Nightmare Fuel / (Mario) The Music Box

As a Nightmare Fuel page, all spoilers are unmarked as per wiki policy. You Have Been Warned!

"Heeheeheehee… I found you!" From the original to the remaster, they serve as an ever-constant reminder that you aren't safe anywhere…

Don't let the haunted house setting make you believe that this is a Luigi's Mansion fan-game. Mario the Music Box, and by extension its ARC Expansion Story, is one of the most horrific fan-games staring the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom.

In fact, Jessica M / CorpseSyndrome (the creator) admitted to creating this gruesome horror game to help deal with their personal health issues... and it really, really shows.

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The Original Story

• The premise may seem like yet another Luigi's Mansion, but it gets chilling very quickly. An old, run-down, and haunted mansion in the middle of nowhere that Mario goes out to investigate, with Luigi trailing behind him. Sounds fine so far, but then Mario begins narrating the rumors he's heard about the house: people have entered it and not a single person has returned (eaten alive to be precise), and it's hung around near the Mushroom Kingdom for centuries.
• As soon as Mario steps inside of the mansion, he's met with darkness. He didn't bring a light, so he's more or less stumbling around blind, just waiting to fall through a hole in the floor that he can't even see. Thankfully he doesn't as he finds a lone light upstairs.
• When Mario finally makes it into the only lit room in the mansion, we get to clearly see some of the damage of time: busted and clawed furniture, more holes in the ground, dust and cobwebs, and a fresh puddle of blood right on the ground in front of the innocuous little music box which is winding up completely by itself (which Mario touched to find that part out). Not long after touching the music box, a small roar/screeching sound is heard. Cue a glass shattering sound, the light going out, and a lantern mysteriously appearing next to Mario. The lantern itself goes on to become the only light source available throughout the entire game (and it's noted that it's unknown what keeps it lit). Leaving the room afterward to finally explore more of the place, we see large blood spills on the floor and walls that were literally not there seconds ago, including a message saying "Take the exit". Before leaving the hallway, we see text saying "It's going to be mine. It's mine!".
• By now, the music kicks, and after taking the music box, Mario's about to leave to get some more tools, until he discovers that the door he came in through is not locked, but completely gone as if it was never there. He can try to dig a way out, but it's solid like cement. Congratulations, Mario: you're trapped.
• The endless staircase from Super Mario 64 is back as a hallway this time around that takes you back to the entrance. It's about here that Mario starts losing his mind. Also unlike Super Mario 64, coming here while it's still an endless hallway is required for you 100% completionists.
• The first floor's bathroom's door can be forced open due to being brittle (though if one stops to listen instead, Mario will comment on how he hears faint breathing from the other side). Inside, there's several puddles of blood, a rusty old bathtub, and a mirror with an off reflection. Mario gets a sheet of music from this room, and the next thing heard is glass shattering from somewhere (likely the other side of the room). A voice calls out saying "Come play with me~", and not too soon afterwards, a pitch-black spirit emerges from the hallway, chasing Mario until he breaks through the locked door. Mario's response after he leaves? "There's no way I'm going back in there!"
• If Mario tries heading toward the garden area through the left wing by himself, a distant, demented voice will prompt Mario to hide in a crate. As it's prowling about, Mario can choose to sneak a peek at it; not doing so will save his life as the spirit stalks off, making loud banging sounds as it leaves. After Mario comes out of the crate, the player can hear its distant laughter. Though it never shows up again, the laughter implies that they know you're still there and they'll be back for you...
• Mario heads to the first floor's right wing and sees what looks like Princess Peach walking forward. He goes after her, naturally questioning why she's even there if he left without telling her. As you've probably figured out, it's not Peach. Running'd be advisable.
• Alice. Her brutality knows no bounds, sparing no one in the wake of her ritualistic massacre, gleefully attacking anyone even remotely in her way to getting what she wants, all while possessing Mario's body to resume what she started centuries ago.
• The seemingly one-shot spirit Beatrice, the one who kills Mario with scissors if he does not escape her, turns out to be the one who gave Anna the idea to kill Serina and "spare her from the ritual", goading her by playing on her hatred of Serina getting preferential treatment from Alice over Anna and telling her that it was for Serina's own good. This sets up Alice murdering everyone else in the mansion, desperate to complete her ritual. Naturally, Beatrice had coldly abandoned Anna to suffer the consequences of killing her own sister once Alice catches up to her.
