A list of characters appearing in Ms. Director by Sketchy Nonsense.
Spoiler Warning! Playing the game is recommended before proceeding any further.
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Player Characters
Patricia Dahl
An actress down on her luck due to the Hays Code restrictions. She decides to go to an audition held by director Josephine Violante, only to discover it to be a trap. Now she has to escape from the mansion with the help of Ida and the other spirits.
- Affectionate Nickname: As soon as they meet, Ida insists on calling her "Patty Cake."
- Lipstick Lesbian: Patty, the very picture of feminine Hollywood glamour, has relationships with other women and outright states she does not like men that way. Some of the other girls would apply here too.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: After acquiring and emptying a wine bottle, Patty uses it as her weapon of choice for the rest of the game. It becomes even more useful later on, after it breaks against a monster's head and becomes a sharp cutting edge.
- Romance on the Set: In-universe, between Patty and her ex, Joanna; also between Patty and an unnamed ex.
Ida Bainbridge
A ghost detective (or rather, an actress playing the part of one) trapped in Anna's Room. After meeting up with Patricia, she decides to become her partner in solving the mysteries of the mansion and taking down the director.
- Gayngster: She turns out to be a member of the mob and fellow gayngster Daisy's ex.
- Hardboiled Detective: Ida Bainbridge... sort of. She was hired as an actress to play the part of a detective before she was murdered, and is consequentially stuck wearing the costume she died in. This does not stop her from introducing herself as a detective to everyone she meets, or from using dime store crime novel lingo. She's actually a mobster, ironically. However, in the Golden Ending, she decides to become a detective for real, and is last seen trying to convince Patty to start an agency with her.
- He Knows Too Much: Ida was murdered because she witnessed the crime scene of Anna's murder.
- Master of Unlocking: She open many of the mansion's locked doors without keys, having Ida phase through the door to unlock it from the other side. Some locks still require a lockpick, which Ida is also skilled with from her experience as a mobster, but others are too complex entirely.
- I Choose to Stay: In endings 3 and 4, Ida chooses to remain with Patty instead of passing on after the mansion is destroyed.
The Ghosts
General
The inhabitants of the mansion. All of them were victims of Josephine, lured to her with promises of stardom and killed. They wander the mansion, trapped, and Patricia must save them.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Patty must help the ghosts move on by granting their last wishes, and they will reward her with some item or information she needs in order to escape.
- Barred from the Afterlife: Josephine has trapped the ghosts in the mansion until Patty helps them move on. Even after moving on, they're still trapped in limbo and Josephine can call them back at will.
- Cute Ghost Girl: They all appear as attractive actresses with ghost tails, close to their appearances in life.
- Fog Feet: All ghosts are a wispy tail from the waist-down.
- Friendly Ghost: Despite the circumstances of their deaths, most of them speak with Patricia in cordial terms and don't try to attack her.
- Jacob Marley Apparel: Ghosts wear the clothes they died in, which most do not have a problem with, but Joanna complains she's doomed to spend eternity in her 4th-best evening gown and wishes she had dressed up better before dying. Ida is stuck in a Hardboiled Detective costume, but this doesn't bother her at all, aside from Daisy making fun of it.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The semi-corporeal ghosts produced by Josephine's methods are more tangible and self-sufficient than the average spirit. Among other things, they can freely interact with the physical world, phase through doors, and go completely invisible/intangible at will. The downside, of course, is being trapped under Josephine's will...
- Vague Age: Aside from all characters being adults, nobody's age is given. A comment from Joanna implies Ida looks very young, but this is relative to other characters whose ages are also unknown.
Required Ghosts
Clara/Phone Ghost
A phone operator turned secretary. She serves as the save point character.
- Save Point: Speaking with her over the phone, she'll ask if you want to "save" your "file," taking notes on Patty's progression "in case they are useful later."
Anna Barton
A popular, if haughty, actress. Trapped in the Screening Room.
- Closet Gay: Discussed as part of the homophobia inherent in the setting. Anna is very careful not to out herself when talking about her girlfriend Donna. At other times morality clauses in Hollywood contracts are mentioned.
- It's All My Fault: Anna blames herself for Donna's death, because she knew the audition call seemed incredibly suspicious, but did not warn Donna to stay away from the mansion.
Donna VanTassel
Daisy Thorton
- Gayngster: Daisy, a member of the mob, is bisexual.
- I Choose to Stay: Regardless of the player's choices, Daisy states she has no intention of "passing on" anytime soon.
Joanna Gillespe
A rival actress of Patty's. Trapped in the Parlor.
Suzanne Francis
A very shy actress. Trapped in the Backrooms.
