Horror video games are beginning to branch out away from traditionaljump-scaresand cheap thrills into something much closer to home. The body horror subgenre focuses on extreme physical distortions of the human body. It allows for a frighteninglymore immersive experience, as players envision themselves in these horrific scenarios.
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From seemingly ordinary humans mutating into towering grotesque creatures like inResident Evil 7to acts of vile violence causing bodily disfigurement like inOutlast, the gaming scene has it covered. Body horror doesn’t exactly appeal to all audiences, but these select few games have it down to a fine art.
10Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Amnesia: The Dark Descentis a game that redefined the psychological horror genre and is still heralded asone of the best horror games of all time. The main enemy inAmnesiais a Gatherer. There are two types of Gatherers: A Servant and a Brute. It is unclear if these enemies are heavily experimented on humans or if they were artificially created.
The Servants are particularly terrifying. They are missing a nose, and their mouths are stretched to inhuman proportions, fused to their torsos. It looks like a gaping black hole. Frankenstein-like stitches decorate their stained skins, with bandages wrapped tightly around their legs. If players look at them for too long, it causes their sanity to drop.
9Elden Ring
Like all FromSoftware games,Elden Ringfeatures a degree of body horror that makes the skin crawl. WhileBloodbornefocused on eldritch horrors and werewolves,Elden Ring’smain theme appears to be the ambition of humanity and the extreme lengths people may go to achieve this.
This ambition has resulted in sometruly warped bosses, including Godric the Grafted. He would capture Tarnished and graft their limbs onto his body, resulting in arms and legs protruding from all sides. Godric eventually even acquired the body of a troll and a dragon corpse to sustain more limbs and become more powerful.
8Fallout
Ghouls have been a staple throughout theFalloutseries. Ghouls were humans exposed tolarge amounts of radiation and nuclear fallout,and unluckily for them, they survived. Ghouls appear in two forms; either as feral walking-corpses attacking living things on sight or those who remain consciously human.
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Both variations have leathery skin, decayed skin flaying from their bones, and rasping voices. Sentient ghoul or not, they are all ostracized from the remainder of civilization in theFalloutuniverse.
7Little Nightmares
Looks can be deceiving. At first glance,Little Nightmareslooks like acute puzzle platformer. However, the sizable environments and the grotesque enemies are what make this game a horror. Not to mention the fact the warped visitors to the Maw eat children!
Long, spindly hands blindly feeling around for a tiny hiding child. That is the first introduction toThe JanitorofLittle Nightmares. He is blind due to the overgrown folds of flesh enveloping his eyes. He relies on his other sense to capture any fleeing children. An audible sniff can be heard when he encounters Six early on in her adventure. Terrifying for headphone users!
The necromorphs inDead Spaceare one of the most terrifying creatures in gaming history. They can infect potential hosts and transform their bodies into destructive beasts. Sharp blades sprout from their arms, and they are lethal in close distances. These intelligent creatures can creep and crawl around inside buildings to pounce on unsuspecting victims.
5The Last of Us
The Cordyceps brain infection in theLast of Usis more than just azombie virus.It causes a fungus to infest the infected’s body while their outward physical appearance begins to rot away.
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There are several stages to this: Runners, Stalkers, Clickers, and Bloaters. Clickers and Bloaters are the most advanced stages of infection, as the fungus completely shreds their remnants of humanity. Clickers rely on their hearing and echolocation to track their enemies, having lost their sense of sight. Bloaters are walking piles of fungus and can launch spore bombs to be avoided at all costs.
4BioShock
BioShockoffers plasmids as a form of character buff, granting the player special powers using physical mutation.Injecting a plasmidcalled “Insect Swarm” causes the player’s arm to rot and become a literal living beehive, with bees crawling out of the holes. The “Ice” plasmid causes spiky icicles to burst out of the player’s hand with traces of blood. These effects are temporary, but the same cannot be said for the residents of Rapture.
The plasmids granting this great power also cause a different kind of body horror. Many Splicers, NPCs in Rapture, are addicted to the ADAM within plasmids. As a result of their addiction, they are visibly deformed, with lopsided faces and tumors sprouting. Many of them wear masks to hide their deformities. All power comes at a price.
3The Quarry
From decapitated heads to gouging out eyeballs,The Quarrythrives on body horror.Supermassive’s latest releasefeatures nine camp counselors whose survival is entirely dependent on the players' choices. One rash decision can lead to someone becoming a prowling werewolf’s next meal.
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The werewolves inThe Quarryaren’t exactly the fluffy Twilight variety either. An infected human becomes a werewolf in a (literal) exploding shower of blood. They are also completely hairless, with a lipless mouth that exposes their razor-sharp fangs and long tongue.
2Outlast
Guts and blood decorate the walls ofMount Massive Asylum, and it is down to investigative journalist Miles to uncover the truth.Outlastis full of grotesque and deformed inpatients, some with missing sections of skin as they have resorted to cannibalism. Doctor Richard Trager initially presents himself as a disembodied friendly voice, someone to trust amidst all the chaos. However, players soon discover his true intentions.
Upon betraying and capturing Miles, Trager wheels him past his other failed experiments into a bathroom doubling as his operating room. He reveals a massive pair of shears from a urinal (hygiene is not his strong suit) and slices off Miles’ fingers. All players can see is Miles’ missing fingers spurting blood with protruding bones, accompanied by his screams of agony.
1Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
The best body horror game title has to go to theResident Evilseries, specificallyResident Evil 7: Biohazard.Biohazardfollows Ethan Winters as he searches for his missing wife, Mia. He discovers the Baker family’s home in Louisiana, where everything isn’t what it seems.
An unknown outbreak has infested the once peaceful family, causing their short tempers and the monstrous transformationsResident Evilis known for. They evenforce Ethan to eat a bowl of rotten flesh, symbolizing their decaying humanity! The Baker family could be burned or shot at point-blank with a shotgun and would still continue as if nothing happened. Gold star for resilience!
