#abstract daddy

... that he and the Abstract Daddy from Silent Hill 2 need to either be put in prison or shot on sight.

I've been scouring various sites for what others have thought of the Sniffer, and one particularly noteworthy and disturbing interpretation is that he is a child predator.

For those of you who don't know who either of these two characters are, here are some bullet points to explain some info about them. Again, spoilers and disturbing imagery and topics below!

The Sniffer:

*read the image description Ahem, taking things seriously now.

The Sniffer is the first boss of Tarsier Studios' latest game, REANIMAL, and appears for the first and second chapters of the game.

He is a tall disfigured man (?) who has a weird interest in human skins, hanging them out to dry and ironing them; these Skins can move around on their own and eat the child protagonists.

He is first seen closing a shutter gate in the first chapter, and is then seen throughout the same chapter doing, in order: walking around with a suitcase (presumably carrying Skins); crawling through a hole where the stomach would be on a corpse; arriving at a train yard via an ice cream truck; searching for and initially chasing after Hood, and finally chasing the Boy, the Girl, and Hood. He also shows up again at the end of the chapter to offer Hood ice cream and kidnap her, taking her along in his ice cream truck.

In the 2nd chapter he: leads Hood into a movie theater (even walking in front of an audience of "people" who don't have eyes!) and locks her up along with other people(?) that appear to be doomed to be turned into Skins; irons Skins; sniffs the crotch of a body being dried over a tub; collects more Skins for some unknown purpose; and finally chases the Boy, the Girl, and Hood in an abandoned apartment room, an alleyway, and a parking lot near a gas station. He also shows up to get hit by his ice cream truck the kids take and drive and hitches a ride and tries to kill the Boy and the Girl before FINALLY being defeated and thrown off.

Bonus: here's what the concept art of the Sniffer looks like without the skinsuit. He's a lot more animalistic, resembling a deformed, emaciated dog with a human head and backwards facing feet (which makes his moniker the Sniffer even more obvious) or a horrible mix of human and spider.

The Abstract Daddy

This boss creature symbolizes Angela Orosco's sexual and physical abuse perpetrated by her father, Thomas Orosco (and Angela's unnamed brother to a lesser extent).

Its appearance is disgusting, as it looks like two figures made of stretched skin on top of a mattress, with one figure dominating the other that's lying on the mattress.

In the original Silent Hill 2, the Abstract Daddy is fought in a room made of flesh and has suspiciously sexual holes through which pistons thrust in and out of throughout its boss fight.

In the remake of Silent Hill 2, instead of being fought in a single, confined room, the Abstract Daddy is first fought in a hellish labyrinth representing Angela's childhood home. James Sunderland, the player character, is essentially put into Angela's shoes, needing to run away while being chased and hitting and shooting the thing to keep it at bay. Along the way, he finds TVs broadcasting nothing but static and the abusive voice of Thomas Orosco directed toward his daughter; these TVs are meant to be destroyed in order to progress through the boss fight. Also in the labyrinth, you can hide inside a small cramped closet that has newspapers lining its walls and a teddy bear on the floor.

The actual fight in the remake is reminiscent of the fight in the OG version, except the boss arena is darker, more spacious, and James can dodge its attacks since it's a game mechanic added in the remake.

I'm just gonna leave this video of Dan Allen Gaming here doing the remake boss fight (because admittedly, the OG version is boring). Again, spoilers and warnings of disturbing imagery and topics apply!

So why am I comparing the two with each other?

As I mentioned in the beginning of this piece, the Sniffer has been interpreted as a child predator. While you'd think it's a bit weird for the Sniffer to be viewed as such since he's not shown to be doing anything explicit towards any of the children, there is subtext in what he does that makes him suspect. This is illustrated by him kidnapping Hood, who has been established to be a young girl, after attempting to give her ice cream from his ice cream truck (ever think of those stories where a man (and it's almost always a man, especially when you've heard of names like Ted Bundy) lures in a young woman or a child into his car/van/truck and kidnaps/molests/kills them? yeah), then taking her by the hand into a theater and leading her in front of an audience full of people who don't have eyes (which you can see if you do freecam since you normally only see them from the back), and then locking her up along with other people who look like they're going to be turned into Skins. Given these actions, there is subtext of pedophilia with the Sniffer and what he does with Hood.

I've read comments and posts from other sites that have people not seeing or understanding why the Sniffer is in the game given the title of REANIMAL. They think, "Oh, I don't get why the Sniffer is given more screentime than the more animal-like bosses! He's so out of place, as if he's more of a Little Nightmares boss more than anything else!" However, I think this is a bit of flawed and naive thinking, because while yes, it's completely fine to assume that it will have animals as somehow being important, simply thinking that it will only have non-human animals is just scratching the surface.

