History Main / MookHorrorShow

** Sam Fisher gets this sometimes. Especially prominent in ''Conviction'', where the enemies are occasionally people Sam likely trained and know [[OhCrap exactly what he's capable of]]. Even the less professional mercenaries can be heard loudly challenging Fisher in order to psych themselves up. Too bad it also gives away their positions, and is just irritating enough for the player to want to kill them to shut them up.
** In ''Chaos Theory'', doing things around mooks like whistling in the dark, destroying lights, knocking their comrades out/killing them and leaving the bodies for them to find and throwing cans and bottles around gradually builds the enemy's fear to the point where they fire blindly at where they last heard the noise or run away screaming. The interrogations also generally have Sam using threats of bodily harm to scare mooks into giving up information.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/TheTerminator He can't be bargained with. He can't be reasoned with. He doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And he absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are]]... [[TheCape brought]] [[ThouShaltNotKill to justice]].]]

* ''LightNovel/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'': Shiba Tatsuya, in his position as a special lieutenant of the JSDF, is known as "Maheshvara" (another name for Shiva, a Hindu deity) to the Chinese forces who tried to invade Japan in Okinawa and Yokohama. At the tender age of 13 he nearly single-handedly stopped the invasion of Okinawa, using his unique decomposition magic to quite literally erase the enemy soldiers from existence with his right hand, while resurrecting his allies with his left hand. This freaked the enemy out so much, they decided that the only way to salvage the situation would be to bring in the cruisers and bombard the beaches from afar. It didn't help them much. The higher ups even forbid the utterance of that name among the soldiers. Three years later China attacked again in Yokohama on 31 of October 2095, only to be repelled once more, this time also losing almost all of their land forces involved in the attack, a third of their entire fleet and an important naval base at the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. Along with a chunk of land which was obliterated in an event that was later called "The Scorched Halloween".
* ''LightNovel/{{Katanagatari}}'': Episode 4 segues away from the main duo to focus on the [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad Maniwa Insect Squad]] attempting to abduct [[spoiler:Shichika's sister Nanami]], to use her as a hostage. The episode takes the viewpoint of the Insect Squad, who are all fairly decent people for assassins. They all somewhat like each other, and [[TemptingFate one of them is even getting married after this mission]]. [[spoiler:And then Nanami turns out to be an unstoppable, [[TheGift gifted,]] CuteAndPsycho InstantExpert who just happens to look like a little ill girl. She tortures one for information, and then murders them all by mastering and then using their own ninjutsu against them.]]

-->'''Mirmulir:''' [[OhCrap Dovahkiin?!]] ''[[BigNo No!!]]''

-->'''Mirmulir:''' [[OhCrap Dovahkiin?!]] [[BigNo ''No!!'']]

--> '''Bruce:''' I seek the means to fight injustice, to turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.

* VideoGame/AceCombat has this as a staple of the series once the player has progressed enough. What makes it interesting is that the enemy never know your callsign, only your insignia, leading to a variety of nicknames:
** VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies: After the furball over the Comona Islands, in which Möbius One can land a hit on the Yellow Squadron and force them to withdraw, the Eruseans start looking out for the "Blue Ribbon". This culminates over Megalith, their last holdout, when they see [[spoiler:the '' entire squadron'' bearing ribbon insignias]] and freak out.
** VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar has this as a stronger focus, helped by an in-universe fairy tale about a demon rising from the North Sea:

--->'''Yuke Soldier:''' ''HELP US! IT'S THE '''RAZGRIZ!'''''

** VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown has this happen around the time [[spoiler: the first Arsenal Bird is destroyed]]. By this time Trigger has a new emblem featuring three clawmarks across his old one, so he's dubbed "Three Strikes"

---> "It was like the start of ''VideoGame/Halo2'', but if Master Chief was a bear."

--> '''Mirmulir:''' [[OhCrap Dovahkiin?!]] [[BigNo ''No!!'']]

* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' gets like this by the end. There's nothing like tearing through a building of guards and hearing their boss respond to their messages over the PA, "What do you ''mean'', 'he's unstoppable'?"
** This happens in parts of ''2'' with Mona as the killer.
** At one point in ''3'' at the tail end of tearing through a base full of EliteMooks, one of them drops his gun, drops to his knees and begs for mercy. There's also a minor mook-on-mook variation when Max lets [[spoiler:Serrano]] loose on [[spoiler:the doctor]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'', Stitch's escape scene in the first part plays out this way apart from the fact that [[VillainProtagonist he's arguably a villain]] [[AntiHero at this point]].