Optional Ghosts
Doris
Madeline Wilson
The Violante family nurse, hired to take care of Josephine as a youngun. Trapped in the infirmary.
- Dressed to Heal: While she was a nurse in life, the old-fashioned uniform is all that remains of her career. Apparently, she can't even remember anything from nursing school.
- Ghost Amnesia: Unlike the others, Madeline has completely forgotten her identity and why she's trapped in the mansion. Before the player investigates her past, she can only identify herself by the nametag on her nurse's uniform.
Nora
Hired as a composer/songwriter, quickly forced to do many other jobs.
- Secret Character: Nora is one of the easiest ghosts to miss completely throughout the game. She only appears in the Music room after Patty acquires the Basement key. She is not required for the Golden Ending, but provides additional backstory for Clara, the Director, and herself.
Lacey Gardner
Portrait Ghost
A mysterious ghost residing in a portrait.
- Hint System: Dispenses hints as needed about what to do next or how to solve the current puzzle.
Eloise
Mansion Residents
Director Josephine Violante
The titular utterly deranged director and antagonist of the game. She lures actresses to her mansion with promises of stardom, only to use them as subjects for her snuff films. She also uses their corpses to create grotesque monsters that she uses as minions. She intends on making Patricia Dahl her latest victim.
- Antagonist Title: The Ms. Director in question is Josephine Violante, who traps and murders innocent girls in her mansion.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Endings 1 and 5. In both cases, Patty gives up on trying to defeat Josephine, allowing her to continue her murderous experiments. In Ending 5, Patty becomes one of those experiments herself.
- Big Bad: She is the titular director who lured Patricia Dahl to her mansion with the intent of having her star in her latest Snuff Film, and has done so to numerous women in the past.
- Black Eyes of Evil: During the final climax, if Patty refuses the bribe and hits Josephine with the broken bottle, her sunglasses are knocked off, revealing pitch-black eyes with bright red pupils.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Some notes indicate she loved her grandmother, Angela, who influenced her into becoming the Serial Killer she is.
- Living Doll Collector: Between the reanimated corpses, semi-corporeal ghosts, and Patty in the Morbid Puppet ending, Josephine has plenty of toys with which to make her films.
- Necromancer: Upon the death of her uncle, Josephine gained access to her family's collection of knowledge & tools for raising the dead. After perfecting her technique, she creates deadly monsters from the bodies of her past victims, and uses them to create Snuff Film of new ones.
- Serial Killer: Josephine lures actresses to her mansion with the promise of a starring role, then films their gruesome deaths.
- Sunglasses at Night: The Director always wears her sunglasses when she has guests. This turns out to be hiding her Black Eyes of Evil and red pupils.
Mr. Violante
Josephine's deceased uncle. While living, he ran a cult and helped raise Josephine.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In the basement, the player can find a note written by Josephine's uncle shortly before his death, expressing his concerns that Josephine may be spiritually influenced by Angela, her grandmother, indicating that he cared about Josephine on some level.
- Villainous Lineage: He and Angela are both responsible for the necromantic tools, occult education, and corrupt influences that led Josephine to her current career choice.
Angela Violante
Josephine's Grandmother.
- Villainous Lineage: Ida's uncle led a cult that performed unspecified human sacrifice, and he was afraid of the effect Josephine's grandmother could have on her.
The Monsters
The Horrors created from Josephine's Necromancy.
- Body of Bodies: Josephine 'repairs' her minions by replacing or adding other body parts, but the wine cellar is home to a monstrous mass of fused corpses the size of a car.
- Fire Keeps It Dead: Being made from human corpses, Josephine laments that her creations can be incapacitated by anything capable of destroying or sufficiently damaging a corpse. Fire appears to be the most efficient method of destruction.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: The "skittering" monster in the Ballroom is just the upper half of Donna's body.
- Mirror Monster: The first scare in the game; when Patty goes to the bathroom to calm herself down after meeting the Director, she is attacked by the monster in her reflection. Mirrored by the worst ending, where Ida attacks her through her bedroom vanity.
- Monstrous Humanoid: Some of the monsters are more humanoid than others, most notably the large one with the tophat who pursues Patty several times. All of them are made from resurrected human corpses.
- Smells of Death: Right before encountering her first abomination, Patty notices the smell of "rotting meat and film chemicals".
- Was Once a Man: All of Josephine's ghastly creations are made from the bodies of human individuals, including bodies that belonged to the ghosts we meet. The monster wearing a top hat is supposedly Josephine's uncle, the first monster she ever made.
- Who Needs Their Whole Body?: Animated by magic, the creations can still move as long as they have some method of locomotion. They are only incapacitated if made immobile or destroyed completely.
