6 Truly Terrifying Video Game Over Screens

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

October is at an end meaning we’re hitting the spookiest day of the year: Halloween.

We have lists of the best horror games to try your hand at – be it classics to more obscure indies – you can already check out here. But how about a list of some of the scariest game over screens through the ages? The scene at the end of your rope telling you, you’ve died. While some can be simple, but effective, like Resident Evil’s; some go the extra, horrifying mile.

Below is a list of some of the most evocative, subtle, or outright disturbing game over screens you can encounter, from cult classic horror titles to lesser-known indie games.

Haunting Ground

Haunting Ground is a PlayStation 2-era classic when it comes to the Survival Horror genre. Players assume the role of Fiona, a young woman who is trapped in a mysterious castle she has inherited. Armed with nothing but the companionship of Hewie, a loyal and fierce German Shepherd, Fiona must escape the castle lest she meet an unfortunate fate — which varies depending on whatever dangerous denizen of the Belli Castle is stalking you at the time, whether it’s the hulking Debilitas or the stoic maid, Daniella

What makes the game over screen for Haunting Ground so terrifying and so evocative isn’t that you see Fiona die, but you instead hear the aftermath. Each stalker has their own game over screen of sorts, with the near-robotic Daniella’s game over screen including peals of manic laughter while Ricardo — the groundskeeper of Belli Castle — perhaps has a game over so disturbing we won’t share here as it both ties directly into the themes of the game, and comes with a big trigger warning.

Siren: Blood Curse

Siren: Blood Curse is a reimagining of Forbidden Siren on the PlayStation 2. This PlayStation 3 title was released in episodes for the North American audience, but received physical releases in Europe and Japan. Siren Focuses on a mysterious curse that has overtaken a rural Japanese village. Based heavily in Japanese folk lore, complete with an entity worshiping culty, Siren brings an assortment of characters together as they discover they’ve been stuck in a time-loop they are forced to relive over and over, experiencing various, often horrifying, outcomes.

The game over screen for Siren is subtle and not as overt as say, Haunting Ground or anything in the Resident Evil series. However, if you fail to survive, players are met with a memorable, blood red screen with chanting from the grotesque villagers that inhabit Hanuda village. It’s chilling to say the least.

Fatal Frame

Fatal Frame is regarded as one of the scariest Survival Horror titles to date, mostly due to the ghost designs, which are on the verge of disturbing. I’m looking at you Broken Neck Woman and Rope Shrine Maiden/. While generally Fatal Frame games do not have unique game over scenes, the first game went out of its way to craft something unique.

Set in a secluded manor in the mountains of Japan, Miku Hinasaki is looking for her brother who has been “spirited away” while looking for his missing mentor (a lot of people go missing in Fatal Frame). The main ghost behind the disappearances is Kyrie, a “rope shrine maiden” who relentlessly pursues Miku as she fights to break the curse of the Strangling Ritual. But be careful as caught by Kyrie will lead Miku being grabbed by thousands of hands that encircle Miku, her eyes widening as she struggles against their grip. This leads into the implication that the ritual has been completed, and that Miku has been ripped apart in the very same way as the rope shrine maiden that now relentlessly pursues her in death.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

This one deserves an honorary mention for all of the people it scared when they were children.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is a colorful game with a generally cheery presentation, just like its predecessor The Ocarina of Time, but offset by its morose narrative. Almost everyone knows about the Moon in Majora’s Mask, and how Skullkid is attempting to end the world by crashing it into the planet. The cutscene for this cataclysm is jarring, to say the least. Watching the Moon’s face, gritted teeth and red eyes, slowly descending on Termina has definitely left its mark on all those who played the game.

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

Another moon-related game over, though a bit more subtle than The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. The game over screen for Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse doesn’t have anything unique for any one of its three main characters, but it’s the implications of what encountering the end means in Mask of the Lunar Eclipse that make it frightening.

Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is focused on a ritual — like most Fatal Frame games — this one centers on a dance to commune with the dead during a lunar eclipse. After the ceremony goes terribly wrong, almost everyone on Rogetsu Isle is killed and they are left to perpetually wander the site of the ritual in the afterlife. Only by performing the ritual again can these spirits find peace. Failing to do so will show the return of the lunar eclipse only the moon is now red, implying the spirits will never know peace now that those who returned to the isle to complete the ritual have died.

Hylics

Hylics is an odd game, and that’s the best way I can describe it.

It’s a story told through various story acts and features some of the most fascinating, surrealist imagery I’ve ever seen in any game. All of the animation is inspired by claymation, which gives everything a stilted, and sometimes, jarring effect. This extends to the game over screen features these same rough stills of animation. If you encounter a game over, you’ll quite literally watch the protagonist’s face melt off a little bit of a time, showing faint flashes of teeth before all you’re left with is a moon-like skull in place of what was once waxy yellow flesh. It definitely leans on the cartoonish side of things, but make no mistake, it’s unnerving to see for sure.