Hetacomb.]] His head also makes a few appearances in Easter eggs.
38	* CuckooNest: Sort of. The villain is trying to [[spoiler:make Curtis think that ''he'' (Curtis) is the one committing the murders and that he should check himself into a mental institute]].
39	* DarkSecret: Oh, man, do some characters in the game have them.
40	** Curtis is led to believe that he's a murderer with no memory of his crimes. [[spoiler: He's not, and he's not even aware of his ''actual'' dark secret.]]
41	** Paul Allen Warner has plenty of these (i.e. [[spoiler: Experimenting with a transdimensional portal, using asylum patients as guinea pigs and getting them killed off as part of the experiment, using his partner's own son as a guinea pig, using the portal as part of an illegal drug operation, killing people to cover it up, having Curtis Craig's father murdered, and the list seems to go on and on]]).
42	** Doctor Marek [[spoiler: tortured Curtis Craig in the asylum, and is also in cahoots with Paul Allen Warner, at least by sending his own patients to him as guinea pigs for the experiments]].
43	** Finally, [[spoiler: the original Curtis Craig not only survived being used as a guinea pig for the experiments, but he turned into a monstrous murderer with psychic powers called the Hecatomb]].
44	* DeadpanSnarker: Curtis can be this if you want him to. On every email, there's a "Sarcastic" response option. Also, Trevor. Even the Hecatomb gets in on it now and then.
45	* DeadManWriting: Curtis's father's letter. The way it is found truly makes it qualify for "the message can end up in the hands of its intended recipient even under circumstances that can border on a post-mortem GambitRoulette" part of the trope. As Spoony summed it up:
46	-->"Here's my question: So you've got this letter that you desperately want your son to read... So your plan is to type up a letter and then [[spoiler:[[SolveTheSoupCans conceal it in some rusty tool box, bolting a tray over it, and then concealing the tool box in a disused supply closet in the back corner of Wyn Tech's network server room, and then counting on your son to for no real reason grow oddly interested in the supply closet, so much so that he sneaks into your evil boss's office — the one who murdered you, by the way — and steal a key from him, going inside and then getting strangely interested in a tool box, searching that and finding your letter]].]] Dad, have you ever heard of a safety deposit box?"
47	* DevilsJobOffer: Curtis Craig's computer becomes possessed and he starts to receive strange emails; one of them includes a job offer from hell's recruitment department. [[spoiler:However, these are later revealed to be hallucinations.]]
48	* DownerEnding: Whichever way you choose at the end, things turn out glum. Not that Curtis' life is a bundle of laughs to begin with.
49	** [[spoiler: Stay with Jocilyn]], whom Curtis doesn't care all that much for. [[spoiler:And Curtis slowly starts to turn into an alien horror as he does not belong in this world.]] [[WordOfGod The game's writer Lorelei Shannon]] softens this a bit into a BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Curtis isn't mutating, he's acquired VoluntaryShapeshifting powers as a result of interacting with his homeworld. But along with this new superpower, he'll never fit in with humanity, be tempted to use it for dark purposes, is probably struggling with sex addiction and various mental health issues, and will never be completely happy with Jocilyn.]]
50	** [[spoiler: Go live with the StarfishAliens]], which is implied to be a pretty grim fate.
51	* DwindlingParty: The game starts off with a large number of characters. By the end of it, [[spoiler: Curtis and Jocilyn]] are the only ones left standing.
52	* EasterEgg: The game's chock full of them. You can make Curtis pick his nose, find minigames on your computer at work, make ComicBook/{{Batman}} show up in the psychiatrist's office and more. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpmk47e3ll4 The game even keeps track of all the ones you've discovered.]]
53	* EndOfAnAge: This game would be the last Sierra game to use their famed SCI engine in its entirety. [[note]] ''Shivers 2'', which came out after ''Phantasmagoria 2'', only used certain assets of the engine[[/note]]
54	* EpiphanyTherapy: Played with. Curtis goes to see a therapist about his problems. He ends up having several sessions with her. He even manages to recover repressed memories of the death of his father. However, the sessions do not cure him of his hallucinations. At the end of the game, he does find the source of his hallucinations and resolves it. Unfortunately, by that point, he may ended up worse off than he was before he went into therapy in some other ways.
55	* EvilPhone: When you make Curtis call himself, that's what happens, and can also happen when Curtis calls other numbers.
56	* ExtradimensionalEmergencyExit: During the climax, Curtis Craig finds himself stumbling into the basement lab where Wyntech keeps their interdimensional portal and being cornered, first by a gun-toting Paul Warner - and then by the Hecatomb himself. Rather than attempt to fight the heretofore unkillable villain, Curtis opts to activate the portal and fling himself into Dimension X... which is still pretty dangerous, but at least there are no ''immediate'' threats here.
