Origins
Vigo was born a prince in 1505 in the small Balkan kingdom of Carpathia. He rose to power and ruled with what his subjects described as an iron fist, earning him the title "Scourge of Carpathia." He later conquered Moldavia, a country in what is now Romania, where his reputation earned him the epithet "Sorrow of Moldavia." Historical accounts described him as both a powerful magician and a genius, as well as a tyrant, a lunatic, and a genocidal autocrat. Additional recorded names include Vigo the Cruel, Vigo the Torturer, Vigo the Despised, and Vigo the Unholy.
He died in 1610 at the age of 105, not from old age but at the hands of his own subjects, who poisoned, shot, stabbed, hung, stretched, disemboweled, and drew and quartered him. Despite this, he reportedly remained alive for days. His final words, uttered just before death, were: "Death is but a door. Time is but a window. I'll be back." His spirit subsequently took up residence in a large self-portrait painted during his lifetime.
An account of Vigo's life was recorded by historian Leon Zundinger in chapter six of the work "Magicians, Martyrs And Madmen," spanning eighteen pages from page 128 to 145. This entry was later digitized on the Occult Reference Net. John Horace Tobin also noted Vigo's existence based on Zundinger's scholarship.
Ghostbusters II (1989)
True to his final threat, Vigo returned in New York City in 1989. His self-portrait had been transferred from storage to restoration room 304 at the Manhattan Museum of Art, where curator Janosz Poha was assigned to work on it.
The Psychomagnotheric Slime (also called Mood Slime) flowing through the abandoned tunnels of the New York Pneumatic Railroad beneath the city fed Vigo's power, and his own malevolence in turn fed the slime, creating a feedback loop that amplified the city's collective negativity. Vigo used this energy to channel hostile emotions into a city-wide surge of ghostly activity. Despite this power boost, he could not regain a physical body and required a living infant to facilitate his rebirth.
Vigo psychically dominated Janosz and directed him to find a suitable child. Janosz identified Dana Barrett's infant son Oscar as the ideal vessel. Vigo attempted to abduct Oscar through the building's plumbing by sending a surge of negatively-charged slime into Dana's bathtub. Dana escaped and took shelter at Peter Venkman's apartment.
The Ghostbusters investigated the museum and were shown readings consistent with an extremely powerful entity: a deleted scene from the investigation has Egon Spengler reading the Giga Meter at "max-plus" and all red, consistent with Vigo's P.K.E. signature. Vigo attempted to eliminate Ray Stantz and Egon during their photo analysis by locking them in the darkroom and setting it ablaze, but Winston Zeddemore pulled them out in time.
The Ghostbusters' attempt to warn Mayor Lenny was cut short by Jack Hardemeyer, who had them committed to Parkview Psychiatric Hospital, removing them from Vigo's path as New Year's Eve 1989 approached. Vigo had declared that "the season of evil" would begin with the birth of the new year, and planned to complete his possession of Oscar at the stroke of midnight.
On New Year's Eve, Janosz, transformed by Vigo's power into the semblance of a spectral nanny, snatched Oscar from the ledge outside Peter's apartment. Dana followed and was sealed inside the museum when the Mood Slime, now overflowing beneath the entire building, hardened into an impenetrable shell over the exterior. Vigo telekinetically tore Oscar from Dana's arms and floated him back to an altar in front of the painting.
