The Boogie Man

**The Boogie Man** is a 2015 Japanese supernatural horror game developed by Uri, using the RPG Maker XP program. It is the third installment of Strange Men Series.

## Plot

*Keith Baring is a cold, devoted detective whose boss decides he needs to take some time off. While on a tour of an old castle with his wife Helena, she makes a startling confession to him. Keith goes to bed bewildered - but things only become stranger as the Boogie Man's game begins...*

While saving the guests, Keith is forced to chase the Boogie Man through the castle. The game is not as scary as the Crooked Man, but the plot is intriguing. The ending has a twist...

### Endings

Like its predecessor, there are multiple endings for the player to choose.

* **Bad End 1: "The Boogie's Fine Tonight"**

If Sophie and David die, Keith is chased by the Boogie Man. The monster kills Keith and takes off his mask, only to reveal Keith himself.

* **Bad End 2: "White Room"**

If Sophie dies, Helena will be missing. Keith will return home and wander into his son Tod's room, and hallucinates Tod. Tod asks where his mother is, to which Keith will respond "I don't know". Keith will then fall asleep on Tod's bed, saying, "I'll be waiting here, where the sun never shines...where the shadows run from themselves. I'll just be waiting."

* **Bad End 3: "Precious Box"**

If only David dies, Keith and Helena will return home and decide to go through with their divorce. Still, they end up friends, spending a night together at their favorite bar. Keith then goes home with Helena and murders her, giving a broken speech about how he couldn't protect anyone. Keith then walks into the bathroom and shoots himself in the head.

* **Bad End 4: "Happy Dream"**

If David and Sophie are saved, but Keith doesn’t make certain arrangements through the game, Keith loses his fight with the Boogie Man and is killed. David and Shirley take the now widowed Helena to their home. In an attempt to console her, Shirley tells her about her past as an abandoned baby and how she got along with David’s mother. Suddenly, David accidentally smashes a glass sculpture while cleaning the house. Angry, Shirley argues with him, and they become distracted. Taking advantage of this, Helena jumps out the window to her death, in order to be with her deceased husband and son.

* **Happy End: "Come Rain, Come Shine"**

If Keith does all the requirements and manages to save David and Sophie, The Boogie Man is revealed to be Brendon. Dick interrogates Sophie and her father. Sophie says that she knew that the Boogie Man who kidnapped her was an impostor, since she already knew the real Boogie Man. She states that the real Boogie Man's hands are cold, and Brendon's hands were warm.The police realize that Keith did hallucinate some things, such as the blood on the walls and floors. In the end, Keith and Helena decide to go to couple therapy in order to move on. Keith is later seen at Tod's grave, crying.

### **Requirements**

* Watch the video tape from the body in the decapitated head room.
* Meet Helena in the cell you reach by heading left from the armor maze.
* Watch the video tape down in the hole near the safe room.
* Read the Punchinello story behind the painting opened by the piano switch.
* Listen to the recorder after getting knocked out by the Boogie Man in the secret passage.
* Play the video in the video camera on the video/DVD player in the secret room.

## Characters

### Keith Baring (37)

Local police inspector (rank Det. III). Cold and unfazed, but determined. He has an obsession with protecting people out of guilt over his son's death. Didn't want to become a detective at first, but met Helena while finding a college, and ended up joining the force to win her over. Sharp-tongued; he often let things slide in front of his son, which he later imitated. Dick is his boss, but also like an undesired friend who gets along with the whole family.After the incident he goes for counseling at Dick's suggestion. He hates liars.

Voiced by Blue Neonlightshow.

### Helena Baring (33)

Keith's wife. A gentle, lovable woman. Appears carefree, but is strong at her core. She's highly expressive, often laughing and crying. She met Keith as a student and quickly married him after graduating college. A year later, they had a son. She suffered emotionally for years after her son's death, but has recovered by now. She doesn't eat meat, not because she's vegetarian, just because she hates it. Her hobby is collecting tea from all over the world.

