Shannon Matthews
A student at Leafmore High, Shannon Matthews stays after school after her brother Kenny goes missing, as it is the first place to look for clues and she suspects (correctly) that that is where he went missing.
In the second game, Shannon has become a student at Fallcreek University, and has taken on a much darker personality. Of the first game's survivors, she is the only one who's been able to adapt to the mortifilia infection, which has driven a wedge between her and Kenny, who needs pills to suppress the infection.
- Action Girl: In ObsCure II.
- Broken Bird: In the second game.
- Final Girl: In the first game, her personality and appearance are heavily inspired by the "final girl classic" model of Laurie Strode or Sidney Prescott, being the more modest and less abrasive of the two female characters. (Not so much in the second game, though.) She's also the only female character to survive the events of both games.
- Girl Next Door: In the first game.
- Goth: Her bonus costume in the first game gives her this look. The second game makes it canon, showing that the traumatic events of the first game made her this.
- Goth Girls Know Magic: Shannon gains both gothiness and magic powers in the interval between the first and second games.
- Hotter and Sexier: In the second game. To a lesser extent, this is also true of her New Game Plus outfit in the first game, which is a much biggest change from her normal outfit than the other four characters get.
- Magic Skirt: Averted, players can see up her skirt in a few angles.
- The Medic: One of her skills in the first game is using first aid kits more effectively.
- Red Is Heroic: Her goth outfit sports red and black.
- The Smart Girl: She was an ace student in high school, and her skills in the first game were offering puzzle tips and knowing first aid.
- Staking the Loved One: Kills her brother Kenny at the end of the second game.
- Team Mom: In the first game, thanks to her first aid skills, which mean she's best left at the meeting point unless she's one of the last two standing.
- Took a Level in Badass: Is the only one to successfully adapt to the Mortifilia, and is actually capable of inhaling the spores without harm.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Shannon in the first game: a kind, sweet, caring Girl Next Door. Shannon in the sequel: a goth chick who berates her brother's "weakness" in being unable to suppress his infection.
- Weak, but Skilled: In the first game, her first aid skills and puzzle hints can both be used at the gathering site, making her a character who's only to be sent out fighting as a last resort. In the sequel, she doesn't have any physical advantages, but her symbiosis with the mortifilia allows her to clear doors and passages that are blocked by spores.
Stan Jones
A student at Leafmore High, Stan Jones is a layabout slacker who is failing his classes. While he puts on a Pretty Fly for a White Guy attitude, he's otherwise fairly mellow, and is friends with Kenny. He gets dragged into the events of the game when the main gang stumble upon him hacking into his school records and offering to do the same for them.
After the first game, Stan dropped out of school and spent some time in jail, and by the second game he's a pizza delivery boy. He needs to take medication to suppress the mortifilia infection.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Shannon develops a crush on him. They become an Official Couple by the end of ObsCure II.
- Book Dumb: He never spent much of his time in school studying or attending class, and after getting in and out of jail, he decided to work instead of going to college like Shannon and Kenny. Not that it matters by the sequel, mind you.Stan: "Stan Jones. Average: F"Shannon: "Shannon Matthews. A+" And look where it has gotten us.
- Delinquent: In the first game, you're introduced to him sneaking in after hours to edit his grades, and offering to do the same for Josh for fifty dollars. His dialogue in the sequel reveals that he did time in prison between the events of the two games.
- Expy: In the first game, he looks and dresses much like Josh Hartnett's character in The Faculty. The developers said that this was deliberate, with one of them even saying that if the game were adapted into a movie, he'd want Hartnett to play Stan.
- Final Boy: He's the only male character to survive the events of both games.
- Master of Unlocking: His skill in the first game is in finding locks that can be picked, as well as picking them much faster than the other characters. In the second game, he's the only character who can pick locks.