57	* FinalExamBoss: Kind of. Near the end of the game, Curtis goes through numerous visions...or...''[[MindScrew whatever]]'' that involve practically every dead character and traumatic scene from Curtis's past. You better remember that clicking on people during suspenseful scenes often gets you killed, and that the best option is to do whatever it takes to get the hell out of there. (Except the first puzzle with the doctor; that's just "pick an object and hope it works", and the last puzzle, which flips it) Fortunately, unlike most Sierra games, DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist in this game, allowing you to instantly retry from before you died - In fact, it's the only way to get the death scenes added to the movie viewer.
58	* FlippingTheBird: Curtis does one to himself in the mirror for some reason. He can also give one behind Bob's back.
59	* GameplayAndStorySegregation: At one point Bob puts a password on Curtis' work file. If Curtis confronts Bob before figuring it out, the cutscene has Curtis claim the file is missing, not password-protected.
60
61
62	* GenreShift: The first game was GothicHorror; this one's SciFiHorror.
63	* GrandTheftMe: This is the goal the Hecatomb is trying to achieve with Curtis Craig. He is trying to drive Curtis into insanity, so that he can enter his broken mind and take over his body with little effort. This is because the Hecatomb [[spoiler:is actually the original Curtis Craig, and he feels that the Curtis you played throughout the game stole his life and identity.]] The Hecatomb wants it back and he will do anything to get it.
64	* GuideDangIt:
65	** Early on you have to show your coworkers your personal photos to progress.
66	** The fact that you have to make Curtis check his mail early in the game. There's ''no'' indication that you need to do it, or that you even can.
67	** There are multiple points in the story where you have to combine inventory items, which the instruction booklet doesn't even mention that you're capable of doing.
68	** There's one point where you can only progress by right-clicking, something you don't need to do at any other point of the game, when left-clicking should have worked. (You can use a right click at any time in the game, but it does the same as a left click.) According to a mailing list maintained by the developers while the game was in production, the right-click puzzle is ''intentional''. They actually thought that having a right-click do something exactly one time in the game was a clever idea. (There is a ''very'' oblique hint implying that this was meant as a kind of InterfaceScrew)
69	** And then there's turning on the control panel at the end, which may very well be one of the least intuitive puzzle in adventure game history. It's a bunch of completely random shapes in various colors, only some of which are clickable without any rhyme or reason, and the whole time you're clicking around you have no idea what your ultimate goal is. It's particularly bad because up until this point, the only real "puzzles" you had to deal with were clicking objects on people until they stopped giving you dialogue.
70	* GoingThroughTheMotions: The waiter at the Dreaming Tree sure seems to spend a disproportionate amount of time working on receipts, doesn't he?
71	* HaveANiceDeath: If you die, the voice of the Hecatomb mocks you.
72	* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: [[spoiler: The aliens in the Alien World that Paul Allen Warner had been communicating with.]] You only get to hear a voice from one of them, but you never actually get to see any of them. Which is weird, because you actually go into the [[spoiler:Alien World. The author says the little alien tools Curtis screws around with ''are'' the Dimension X aliens. Just too alien for humans to recognize as sapient. This is never spelled out directly in-game.]]
73	* HospitalGurneyScene: The beginning of the game starts with this. Curtis is the patient being wheeled in and being given electric shocks with Dr. Marek looking on and telling him "You're having a psychotic episode". All this is to show that Curtis Craig is not a well man. However, there is more to the story than that. Curtis, years later, has a flashback revealing that he was put in the mental institution and strapped to a wheelchair. He has no idea how or why he ended up in both positions. No one will tell him anything and he is unable to connect to anybody there. So he causes a distraction, unstraps himself from the wheelchair, and runs for it. Unfortunately, he gets caught by Dr. Marek and some orderlies. Doctor Marek says "Curtis! You've been a bad boy! Now I have to punish you!" Then the flashback shows the HospitalGurneyScene, and FridgeHorror sets in when you realize that they were not trying to help Curtis, but were subjecting him to ColdBloodedTorture.
74	* InNameOnly: ''Phantasmagoria'' was imagined by Sierra as a kind of Horror AnthologySeries. This game's story is therefore almost completely detached from the one in the original Phantasmagoria. There is exactly one reference to the first game, and it is not plot critical in any way. Both games do have some things in common. Both protagonists see disturbing visions, and both of them have to contend with a monster at the end of the game. There were early plans for a third game, with yet another protagonist, and vampires (The idea would later be floated as a possible storyline for ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight 3''). Originally, each game was to be a different kind of horror, going from "Demonic" to "Body Horror" to "Classical Monsters".
