Rick Taylor

"What have you done to me? What am I? What am I!?" - Rick Taylor

Richard "Rick" Taylor is the main protagonist of the Splatterhouse series.

Splatterhouse (1988)

In the first Splatterhouse game, Rick and his girlfriend Jennifer take refuge from a storm in a mansion in the woods. Once there, the couple are attacked by monsters. Jennifer is taken hostage and Rick is left unconscious. Rick awakens in the mansion's dungeon to discover that he is wearing a mysterious mask. Without questioning it, he finds the strength to find Jennifer and save her from her captors.

Eventually he arrives to where Jennifer is being held hostage but Rick is too late, she has been corrupted by the creatures of the mansion and begins to transform into a hideous creature, while pleading for Rick's help. Rick kills Jennifer then follows one of the monsters that laughed at him. Rick finds and kills the source of all the monsters in the Mansion. Somehow, the mansion is set on fire, and Rick escapes. Once outside, Rick fights off the last monster of the game.

The game ends with Rick standing outside the mansion. The mask breaks apart and the credits roll. Once the credits end, the mask reforms and laughs.

Wanpaku Graffiti

The game opens with Jennifer mourning over the death of Rick, which is a role reversal to the Arcade game. Suddenly, lightning strikes Rick's graves reviving him. He is already wearing a hockey mask - it is not given context nor is it named, and it does not give him powers. While Jennifer rejoices, another lightning bolt hits the next grave. Kabocha Daiou (or Great Pumpkin King) rises from it and snatches her away. Rick travels to Hell House, fighting off its funky minions. In the end, he defeats Kabocha Daiou, hugging Jennifer. As a joke, the director of the game walks up and says it'll make a great movie. Rick takes off the mask (revealing his face for the first time in the series) and walks off, unaware that the mask might not be what it seems. If two crystal balls are found, it reveals that the two live happily until the events of the Arcade game, making this a prequel.

Splatterhouse 2

Three months have gone by since the first game. The Terror Mask (as it came to be known) calls to Rick and repeatedly tempts him to "go back to the house", telling him that Jennifer "doesn't have to die". It closes by telling Rick "you need me".

Rick fighting Bellyache.

In this game, Rick enters Shin Splatterhouse and finds a diary by West holding the secret to bringing back Jennifer. He breaks the seal on the gate leading to the void, which is a land of the dead where Jennifer is located. In the process, Rick accidentally unleashes evil forces, cutting the emotional reunion short.

Rick is most concerned with rescuing Jennifer and making things right, so he defeats his attackers as they escape one a boat. When they are safe, they watch the mansion and the island sink into the lake. Rick then notes how the mask disappeared. The mask is seen laughing at the screen as Rick quotes: "As long as that mask remains...It can happen again."

Splatterhouse 3

Five years after the events of Splatterhouse 2, Rick and Jennifer are now married and have a son named David, living a normal life together. However, due to Rick's actions in the last adventure, a cult of monsters has escaped into the real world and seek to resurrect the Evil One, a tyrannical deity whom the Terror Mask opposes. On a special evening, the monsters invade Rick's home and terrorize Jennifer and David. Meanwhile, the Mask feels the ancient energy that it recalls from ages past and comes to Rick, allowing him to take more of its power. Rick reluctantly dons the mask for the third time and must fight the monsters that have invaded his mansion. Rick first fights to save Jennifer, but it is revealed this was only a distraction while the Evil One's forces took David.

Rick eventually defeats the Evil One, who had planned to use David's latent psychic abilities to unlock the power of an object known as the Dark Stone. Upon defeating the Evil One, the Mask reveals its true, evil intentions. Rick then fights the Terror Mask.

Depending on how the player had played Splatterhouse 3, there are four possible endings. If Rick manages to save David and Jennifer, they will both be alive by the end of the game and celebrate their survival after Rick destroys the Terror Mask. If Rick fails to save Jennifer, David will confusingly ask Rick where his mother is. If Rick fails to save David, both he and Jennifer will mourn their dead son. If Rick fails to save both of them, he will be alone in his mansion.

The ending with both Jennifer and David alive is believed to be canon.