• The endings, just, the endings. Most of them, at any rate. The worst one of all has to be "Tragedy" ending in the remastered version of the original game, which shows exactly what entails should she be freed with the way she is now.

The ARC Expansion Story

• The disparity shown between the Sane and Insane routes is jarring—all it takes to send Mario spiraling into madness is witnessing Alice taking his own hands and murdering his beloved Princess Peach (highly implied to be a fake Peach outside the Insane Route, but it is still a highlight of Alice's wrath). Things in that route continue to go downhill for him, but the Sane route is not much better, showing two of his supposed allies (Peach and Riba) turning on him for no reason.
• Anna returns in this expansion, and while she does help out for a few moments, the nature of why she is helping you depends on the route. The Sane route simply has her try to help you get out of the mansion (a stark contrast to where she was more proactive in killing you in the original game), but the Insane route has her shadowing Mario as he descends further down which culminates in him attempting to stab her. The original version has the knife break off without so much as scratching her while it is still embedded into her forehead, but the revamped demo instead has her hold Mario in place with her telekinetic powers. Alice may control Mario's body, but in the end she is just another spirit trapped in the mansion—albeit a very powerful spirit; Anna, as a proper entity, has full control over the mansion itself which means she can kill you anytime she wants to however she wants to, and you would be powerless to stop her, shedding more light on her potential actions throughout the entire game. She coldly tells Mario that, when guiding him down the sewers during the Insane Route, she will only help guide him once—and once he makes it through she makes it clear that she will no longer help him, leaving him to the fate of whatever or whoever awaits him once he leaves the mansion.
• Riba in the Sane Route. He returns to his sadistic murderous ways as he turns on the brothers for no clearly defined reason, spending the route doing his level best to kill them, the Final Boss battle against him and the Absent ending are by far the worst though where we see exactly what kind of demon he really is.
  • In the Insane Route, it is possible to kill him at different points of the story which can affect the story to an extent. By far, however, the worst way to kill him is by unknowingly giving him a flask of holy water when he needs something to drink. As a demon, it burns him terribly, so he decides to make it stop by snatching Mario's knife…and repeatedly driving it into the side of his head, howling and screaming in agony all the way until he drops dead from it, shocking poor Mario, who had to watch it all. He may be able to come back from the experience as an immortal demon, but it is still a very painful way to go.
• Marchionne turned his town into a theocratic dictatorship and ruled it with an iron fist. Just imagine what it must have been to live under such a paranoid and homicidal Hanging Judge.
• Len Alwena Foska. Everything about her. But since these types of entries should be more specific, let us list a few reasons why this kitty is one of the scariest characters in Internet Gaming, shall we?
  • She is the story's Greater-Scope Villain. All (or at least, most) of the horror that has happened is a direct or indirect result of her machinations.
  • While it's relatively well hidden, she's an absolutely Ax-Crazy psychopath. While these qualities aren't evident in her normal mannerisms, the absolutely brutal deaths she gives Mario in her Hopeless Boss Fight show she's even more bloodthirsty than both Riba and Alice—the former is an ancient hedonistic demon who screws others over for mere shits and giggles, and the latter is a misanthrope supreme who very well can and does wish to usher in The End of the World as We Know It. In the Wonderland segments, she throws all stoicism out of the window and is openly—and gleefully—more twisted than the couple at their worst. Len as a whole is very much unlike Alice who has a very understandable reason for being the way she is, but she's not remotely like Riba who is similarly hedonistic but is capable of love and changing his ways. If there was any character whose soul was blackened, toxic, and irredeemable, it's Len without question.
  • She cannot be defeated in any way because she can't even be fought in the first place. This does make sense considering what she embodies and represents but it doesn't make her any less scary, quite the opposite in fact.
  • Nothing is revealed about her. We don't know what she wants, where she came from, just how old she is or even what she is exactly. Nor do we know much about her connections to other characters. Of the very few things that are remotely hinted about her, none of it paints her in a positive light such as perhaps being one of the original bad omen twins who cursed all other same-sex twins after her and having caused the Ice Age itself.
  • In Remaster, you can meet Len in a random staircase, she mostly evasive with most questions, but if you ask her about her experiment...

