Scissorman

Appearances

Scissorman's first appearance was introduced in the SNES Clock Tower (and its novel and manga adaptations) with the original being Bobby Barrows, a deformed young son of Mary and Simon Barrows. Throughout the game, he chases Jennifer Simpson through the Barrows mansion in an attempt to kill her. He seems to take some childish delight in playing with his victims before he kills them, as he can be seen dancing for a short while if he knocks Jennifer to the floor. It is heavily implied that he is a demonic being, as it is discovered that his mother Mary was a cultist, and in the opening cutscene the baby Bobby's eyes are completely white. Bobby meets his fate as Jennifer activates the clock tower bells, and the chimes disorient him enough so that he falls off the clock tower to his presumed death.

In Clock Tower 2, Scissorman returns with a blue overcoat, a mask and an exaggerated limp. Scissorman appears in each scenario, and his appearances are mostly triggered by the player's actions. Scissorman appears to be immortal, therefore the player must either try to hide until he is gone, or use an object to knock him out. In one of the levels, he can be found resting in a rocking chair and watching cartoons on TV. It is revealed that the Scissorman in this game can be a variety of people, depending upon the choices the player makes within the game. However, no matter who the fake Scissorman in this game turns out to be, the real Scissorman is always Edward, the only survivor of the original Clock Tower murders apart from Jennifer. It is revealed that Edward is actually Bobby's brother Dan Barrows, a massive monster child using supernatural powers of telekinesis. In the port of the original Clock Tower for the PlayStation (subtitled The First Fear), an Easter egg is added after Dan's apparent death during the explosion: Edward can be seen rising from Dan's charred remains. Edward's role as Scissorman comes to an end as Jennifer and Helen find a spell to open a massive door, which sucks the Scissorman in.

Scissorman does not appear in Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within, which is named Clock Tower Ghost Head in the original Japanese and greatly disconnected from the main series in terms of plotline, but makes a brief cameo in the Japanese version's (Clock Tower Ghost Head) loading screen. Furthermore, the main characters, Alyssa and Bates, were theorized by their parents to be reincarnations of the previous Scissormen, Bobby and Dan. According to the game, another Scissorman (also known as Little John from the Big Castle) prior to Bobby and Dan had lived a long time ago. He had been stopped from murdering people by his father, Quinten Burroughs, and his corpse can be found in a stone coffin in England's Burroughs Castle.

The Scissorman in Clock Tower 3 is not related to any of the previous incarnations. In fact, he is not one but two people: the twins, Scissorman and Scissorwoman. Both look like circus performers, and both wield a pair of knives that they can put together to create makeshift scissors. Their true names are Ralph and Jemima (named Rudy and Janis in the Japanese version of the game), and both were servants to Lord Darcy Burroughs, acting as his executioners. After the death of Burroughs, they were stoned to death by local villagers in retaliation for their murdering ways. However, both were resurrected, sharing a single entity between them.

The posters for the announced live-action film Clock Tower show the Scissorman extensively. It appears as he would be wielding two knives that can join together into a makeshift pair of scissors (similar to the Scissorman/Scissorwoman duo in Clock Tower 3) rather than his trademark pair of shears.

Reception

The character was positively received by many publications as one of the most horrific characters in video game history. In 2008, GamesRadar ranked Scissorman as the fourth scariest video game villain ever, stating that "he looks a little silly now, but back when Clock Tower first appeared on the PSone, Scissorman was the most frightening thing we'd ever seen." In 2010, Joystick Division listed him among the top ten scariest characters in video game history, adding that "he will always be regarded as one of the most nefarious and horrible antagonists in all of video gaming." UGO.com featured him in their 2011 list of the 25 scariest characters in video games, calling him "beyond terrifying." In 2012, Retro Collect named him as one of the top five most disturbing chasing enemies in video games, while FHM included the original game's Scissorman on their list of ten scariest game characters ever, adding that "merciless stalking and murdering isn’t the most disturbing thing though; it’s how he’s not really a man–but actually a nine-year old boy."

PlayStation Universe ranked him as eight on their 2009 list of the scariest monster "to infest a Sony platform", commenting: "What an iconic figure from one of horror’s most underrated classics." PlayStation Universe also included "Scissor Man snapping at my heels" on their 2010 list of ten "pant-wetting PlayStation moments", adding that his "ubiquity instills a nerve-shattering sense of vulnerability about the player—perhaps more so than any other major foe in horror gaming history." In 2012, PlayStation Official Magazine included him among the PlayStation’s top ten scariest characters, describing him as "an unstoppable and insensate force that recalls the best (and worst) 70s slasher flicks."