For the uninitiated, the idea of easter eggs conjures up delectable memories of finding brightly painted chocolate eggs hidden away in plain sight. But, easter eggs aren’t only chocolate-related.

In video games, easter eggs vary according to the genre or even the premise of the hidden surprise. For example, in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, every named character you’ve killed during a mission was one a real life historical figure. And their deaths always coincided with factual history and the time in which they died. Video game easter eggs also play homage to pop culture’s greatest hits. Borderlands 2 features a “double rainbow all the way” in a tented encampment area at the edge of the Hyperion base. Grand Theft Auto V plays homage to American road film Thelma & Louise. There are even delightful easter eggs hidden away in video games purely for die-hard fans. Did you get the very subtle, yet revealing easter egg in Dead Space? The plot is immediately unveiled to you if you really pay attention...

Easter eggs are a great way for developers to leave delightful tidbits behind for their fans to discover. But some are a departure from the lovable variety. In fact, the ones on this list could easily be categorized in the nightmarish and horrific variation.

You may want to think of your happy place as you read through our 15 scariest video game easter eggs guaranteed to keep you up at night.

15 Secret Intro – Arkham Knight

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For those who have played through the Batman Arkham series knows that at the end of Batman: Arkham City leaves players with the poignant image of the caped crusader carrying the lifeless body of the Joker out of the prison enclosure known as Arkham City.

At the start of narrative sequel Batman: Arkham Knight, the Joker’s body is being prepared for cremation. A moving visual sequence that’s set to a beautiful rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “Under My Skin.” But, if you play through the whole game and start anew with the New Game+ feature, the same exact intro takes a rather perverse turn. When the cremation process prompts you to press “Start” to ignite the incinerators, you witness Joker come back to life onto to disintegrate into nothing as the video is filled with his guttural screams of unimaginable pain. Perhaps a fitting end to the Clown Prince of Crime.

14 Hanging Luigi – Luigi’s Mansion

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When you’re often overshadowed by one of the most prominent characters in all of video game lore, it would only be fair that you’d be excited for one of your first outings as a video game protagonist. And that’s exactly what happens to Luigi in his eponymous title Luigi’s Mansion. That is, until you encounter the telephone room during a dark and stormy night. When Luigi enters the telephone room as a storm rages outside, the three telephones in the room will ring. If Luigi doesn’t pick up a phone, the shadow that reflects with every lightning strike will appear normal. But answer the middle phone, and in the next instance of lighting, you see a terrifying image of Luigi’s shadow hanging several inches off the ground with his arms splayed to the sides. Completely lifeless.

A possible foreshadowing of life as second-fiddle to the oh-so-super Mario?

13 Idle Ghosts – Fatal Frame

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When it comes to survival-horror games, certain surprises are to be expected. While Robbie the Rabbit’s appearance in unexpected places during Silent Hill games could make players feel rather unease, its a relatively tame experience considering the source material. The same cannot be said however, for the Fatal Frame series.

When you leave your controller idle for approximately five minutes unpaused, the game’s visuals become slightly grainy before a special “screensaver” will appear. And depending which of the Fatal Frame games you’re playing, a different “screensaver” will be triggered. At times, these are bloody hand prints engulfing your screen, others, its unseemly disembodied whispers and unsettling crying. But perhaps the scariest of them all are the faces that appear, lifeless and yet staring into the abyss of your soul.

12 Tree Carvings – Halo 3

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In the second campaign level of Halo 3’s campaign story, a few easter eggs can be found. In fact, the easter eggs found on this level could be a series of moments that tells the story of a certain primitive family.

When all the fighting is done on Sierra 117, explore through the canopy of forests and there you will trees with certain carvings on them. The carvings include the initials “MF,” a “M+L 7-16-95” carving, and one with a lovable message from a Sam and Grady. As well, if you traverse through a certain cliff and look through the distance with your sniper rifle, you’ll find unmoving members of a primitive family, with one clutching a teddy bear. Considering Halo Arrays are installations constructed by the Forerunners, what would a family of primitive humans be doing on a Halo ring?

11 Angel Statues – Witcher 3

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Don't blink. Blink and you're dead.”

