Ten Of The Most Grotesque Video Game Creatures Ever

Everyone takes a different approach to Halloween costumes. Some go for clever topical getups, like your Miley Cyrus plus Stylish Beetlejuice Man. Others prefer clever wordplay, like a “Deer Hunter” who is actually a deer with neon orange gear and a gun. But some bold Halloween enthusiasts put so much effort into making their costumes disgusting and terrible that others have trouble even looking at them. This list is dedicated to the most disturbing and grotesque video game characters around. They are so disgusting that you’d kick your best friend out of your Halloween party if they came dressed as one.

Boomer – Left 4 Dead

It’s saying something when you’re so repugnant that you stand out from hordes of decaying zombies. The gurgling sounds of the Boomer’s indigestion heralds the bloated creature before he even appears. These bulbous monstrosities are riddled with tumors, wear crusty old sweatpants, and have stomachs so large their stained t-shirts don’t fit anymore. Boomers were clearly slobs even before zombification. Puking zombie-bait all over survivors and exploding into a gooey mess just pushes these blobs over the edge.

Clickers – The Last of Us

Similar to Boomers, you know these nasty foes are around the corner by their unnerving clicking sounds. Clickers’ heads have blossomed into macabre fungal formations, leaving fragments of exposed teeth and skull behind. Imagine the discomfort of what is basically a gigantic mushroom growing from the inside of your head. The clickers’ inside-out heads are among the most unsettling creatures in modern video games.

The Great Mighty Poo – Conker’s Bad Fur Day

A gigantic pile of singing poop seems funny, and then you start to really think about it. This sentient crap golem heaves globs of himself at our furry hero, Conker. The pieces of poop land as solid chunks, then dissolve into the ground. His teeth are pieces of undigested corn. He can only be defeated with rolls of toilet paper before being flushed down the drain. Conker deserves an honorary degree from plumbing school for his triumph over this unsanitary s--- monster.

Voldo – Soul Calibur

Body language is everything. With that in mind, Voldo is a disturbing mess of a fighting game character. His boneless posture and bondage outfit are a powerfully off-putting combination. The gangly combatant puts other creepy crawlers like Gollum to shame with his awkward cartwheel maneuver. Just don’t look at Voldo, okay?

Necromorph – Dead Space 2

Even the bread-and-butter enemies of the Dead Space series are terrifying. A bizarre artifact twists the bodies of living creatures into distorted monsters. Femurs fracture and become scythes. Jaws split into deadly mandibles. These transformations are somewhat shrouded in darkness during the first Dead Space, but the sequel’s first necromorph encounter shows the entire bloody metamorphosis. This unflinching mutation reminds us just how disgusting these creatures are.

Cleopatra – Dante’s Inferno

Dante battles his way through the rings of hell throughout this fast-paced action game. The creatures based on the seven deadly sins are generally nasty, but the boss guarding the Circle of Lust takes the prize. The gigantic, topless Cleopatra chases after Dante, complete with carefully rendered breasts. *** shoots from her enormous nipples as tiny babies with scythe hands crawl from within like a popped spider egg. 

The Gatherers – Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Over an hour passes in Amnesia before players encounter the first enemy. Even when the first Gatherer does appear you only catch a glimpse before turning heel. These abominations follow the typical naked, wrinkly flesh design common with horror game enemies, but their mouth is the true selling point. Their stretched, ripped maw hangs down onto their chests. Bulging, wandering eyes peer through the darkness while they hunt you down. Gatherers are wretched creatures.

Split Head – Silent Hill

The creatures roaming the foggy streets of Silent Hill are almost uniformly terrifying. The faceless nurses, Pyramid Head, and knife-wielding ghost children are enough to fuel any nightmare. The first big boss encounter of Silent Hill rises above them all. After working through the rusty, nightmarish elementary school, players confront a gigantic lizard in the boiler room. Just when you think this monster is going to open its jaws and take a bite out of you, its entire head splits open sideways and swallows you whole.

Poison Headcrab Zombie – Half-Life 2

Normal headcrabs are agile parasites that latch to humans’ heads and turn them into zombies. Standard headcrabs are fast and small, making them annoying but not outright deadly. The poison variant injects a toxin that drains players’ health to a single hit point, leaving them vulnerable in an inhospitable world. Worse yet, groups of poisonous headcrabs latch onto a single host. Where there’s one venomous spider-thing, there’s bound to be others.

Bellyache – Splatterhouse 

A plethora of putrid enemies infest Namco’s gory Splatterhouse series. Take a look at our Halloween SCAREplay Special for a look at the bloody franchise. Among the nastiest foes is a creature aptly named Bellyache. This early boss of Splatterhouse 2 looks like a veiny, surgically removed polyp with teeth. The bulbous growth specializes in puking acidic vomit and generally being disgusting. Namco did a great job harnessing 16-bit technology to pull off this monstrosity.

Did we miss a creature you consider undeniably wretched? Sound off in the comments below.