The Many Deaths Of You

• The original game is loaded with death traps after you get the music box: a whopping forty-seven different ways to die. For those who don't want descriptions, how's about we link you to a video instead? Here it is, all forty-seven game overs in their glory. Sweet dreams.
  • And here's all forty-seven deaths again, this time in the Remaster.
• The earliest death you can get in the game is also the most abrupt and the least expected, considering that there's no such warning beforehand. Mario inspects the middle door on the second floor in the foyer, finding it to be a painted-on door. As he's going over how out of place it is and wondering why it's there, BAM! He's dead. The door does not do this before Mario has gotten the music box, nor when Luigi's around.
  • Also, look at Mario closely when the door kills him: both of his hands are free. The lantern is very likely smashed in his face. Yeesh...
• Another early death is on the foyer's second floor. A crack is found in the floor looking ready to give way. If Mario jumps on it, he will invariably fall through, landing in the so far inaccessible side of the first floor's bathroom and onto a set of five spikes conveniently placed there.
• On the other side of the first floor's bathroom door, if one stops to listen, Mario will comment on how he hears faint breathing from the other side. Inside, there's several puddles of blood, a rusty old bathtub, and a mirror with an off reflection. There are two ways Mario can die here:
  • The first is if Mario inspects a puddle of blood coming from the southern wall. Unlike with the other puddles of blood, Mario will appear to slip on this one and into the wall. Mario's screaming is heard as he's apparently falling down something, and a low growling/gurgling sound is heard as he does so. We don't see where he ends up or what that other sound was, either.
  • The second is when Mario gets a sheet of music from this room and glass shattering sound is made. A voice calls out saying "Come play with me~", and not too soon after, a pitch-black spirit emerges from the hallway, chasing Mario around. If she makes contact with Mario or if he fails to barge the door open, the screen will black out and a splash is heard. Cue a first-person view of the spirit with beady, glowing blue eyes and a wide smile drowning Mario in something (likely the bathtub). After Mario's done for, the spirit speaks again, saying:
    heeheehee...
    Water filled my lungs~
    And then I was done~
    Now wasn't your death just as fun?~
• If Mario tries heading toward the garden area through the left wing by himself, a distant, demented voice will prompt Mario to hide in a crate. As it's prowling about, Mario can choose to sneak a peek at it; doing so will let him catch a brief glimpse of it, not hearing its laughter while he's at it. In the original, Mario is greeted with a pale spirit with yellow and Black Eyes of Crazy while the remastered version instead has the head maid Marie who's become a cannibal, both saying "Heeheeheehee… I found you!" as they stare dead at the screen. What the original spirit did to Mario was left unseen as he gags but Marie proceeds to bite Mario on the neck and have him as her evening meal, which is no less horrifying. Both of these spirits together provide the page picture up above.
  • Marie herself has a new scene where if she catches Mario, she quickly runs him through with a transformed blade arm, goring right through his mouth to the other side and with a fountain of blood pouring out from the poor plumber before he drops dead.
• The garden area has a large gap that Mario can try to jump over (he'll note that it doesn't seem safe to do so, tipping the player off). You'd expect his legendary jumping prowess to pull him through this one, don't you? Well... it doesn't, and unlike the 3D Mario games, he doesn't just take fall damage once he touches down, he dies from it.
• The forest area past the first floor's right hallway has a pond. Investigating it will let Mario and the player know that it's still and has lost its natural color. As if they needed another red flag, a sign nearby says "PLEASE DO___ SWIM IN THE WATER" ("PLEASE DON'T SWIM IN THE WATER" much?). If Mario decides to swim through it anyway, he makes it across, unlike the above death, but he's slowly trudging on before coming to a stop. His face is shadowed and he comments on how something in his body is burning. That's the last we hear him say before he collapses, dead. Please take note of how Mario literally just jumped in and jumped out after about a second. That's how fast it kills him. The Remaster changes this in that while it's not a toxic river, it has something lurking deep in the waters, and it quickly grabs Mario to drown him, giving him little time to react.
• The right wing has two beds in one room. One of which is clawed to kingdom come, and the other one is... not as torn up. Mario can decide to rest in the bed, feeling that he's simply losing his mind. Apparently he has lost his mind if he decides to sleep in some abandoned, run-down, haunted house's bed, and he learns this lesson the hard way. When he wakes up, he's in some tight space where he can't move much and hears knocking noises, soon finding that he's trapped. Six minutes later and he's finding it increasingly hard to breathe. He decides to close his eyes and relax, hoping that he'll wake up from the nightmare. Needless to say, he won't be waking up again.
