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NOTE: This page is for the original videogame version of Tom Smith. For the novelization version, click HERE.
| “ | (Tom removes his mask) Emma: Tom? Tom: That's right. It was a quiet innocent Tom, harmless, walk-all-over-him Tom, mama's boy Tom. Well, I did it! I killed them all. Emma: But why? Tom: To avenge my brother. Anthony wasn't the Easter Ripper, I was! He turned himself in to save me. I thought I could control the urge to kill, but it's back and now I'm going to kill you! |
„ |
| ~ Tom revealing himself to be the real Easter Ripper to Emma before attacking her. |
| “ | You can't kill me... I'm the EASTER RIPPER! | „ |
| ~ Tom after the fight with Emma. |
Thomas "Tom" Smith, better known as the Easter Ripper, is the main antagonist of the survival indie horror game Murder House. He is a serial child killer and the News 9 cameraman in disguise, whose brother Anthony was wrongfully believed to be the culprit since he turned himself in to protect Tom.
He was voiced by Devante Johnson.
Biography[]
In late March, 1979, Tom has took a seasonal position as an Easter Bunny at the local mall, which gave him the perfect opportunity to abduct and kill children. His M.O. was to kidnap a child, bring them to his house, lock them up in one of his hidden rooms below the house, torture and then release them into his greenhouse to go on a deadly Easter hunt and ultimately murder them. At some point, one of his victims, Randy Martinez, has escaped and reported everything that happened to him to the police.
However, instead of Tom facing the justice he deserved, his brother Anthony confessed to the murders and was executed in 1985 via an electric chair. Tom, filled with rage over the death of his brother, has went on another killing spree and managed to murder at least one more child named Justin after he fell asleep at the mall where Tom used to work in 1986.
In 1987, he takes the job as a camera operator for the News 9 show and comes up with a revenge plan upon realizing that they're tasked with making a documentary movie about the Easter Ripper in the abandoned house where he grew up in. Tom sneaks into his former house, murders the real estate agent who was waiting for the News 9 crew there and sets everything up. When he along with his crew arrives at the place, all the doors into the house are locked and their young intern, Emma, is instructed to find a way in. She breaks through the basement window in the back of the house and unlocks all the doors.
Once all the equipment is moved from the van and into the house and set, it turns out that the power's out and Emma is once sent to fix the problem. Conveniently, she finds the real estate agent's note on a kitchen table and discovers that he indeed has already arrived at the house and mentioned that someone had broken in through the basement window and stole the fuse from a fuse box, hinting at an unknown presence at the house. She finds the fuse and restores the power, thus making it possible to start the filming process. From the words of the reporter, Dana, we learn of the atrocities that have been committed in this house by Anthony Smith, the Easter Ripper, although unknown to her, the real culprit currently assists them in making a documentary film about him. Gary, the director, urges Emma to find Dana after she went to fix her makeup.
After she finds Dana in the basement and brings her a cup of water, she hands a key to Emma, the one that she had found earlier while exploring the house. The crew moves the equipment into the basement and films another segment there, while Gary instructs Emma to put on a sheet and play a ghost to make the film less boring. After they're done, Emma uses the key to unlock a door leading into one of the rooms where she acquires a flashlight. She later uses it to find some additional items in the basement and notices that the night is coming. Gary sends her to buy some pizzas for him and the crew, but she finds their van destroyed and an ominous note pinned on the windshield. She informs Gary of this, but he is more concerned about the film-making and instructs her to hold the camera since Tom is missing.
Emma later meets him in the basement with him giving her a key to the attic and ventures on to "look for another way out", when in reality he changes into the Easter Ripper costume and gets to the second floor, then brutally kills Dana when she runs out of the room in panic and goes on to chasing Emma. After hiding into the attic, she realizes that she has to escape. All the doors out of the house are locked, so she's forced to play Tom's twisted game, searching for the Easter eggs all over the house and collecting them into the basket on the first floor. While running away from the killer and solving his puzzles, she eventually finds a hidden prison in the basement, where Tom used to hold and torture his victims.
Once she collects all the eggs that were left with the victims' corpses, the door in the basement opens and behind it she finds a ladder that leads to the greenhouse. When Emma approaches the exit, Tom suddenly appears and reveals his real identity by taking off the bunny mask. He explains that his motivation was to avenge his brother Anthony who was executed instead of him. He attacks Emma, but with the help of all the weapons that she discovered throughout the house, she manages to take him down.
Nonetheless, Tom survives the damage inflicted upon him and exclaims that he cannot be killed. The situation reaches its climax when suddenly, several rotten corpses of the children murdered and buried in the greenhouse by Tom come to life and surround him while he's shocked at the surreal nature of this development. They start devouring him, giving Emma a chance to run away. Just as she exits the greenhouse, a bright light shines from the place where Tom is being devoured, probably to signify him being dragged to Hell by his unfortunate victims.
Appearance[]
Tom, a man of medium height in his early thirties, has light-brown hair and hazel eyes, though he appears significantly taller when donning his costume. His everyday attire consists of a vibrant purple shirt adorned with various colorful patterns, blue jeans secured with a black leather belt, and brown shoes.
In his menacing role as the Easter Ripper, Tom transforms into a fearsome figure, clad in an imposing Easter Bunny costume with grimy purple fur and a dingy yellow bowtie. He wields a formidable sickle, adding a chilling edge to his sinister persona.