- Phlebotinum Muncher: Becomes addicted to his medication used to keep the Mortifilia dormant.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: His dialogue in the first game is peppered with liberal use of the words "dawg" and "wack".
- The Stoner: While never outright stated, his overall mannerisms in the first game, as well as the fact that his alternate New Game Plus outfit is in Jamaican/Rasta colors, seem to imply it. It's largely dropped in the sequel, though.
- Took a Level in Badass: He takes the monsters a lot more seriously in the second game and even brings a gun to the action, versus the first where he only joined the party because it sounded fun.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Is much more friendly in the second game.
- Weak, but Skilled: His talent for finding pickable locks and opening them quickly is most useful for after you've cleared out a room full of monsters.
Kenny Matthews
A student at Leafmore High, Kenny Matthews is a player on the school's basketball team. One day after practice, he is kidnapped by Principal Herbert Friedman to use as a test subject for experiments with the mortifilia plant, later to be rescued by his sister Shannon, his girlfriend Ashley, and his friends Stan and Josh.
In the second game, Kenny has become a student at Fallcreek University. He needs medication to suppress the mortifilia infection, which drives a wedge between him and his sister Shannon, who has learned to suppress the infection without medication and frequently urges him to do the same.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Part of ObsCure II's, alongside Leonard and Jedidiah.
- The Big Guy: Downplayed in the first game, where he gets extra speed as opposed to strength, but in the second game, his special ability is increased strength to move heavy objects. Then, after his Face–Monster Turn, he gets really big.
- Controllable Helplessness: During the first game's prologue, which ends with him getting captured no matter what.
- Decoy Protagonist: You play the prologue as him, only for him to get captured and locked up in a cell, leading to you spending the first half of the game searching for him. However, you're reunited with him eventually, at which point you can play as him again. He also pulls a Face–Monster Turn early in the second game and becomes the Big Bad.
- Distressed Dude: His disappearance sets off the first game's plot.
- Dumb Jock: The events of the series are kicked off by him making a classic horror movie mistake, investigating a strange noise.
- Face–Monster Turn: After sniffing a drug made out mortifilia, his infection started to kick in a lot sooner that it should, and unfortunately for him, he couldn't find his pills in time. After various screams in the hospital, the whole gang has to face the mutated Monster Kenny.
- Hero Killer: Kills Mei and Corey in the second game after his transformation.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Abducts, rapes, and impregnates Amy after his transformation.
- I Know Madden Kombat: His agility from playing basketball serves him well in combat.
- Jerk Jock: At times, mostly in the sequel.
- Lightning Bruiser: In the first game, his special ability allowed him to sprint faster than the other characters.
- Phlebotinum Muncher: In the second game, he is heavily dependent on medication to deal with his infection, which becomes a serious problem when he no longer has access to any.
- Tragic Monster: If only he'd listened to Shannon...
- True Final Boss: Of the second game, where, after you defeat Leonard and Jedidiah, he finally caps off the adventure.
- Unskilled, but Strong: In both games, his special ability (speed in the first, strength in the second) is derived from his physical fitness.
- Walking Spoiler: His true role in the second game is the subject of the big twist halfway in.
Josh Carter
A student at Leafmore High, Josh Carter is a school newspaper reporter who offers to help Shannon and Ashley search the school for evidence of Kenny's location after hours.
- Bus Crash: He and Ashley are attacked and presumably killed by Jedidiah when they return to investigate the Leafmore ruins.
- Camera Fiend: He's a photographer for the school paper.
- Going for the Big Scoop: Part of the reason he helps Shannon and Ashley on their investigation. The sequel reveals that he tried to do it again by going back to the ruins of Leafmore, a move that got him and Ashley killed by Jedidiah, leaving behind only an Apocalyptic Log.
- Intrepid Reporter: So intrepid he leaves behind an Apocalyptic Log in the sequel.
- Notice This: His special ability in the first game is being able to detect whether a particular room has any useful items or puzzles that need to be solved.
