The Psycho

The Psycho
Information
Nicknames	The Maniac The Killer The Madman The Mystery Man
Actor	Rami Malek
Gender	Male
Age	20
Appearance
Hair	Black
Eye Color	Black
Outfit	Blue collared shirt, denim overalls, long-sleeved undershirt
Accessories	Mask, gloves, utility belt
About
Debut	Chapter 3
Death	Chapter 10
Status	Determinant

“	All you have to do... is choose who you will save!	”
	— The Psycho

The Psycho, also known as The Maniac, The Killer, The Madman and the Mystery Man in-game, is the name given to the first antagonist of Until Dawn. He is a masked nemesis that stalks and torments the group of friends for their first half of the night due to setting up various seemingly life-threatening traps.

During the second half of the night, the Psycho's true identity is revealed, unveiling a familiar face.

Appearance

The Psycho's outfit was recreated from the one of Victor Milgram, a janitor of the hotel in the 1950s who was portrayed as the maniac in a fabricated story. The Psycho wears a metal black jumpsuit and a mask to conceal his identity. He also wears a thick, stuffed suit with blood-splattered overalls and gray gloves with brown cuffs. Underneath the overalls is a jean shirt with its sleeves rolled up, and a long sleeve brown shirt  underneath. He has a brown tool belt around his waist, with a few tools inside. Depending on the player's choices, he carries a gas cylinder or a needle while chasing Sam.

His mask resembles a skull-like style, designed with a pair of thin black eyebrows, with 2 circle-shaped jade-black spiked side cracks (for sight) and a nose crack placement (for breathing). As for the mouth design, it shows the whole light bubblegum-pink gums with yellowish-white "rotten" styled teeth. The whole base of the mask is plain dirty white and appears to be either made of silicone, glass, or porcelain.

Personality

The Psycho is shown to have severe psychological issues, degrees of paranoia, hallucinations, and feelings of loneliness and isolation. He seems enjoy stalking and torturing most of the protagonists.

Until Dawn

Biography

The Psycho is the first main antagonist introduced in-game. He follows and taunts the group of friends while setting up Saw-like traps, resembling classic horror film antagonists.

In reality, he is Josh, who became consumed with taking revenge on his friends for causing the disappearance of his sisters, wanting to prank them in return for their prank on Hannah. Drawing upon his family's wealth and his father's contacts among practical effects artists, he spent most of the year planning, designing and commissioning the props necessary for his grand prank. At some point, against the advice of Dr. Hill, he also gave up on his medication and resolved to live with the withdrawal symptoms. When returning to Blackwood Mountain, he rigged the Washington lodge with all the props necessary for the ultimate practical joke - including video cameras to ensure that the events would be recorded for posterity and uploaded to the Internet.

Accompanying this prank, he created a fake persona to scare his friends: Josh tried to convince his friends that an escaped convict named Victor Milgram was loose on the mountain, who swore revenge on the Washington family for supposedly getting him fired from his job in the '90s. In reality, Victor Milgram was a deceased janitor who worked for the Blackwood Pines Hotel in the 1950s. Josh likely found him through records, and even recreated his entire outfit for the Psycho.

Involvement

Chapter Appearances
Prologue:	Absent
Chapter 1:	Absent
Chapter 2:	Absent
Chapter 3:	Debut
Chapter 4:	Appears
Chapter 5:	Appears
Chapter 6:	Appears
Chapter 7:	Appears
Chapter 8:	Absent
Chapter 9:	Absent
Chapter 10:	Absent
Credits:	Mentioned

Chapter 3

The Psycho dragging Ashley.

The Psycho stalks the survivors first in an attempt to capture them. The interactions towards the characters are influenced by the player's choices.

He is first introduced when Chris and Ashley think they hear Josh in the kitchen. Ashley opens the door and then is pulled inside, with the door slamming shut. Chris struggles to get the door open and when he finally does, he is punched by the Psycho and gets knocked out. The Psycho then drags Ashley out of the room, leaving an unconscious Chris. He afterwards goes on to light many of the candles in the lodge.

Chapter 4

During this chapter, the Psycho has already captured Ashley and makes Chris choose between saving her and Josh. No matter the player's choice, Josh will always be sawed in half. It is later revealed that Josh's body was only a fake.

Chapter 5

The Psycho is shown watching TV monitors, showing various parts of the estate. The center monitor shows Matt and Emily outside the gate, and as they go out, the Psycho locks the gate.

The Psycho watching Sam as she bathes.

