- "I'm sure there's some children somewhere who'd just love to meet Doctor Futterman."
- ―Mother Gooseberry.
- "I WILL TEACH YOU ABOUT DENTAL HYGIENE! I WILL TEACH YOU ABOUT DENTAL HYGIENE!"
- ―Doctor Futterman, Mother Gooseberry's separate personality
Phyllis Futterman, better known as Mother Gooseberry, is a Prime Asset and one of the antagonists in The Outlast Trials. She is a disgraced, mentally unstable children's show host struggling with psychosis and dissociation. Gooseberry's alternative personality manifests in the form of her ventriloquist duck puppet, Doctor Futterman, a crude avatar of her abusive father.
Background[]
Before the events of The Outlast Trials, Gooseberry was the daughter of a dentist in Philadelphia. She worked as her father's assistant from a young age, using puppets to distract adolescent patients during drilling/surgery. Back then, her hobbies included taxidermy and musical theater. Due to the popularity of her family locally, Gooseberry had her studio, called Futterland Studios, where she hosted a children's variety show known as 'The Mother Gooseberry Hour', which started airing in 1951. Following Dr. Futterman's death, the cause of which is still unknown, she had a hysterical episode and began experiencing dissociation. The tone of the Mother Gooseberry Hour shifted accordingly.
Throughout her tenure on the show, she used her television platform and mail-order "dental drops" business to get children addicted to narcotics, violence, theft, and possibly murder. Over the years, the children watching her show became cult-like, engaging in immoral behavior, drug use, and other shenanigans leading to larceny and assault. In 1955, Futterland Studios was raided by the police, after which she was charged with racketeering, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit murder. The raid left two police officers dead and five others injured, as she escaped into the tunnels beneath the set to attack them with drills. It is unclear exactly what was inside Futterland Studios, but police captain Stanley Hoad described the contents of the studios as "The most grotesque architectural perversion since H.H. Holmes’ Chicago Murder Castle"[1].
After her arrest she was sent to Holmesburg Prison north of Philadelphia, where she underwent dermatological experiments under the supervision of a Doctor Kligman. During these experiments, Gooseberry was exposed to carbonic acid and dioxin and had grafts of necrotic flesh as well. Fortunately for her, she survived these experiments, with her physical health remaining remarkable. Clyde Perry was able to secure an interview with him, where she attempted to attack him before being restrained. She expresses interest in the facility, saying she would like a change of scenery. Clyde also notes that she has two carnal relations with guards, and that she also had other inmates and staff under her sway as well.[2]
Physical description[]
Mother Gooseberry is a large, moderately obese woman wearing a white blouse with a long plaid dress and knickers underneath. She wears grey stockings with a level of tear and damage as well as black low suede pumps. Mother Gooseberry wears a black belt with a golden buckle, a red neck tie above a white bib like accessory and black gloves. Her skin appears to be flaky and red, resembling something like an advanced sunburn. Notably, Gooseberry has what appears to be a skin mask with smudged makeup crudely stapled to her face to hide her deformities. The top of her head is hairless, yet the hair at the sides of her head remains and is greying. On Gooseberry's right hand is "Doctor Futterman": a poorly constructed puppet of a duck made out of what appears to be leather covered with white feathers, white string like protrusions and bulging red eyes. The puppet wears a top hat and a yellow bowtie with white polka dots. Futterman's bill is made of metal and the top and bottom have human like gums with human teeth. Inside the bill of Doctor Futterman is a powered drill able to be retracted and extended that Gooseberry uses to attack and mutilate unfortunate reagents.
"Alters"[]
Mother Gooseberry[]
In contrast to her murderous nature, Gooseberry speaks in a faux-caring and motherly tone of voice, as she often refers to the Reagents as "children", and herself as "mother". Her dialogue may sometimes denote that she thinks she is helping or educating the Reagents. Mother Gooseberry also shows hints of kindness as she says all people are welcome into the Root Canal after Doctor Futterman questions their presence. This kindness however is more than likely a luring tactic used to pull reagents towards her. Gooseberry also seems to express some level of seductiveness as seen by her regards of Factory Futterman during the Pervert the Futterman trial and how he is being sexually tortured, as well as her comments on Leland Coyle that often prompt Doctor Futterman to criticize her arousal. Her reaction to Franco Barbi is often confusion at him being armed and a motherly desire to nurse him.