Voiced by Serenity Harper.

### David Hoover (27)

The Crooked Man's hero. Works for a trading company. He's made a complete turn from his previous moodiness. Married to Shirley for 3 months now; they kept their names. He's athletic and strong, but a little slow. He challenged his friend Paul to a chilli dog contest, and Paul got gastritis, so he couldn't attend the tour. Scared of dogs due to a traumatic incident as a kid where he was chased by one for an hour.

Voiced by Rou (Youtube - roukuro).

### Sophie Grundler (17)

High school student. Richard's daughter. The Sandman's heroine and a lively girl. Didn't like her dad for a long time, but they reconciled. Maybe as a result, she seems a little too attached lately. Somewhat cheekier with David and Shirley as older friends. A little uneasy as girls at school are getting boyfriends and not finding anyone she likes is her main worry for now. Loves ice cream.

Voiced by choco.lait.

### Lance Kanal (31)

Ex-journalist photographer. Works for a small publisher. Snarky about everything, but can get freaked out easily. As a journalist, he chased incidents to write articles, and though sarcastic, he was known to hit the mark. Dislikes police due to what drove him out of journalism. Was thinking about making some passes at Helena and getting Keith angry at him to cause a scene.

Voiced by Nurvuss from Misanthropop.com.

### Richard Grundler (44)

Works for a credit company. Diligent and cheerful, but has a timid side. Rather compassionate and sentimental; his daughter often blinds him to all else. It's been over ten years since he lost his wife, but he has no intention of remarrying. Mistook David for Sophie's boyfriend at first and got angry but that's been cleared up, and they all get along now. A heavy drinker who collects drinks; he likes scotch beer. He actually suspected the Boogie Man was Brendon, but was too focused on his daughter to tell Keith.

Voiced by Winter Johnson (also voiced the doctor).

### Shirley Webber (26)

David's wife. A pharmacist. Beautiful, strong-willed, and cool. Hates to rely on anyone and tries to do it all herself. She often fights with David. Fawns over Sophie like a little sister. She was abandoned as a baby.

Voiced by Midnight.

### Dick Anderson (39)

Local police manager (rank Lt. I). Keith's direct boss who understands him well. He has a wife and two children. His stature and face frighten people, but he's gentle, and doesn't raise his voice over little things. Gets along with both Keith and Helena.

Voiced by James Nealhart. (YouTube- ManlyBadassHero.)

### Eric Simpson (25)

Local detective (Det. I), Keith's subordinate. Ambitious, but hates to do busy work. His laziness got him stuck with the scariest two at the station, Dick and Keith, but it's yet to prove effective. He questioned David when he was taken in before. He sympathized with him, as he had a sick grandmother, and was relieved to know he was all right after this incident.

Voiced by cyanroll.

### Stevie Small (31)

Tour conductor for the agency N.A. Travel. Became a member on the Livingstone Castle Project, and decided to run this test tour. He and the castle's nine servants ended up as The Boogie Man's murder victims. Born in Connecticut, that's where he now rests.

Voiced by Jesse from Electric Pop Studios.

### Tod Baring (5)

Keith and Helena's son. Kind of timid, but cheery and honest. Clever, and alas, quickly learned the bad words Keith used. At age 5, he was run over by a truck and died.

Voiced by Noeybody.

### Brendon Dumont (20-30)

The proprietor of the Livingston Castle. He spent his childhood at the castle. After his parents died, he inherited the place and manages it himself. He did not want to live the rest of his life in the deserted castle and decided to promote it as a tourist destination. He went to film school and did some work in Hollywood. He loves police dramas and watches Law and Order all the time. He is very intelligent and systematic.He is The Boogie Man

Voiced by The Overlord Bear.

