Basic Trope: The antagonist(s) break the fourth wall to threaten or attack the audience.
- Straight: The main villain Crimson disembowels his victim before whipping his head towards the camera with an accompanying Scare Chord and exclaims that the viewer will be his next victim.
- Exaggerated:
- Not only does the above happen, but if the viewer has visited the show's official website, they get email and text messages from "Crimson" in which he threatens to murder them.
- Exaggerating things even further, he actually does murder the viewer. Possible explanation?
- Crimson is the main villain of a computer game and refers to the player by data from the computer, such as username or Steam account name, and starts attacking the computer, deleting files, renaming and encrypting directories, leaving messages in various folders or the registry, [rendering the machine unbootable by some means or changing the wallpaper via a 9% chance. And not even running the game in a virtual machine will stop this from happening.
- Crimson is a real person, and the show actually happens in real life. Maybe the show is a documentary, or Based on a True Story, or a Real Life example of Deadline News. Something similar could happen in print in the form of a memoir or confession by Crimson himself.
- The work itself contains an actual Brown Note, meaning the audience really isn't safe.note
- Crimson’s ultimate goal is to outright destroy the real world.
- The work is a stage play or other live performance, and Crimson literally walks into the audience and chooses a victim to drag onstage for a little "audience participation."
- Downplayed:
- Crimson turns towards the camera and notes that "serial killers exist in your world, too."
- Crimson simply discusses with his current victim how serial killers "aren't just something they make up for a TV show": they're Truth in Television, they could be anywhere, and They Look Just Like Everyone Else!.
- Crimson throws a knife past the camera. It falls over, showing the person who was holding it laying on the ground, recoiling in pain.
- Crimson is only aware of the fourth wall in a meta sense, and threatens to attack characters from other fictional properties.
- Unfortunately for the characters watching a Show Within a Show, there really is No Inner Fourth Wall.
- Justified:
- Crimson is a Humanoid Abomination of immense power and extreme cruelty. As such, he is not limited by the walls between different planes of reality.
- There was No Fourth Wall there to protect you in the first place.
- Crimson is actually the show's creator. He made it under a fake identity.
- Inverted:
- Crimson verbalizes his concern that the viewer is "spying" on him and that he could be ambushed at any moment.
- The fourth wall does not protect Crimson from the actions of the viewers, and when he tries to harm the viewer, the viewer (a floating arm) punches him.
- Crimson looks at the camera...and gives it a hug, claiming he'd never hurt his audience.
- Turns out the viewer IS Crimson.
- Crimson taunts the viewers that even though he can't kill them, there's also nothing they can do to help his victims.
- The hero Olive suggests that he can protect the viewer from dangers in real life, too.
- Crimson is ultimately stopped when the director suffers a fatal heart attack.
- Subverted: The way Crimson faces the camera when he talks, we think he's referring to the viewer, but he actually talks to another one of his victims in the show...
- Double Subverted:....Before he explicitly refers to the viewer and says he'll be paying him/her a visit very soon..
- Parodied:
- Crimson tries to stab through the screen, only to have his knife stopped by the glass:
Crimson: DIE! *KLINK* Heh. That's new. Oh yes, where was I? DIE!!! *KLINK* *KLINK* *KLINK* Gah! Dammit! This is really killing the mood! YOU. Don't you dare change the channel! We're not done here! No, wait! Not the Oprah netwo- *STATIC*.- Crimson decides that while he figures out who should be his next victim, he'll have some fun torturing the viewers by forcing them to sit through a bunch of commercials.
- Zig Zagged: Crimson sometimes breaks the fourth wall, but other times he acts as if it doesn't even exist.
- Averted: Crimson never breaks the fourth wall.
- Enforced: "Crimson's already a pretty crazy guy, why not just have him try and kill the audience?"
- Lampshaded:
- "You really didn't think I noticed you? You really thought you were safe behind that screen!?"
- "Going after them next, Crimson? I thought you knew better."
- Invoked: Crimson was a real life criminal who was sealed within a work of fiction. He is now trying to get out and murder you for enjoying this fiction.
- Exploited: Crimson gets killed by Olive because he's too busy threatening the audience to notice him. "Leave them alone. They're just here to watch."
- Defied: Crimson attempts to break the fourth wall and assault the viewer- only for the viewer to remind him that he's in a television show.
- Discussed: "Wouldn't it be funny if Crimson broke out of the show and attacked us?" Bob says, shortly before the above actually happens.
- Conversed: "Jeez! I thought Crimson was gonna stab me to death from behind the television screen!"
- Implied: Crimson finds the creepiest moments to combine Aside Glance with a Psychotic Smirk, when there's no in-universe reason for him to do so, but never actually says anything unambiguously indicating he knows about the fourth wall.
- Deconstructed:
- A lot of viewers find the whole "breaking the fourth wall" scene gimmicky and trite, and think that it actually took the drama out of the episode.
- Crimson went insane because he had No Fourth Wall, realizing that he isn't real.
- Reconstructed:
- But actually, the entire point of the scene is to deconstruct the premise of slasher flicks. If we think it's fun to see innocents butchered from the comfort of our bedrooms, would we enjoy it as much if the roles were reversed?
- However, maybe he doesn't have to be; he might have some followers out there who will do his work for him...
- Played For Laughs: Crimson takes the time to threaten the audience during a fight with the hero Olive, who tries looking in his direction, but doesn't see anything.Olive: *angrily grabbing Crimson* Why do you keep doing that?! Who are you talking to?!! There's no one there!!!
- The viewer makes a crass comment about one of Crimson's victims, prompting Crimson to reach out of the TV and slap them.
Quick! Get back to The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You, before the Big Bad crashes through your computer monitor, tablet or smartphone!
Too late, I'm here, wave your hand and say hello to Crimson.
