Finding the Inspirations for Each Specimen

[scoutxander]

With the long-awaited addition of Endless Mode, we all lucked out and received not one, nor two, but five new specimens exclusive to this new gamemode. Let's explore the potential inspirations for these.
Also, to anyone whom has not played Endless Mode yet, I reccomend you attempt it before reading on. We'll begin with basic summaries of these new creatures:


Specimen 15 - I never saw this specimen, but it would not stop screaming. It causes the player's vision to become enveloped by static, which increases in intensity until the player essentially goes blind. The static resets with the sound of a camera shutter.
Apparently this one is a sort of, "Beserk," form, for Specimen 4. At the time of typing this, I have now encountered all 5 new specimens and updated their names and descriptions below.

Unknown Specimen 1 - If you've ever played ImScared, you'll know this Specimen. It's literally White Face from ImScared and that's all there is to it. When chasing you, it causes your game to darken, pixelate, and glitch out.

Unknown Specimen 2 - Thanks to Solomon:

Originally posted by Solomon:

As for specimen 17 or 18, I came across a specimen that looked like a animotronic beaver that would slowly lumber towards me. I think that one was inspired by the Five Nights at Freddies games.

Unknown Specimen 3 - What appears to be a humanoid wearing a classic white-sheet ghost costume. It blocks your way until you hit it with your axe, reappearing a room or two later even bloodier then before. Eventually, it reveals itself to be a strange, flying, eyeball-like creature with skinny arms.

Unknown Specimen 4 - This one is bizarre... It also killed me. It looked somewhat like an anime character, caused rooms to be filled with a translucent, blue fog, and spawned the shadows of dogs/wolves which blocked your way until killed with the axe.

Unknown Specimen 5 - This one is similar to Bekka and Specimen 4. Before encountering her, each room you enter will have ominous ambience, and a red fog that gets worse with each room. Once she appears, the ambience becomes more of a chase theme. She looks like a twitching woman, and possibly a broken neck. May have just been me, but it looked like she had bugs all over her.

Now, on to the potential inspirations:

Specimen 15 - This one is difficult. Obiviously, cameras or camera static are important. This specimen's theme sounds a bit like carnival organ music as well, so that's also worth looking into. Cameras and carnival music lead me to think FNAF, but I don't think that's it. Let me know what you all think. Just Specimen 4, as stated before.

1 - Everyone knows it's Whiteface from ImScared. Done.

2 - The animatronic aspect, as Solomon stated, does lead a mind straight to FNAF, but the Beaver part may also be a reference to Chipper & Sons. Most likely, it's inspired by both.

3 - Upon first seeing this, and seeing what was under the sheet, I immediately thought of the game Knock Knock. Not only do eyes have symbolism in the game, so does wearing a white-sheet ghost costume. Throughout the game, demonic eyes peering through windows, cracks, voids, etc. are seen, but almost more often seen is what appears to be a small child wearing a white sheet.

4 - Absolutely no clue. The specimen itself is extremely odd, and I saw very little of it. Wolves might be a good starting point, as the kill screen involves the player being eaten alive by them (with some very disgusting and gorey imagery of the aftermath...).

5 - The broken/twitching neck aspect makes me think of P.T. Specimen 5 from the base game is inspired by Silent Hill, but I guess that doesn't mean much.

Found some things regarding the themes:

Originally posted by scoutxander:

Hm... It seems the only new Specimen Theme included in the OST was Specimen 16, and is called, "Tirsiak Ambience." Hopefully the rest are added soon.

EDIT: Upon further digging in the game files, I found Specimen 14 and 15's themes, as well as 16 and several others I have not heard in the game yet.
Here's what I found:

14: SPOOPER_AMB
15: RINGU_AMB
16: TIRSIAK_AMB

Unknown:
BEKKA_AMB
DL_AMB
FD_AMB
LISA_AMB
LISA_AMB2
WF_AMB

And now, the conclusions:
Unknown Specimen 1 - ImScared
Unknown Specimen 2 - Five Nights at Freddy's
Unknown Specimen 3 - Knock Knock
Unknown Specimen 4 - ???
Unknown Specimen 5 - Silent Hill PT...?

Tirsiak just seems to be a nickname for 4, almost like Bekka and Ringu (Apparently, Unknown 5 is actually named Lisa). I'm led to believe it was an original creation, but if anyone should find anything noteworthy about her (or 5), let me know.