### The Boogie Man

The main antagonist in the Boogie Man. He runs around killing the inhabitants of the castle and taunting Keith to capture him. He does not target only Keith but wonders how he could make David's life more miserable too. In this game, he is Keith's Boogie Man as the others do not describe him the way Keith does. In the Happy ending, Sophie tells us that he isn't the 'real boogie man', since she had met him before in the last game and they were different - the one she met in The Sandman had cold hands.The Boogie Man is Brendon Dumont.

Voiced by Daveosity

## History of Livingstone Castle

The history of this castle begins with a tyrant from another land who came here to conquer.

He brought architects from his homeland to mimic its designs, and used fear to coerce the land’s natives into doing his bidding. With their assistance, the castle was completed in 1620. This tyrant, Constance Livingstone, invited his family to live in the new castle, set the natives to work as farmers, and established dominion over the land. It was his deplorable treatment of the natives that solidified his reputation as a tyrant.

The natives had long been farmers on the land before his arrival. But Livingstone sought to make riches from the export of corn, and so ordered the natives to expand their farmland. To ensure that none would defy him, he kept family members in the castle as hostages, ultimately re-purposing some as servants. The natives held in the castle were forbidden from speaking their native tongue and were made to learn Livingstone’s language. If they made any attempt to flee the castle, Livingstone would mercilessly punish their family.

For a time, Livingstone made a massive profit taking the natives’ corn through heavy taxation and exporting it back to his motherland. However, he forced cultivation with a continued disregard for the natives’ traditional farming methods, resulting in nutrient-poor soil and steadily diminishing corn crops. This left the tyrannical family impoverished. But they were no less strict on the natives, and would not come to any compromise.

If ever a thing did not please Livingstone, he would subject the natives to hard labor, torture them, and kill them to raise his spirits. One man was said to have been cut in twain with a giant blade, sewn back together, and displayed as a scarecrow in the fields. A parent and child were said to have been pushed onto a bed of spikes and pierced through the hearts, their corpses then left to rot for a month. One woman was said to have been burned alive before her husband’s eyes.

It is thought these horrible deeds were not only intended as cruel punishment toward the natives; he also simply delighted in watching people despair over losing those who they held most dear. Even after Constance’s death, his descendants followed in his footsteps, bringing suffering upon the natives for many an age. But finally, in 1778, the natives revolted. They invaded the castle, kidnapped the Livingstones, dragged them out of the castle, and had them executed.

## Trivia

* Unlike her other games, Uri has some voice acting in the game.
* In the Happy Ending, Sophie says that she knew he wasn't the real Boogie Man, because she met the real one before and they were different - a reference to The Sandman.
* This is a part of Uri's *Strange Men* series, along with The Sandman and The Crooked Man.
* ManlyBadassHero, a fairly popular Let's Player from Youtube, is voice-acting the character of Dick Anderson.
* The Boogie Man is voice acted by another Let's Player on Youtube that goes by the username Daveosity.
* The monologue in the preview stems from the chorus of The Jacksons: Blame It on The Boogie.
* It features the main characters and their families from the previous two games.
* Rather than being chased, the player is now the one chasing the Boogie Man.
* From the previous game, Sophie is still missing the pink jewel. The effects are seen during a short scene where Sophie is talking to Helena. She says that she does not feel love nor has she found somebody to fall in love with. As far as we know, the Sandman still has Sophie's jewel and he may return it to her when she is older.
* Uri also put certain conditions to get the Happy End, which the player has to complete during the game. If not, even with the right choices, the player will end up with a Bad End.
* It is interesting to see that the Boogie Man's death traps resembled the way the natives in the Livingstone Castle were killed.
* The last stand against the Boogie Man (i.e. for the Happy End) is the easiest to beat compared to the other games (and Endings) in the series.
* Both David and Keith hate anchovies. David also hates liver.
* The English voices are in the Japanese game.
* The enslaved islanders are based on the Cherokee.
* The dogs suddenly fall asleep during their fight against Sophie without apparent reason. After unlocking the gallery, an epilogue movie is unlocked revealing it was The Sandman who protected Sophie with his Sleeping Sand.