Video Game / Death Flush

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Death Flush is a short horror game released on September 1st, 2020 by Impostersyndrome, starring Ronnie, a man who has problems with going to the bathroom because of a traumatic encounter with a Serial Killer, being accompanied by his supportive girlfriend. On one unlucky Halloween night, Ronnie decides to go to the bathroom alone, confronting his fears regarding going to the bathroom. After all, the serial killer associated with his trauma had already died a long time ago, so Ronnie doesn't have anything to worry about... or does he?

The game can be downloaded and played for free here.

Due to the short expected playtime for this game, it is recommended that one should try playing through the whole game first if they do not want to be spoiled beforehand. All spoilers will be unmarked.

Death Flush provides examples of:

• Action Girlfriend: Ronnie's unnamed girlfriend, who saves Ronnie from the Toilet Seat Killer and even defeats said killer in a brief fight.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: The Toilet Seat Killer seeks to plunge Ronnie into a giant toilet during his boss fight, but at the end of his boss fight, the killer himself falls into the toilet.
• Axe Before Entering: Ronnie's girlfriend has to break down the stuck bathroom door with the hatchet to get inside when she realizes that something concerning has happened to Ronnie.
• Bald of Evil: The Toilet Seat Killer is notably bald and lacks any hair, even being shown as completely bald before his fiery death. He does have a fake moustache that comes with the Groucho Marx disguise.
• Beary Friendly: Doc Strawberry is a teddy bear that Ronnie owns, which always tells him "It's time to take your medicine!" routinely. In his flashback, Doc Strawberry is a Living Toy that appears to save him from the Toilet Seat Killer. This is initially portrayed as part of Ronnie's imagination, but Doc Strawberry appears after the climactic confrontation with the Toilet Seat Killer in a helicopter.
• Big Bad: The Toilet Seat Killer.
• Big "NO!": Ronnie's reaction to the Toilet Seat Killer destroying Doc Strawberry.
• Bloody Murder: The blood fountains in the Toilet Seat Killer's dimension will burn Ronnie's girlfriend on contact, but an umbrella is enough to shield her from it.
• Bound to an Area: The Toilet Seat Killer cannot pursue victims outside of the bathroom. When he attempts to leave the bathroom in the ending, his body is reduced into a pile of bones.
• Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: The plot starts with Ronnie stating that he needs to go to the bathroom, which is treated as Serious Business, and as the player soon learns, it's because of trauma related to a serial killer who attacks people while they're in the bathroom.
• Camping a Crapper: The Toilet Seat Killer's main modus operandi when hunting for people to kill.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: A puzzle has a hint via blood writing on the wall, saying "Why must I stand in all of these corners?"
• Deadly Prank: Pranksters intended to scare the Toilet Seat Killer back when he was alive by throwing firecrackers at him while he was crapping at a nearby outhouse. However, they did not account for the gasoline nearby when they threw said firecrackers, and the whole outhouse bursts into flames, and kills Toilet Seat Killer.
• Decoy Protagonist: Ronnie, who is the starting protagonist of the game, and we get to see some of his backstory, being traumatized by the appearance of the Toilet Seat Killer and his grandpa being killed by him. However, the Toilet Seat Killer ambushes and abducts Ronnie, and from that point Ronnie's girlfriend becomes the playable character for the rest of the game.
• Evil Laugh: The serial killer happens to have a signature laugh for himself.
• Expy: The Toilet Seat Killer is one of Freddy Krueger, being a depraved serial killer in his mortal life, being burnt to death, but coming back to haunt those related to his victims. Except the Toilet Seat Killer goes after people in the bathroom instead of their dreams.
• Flipping the Bird: The Toilet Seat Killer gives two middle finger gestures to the fleeing protagonists as they exit his dimension.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Ronnie's girlfriend uses this for a one-liner before engaging the Toilet Seat Killer and rescuing Ronnie.
  "Go flush yourself, weirdo!"
• High-Pressure Blood: When Ronnie's girlfriend enters the bathroom to investigate, the toilet suddenly releases a tall spray of blood from it.
• Hollywood Acid: Ronnie happens to actually have a spare amount of corrosive acid around to erode a lock that he can't open normally.
• Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Investigating the living room will let you find out that the entirety of this game, and the Toilet Seat Killer's attack on Ronnie, all took place on a Halloween night.