• The right wing has yet another nasty surprise. A door up north will lead to a room with one of the two music sheets needed for Aria and a spirit girl named Beatrice holding a pair of scissors. If Mario doesn't bust the door open in time or if he walks up to her, he'll be forced up against the door, frantically telling Beatrice to keep away. She asks him if he's her daddy, telling him how much she missed him and begging him to never leave her alone again. He's about to tell her that he's not her father until she gets him.
• Mario needs to have gotten a key from Aria (after getting two music sheets in rooms where spirits tried to kill Mario) to get to the kitchen. If Mario inspects the freezer room, he'll find it completely functioning, much to his surprise. Something shuts the freezer door on him, leaving him to die freezing to death. He can't even cry because of how cold it is, and a child's spirit approaches the man, telling him to accept his fate.
• Luigi will eventually enter the mansion and will have his own share of deaths. The first being similar to Mario's first death. Luigi will go down a hallway with one room and blood pointing towards the door. Should Luigi go into the room, he will be killed and his blood splattered over the door window and leaking out beneath the door. It's unknown how he is killed, but it is presumed he was struck with something or shot, given that the screen shakes and a slight muffle is heard.
• Later, Luigi will encounter a painting or phantom of Mario and if Luigi fails to fight off the phantom, he'll die by either a broken neck or strangulation. This death can actually occur twice, depending on the location in where Luigi is at. The second time, Luigi is hung by the phantom with a noose.
• If Luigi never picked up a picture of Rosa, and goes into the bathroom, a ghost named Alfred will attack Luigi and choke him until he snaps his neck, killing him. A bit later, if Luigi gave the picture to Alfred, he will still try to kill Luigi in a different scene.
• Once Luigi falls into the cellar, Mario will wake up to the care of Riba, another explorer of the mansion. The two will team up and go to the chasm where Mario would have died had he tried to jump across. This scene alone holds three separate ways Mario and/or Riba can die.
  • One, Mario can choose to either go with Riba or stay behind. Should he request to go with Riba, Riba will state that he should go alone, with Mario insisting that he'll go with him. It eventually reaches a point where Riba will shove Mario back, unintentionally shoving him into the deep pit and killing him. Riba profusely apologizes once he realizes Mario is dead.
  • Two, if Mario stays behind, he can offer to give the light to Riba. Riba states that he doesn't need it, to which Mario counters that he isn't going anywhere. Riba takes the light, but shortly after Mario feels bad about letting him go alone and follows him. Mario enters the hallway to see a spirit feasting upon Riba's body. Once the spirit finishes, she realizes that Mario is nearby and holds him down so that she can eat him too, killing him slowly and painfully as he asks Luigi to not look for him because he doesn't want him to see his mangled corpse. Marie appears in the remastered version instead, with more details on how she's tearing and eating the flesh as she bites his neck, Resident Evil style.
  • Finally, if Mario keeps the light and lets Riba go on his own, if Riba encounters the same spirit as before, the same death scene will play out, with the spirit (Marie in the remastered version) eating Mario's guts, but with a slight difference. It's revealed that Riba did in fact initially survive, but the spirit quickly realizes this and finishes him off.
• Should Mario and Riba survive those three deaths, Riba will encounter another spirit in the nursery when he picks up the plank and some matches he found. Should Riba fail to dodge the attack of the spirit (by simply choosing to run instead of dodging the attack and running), the spirit will trip Riba and make quick work of him.
• Even after all of those deaths, this section still has more deaths. Once Riba makes his way to the end of the sub-hall leading to the main hall where the spirit resided and the chasm, a possessed Mario will chase after Riba. This scene alone offers six ways for either Riba or Mario to die.
  • Mario catching up to Riba, Riba going into the room before the nursery but failing to lock the door, or Riba not choosing a spot to hide in the bedroom all result in the possessed Mario catching up to Riba and killing him with a butcher's knife.
  • Riba can choose to hide in the chest, but this results in the possessed Mario finding Riba and killing him.
  • Riba can choose to hide in the cabinet (which is the correct place to hide), but if he stays hidden in the cabinet, the possessed Mario will find and kill him.
