| “ | It's almost the end of the night. Almost the end of the show. But it's not over just yet. We've got a little time, still. So let's make the most of it. | „ |
| ~ Marie before her final confrontation with Forrest |
Marie Campbell is the main antagonist of the indie game Killer Frequency from Team 17 Digital.
The sister of Peggy Weaver and mother of Henry Barrow, she is a serial killer that started her murder spree as a way to get revenge for the death of her boyfriend George Barrow, who died during a prank by Teddy Gallows Jr. To do so, she decided to take on the identity of the Whistling Man, a serial killer that terrorized Gallows Creek several during the 50s, which was also the costume that Teddy was wearing when George fell to his death.
Appearance[]
Her real face and appearance is never shown in the game, since she is only heard thought the phone and the few times she appears physically she is always hidden behind her Whistling Man persona.
While wearing the costume of the Whistling Man, she is pretty much identical to her son, Henry Barrow, and most likely the original Whistling Man too. In this façade she have short black hairs, a long dark coat and a white, ghostly mask. This last detail is the most prominent feature of those that takes on the Whistling Man identity, and is a white mask with two big dark hole in place of the eyes and the lower half missing to allow the one that wear it to speak normally.
Personality[]
Marie is shown to be a very vengeful and wrathful woman, ready to do anything to fulfill her objectives, which in this case is to kill anyone that was even remotely involved in the death of his boyfriend, George Barrow. To do that, she didn't hesitate to turn her own son, Henry Barrow, into a serial killer, despite the fact that she genuinely cares about him.
She is repeatedly shown to be extremely ruthless, as seen when, if she manages to enter Roller Ricky's apartment, she brutally kills Maxy, his dog, without even a second thought, just to make Ricky suffer because she thought he had an involvement in George's death. She also have no problems in attempting to kill several kids only because they were doing a prank related to the Whistling Man, even successfully killing Jimmy, one of them, regardless of Forrest's actions. She even attempts to kill Eugene, a innocent kid, simply because he was the son of two people that were at the party in which George died, despite he himself being completely external to the incident.
She also shows little to no empathy towards anyone that was involved even remotely with the death of his boyfriend, showing no remorse with killing any of them regardless of the fact that some of them were forced to comply with Teddy Gallows Jr., and even going as far as trying to kill her own sister, which was completely in the dark about everything that happened, just because her real targets, her parents, died already and as such she settle for the next best thing.
Despite the fact that her quest for vengeance turned her into a monster just like Teddy Gallows Jr., she is not completely evil like the original Whistling Man, Edward Marshall Mooney, was. When she had the chance to kill Carrie, a girl that was the victim of the Whistling Man prank of Jimmy and the others, she let her go because she saw a bit of herself in her, since it was a similar prank that killed her boyfriend.
When she is confronted by Forrest regarding her actions, she also does show a bit of empathy toward some specific people after discovering the reasons as to why they lied about George's death, or that they weren't even involved in the first place. However, this empathy is fleeting, and she always find an excuse to justify her attempted or successful murder, showing that, while still having a bit of humanity in her, her quest for vengeance corrupted her to the point of not caring if she kills innocent people.
On top of this, during the final confrontation with her, after discovering that Peggy kept the card she gave her for her eight birthday, she does hesitate for a second, proving that despite everything she does somewhat cares for her sister. But this affection is not as strong as it used to be, since if Forrest doesn't tell her about the card she kills Peggy without a second thought, and even if she discover of the card she still tries to kill her after the police arrives, proving that she is too far gone.
In the end, she is a broken individual, which became ruthless and vengeful after the death of the person she loved, not caring about anyone she kills, innocent or not, if that brings her closer to fulfilling her revenge.
Biography[]
Marie was born in Gallows Creek and lived most of his life before the incident in the town alongside her parents and her younger sister Margaret Campbell, who would later on change name to Peggy Weaver. She attended Gallows Creek Highschool, where she met George Barrow during a match of football. The two started dating and quickly feel in love with each other, and during that time Marie became pregnant, althought no one knew at the time. She was happy with George, until the two of them went to a party that took place the night of September 3, 1968. During that party, a group of students decided to do a prank to all of the guests, with two of them dressing up as the Whistling Man, a dangerous serial killer that murdered a dozen of people in the town several years ago, while another of the students, Jason Parker, pretended to be killed by him.