The Ghostbusters returned by animating the Statue of Liberty with positively-charged Psychomagnotheric Slime and marching it to the museum. The positive charge of the Statue broke through the slime shell. Inside, the crowd singing "Auld Lang Syne" outside the museum generated enough collective positivity to weaken Vigo as he was beginning to transfer his spirit into Oscar. He was drawn back into the canvas, at which point he attempted a desperate measure: he possessed Ray's body, transmogrifying Ray to resemble Vigo's demonic form. Winston doused Ray with positively-charged slime while Peter and Egon fired proton streams at Vigo's giant floating head form within the painting. Vigo was driven out of Ray and back into the portrait, his powers completely drained, and he vanished in an explosion within the canvas. The slime shell around the museum immediately dissolved. The painting itself was replaced by a new image depicting the four Ghostbusters as heavenly saints surrounding the baby Oscar.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
By November 1991, Vigo's original self-portrait had returned to circulation under unexplained circumstances and was held in the Firehouse near Janine Melnitz's desk. In this state Vigo was limited to verbal exchanges with anyone who approached the painting: over 114 different line variations were recorded for the Realistic Version of the game, with Max Von Sydow reprising the voice role. He could bicker and insult but was entirely unable to emerge from the painting as he had done before. An in-game answering machine message (the tenth, left after the Museum of (Super)Natural History mission) features a Professor Jones demanding to know what happened to the Vigo painting, noting that "it belongs in a museum."
In the Stylized (Wii) version of the game, the Vigo painting is stored in the basement near the Containment Unit. During the Natural History Museum mission, Winston references the "Vigo Incident" to the Rookie. The Stylized Version's Tobin's Spirit Guide entry classifies Vigo as a Class 7 Paranormal Freak. Tobin's notes read: "Abilities: None... anymore." Egon's annotation: "Indeed, he did. Vigo's tenacity in life and beyond is quite remarkable." Ray's tip: "Don't stare directly into the painting's eyes. I learned that the hard way."
A supplemental art page related to Vigo can be found in the Shandor's Island section of the game, in a back corner of the starting room; no P.K.E. scan is required to access it.
IDW Comics
Prime Universe
In the IDW Comics continuity, Vigo's history follows the same outline as the film. He was an alchemist and warlock who ruled Carpathia and later Moldavia. In an attempt to turn the tide of a war in Russia, he unleashed an Underworld Horde that included Death itself, but the horde was defeated by The Undying Soldier. His subjects eventually overthrew him: despite being 105, he was as strong as a young man. He was poisoned, shot, stabbed, hanged, and drawn and quartered. His ashes were scattered in the Black Sea. John Horace Tobin recorded his existence based on Zundinger's scholarship.
After the events of Ghostbusters II, the Vigo painting remained in the Firehouse garage bay for years. The entity Idulnas briefly took on Vigo's guise to taunt Janosz into service, but this was a deception rather than Vigo himself acting.
During the Tiamat incident, Vigo suddenly vanished from his painting and resurfaced at Hart Island, raising the dead of the potter's field to form an army. The resulting P.K.E. surge drew the Ghostbusters' attention. Special Agent Melanie Ortiz shot Vigo in the face with her Proton Pistol, and Vigo fixated on Peter Venkman ("The Vandal") in response. A convergence of the Ghostbusters, the Chicago Ghostbusters, and the Ghost Smashers on Hart Island led to a sustained battle. Ron Alexander, acting independently, blasted Vigo point blank with his Boson Caster. Winston then used Ray's Slime Blower loaded with positively-charged Psychomagnotheric Slime, counting on the Hart Island Ghosts to shield Vigo from the slime. The slime hit the ghosts instead, freed them from Vigo's control, and they swarmed him, dispersing his form until his left hand was reduced to a skeleton. Vigo returned to his painting afterward, now bearing scorch marks on his head from Ortiz's shot. Peter offered to cover them up with a pastel-colored beret.
In a subsequent dimensional overlap event, Jillian Holtzmann scanned Vigo with her P.K.E. Meter while Erin Gilbert and Abby Yates expressed concern about missing equipment.
Dimension 50-S
An alternate version of Vigo appears in the Dimension 50-S storyline. Alan Crendall, after being attacked by a Sandman, found himself in Vigo's throne room. Vigo recognized Alan's bloodline as having failed him, and attacked. Alan's proton thrower malfunctioned; Vigo slashed his chest. Alan regained consciousness before Vigo could finish the attack. The wound, however, was still present on his chest when he awoke, suggesting the encounter was more than a dream.