Original Thread for Main Specimens:
So, as we all know, each Specimen is based off a Horror game, movie or concept. This thread will center around figuring out the one which we do not know, Specimen 9. We found the inspiration, and our now comparing the coding to the inspirations. Here is the list:
Specimen # - Inspiration
1: Concept of Jumpscares
2. Lub-Glubs(creature from the show, "Adventure Time")
3. Resident Evil
4. Concept of Possessed/Creepy Little Girls; Horror RPG; Corpse Party
5. Silent Hill
6. BEN Drowned(Horror Story/Creepypasta); Majora's Mask(Happy Mask Salesman)
7. Penumbra
8. The Beast(antagonist from the show, "Over the Garden Wall")
9. Unit 731
10. The Alien Series(The movies and/or the popular game Alien: Isolation)
11. Little Big Planet(Custom Horror Map by the SHOJS Developer Akuma Kira)
12. Clocktower(an older but good horror game from 1996)
13. Amnesia: The Dark Descent(and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, I guess)
So, if anyone has any clues as to what Specimen 9 may be based on, share them, please.
Possible Inspirations for Specimen 9:
SCP
Terraria
Unit 731 -This is probably the true inspiration-
NES Godzilla
Okay, now that we have Specimen 9 figured out, we can compare the names of their rooms in the code. I'll be making a copy of the list above below this paragraph with the Specimen #, and the specimen room's name.
1: N/A
2: Wake_Gel_room
... Uh... Lub-Glubs confirmed...?
3: Lab
Just a description of the area, doesn't give a very good clue. Then again, I haven't played Resident Evil, so if anyone knows what this may mean please say what.
4: School
Another description, although 4's inspiration is pretty obvious.
5: SH_1
SH = Silent Hill. Done.
6: BEN(number)
BEN Drowned. Another one down.
7 (The Cat rooms): MAD(number)
7 (including flesh rooms): Flesh_(number)
Mad can also mean crazy, and Penumbra has the sanity aspect as well as flesh wall places. Still not a clear confirmation.
8: wood_(number)
The Unknown, setting of the show Over the Garden Wall, is a place of infinite woods. Specimen 8 is assumed to be based off the antagonist from the show, but it's still just another description of the rooms.
9: ?
...Well this one's helpful.
10: DS_(number) DS = ?;
As someone pointed out, it could mean Dead Space. But this creature doesn't seem like a Necromorph...
11: food_(number)
Just a description of the room. Akuma Kira confirmed the LBP inspiration herself, so it's confirmed anyway.
12: CLOCK_(number)
This pretty much confirms 12 was based off Clocktower
13: AMN_(number)
AMNesia. Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The Kaernk/Water Monster. Easy.
So, we have:
Confirmed: 1, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13
Semi-Confirmed: 7, 8, 9
Unconfirmed: 2, 3, 10

[scoutxander]

Learned more about the number(731) that appears after the radio gives the cryptic message about the thrown out logs, and how it's going to be, "nailing them together." This could explain the inspiration for Specimen 9 as well as it's origins.

[xX_DankSkeleton_Xx]

4 is a reference to The Ring/The Grudge. 7 is similar to giygas in appearance; but that may just be a coincidence. I think it's safe to call it original.

I think 9 could be a reference to the NES Godzilla Creepypasta.

[scoutxander]

Originally posted by Tiktalik:

4 is a reference to The Ring/The Grudge. 7 is similar to giygas in appearance; but that may just be a coincidence. I think it's safe to call it original.

I think 9 could be a reference to the NES Godzilla Creepypasta.

4 follows the Horror concept of creepy little girls, the anime/game Corpse Party, and Horror RPGs, so you are pretty much correct. 7 is probably Penumbra due to the flesh-wall chases. It was previously thought to be Amnesia as well, but that would be Specimen 13. However, it may also be Giygas, I'll have to look into that one. I will list this NES Creepypasta so that I may research it later, thanks.

[Penguincicle☁]

Originally posted by Billy:

I think the number 731 actually does refer to Unit 731 due to multiple things.

First, the radio message.
It talks about nailing together "logs" that they keep throwing out, with logs in quotes.
In Unit 731 they would sometimes refer to people as "logs" since the cover story was that it was a lumber mill, and here's where I'll refer to a comment on the specimen 9 wiki page.
It says that since specimen 9 takes in people to gain mass, maybe that refers to specimen 9's origin, which might further explain the radios message.

Unit 731 also tested germs and diseases on people, as well as researching possible weapons of war, and the specimens are basically weapons that they're researching and using to kill as many people as possible.

I've also notice that specimen 2 looks very diseased, having multiple odd patches, being a sickly green color, and a clearly showing ribcage, almost seeming like the person died from these disease experiments, making it this special horrible ghost thing.

I think specimen 10 is from Dead Space because the room is called DS. It could also just be some parasite.

[scoutxander]

Originally posted by Penguincicle:

Originally posted by Billy:

I think the number 731 actually does refer to Unit 731 due to multiple things.

First, the radio message.
It talks about nailing together "logs" that they keep throwing out, with logs in quotes.
In Unit 731 they would sometimes refer to people as "logs" since the cover story was that it was a lumber mill, and here's where I'll refer to a comment on the specimen 9 wiki page.
It says that since specimen 9 takes in people to gain mass, maybe that refers to specimen 9's origin, which might further explain the radios message.

