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Dr. Q. L. Killjoy, or better known as Dr. Killjoy, is one of the principal characters of the 2004 horror video game The Suffering and its 2005 sequel The Suffering: Ties That Bind. A legendary figure in Carnate Island's notoriously violent history, Dr. Killjoy made a name for himself in the early 20th century as both a surgeon and a psychiatrist, offering revolutionary treatments for apparently incurable mental illnesses to clients with innumerable psychological maladies. However, the cures he devised often caused irreversible brain damage, loss of basic functions, and all too commonly, death.

The ingenious, albeit quite probably sociopathic, surgeon found a home on Carnate Island, off the coast of Maryland, where he kept a rich supply of psychologically damaged individuals and his methods were, for some reason, allowed.

After inexplicably vanishing in the early/mid 20th century, Dr. Killjoy has resurfaced in the present as one of the ghosts haunting the island in the aftermath of the Cataclysm, promising the game's main character, Torque, a cure for his numerous alleged mental illnesses. Whether he wants it or not. As such, he occupies a unique role within the series, often both hindering and helping the players, serving as both ally and enemy to Torque. 

He is voiced by John Armstrong, who also voices Horace P. Gauge in the same series.

Appearance[]

By far the most human of all the ghosts in the series, Dr. Killjoy demonstrates none of the deformities exhibited by other apparitions, perhaps due to his deliberate means of obtaining immortality. A tall, thin, dignified-looking gentleman, he is easily recognized both in person and in paintings by his slicked-back hair, widow's peak, and impeccably-waxed mustache. Perpetually dressed in the stereotypical garb of a surgeon, Killjoy is further distinguished by the bloodstained apron, smock and head mirror he wears; in keeping with his air of sophistication, however, he clearly wears a waistcoat and bow tie under his smock, the latter of which can clearly be seen in most of his appearances.

Also differentiating Killjoy from the other ghosts of Carnate and Baltimore is his form of manifestation: rather than simply materializing out of nowhere like Copperfield or the Creeper, or coalescing from gas or electricity like Hermes and Horace, he is instead most commonly emerges as a colorless three-dimensional image produced by specially-designed film projectors. Though seemingly incapable of interacting with the physical world, his ability to control technology other than his projectors allows him to appear virtually anywhere provided that the environment is dark enough to sustain his image and that his projectors remain intact. During the sequel, Killjoy also demonstrates the power to communicate with Torque via television sets and movie theaters across Baltimore, during which he also manifests a laboratory in the background, though it's not known if this is a real place or simply an illusion devised for the sake of his supernatural broadcast.

In both games, Killjoy speaks with a deep "Mid-Atlantic" accent - a combination of American English and British Received Pronunciation, further adding to the air of sophistication he cultivates.

Personality[]

Urbane, grandiose and profoundly narcissistic, Dr. Killjoy is clearly in love with the sound of his own voice, and will gladly take any given opportunity to wax messianic on his talents as a surgeon, psychiatrist, and actor. Throughout the asylum, he boasts of being "a star of unprecedented proportions," bragging of the hitherto unseen regions of the human psyche he has unearthed and how this makes him worthy of global attention. Every single scene he appears in features Killjoy making a spectacle of himself, commonly utilizing wild theatrical gestures, deliriously purple language, and lurid promises of the show that his patients will enjoy; for good measure, he often punctuates these monologues with vulgar demonstrations of the power he can still exert over physical reality.

In keeping with his pretensions of being an actor, he enjoys monologuing on the glories of theater, the Golden Age of Radio, and even of Hollywood blockbusters; in both games, he regales Torque with classic Shakespearean soliloquies, not even caring that his audience is too busy trying to stay alive to pay much attention. Though little harm can come to him in his intangible state, attacks on his projectors in the asylum laboratory result in an immediate temper-tantrum, in which Killjoy sneeringly dismisses Torque as a "neanderthalic barbarian" and explodes with disgust at the mere thought of anyone being able to smother "one of the brightest stars in the sky"; appropriately enough, the destruction of the last projector in the room merely results in him burying his ego for the only point in either game and swiftly effecting a cure for Torque.

