While there have been some truly horrifying monsters in gaming over the years, many of them tend to be pale-eyed, pasty, hairy dudes who swipe at the hero with their ape-like arms while ranting and raving like lunatics - and this can get pretty boring.
While the men are all about eyeballs growing where they shouldn’t grow and spewing acid from their gaping maws, the terrifying women of video games get the coolest designs and jump scares. Here are a few examples of frightening females who found a way to out-spook the boys.
Lisa (P.T.)
There’s enough to be scared of already in this playable teaser for the canceled and deeply mourned Silent Hills. While there's a bloody paper bag, a talking fetus, and some really gross hard candy, nothing compares to stumbling across Lisa for the first time.
There’s no real way to prepare yourself for your meeting with this ghostly woman. You hear all about how she was murdered by her husband on the radio, and once you're wandered around that hallway enough times, you find her standing in the foyer of the darkened home jittering and vibrating in a blood-stained nightgown. Soon, you’re face-to-face with Lisa, at least until she snaps your neck and you wake up in that concrete room ready to do the whole thing over again. It's like Groundhog Day with slightly more eyeballs on the walls.
The Witch (Left 4 Dead)
It sucks to get covered in Boomer bile, it’s awful being pounced on by a Hunter, and having to battle a Tank can be an exhausting and nerve-racking experience (although it is a good team-building exercise). However, none of the Special Infected inspire the same kind of pants-wetting terror as turning a corner and running into The Witch.
As shown in the intro to Left 4 Dead, her sobbing cries lure survivors in, thinking they’re about to rescue a maiden in distress only get their faces clawed off. The Witch goes from 0 to 100 the second you’ve so much as sneezed near her. Whichever member of your team was foolish enough to disturb her gets chased down, and once she’s caught her prey, they’re down for the count unless there are other heavily-armed companions nearby.
Worst of all, there’s always that one teammate who thinks they can take her out with one well-placed shotgun blast to the back, only to misjudge their aim and get their intestines forcibly removed. Those people can wait in the respawn room and think about what they've done.
Marguerite Baker (Resident Evil 7)
The Bakers are unfortunate souls who get roped into the body horror awfulness of the Resident Evil series. As established in the Resident Evil 7 DLC, the Bakers were a good-natured family (except for Lucas, who was always a scumbag) living a peaceful life out in the Bayou. That was until a ship containing DNA-altering mold and a diabolical little girl with mind-control powers crashed into their backyard, turning them all into insane, semi-immortal cannibals that make the family from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like The Brady Bunch.
While Jack’s self-mutilation and Lucas’ sadistic torture scenarios are appalling enough, Marguerite’s transformation may be the most terrible of all. She goes from a sweet loving matriarch to a maniac trying to feed you human meat for supper - and, of course, that’s all followed up by her mutating into a long-armed bug monster capable of spawning insects from various orifices of her body. If the choice was between facing Marguerite or Mr. X, we’d much rather square up against the burly man in the trench coat.
Alma Wade (F.E.A.R.)
There was an unhealthy fascination with demon children in the 2000s. Whether it was The Ring, The Grudge, The Children, or any other horror movie that starts with “The,” spooky kids were all the rage. So, naturally, that craze transferred over to video games with the F.E.A.R. series’ own creepy kid Alma.
She doesn’t seem so bad initially, as she looks identical to The Ring’s Samara without a well to crawl out of. However, she was born with psychic abilities and becomes an unwilling test subject for an evil corporation hoping to profit from her powers by impregnating her to create psychic super-soldiers. Now, this might surprise you, but this turned out to be a very stupid idea. She eventually kills a whole bunch of people using her powers, and the ones she doesn’t kill wind up being driven insane by the nightmares and visions she’s able to create. So hot tip, if you find a little black-haired girl with psychic powers, maybe don't try to exploit her for financial gain, mmkay?
Vicar Amelia (Bloodborne)
At first, Vicar Amelia seems fine, she’s just a very devoutly religious person praying in a church. Nothing scary or suspicious at all. Then, she turns into a giant beast with antlers and razor-sharp teeth, and you realize that she’s probably not looking to have a friendly chat about the lord with you.
The actual transformation is particularly gnarly, with the sound of her bones cracking and breaking, and blood being flung across the room as her former tiny body reforms into a hulking deer-wolf monster. Then there’s the matter of fighting her, which for many fledging Bloodborne players can prove to quite a challenge that early in the game. Aside from that, her constant shrieks, howls, and screams as the battle rages on are both haunting and unnerving, and add a tinge of sadness to the whole miserable affair. But hey, at least she drops a cool pendant, and who doesn't love free jewelry?
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Bubble Head Nurses (Silent Hill 2)
Finally, we end this list with a hall of fame entry in the canon of lamentable ladies, the Bubble Head Nurses from Silent Hill 2.
Everything about their design screams masterpiece. The creepy convulsing walk, the provocative nurse outfit stained with blood, the malformed fleshy face, all topped off by a jaunty little hat. Representing protagonist James Sutherland's inner turmoil over the hospitalization of his sick wife, they follow you throughout your stay in Silent Hill, often looking to club you over the head with a pipe (which isn't something nurses traditionally do). Much like Pyramidhead, they turned out to be such a popular aspect of the Silent Hill franchise that they've popped up in other games and even showed up in the film adaptation to terrorize Radha Mitchell. We don't know what medical school you attend to be this gruesome but it was totally worth the tuition.
Whether it's pipe-wielding nurses, bug-infested moms, or long-maned beasties, this list shows that the women of horror games might have the men beat when it comes to invading your nightmares.