This obviously scared everyone at the party, causing everyone to start to frantically fleeing an separating Marie and George, with the latter that run until she reached the bottom of Whistling Point, which was the place from which the original Whistling Man jumped down to his death while fleeing from the police. Here, she is reached by someone in the Whistling Man costume, which reveals himself to be Chuck Brody, another student of the Highschool, and while the two of them are at the foot of the Whistling Point they see on the cliff of it George Barrow cornered by another student dressed as the infamours serial killer, this student being Teddy Gallows Jr., son of Theodore C. Gallows Sr., a business magnate who owned basically all of the town. While up there, George falls down right in the river under the point, hitting his head on the bottom of it and dying on impact.
This incident left Marie devasted and started a series of cover ups from Teddy and his father to make it seem like a drunken accident and nothing more, with said lies even going as far as omit the prank entirely. Marie was the only one that wanted the truth to come out, but her parents insisted that she should have given up on it, even kicking her out of the house once they realized that she wouldn't give up and that she was pregnant of George's child. Campbell finished highschool in twon and then decided to move out.
After realizing that the one that killed his loved one would get away from all of that scoot free, the woman decided to dedicate the next years of her life plotting here revenge, pulling her son, which she named Henry Barrow, in her scheme. The two of them started to kill several people that were connected in one way or the other to the incident, going closer and closer to Gallows Creek until, at the day of the 19 anniversary of the death of Geroge, day which was renamed "Whistling Night" because of what happened both with the original Whistling Man and with Barrow, they reached Gallows Creek and started their revenge on the people in town.
After reaching the town, one between her and Henry goes near the KFAM radio station building and kills a unknown individual, believed by many to be Clive, a man that was part of the cover up and that took a job as the janitor of the radio station after the death of Theodore C. Gallows Sr., while the other one attacks the police station of the small town. While there, the one of the two that went there, believed to be Marie herself, kills the Sheriff Matthew, who agreed on the falsified report of George's death, and also cut the both the phone line and the CB radio which connects the structure with other police stations, effectively isolating the town to allow the two of them to go on a killing spree without anyone being able to stop them.
After killing the Sheriff and knocking out another agent, Sara Martinet, the only other police office remaining in the town, Leslie Harper, leaves to the KFAM radio station, with only Forrest Nash and Peggy Weaver inside of it, the duty to manage the 911 calls in her place, while she attempts to go physically to the closer police station, which is hours away. While still in the Gallows Creek police station, the Whistling Man attacks both here and the unconscious Sara, with the later's survival being dependant on the decision that Forrest took earlier. Regardless of Sara's survival, Leslie manages to start the car and goes to the closer town in an attempt to get some help, while Forrest and Peggy attempts to help the people in the town throught their radio.
After successfully isolating the town, the two of them starts to search for their victims, occasionally deviating in their program to attack or kill other individuals. The first one is Sandra Sharpe, who found the body but then was treatened by the Gallows to change her story to fit with their narrative, and then they attempt to also murder Maurice Russell, the main journalist that covered George's death but refused to print Marie's version of the events. Their fate is dependant on the choices that Forrest makes during the calls, but if Maurice survives he will manage to lock the Whistling Man inside a room, before discovering that he managed to get away from despite it being locked from the outside.
They than attempts to kill other individuals, like Virgian Sullivan, who was forced by Clive to manipulate the results of the autopsy on George, and Eugene, whose only "crime" was being the son of two students that went to the party in which George died. After this attempts, which will also depend on Forrest's decisions, the two hears someone called Murphy that challenges the Whistling Man, which causes Henry to go there and beat him before attempting to kill him by burning him alive inside a Waste Disposal site. His life is also in the hands of Forrest.
It's at that point that Marie starts calling the radio station with the false name of "Dawn", mysteriously requesting a song before hanging up. Forrest discovers that Peggy threw the song out the window since she hated it, and so Nash decides to play a different song instead. Meanwhile, Campbell decides to slightly deviating from her plan after seeing a group of kids at the Loramie Estate doing a prank related to the Whistling Man on a girl named Carrie, which angers her since it reminds her of the circumstances in which George died. For this reason, she kills Jimmy, the leader of the kids, and then attempts to also kill everyone else. Forrest is once again the one their survival revolves on, but regardless of how things goes Carrie will be the only one left in the Estate, and Marie will go away, leaving her unharmed much to her confusion.