Splatterhouse (2010)

In his childhood, Rick Taylor has always sensed The Corrupted's power. They made Rick terrified of the world around him, possibly even damaging his mind. When he met and fell in love with Jennifer Willis, his fears went away. Some people have said that his girlfriend, Jennifer Willis, is too good for him. Rick once, while intoxicated, had an affair with another girl. After that, Rick vowed to never disappoint or hurt Jennifer ever again.

He went with Jennifer to West Mansion, because afterward they had a date where he was going to ask her to marry him, and he also wanted to protect her just in case anything were to happen. Unexpectedly something

does happen, Dr. West kidnaps Jennifer and has his monsters kill Rick, who is then thrown at the coffin the Terror Mask was in, causing it to fall to the ground. Left for dead, the Terror Mask awakens and offers his powers to Rick in order to save himself and Jennifer, which Rick accepts. The Mask violently transforms Rick into a more muscleur form of himself. Several of Dr. West's creatures enter the area where Rick is. The Mask tries to take Rick over and furthers the transformation into a more powerful form.

After slaughtering the creatures, Rick screams in pain. Seeing as Rick was not ready for the full transformation, the Terror Mask pulls it back a little. Rick and the Terror Mask travel through West Mansion to save Jen, but are continuously stopped by West's monsters. While searching through the West Mansion, Rick finds an old porclean doll that he believes to be harmless. The doll however was suddenly possessed by an evil spirit and forms a much larger body for itself. Rick fights the doll while falling into the lower levels of the West Masnion. The doll tries to crush Rick under it's foot, but the Terror Mask transforms Rick into the powerful form that he was in earlier. In this form, Rick throws the doll's larger body onto the floor, destroys the chest of the larger body and tears the old porclean doll's head off. This kills the spirit inside the doll. Once reaching the end of West Mansion, they follow Dr. West into a portal leading them to New York City, thirteen months into the future where humans are now extinct because Rick failed to save Jennifer allowing The Corrupted to enter Earth and kill everyone while bizarre creatures run wild. Eventually, after running through collapsing buildings, fighting hordes of creatures in the Meat Factory, and mercilessly killing the Biggy Man, they find another portal which takes them to the catacombs far beneath the West Mansion. Traveling through the trap and creature filled catacombs, they find themselves in what seems to be West's laboratory.

After killing a giant electrical gorilla, they are teleported to a place called Dandyland. Rick fights his way through the amusement park. Rick is begins to believe that the Terror Mask is evil, and using him just to kill the creatures. The Mask reminds Rick that he once cheated on Jenny, something that he'll allways regret. As the Terror Mask puts it, "If a square Joe like you can do something bad once...then don't it follow that something like me can be capable of doing something good?" After covering some distance, Rick ends up in a mirror house where he faces several twisted reflections of Jennifer. Rick and the Terror Mask reach a deadend. As they were about to go back, Rick is taken into the "silver side of the mirror" by one of his doppelgängers and fights groups of them. Rick is then teleported to the a future version of the West Mansion where, after fighting many hordes of monsters, he reaches the literal heart of the Mansion and rips it out causing it to collapse.

He is then teleported again to the past just minutes before Dr. Wests undead wife is burned alive for being accused of witchcraft. After fighting his way through the West Mansion's garden, Rick saves Leonora (believing her to be Jennifer) but is instead attacked and kills her in front of the Dr. West of the past and leaves. This cauese a paradox in the timeline. As a time-travelling Rick killed Leonora, he also caused Dr. West to become insane and allowed for him to become a servant to the Corrupted. To let the Corrupted out and bring Leonora back, he would have to sacrifice Jennifer. But because Rick came with Jennifer to the West Mansion, he would be attacked by West's creatures, put on the Terror Mask and begin his mission to save Jennifer.