Powers and Classification
When connected to the river of negatively-charged Psychomagnotheric Slime beneath New York, Vigo displayed abilities comparable to a Class 7 entity. He demonstrated powerful telekinesis (pulling Oscar across a room, ripping boards aside like a sliding door), telepathy, and mind control over Janosz. He withstood a combined proton stream attack and retaliated with an energy pulse that immobilized all four Ghostbusters. He could also shape-shift into a demonic form complete with horns and blood-red eyes, and project energy blasts from his mouth.
The IDW Comics and Insight Editions classify Vigo as a Class 4 possessor entity in his baseline state, one who gained the power to rival a Class 7 by bonding himself to the river of Psychomagnotheric Slime. The Stylized Version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game and the associated Tobin's Spirit Guide entry list him as a Class 7 Paranormal Freak. Dan Aykroyd, in the Ghostbusters II audio commentary, described Vigo as being dispatched to "the next dimension or the afterworld" upon defeat.
Casting and Design
Vigo's portrait proved to be one of the largest design challenges of the production. Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) developed concept versions for months; director Ivan Reitman rejected one design as too "Conan the Barbarian." Artists in New York were brought in next, but their designs also failed to work. Eventually Glen Eytchison and Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, a troupe that each year recreates classic paintings using live costumed performers, were engaged. They collaborated on a new design that was sent to ILM with only two days remaining before a scheduled shoot and continued to be refined to the last minute.
The animated form of the portrait underwent its own development process. Early concepts included Vigo simply talking from the canvas, clay animation, and an animated cartoon insert. As the script evolved, the decision was made to bring Vigo out as far as possible: the painting would give way to a floating head hovering in a slime-coated columned corridor. Wilhelm von Homburg was filmed in front of a bluescreen and matted over an ILM-built miniature of the slimed corridor. After each take the slime had to be cleaned and reset.
The demonic floating head seen after Vigo returns to the painting was based on Thom Enriquez's preproduction sketches. Lifecasts were made of von Homburg. Tim Lawrence and makeup artist Mike Smithson modeled around ten or eleven variations in clay, adjusting the jaw line, nose, brow, earlobes, and cheeks for a more sinister appearance. Ivan Reitman approved a final design, and Lawrence was initially given three weeks to execute it, a timeline later cut to one week. Howie Weed from the creature shop wore the finished makeup for scenes requiring Vigo's transformed appearance within the painting and for the sequence in which he possesses Ray. Dan Aykroyd was unavailable for the possession scenes due to scheduling conflicts, and Weed volunteered because he was close to Aykroyd's size, saving the production the time of fitting another actor. Max Von Sydow recorded all of Vigo's dialogue for the film in a single day.
Vigo was inspired by Carpathian mythology, the Dracula legend, and Vlad the Impaler. His full name as recorded in "Magicians, Martyrs And Madmen" (Vigo Von Homburg Deutschendorf) is a composite of the names of the actors who portrayed him and Oscar: Von Homburg from Wilhelm von Homburg, and Deutschendorf from William T. Deutschendorf and Henry J. Deutschendorf II, the twin infants who played Oscar.
Early script drafts (as of August 5, 1988) presented a very different version of the character named "Jalmar Litvinov," described as the "mad Abbot of Tsbirsk" and a friend of Rasputin, linked to the Russian Revolution. In that version the antagonist lived openly in New York as a musician named Jason Locke and was the biological father of the baby. The November 27, 1988 and February 27, 1989 drafts introduced Janosz Poha by name and moved the story closer to the final film.
Vigo is a recurring subject in GBFans.com's prop and costume communities. The self-portrait is among the most recognizable screen elements of Ghostbusters II, and members have created reproductions of the painting for display purposes. Vigo's elaborate headdress and ceremonial costume have also attracted interest from costume builders. Discussions covering reference images, paint and pigment matching, and canvas size have appeared in the props and costumes forums over the years.