75	* IResembleThatRemark: Curtis' attempts to deny that he is insane make him seem all the more nutty.
76	* ItWasHereISwear: Played with. A good example is when Curtis finds a tiny room with a locked door at [=WynTech=]. He manages to get in there. There is a filing cabinet in there. Curtis gets a toolbox out of there. The toolbox turns out to contain a dress, a letter from Paul Allen Warner, and letter from Curtis' father. Later on, Curtis finds the room sealed off, and concludes that "They're hiding something!" Curtis shows the letter to his therapist, but the therapist is apparently not convinced that there is any conspiracy.
77
78	* MadScientist: Curtis's father was this and so was Paul Allen Warner. However, Curtis's father apparently became a ReluctantMadScientist after PAW [[spoiler:threw Curtis into a dimensional portal.]]
79	* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Just like in the original, there are no ways to lose until the endgame, but there are quite a few cutscenes for "deaths" there depending on where you screwed up.
80	* MeaningfulName:
81	** Paul Allen Warner - PAW. Warner raised Curtis and paid for all his schooling and the like after Jonas Craig died, using [=WynTech=] money as a sort of apology.
82	** Phantasmagoria, believe it or not is an actual word that has two definitions - 1. A series of events involving rapid changes in light intensity and colour. 2. A dreamlike state where real and imagined elements are blurred together.
83	** Hecatomb is also an actual word that has two definitions - 1. In ancient Greece or Rome, a great feast and public sacrifice to the gods, originally of a hundred oxen. 2. Hence loosely, any great sacrifice; a great number of people, animals or things; a large amount.
84	* MindRape: [[spoiler:The hallucinations Curtis Craig experiences throughout the game turn out to be this. They are being caused by the Hecatomb, a creature that has the powers of telepathy and telekinesis.]]
85	* MindScrew: This seems to have been what the developers were going for to an extent.
86	* MoonLogicPuzzle: The ''very first puzzle of the game'' involves Curtis trying to retrieve his wallet from underneath his sofa. He ''could'' just move the sofa aside or lift it up...or he can just grab his pet rat, get her to go in there and grab the wallet, and then coax her back out with a granola bar. Yep.
87	* MultipleEndings: Depending on whether or not [[spoiler:the clone Curtis returns to his home dimension.]]
88	* MythologyGag: At the start of chapter three, Curtis gets an announcement in his mail about Adrienne Delaney hosting a signing event for her newest book. [[spoiler:Considering the book is titled "Coping With Loss", it's clear losing Don at the end of the first game really took a toll on her.]]
89	* NeverGiveTheCaptainAStraightAnswer: A variation of this occurs near the end of the game. Curtis is in [=WynTech=] and he is looking at e-mail messages on one of the computers. One is from Trevor Barnes, who simply says to forget about [=WynTech=]. That's right, Trevor could not even be bothered to explain why in his message. Sure, he explained why to Curtis in an isolated room [=WynTech=], but it's a little too late for that by then, isn't it?
90	* NotHelpingYourCase: Curtis Craig is simply a prime example of what ''not'' to do when a serial killer runs loose. He barges into a crime scene Detective Powell is investigating, he finds evidence that he does not hand over, and he acts hostile to Detective Powell when he should be trying to explain to her why he is not the murderer she thinks he is. He is not a murderer, but the Hecatomb is one. Too bad Curtis would have had a hard time proving that anyway.
91
92
93
94	* PainMistakenForSex: When [[spoiler:Therese]] is being murdered in the bathroom of the S&M club, a few of the other patrons hear her screams. They think she's having sex with someone so decide to ignore her, as she's apparently known to use the bathroom for hookups (having previously done so with the protagonist).
95	* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler:Curtis' mother killed herself and his father was murdered.]]
96	* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish:
97	** Curtis's password on his work computer is "Blob", the name of his pet rat whom he constantly fawns over and has a huge framed photograph of on his desk. Yeah, that's not obvious at all.
98	** His boss isn't much better, making the top-secret classified files about interdimensional travel not only available on the company server, but the passwords to access them are words and phrases that anyone snooping around his office would come across. For example, the password "Carpediem" is on a wall plaque, while "Rosetta Stone" is in a book about passwords and secret codes and is pointedly highlighted.
99	** At one point early in the game, Bob steals the file you were working on and password-locks you out of it. The password? "Ratboy", the insulting nickname he's been calling you by the whole time.