  • The fourth death in this section holds quite possibly the funniest death scene in the entire game. Riba can choose to hide as the lamppost, with the possessed Mario quickly seeing where he is at. However, he starts to play a sort of game with Riba, pretending that he can't find him anywhere. He then decides to "turn on the lamp" to see a bit better. Riba gives a soft click, before the possessed Mario kills him.
  • Should Riba choose to jump out of the cabinet (which is also the right option), he will choke out Mario to stop Alice's spirit inside of him. Should Riba fail on the first or second attempt, the spirit possessing Mario will regain power and she will kill Riba.
  • Finally, after successfully choking him, Mario will snap out of it and plead Riba to stop. If Riba keeps on strangling him, he'll say that he's lost all control wanting to get rid of the spirit possessing Mario, and kills Mario in the process. Riba shows great remorse and shame while he can hear the spirit laugh at him.
• After that large scene, Mario will regain consciousness and talk with Riba about what happened. In this scene, there are three ways Riba, Mario, and/or even Luigi can die.
  • Mario will pull out a knife and not know where it came from. Riba can choose to lie to Mario or tell the truth. If he tells the truth, the spirit that was haunting Mario will control him again. Riba states that Mario was chasing him and that he had to strangle Mario, which causes him to get angry because he almost killed him. The spirit will then attack Riba, with Riba accidentally dropping his glasses and the spirit putting the knife up to Riba's eye. Riba tries to plead with Mario to no avail.
  • Should Riba lie, he is then prompted whether or not to tell Mario about Luigi. Telling the truth here results in two different, very sad, death scenes. Mario will become concerned about Luigi and go to find him, against Riba's knowledge and advice. Mario will find Luigi in the cellar where he was last left off. Luigi will believe Mario is another illusion and attempt to strangle him, resulting in Mario choosing to plead to Luigi or trying to find a weapon.
    • If Mario chooses to try to find a weapon, he will see the knife he had and stab Luigi with it. Luigi will let Mario go and turn his expression from fear into happiness. Luigi apologizes for not being a better brother and Mario apologizes for stabbing him, knowing he shouldn't have. Luigi compliments his brother on how Mario is more important to the Mushroom Kingdom than he is, with Mario saying that Luigi is important to the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi states he was only a shadow to Mario, a shadow that doesn't need to exist anymore. With Luigi close to death, he states that he will always love him and thanks Mario for ending his life. Mario tries to tell Luigi to not leave him and that he loves him too, but Luigi dies before he can finish his sentence. Mario, grief-stricken by what he had done, plunges the knife into his own chest, ending his own life. He then realizes that Riba was right, that he shouldn't have gone looking for him.
    • If Mario pleads to Luigi, he will fail to get through and Luigi will keep strangling him until he loses consciousness. Although Mario can't see, he can hear Luigi's cries. Mario tries to comfort Luigi, but to no avail, as he's already dead. He then hears a large sound and no longer hears Luigi's voice, hinting that Luigi killed himself. Mario's hearing starts to fade as he pleads that this all be a nightmare.
• After Riba talks with Mario, the two head back to the chasm and cross it, only for Mario to be so exhausted from hunger that he collapses and can't move. Riba decides to go ahead and see if there is something for Mario to eat. This section holds two deaths.
  • First, Riba can talk to a female spirit and after some dialogue, she asks if he decided to figure out the truth. If Riba says yes, a possessed Mario will appear from behind a pillar as the spirit states that there is something she wants to say first, the same thing Riba kept telling her. Riba realizes that Mario is behind him as Mario continuously says: "Kill more..." The possessed Mario asks Riba if he remembers those words and then states that he killed off everyone in the home, and that the ritual was to merge Riba's soul and the spirit together, with Riba asking what Mario is talking about. The possessed Mario then kills Riba by stabbing him repeatedly.