- School Newspaper Newshound: What got him into this mess in the first place.
- The Smart Guy: Not only is he written as a nerd, his special ability is rooted in his intelligence and observational skills.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: After getting all the secret weapons in the second game, you are treated to a cutscene of him and Ashley investigating the Leafmore ruins. It doesn't end well for them.
- Weak, but Skilled: He's the guy you bring to comb an area for items.
Ashley Thompson
A student at Leafmore High, Ashley Thompson is a cheerleader who is dating Kenny Matthews. After Kenny goes missing, Ashley is initially annoyed, but begins to worry for his safety after Shannon tells her that she hasn't seen him either, and so she helps to search for him at school after hours.
- Action Girl: Her special ability is a rapid-fire attack that allowed her to get off two shots or swings at once.
- Ambiguously Brown: Her race is never specified, but her skin is darker and her hair more African-textured than the other members of the party.
- The Big Girl: As befitting a physically fit cheerleader. A rare example of the hot chick playing this role in the party.
- Bus Crash: She and Josh are attacked and presumably killed by Jedidiah when they return to investigate the Leafmore ruins.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: She and Josh are killed offscreen before the events of the sequel.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Her special ability only really boosts her fighting ability, but when tackling a horde of monsters, she can easily kick their ass.
Dan
A student at Leafmore High, Dan was kidnapped by Principal Friedman before the events of the game. He offers to help Kenny escape from Friedman's clutches, but is killed in the process.
- Failure Is the Only Option: He gets killed off in the prologue, serving only to introduce the co-op mechanics and to show that Anyone Can Die.
- Playing with Syringes: He had been experimented on for an unspecified amount of time, leaving him emaciated.
- Red Shirt: Barely gets any development at all before he dies.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The only Plotline Death, showing players how the game keeps going even if your character dies.
Herbert Friedman
The principal of Leafmore High, Herbert Friedman is also kidnapping and carrying out grotesque experiments on his students. He and his brother Leonard went on an expedition to Africa to discover the secret to immortality, and discovered the mortifilia plant, which seemed to have such properties. While the plant worked on Herbert and his wife, Elisabeth Lucy Wickson, it had disastrous effects on Leonard, turning him into a monster. Distraught, Herbert founded Leafmore High as a cover for his experiments and to have a steady stream of test subjects, hoping to find a way to save Leonard.
- Big Bad: He's kidnapping students for medical experiments and responsible for the events of the game.
- Dean Bitterman: Even before the extent of his villainy is revealed, he's still a dick to the main characters.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's doing it all to save his brother from his mutation.
- Evil Teacher: Or principal, in his case.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He ultimately gets killed by somebody infected with the mortifilia plant he was experimenting on.
- Love Makes You Evil: His love for his brother Leonard pushed him over the edge into kidnapping and experimenting on students in order to find a cure for Leonard's mutation.
- Mad Scientist: He's been kidnapping and experimenting on students in his lab beneath the school. A letter from a friend of his that's discovered in the library reveals that he was exiled from the scientific community after his peers declared his work to be immoral, hence why (as revealed in the sequel) he later started taking funding from a secret society.
- Obviously Evil: No bones are made about the fact that he's up to his nose in what's going on at the school, even if the game takes some time to spell out exactly what that is.
- Really 700 Years Old: He's well over a hundred years old, but due to his experiments, he hasn't aged since the early 1900s.
- The Unfought: Mr. Walden kills him in a cutscene, not any of the player characters.
Leonard Friedman
Herbert Friedman's brother. He and Herbert discovered the mortifilia plant while on an expedition to Africa to find the secret to immortality, and while it worked on Herbert and his wife, it turned Leonard into a monster. He now lives in the school's basement, having grown into a giant Plant Person whose roots stretch across the campus.
- Big Bad: Of ObsCure II, having survived the final battle at Leafmore and using his son Jedidiah to take care of him and spread the mortifilia plant around Fallcreek University.
