This has been weird every step of the way, and now it's getting scary.
— Kate
The Devil in Me, the Season One Finale of the Dark Pictures Anthology, really ramps up the horror factor with an Ax-Crazy Serial Killer hellbent on becoming the most notorious killer in history.
Trailers:
- The announcement trailer has the killer giving a monologue about what it means to be a killer, and boy is it terrifying. Throughout the monologue, images of blood-splattered walls, somebody holding a carving knife, a woman (later revealed to be Erin) choking in a vacuum, and an exposed heart with pipes protruding from it are shown. The worst part is that the person who is talking is really a corpse puppeteered to look like it's moving, and the monologue is playing on a tape recorder."Do you know what it means to be a killer? Think of the most profound thing you've ever done, the most beautiful thing you've ever created. And I promise you it's nothing compared to watching the life bleed out of someone, to see the fear in their eyes, to feel them pawing at you for release, to hear them pleading, begging. THAT'S true art. That's what you have to be; an artist. I've left my mark on the world, have you?"
- The Story trailer shows off a helpless man in a Death Trap. He is bound to a chair with a bag over his head, while a scythe is poised to run him through.Kidnapped Man: "SOMEONE, PLEASE!" (scythe trap goes off)
- The New Features trailer shows Erin and Kate in a Death Trap. Both of them are locked in airtight rooms with the oxygen slowly being drained. Only one can be saved, while the other will asphyxiate, and the choice is left in the hands of the other characters.Jamie: He wants us to choose, doesn't he? Oh God! If we don't do something, both of them will die!
- The Character Introduction trailer has Charles fall down a trapdoor and into a room with gas coming out of pipes. A mannequin rises from the ground holding a lighter, flicks it, and the room goes up in flames, leading to poor Charles screaming as he's burned alive.
Main Game:
- All of the deaths are horrifying in some way:
- The entire introduction is scary, even if you're ignorant of the history of HH Holmes. Playing as the newlyweds, Jeff and Marie, they meet Holmes, who is pleasant, but...off... As the two settle in, we see that they're being watched through a peephole. When Marie goes to take her bath, Jeff goes to buy a razor and you travel through a claustrophobic hallway maze and nearly die in a pit of spikes before rushing back. Finding Holmes in the room, with Marie dead or dying, Jeff runs in and is locked in a dead end room and suffocates to death, bleeding out the nose and mouth.
- When Marie is taking her bath, Holmes enters. When she sees a pair of shoes behind the screen, she thinks its Jeff. If she stays in the tub, Holmes drowns her as she fights for her life. If she goes to investigate, Holmes appears in a leather apron with a straight razor and slashes her across the throat multiple times. She either dies helplessly trying to pull herself from the tub, too weak to get out, or she drags her bleeding body across the floor and sees her husband die in the locked room as he watches her bleed out.
- After all this, we see Holmes has put Marie's wedding ring amongst the jewelry in his shop (making you realize where he got it all) as another couple enters and Holmes pleasantly greets them as if nothing had happened.
- Erin's potential death at the hands of Du'Met early on. She's trapped in a room and her asthma is making her breathless. Du'Met holds out the inhaler in his hand, and if Erin attacks Du'Met, he'll shrug it off and plunge a knife through Erin's jaw, killing her.
- Erin's second potential death occurs in the vacuum trap. If Jamie chooses to save Kate, Erin will be asphyxiated to death, coughing up blood and keeling over.
- Erin's third potential death occurs later on. Jamie tells her to hide, and if Erin chooses to run, Du'Met will push her onto a chair and one of the mannequins will stab her in the eye with a hypodermic needle.
- Another "death" scene for Erin, where after being killed (in the scenes other than the vacuum trap) has the group find her body. She's been turned into an animatronic by Du'Met, but her chest has been opened and her heart is wired up and still beating. A microphone plays her "Don't be scared" song that she hums to herself and soon enough, she flatlines.
- The glass wall trap has Jamie and Kate on opposite sides of a glass wall as it begins to close in on Jamie. Jamie can press a button to reverse the wall and save herself instead of Kate, or let it crush her and spare Kate. If the wall moves towards the character without the screwdriver, they will graphically be crushed as the other watches in horror.
- Charlie's death in the furnace trap occurs if he tries to force the door open instead of hiding under the grate (or if he takes too long to choose). The former option includes a shot of Charlie's burned arm fruitlessly sticking out of the door before going limp.
- Travelling through the Spa is unnerving, to say the least. You keep getting glimpses of Du'Met (or of his POV of the survivors), but the characters are totally unaware. Knowing he's there and you can't warn them is bad enough, but the place is full of mannequins dressed as the construction team who Du'Met has killed (hung up, posed in a saw trap) and recorded their last screams. The recording of a woman promoting the spa over the loudspeaker slowly has her becoming confused, then disturbed by what she has to read, only for her the recordings going to her begging for her life as she realizes Du'Met is going to kill her.
- In one scene, Charlie ends up in an industrial shredder. If he doesn't escape, he is ground up alive.
- Early on, Du'Met uses mannequins around the Hotel. When Jamie strikes one of them during the dinner scene recreation, she finds that the eye she knocked out is not glass or wood, but a real human eyeball, complete with nerve endings.
- Manny Sherman's recordings with Agent Munday are extremely creepy. The imagery for one, as well as Sherman's complete unrepentant nature. He's having fun describing all his crimes to Munday...and sees a kindred spirit in him, even provoking him to beat him (possibly to death).
- Jamie finding Sherman's body, a rotting corpse that Du'Met/Munday has transformed into an animatronic mannequin, sitting in a room that evokes the interrogation room where Sherman inspired him.
- Du'Met did the same to his mother, with a paper found in a room nearby alerting Munday of the exhuming of her body . Her corpses recording does nothing but spout insults and criticisms at Du'Met/Munday.
- The "Ultimatum" ending:
- If Mark and Kate are the only ones alive by the time they reach the lighthouse, both will be kidnapped. Kate ends up in a trap where a container of Hollywood Acid is connected to pipes that lead up Kate's nose and into her body, while Mark is in a caged room. He is given a Sadistic Choice; use the phone in the room to lure in more unsuspecting victims while pretending to be Du'Met, or both Mark and Kate will die. Refusing leads to a scene where Mark is gassed to death, while Kate suffers the agony of having acid pumped into her system and her insides melted.
- Even if Mark agrees to the deal, Du'Met snipes both him and Kate as they leave the island via boat.