  • Second, Riba comes across a small cave full of mushrooms in hopes of giving Mario a boost to go on, being provided many different choices to give Mario. However, only the classic red Super Mushroom itself buried in the dirt will do anything for Mario which still isn't much given the man's sheer exhaustion (and Riba is lucky to have found it since it is said to be very rare outside of growing in the Mushroom Kingdom), and everything else will either be no good or—worse—kill him. Any poisonous mushroom—including the infamous skull-capped Poison Mushroom itself—will cause Mario start to spaz out and vomit up blood before he bites it; given how the Super Mushroom only barely allows Mario to keep going, the Poison Mushroom killing him so horribly is not a pretty sight. The one dark red mushroom (which looks similar to a classic Super Mushroom) will make Mario's neck melt from the inside out and cause his head to fly off his shoulders as blood sprays out from his neck. The ghostly white mushrooms are parasitoids of the cordyceps type that cause more of them to grow inside the host until the host themselves becomes nothing but a pile of these mushrooms, and Mario ends up collapsing into Riba's arms before turning into a pile of these mushrooms, with only his clothes intact.
• During a memory scene with Mario, should he choose to go back into the room he already went into, he will be killed by a spirit who was in the room when Mario walked in.
• When Mario finds a bookshelf with blood splattered all over it, he can choose to read Diary Entry 6/7. Doing so will reveal that someone has killed more children and feels very remorseful. After this, Mario will be unable to move or speak, and blood is dripping out of his nose. Then, three shadowy children's souls (presumably all female) engulf Mario in pure darkness. Mario hears cries of pain as he can't fight against the darkness, and wanders in the darkness for the rest of his life. The remastered version replaces this with an entry from Mercy instead, cursing Alice for what Alice did to her children, and then Mercy herself appears and uses some sort of unholy magic on Mario to make him melt.
• Once Mario picks up a medallion half, he hears a crash and notes that the pain is getting worse. Then he notices a picture of Princess Peach on the wall in front of him. Already knowing it's out of place, Mario then sees the normal face of Princess Peach change into a sinister smile one after claiming the ringing in his head is getting louder. A spirit beckons Mario to turn around, and Mario notes the spirit is holding a poisonous syringe in her hand. Mario attempts to run around to find a way to escape the spirit, but if he gets caught and fails to escape her, the poison will be injected into his neck, slowly killing him. Once again, the remastered version changes this into a portrait of Mercy before the spirit tries to poison Mario herself while disguised as Peach.
• If Mario and Luigi choose to go upstairs, they will be locked into one ending that can hold six separate deaths, and the first ending.
  • The next section involves Mario being possessed by Alice again, after finding Luigi. This section holds five separate deaths.
    • First, the possessed Mario will tell Luigi to enter a room. If Luigi accepts, he will be locked in the room for three days, starving and thirsting the whole time, while looking for something to eat and pleading that Mario opens the door. He will then state that he brutally hates Mario, and then states that he can only think of one thing left to do. He'll then, in a burst of dark comedy, state that he doesn't need his arm anyways. The remastered version additionally has Luigi use a pair of scissors to cut his own arm off, negating the dark comedy from before, and he ends up consuming it. Even though he no longer feels hungry, he starts to get dizzy, and then he passes out from it all.
    • Next, when trying to assist the spirit Rosa, Luigi can choose to either say Alfred's name, give Rosa the letter, give Rosa the engagement ring, or give both to her.
    • Saying only Alfred's name results in Luigi blacking out and finding a hanging Mario on the noose. The original has Luigi try to resuscitate him, but it does nothing; the remastered version shows a possessed Luigi trying to "get rid of her", showing that Rosa has commandeered Luigi's body and had Luigi hang Mario to put an end to Alice.
    • Presenting only Alfred's letter will result in Rosa's spirit not being put to rest, but thanking Luigi for his help. Again, Luigi loses consciousness and wakes up to a bloody Mario. Luigi then looks at his hands to see them covered with blood and holding a large stone. Luigi then remembers that he brutally killed Mario with it by bashing him on the head to death (once again a victim of Rosa's possession) and apologizes for what he did.
    • If Luigi presents only the engagement ring, he'll try to calm Rosa's spirit by telling her that Alfred is waiting for her. Rosa will then get angry with Luigi for trying to set her up with Alfred, claiming he was a horrible man. For this attempt, Rosa will thrash Mario's body all around as revenge against Luigi and eventually kill Mario. Luigi, feeling guilty about causing his brother's death, will state that he can't go on anymore, and presumably kill himself.
    • Finally, once Luigi gets the engagement ring, Alfred will try to kill Luigi. If Luigi fails to escape, he will wake up in a coffin next to Mario's already deceased body. Luigi, guessing Mario suffocated due to panicking (while the remastered version shows a noose around his neck which could mean Rosa has killed him yet again), holds on to Mario's hand as he states that he will join him soon.