- Final Boss: Of the first game.
- Load-Bearing Boss: The final boss fight ends with him accidentally causing the roof to cave in on his head.
- Madwoman in the Attic: Leafmore High's dirty little, grotesquely mutated secret is hidden in the school basement.
- Not Quite Dead: He survives the final battle and goes on to become one of the main villains of the second game.
- Plant Person: His mortifilia infection has turned him into a giant mutant tree.
- Weakened by the Light: Like all mortifilia monsters, the sunlight kills him, and when he accidentally punches a hole in the ceiling of the boss arena and causes it to collapse, the morning sun comes pouring in.
Denny Walden
A biology teacher at Leafmore High, Denny Walden learned about Friedman's experiments, and attempted to investigate for himself. He escaped, but accidentally released the mutated test subjects onto the campus, and now tries to help the main characters.
- Badass Teacher: The only one shown putting up much of a fight against the monsters, even killing Herbert Friedman. Not that it saves him from infection.
- Meaningful Name: Walden
is a rather appropriate name for a biology teacher studying a mysterious plant. - Sacrificial Lion: He gets killed by Leonard just after shooting Herbert Friedman.
- The Smart Guy: In between teaching biology classes, he also figured out how the Mortifilia plant works.
- Zombie Infectee: He was infected early on, causing him to behave more erratically as the game progresses. He kills Friedman to get the antidote, but by that point he is too far gone to safely use it — not like it would've saved him from getting killed by Leonard anyway.
Elisabeth Wickson
The nurse at Leafmore High, Elisabeth Lucy Wickson is also Leonard Friedman's wife. Like Herbert, she was granted immortality by the mortifilia plant.
- Damsel in Distress: The cafeteria level involves racing to get the lights back on while she's locked in her office. Unfortunately, an infected Mr. Walden beats her to death trying to get information about the antidote.
- Really 700 Years Old: Like her husband, Wickson is over a hundred years old but hasn't aged due to the Mortifilia plant.
- Sacrificial Lamb: While the group felt awful over not being able to save her, Stan was the most affected as at that moment he felt defeated. He had thought the whole event as an adventure, but when Wickson died, he finally realized the danger and horror of the situation they were in, and the mortality of the infection that flooded their veins.
Corey Wilde
A student at Fallcreek University, Corey Wilde is a daredevil skater whose first and second love are his girlfriend Mei Wang and his muscle car. Corey and Mei try to sneak into a Delta Theta Gamma party just as it was being overrun by mortifilia monsters, and they must fight their way out and try to survive and stop the outbreak.
- Action Survivor: He's just a normal student, yet he decides to fight through a town full of monsters. Plus, he fights and defeats a now very powerful mutated Kenny, by his choice. And quite a bit of bosses.
- Battle Couple: With Mei. Sadly, it doesn't last for long.
- Berserk Button: The thought of anything bad happening to his car. Or Mei, but don't tell her he said it in that order.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: He shoots himself rather become a monster like Kenny.
- Butt-Monkey: Goes through quite a lot in the game.
- Chainsaw Good: Somewhat subverted, as the chainsaw is mostly a tool in the game, but he makes use of it in a chainsaw duel with Jedidiah worthy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Hence the above image.
- Decoy Protagonist: There's quite a bit of focus on him, with him even killing Jedidiah and Friedman. Sadly, he gets infected by Kenny and kills himself before he turns into a monster.
- Driven to Suicide: At the end of the game. To be fair, it was probably a better choice than transforming into the same kind of monster as the man who had killed his beloved, though the taunting he receives from said monster of a man probably did a lot to twist the knife.
- Heroic BSoD: After Kenny kills Mei in front of him.
- Hot-Blooded: He can get... heated.
- Made of Iron: One of his special abilities is that he's capable of taking some pretty nasty falls and blows without serious injury. He took a rebar or pipe to the stomach, yet he still was capable of fighting to end the nightmare.
