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“ | I bid you welcome. Enter freely and of your own will. | „ |
~ Avery Marx introducing himself to Shadow Man. |
“ | Come to momma now, baby... Sweet baby, come to momma! For we are many! | „ |
~ Avery Marx. |
Avery Marx, also known as the Home Improvement Killer, is an insane and disturbing serial killer who serves as a supporting antagonist in the adventure-horror game Shadow Man. He is a member of The Five. He used to work as a carpenter and is now the prime suspect in a series of terrifying homicides in New York, including his own mother.
He was voiced by Simon Phipps.
Appearance[]
Avery is a man in his late twenties with pale complexion, very short dark brown hair and brown eyes. He weighs about 150-155 lbs and stands at about 5'8-6' tall, making him the most slender member of The Five. Due to him being hunched all the time, he seems a lot shorter than he actually is. His clothes of choice are blue overalls with a few tools attached to them (most likely left from his former job as a carpenter) and night vision goggles. He doesn't wear any shoes as well.
His pale complexion and weight are probably the results of him spending almost all the time in pitch darkness and having to resort to cannibalism due to the lack of job. His eyes are squinted given by his lifestyle.
His true demon form is revealed after enough damage is dealt to him, similar to the other members of The Five.
Personality[]
Avery had a difficult childhood because judging by the dialogues he mentions with Shadowman, it is likely that he was sexually molested and raped by his own mother. He also showed signs of mental illness, low intelligence and mental retardation.
He seems to be disorganized in his personal life, while being extremely organized in his MO, implying that he might have OCD. He is a skilled murderer and tormentor, breaking his victims mentally before ending their lives. For female victims, it can be implied that he is raping them based on the audio. He records them begging for life and keeps tape recorders strapped to their corpses, which are constantly on, showing him to be sadistic. Some of his victims were tortured at his hideout, which becomes clear when Shadowman stumbles upon many rooting corpses found in some rooms of his hotel and several crates containing mind-broken malnourished people with skinless faces and chopped off arms. The redeeming quality of him is his affection towards animals, specifically canaries that he breeds and keeps around his hideout. In addition, he has two Rottweilers kept at the back of his hotel as guard dogs, which he takes good care of. However, sometimes Avery loses his interest in the canaries and kills them for the sake of using their skulls in his MO or resorts to feeding on them.
Overall, he fits the description of a disorganized unstable sociopath. Judging by the phrase "Mama says, eat your meat!" he hallucinates her voice and is cannibalistic, which could have even been a habit inherited from his own mother. Skinless corpses can be seen hung on meat hooks in some areas, and a human heads can be seen on the kitchen table and flooded attic.
His theme is generally involves spooky theme that expresses his mental illness and the terror of his method of killing his victims and whenever he's around it turns into a sudden and loud changes of tone intended to frighten.
History[]
The Home Improvement Killer[]
Avery was born on January 18 1973 and grew up with his single mother Cassie Marx, most likely in New York. After completing his education, Marx started working as a carpenter, but he quickly left the profession and began murdering people, and Avery chose his mother as his first victim, whom he killed in a brutal way.
After her murder, Avery converted an abandoned hotel on Mordant Street in Queens in New York as his home and operations base. There he bred canaries, whose nests were located throughout the building.
For a period of two years between February 1998 to October 1999, Avery murdered 12 people (although this number is unconfirmed, because the police managed to find only 12 bodies) in a very specific way which reflects his nickname. Avery was famous for sneaking into the homes of his victims late at night, then cutting off electricity and power and then stalking his victims in their homes using a night vision goggles and two nail guns. After long torture and psychological torment, Avery finally killed his victims, leaving the canary's skull at the crime scene along with a card wrapped inside with his symbol and an elegantly written poetry that read:
“ | From the east the idiot monster cometh, With nails to announce its blasphemous intent, In still dark chambers it awaits the Shadow, Ebon body scar the power, Dark Messiah with hideous strength. FOR WE ARE MANY. |
„ |
Avery Marx also used the skin and internal organs of his victims to decorate his hideout and make furniture from them because in the whole hotel there can be found chairs, tables and even booths for canaries made from skin sewn together and even carpets that are entirely made of human skin leaving rotten skinless bodies in dark rooms with a recording from which emit the crying of tortured people by Avery. In addition, the entire attic where Avery lives is flooded with blood.
Defeat[]
At some point in his life, Avery was recruited by Legion and Jack the Ripper, who became a half-demon that cannot be killed normally to start an apocalypse on Earth with four other serial killers.
Shadowman arrived at his abandoned hotel to kill Avery and stop his killing spree. In the main hall, Avery introduced himself and told him to make himself comfortable, then disappeared from view. Shadowman explored the entire hotel in the complete darkness while watching out for Avery, who occasionally appeared and attacked him. Shadowman also discovered the skinless bodies of other victims and furniture made from human skin in the entire hotel or people who were still alive and even the attic flooded with blood and severed human heads, after which he concluded that Avery killed more than 12 people. After reaching the attic past the bloodfall, Shadowman and Avery fought death and life. Despite being a half-demon, Avery fell at the hands of Shadowman, who ended his bloody slaughter on innocent people.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Avery Marx is based on the murderer Ed Gein, a man who turned corpses into furniture and other objects and was too or even almost madly emotionally attached to his mother. He's also based on Buffalo Bill from "Silence of the Lambs", who wore night vision goggles and kidnapped women to his hideout. Bill also owned a dog, and had a fascination with moths like Avery had with canaries.
- His slim appeance and high pitched voice makes him quite similar to Carnage/Kletus Kasady.
- During his first appearance in the game and sometimes the battle he shouts "Heeeere's Johny", the famous quote Jack Torrance makes in The Shining.
- He quoted Dracula with the "I bid you welcome, enter freely of your own will".