Editorials
Ranking 6 of the Scariest Boss Battles in ‘Resident Evil’ History Ahead of ‘Resident Evil Requiem’
In most cases, boss battles are meant to be a test of the players’ skills and evaluate just how much they’ve learned from interacting with the digital world up until that point in the experience. In the case of horror games, this usually means learning to manage fear, resources, and amateur cartography. That’s why it makes sense that boss battles make up some of the scariest moments in Survival Horror history, as these chilling challenges often represent the very best of what the genre has to offer.
With Resident Evil Requiem finally hitting store shelves this week, what better way of celebrating 9 mainline entries (and dozens of spin-offs) than by looking back on six of the scariest boss battles in Resident Evil history! After all, there are plenty of memorable biohazards to choose from, though some of our picks might not be the monsters you’re expecting.
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own personal favorite boss monsters if you think we missed a particularly frightening one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Verdugo – Resident Evil 4
While the Verdugo (also known as the U-III in the remake) can be accurately described as an undead Xenomorph with insectoid qualities, it’s the overall direction behind this encounter that makes it such a frightening experience. Not only is the Verdugo itself nearly invulnerable, but the game forces you to navigate a claustrophobic sewer system as you attempt to deal with this man-made monstrosity.
In fact, this is such a terrifying fight that the game actually does you a solid and encourages you to run away from the boss entirely, as even the developers were aware that a near-perfect organism would likely be too much for most players to handle the first time around.
Of course, that only makes it that much more satisfying when you finally replay the game and bring a rocket launcher to this fateful encounter.
5. Marguerite Baker – Resident Evil 7
I’d argue that Resident Evil 7 is hands-down the scariest RE game ever made, so it’s hard to pin down a singular moment that really stands out above the rest. However, when it comes to boss fights, the blood-curdling battle against Marguerite (the Mold-infected Matriarch of the Baker family) is easily one of the freakiest entries on this list.
While her “human” appearance is unsettling enough due to the game’s grimy textures and Texas Chain Saw Massacre–inspired aesthetics, the boss battle has Marguerite elongating her limbs to inhuman proportions as she controls disgusting insects and hunts you down through a dilapidated Green House.
However, even after all that, this boss encounter still isn’t nearly as scary as constantly running across the seemingly catatonic Eveline as she stalks you throughout your playthrough.
4. HAOS – Resident Evil 6
I’m aware that Resident Evil 6 is something of a controversial topic amongst fans of the series, but I think even the game’s biggest detractors are aware that the title contains a handful of terrifying moments that are worth remembering despite being part of an overall messy experience. One such highlight is the climactic fight against HAOS at the end of Chris Redfield’s campaign.
Looking like a Kaiju-sized cross between a humanoid corpse and a translucent octopus, HAOS was Neo-Umbrella’s attempt at creating an ultimate bioweapon capable of spreading the C-virus infection across the entire planet. Of course, what really makes this malformed creature so scary is its uncanny design, with its recognizably humanoid features combined with its desperate movements and “unfinished” aesthetics, making this boss unpleasant to even look at.
3. Lisa Trevor – Resident Evil REmake
Unkillable bosses were already a familiar trope by the time Lisa Trevor was added to 2002’s Resident Evil remake, but there’s just something off about this lumbering patient zero that continues to haunt our nightmares over two decades later. Whether it’s the fact that she appears to be wearing a mask made out of human skin or her pained movements as her arms remain trapped inside of a medieval-looking torture device, Lisa Trevor feels like she was a part of Capcom’s iconic Survival Horror franchise from the very beginning.
Terrifying and tragic in equal measure, Lisa is certainly one of the most memorable monsters on this list, even if her design isn’t quite as extreme as some of the other horrors we’ve mentioned so far.
2. Donna Beneviento – Resident Evil: Village
Resident Evil: Village may have been developed as a more action-packed follow-up to the nightmarish thrills of its predecessor, but that doesn’t mean the game is completely devoid of memorable scares. In fact, I’d argue that the title actually boasts one of the most horrifying enemy encounters in the whole franchise, with the entire House Beneviento sequence serving as an extended boss battle where Ethan’s very mind is turned against him.
Combining effective genre tropes from doll-horror movies such as Annabelle and even boasting a freaky baby monster that would make Eraserhead blush, the Beneviento encounter is proof that Capcom remains fully capable of crafting innovative scares even after all these years.
1. Nemesis – Resident Evil 3
Also known as “The Pursuer”, Nemesis is probably the most obvious entry on this list, but can anyone really argue against the idea of a final boss that stalks and attacks you from the very beginning of the game?
Sure, the creature’s design and aggressive behavior are intimidating enough, but it’s the build-up to that final confrontation that earns him the number-one spot on this list. Repeatedly trying and failing to get this bio-engineered Terminator off your tail just to have him show up again is the reason why Nemesis will forever be remembered as one of the scariest bosses in all of gaming – not just the Resident Evil franchise.
There’s a lot of reading left to do in 2026, between the glut of summer releases and the approach of fall, when horror titles get a special push from publishers, but this has already been an incredible year for horror literature.