- The Precarious Ledge: He can climb along narrow ledges without falling.
- The Precious, Precious Car: He drives a lovingly-preserved classic muscle car, which he calls the "quintessential automobile". It gets stolen and crashed in the aftermath of the frat party, and it takes him the entire level to get over it.
- Trauma Conga Line: He is infected by the Mortifilia, his car is destroyed, and his girlfriend is murdered right in front of him. He ends up shooting himself in the head at the end, to stop himself from becoming a monster like Kenny.
- Zombie Infectee: He is infected at the climax of the story by Kenny, but he didn't infect him to become another senseless monster, Kenny was going to make him a sentient monster, just like him. To avoid this, he decides to end his life, so he won't hurt his remaining friends.
Mei Wang
A student at Fallcreek University, Mei Wang is a computer whiz and gamer who is dating Corey Wilde and whose roommate is her beloved sister Jun. While Mei and Corey are sneaking into a Delta Theta Gamma party, it is overrun by mortifilia monsters, and they must fight their way out and try to survive and stop the outbreak.
- Battle Couple: With Corey.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Not only does Kenny stomp her head flat, he does it while her boyfriend Corey watches on helplessly.
- Hollywood Hacking: Her PDA is able to give her all of the letters of the door's password, but she has to guess the order. It's easy to hack when everybody knows that your locks use historical figures as passwords, though.
- Sacrificial Lion: She's the first of the six main characters to die.
- The Smart Girl: Her special ability is using her PDA to hack electronic locks.
- Theme Twin Naming: With Jun.
- Your Head A-Splode: She is killed by getting her head crushed under mutant Kenny's foot, all while her boyfriend is Forced to Watch.
Sven Hansen
A student at Fallcreek University, Sven Hansen is a Norwegian exchange student who plays on the school hockey team and dates Amy Brookes. He and Amy were at the Delta Theta Gamma party when people started mutating, and had to fight their way out.
- The Big Guy: Able to push heavy objects that the other characters can't.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: One worthy of Leatherface.
- Everyone Looks Sexier if French: He ships his Norwegian heritage throughout the game. Amy mostly rolls her eyes at his forced Viking references.
- Funny Foreigner: He's easily the most outwardly jovial of the main cast. He was only born in Norway, but he ships his heritage for the entire game.
- Horny Vikings: He frequently references Norse legends and myths in his dialogue.
- Ice Hockey: He's on the school's team, and you can make the hockey stick his weapon if you so desire.
- Lovable Jock: Probably the most chill character in the game.
- Mr. Fanservice: The hunky Nordic athlete dating the hot blonde.
- Norway: Loves talking about his homeland, despite spending nearly his whole life in America, as Amy points out.
- Sacrificial Lion: Is killed by Jedidiah immediately before the final act.
- Sexy Scandinavian: He's every chiseled Nordic stereotype rolled into one, and the girls love him for it.
Amy Brookes
A student at Fallcreek University, Amy Brookes is a bubbly, yet intelligent, girl who is dating Sven Hansen. The two of them were at the Delta Theta Gamma party when people started mutating, and had to fight their way out.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Getting raped by a monster, then getting killed by the equally monstrous offspring he impregnated her with.
- Dumb Blonde: While she sometimes exhibits mannerisms in line with this trope, she's otherwise a subversion. Her unique skill is decrypting, which allows her to solve puzzles that the other characters can't.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Both Kenny and Sven are competing for her.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: She's impregnated by Kenny after he had already turned into a monster. Naturally, the "child" is also a monster that killed Amy in the end.
- Genius Ditz: As noted above, she's the stereotypical Dumb Blonde sorority sister on the surface, but she's also one of the brains of the group.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: A mutated Kenny rapes and impregnates her with his monstrous spawn.
- Ms. Fanservice: While Shannon, Mei, and Jun are all plenty good-looking, none of them show it off like Amy does.
