Due to the twists in the film, and its Minimalist Cast, all Spoilers will be unmarked!
Shawn Ruddy
Shawn’s natural state throughout the film.
Played by: Joseph Winter
Our protagonist. A once famous prank/challenge Youtuber, Shawn Ruddy was chased off of the internet for six months after an undisclosed event causes him to get demonetized. He comes back with an ingenious apology video, and an attempt to regain his lost fame with a new challenge. He has to stay in a haunted house over night while live-streaming it, and he has to investigate every noise and paranormal event. Sounds easy, right?
- Asshole Victim: He was this prior to the start of the story when one of his videos cost him his sponsors and much of his audience.
- Bullying a Dragon: He insults Mildred, and her poems several times to her her face. Keep in mind she is a spirit who can knock him out in one punch that he is mocking.
- Butt-Monkey: Shawn takes a LOT of abuse throughout the film, and even before that, chat loves to take the piss out of him and force him to confront several scary things while threatening to leave the stream.
- Cowardly Lion: Shawn, the self proclaimed “biggest wimp on the internet,” grows into this role over the course of the movie. While he’s scared shitless, he still fights off several of the mansion’s ghouls, and even manages to banish Mildred.
- Crazy-Prepared: Downplayed. While there’s no way he could have prepared for what happens throughout the film, and many things greatly catch him off guard, he does think of quite a few things ahead. When his iPad breaks, it’s shown he thought to bring a second one, plus his ghost hunting kit and cameras that he brings all go on to serve him well throughout the night. (Except the garlic.)
- Dirty Coward: In contrast to the above, he starts the movie out as this. Refusing to check anything spooky until his sponsors are threatened, to forcing Chrissy to go investigate the noise upstairs. However, he does graduate to Cowardly Lion by the end of the movie.
- The Ditz: He's clearly not the brightest, as his reckless actions over the course of the film show. To clarify, one of his "stunt" videos is to antagonize two police officers.
- Everyone Has Standards: When discussing a video where paranormal researchers used their child to investigate the nursery, Shaun claims he doesn't condone the use of kids to investigate the supernatural and states he's never used a child in any of his stunts.
- He's legitimately horrified when he stabs Chrissy in self-defense and believes he's killed her, even attempting to contact the police with the intention of turning himself in.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Even during some very intense moments, he still mostly refuses to swear out of fear of being demonitized.
- Heel Realization: He begins to realize what an asshole he is as he struggles to survive.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Most of the movie happens because of his own actions.
- He would’ve been able to escape had he not removed the spark plugs from his car and throw them in the woods, then locking the house door and throwing away the key.
- Shawn ties one end of a rope to himself and the other to the bed to climb out the window. Spooky stuffs happen. Shawn runs out of the room in a panic, forgetting to untie himself.
- He uses a spear to fight an invisible ghost. Said ghost takes the spear and stabs him with it.
- It's All About Me: Shawn’s videos and pranks show he feels this way. He doesn’t care who he hurts with his videos, he only cares about his online reputation.
- Jerkass: His challenge videos get a lot of people hurt, or just include him being a nuisance, such as him provoking two cops into chasing him. This cumulates in him paying a homeless man to fight him, and Shawn landing that man in the hospital. Even after this event, Shawn makes an apology video that he later admits he only did to get his sponsors back, and even doubling down on feeling that he did nothing wrong.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While his snapping at Chrissy may come off as mean spirited, he has every right to be creeped out by a seemingly obsessive fan girl tracking him down in a remote location. Later on, he isn't wrong when he points out that her poetry wasn't good.
- Never My Fault: He doesn’t take any responsibility for his downfall online. Though at the end of the movie, he does own up to it and give a more genuine apology.
- Noodle Incident: What he did to ruin his career isn’t told to the viewers until late into the movie; it's revealed that he paid a homeless man to fight him for a video, only to end up putting the man in the hospital. He’s also apparently had himself smuggled across the border for a video.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: After enduring a night of Hell, Shawn is finally able to banish Mildred. Though as he’s celebrating, the rest of the house’s spirits all begin to surround him, with one lunging at him just as his stream finally ends.
- Skewed Priorities: There’s several points in the movie where he stops what he’s doing to argue with chat about something, even while he’s supposed to be hiding.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Downplayed. While Shawn is no saint and very self absorbed, and brings a lot of the problems in the movie on himself, which makes many of the horrible things happening to him more entertaining, some of the abuse he endures isn’t entirely deserved.
Mildred, A.K.A “Chrissy”
Played by : Melanie Stone
A seemingly obsessive fan who follows Shawn to the house. After being convinced by chat, he lets her join the stream. Though there is more to her than meets the eye…
- Attention Whore: She's so incredibly desperate to have an audience for her poetry that she made a deal with the devil to keep the souls of the house's previous occupants binded to her.
- Ax-Crazy: She's responsible for the 11 people dying in the house, including children.
- Berserk Button: She hisses at Shawn when he insults her poetry.
- Big Bad: She is actually Mildred, the main ghost haunting the mansion and the one responsible for every death in the house, and the main force antagonizing Shawn.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Downplayed, since the sheep’s clothing was a creepy Loony Fan, but she initially appears to be harmless, until she’s revealed to be a murderous spirit.
- Deal with the Devil: She made one to bind the souls in the house to herself, so she may finally have an audience for her poems.
- Dragged Off to Hell: What seemingly happens to her after Shawn finishes the banishment ritual.
- Driven to Suicide: In the past, she hung herself after her publisher’s death.
- Evil Laugh: Let’s out quite a few while chasing Shawn.
- Laughably Evil: As scary as she is, she has her comedic moments, such as her trollish behavior while disguised as Chrissy, her childish back and forth with Shawn about who should go after who in the climax, and her falling down the stairs while chasing Shawn.
- Loony Fan: In her Chrissy disguise, she appears to be one. She seemingly follows Shawn to house, which Shawn never said the location of, just so she could meet him. This of course, was all an act.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Shaun himself realizes that Mildred wants an audience just like he does.
- Offscreen Teleportation: She can appear wherever she wants in the house.
- Terrible Artist: Her poems are horrible, as pointed out many times by Shawn. They didn’t even rhyme!
- Would Hurt a Child: Her list of victims include two children.