• Improvised Armor: An umbrella is used to avoid being damaged by flowing blood that is either hot or acidic enough to damage you repeatedly if exposed to it directly.
• Improbable Weapon User: The Toilet Seat Killer murders people with a sharpened toilet seat.
• Large Ham: The Toilet Seat Kill always plays up his (literally) shitty puns and threats with a lot of emphasis and enthusiasm.
• Make My Monster Grow: The Toilet Seat Killer recovers from his defeat by coming out of the toilet, but giant. However, when he leaves the bathroom dimension to pursue the protagonists further, he returns to normal size.
• Man on Fire: How the Toilet Seat Killer was originally killed back when he was a human, and you get to see it firsthand as he charges right into you.
• Mirror Scare: The medicine section is initiated by opening the counter behind the mirror where you can see yourself in. Once you finish taking your medicine, you have to close the mirror back, which you'll see the Toilet Seat Killer right behind you. Since turning around is not part of the cutscene, you can wait to decide when to turn around on your own, not that you can do anything else to progress the game at this point.
• Monochrome Past: In Ronnie's flashback, the entire scene is depicted as completely monochrome. However, there are two exceptions in this flashback: The blood at the end of Toilet Seat Killer's weapon after he's just murdered Ronnie's grandpa, and Dr. Strawberry.
• Nighttime Bathroom Phobia: The main protagonist, Ronnie, is an adult example, who is shown in the intro to be afraid of going into the bathroom at night, to the point where his girlfriend asks if he needs support, but Ronnie decides to steel himself into using the toilet alone. This is justified in-universe because he had personally encountered a Serial Killer who targeted people who were going into the bathroom and murdered them, including his own grandpa, right in front of his eyes. Understandably, the experience traumatized him badly enough to give him this kind of fear.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The Toilet Seat Killer wears a classic pair of Groucho glasses and a mustached nose to hide his disfigured face, which only gets worse for when he comes back from the dead, with his face burnt as well.
• Resurrected Murderer: Fitting for being based off of Freddy Kreuger himself, the serial killer had already been killed before the events of the game as explained by a newspaper, but then on one Halloween night, the protagonist Ronnie is trapped in his bathroom and is later kidnapped by the undead Toilet Seat Killer to be brought to his bathroom dimension. Said killer has an appropriate Toilet Humor line for this:
  "Dying was step one and now you're number two!"
• Retraux: The game's graphics are designed like early PS1 models, adding to the B-Movie aesthetic of the game.
• Serial Killer: The Toilet Seat Killer is notorious for murdering people while they're going to the bathroom.
• Spin Attack: The Toilet Seat Killer will attack Ronnie's girlfriend via spinning if he gets close.
• Stripped to the Bone: The Toilet Seat Killer is reduced to his facial disguise and a skeleton when he steps out of the bathroom.
• Swirlie: The Toilet Seat Killer wants to give Ronnie a fatal one - lowering him into a giant toilet with green toilet water to kill him.
• Timed Boss: The first part of the fight against the Toilet Seat Killer requires you to set the giant toilet's switch to go up for long enough to free Ronnie, but the Toilet Seat Killer will try to ensure the chain holding Ronnie goes down when he can. If one takes too long or inefficiently to get to the switch, Ronnie will be flushed down the giant toilet and die. After Ronnie is free, though, this trope is averted, and the rest of the battle is no longer timed.
• Toilet Horror: The game is a bathroom themed horror game complete with a Serial Killer themed on toilets and having his own bathroom dimension.
• Toilet Humor: The Toilet Seat Killer never passes up on a pun about toilets, bathrooms, or anything related to excretion.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: After the flashback section in Ronnie's part of the game, he has to take medicine as advised by Dr. Strawberry. This consists of an odd minigame where the camera view goes top-down and you have to move your tongue around to catch incoming medical pills. You have to catch enough pills to complete this section, and it never appears again.
• Would Harm a Senior: The Toilet Seat Killer approaches Ronnie's grandpa from behind as soon as the latter enters the bathroom, and gruesomely kills him a few moments later.
• Would Hurt a Child: After killing Ronnie's grandfather, the Toilet Seat Killer doesn't hesitate to try and murder Ronnie who is a little kid in the flashback, though he doesn't succeed in doing so.