The characters in Murder House
Spoilers off:
Channel 9
Emma
- Voiced by: Sarah Nowak
- Achilles' Heel: Literally. Her tendon is pulled so she can't run well.
- Ambiguous Situation: In the extended ending, which reveals that the story of Murder House was actually a movie being shot in-universe, Emma's actress Sarah drives off with the Easter Ripper in her trunk; is Nick, the original actor playing the Easter Ripper stowing away in her trunk, or did Sarah kill Nick and is driving off to dispose of his body?
- Expy: Her brown bobcut, thick-rimmed glasses, nasally monotone, and her traveling with a gang of haunted house explorers makes her seem like Velma from Scooby-Doo.
- The Intern: She's interning for a local news station. Unsurprisingly, she's trampled by her more experienced colleagues.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She books it out of the greenhouse while the Easter Ripper is mauled to death by the zombies of his victims.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Delivers one to the unmasked Easter Ripper during their final confrontation in the novel.Emma: While I see you without the head, you’re not the Easter Ripper. You’re not a mythic figure. You’re a lame guy wearing a bunny costume. A nerd. A loser. That’s it. Get it?
Tom Smith
The cameraman for Channel 9 who is described as a nice, but rather dull individual.
Dana Turner
A snobby news anchorwoman for Channel 9.
Gary
The sleazy producer for Channel 9 and Emma’s Boss.
Antagonist
The Easter Ripper (SPOILERS)
- Adaptational Villainy: He's somehow even worse in the novelization. While Tom in the game loved his brother, Tom in the novel deliberately used Anthony as his scapegoat ever since they were kids. In the game, Tom decided to kill again because he wanted revenge for Anthony's wrongful execution, but the novel has him start up another killing spree purely for his own enjoyment. His mother appearing as one of the zombies that arrives to kill him suggests that he murdered his mother as well.
- Animal Motifs: Rabbits, given his Easter Bunny costume, the Easter egg hunt he forces his victims to participate in, and the heavy libido of rabbits being an appropriate visual metaphor for his crimes.
- Back from the Dead: Subverted. Dana contemplates the idea that the Easter Ripper has somehow come back to life after being executed, but it turns out that the deceased Anthony Smith wasn't the Easter Ripper, but his brother Tom.Dana: Is Anthony Smith, executed in the electric chair in 1985, back from the dead and back for revenge on anyone who enters his house? Find out soon if we don't get the fuck out of here!
- Black Eyes of Evil: His bunny suit's eyes are pitch-black.
- Bondage Is Bad: Several children's skeletons can be found in the secret basement area of the house, one of which is bound in chains. It's suggested that the Easter Ripper forced at least some of his child victims into BDSM play to satisfy his pedophilic urges.
- Bright Is Not Good: He wears a bright pink Easter Bunny costume and is both a sadistic serial killer and child rapist.
- Cain and Abel: The relationship between the Smith brothers is changed to this in the novelization, with Tom being the Cain to Anthony's Abel.
- Devoured by the Horde: His ultimate fate after his fight with Emma in the greenhouse. As the zombies of his victims rise up to surround Tom, Emma takes the opportunity to run away to freedom.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: After his brother took the fall for him, all Tom had to do to get away scot-free with his crimes as the Easter Ripper was to simply not commit murder again. Unfortunately for both himself and the news crew, Tom just couldn't resist and started another killing spree, rendering Anthony's execution a Senseless Sacrifice when Tom eventually kicks the bucket at the end.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: No one expected the Easter Ripper to be the cameraman.
- Dramatic Unmask: His true identity as Tom is the game's big twist.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Was genuinely upset by his brother's death, and pleaded with him to not turn himself in to save him. He attempts to avenge him by killing the news crew. This is his only positive quality. This gets subverted in the novelization version as it is revealed he intentionally got him imprisoned and didn't even care for him, even when they were young.
- Enfant Terrible: He was an evil sociopath even as a little boy in the novelization.Tom: My mother loved me and thought I could do no wrong… mostly because I was so good at making her think that. When something bad happened, she blamed Anthony and made him confess. It got to be second-nature for him. Any time I did something wrong, he took the blame.
- Evil Twin: The novelization clarifies that Tom and Anthony Smith were twin brothers, and as children, Tom would often get Anthony in trouble with their mother.
- Faking the Dead: Twice, in fact. To the public, the Easter Ripper was executed in 1985 but it turns out that Anthony Smith wasn't actually the culprit. During the massacre of the news crew at the Smith house, Emma watches a tape that leads her to believe that Tom was killed by the Easter Ripper, but his body was never shown and it's revealed that Tom himself was actually the killer.
- Final Boss: The ending of Murder House has Emma fight the Easter Ripper in a final confrontation within the greenhouse.
- Foreshadowing: There are a couple hints to Tom being the Easter Ripper:
- After filming a couple scenes for the documentary, Tom excuses himself to the bathroom. It's at this point that the front door is locked and the van is wrecked, and Tom is the only member of the news crew whose movements were not accounted for during this time.
- Both Dana and Gary's deaths show them being eviscerated by the Easter Ripper, who enters the scene behind them. Tom's "death" is shown entirely in first-person, allowing him to trick Emma into believing he's dead through careful positioning of his camera. His body is never seen at any point.