Personality[]
Tom is a profoundly disturbed and blood-thirsty individual with an inexplicable obsession with Easter themes.
At first glance, Tom appears to be a laid-back individual who works hard, effortlessly blending into everyday life with an air of normalcy and reliability. However, when he finally drops this facade, a disturbing revelation occurs, exposing the true depths of his malevolent nature. Tom skillfully hides his true self from Emma and the other members of the News 9 crew, maintaining a facade of innocence while plotting his sinister deeds.
He is a master at intimidation and hunting, stalking his victims undetected and ambushing them with a chilling combination of heavy breathing and slow, deliberate movements. Tom ensures his victims die painfully, as shown by his brutal murders of Dana and Gary. He also delights in mutilating and defiling the bodies of his prey, stuffing Easter eggs painted with tarot cards symbolizing their demise into their corpses, hinting at a twisted sense of humor.
Tom shows no mercy to anyone, targeting both children and adults, though he particularly revels in tormenting children. He holds them captive, torturing them with a variety of devices displayed near their cells, and plays sadistic tricks, such as hiding razor blades in chocolate eggs and feeding them to his starving prisoners. The positioning of some skeletons in these cells suggests he may have violated his victims, revealing a deeply disturbing pathology.
Balancing on the edge of psychotic bloodlust and cold cunning, Tom is incredibly intelligent, capable of portraying an innocent bystander while meticulously planning his horrific deeds. He maintained a neutral and harmless demeanor while interacting with the crew, strategically placing items around the house to form intricate puzzles and riddles that led Emma through the building. He even faked his own death on camera to mislead Emma, providing clues to the next egg location. His fury only truly erupted when Emma was the last survivor; he removed his mask, revealed himself as the Easter Ripper, and attacked her with relentless aggression, undeterred by severe injuries.
Despite his arrogance and egotistical nature, Tom harbors a deep attachment to his brother Anthony. The entire "Easter egg hunt" was orchestrated to avenge Anthony's unjust death, although Tom admits that his murderous urges had become uncontrollable after being suppressed for so long.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Peak human strength: Tom's physical strength seems to almost surpass the regular humans. He lifts both children and full-grown adults using only one arm with ease, slices off the entire limbs of his victims with a sickle in a matter of a few swings, beats Emma to death with his bare hands in one of the death animations and is even able squeeze her so tightly in his embrace that her bones snap.
- Superhuman durability: The unlikely ability of Tom that is never explained logically is that he can recover from the most devastating wounds in no time, demonstrated when he prowles around the house, since it's impossible to kill him with any weapons available, but to only stop him temporarily, and during the boss fight with Tom, where all kinds of damage, including the shotgun and pistol blasts and blows with a fire poker, prove useless after he gets back up almost unscathed. Strangely enough, right after this episode, he's overpowered and taken down by his undead victims.
- High intelligence: Even though he displays animalistic cruelty and erratic, deviant behaviour, Tom is still a decent manipulator and strategist. He manages to keep an eye on his prey at all times, sneaking around the house and appearing from nowhere whenever he wants to. He carefully blends in with the crew in the beginning of the story, never standing out or attracting much attention, even helping and reassuring Emma on several occasions to hide his true intentions. He shows awareness of this fake personality, as indicated by his rant in the end. He was able to plan the entire deadly Easter egg hunt as well, having a good knowledge of his house, leaving items around the place to prolong Emma's stay at the house, only to snap right before the final battle and attack Emma without any precautions.
The Easter Ripper's Victims[]
- Eleven Children (mentioned): Abducted from the mall, tortured in his house and murdered during the deadly Easter egg hunt, with some of them freezing and starving to death after they've been left for dead upon Anthony's arrest and the house being abandoned.
- Anthony Smith: Turned himself in to the police, claiming to be the Easter Ripper to protect Tom, later executed via an electric chair.
- Janitor Jack (possibly): Went to go call the police and also defend himself and Justin from the Easter Ripper, but the killer eventually follows Jack and presumably murders him off-screen.
- Justin: Stalked throughout the mall and either kidnapped to be brought to Tom's house or killed on the spot with a sickle.
- Jerry, the Real Estate Agent: Killed off-screen before the News 9 crew arrives at the house, body dumped in a bathtub and an Easter egg with the Justice tarot card stuffed in his mouth.
- Dana: Approached from behind, lifted in the air and then the right arm along with a head chopped off with a sickle, later an Easter egg with the Death tarot card shoved into the mouth.
- Gary: Disemboweled and sliced multiple times with a sickle, body hanged by a chain attached to the ceiling, an Easter egg with the Hanged tarot card placed inside the gaping wound on his stomach.
- Emma (if caught): Face sliced off with a sickle, caught and squeezed to death, or thrown to the ground and the head slammed to death against the floor.
Quotes[]
| “ | Don't ask me, I'm just the camera guy. | „ |
| ~ Tom Smith in the beginning, pretending to know nothing. |
| “ | Tom: What do you think of this place? Emma: It's fine, I guess... It's kind of spooky though. Tom: Yeah, now that you mention it. You better be careful. Let me know if anything suspicious happens. |
„ |
| ~ Tom pretending to care about Emma. |
| “ | It looks like we're stuck here. All the doors are locked. Look, I found a key, but I can't figure out what it opens. | „ |
| ~ Tom manipulating Emma in the basement. |
| “ | No, get away from me. You can't do this. I killed you! | „ |
| ~ Tom's last words before being torn apart and killed by the spirits of his victims. |