* The opening scene of Tim Burton's ''Film/Batman1989'' qualifies -- but then the trope is inverted in the movie's cathedral climax, with [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]] ''inviting'' Batman ("Shall we dance?") to tangle with his stealthy, ''gongfu''-trained assassins. What makes the scenario especially ironic is that Batman has just survived being ''blown up'' and is already bleeding and at least partially physically weakened; he does manage to dispatch all three of the mooks -- indeed, killing all but one of them! -- but it isn't easy.

*** Trunks invokes this when he returns to the future on the evil Androids and Cell, intentionally [[OhCrap making them know just how screwed and helpless they are against him]], because this was exactly what they'd done to their victims.

* ''Manga/ElfenLied'' starts out with half an episode of this trope courtesy of [[TragicVillain Lucy]], who escapes from her cell, [[FullFrontalAssault strips naked]] (except for her creepy helmet), and cuts a bloody swath of destruction through the facility. She encounters dozens of heavily-armed guards and [[PersonOfMassDestruction kills them messily with what seems like very little effort]]. She also decapitates a bystander who had no idea what was going on and wouldn't have been an obstacle, just to make sure the audience finds it impossible to sympathize with Lucy... until her we learn of her [[FreudianExcuse backstory]].

* ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'' goes in to a mook's (Ground Dragon) point of view as he tries to escape [[ComicallyInvincibleHero Saitama]] by digging through the ground. In the anime, the viewer sees Saitama's face [[JumpScare suddenly pop in to view]], and in both the anime and manga [[SurpriseCreepy he's deliberately drawn in an uncanny way]]. From Saitama's perspective, these were just some animal-beings that annoyed him by attacking him at his place and wrecking his apartment. From Ground Dragon's perspective, he's running for dear life from an unstoppable force of power, and suddenly found the guy staring right at him in a dark tunnel.

* In Creator/MaxGilardi's ''[[WebAnimation/FazbearAndFriendsMaxGilardi Fazbear and Friends]]'', Freddy and the gang are portrayed as kind and likeable characters who [[TomatoInTheMirror simply have no idea that they are animatronics]]. [[spoiler:At least till [[WhamLine the]] [[SurpriseCreepy ending]], anyway.]]

* ''Anime/Scryed'': Kazuma has been pictured like this on at least one occasion -- during his UnstoppableRage following [[spoiler:Kimishima's death]], when he tears into a squad of [[{{Mooks}} ordinary HOLD troops]]. We get to see his approach from Scheris's viewpoint -- an unstoppable monster stalking out of the flames, spreading death and destruction in his wake...

* ''Anime/SCryed'': Kazuma has been pictured like this on at least one occasion -- during his UnstoppableRage following [[spoiler:Kimishima's death]], when he tears into a squad of [[{{Mooks}} ordinary HOLD troops]]. We get to see his approach from Scheris's viewpoint -- an unstoppable monster stalking out of the flames, spreading death and destruction in his wake...

** Two words: [[spoiler:'''[[OneWingedAngel Level Zero]]''']]. Both the catholic paladins and the nazi vampires ''immediately'' realize that, if they can't kill Alucard then and there, they are all going to die.

** While most of the enemies you fight in the original ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' are too BrainwashedAndCrazy to be frightened, the game makes no bones about Caim being a bloodthirsty psychopath who's only slightly better than the enemies he kills, and on the occasion he ''does'' fight a non-brainwashed enemy (for example, ''child'' conscripts that Caim [[WouldHurtAChild coldly slaughters just like any other enemy before him]]) they react with a more-than-appropriate amount of pants-wetting terror.

** Justified, as Dragons are immortal...unless their souls are devoured by either another dragon, or by a Dragonborn, a mortal with the soul of a dragon.

*** His fight against [[TheAce Zero]], the last of the Six Arms, starts with Zero [[BeginWithAFinisher charging up and unleashing his strongest attack]], [[TheWorfBarrage which does]] ''[[Film/MenInBlack precisely dick]]'', and ends with Sebas [[FingerPokeOfDoom lightly tapping Zero in the head with his foot.]] Zero can only weakly mutter "WhatTheHellAreYou" as he dies.