- Hate Sink: Just like the Night Ripper, the Easter Ripper is an utterly deplorable and heinous serial killer. While he doesn't discriminate for his victims, he mainly targets children and it's outright implied he actually molests them. While most of the killers are at least completely insane, the Easter Ripper fully knows what he's doing and relishes in it.
- Hair-Raising Hare: A serial killer who dresses up as the Easter Bunny.
- Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: Tom is dressed in one when the news crew arrives at the Smith house
- High-Voltage Death: Is stated to have been executed by the electric chair, but it's subverted as the real Easter Ripper is Tom Smith rather than Anthony Smith.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Guess what day he strikes on.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: When the Easter Ripper gets bored of torturing his child prisoners, he releases them into the greenhouse and hunts them down while also forcing them to participate in an Easter egg hunt of their own, as a way of making a game out of their last moments alive before finally killing them. He repeats this with the news crew when they arrive at the Smith house, killing them off one by one as Emma is forced to find all the hidden eggs strewn throughout the property.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Tom Smith evaded justice when his brother Anthony decided to turn himself in as the Easter Ripper instead to protect him. It's when he chooses to strike again that his own victims rise from their graves to kill him, saving Emma.
- Karmic Death: Devoured by the zombies of his own victims.
- Killer Bear Hug: One of the game-over screens has him lift Emma up as she turns to run away, before squeezing her to death.
- Kill the Lights: He shuts off the power to the house shortly before beginning his rampage.
- Large Ham: As one of the few antagonists to talk (after his true identity is revealed), he hams it up big time.
- Mama's Boy: Tom mentions being one in his Motive Rant to Emma. The book explores this more showing that he did love his mother at one point, who spoiled him rotten. When the Smith brothers were children, Tom was the one who was favored by their mother and could do no wrong in her eyes, while Anthony was The Unfavorite who was even beaten by her. Being the favored twin wouldn't stop Tom from killing his mother later on, however.
- Pædo Hunt: His implied molestation of the children he killed marks him as the most detestable villain of all of Puppet Combo's antagonists. It's further cemented by the fact that he's one of the few Puppet Combo killers to actually receive any form of comeuppance, specifically a Karmic Death at the hands of his own victims.
- Pink Is Erotic: The Easter Ripper wears a pink rabbit suit and was a sadistic, pedophilic serial killer who used BDSM tactics on some of his victims, who were only children. His rabbit suit also invokes the high sex drive of rabbits.
- Psycho Pink: Laugh at his pink rabbit costume all you want. It won't make that sickle any less sharp.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Certainly the most reprehensible of all Puppet Combo antagonists, as an unrepentant child molester.
- Sadist: Not only does he enjoy torturing and raping children, but a note written by one of the Easter Ripper's victims reveals that he actually hid razor blades inside a chocolate egg and fed it to one of the children he kept prisoner (a girl named Cassidy in the novelization) as a sick joke.The blonde girl when she took her bite... Her mouth was covered in blood. She dropped the egg and inside the chocolate, the Easter Bunny had played a trick and put sharp razorblades. There was a lot of blood and she wouldn't stop screaming, and the walls started to laugh at her...
- Sinister Scythe: His weapon of choice is, uniquely, a sickle.
- Slipping a Mickey: Gave children spiked easter eggs so he could molest them.
- The Sociopath: While his love for his brother was a redeeming quality of his in the game, the novelization portrays Tom as having frequently thrown Anthony under the bus for anything he did wrong when they were kids, which would extend over to taking the fall for his crimes. In the flashbacks elaborating on Tom's childhood, he was shown to have already been an adept liar, who played the role of the "good twin" in his mother's eyes while turning her against Anthony, and genuinely enjoyed the pain he brought to others with no indication of him ever feeling any empathy or sympathy for anyone other than himself.
- Taking the Heat: His brother falsely confessed to being the Easter Ripper.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: The Easter Ripper who abducted, tortured, raped, and murdered several children turns out to be the generic-looking cameraman with the equally generic name of Tom Smith.
- Tom the Dark Lord: Literally. But special mention goes to the almost cartoonishly generic "Smith".
- Vehicular Sabotage: He destroys the van to prevent the news crew from leaving his house.
- Villainous Breakdown: Enters one after being defeated by Emma, which leads to his dead victims rising up to kill him.
- Would Hurt a Child: Targets children specifically, but isn't opposed to killing adults trying to stop him either.
Other Characters
Anthony Smith (SPOILERS)
Tom’s brother, who was falsely accused as the Easter Ripper.
The Mother (Novelization; SPOILERS)
Appearing only in the novel, she is the matriarch of The Smith Family.
- Abusive Parents: Towards Anthony, who she routinely blames for anything even if Tom does it.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite her abusiveness towards Anthony and love to Tom, she shows complete horror and refused to help Tom covering up his child murders.
- Parental Favoritism: Towards Tom, who is the apple of her eye.
Jerry the House Salesman
A Salesman who sells Gary the Smith Residence
The Missing Children
All of The Easter Ripper’s victims
Janitor Jack
- Voiced by: Jacksepticeye
- Ink-Suit Actor: Modeled after Jacksepticeye, who voices him.