  • After putting Rosa's spirit to peace and sprinkling the mix onto Mario, the spirit possessing Mario will flee to the rooftop and then injure Luigi, resulting in the showdown between Mario and the spirit Alice. If Mario fails to escape Alice after her grip tightens (by failing to escape Alice the first time), his head will be severed off of his body, and he realizes he failed to save everyone. The remastered version has a new different boss battle and replaces this death with a far more brutal one should Alice deplete Mario's health before her health is depleted; it is an exercise in pure sadism as Alice has Mario held up by dark tendrils, slowly pulling him apart at the legs despite his pleas to stop, and she finally rips one of his legs off with cruel laughter. Alice has every reason to kill Mario immediately, but here she is taking her sweet time picking him apart piece by piece for her own sick amusement, showing just how much hate she has for the world and everyone around her. To make it worse, we hear Mario let out an excruciating scream recorded by the Youtuber Slick Frame as his leg gets ripped off his body and he gets torn apart.
• The remainder of the deaths and endings can be accessed by going downstairs instead of upstairs. Once down at the first floor, if Mario and Luigi do not escape the hallway in time, they will be crushed under the rubble. Mario also notes that he should have tried harder to save Luigi. It's worth noting that later, during a similar scene, Luigi does survive if the timer runs out, but Mario will die instead.
• Should Mario come across a room with a phone in it, the phone will ring, and if Mario picks it up, he will hear Princess Peach pleading for help and the line going dead. Mario then begins to slowly become possessed as he tells Luigi what he thinks happened. Luigi tries to calm Mario down, as the possessed Mario stabs, taunts, and kills Luigi.
• If Mario enters the same room that Beatrice was in earlier, she will kill Mario if Luigi does not barge him out of there in time. Then when Luigi enters, she will kill him too, all while saying how much fun it is to kill people.
• If Mario checks the furnace that he didn't want to check earlier, he will find a key to the forest gate. However, Mercy strikes again in a desperate attempt to kill Mario by dragging him into furnace. Luigi will appear in a possessed state, being unable to help Mario. If Mario fails to escape from Mercy's wrath, she will burn Mario alive just like what Alice did to her.
• When entering the aforementioned forest, Mario will come across a sign that says "Forest of Suicide" and Luigi reads that "Those who get lost will end up losing their minds from the darkness of this forest. Proceed with caution." The next sign they come across reads, "If you get lost, you will end up committing suicide. So don't get lost." Obviously, going the wrong way here will result in Mario and Luigi being separated, and Luigi hanging himself. After Mario finds him, he hallucinates in grief, seeing several trees with Luigi hanged on them. Mario will then fall unconscious and when he wakes up, his possessed body will hang himself, painfully killing him.
• Mario and Luigi must escape a crumbling cavern after flipping a switch and opening a new pathway. If Mario and Luigi fail to find the new pathway, Mario will tell Luigi to escape, and leave him to die. Mario is then killed, but Luigi survives and finds Mario's lifeless body under the rubble.
• Mario and Luigi can crawl into a small crevice when exploring the mines, and Mario will find the remains of Alice with a photo of her and Riba's wedding. When Mario attempts to leave, we are treated to the nasty surprise of Alice herself seemingly springing to life with blood pouring down her head where Riba struck her dead. Armed with a pickaxe, Alice will drive it through Mario's head if he fails to escape her. Really, though, the scariest part is how quickly Alice ditched Mario's body to jump back into hers and try to kill him, and if he does manage to escape her, she just goes right back to inhabiting his body. Just that quick, she would have been able to leave and destroy the world all because Mario got curious and stumbled upon her remains.
• After Mario and Luigi find the pathway, Alice will take over Mario's body again, with Luigi fighting with Alice to get Mario's body back. Alice, using Mario's body, will try to kill Luigi. If Luigi fails to fight her off, Alice will stab Luigi in the eye, while Luigi tries to get Mario back, to no avail.
• At one point, Luigi comes across a shrine of sorts with Riba standing right in front of an unconscious Mario. Luigi asks Riba what he's doing with Mario, only for Riba to laugh maniacally and to state that Luigi is still alive, despite Alice's attempts. Riba will then attempt to kill Luigi himself, and should Luigi fail to fight Riba off, Riba will stab him repeatedly and kill him. Then he will resume the ritual, leaving no distractions behind.
