Playing a horror game is FAR more terrifying than watching a horror movie. You mean to tell me that it’s MY responsibility to escape the monster? That I can’t just cover my eyes and wait for the person on screen to do it (or not do it) for me? Have you SEEN the monsters that they’re coming out with in games these days? They could make the Babadook do a Babadookie in his stylish black pants! This list is dedicated to the freakiest of the freaks, the most horrific of the horrible, the most abominable abominations ever to be rendered into pixels. These are the 10 scariest monsters in video games, foes that it’s our job to overcome, or throw our controllers at while running away – an equally viable alternative.
Alien: Isolation – The Xenomorph
When coming up with the horror masterpiece that is Alien Isolation, the developers had quite a bit of the heavy lifting done for them already. They had the luxury of using what is arguably the most terrifying monster to ever grace the silver screen: the Xenomorph. Described as a perfect predator, this abomination is seven feet worth of alien muscle fueled by acidic blood. Surprisingly stealthy for its size, this limber nightmare is capable of crawling around in the many air vents that crisscross the spaceship where the action takes place. Seriously, who designed this thing? Why did you give the monster so many places to hide? The Xenomorph will sneak up on you, and there’s absolutely nothing you can do but run, hide, or die. Worst of all, it’s totally impervious to damage – unlike your soft and easy damageable body.
Dead Hand – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Nintendo had no right to traumatize an entire generation of children this way – fooling a bunch of kids into buying what looked like a fun adventure game and then throwing this monstrosity at them? It’s just wrong. While there are plenty of horrors in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (like ReDeads, Wall Masters, and hug-crazed Gorons that don’t know the meaning of “boundaries”) the most disturbing of all is found in a putrid, corpse-ridden torture chamber at the bottom of a well. First appearing like a ring of weirdly colored sticks, walking too close gets you grabbed by what are revealed to be undead arms. As you struggle to breathe, the main body emerges from the ground behind you – a fleshy mass of necrotic tissue topped with a nightmarish parody of a human face. Don’t let its smile fool you, you’d do the same faced with an appetizing meal after spending a long, hungry lifetime underground.
The Mannequins – Little Nightmares 2
While horrors abound in the Little Nightmares series, my heebies were most jeebied by the mannequins found in the second game. As you navigate your way through an abandoned hospital with naught but a flashlight, you realize that the body parts littered across the beds and gurneys aren’t human – they’re worse. As you go deeper into the hospital, these mannequin patients begin moving on their own – perambulating all herky-jerky in your direction. If they grab you, it’s over. The only way to stop them is to shine your flashlight on them – they freeze in the light. The problem is, there are always a just a few too many to cover at once. You’ve gotta aim for the nearest one, hoping the others don’t get you while you make a bee line for the exit. See, this is why people don’t go to the doctor.
Creepers – Minecraft
I can hear your skepticism through the screen. Creepers? Really? The little square squid guys from a game that 10 year olds play? YES. Obviously you’ve never been down deep in a Minecraft mineshaft, health bar in shambles from repeated skeleton attacks, carrying your precious cargo of diamonds to the shelter of the surface when suddenly… you hear it. A hiss like a cartoon stick of dynamite. At that point, it’s too late – your items and body parts are scattered across the cavern floor. The scariest part of these jumpscare machines isn’t their silly character design, it’s what they represent: the loss of all your precious valuables in a tentacle grenade ambush.
Reaper Leviathans – Subnautica
Subnautica is easily the scariest non-horror game on the market. The DSM-5 definition of thassalophobia, this underwater exploration simulator proves just how freaky the deep sea can get. Picture this: you’re swimming along in the big blue void, minding your own business, when one of these monstrosities jumpscares its way out of the abyssal dark. There’s not much you can do against a Reaper Leviathan except float belly-up and hope for a quick death. You really think your knife is gonna make a scratch on a creature with a mouthful of blades twice as long? You could always try to take one down in the Prawn Suit, but these creatures are best avoided all together – for sanity’s sake.
The Visitor – Look Outside
The indie cosmic horror game Look Outside is chock fuel of nightmare fuel, able to keep your imagination’s engine running for weeks after your first playthrough. While the game features plenty of gibbering horrors to haunt your dreams, few are more terrifying than the being that began it all: The Visitor. You can choose an ending where you get to behold the eldritch abomination’s true form, but as your eyes adjust to the sheer scale of the thing, you’ll quickly realize the equally galactic size of your mistake. As the camera keeps zooming out on the alien horror, revealing that the giant eye that fills the sky above accounts for less than 1% of its unfathomable body mass, you find your sanity slipping away faster than a greased tentacle. Horror of The Visitor is the knowledge of The Visitor – an entity so incomprehensible that it will break your mind entirely.
Photoshop Flowey – Undertale
Who would have thought that a cute indie game like Undertale would hide the kind of eldritch abomination you’d expect to find in the Cthulhu Mythos? The final form of a sociopathic flower, Photoshop Flowey is essentially a malevolent botanical god. It’s an omniscient being that knows your every decision, even the ones that you made in playthroughs past. The ultimate tempter, it tries to corrupt you to the dark side – serving its unending thirst for destruction. Flowey is the cynical intelligence of Portal 2‘s GLaDOS combined with the raw power of Safer Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7 – not a combination you want to go up against.
The Brethren Moons – Dead Space
The final evolution of the Necromorphs from the Dead Space franchise, the Brethren Moon’s provide a cosmic horror answer to the Fermi Paradox. Named after physicist Enrico Fermi, the paradox asks why haven’t we found any signs of extraterrestrial life in the universe despite the high probability of its existence. Dead Space‘s solution: the Necromorphs consumed it all. Brethren Moons are essentially planet sized necromorphs, beings that float through space chowing down on entire worlds. When the biomass of a planet is assimilated, a newly formed Brethren Moon joins the herd, and the cycle continues. When does it end? When all life in the cosmos is un-life, a cold and dead void filled with the living dead.
The Rat King – The Last of Us 2
The Last of Us series taught us a valuable lesson: fungus is not to be trusted. One whiff of spores and next thing you know you’re dealing with mind altering mushrooms – and not the fun kind. While the echolocating Clickers and the Hulk-smashing Bloaters were bad enough, The Last of Us 2 introduced to the cordyceps virus’ final, awful evolution: The Rat King. A truck-sized colony of infected bodies, this flesh tank is capable of ripping through anything in its path. As if fighter a super-Bloater wasn’t traumatizing enough, the creature has a second form that stealthily stalks you in the subterranean dark. The Rat King is the perfect killing machine, and the final stage for all infected life unless something is done. Possible solutions? Flamethrowers, lots.
Literally Everything In Silent Hill
I knew that if I didn’t add a monster from the Silent Hill series, the comments section would eviscerate me faster than Pyramid Head. The problem is, I just can’t decide on which is the scariest! The psychosexual nightmare nurses? The conjoined twin terror with the gangly arms? Or maybe the franchise’s geometrically-headed, sword-swinging poster boy? Every single one of the monsters in the Silent Hill series is plain awful – scarier than every other monster on this list combined. The horror of this franchise comes from its intimate understanding of the uncanny valley: when something looks human but isn’t quite. The series is haunted by sick parodies of the human form, semi-people that could pass for the real thing if you squint. But why would you ever squint while beholding these abomination? Keep your eyes peeled, or else one of them will get you.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