Fans of the much beloved show Dr. Who may get the referenced quote above, but just as well, so would fans of the Witcher 3 game. Scattered throughout a church in the town of Lindenvale are static statues of weeping angels. That is, until Geralt turns his back towards them. In the fleeting seconds it took Geralt to look away, the turn to face him. What’s worse, if Geralt runs into the church and exits again, the statues will have moved several feet facing the entrance of the church.

Its a chilling, spine-tingling experience that is only part of the immersive world of Witcher 3. But it beautifully pays homage to one of the scariest adversaries The Doctor has ever faced. This is one easter egg guaranteed to have you double taking any angelic statues you encounter – both in the digital and real life.

10 Headcrab Zombies – Half-Life 2

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When you first encounter the headcrab zombies, your instinctual reaction is to pray-and-spray them dead. And considering they lumber towards you with such guttural menace and noise and whatever menacing apparatus that is attached to their head, this is the appropriate response to such a frightening experience.

But play these horrific zombie noises backwards and you realize that the sounds they seemingly undead produce aren’t mindless ramblings at all. Rather, under their meaty groans are pleas for help. They’re begging you to help them, which indicates that the person beneath this Alien-esque face mask is still alive and suffering because of it. So in fact, you whittling down their numbers as they approach begging to be freed from their torturous prison should be considered an act of mercy. Just don’t set them on fire.

9 Slender Man – Runner2: Future Legend Of Rhythm Alien

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What was once just an urban legend built from Photoshopped old pictures that soon spawned into a viral myth, creating a series of video games and even making headlines as the meme that compelled two girls to stab a friend, Slender Man is all sorts of scary. A gaunt figure with skeletal limbs and seemingly impeccable dress sense, Slender Man is perhaps the Internet’s scariest legend. Which makes his appearance in Runner2 a nightmarish and eerie cameo.

After all, Runner2 is a bright and colourful side-scrolling platform with a certain musical charm that lifts your spirits and makes you want to explore these worlds with Commander Video. Which makes his cameo in this cheerful game so unsettling, and well, rather scary. Why is Slender Man stalking Commander Video? Is this the reason why Commander Video is running so rapidly to avoid the deathly grip of Slender Man?

8 Ratman Dens – Portal

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While everyone might be familiar with “the cake is a lie” scrawling in the hidden room of Portal, what everyone might not know is that the person who wrote that quote was Doug Rattman, a former Aperture Science employee.

Throughout the Portal series, the player will stumble across hidden rooms known as Ratman Dens. Hidden rooms scattered throughout both Portal and Portal 2 which appear to have been refuges for Rattman in order to escape from GlaDOS’ very watchful eye. Despite being a paranoid schizophrenic, Doug Rattman leaves the player a chilling tale of the truth behind GlaDOS. If you take all his writing, it tells the story of GlaDOS murdering almost everyone in the facility with nerve gas and torturing the survivors to death in science experiments, save you, the last survivor.

7 The Infinity Killer – Grand Theft Auto 5

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Despite Grand Theft Auto 5 being an open world adventure game where you’re encouraged to run down innocent pedestrians and cause general mayhem wherever you go, Merle Abrahams, better known as the Infinity Killer, takes it to a whole other level.

If you stumble across the scribbled handwriting in the Shady Shores neighbourhood of Blaine County, you’ll discover the depravity of the Infinity Killer. Convicted of murdering eight joggers, Merle Abraham left clues throughout Blaine County for players to find, complete with a terrifying poem that reveals a glimpse of the depravity of the murders. “One is done, Two was fun, Three tried to run, Four called mom...” Follow the breadcrumb trail long enough and you’ll discover just where he dumped the bodies. It's a morbid and gruesome tale that’ll make you think twice about diving in Paleto Bay again.

6 Milla Vodello – Psychonauts

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On the exterior, Brazilian Psychonaut agent Milla Vodello seems carefree and laid-back, enjoying partying and dancing and seemingly having no care in the world. When the up-and-coming protagonist Raz enters Milla’s mind, he discovers the playful 70’s themed dance party reflective of Milla’s character. But once you scratch beneath the surface, you discover the darkness within.