The Psycho is then shown watching an unsuspecting Sam while she is taking a bath. He then leaves the room and shuts the door, the air blowing out her lit candle as he closes the door. She then removes her earphones and goes down the stairs in a towel. As she goes in the lodge's cinema room, the doors slam shut and she is shown a video of her bathing and Josh being sawed in half. The Psycho will then burst the doors open and chase Sam. He attempts to capture her by knocking her out with either gas or a syringe. The Psycho will catch Sam except if the player chooses to hide at the last opportunity and did not kill the squirrel in chapter 1 as Chris.

At the end of the chapter, another Dr. Hill therapy session will happen. As he looks at the scarecrow card, The Psycho suddenly appears in front of Dr. Hill.

Chapter 6

The Psycho messes with Ashley and Chris as they search for Sam. He makes ghosts appear, dolls move, and items fly off the wall. If Ashley chooses to investigate the movement, she can see the Psycho in his workshop. After finding Sam or a dummy in her clothes, the Psycho will appear and knock out Chris. If Ashley grabbed the scissors, she will be given the opportunity to stab him. If she does, it's not a fatal stab and it only makes him angry. He will punch her and she will be knocked out. The Psycho then ties up Ashley and Chris to two chairs. The Psycho makes Chris decide whether to shoot Ashley or kill himself as two saw blades inch toward them from above. At the end of the episode, Dr. Hill patronizes the Psycho for torturing the others.

Throughout the Psycho's pursuit of the game's protagonists, it is revealed that he is the one being interviewed by Dr. Hill.

Chapter 7

Josh reveals himself to be the Psycho.

If Sam escaped the Psycho and found the workshop, she can see him in the monitor room through a door. Later, the Psycho steps out of the shadows and shows himself to Chris, Ashley, Sam and Mike when it is revealed neither Chris nor Ashley were killed in the trap. Chris tries to shoot him and the Psycho tells him that there are only blanks in the gun. He walks over and takes off his mask in front of all of them. The Psycho is revealed to be Josh, who faked his own death as part of a prank on his friends. He never intended to kill any of them, though he doesn't seem to mind hurting them as he knocks out Ashley and Chris, and is far from gentle in his pursuit of Sam.

The supposed motive for his prank is to get revenge on the people who humiliated Hannah and indirectly caused her and Beth's disappearance. However, Sam and Chris are included in Josh's revenge scheme, despite not being involved in (and even opposed to) the original prank. He is delusional in thinking that his prank would be acceptable to his friends and he filmed most of it, hoping to be an internet sensation. Mike becomes angry and blames Josh for killing Jessica. He then knocks Josh out cold.

The next scene shows Mike and Chris leading Josh outside of the lodge to the shed. They show their disappointment and anger toward Josh after the reveal. Depending on the player's choices, Chris will hit Josh multiple times. At the shed, Chris and Mike tie Josh up as his speech deteriorates into incoherent rambling. He will comment on the player's two decisions with Ashley as well.

Chapter 8

After Mike leaves Josh alone in the shed, he will be dragged away by a Wendigo.

Chapter 9

Josh is dropped into the mines unconscious.

Chapter 10

Josh experiences vivid hallucinations of his sisters, Dr. Hill, a pig, and a Wendigo. His voice as the Psycho can be heard, saying "time has run out for Josh." His hallucinations with Hannah and Beth and their strange zombie faces show that Josh truly blames himself for not doing anything to help, even though he was physically unable to.

Credits (Mentioned)

• If Ashley stabbed Josh as the Psycho with scissors, she will explain that she did so in an attempt to escape. She will clarify that she had no idea he was the Psycho and that she was unaware that he was behind the traps.
• If Sam, Mike, and Jessica have died, then Matt will refer to the Psycho by saying a madman killed Josh.

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood

The Psycho makes numerous appearances in the Until Dawn VR-spin-off Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. Namely at the beginning level, Haunted Lodge.

Until Dawn (Film)

The Slasher wearing the Psycho's outfit in the Until Dawn film.

Although the Psycho himself does not make an appearance in the Until Dawn film, a clown-masked Slasher echoes his outfit and mask, serving as a direct visual reference to the original character.