• Finally, during a final confrontation with Alice, who is almost done usurping Mario for her own, should Luigi be unable to fight off Alice for the third time, he'll die through some unknown means. The remastered final battle has Alice piercing through Luigi's neck or body with shadow hands.
• The ARC Expansion continues to ramp up the horror with even more gruesome ways to go in both routes. Some deaths in the expansion stand out simply because they're that horrible and are sure to leave you with trouble sleeping.
  • One of the first deaths in the ARC Expansion is getting locked into a gas chamber with no way out unless you have the gas mask with you. The insane route is still horrible (having Mario ceaselessly hack up blood), but the Sane Route is worse where Mario eventually succumbs before collapsing, only to wake up to the feeling of being stabbed over and over and over while he can't do anything about it; the revamped demo reveals the culprit to be what looks like Peach doing the deed.
    • If you thought Mercy impersonating Peach and trying to poison Mario was bad, whatever this "Peach" is proves to be far more brutal. Many additional deaths feature Mario either not being able to find a hiding place in time only to be confronted or picks a poor hiding spot before he is found and murdered, but it is the one where he does not hide in time and the smaller cabinet that he stays in that really stand out in the revamped demo. In these cases, we are treated to a shot of "Peach's" smiling face right before Mario is murdered—one of the most disturbing game faces that will haunt you. It might be better if you watched the intro and saw the face for yourself to lessen the shock of it later, but seriously, do not look at these at night—you have been warned.
  • Rosa returns in the revamped demo, but she is in no way willing to help you unlike with her encounters with Luigi in the "Omitted Memory" route—unless, by "help", you mean "greet you with empty eyes and a horribly inhuman smile before she ragdolls you around the room to murder you" if you do not get the color-coded treasure chest part done in time before she appears. This is a markedly drastic change from the original game where she would passively stay at the spot where she died, and with the revamped demo being exclusive to certain Discord members, some players who played the original game will be in for a nasty shock to see the maid suddenly attack them with a new freaky face.
  • Once Mario gets to Evangeline, he finds that Alice's aura of dread will not save him from some of the spirits who are more than happy to kill Mario in place of the Aduraice Mansion's spirits who would bolt the second they realize she's there even on the Insane Route. In fact, after dealing with Toadston, you can be murdered by hostile spirits roaming the dilapidated streets out to kill the living on sight.
  • An eyeless, hostile spirit named Norma roams the Silent Woods, and should Mario be caught by her she will grab for his eyeballs and pluck them out, inserting them into her own sockets and claiming them to be her eyes now. If only she didn't decide to look dead at the screen with her new eyes that clearly stick out compared to the rest of her appearance.
  • Ever thought how weird it was to not run into any animals out to get you too? Evangeline fixes that as well, throwing in a literal murder of crows pecking Mario and tearing his eye out if you bother the birds enough, giant spiders commanded by Aurora that will eat you alive if you don't evade them, (nevermind Aurora herself when she transforms), a pack of wolves that will devour Mario in the forests if you aren't careful, and lastly being cornered by a big-ass bear spirit that will rip Mario to pieces if you take too many wrong turns in a certain part of the woods. In the Insane Route, it has a different death scene, where it cuts Mario's legs off and bites him, breaking his neck.
  • Only one classic Mario enemy makes an appearance haunting the old Aduraice residence, and it is Boos. Much like the hostile spirits in Evangeline, they will harm you should you come into contact with them, and if Mario takes too many hits, they will corner him right in front of a ditch likely lined with spikes waiting for him below. Seeing a classic Mario enemy in Evangeline at all even if they are ghosts, capable of getting Mario brutally killed, just feels inherently wrong, and it makes one wonder what they are doing there in the first place.
  • Running into Luciano is never a good thing on either route (although he can be pacified on the Sane Route), but on the Insane Route where he would normally chase you, he is now on fire when he chases you down. Similarly, several doors are blockaded with flames when trying to escape Luciano's vengeful ghost, and should you fail to escape him, he will burn you alive much like how he had suffered in the past at Marchionne's hand.

Misc.

• When Team Ari announced they'd be remastering the first game to coincide with the art-style and story building of the ARC Expansion, you'd know they'd make changes to make the original even scarier. And they did.