- Short-Lived Aerial Escape: Her Express Delivery of Kenny's spawn ensures that Delta Theta Gamma's captivity of her doesn't last long.
- The Smart Girl: She can decrypt puzzle clues that the others can't.
Jun Wang
A student at Fallcreek University, Jun Wang is Mei's sister and roommate. She helps get Sven and Amy into the Delta Theta Gamma party, and is later trapped in her dorm when monsters attack.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Is discovered badly mutilated by one of the monsters.
- The Cutie: Especially compared to her more outgoing and flirtatious sister.
- Damsel in Distress: Her main role. She doesn't make it no matter what you do.
- Knight of Cerebus: The game gets a lot darker after her death.
- Morton's Fork: One level midway through the game has Sven and Mei racing to save her. She dies whether or not you get to her in time; they'll find her dead if you don't, and if you do, they'll get separated from her and find her dead soon after.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Her death is when things get real.
Professor Richard James
A professor of biology at Fallcreek University, Richard James assists the students in their quest to end the outbreak, supplying them with upgrades to their batteries and healing items.
- Gadgeteer Genius: He provides upgrades for the battery life of the taser and chainsaw, as well as for the syringe used to extract health serum from fallen enemies.
- The Mole: He's secretly working for the Greater-Scope Villain Delta Theta Gamma, and helps them kidnap the survivors after Leonard and Jedidiah are defeated.
- Short-Lived Aerial Escape: He is presumably killed when Amy gives birth, her mutant offspring destroying the helicopter they were in.
- Team Dad: Subverted.
Jedidiah Friedman
Jedidiah is a mad, mentally damaged man who lives in an empty, decaying mansion in the woods, occasionally venturing out to kidnap and murder people.
- Chainsaw Good: Uses one to murder Sven and try to kill Corey and Stan. Later turned back around when Corey uses a chainsaw of his own to kill him.
- Disc-One Final Boss: After he is killed, the credits begin to roll but the game is far from over.
- The Dragon: To his father Leonard, caring for him and helping him spread the mortifilia plant around the Fallcreek campus.
- Expy: Hold much in common with Leatherface, between his weapon, his overall appearance, the state of his house, and his hanging victims on meathooks.
- The Grotesque: As befitting a backwoods slasher.
- Hero Killer: Tortures and kills Sven, and likely killed Josh and Ashley prior to the start of the second game.
- Hillbilly Horrors: A direct homage to one of the archetypal examples.
Delta Theta Gamma (ΔΘГ)
Delta Theta Gamma is a fraternity operating on the campus of Fallcreek University. The mortifilia outbreak started at a party they were holding. They're basically your typical hard-partying Delta House wannabes... or so they seem.
- Ancient Conspiracy: They're basically a fictional version of Skull & Bones, with members highly placed in the US government.
- Ballroom Blitz: Everything started at a particularly out-of-control fraternity party.
- Fratbro: What we see of their members until the secret comes out.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Herbert and Leonard Friedman were both members of the organization, which sponsored their African expedition and later supported and covered up Herbert's experiments at Leafmore High School, as it views the mortifilia plant as the key to immortality. They also have a behind-the-scenes hand in the events of the second game, with Professor James being The Mole for them.
- Playing with Syringes: It's implied that they were going to do this to Amy after Kenny impregnated her. Her Express Delivery, however, killed the agents who had been sent to capture her (along with Amy herself).
- Secret Circle of Secrets: Hints of this are dropped when the characters explore their frat house early in the game, but it's only at the end when we see how far it goes.
- Short-Lived Aerial Escape: The agents transporting Amy didn't realize just how dangerous their "cargo" really was.
- Wacky Fratboy Hijinx: Their stock in trade seems to be this. The key phrase being "seems to be".
- Walking Spoiler: It's only at the very end when their role in the plot becomes apparent.
