Mr. Nasty

"Valiant Video Enterprises - Real hardcore. Real fetish. Real brutal. Videos made to order. New members only interactive forms. Now at www.valiant-ent.tv"

"Mr. Nasty" is the name given to a mysterious unseen character mentioned in the Valiant Video Enterprises Winter/Spring catalog, which is the instruction manual for Manhunt. He is technically the overarching antagonist of the game above Lionel Starkweather.

Mr. Nasty is the anonymous "face" of Starkweather's film business and is therefore believed to be the true mastermind behind Manhunt's events, although he's only mentioned/pictured in the instruction manual and never seen in the game itself. Mr. Nasty is the financial backer and producer of the snuff ring under Valiant Video Enterprises. He sells all manner of things from gimp masks to snuff movies from the hunts.

In the game's manual, references to Mr. Nasty are accompanied by a picture of a man in a Skinz hockey mask, who also appears on the game's cover art, though this is believed to be simply generic artwork to hide his identity.

The ultimate fate of Mr. Nasty is left ambiguous. While the manual and website show the snuff ring as active and thriving, they only reference the events of the game up to Mouth of Madness, save for hidden audio files that may not be diegetic. With the death of Starkweather by James Earl Cash's hand and the outing of Gary Schaffer, it seems likely Mr. Nasty was caught and prosecuted, while his snuff empire collapsed. However, it is possible that Mr. Nasty was able to escape public scrutiny and continue his dodgy criminal activities elsewhere, leaving his background in a cliffhanger.

Trivia

• Mr. Nasty is undoubtedly one of Rockstar Games' most mysterious villains throughout its history, as they never explained or mentioned him in any other title besides Manhunt's instruction manual, including Manhunt 2.
• His name is a possible reference to an incident that occurred in London in 1994 where a man named Tom Halloran was caught selling banned videos such as Faces of Death to children; the tabloid newspaper News of the World reported the story with the headline "Mr. Nasty Sells Death Videos to our Kids". As this article was later reprinted in at least one book covering the British "video nasty" scare, the Manhunt developers could conceivably have come across it in their research.
  • Because of these events, "Video Nasty" became a commonly used colloquial term in the United Kingdom for straight-to-video films that featured extremely violent and sexual content. Making it even more likely this is an intentional reference and not a coincidence.

Video

MANHUNT- Valiant- ent.Tv (The voice of Mr. Nasty)

Mr. Nasty's voice and recordings