Slasher movies as a genre may have their origins in the ‘70s, but tales of ill-fated characters being hunted down by maniacal antagonists as if they were wild animals are about as old as storytelling itself. This primal fear of being treated the same way that we treat livestock is as universal as horror can get, and that’s why the trope shows up repeatedly in everything from books to video games.
Speaking of video games, one could even argue that the visceral thrills of being chased through a labyrinthian nightmare are at the heart of quite a few interactive classics that folks don’t even associate with the horror genre. For instance, there’s an argument to be made that 1980’s Pac-Man is one of the very first survival horror titles, as the game has you collecting resources while evading literal ghosts in an ultimately unwinnable situation. I’m not the only one who sees the potential for genre scares here, as even the Atari 2600’s licensed Alien tie-in happened to be a Pac-Man clone where Xenomorphs stood in for Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde!
Though the industry has changed a lot since the ‘80s arcade scene, this familiar gameplay loop continues to be used by developers wanting to add an extra layer of tension to their games. In fact, just this past month, Resident Evil Requiem terrified series veterans and newcomers alike with its latest collection of ghoulish stalker enemies, continuing the tradition of fan-favorite antagonists like Nemesis and Lady Dimitrescu.
In honor of the mini heart-attack I have whenever “The Girl” shows up onscreen, today I’d like to invite readers to look back on the evolution of video game stalker enemies in an attempt to understand why this mechanic has made such a big comeback.
The Origins of the Scary Stalker
Since Pac-Man was clearly developed as more of a tongue-in-cheek experience rather than anything meant to resemble a proper horror game, our story actually begins a year later in 1981 with the release of what many historians consider to be the first true horror game, Akira Takiguchi’s AX-2: Uchuu Yusousen Nostromo. Putting players in the desperate shoes of an astronaut attempting to escape a maze-like spaceship as they’re hunted by an alien monster, the title’s unkillable antagonist is (arguably) the first instance of a recurring stalker enemy in a video game, though several other titles with similar ideas would be released around the same time.
For instance, J.K. Greye Software’s infamous 3D Monster Maze trapped players in a literal maze inhabited by a hungry T. rex, with this early example of an interactive first-person thriller feeling strangely prescient in its design. The next few years would also see the rise of licensed horror experiences like the aforementioned Alien and even a surprisingly effective adaptation of John Carpenter’s Halloween that saw Michael Myers hunting you down while you attempted to rescue children in a looping suburban hellscape.
Of course, it was only in the 90s that survival horror would take the gaming world by storm, and we’d see the first franchise built around the stalker mechanic. While 1995’s Clock Tower was more inspired by Giallo films (specifically Dario Argento’s underrated supernatural thriller Phenomena) than slasher flicks, it proved that combat wasn’t really necessary for games to provide a satisfying survival horror experience.
While Clock Tower would continue to dominate this sub-genre of survival horror through its sequels and spiritual successors, the series was popular enough to influence rival franchises as well. That’s why we’d see stalkers show up again in games like Resident Evil 2 with the infamous Mr. X (which was originally limited to the title’s B Scenario) and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
Stalkers Slowly Creep Back in at the Turn of the Century
Though the 2000s saw the release of excellent stalker-based games like Haunting Ground and even Yahtzee Crosshaw’s Five Days a Stranger series, this decade is where we first start to see a certain backlash towards the idea of recurring enemies that can’t be killed and only serve to annoy players during their attempts to progress through the campaign. As horror games began to incorporate more action elements into gameplay in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience, it seemed like the cat-and-mouse thrills of being forced to hide from antagonists were on their way out.
Thankfully, when AAA horror gaming was going through its action-heavy phase, indie developers began to look back fondly on the days of helpless protagonists that couldn’t fight back against the terrors surrounding them. While Amnesia: The Dark Descent opened the door for scarier experiences that didn’t require guns or in-depth melee combat to be entertaining, later releases like the viral hit Slender turned this new kind of first-person chase-simulator into a genre in and of itself.
This is where we get to what is arguably the best game to feature a relentless pursuer enemy, which is 2014’s Alien: Isolation, a title that features some of the most advanced stalker AI in gaming history while also harkening back to the Alien-inspired retro game that started this whole trend in the first place.
In the following years, gamers would once again become accustomed to the thrills of virtual hide-and-seek, with stalker enemies even making their way online with the rise of titles like Dead by Daylight and its legion of imitators (which often use official licenses in order to draw in hardcore horror fans). In fact, for a while there, it seemed like there was an industry bias where slasher-inspired titles could only be developed as online multiplayer experiences.
As usual, it took brave indie developers like the fan-favorite Puppet Combo to convince folks that the older style of stalker-focused survival horror was still viable, with titles like Stay Out of the House and Murder House proving that there is still a huge market for lo-fi slasher simulators.
Resident Evil Helped Ensure That Stalker Enemies Have a Bright Future
I’d argue that this resurgence in popularity is partly responsible for Capcom choosing to include Mr. X in the base game of their Resident Evil 2 remake instead of relegating him to a secondary playthrough, and it likely also influenced the decision to incorporate more unkillable pursuers in both Resident Evil 7 (the scariest entry in the series to date) as well as Resident Evil Village.
The success of this formula makes it unsurprising that the mechanic returns once again in Requiem, with the latest game treating us to a photosensitive monster that escalates tension while playing as Grace and makes it all the more satisfying when we’re finally allowed to let loose as an older and more badass version of Leon S. Kennedy. Personally, I believe that this two-pronged approach to gameplay is a much better way of appealing to mainstream gamers than Village’s more action-oriented experience, especially since Leon’s segments feel like a reward for surviving Grace’s nightmare.
Beyond the AAA space, the future of video game stalker enemies is also looking especially bright. From the final chapter of the Remothered trilogy (a spiritual successor to the Clock Tower games) to a whole slew of slasher-inspired indie titles, 2026 is shaping up to be a standout year for the genre. Hell, we’re even getting a new Halloween game with a single-player mode meant to round out the online multiplayer experience, so it seems like this is one gaming trend that will continue to pursue horror fans well into the coming decades.