Key Takeaways

• A beloved character’s death in a game can have a huge impact on the player for years to come.
• Horror games in particular excel at both upsetting and horrifying players with gruesome death scenes.
• From Silent Hill 2 to The Walking Dead, here are some of the most disturbing death scenes players have witnessed in horror games.

From extreme gore and violence, to deeply impactful psychological blows, the deaths of characters in games can often stay with the player for years to come. Some deaths are harder to watch than others, whether it is a random NPC, a trusted ally, or even the player character.

Yet some gamers find themselves drawn to these games, playing them repeatedly, watching the same disturbing scenes played and replayed. Even in games or franchises that don’t focus on horrific imagery, some deaths feel like a real punch to the gut, and here is a list of some of the most disturbing out there.

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

10 The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series

The Death Of Lee Everett

Unlike other, typical disturbing deaths in gaming, Lee’s death is tame in a gore sense, if the player chooses to give him the mercy of a swift death. Otherwise, he is left to his fate, having been bitten by a zombie, and joining the undead horde.

The player is forced to decide to either leave or have Clementine, a child who Lee has taken responsibility for after losing his own family, end his life. This death is disturbing in a psychological capacity and is regarded by many as one of the saddest deaths in gaming history.

9 Five Nights At Freddy’s: Sister Location

The Scooping Room

Five Nights At Freddy’s is known mostly for its jump scares and mascot horror. However, in the fifth game, the player is shown a room in which animatronics are dismantled, their endoskeletons ripped out. The player can then return to the “scooping room” on a later night, provided they survive their first encounter in it.

This is where the “scooper” gets to work on them, disembowling them so an animatronic can use their body as a flesh suit to hide. While the cutscene in which this death occurs shows nothing of the player’s gruesome fate, it is impossible to deny the disturbing nature of such a death.

8 Alien: Isolation

The Xenomorph Catches The Player From Behind

There are plenty of gruesome deaths throughout the Alien franchise, yet none feel quite as personal as this specific death animation in Alien: Isolation. Blending seamlessly into the gameplay, the player’s camera will suddenly pan down to discover a Xenomorph tail protruding from their chest before a black, clawed hand appears from the top of the screen and grabs the camera.

What makes this death stick out is the sudden pause in gameplay, no warning, and then the quick cut to a death scene. While not the most graphic scene in gaming history, it is one of the most personal, making the players feel like they have been caught themselves.

7 Silent Hill 2

Maria’s Dash For The Elevator

Silent Hill as a franchise has seen many, many deaths. Maria’s death at the hands of Pyramid Head after the mad sprint to the elevator stands out as one of the more disturbing, not only because of the brutality, but because of the genuine struggle to escape, and the despair displayed by James.

Maria and James claw at the doors, doing all they can to help her get in. Then everything stops, the camera pans down, and there is a spear through her chest. Maria’s face goes completely still before she is ripped away, James falling to his knees as the elevator leaves. It hurts every time and leaves a lasting impression on the player.

6 Dead Space

Isaac Clarke’s Many Dismemberments

In Dead Space, the player spends hours controlling Isaac Clarke as he dismembers the Necromorphs in various horrible ways. This, unfortunately, goes both ways, as each of Isaac’s deaths at the claws of the monsters aboard the Ishimura is brutal.

No matter the enemy, Isaac rarely finishes a death animation in one piece, frequently being consumed, and screaming the whole time. It can be hard to watch, and even more frustrating to experience over and over again as the game progresses.

5 The Last Of Us Part 1

Joel’s Death At The Hands Of A Bloater

The Last of Us Part 1 sees several grotesque and disturbing moments, often featuring the fate of the infected. There is one standout player character death in the game, however. The Bloaters, people who have been infected for extended periods, are incredibly strong enemies, tough to defeat, and unpleasant to look at.

The way they kill Joel upon the player failing combat is horrifying, grabbing him from behind and pulling his upper and lower jaw apart until the screen cuts to black. While the player doesn’t see the outcome, the detail shown is more than enough to disturb, with a heavy focus on skin tearing and an eye close to popping out.

4 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Deputy David Anderson’s Shovel Incident

Resident Evil 7 is the first entry in the franchise to take place in first person, bringing the player closer to the gore than ever before. Despite the entourage of mutated monsters and horrible player deaths, the most disturbing moment in the entire game comes early on with the death of Deputy Anderson.

While trying to escape the Baker house through the garage, the player stops for a moment to talk to the officer. This conversation is abruptly cut short as Jack Baker slices through the deputy’s head with a shovel, removing the upper part of his skull with one clean slice. The player is then forced to watch as the painfully detailed model of the inside of his head drops to the floor in front of them.

3 Until Dawn

Emily’s Eyes

Until Dawn is no stranger to disturbing deaths, each of the characters has a multitude of ways they can perish should the player make the wrong decision. Emily holds the title for most diverse death options in the game, with four possible deaths throughout the chapters of the game.

While she can be burned alive, shot, and killed by a rock grinder, it is her death at the hands of a Wendigo that feels most disturbing, having her eyes gouged out. One of many possible brutal deaths for Emily, and the most intimately disturbing given its nature.

2 Doki Doki Literature Club

All Character Deaths

There is not a single death in Doki Doki Literature Club that leaves the player any less than traumatized. While some deaths in gaming feel unimportant or nonchalant, Doki Doki Literature Club forces the player to confront the brutal suicides of two girls they have formed relationships with throughout the game.

Doki Doki Literature Club pulls no punches. After ripping the player out of the comfort of a dating-simulating visual novel into the hellish psychological horror it truly is, the player is then forced to delete the main antagonist from the game, only to be told that there is no true end to the nightmare.

1 I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

The Death Of Humanity

While I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream’s most disturbing moment isn’t truly a death, there is an argument to be made that it is the most disturbing death of all. Depending on what ending the player gets the final character they choose to control will almost always end up transformed into an amorphous blob, unable to carry out any basic human functions.

This character was the last human on earth, and their actions usually lead to the destruction of the remaining humans off-world, and their imprisonment in their new fleshy form. The person before is dead, reborn, and thus humanity is lost. What is more disturbing than that?