When you enter an unassuming small room in Milla’s mind, it resembles a children’s playroom. Apparently before becoming a famous Psychonaut agent, Milla looked after the children at an orphanage. On her way home from grocery shopping, she discovers the orphanage burning with the children still trapped inside. As they perished in the inescapable flames, Milla’s psychic powers let her hear their screams for her help as they burned to death. This scarred her permanently, creating repressed haunting memories of the children begging for her to save them.

5 Robbie The Rabbit – Silent Hill

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First appearing in Silent Hill 3, Robbie the Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit costume that was once the mascot of Lakeside Amusement Park. Mind you, Robbie the Rabbit doesn’t do much. In fact, he doesn’t even employ the traditional jump scare one would except when they stumble across a seemingly out of place feature like Robbie the Rabbit. He just sits there. Staring endlessly into nothingness with his bloodied, matted fur and eternal grin.

One of the few times you actual encounter Robbie the Rabbit as an enemy is in Silent Hill: The Arcade where he tries to murder you with a variety of weapons and his appearance is noticeably absent of blood. And as Silent Hill: The Arcade takes place before Silent Hill 3, this may explain is rather bloodied appearance.

4 The Sunken Scrolls – Splatoon

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Splatoon is as kid-friendly as they come. The game is vibrant, colourful, and unassumingly cheerful. You don’t even kill your opponents in the game. All you do is paint as much of the map with your squid-kid abilities.

But if you play through the single player campaign, you discover hidden easter eggs known as the Sunken Scrolls that tell a chilling background story of what has led to this grim dystopian society. According to the scrolls, all “creatures of the surface” were driven to extinction due to the rising sea levels. To make the game horrifically meta, one of the scrolls even depicts a human skeleton huddled next to a Wii U remote and controller, meaning that the game Splatoon existed before all the creatures were wiped out. And then there’s Judd, the fat cat and only mammal in this world of squid-kid hybrids. Can someone say immortal deity?!

3 Demon Doors – Fable II

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Despite the Fable series being a general letdown, what’s really terrifying about Fable II isn’t the failed promises from developer Peter Molyneux, but rather, what lurks behind the large stone doors with demon faces etched onto them. Like the Winter Lodge. An idyllic winter cabin, its warm exterior draws you in, like a hospitable refuge from the winter storm. But the second you walk into the door, the dream shatters and you stumble into the realm of dark and dreary. There’s skeletal remains and torture devices scattered throughout the now dilapidated cabin.

There’s also the Terry Cotter’s Army Demon Door. Enter the inviting cottage and go upstairs and to find the skeletal remains of Terry Cotter surrounded by his army of empty suits of armour. His untimely demise is covered in the last entry of his diary–“They watch me. They watch over me. They watch me.”

2 The Gyroid Curse – Animal Crossing

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As a game, Animal Crossing is a pretty docile slice-of-life simulator. That is, until you fail to save your game.

If you fail to save your game and try to play again, a demented character called Mr. Resetti will ambush you and scold you for being so irresponsible. Do this long enough and Mr. Resetti puts an Ursula-like curse you on transforming you from your everyday lovable human to one sporting a Gyroid face–an expressionless face with three creepy black holes. What’s really terrifying about this transformation is that the Gyroids are based on the ancient Japanese burial statues known as Haniwa. These burial statues are said to contain the souls of the deceased. What this implies about your character’s soul is up for interpretation, but what is clear is that witchcraft has been at work here.

1 The Ghost Of Mt. Gordo – Grand Theft Auto V

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If GTA V serial killer Merle Abrahams didn’t fully satisfy your scare meter of frightening easter eggs, the perhaps the Ghost of Mt. Gordo will.

The story goes that Jolene and husband John "Jock" Cranley-Evans had an argument about leaving Blaine County so that John could pursue his dreams of becoming a successful stuntman. Unable to reach an agreement, while hiking Mount Gordo, a frustrated John pushed Jolene over the edge of the cliffs overlooking El Gordo Lighthouse. While the police arrested Jock, he was later release as investigations led the detectives to believe Jolene's death was accidental.

Now, when you climb Mt. Gordo between 23:00 and 00:00, a ghost of Jolene materializes, with a permanent petrified look on her face and swirls of leaves encircling her–signifying how she died. What's worse, on the rock that her spirit floats over, the name "Jock" is visibly written in blood, accusing her husband of her gruesome murder.