The Top Five Creepiest Video Game Characters

Ben Franchi ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Halloween is just around the corner, and what better way to get in the mood than to play a game that can scare the crap out of you? These are some of the freaks, creeps, and weirdos that can send a shiver down your spine and have left a lasting impression in gaming history as some of the scariest characters ever conceived.

5. Mitsuo Kubo (Persona 4)

“What…? What’s that supposed to mean!? I’m… I’m not nothing…“

Mitsuo is the kid we all know and fear; the weirdo in the back of the class who skulks through the halls mumbling to himself, likely to snap and assault someone for not getting his jokes or hanging out with him at lunch. One look at those dark, dead eyes, and you know there’s something not quite right about him. A loner with no special traits, Mitsuo took to committing horrific actions to prove that he was somebody. He’s just like troubled kids that exist in real life, the strange, incomprehensible loners we avoid, and as such is a (semi) realistic villain who would go postal and hurt others without warning in real life. Also, his active attempts to be dangerous and vile make it impossible to find any redeeming factors. Even his Shadow, the representation of his inner demons, admits that there is nothing more to him than what he presents. This is the kid your parents warned you about in middle school. Truly an unnerving character if there ever was one.

4. Curtis Blackburn (killer7)

“Doesn’t hurt to have a hobby after retirement… What do you think?”

This guy might be a little obscure, but he certainly deserves a spot on this list. Blackburn is an ex-cop from Detroit turned organ harvester for the terrorist and God of Evil, Kun Lan, for the purpose of crafting the invisible abominations known as Heaven Smiles. Despite his roots in law enforcement, Blackburn has zero morality, not only icing his black market partner Pedro, but raping his wife and slaughtering his family to twist the knife home. While these actions clearly make Blackburn a scumbag, it’s really his home life that’ll get you. Blackburn gets his kicks from young girls, not only from a sexual standpoint, but from playing taxidermist on their bodies and hanging them in a room underneath his pool. A cold-blooded killer who preys on the weak and profits on the innocent, Blackburn is the walking definition of primal fear, and you will breathe a sigh of relief when he falls dead at your feet.

3. Uboa (Yume Nikki)

“……………”

Now this one’s a bit of a stretch, mostly because it is unsure if Uboa is even a character to begin with. Not much is explained about the warped dreamworld of Yume Nikki, but this much is certain; if you enter a specific house in the game, there is a 1 in 64 chance that a girl within it will turn into Uboa. Touching him (it?) will send your character to a strange dimension with a bizarre, sexually suggestive background. The terror that Uboa instills comes from the fact that nothing is known about it. You can’t talk to it, you can’t fight it, and it comes out of nowhere. The fear of the unknown is strong within it, and to this day, it still remains a strange, disturbing mystery that is rife with fan interpretation.

2. Pyramid Head (Silent Hill 2)

“I was weak. That’s why I needed you…needed someone to punish me for my sins.”

One of the more infamous characters in gaming, Pyramid Head is the definition of psychological horror. A physical manifestation of guilt, Pyramid Head roams the streets of Silent Hill, leaving behind a trail of trauma, death, and symbolism in its path. Invincible to attack and decked out in a surreal, yet oddly disturbing piece of headgear, the best you can do when this thing is on your trail is pray that it doesn’t kill you, which considering its lack of anything resembling humanity, is a slim chance. The sexual overtones that it exudes don’t help either, as one of its most iconic scenes involve it raping a pair of monsters at the same time. Guess that explains why the scrape of its blade on the floor sends your enemies fleeing. A sexually explicit, psychologically tormentative humanoid abomination. What more can be said?

1. Sander Cohen (Bioshock)

“An artist once said, “All critics should be assassinated.” I just might take him up on that.”

Artists are a temperamental sort, it’s true. But none can match the madness that is Sander Cohen. Renaissance Man and maniac, Cohen was the top leading artist in the underwater city of Rapture, hosting lavish, bunny-themed parties and torturing those who failed to entertain his fickle muse. However, a civil war broke out in this Objectivist dystopia and reduced the place to a free-range lunatic asylum. Now Cohen resides in his personal playground, an old theater district named “Fort Frolic”, hijacking your sub and imploring you to execute his old students for a new art project. His airy personality hides his violent mood-swings, his paintings look like fever dreams on canvas, and his films are surreal enough to make David Lynch look like Michael Bay. With almost no grasp on reality and a bad habit of seeing people as tools to craft his art, Cohen’s antics makes Fort Frolic one of the scariest places in the Bioshock series. Don’t take your eye off his sculptures…