100	* PhoneCallFromTheDead: Throughout the game Curtis will receive various post-mortem messages (phone calls, letters, e-mails) from both his dead mother and his various murdered coworkers, who call him a monster for causing their deaths. [[spoiler:The ending reveals them all to be hallucinations sent by the Hecatomb in an attempt to drive Curtis insane.]]
101	* PointAndClickGame
102	* {{Polyamory}}: Curtis confesses in one of his therapy sessions to having feelings for both Trevor and Jocilyn, and wishing that he could be in a happy relationship with ''both'' of them.
103	* PoorCommunicationKills: Curtis hears Paul Allen Warner issue a death threat to Tom, and Curtis does not even try to warn Tom that the last time he heard Paul Allen Warner issue the same death threat to somebody, that somebody ended up dead. Indeed, Curtis fails to tell several characters details that they might need to know.
104	* PowerOfLove: [[spoiler: When Curtis gets a hallucination of his mother preparing to kill him, he goes up to her and hugs her, saying "I love you, Mom!" She breaks down and cries. The hallucination wears off, and the Hecatomb projection starts falling apart and decaying. This gives Curtis the opportunity to pull off the Hecatomb's breath mask, causing the Hecatomb to die.]]
105	* PsychosexualHorror: The main character, Curtis, is trying to connect with people and consults with a psychiatrist about his hangups. One of the sexual elements of the game involves Curtis sharing his bisexual fantasies about his two co-workers Trevor and Jocelyn, and during certain parts of the game, goes with another female co-worker, Therese, to a bondage parlor.
106	* RedHerring: [[spoiler:There are several alien creatures collected by Curtis in Dimension X, though one of them selves no purpose and it disappears once he's doing the circuit board puzzle or is in the human world.]]
107	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler: This seems to be part of the Hecatomb's motivation for killing [=WynTech=] employees and other people connected to Curtis. He apparently feels UnstoppableRage over the fact that an alien took his life and identity in his place. Too bad he blames the alien for ruining his life and not Paul Allen Warner, who threw him into the Alien World in the first place.]]
108	* SatelliteLoveInterest: Both of the women Curtis works with. Although Therese is more...[[StalkerWithACrush extreme]] about it. Jocilyn certainly is this trope. Here is why: [[spoiler: when she finds out Curtis cheated on her with Therese, she yells at him and runs off. She vanishes and stays that way until the end of the game. At the end, she shows up out of thin air to talk to Curtis and somehow found out the truth about his being a TomatoInTheMirror. Curtis was doing just fine without her, by the way. How is Jocilyn able to appear and disappear, as well as find out answers is not explained. In fact, questions like that most certainly fall under FridgeLogic.]]
109	* SeinfeldianConversation: Trevor's legendary potato story, not to mention some of those inane emails. The potato story is especially weird, occurring as it does fairly late in the game and therefore fairly far into Curtis' apparent breakdown. You wouldn't think that it'd be the appropriate time for him to sit and listen Trevor ramble on about rabbits, but apparently it is.
110	--> Crunch bird, my ass!
111	* SerialKiller: [[spoiler: The Hecatomb. He kills people connected to Curtis out of rage, enjoyment, and revenge. He is also killing people to get to Curtis. He does not try to kill Curtis because he needs him alive so that he can take over his body. There are implications that Bob Arnold was not his first victim. Oh, and the Hecatomb is also a human that has developed mind powers that can reach from one dimension to the other and has essentially become a supernatural monster.]]
112	* SexSignalsDeath: Strangely enough, averted by Jocilyn, who is the only one of Curtis' coworkers who survive to the end, despite them doing it on the first disc. Played straight, however, with Therese.
113	* ShirtlessScene: Curtis spends an entire scene talking to Detective Powell shirtless when she visits him at his apartment. This isn't for fanservice; Curtis is exactly as [[GeekPhysique pale and skinny]] as you'd expect a computer nerd to be. It's just so Powell can comment on the scars left on his chest by Therese after they had bondage sex.
114	* ShortDistancePhoneCall: The Wyntech office is so tiny that there isn't really any need for a telephone system, but Curtis will regularly use it to contact his colleagues, even ones sitting one cubicle over.
115	* ShoutOut:
116	** The game makes references to ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' (the Norman Bates Hotel), and [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lector]].
117	** The message Curtis gets from [[spoiler: the Hecatomb]] that simply says "SOON" (a threatening note that tries to not sound threatening, which is short for "I WILL COME AND KILL YOU SOON"), is comparable to a scene from ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer''.
118	** Wyntech's security director (named in emails) is Ed Gein, the real life inspiration for killers as diverse as Norman Bates, Leatherface, and Buffalo Bill. With him in charge, it's probably no wonder Wyntech faces a slew of murders.