Trivia

• The Psycho can affect two chapter titles: Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.
  • To obtain Vengeance in Chapter 6, the player must get caught by the Psycho in Chapter 5.
  • To obtain Psychosis in Chapter 6, the player must hide and successfully evade the Psycho in Chapter 5.
  • To obtain Loss in Chapter 7, the player must not stab the Psycho and leave Ashley defenseless in Chapter 6.
  • To obtain Violence in Chapter 7, the player must stab the Psycho in self defense in Chapter 6.
• Will Byles, the director of Until Dawn, was opposed to making a psycho the overarching villain of the game, as was the case in the London Studio prototype. He felt that this would have been lazy writing as well as perpetuating a negative stereotype against the mentally ill.
• The Psycho is an amalgamation of many different iconic villains from horror and thriller cinema:
  • Jigsaw from the horror franchise Saw seems to have lent some inspiration, as the Psycho also puts his victims through deadly decisions. Both villains have a "broken porcelain doll" appearance and modulated voice.
  • Jason Voorhees' outfit from Friday the 13th Part 2, a pair of denim overalls and a long-sleeved work shirt, may have lent itself to the Psycho's design. One of the Psycho's previous masks was also a fabric sack.
  • Anton Chigurh, the main antagonist from No Country For Old Men, may have also given inspiration. While chasing Sam through the lodge, The Psycho is armed with a gas cylinder similar to Chigurh's signature weapon, "a captive bolt pistol," which is used for stunning animals prior to slaughter, except The Psycho is using gas as a stunning weapon, not a pistol.
• Sam, Chris, and Ashley receive the brunt of Josh's prank, despite being the three protagonists with the least involvement or no involvement in the prologue prank besides Josh himself.
  • It is possible that the others getting caught up in Wendigo situations prevented Josh from carrying out other parts of his prank.
  • The February 2nd entry in Hannah's Diary (only in the remake) makes it plausible that Josh thought Sam's involvement in the prank was greater than what it was.
  • Chris and Sam had more involvement in the prank earlier in the game's development. As seen through development materials:
    • Cut dialogue featuring Chris and Sam's participation.
    • Old demo footage showing Chris in the prank video recorded by Matt, as well as Chris' doll being placed in the guest room of the dollhouse, rather than upstairs passed out with Josh (whose doll didn't exist originally).
      • Curiously, Sam does not have a doll even in the demo footage, indicating it's likely her removal from the prank happened earlier in development than Chris'. She does, however, have a doll (which appears to be her PlayStation 3 design) present in Until Dawn: Rush of Blood.
  • Josh has lines indicating that "bringing the group together" was an additional motive for his actions:
    • "I swear, [Chris and Ashley] just need like... something to bond over, y'know? Some sort of traumatic event to send them into each other's arms. I mean at this rate they'll be in the geriatric ward before Chris makes a move."
    • "It's not gonna happen [...] if [Chris] doesn't go for it [asking Ashley out]. Which, knowing Chris, he won't unless someone's holding a gun to his head."
    • "I'm a healer, man. I bring people together. Not like you assholes."
• The Psycho's surveillance room contains a number of interesting details from the PlayStation 3 beta such as pervious character designs, a labeled map, and camera images from the prototype.
• The Psycho's design went through a couple of iterations:
  • In the 2008 London Studio prototype, the killer wore a hooded outfit and a fabric mask around the bottom of his face. In this version, the killer was also a different person, as Josh Washington did not yet exist in this version.
  • In the 2013 prototype for Until Dawn, the Psycho's mask is made of what appears to be a burlap sack and resembles a scarecrow's head.
• In early trailers for the 2024 remake, the Psycho's mask is different; the eye-holes are not as dark, making the Psycho's eyes and the surrounding skin much more visible. In later trailers and the remake itself, the mask is closer to how it was in the original game.
• In the version of PlayStation Studio's production logo used for the Until Dawn film, the Psycho appears alongside other iconic Sony characters.
• In the movie, the Psycho's mask is a bit different. The actual mask only consists of the white, skull-like part while the gums and the area around the mouth are part of the Slasher's actual, disfigured face. It also includes more cracks and is missing the attached hair piece.

Quotes

• "Hello Samantha. Looking for me? I don't think you'll have much luck by looking Samantha. You're only going to see what I want you to see. And I have quite a lot to show you."
• "She's quite beautiful isn't she? A beautiful bathing bird. Do you think she has any idea what lies ahead? Do you think these were the last happy moments of this creatures life?"
• "I'm going to give you ten seconds. Nine.....Eight.....Seven.....Sam. Sa-m!"
• "So sorry..."
• "The doctor will see you now."
• "Run!! Yes run!!" - If Sam snuck up behind the Psycho but could not use the bat.
• "Don't you know I can smell you, Sam? I can smell your fear."
• "Little birdy unhappy in her cage?" - finding Sam in the dumbwaiter.
• "Here little kitty. Here pussy pussy."
• "No, no, no, no. LIVE AND LEARN!" - after Ashley stabs him with the scissors.

Gallery

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