Marie than calls the radio again as Dawn, asking for her song to be played and claiming that she has vital informations that will tell them if they do. After going outside to search for the vinyl, Forrest sees the Whistling Man not too far away from him, but despite that he manages to retrive the vinyl. Noticing that he is locked outside, he decides to go throught the basement entrace, and in doing so he discovers a secret room within the janitor office, seeing a corkboard with various photos and clippings, which Forrest bring upstair. The two mistakenly thinks that Clive is the Whistling Man, and analizing the corkboard they try to understand who will be next victims, which will be Chuck Brody, who will survive only if Forrest and Peggy understand that he is the next in the line.
Her next target is Roller Ricky, another student that was present at the party in which George died but was actually completely oblivious to the whole situation, and ended up being severely affected by George's death. However Marie is unaware of that, and as such uses once again her "Dawn" identity to try and trick Forrest into helping her enter Ricky's appartament, which is locked with a electronic lock. If Forrest understands that she doesn't have good intentions, mainly thanks to her previous calls which was deemed as suspect by both him and Peggy, and will instead ring the allarm, she runs away the moment Ricky shots at her with his rifle.
After her attempt at killing Ricky, Marie goes to her next victim, wwhich Jason, the student that pretended to be killed by the Whistling Man the night of the incident that took George's life. She stabs Jason, leaving him to bleed on the floor while Casey, Jason's girlfriend, calls the police to seek help, with the call obviously being redirected to the KFAM radio station. At that point, Jason's life is in Forrest's hand, who will need to give Casey the correct instruction to prevent him to bleed to death while a doctor is on the way.
While Forrest is on the phone with Casey, Marie calls Peggy to tell her to meet at the school gym, which she accept despite the weirdness of the request just so that she can see her sister again after years. Soon after, a power outage hits the radio station, forcing Forrest to go into the basement to fix it, but once he comes back up he notices that Peggy is nowhere to be seen, and enters her office to check on her. However, while there, the Whistling Man closes him in it before going to the other side of the room, so that the only thing separating the two is just a thin window. But instead of attacking him, the Whistling Man just waits while a calls arrives in the radio, to which Forrest answers.
On the other side of the phone there is Marie herself, who reveals who she is and tells Forrest that he kidnapped the one that indirectly caused all of that, Teddy Gallows Jr. While in a position of advantage, Marie offers Forrest to do a little inteview with her, so that she can expose everything that Teddy and his father did to cover up the death of George. During the interview, she explains her reasons to go after each of the victims, revealing that the Whistling Man that is at the radio station in that moment is her son, Henry Barrow, and if Forrest will reply wrongly at on of his question, which is where she is in this moment, she will kill Teddy.
Regardless of how the interview goes, in the end of it Peggy arrives at the school gym, seeing that her sister is the Whistling Man that caused all the chaos that hit the town that night. Marie than explains that her real objective was killing her parents, but considering they already died prior she decided to go after her sister instead, saying that she forgot about her. Campbell prepares to kill Peggy, but Forrest can search her table to find the birthday card that Marie gifted to her and that she kept with her for all that time. This makes Marie conflicted for a moment, allowing the police to finally reach the town and raiding both the gym school and the radio station. Telling to Henry throught the phone to run away, she manages to escape the police, but not before slightly wounding Peggy out of anger.
Henry is unable to escape and is captured, while Marie manages to runs away until she reaches Whistling Point, the same spot in which the original Whistling Man killed himself while escaping and where George fell to his death because of Teddy's prank. Knowing that the police surrounded her and that she have no way of escaping this time, Marie does the same thing that Edward Marshall Mooney did decades ago, throwing herself down the Whistling Point directly into the river, presumably dying in the same way that George did 19 years ago and putting an end to her revenge schemes once and for all.
Trivia[]
- It's unknown who was the individual that her or Henry killed in the prologue of the game, but many theorize that they might have murdered Clive, the janitor of the KFAM radio who was part of the cover up of George's death, since he would have been one of the first target of Marie's rage and no one knows his fate even at the end of the game.
- In most of the calls, it's unknown who is impersonating the Whistling Man between her and Henry considering both wear their costumes most of the times. However, there are some instances in which it can be assumed to be Marie the one behind the mask:
- The killer that murdered Jimmy and attempted to do the same to the other kids at the Laramie Estate can be assumed to be her, since they weren't on the list of individuals to kill and she acted after seeing them doing a prank similar to the one that killed George. The fact that she let Carrie go is also an indication that it was her.
- It's confirmed that she is the one that targeted Roller Ricky, since she is the one that calls in the first place to trick Forrest into helping her enter his apartment.
- It can also be concluded that she was the one that stabbed Jason, since she made some personal comments after attempting to kill him.