Second only to Killjoy's ego is his desire to experiment, analyze and create - often through nightmarishly violent methods. It is in this desire that the Doctor's utopian ambitions and psychopathic callousness most commonly find expression: having already given Torque a means of controlling his "rage form" in his introductory cutscene as part of the first step towards properly curing him, Killjoy follows this up by conducting a lecture on the proper procedure for lethal injection - using a live inmate as a test subject; during this scene, Killjoy abandons his usual procedure in favour of simply lacerating the inmate to death with a scalpel, claiming that "we're not really trying to be humane anyway." The sight of the dead, mutilated inmate horrified even Dallas, an upbeat but hardened felon (in part due to the fact that he and the inmate were lovers).

Exploring the asylum reveals further horrors inflicted on the C.O.s relaxing there: one was left unresponsive after extreme, ETC. treatments intended to "tame" his brain; another fatally gouged his eyes out after witnessing something horrific in a roomful of Rorschach inkblots; a third lost all four limbs and was left to writhe helplessly in a padded cell - apparently because his body threatened the safety of his mind.

In the second game, this habit for brutal and often arbitrary research continues when, annoyed by the heroin-addicted "rabble" cluttering up his makeshift laboratory, he decides to test the effects of purified narcotics on the brains of the addicts - resulting in all but one of the unfortunate group dying from cranial explosions. Most startling of all, Killjoy went so far as to modify the Slayers, using his machines to grant them the power of reanimation; his reasons for doing this are not entirely clear, but monologues from throughout the asylum indicate that he wanted to use them as co-stars in his continued attempts to play at being an actor. Perhaps because of his obsessive scientific bent, he has little love for the devoutly religious, regarding Hejira as "a self-important zealot" - though this is also born of his great appreciation for drama, as he is heard to regard the theater as a "temple of the arts."

However, despite his narcissism, his lack of empathy, his disregard for morals and ethics, and his eccentric disconnection from human attitudes, Dr Killjoy is sincere in his desire to help others. Ranse Truman firmly believes that the Doctor's intentions were pure, but merely corrupted by the supernatural environment on Carnate Island; in turn, the ghosts of the asylum patients seem to believe that the treatments they were subjected to made them better people, often reflecting how happier they feel for what the psychiatrist-surgeon did to them. Killjoy himself can be heard to reflect sadly on how few of his patients lived to see the bright new world he offered them, though he never blames himself for the low survival rate, of course. In the present, the methods he uses to cure Torque of his afflictions are undoubtedly extreme, but if the player has taken the good or neutral path through the game, Killjoy's efforts pay off: in the climax of the game, Torque will use Killjoy's Rebirth Machine to destroy his Hatred and end the rogue personality trait's reign of terror over his mind (for the time being, at any rate).

Likewise, his affable mannerisms, though theatrical and deliberately exaggerated, are not entirely artificial in nature: Killjoy truly is an amiable gentleman, often reacting with sardonic approval for Torque's more benevolent acts throughout the game, and even expressing regret when Torque is forced to reclaim his rage mode during Ties That Bind. For good measure, his efforts to cure Torque are not limited to experimentation, for in the second game, he goes so far as to serve as a guide of sorts for the players, directing them through the maze of ruined streets and onto Blackmore's trail.

Powers And Abilities[]

Apart from his brilliant intellect, Dr Killjoy appears at first to be completely powerless, especially in contrast to the toxic intangibility of Hermes and Horace's mastery of electricity. However, as The Suffering continues, it becomes clear that the good doctor is far more than just an insubstantial image dependent on his projectors for survival: not only can he direct his projectors about the island at will, but he can also use them to project solid objects and even inflict violence; during "Slumber Of The Dead," he blocks Torque's path by projecting a heavy set of metal bars over the exit, and demonstrates his ability to interact with the physical world by slashing the unfortunate Byron to death with a scalpel. Over the course of the game, he uses this ability to keep Torque from accessing certain areas of the asylum, and even to provide him with his precise diagnosis - literally projecting the completed paperwork into existence.