Doctor Futterman[]
Doctor Futterman is the alternative or secondary personality ("alter") of Gooseberry's dissociation, manifested as a bird puppet with teeth, with a drill inside its mouth. When Gooseberry speaks as the Doctor, her voice will change to be higher in pitch, as well as more nasally and throaty. This second personality/identity is much more aggressive, profane, and outspoken than Gooseberry herself, even to the point of insulting her. This includes comments about Gooseberry being a "mistake". Gooseberry often reacts with shock and dismay to the Doctor's off-colored "remarks". Doctor Futterman is an extremely sadistic personality and often expresses interest and enjoyment in torturing the Reagents with his drill. Unlike Gooseberry during the prime time and Lupara event, Doctor Futterman is critical and very irritated by the presence of other prime assets and often expresses desire to harm them.
Characteristics[]
Much like every other enemy, Gooseberry will aggressively attack Reagents on sight, endlessly chasing them until she has caught up with them, lost sight of the Reagents, or is stunned by something - such as a blind or stun rig. Gooseberry does not have any visual cues to highlight her location when in the darkness, but the sounds of her Drill and singing are audible from a fair distance. Any doors that are impeding her destination will simply be opened, otherwise she may bash them open with just a single hit from her drill. She will also bash any wooden planks blocking a doorway and vault nearby windows if she has the chance. When Mother Gooseberry and a Reagent collide head-on, she will immediately grab the Reagent at close range and unleash a drill attack that deals considerably more damage to the Reagent than if she were to simply hit them. Mother Gooseberry will attempt to kill a player by savagely drilling into their face if she either manages to down a player or happens to come across one of them. Thankfully, Mother Gooseberry's execution can be temporarily stopped by another Reagent by knocking her off of the downed Reagent, much like Coyle. In Grind the Bad Apples Gooseberry will refocus to attack the Reagent that is pushing the boat into the grinder, this can be used to lure her into blind rig traps.
Despite her weight, she can pursue the Reagents at an above-average speed, being slightly faster than Coyle. She can also do more damage to players compared to most of the other experimental population, due to using her deadly drill as an attack. Throughout her trials, there are explosive traps (which consist of a Futterman duck doll holding a stack of TNT dynamites) scattered around the environment. Approaching these traps will cause them to make a hissing noise and puffing up the closer it gets, before exploding near the Reagent. They can be destroyed by throwing a Bottle or a Brick towards them.
Story[]
Before The Outlast Trials[]
Phyllis worked as her father's assistant in his dentist's office from a young age and used a puppet to distract adolescent patients during operations. Her hobbies included taxidermy and musical theater. Due to her charisma, her popularity increased, leading to a local broadcast show called "The Mother Gooseberry Hour" in 1951.
After her father's death, Phyllis suffered hysteria and dissociation; her father's body was never found.
A raid occurred at Futterland Studios in 1955, where she was apprehended and sentenced to life in a Philadelphian prison. In 1956, Clyde Perry interviewed her and determined her to be a good candidate for Project Lathe.
The Outlast Trials[]
She makes an appearance in Grind the Bad Apples, where upon entering she can be seen dancing above the Futterland entrance with a corpse, singing happily. She isn't seen again until after the Reagents enter the Root Canal, seen above them in her office, giving a corpse a new flesh face. Upon noticing the Reagents, Dr. Futterman will ask what they are doing there and Phyllis will tell him that everybody's welcomed in. She will emerge upstairs to thwart anyone that tries to locate the valves for the C/D pipes. After pushing the duck cart down to the grinders, she will spawn out of the monster closet right next to it, attacking the Reagents off of the cart and giving chase around the area. The Reagents must then escape after succeeding in destroying the boat, which causes her to despair. She spawns for a final time at the end, waiting at the shuttle to attack the Reagents.
She appears in Cleanse the Orphans, seen at the Orphanage front desk behind the grates, before going into the monster closet. After the Reagents tune the frequency box in the Faith Broadcast Map room, she will appear in one of the random dorms to prevent the Reagents from being able to do the respective box. She won't appear again until the end, when the Reagents initiate Communion and the blood sprays down onto the kids. She will come through the Chapel doors and attack the Reagents. She will respawn at the end as well, by the Orphanage entrance, and give the Reagents chase to the shuttle.
She appears in Pervert the Futterman, periodically spawning throughout the entire trial after the Reagents complete the Input A machine.
