Gas mask guy(SPOILERS!)

[devil hunter]

I didn't call him by his real name in the title because it is a spoiler after all.

I think there's already a thread about this awesome monsters, but I wanted to post some my opinions about his symbolism, so I made a thread here.

As you noticed Murphy doesn't want to talk about his past he only wants to get out of town. When he gets the letter to the Monastery, that all changes. That part of the game is the part where he finally faces his demons.
I was thinking about the symbolism of the Bogeyman and when I finished the game I think I understand what he represents. His design looks generic, but I think it suits him because of his symbolism. He represents a monster, a souless, generic, monster. Both Murphy and Anne see the Bogeyman as the monster they have to destroy, they think that's a right thing to do. The revenge drives both of them.
The part where Bogeyman strangles the boy is reminding him of Charlie's murder. It can also represent Frank's murder, because I think that the girl represents young Anne, so she sees a dead boy and thinks that Murphy killed him, she thinks he's the Bogeyman. The same thing happened to Murphy when Frank was killed by Sewell. Anne, like everyone else, thinks that Murphy brutally injured Frank (I didn't wrote die because he didn't die right away, but he did die because of those injuries after some years) because of Sewell.

When he gets to the mortuary thats where Murphy finally says that killing Napier didn't solve anything. Murphy's life was destroyed, Charlie was still dead, nothing could bring him back. That's where Bogeyman finally vanished. Revenge just made his life worse.
I don't understand why the nun calls the Bogeyman his son though. That goes against a lot of things I learned about Murphy. He felt guilty for not protecting Charlie, but that doesn't explain why Bogeyman would be his son.
We see it after the battle that Napier's face and Murphy's face appear. Napier's face appears because Murphy saw him as the monster. Murphy's face appears because Anne saw him as the monster, we see that at the end of the game, in the last boss battle (I consider that part where we fight Anne a boss fight). She says that every time she looked at her father she saw a monster, she saw Murphy and Murphy looks like a Bogeyman to her.
There can also be another reason why Murphy's face appeared, by „killing monsters“ he is becoming a monster himself. If you examine a hole in the first floor of the Centennial Building you can see shadows of the Bogeyman and a guy who's wearing a towel (I think that's Napier). Bogeyman kills him.

I like the idea of the Bogeyman. He's different from other SH monsters. People see other persons as the Bogeyman, the monster, so then maybe they think it's a right thing to kill it, because it's not a human, it's a monster.

I read on SH wiki that Murphy's name means „sea warrior“. When you consider the fact that he went to attack both Napier and Frank in the showers, the name really fits him lol. And Bogeyman, his arch nemesis if you will, wears a raincoat. That's how it looks like to me.

Bogeyman deserves that name, Homecoming's Bogeyman is Boogerman for me.

[OneFreeMan]

I am very much in agreement with you, I liked the bogeyman and I love the cut scene after you defeat him. One thing I liked is at the very end when you actually become the bogeyman and chase after Anne. I wasn't until the second playthrought when you first meet the boy and Murphy say he's not the bogeyman but the kid goes "Not yet.

That I loved. Everything about the monster I liked.

[Shadedarkan]

Murphy actually says,"Kid, look at me! I'm not a monster!" and the boy says,"Not yet." Which is more significant than if he had said he wasn't the bogeyman.

I mean, lets first define Bogeyman. We have, "An imaginary evil character of supernatural powers, especially a hobgoblin said to carry off naughty children," and,"A person, real or imaginary, used as a threat." The Bogeyman is not necessarily evil, on perceived as such, and is used as a threat to keep someone doing what we want.
So, the Bogeyman means what in all this? He's not there to kill people randomly. In a few Otherworld sequences the Bogeyman attempts to hinder your progress and you can't even get near him in some places, but he doesn't try to kill you until you confront him during the St. Maria episode.
In my opinion, even though now I have to remove all my prior posts concerning this, is that the Bogeyman is not anyone's monster. Anne doesn't see Murphy as the Bogeyman until she finally decides to kill him. She also doesn't seem to see the prisoners she is releasing as monsters as they don't attack her and she isn't frightened of them (but this could just be oversight on the developer's part). Murphy seems to see the Bogeyman when he is running from his past, attempting to forget or getting too close to the wheelchair man. It would seem that the Bogeyman is a perception that only the person he is designed for can see.
I'm gonna have to work some more on this. I meant to write something completely different and this is what came out.

[devil hunter]

I don't agree with what you said, about Anne seeing Anne as the Bogeyman until she finally decides to kill him.

Also, the kid saying that he's not a monster yet, that means that he could become what he wanted to kill, Bogeyman.

[emma]

i have another theory ...about that little kid!...you think the kid was frank Coleridge when he was a little boy!?
and then the Bogeyman kills him which mean like Murphy did killed him ....its more like the child wanna show him how the way he will going to kill ...suffering seeing him dying there with out doing anything helping out when officer sewell beat him like hill!...
and that little girl with him ...who was she!? i don't know but i think she was his daughter!! yeah when she was just holding on his hand ..then Murphy screams "stay away from her!" ...
that's what i figures out !any idea..?!

[MurphyPendleton]

I Loooooooooove The Hammerman, he scared me when I peered through the hole in the bricks when you first enter the centennial building. I was like... I gotta fight that??

[emma]

I Loooooooooove The Hammerman, he scared me when I peered through the hole in the bricks when you first enter the centennial building. I was like... I gotta fight that??

true true me too !
when i first saw him in the intro song by korn was like ...get's so interested with that big huge guy !like omg wanna see him so badly !XD was always wondering ..who could that be!?o.o.