Unit 731 also tested germs and diseases on people, as well as researching possible weapons of war, and the specimens are basically weapons that they're researching and using to kill as many people as possible.

I've also notice that specimen 2 looks very diseased, having multiple odd patches, being a sickly green color, and a clearly showing ribcage, almost seeming like the person died from these disease experiments, making it this special horrible ghost thing.

I think specimen 10 is from Dead Space because the room is called DS. It could also just be some parasite.

Very true, good point... Something else to look into...

[Igƞis]

Originally posted by scoutxander:

Originally posted by Penguincicle:

I think specimen 10 is from Dead Space because the room is called DS. It could also just be some parasite.

Very true, good point... Something else to look into...

Specimen 10 could be inspired by The Thing maybe.

[scoutxander]

So, I read NES Godzilla. What a long creepypasta! It was a great read, lots of cool images, but I seriously doubt that Specimen 9 is inspired by RED. They may look similar, and when Specimen 9 chases you he does kill you in 1 hit(besides the AFK attacks) much like RED did, but they still are very different creatures. As for Unit 731, I believe this is the true inspiration. The staff of the Unit covered up the gruesome experiments by saying the facility was a sawmill, so they referred to the deceased as logs. Specimen 9 says he will be nailing together the logs they are throwing out, the bodies. This directly relates to how specimen gains mass and power by converting the dead into clay, which it then adds to it's own body. This is what the infinitely repeating term, "TAKE THE DEAD TO TAKE THE DEAD TO," means. He's taking the dead to take more victims. He is combining, or nailing, the victims(or just dead people in general or Spooky's house) together to gain more power.

[Igƞis]

Originally posted by scoutxander:

So, I read NES Godzilla. What a long creepypasta! It was a great read, lots of cool images, but I seriously doubt that Specimen 9 is inspired by RED. They may look similar, and when Specimen 9 chases you he does kill you in 1 hit(besides the AFK attacks) much like RED did, but they still are very different creatures. As for Unit 731, I believe this is the true inspiration. The staff of the Unit covered up the gruesome experiments by saying the facility was a sawmill, so they referred to the deceased as logs. Specimen 9 says he will be nailing together the logs they are throwing out, the bodies. This directly relates to how specimen gains mass and power by converting the dead into clay, which it then adds to it's own body. This is what the infinitely repeating term, "TAKE THE DEAD TO TAKE THE DEAD TO," means. He's taking the dead to take more victims. He is combining, or nailing, the victims(or just dead people in general or Spooky's house) together to gain more power.

Maybe specimen 9 is not inspired by anything some lore is found in the game but its not much at all cant think of anything really.

[scoutxander]

Originally posted by Insaneslasher:

Maybe specimen 9 is not inspired by anything some lore is found in the game but its not much at all cant think of anything really.

I did consider the fact the Specimen 9 may be an original idea, but Room 1000 highly suggests otherwise. I have also considered the fact that Specimen 9's 2 forms have seperate inspirations. But I'm fairly certain Unit 731 is the obvious conclusion, at least as of now.

[Chilled Nomi]

For awhile I thought it was somehow inspired by monsters like Ao Oni from the game of the same name due to how it looked.

Unit 731 is the most plausible. Im unsure if its second form was inspired by anything in particular though.

[scoutxander]

Long edit is long.

[scoutxander]

Time for a reboot! Help me figure out the possible inspirations for the new Specimens.

[scoutxander]

Hm... It seems the only new Specimen Theme included in the OST was Specimen 16, and is called, "Tirsiak Ambience." Hopefully the rest are added soon.

EDIT: Upon further digging in the game files, I found Specimen 14 and 15's themes, as well as 16 and several others I have not heard in the game yet.
Here's what I found:

14: SPOOPER_AMB
15: RINGU_AMB
16: TIRSIAK_AMB

Unknown:
BEKKA_AMB
DL_AMB
FD_AMB
LISA_AMB
LISA_AMB2
WF_AMB

[holub]

Whiteface from Imscared confirmed. He acts the same way in the lvl 2 of the game (Imscared). Hard as f*** T_T

[pflytrap]

Originally posted by scoutxander:

Hm... It seems the only new Specimen Theme included in the OST was Specimen 16, and is called, "Tirsiak Ambience." Hopefully the rest are added soon.

EDIT: Upon further digging in the game files, I found Specimen 14 and 15's themes, as well as 16 and several others I have not heard in the game yet.
Here's what I found:

14: SPOOPER_AMB
15: RINGU_AMB
16: TIRSIAK_AMB

Unknown:
BEKKA_AMB
DL_AMB
FD_AMB
LISA_AMB
LISA_AMB2
WF_AMB

"Spooper" appears to be the name of the kid in the ghost costume: its skin is in .PNG form in the 3D folder.