Player death animation[]
Mother Gooseberry nods at Doctor Futterman before crouching over a Reagent and drilling their mouth apart.
Balance Changes[]
May 19, 2023 (Early Access Launch)
October 26, 2023 (Early Access Update # 3 / Program Geister)
December 13, 2023 (Early Access Update # 4 / Winter Kills)
March 5, 2024 (Full Release)
May 28, 2024 (Prime Time)
July 16, 2024 (Season 1)
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Trivia[]
- Mother Gooseberry's name is likely a namesake taken from Mother Goose, a fictional character based in French fairy tales and later English nursery rhymes. She is portrayed either as an elderly woman who owns a goose or the goose herself and, in some versions, she is the author of said stories. Although the character's origins are not entirely clear, the spread of its popularity is attributed to Charles Perrault's fairy tale collection Contes de ma mère l'Oye (French for Tales of Mother Goose).
- Mother Gooseberry seems to have been inspired by the real-life murderer Ed Gein, who himself inspired a plethora of other characters in the horror genre. Especially Gein's unhealthy and almost Freudian relationship with his mother - with him being dependent upon her well into his adulthood - his unstable mental health after her eventual passing, as well as his habit of grave robbery to fashion various items from human remains are very prominent traits which are mirrored in Phyllis.
- Additionally, her mentioned affinity for taxidermy and her goose theming in particular are reminiscent of characteristics that Norman Bates from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 horror film Psycho—another character who was inspired by Gein—possesses. He too had a passion for taxidermy, specifically involving birds.
- Alternatively, Mother Gooseberry may also be inspired by Leatherfacefrom The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise (which in turn, was also heavily influenced by Ed Gein) as they are both overweight serial killers who remove the faces of their victims with a power tool (specifically, an electric drill in Mother Gooseberry’s case and a chainsaw in Leatherface’s case) and wear them to cover their disfigured faces. Her makeup is also very reminiscent of Leatherface’s “Pretty Lady” mask in the 1974 film.
- Gooseberry's freudian associations and use of powerdrill could have been inspired by the 1982 slasher movie "The Slumber Party Massacre". In the movie, the main antagonist, Russ Thorn, uses a powerdrill and his weapon is given many phalic connotations as he written to represent the male sex drive and the fear of penetration.
- Additionally, her mentioned affinity for taxidermy and her goose theming in particular are reminiscent of characteristics that Norman Bates from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 horror film Psycho—another character who was inspired by Gein—possesses. He too had a passion for taxidermy, specifically involving birds.
- It is not outright stated, as Dr. Futterman's body was never recovered, but in Phyllis' "conversations" with her Futterman effigy, he heavily alludes that his passing may have been the result of his simultaneous usage of benzedrine and gin. Taking amphetamines and alcohol together not only comes with a multitude of serious side effects but also takes a tremendous toll on one's physical health. It is therefore likely that Dr. A. Futterman's death could have come as a result of his drug habit. The line of dialogue where this bit of information is revealed is also a rare instance where Phyllis acknowledges her father's passing and displays a sliver of lucidity and self-awareness in stating so.
- Gooseberry's Freudian tendencies are most prominently displayed in the Toy Factory Program, where she expresses confusion at her simultaneous disgust and arousal at the sight of Factory Futterman.
- In Toy Factory, Mother Gooseberry's hand puppet performs the Futterman song from the TVs. This song was also hummed briefly by one of patrolling male grunts and Mother Gooseberry grabbing the reagent.
- The song is a reference to "Mickey Mouse March[3]" which is the opening theme for 1955 Mickey Mouse Club TV show.
- Contrary to popular belief, Mother Gooseberry does not fit the criteria to be diagnosed with DID (dissociative identity disorder); her symptoms more closely match the criteria for OSDD (other specified dissociative disorder).
- Mother Gooseberry is likely to be around 6'0.
- In the DSM-V[4], one of the most notable criteria for a DID diagnosis is lapses in consciousness and memory between the personality states present in a system. Since both personality states are simultaneously active, the criteria is not met.
- OSDD is used as a diagnosis when a subject experiences clear dissociative symptoms, but fails to meet the criteria for any particular dissociative disorder.
References[]
- ↑ The Raid on Futterland
- ↑ Gooseberry Interview
- ↑ Mickey Mouse March
- ↑ American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed). https://archive.org/details/DSM5Eng/mode/2up
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