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Watching a Game Over screen play out is almost never a good thing, since it usually means you've failed in your mission and have to restart from somewhere. But some games take it a step further and make sure you know what it means to fail in them.
There are plenty of non-horror games that have surprisingly disturbing Game Over screens, but horror games can take them to the next level since you're already expecting them to scare you or creep you out. Sometimes, the Game Over screen is one of the most disturbing things in the game, so there's extra incentive in avoiding getting one at all costs.
6 Resident Evil 2
Usually, Game Over screens come after you see your character die via a fade-to-black transition, and that's that. But in the original Resident Evil 2, whatever is happening to your character just keeps going. After seeing blood splatter and the words "You Died" written with blood appear on the screen, you still continue to see the zombie or creature eat your character alive.
What's more, the crunching and squelching sounds, accompanied by the character's screams, keep going after the game has announced that it's game over. It's like prolonged torture for letting yourself get killed.
5 Haunting Ground
Sometimes it's not what you can see, but what you can hear. This hidden gem of a horror game has many ways for Fiona to die, whether it be by her stalkers, random contraptions, or accidentally falling into pits. If she does happen to die by the hands of a stalker, the screen fades to black, and the phrase "Acta Est Fabula," which roughly translates to "the play has ended," appears in red.
Not so bad... except for the fact that you can hear the stalker having their way with Fiona's body during it: ripping and tearing things, laughing maniacally, whispering to themselves, and more. Every stalker has personalized audio for their Game Over screen, and they're all as disturbing as each other.
4 The Last Of Us
The Last of Us has many ways for Joel and Ellie to die. There's no real Game Over screen, only a sudden transition to black after watching one of them get killed. The deaths happen pretty fast, but that can actually add to the scare factor, because they'll be over before you can even properly register what happened. The lack of a game over screen and immediate thrusting back into the action is what's so terrifying.
One of the worst ways to die is at the hands of the Clicker, one of the infected enemies. It'll bite into Joel or Ellie's neck, and you'll see it pull out their meat like it's nothing while they scream in pain. Then, the screen turns black. If the Clicker's sounds didn't already creep you out, it'll almost certainly do so after you see that scene.
3 Dead Space
A Necromorph named the Twitcher has been around since the first Dead Space game, so it's familiar if you're a fan of the series. Isaac can uniquely die to it in the games, but the first Dead Space's death sequence is by far the most disturbing.
It cuts off Isaac's arm first, and eventually slices his body in half. The gory sight is unpleasant by itself, but what makes it so creepy is the way the Twitcher, well, twitches before Isaac's torso falls off from the rest of his body. You only see twitching, but it's actually cutting him up at sonic speed. After that, the Twitcher comes close to the camera and looks right at it, breaking the fourth wall, before the screen fades to black. No thanks.
2 Rule Of Rose
Rule of Rose is an older horror game, but it still stands the test of time when it comes to atmospheric horror, just like Silent Hill. Its Game Over screen doesn't rely on gore or violence to fill you with dread, but even there, Jennifer can't seem to catch a break.
When Jennifer dies, you'll see her canine companion Brown barking at her. Then the screen fades to black, and text appears on-screen describing a girl, who's most definitely Jennifer. It says that "today is the day of her funeral," and the very last line is "...And everyone lived happily ever after...". You also hear the voice of a man utter the last line, adding to the sheer creepiness.
1 Silent Hill 3
There's a monster named Valtiel in Silent Hill 3 that Heather can never hurt, nor can it hurt her. It shows up during a certain elevator scene, but you can also catch it here and there during the game. The sight of it is quite creepy, especially when you can't do anything against it.
In some parts of the game, when Heather dies, that's it; there's not much else to it. But later in the game, in some areas, the game will linger on her corpse after she dies. Then, from the shadows, you'll see Valtiel drag her body off-screen by her ankles. This is especially creepy when you don't know that he's actually dragging her off to resurrect her, but even with that knowledge, it's a bone-chilling sight.