Some of the biggest names in the genre have turned in outstanding work, rising stars have made their mark, and we’re only halfway through the year.
To celebrate the midway point of 2026, with plenty of horror books still to come, we’re taking a look back at the best horror books we’ve read this year so far, listed alphabetically by author.
If you missed any of these books earlier in the year, consider this your reminder to catch up.
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
A student running from a crime he may or may not have committed escapes to his father’s country home in Japan, only to find himself haunted by strange apparitions, while in the past, a young samurai tries to find salvation for her family and finds a door to the future instead. Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic begins with this dialogue between past and present, and then blossoms into so much more, a cross-time ghost story about old wounds and what it really takes to finally heal them. I got so happily lost in this one that I would have read at least 200 more pages.
Persona by Aoife Josie Clements
In this tale of shut-ins, sex workers, artists, and the horrors they both summon and recoil from, Aoife Josie Clements weaves something that feels less like a story to be experienced and more like a psychic wound to be endured, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Evocative in its prose and nightmarish in its imagery, Persona is a story of the masks we wear, and the understanding that not all of our masks are particularly pretty or even easy to breathe through. It’s a dense, literary, unnervingly vicious book, and while it’s already attracted an audience, it deserves a much bigger one.
Dead First by Johnny Compton
Johnny Compton’s latest novel opens with a throwing down of the gauntlet, a sequence that made me instantly think “How on Earth is he going to top this?” It’s a story that begins with a billionaire hiring a private investigator to determine why, despite trying in many brutal ways, he cannot die. That premise, and the scene which sets it all off, is so alluring and delightfully gruesome that you almost can’t believe it’s the way a book begins, and then Compton just keeps going, delivering a supernatural mystery that I could not put down.
Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey
A woman grieving for the life she wanted visits a mysterious island renowned for the healing salt its residents harvest and sell, seeking renewal and relief. What she finds instead is a strange cult with a twisted history with surprising resonance in her own life, and a people who are more than willing to grant the relief she wants, for a price. Laced with beautiful prose and moments of profound realization alongside folk and even cosmic horror, this is vintage Sarah Gailey.
Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus
If you love horror film history and analysis, Partially Devoured is an essential. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Kraus, the book is a deep dive into his favorite movie of all time, George A. Romero‘s Night of the Living Dead, complete with exhaustive research into the making of the film and passages of deeply moving memoir woven in. If you’ve ever wanted to know what the eerie music that opens the film is called while also bursting into tears at how horror movies can save your life, this is a must-read.
Wretch by Eric LaRocca
Our reigning King of Extreme Horror, Eric LaRocca weaves books of uncommon beauty out of the most nightmarish parts of humanity, and Wretch is no exception. The story of a grieving man who longs for relief and searches for it amid a strange support group that might be a cult, Wretch is a brutal journey into the darkest part of us all, and explores what salvation we might find when we get to the rotten core of the world and peel back its layers. LaRocca’s on a tear of great work right now that few other genre writers can match.
Headlights by CJ Leede
A mystery, a serial killer horror show, a tribute to Stephen King‘s The Shining. All of these things describe CJ Leede’s Headlights, and yet they don’t begin to cover the full breadth of horror awaiting you in this novel. The story of a former FBI agent drawn back into the cold case that haunts him most, it’s a shocker brimming over with vivid moments that’ll live behind your eyes. CJ Leede has now published three novels, and they’re all bangers, so it’s time to get on board if you haven’t already.
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
Cynthia Pelayo has been one of our finest genre writers for years now, but It Came From Neverland is my favorite thing she’s written, and it’s not even close. A dark take on Peter Pan from the perspective of an adult Wendy Darling living in World War I-era London, Pelayo’s book works as both a satisfying horror narrative and a rich exploration of what it really means to never grow up. The horror never loses its potency, but it’s the search for the meaning behind the Peter Pan phenomenon in our own lives, and what we can do about it, that sticks with me most.
Filth Eaters by Ito Romo
Ito Romo’s Filth Eaters is a slim volume, one you can read in just a couple of hours if you’ve got the inclination, but it has the feel of a generation-spanning epic. The story of a breed of vampires born in Central America, the European vampires who encounter them, and the offspring they eventually produced, it spans centuries and packs loads of juicy lore into its pages while never losing its grip on character and narrative drive. I would read hundreds more pages of this world, but I’ll settle for this uncommonly grand-scale novella for now.
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay
A former pro gamer gets a job at a tech company to pilot a brain-dead human body across the country, and so Paul Tremblay’s sci-fi-horror juggernaut begins. Indebted to Philip K. Dick, the primal snarl of Harlan Ellison, and the quirky comedy of The Big Lebowski, and yet wholly original, this is a towering and ambitious novel by one of horror’s most respected voices. What starts as a high-concept tech thriller soon becomes a startling meditation on the value of stories, who gets to tell them, and what happens when we cede too much control to machines we don’t understand. It’s a stunner.
You must be logged in to post a comment.