119	** Both ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' and ''Series/TheXFiles'' get referenced by name.
120	** The end credits song "Rage" has the line "[[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]] are in my head and screaming".
121	* SocialServicesDoesNotExist: Played straight. Social services is not even mentioned. If a social worker had any idea what Curtis Craig's parents were doing to him and that both of them are somehow dead, he or she would have had Curtis removed at once.
122	* SolveTheSoupCans: At one point, the game won't let you progress until you pick up a completely innocuous loose button on the floor to use in another, later scene.
123	* StalkerWithACrush: Therese Banning.
124	--> '''Curtis:''' Do you break into people's apartments often?
125	--> '''Therese:''' No. Only when I really like them.
126	* StayingAliveDancePose: The asylum inmate who spouts out weird lines when talked to can attempt doing the pose with his finger lifted and shouting "DISCO DANCE!"
127	* StarfishAliens: Literally. [[spoiler:The residents of Dimension X, who all resemble invertebrate sea life. WordOfGod says they have a HiveMind and communicate via biochemical reactions such as combining or dividing.]]
128	* TalkativeLoon: The other patients in the asylum scenes.
129	* TaxidermyIsCreepy: Our first unsubtle hint about Curtis' evil boss: all the animal heads in his office!
130	* TelevisionGeography: The game uses a section of the real map of Seattle for the travel interface. However, in reality the area it shows is all sparsely built suburban region, not the dense downtown the game locations show. Additionally, the game gives an address for Curtis's home which is a real address in Seattle, but it also is not located in the section of the map the game uses.
131	* ThemedCursor: The most frequently used cursor is the Wyntech logo.
132	* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted, a major part of the game is Curtis going to therapy when the murders begin and he starts hallucinating. However, his therapist is quite possibly the most useless therapist in the history of psychotherapy and generally just sits and nods while he talks about his massive amounts of childhood trauma, sexual issues, and slow descent towards insanity. Then she lets him walk out of her office right before she records notes on how she believes he is paranoid, delusional, and has the potential for violent behavior.
133	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: All the main character deaths are really over-the-top brutal.
134	* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Curtis frequently experiences scary or gory hallucinations throughout the game, and he wonders whether he's finally gone insane, leading the player to wonder exactly what is real in the story. [[spoiler:They're actually visions that the Hecatomb aka the real Curtis Craig placed in alien Curtis's head to make him lose his mind.]]
135	* TryEverything: There's a lot of times, [[spoiler:especially in the end game in Dimension X]] where you pretty much solve puzzles by clicking every item you have on something. Entertaining enough when done on people, as they'll usually offer up an optional FMV, not so entertaining when done on objects. Especially bad when you have to enter the cubicle farm, sit through a cutscene of Detective Powell yelling at you to get out of the crime scene - [[spoiler:which you then must immediately re-enter. She just stays in the cubicle though, which is the actual crime scene. If you try to enter that particular cubical again, she'll throw you out, but entering the other ones is fine, because Curtis quietly opens the door the second time he goes in, being sure to not alert her.]]
136	* WronglyAccused: A detective starts to suspect that Curtis is a murderer. [[SubvertedTrope Curtis is not really sure himself]]. The strange thing about it is that [[spoiler:she's ''right'', FromACertainPointOfView. The murders were pulled off by Curtis Craig; the real one, not the alien construct you control throughout the game.]]
137	* YouHaveToBelieveMe: Played with.
138	** Curtis finds evidence of a conspiracy. He does not even turn over the evidence to the cops. In fact, there is only one cop he interacts with. On his side, he acts like some raving loony to her. On her side, she dimisses his claims, does not even try to investigate them, and clearly thinks he is full of it and worse. He also tries to communicate his findings to his therapist and even shows her some concrete evidence. His therapist thinks that he is paranoid, delusional, prone to psychotic episodes and has some capacity for violence. To be fair, he was certainly acting hysterical towards her at some points. His therapist does believe his claims in the end when [[spoiler: she discovers her phone is bugged. Unfortunately, the Hecatomb kills her off shortly afterwards]].
139	** Another example is when Curtis finds his therapist dead, and he sees a vision of the Hecatomb. A spooked security guard bursts in. Curtis says "Get it! Get that thing!" and points at the vision. The guard sees nothing and motions to Curtis to move to another part of the room. It is implied that the guard heard the doctor's death screams on her phone. The guard thinks that Curtis not only did something to the doctor, but that Curtis is out of his mind.

Context VideoGame / PhantasmagoriaAPuzzleOfFlesh