Furthermore, he doesn't appear to be limited to controlling projectors: he can make his voice heard through telephones, he can command IVs and gurneys around the execution chamber, and he can control the machinery around his own laboratory - resurrecting the Slayers via this method. Furthermore, while destroying his projectors keeps him from exerting his influence on an area, it's not enough to destroy him for good.

In the sequel, this power to influence technology is expanded to encompass television sets and entire cinemas; for good measure, he even demonstrates the ability to project purified narcotics into the brains of several addicts, causing their heads to spontaneously detonate.

Finally, like many ghosts throughout the series, Killjoy also possesses an apparent ability to summon and direct certain varieties of Malefactors, most commonly Slayers and Mainliners.

Biography[]

Past[]

Much of Dr. Killjoy's life prior to his arrival on Carnate Island is a mystery, and Killjoy himself has little desire to discuss his past with any of his patients. It's not known if "Killjoy" is his real name if he was born on the island or came there by choice, or even if he was responsible for the construction of the lavish Victorian mansion that was to become his base of operations.

All that is known is that approximately twenty-two years after its construction, Killjoy had the house converted into an asylum in 1899 and officially named it "The Carnate Institution for the Alienated." Situated on the island's sparsely-populated western coast, Killjoy's institute at first seemed an ideal place for the mentally ill to recuperate, for the luxurious mansion provided his patients with both security and comfort - particularly in the form of the high walls and the lush gardens (complete with a hedge maze).

Behind the asylum walls, however, those committed to a spell of treatment at the Institute found themselves subjected to some of the most inhumane treatment witnessed on Carnate; though he had the best intentions at heart, Killjoy's methods of curing his patients were extreme, and more often than not ended up killing or crippling them for life. Most of these methods remain unknown, but Killjoy hints that he made use of aversion therapy, electroshock treatments, and invasive neurosurgery (though he doesn't specify if he used these methods before or after his death). The ghosts of his patients remember being subjected to operations that "took the bad out" and made them almost impossibly happy; one female patient can only giggle deliriously, repeating Killjoy's name again and again in ecstatic delight - implying that the doctor may have done something to the pleasure centers of her brain.

Killjoy soon gained infamy throughout Maryland, and though he was never officially subjected to an investigation or even legal action from relatives of his patients, it wasn't long before the doctor and his "treatments" became a permanent fixture of Carnate Island's folklore. Even to this day, legends of Dr. Killjoy are still circulated among the corrections officers and prisoners of Abbott State Penitentiary, often overwhelming real historical fact - to the point that even Clem is forced to admit defeat in his attempts to divide the myths from the realities.

In the 1930s, Dr. Killjoy mysteriously vanished; his ultimate fate is unknown, but Killjoy himself claims that he was able to preserve himself as a living image on his specially-designed projectors, ensuring that his talents would no longer be confined to the era in which he lived and died. By all accounts, Killjoy somehow became aware that Torque would one day arrive on the island and arranged for his own immortality in order to provide assistance. This curious precognition is not unique to Killjoy, as several of the island's inhabitants profess supernatural awareness of the player character, even the relatively mundane Clem experiences visions of the troubled inmate, his family, and his rage form.

However, in the second game, Killjoy briefly claims that he knew Torque's mother, indicating that his knowledge of Torque is more personal in nature; as the doctor's image only strays from Carnate Island in the event that he needs to advise a patient, it's not known why Torque's mother would have come into contact with Killjoy, or why she ended up on the island in the first place (except perhaps as the wife of a corrections officer). All that is known is that the doctor somehow became aware of a unique specimen to study and treat, and planned accordingly.

In the absence of Killjoy, the asylum was shut down and hastily abandoned. However, following the construction of Abbott State Penitentiary in the 1960s, C.O.s soon found a new use for the derelict mental hospital: finding the rest of the island too miserable to tolerate in their off-hours, many guards without families to provide for took to spending their time away from work at the asylum, adopting it as a clubhouse of sorts. Despite the ominous reputation the deserted facility had earned, it soon became known as the only place in which the C.O.s could feel free, though admittedly this may have been due to the fact that at least one of the guards took to growing cannabis on the asylum grounds.

