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Bill the Butcher is the titular main antagonist of the survival indie horror game There's a Butcher Around. He's an insane mass murderer who keeps committing series of brutal spree killings, while playing "hide & seek" with his victims, picking them off one by one.
Biography[]
The events of the game transpire as a result of a crazed killer, Bill the Butcher, escaping a mental institution and prowling various locations in search of new victims.
You assume the role of one of the nine characters, trapped in a single location and forced to hide from Bill in one of the provided hiding spots, while the Butcher appears once everyone's hidden and randomly investigates an object every round, inevitably slaughtering someone and dragging their body out of sight. As less and less spots are available with the next round, due to being destroyed during the previous attacks by the Butcher, the protagonist's goal is to be the last to be left alive by choosing a place that the killer will never investigate. Inexplicably, after leaving their hiding spot upon everyone else being dead and confronting the Butcher, the hero's always saved by something right before he strikes, and each stage includes its own events, leading to Bill's defeat.
Home Sweet Home[]
Set in an ordinary apartment, the stage concludes when the hero faces off the killer, who approaches them and right before he's about to murder them, two police officers arrive, shouting "Freeze!" and then unloading their guns at Bill, with the protagonist leaving safely afterwards. Once the policemen are gone and the Butcher's body is left alone, he's revealed to have survived his wounds, grinning and letting out his signature laugh.
Butcher Lake House[]
Presumably set in Bill's own house, this stage includes the Butcher being either killed or temporarily knocked out by one of the large pig carcasses hanging from a ceiling in the house's butchery. After the protagonist leaves the building, Bill is shown emerging from the pig's entrails, smiling and giggling.
Native Forest[]
This time Bill the Butcher decides to invade the camp that, according to the sign in the middle of the location, was set near his residence. When the protagonist, being as usual the sole survivor of the massacre, confronts the killer, he's saved by a giant hairy creature passing by the scene, who's apparently identified as Bigfoot. It quickly snatches the Butcher and devours him in an instant. However, unbeknownst to the hero, Bill has once again managed to evade death, since just moments later he opens the creature's jaw while still inside it's mouth and laughs.
Sick Tower[]
Set in an unremarkable hospital, this stage ends with the Butcher suddenly clenching his chest and coughing up blood right before he's able to get the hero and falling over, bleeding from his mouth and seemingly dead, as two paramedics arrive, put his body onto the rolling bed and wheel him away. Just as expected, he's shown to be alive after the protagonist leaves, opening his eyes and smiling.
Streamer Studio[]
Set in a stereotypical apartment of some famous streamer, this stage makes Bill's demise more comical, matching its theme. He's stopped by a framed YouTube Golden Play Button falling from a wall and hitting him over the head, allowing the protagonist to flee. He gets shortly back up and walks to the edge of the screen with droopy shoulders and a dissapointed look on his face, obviously sad from losing his victim for such a silly reason, although he regains his usual psychotic grin in a few seconds.
Frosty Christmas[]
Set either in a location heavily decorated with Christmas-related attributes or in and around the actual Santa's house, this stage's outcome occurs when the protagonist's murder is prevented by the real Santa Claus, who saves them from Bill the Butcher dressed as Santa, by casting a spell and sending a thick green ray in Bill's direction, which strikes the imposter and turns him into a frog. Once the hero and Santa are gone, the Butcher, now in his amphibian form, smiles and laughs, hinting that even this transformation won't stop his killing spree and he'll find a way to resume his original appearance.
Party Hard[]
This particular stage, which seems like a lengthy hall with a celebration currently going on, concludes with yet another non-lethal takedown, as the surprised killer is splashed with a bucket of blood hanging near the ceiling, which alludes to a well-known scene from a cult horror movie Carrie. Strangely, this humiliation is enough to aid the hero in escaping the killer, who later wipes the blood off his face, then smiles and giggles.
Appearance[]
Bill is a thin male in his late thirties or early forties with black hair and the parted pencil moustache. His main outfit consists of the butcher's hat along with a dirty apron, white gloves, blue pants, brown sweater and boots. He wields dual blood-covered meat cleavers in both hands.
During the Frosty Christmas stage, his clothes are adjusted to match the location's theme, as such he wears a Santa hat, a fake white bushy beard, red apron and gloves.
Personality[]
Bill the Butcher is portrayed as a rather typical parody of a violent serial killer who carries out his murders without any reason what so ever, does it in an overly gruesome manner and is absolutely relentless, stalking and ending the people's lives as if it's the only purpose of his existence. When stumbling upon a victim, he ravages their entire hiding spot completely, breaking through all sorts of objects that get in his way, even going as far as butchering the innocent animals that were happen to be used by the hiders, cutting and slashing away at them and leaving them blood-splattered without any necessity, just simply to cause as much damage to the property around him as possible. Disturbingly, if he catches the protagonist and drags his body out of the player's view, three chopping noises can be heard when the screen goes dark, meaning that he mutilates the corpses of his victims afterwards.
No matter how cruel and wicked his crimes are, the generalized and somewhat comical side of his character always comes through to brighten up the game's mood. He's an homage to many memorable fictional killers, which culminates in the game being riddled with various horror movie and video game references, influencing the Butcher's behavior as well. He has a proclivity to giggle ominously before committing each murder and even feels obligated to lower the fake beard to reveal his smile on the Frosty Christmas stage while laughing, as if reveling in his villainous role. Some of his defeats demonstrate the same level of black humor, as they don't kill him, sometimes just leaving him in an embarrassing position, like the instance where he was doused with a bucket of blood and just chose to stand there while the protagonist was getting away, humiliated, and the time where he was hit with a Golden Play Button. Nonetheless, none of these takedowns ever deter the killer from returning to his old habit of slaughtering people.
Powers and Abilities[]
Bill is very proficient in handling his meat cleavers, having being a legitimate butcher in the past, swinging and stabbing with them using both hands and rarely lets go of them, even after he's shot by the police, as he doesn't just fall to the ground, but is instead seen balancing on his blades. His physical strength is also quite impressive, since he often slashes with such force that both the wooden and metal objects end up with large holes in them or lying in pieces. His ability to drag the bodies of young people with just one hand without being slowed down by them is of note as well. However, his most baffling trait is his apparent tendency to live through lethal injuries, such as gunshots, a heavy pig carcass falling on him, being afflicted by a severe ailment in the Sick Tower and even being eaten whole by the Bigfoot in the Native Forest. Interestingly, this ability also pays tribute to many fictional slasher villains, such as Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger.
Trivia[]
- A welcome sign in Bill's house has a date 1935 written on it. It could signify when the house itself was build or the date of foundation of Bill's butchery. However, if it's Bill's own date of birth, it means that he's supposed to be an elderly man during the game's events and has quite a longevity, considering the game's modern setting.