Editorials
6 VERY Disturbing Moments In Video Games!
Video games have introduced us to some extremely memorable scenes over the years. We’ve seen a creature with a giant metal tetrahedron helmet take time away from stalking us so he could rape a mannequin, then it was our turn to be violated by a crazed psychic woman. When video games aren’t treating us like pieces of meat, they’re exploring other paths to cause us even deeper psychological damage. Here are six games that managed just that.
Silent Hill 4 – Eileen’s Big Head
The Silent Hill series has been the source of a majority of the deep rooted psychological damage video games have caused me over the years, thanks to Team Silent’s miraculous ability to come up with some awful, nightmarish things. The Room may have initiated the gradual downfall of the series, but when it wasn’t busy being a mediocre survival horror game it was doing what the Silent Hill series does best: fucking with your mind.
Eileen is Henry’s neighbor. She loves long walks on the beach, creepy rabbit plush toys, and blocking hallways with her face and staring at you with big, googly eyes as freaky sex sounds play in the background.
Quake 4 – Partial Stroggification
I barely remember Quake 4. It was one of the first games I bought for my Xbox 360, alongside Dead Rising and Condemned, back when developers were still trying to figure out that new “achievements” thing. Play a thousand multiplayer matches for a 10g achievement? Why not?
It’s not a particularly memorable game, outside of the scene where you’re put through a brutal process to become a Strogg soldier. You’re tied down and forced to endure a torturous transformation process as limbs are sawed off and replaced with metal ones, needles are jabbed into various parts of your body, then you’re set free before you can be fully assimilated. Perhaps the worst part of it is the whole time you get to witness the next phase of your Stroggification as the unfortunate soul in front of you has it happen to them.
Condemned – The Mannequins
Condemned has an odd infatuation with mannequins, which have made frightening appearances in both games. Even before Condemned came along and turned them into things of nightmares, there’s always been something about mannequins that’s inherently unsettling. They’re soulless, plastic versions of ourselves that stare lifelessly at us, waiting for dark magic or demonic possession to bring them to life. They’re also terrifying proof that your character, Ethan Thomas, has an alarmingly weak grasp on his sanity.
Both Criminal Origins and its sequel have used them to provide some brilliant jump scares — like the people who dress like mannequins (that sounds weird) only to come to life so they can curb stomp your unsuspecting ass as you scream in terror — or Bloodshot’s more psychological use of them. I can tell you one thing, I’ve never looked at a mannequin the same way since.
BioShock – Break That Sweet Puppy’s Neck
As a whole, BioShock is a twisted masterpiece brimming with supremely disturbing scenes and ideas. It’s an example of science and human curiosity gone unchecked. The result is an underwater city filled with things that will make you wonder just how dark humanity can get. One example of this is an audio log you come across where a man, Yi Suchong, kindly asks a boy to kill his puppy. The idea of violence against animals, especially dogs, really gets under my skin, but hearing it happen makes it so much worse.
Silent Hill 3 – The Store Room
Yeah, I know, I already gave Silent Hill a mention. The problem is there are so many disturbing scenes to choose from that I could easily dedicate a few lists solely to this series. This scene in particular was mentioned a few times by some of you in my “Horrifying Moments” lists (links above), so I had no choice but to include it here.
Basically, you walk into a room with a giant mirror taking up one of the walls. In the reflection, the room is bleeding. Then the room clears up and your reflection begins to bleed. After that, the room you’re in starts bleeding and your reflection stops following you. Then you die, screaming and confused.
Dead Space 2 – Come To Mama
To me, Dead Space 2 is still one of the scariest games I’ve ever played. Sure, it was more action oriented than the original and probably relied a little too heavily on monster closets and jump scares, but it also had a masterful way of building up tension that really got to me the first time I played it. From the frantic, un-armed chase at the beginning of the game to returning to the USG Ishimura, the game had quite a few unforgettable moments. One of my favorites was exploring Titan Elementary, and specifically, the first time you see what the new Crawler enemy can do.
What’d I miss? Let me know how much you agree or disagree with my selections in the comments below, and feel free to provide your own!
Have a question? Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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