The Suffering[]

Scant hours after Torque arrives on Carnate Island, the Cataclysm occurs, bringing Abbott State Penitentiary to its knees with a devastating earthquake and an island-wide infestation of Malefactors. Soon after, the ghosts of Carnate's past began appearing across the complex, often claiming a notable death toll in the process. Eventually, these apparitions gather in the boiler room deep beneath the prison, where they finally meet Torque at the beginning of "Descending." Killjoy is the last of the ghosts to present himself and plays the greatest role in this early scene by encouraging Torque to consciously adopt his rage form as a means of therapy. With the other two ghosts egging him on and the Slayers hounding the troubled inmate across the boiler room, Torque is eventually provoked into "transforming" for the first time. Killjoy approves, though he warns that "a good thing only lasts so long", a nod to the fact that remaining in the rage form after the rage bar has been depleted can drain Torque's health.

Killjoy's next appearances are rather sporadic. The most notable of them occurs in the next chapter, "Slumber of the Dead," in which he provides a sardonic tutorial on lethal injection by slicing the unfortunate inmate Byron to death with a scalpel. While accompanying Byron's lover Dallas across the prison and fighting off Warden Hargrave's fanatical sect, Torque is occasionally contacted by Killjoy, most prominently in order to schedule an appointment for him at the asylum. With interference from the asylum itself blocking incoming radio signals, the unfortunate inmate has no choice but to comply with Killjoy's request, if only for the sake of eventually contacting the coast guard and arranging a rescue.

Upon finally escaping from Abbott and making his way across the island via the abandoned quarry, Torque is eventually able to clamber over the perimeter wall of the long-abandoned Carnate Institution for the Alienated. Upon entering the building, he is immediately welcomed by Killjoy, then given a task to prove that he is up to the challenges that he will face by taking part in the doctor's experimental treatment. From various angles, the door to Killjoy's laboratory is barred by heavy gates emitted by projectors hidden about the asylum. If he hopes to be treated, Torque must find and disable all of them, all while the "alienist" monologues floridly on his own genius. Over the course of this challenge, Torque quickly discovers that Killjoy has killed or permanently incapacitated most of the C.O.s stationed at the Asylum, either forcibly amputating their limbs, electrocuting them into vegetative states, or simply driving them to drive their own eyes out. The only survivor is Sergei, who was presumably spared for being too stoned to investigate the strange noises echoing from around the asylum.

After many monologues and the destruction of all the ancillary projectors around the asylum, the laboratory is opened inside, Torque discovers that Killjoy has somehow been able to recreate his rage form (which only exists within Torque's own mind) as a physical entity. Utilizing a machine of his own design which he claims can bring about "a rebirth of the soul," he demonstrates the newfound power to reanimate dead Slayers and proposes to use this experimental device to treat Torque.

However, the first part of this treatment involves Torque being attacked by the slayers in the room, and with the doctor able to resurrect his opponents at will, his only recourse is to destroy Killjoy's projectors. Though briefly inconvenienced by this loss, Killjoy reluctantly concedes that he must progress to the climax of the therapy, and instructs him to use the rebirth device on the physical incarnation of his rage form, whereupon the monster transforms into a perfect duplicate of Torque and leaves via the window. Congratulating his patient on the progress he's made, Killjoy then allows him to leave. Just before leaving the property for good, however, Torque finds Killjoy's newly-projected diagnosis waiting for him at the asylum gates, confirming for the first time in the game that Torque doesn't actually transform into a monster during his blackouts.

After spending the rest of the game behind the scenes, Killjoy reappears one last time at the docks in the final chapter of the game, "Last Breath Before Dying." Here, he provides Torque with an opportunity to be rid of his psychopathic rage, granting him access to the rebirth device once again, and directing him towards three key targets that stand between him and being completely cured. The first is another physical incarnation of his rage form, which must be defeated when Torque is at his most lucid; the second is the Torque duplicate from the asylum, which must be destroyed via his rage form; finally, Torque must use the power of the rebirth device in order to combat his own Hatred, having been given physical existence by the supernatural properties of Carnate Island.