One of the most prominent themes of the game is war and its effects on people, especially its effects on children. War isn't merely confined to soldiers doing battle against each other, as what they do often affects civilians too. In war, the ones who aren't participating in battle can sometimes unwittingly get caught up in it, especially women and children. Too many times throughout history have these two groups of people been killed, raped, enslaved, tortured, or otherwise became victims of other horrific acts during wartime under the hands of military personnel. I think REANIMAL is trying to say something about violence that is perpetuated in war—not just the violence of a soldier gunning down another, but also the violence that befalls innocents that most likely want nothing to do with the fighting. A soldier during war can be thought of as a savage animal, killing and assaulting those who are considered to be enemies, and even that doesn't necessarily mean they won't do the same to their own people for various reasons.

Since I mentioned that the concept art of the Sniffer is reminiscent of a dog, I think that is quite apt, for "dog" can be slang for "a sexually aggressive man" (Wiktionary). Additionally, his name being "the Sniffer" carries sexual connotations, aligning with the "Perverted Sniffing" trope. I also think there's a dark, clever use of the word "predator", as not only does it mean "an organism that obtains food by killing and consuming other organisms", which links to the (non-human) animal theme, but also "one who injures or exploits others for personal gain or profit".

And what can be a more heinous predator than one who targets and victimizes children, who are widely viewed as innocent and vulnerable?

In an interview with Dave Mervik, the writer for Little Nightmares 1 and 2 and REANIMAL, he says:

"If you think about it carefully, there is something similar to the way humans look at animals and the way they look at children. Adults tend to have the impression that they are both pure and pure. This work [REANIMAL] is a story about orphan children who survive harsh conditions, but just as the children are 'defiled', animals are also 'defiled'. I thought there might be a link there. I wanted to convey such a theme that looks at animals and children with the same eyes and is moved in the same way."

It's here that I'm particularly intrigued of what Mervik says, particularly with the theme of the defilement of innocents. It has been said that Silent Hill 2 was an inspiration for REANIMAL, and that has led me to make connections and look for similarities between the two games. In this post, I've been meaning to bring up the Sniffer's similarities with the Abstract Daddy from Silent Hill 2.

To begin, the Sniffer reminds me of the Abstract Daddy and the very human monster it represents. This is despite the rather silly name, for who could take a name like "the Sniffer" seriously without being given context? Delve deeper, however, and it turns out it's just merely giving an impression of security, a false sense of it. It's the same with the Abstract Daddy, which is a rather weird name out of context too. Even the name Thomas Orosco doesn't give off "evil villain" vibes without knowing who he truly is; it's almost as if the name is ordinary and blends in with normal and respectable society.

And I think that's the point.

By taking the time to stop and think, maybe search through what you've read or seen or even experienced, you start to uncover the sheer ugliness and depravity these two characters represent. An outsider is likely to be unaware of their true nature, of the true relationship that they have with children, and assume that everything is okay and they're doing perfectly normal things when in reality they aren't once they're away from the public eye and behind closed doors; I mentioned earlier that the Sniffer walks in front of the movie screen full of people with no eyes (see the image below) while holding Hood by the hand, which can be interpreted as society overlooking or turning a blind eye to predators even when they're clearly committing heinous crimes towards innocent and vulnerable people such as children.

Hood's design is notable in that her face is completely covered, leaving little to no indication that she's a girl. I read one comment in a Youtube video about the Sniffer that states that she has an androgynous design, as if to hide her femininity and prevent herself from getting hurt by predators like the Sniffer during a time like war. It makes me think of how women who had been sexually abused or assaulted would hide parts of themselves that would give them away or deliberately make themselves look unappealing to men who want to take advantage of them. It's... quite sobering to think about, as it does happen in real life.

Keeping up with the Silent Hill 2 comparisons, Angela Orosco is also a girl, albeit 19 years old; her actual age is made even more obvious in the remake, while the OG version looks older and more haggard, suggesting that her suffering under her abusive father aged her to look like someone older. Regardless, her design is rather plain and drab, as if intentionally meaning to avoid bringing attention to herself since Angela has clearly gone through a lot of things that shouldn't ever befall a child (which was done by her father and brother of all people, as well as her own mother neglecting her and doing nothing to stop the abuse just like the movie-goers in REANIMAL).

In a way, Hood and Angela are alike in that they're both implied to have have undergone very harsh experiences as children. It's also telling that the people who have perpetrated such vile violent acts against them are figures that they trust, with the Sniffer to Hood and Thomas Orosco/the Abstract Daddy to Angela. Even though there is little indication that the Sniffer is a parental figure to Hood, he can be seen as someone who acts like one to her, because under normal circumstances, what kind of person should a child entrust themselves to the most than a parent?