Again, Rick is teleported outside of the Mansion where the Corrupted begin to enter the universe and end all of humanity. He fights his way to a cathedral, where the sacrifice is to take place and arrives at the last second to save Jennifer by ripping off Dr. West's arm and smashing him into the ground with it. But the eclipse continues and a member of the Corrupted enters the world and fuses itself with everyone Rick killed throughout the game forming a giant monster. The Terror Mask reveals this all to be his revenge plan for being a slave to the Corrupted, and it was using Rick to help in the Mask's scheme. Rick fights the Corrupted while protecting Jennifer. When the Corrupted reaches the alter, it tries to crush Rick and Jennifer with it's foot. Just at the last second, Rick is transformed into his Beserker form and rips out the creature's heart.

After killing the Corrupted, Rick tries to remove the Terror Mask to no success as their deal still isn't over, as he is told something is still wrong with Jenny. He checks on her and she says "it's good to be back" as her eyes change to black, ending the game with a cliffhanger.

Personality and Traits

In his early childhood, Rick had sensed the Corrupted, who called him into the darkness. This caused Rick to become very afraid of the universe around him. When he met Jennifer Willis, these fears vanished. Rick truly and deeply loves Jennifer, as he would do anything for her. He even vowed to never hurt or disappoint Jennifer ever again after having a drunken affair. Rick enjoys listening to heavy metal rock music, and has a long list of bands that he likes. He is a college student, and a very smart person, shown during Phase Five: The Corpse That Wouldn't Die, when he recognized Mayan symbols.

Early in the game, Rick is horrified by the fact that he has to kill creatures that were once his friends, and digusted by the Terror Mask's bloodlust. As the game continues, however, he starts to enjoy killing creatures and loves the powers the Mask has given him. Despite that, he still retains his love for Jenny and only continues fighting for her.

Powers and Abilities

Rick, being a normal human being, isn't very strong. He also seems to have some sort of psychic power, as he could sense the Corrupted's powers as a child. But, when wearing the Terror Mask, his body is transformed into a hulking version of himself thus gaining massive amounts of superhuman strength. As seen, Rick has the strength to literally rip enemies apart, smash them into a puddle of blood (with a 2x4), and throw them long distances.

Rick also gains the ability to heal very serious and normally fatal wounds in a short matter of time, such as gashes so deep they reveal internal organs and bones. Rick can also regenerate missing limbs such as an arm or a leg. Rick's powers can also be increased because when he kills a lot of enemies his body will be covered in blood which increases the Mask's power thus increasing Rick's power. With enough blood Rick will be able to transform into an even more monstrous form than the already hulking form he has with the mask while having the mask take over.

In the original trilogy, the Mask is not seen giving Rick special powers until the third game. In the first game, it is only seen to awaken the final boss. In the second game, it guides Rick on his quest to save Jennifer, opening the portal to the void. In the third game, it gives Rick a transformation. In fact, when Rick and Jennifer approach the mansion in the first game, Rick already appears to have a very muscular build. When this was cut from the 1990 home port, new artwork showed Rick with a smaller frame in his ordinary clothing, and the mask was said to have given him his powers. This was used the 2010 game.

Trivia

• Rick Taylor is voiced by Josh Keaton in the American version of the 2010 remake of Splatterhouse.
• In the past, Rick got drunk and accidentally had an affair with a girl or a boy (the Terror Mask says "I never said it was a girl." in Phase 7, though this could be Terror Mask merely toying with him). After this, he promised himself that he would never disappoint Jenny again. This could be one of the reasons as to why he's driven to rescue her.
• Based upon dialogue from the Terror Mask, Rick may be the reincarnated form of a murderer. Another explanation is that it somehow knows of the original Splatterhouse events, as it has a habit of breaking the fourth wall on occasion, making it seem like the remake (2010 game) Rick is a reincarnation of the original (1980's game) Rick.
• In Splatterhouse (2010), Rick holds every weapon in his right hand.
• It's unknown why Rick went bald when he wore the Terror Mask in the orginal games, though this was also going to be present in Splatterhouse (2010), it was changed later in development.
• In Splatterhouse (2010) remake, Rick's normal human form resembles Howard Drossin, a music composer who also composed the soundtrack for the game.
• During splatterhouse's production Rick's hulking form was going to have a darker skin tone

Gallery

• Rick before donning the Terror Mask.
• Rick's silhouette
• Rick and Jenny entering the West Mansion
• Rick throughout the years.

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