The ultimate success of Killjoy's treatments depend entirely on Torque's morality throughout the game. If Torque has done his best to help others (good) or killed as many people as he saved (neutral), he will be cleansed of the very worst of his rage and can escape the island unharmed. However, if Torque succumbed to his desire to kill and murdered at any given opportunity, destroying his Hatred does very little to help him. Degenerating into his rage form one last time, he destroys the coast guard boat sent to rescue him and flees back into the wilderness of Carnate in search of prey.

The Suffering: Ties That Bind[]

Having somehow been able to extend his reach to Baltimore, Killjoy is able to guide Torque in his journey across the city in search of answers. In the event that the player chose an Evil Karma starting option, Torque will make contact with Killjoy very early in the game: having exhausted his rage and returned to normal following his final transformation during the previous game, he awakens in Baltimore harbor to find Killjoy musing in disappointment that Torque's madness is far more complicated than initially expected. Good or Neutral players will not hear from Killjoy until the events of "The Hardest Homecoming," in which Torque arrives back at his old apartment to consider his objectives. There, Killjoy projects himself into the TV set and advises the escaped convict to seek out Blackmore, Torque's former employer and master of the city's criminal underworld.

Soon after, another Cataclysm breaks out, unleashing the Malefactors upon Baltimore and forcing Torque to flee the area. Following a brief encounter with his old neighbor Hejira (which can end with Torque killing him, abandoning him or helping him to reach his objectives), Killjoy directs his patient towards the Grand Theater in order to elaborate upon his new mission. However, though he takes great delight in using the cinema screen to recite classic Shakespearean soliloquies, his briefing doesn't get very far before Blackmore interrupts him and unleashes a horde of Malefactors on Torque, forcing him to reclaim his rage form. Though saddened by the fact that Torque was forced to resort to such methods after his therapy obviated it in the previous game, Killjoy provides him with directions on how to use it and how it can benefit his progression through the ruins of Baltimore.

Directing Torque to "the temple of self-medication", Killjoy does not reappear until Torque has made it as far as the drug den beyond the abandoned gazebo. Once there, Killjoy will immediately kill all the heroin addicts sheltering in the room along with him, projecting purified narcotics into their minds, causing their heads to explode. However, if Torque went to the trouble of saving and rescuing Kyle, an addict under the impression that Torque is actually his father. Killjoy will spare the young man's life on the grounds that he may be of "therapeutic benefit." Then, he introduces Torque to the Malefactor Captains in order to help him explore the nature of his inner child, providing him with opponents that can only be defeated in his rage form. Then, he directs Torque to seek out his old friend Miles, suggesting that he might know where to find Blackmore.

Killjoy remains absent for much of the storyline that follows, only making occasional contact with Torque in the event that he needs to be tested with a more powerful Malefactor captain. However, in the penultimate chapter of the game, "The Greatest Story Never Told," Killjoy teams up with Copperfield and the Creeper at Blackmore's drowning pool in order to effectively judge Torque's actions over the course of the game. Among other things, he attempts to clue in Torque as to the reason for Miles' sudden death. However, the chapter concludes with either Copperfield or the Creeper deciding to challenge Torque to a battle for supernatural supremacy, and Killjoy is unable to continue his review.

Once again, Torque's success in reaching a cure depends entirely on his moral performance throughout the game. In the event that he remained good, he will be able to destroy Blackmore once and for all. In more neutral playthroughs, Torque and his former boss are forced into an uneasy truce. Finally, in evil playthroughs, Torque's personality proves too weak to withstand the crime lord's power and finds himself effectively overwritten by Blackmore entirely.

As there were no further games in the series, what objectives (if any) Killjoy would have had following this final confrontation remain unknown.

Quotes[]

The Suffering[]

The Suffering II: Ties That Bind[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

• Dr. Killjoy's appearance and personality are based on the actor Vincent Price.

Navigation[]

Villains

Blackmore | Copperfield | Dr. Killjoy | Hermes T. Haight | Horace P. Gauge | Luther Stickwell | Malefactors | Torque's Hatred