** He lampshades this himself in ''Literature/TurnCoat''. He is facing [[spoiler:no less than five Wardens and three members of the [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Senior Council]]]], and ''they'' are afraid to fight ''him''. Then he remembers something... "They were dealing with something far more dangerous than me, Harry Dresden, whose battered old Volkswagen was currently in the city impound. They were dealing with the potential demonic dark lord nightmare warlock they'd been busy fearing since I turned sixteen. They were dealing with the wizard who had faced the Heirs of Kemmler [[spoiler:riding a zombie dinosaur]], and emerged victorious from a fight that had flattened Morgan and Captain Luccio before they had even reached it. They were dealing with the man who had dropped a challenge to the entire Senior Council, and who had then actually ''showed'', apparently willing to fight-on the shores of an entirely too creepy island in the middle of a freshwater sea."

* In ''Fanfic/ThisBites'', four of the ''weaker'' Straw Hats (Nami, Chopper, Cross, and Soundbite) instill such terror into the Marines they fight at Enies Lobby that the one calling for reinforcements is reduced to simply repeating "Oh god" over and over.

* Occasionally, ThatOnePlayer becomes this to their gaming community. For instance, Dslyecxi, founder of ''VideoGame/{{Arma}}'' clan Creator/ShackTactical, is treated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZuvRiyIh6c&hd=1 as a terrifying specter of a man who can approach, make a kill, and escape without warning.]] Name-dropping him in a match is a great way to suddenly cause the other side to start making mistakes out of [[MemeticBadass fear of him and his reputation]]. There's also been a few cases where he panicked the other team so badly just by his presence that they started [[FriendOrFoe killing each other]] by mistake trying to kill him. Please note that in at least one such instance, he had been confirmed down and out in the game for several minutes and his opponents were ''still'' causing friendly fire casualties because they were that worked up and paranoid after Dslyecxi had spent the prior 10 minutes or so picking them off one or two at a time.

* If you go for the [[spoiler:"Don't Fear The Reaper" ending]] in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' then V is this due to [[spoiler:cutting down Arasaka's best left and right with no help, and some of the last defenders are so afraid that they try to run away or surrender. If you're sufficiently leveled and geared then it's likely you'll be killing almost everything in one or two hits while [[MadeofIron they'll barely scratch you]]. The entire sequence is similar to Johnny Silverhand's flashback sequence from the beginning of Act 2 but with a much better outcome if you succeed.]]

* One story in ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'' begins with the protagonist's raid on a cruel marquis' chateau, where the vast majority of it involves her (a naked level 7 monk) silently plowing through countless CR½ guards, most of whom are understandably freaking out as she's defeating 2-4 of them every single ''turn.'' One of them (the team marksman) even abandons the fight entirely after she [[CatchTheBullet catches his crossbolt]] and sends it flying right back into his chest!

*** While Ainz's spell did kill 70,000 soldiers, their deaths were just [[HumanSacrifice fuel]] to [[SummoningRitual summon]] five [[EldritchAbomination Dark Young]], [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever gigantic]] [[GruesomeGoat goat-like monstrosities]] filled with [[TooManyMouths mouths]] and [[TentacledTerror tentacles]], which then proceed to trample the Kingdom's army underhoof while their [[HellIsThatNoise bleating]] and [[SickeningCrunch the sound of the soldiers being crushed]] try to drown one another. After-battle reports would indicate that the Dark Young went on to crush over ''100,000 soldiers'', with the total killcount adding up to around ''180,000''. Some of the survivors of the battle would end up suffering PTSD attacks [[TraumaButton at the sound of a goat's bleating]], and a seer from the Slane Theocracy, who bore witness to the battle, would end up [[TheShutIn locking herself in her room]], [[ShellShockedVeteran becoming too traumatized to ever dare leave.]]

** One scene in ''Crown of Slaves'' sees a bunch of Mesan operatives in their hotel suite trying to deal with the unfolding ThirtyGambitPileup, only for a team of [[SuperSoldier ex-Scrags]] and [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters Audubon Ballroom gunmen]] to storm their suite. The ex-Scrags are bad enough, but the Mesans are scared ''shitless'' of the Ballroom.

** ''ComicBook/ScarletSpider'': Kaine is a living demonstration of what a Spider-Man who doesn't play nice looks like. During ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'', he terrifies pretty much everyone he comes across, leaving a trail of bodies killed by his signature move, 'The Mark of Kaine', which essentially uses his enhanced wall-crawling powers to burn handprints in people's faces. On his return in ''ComicBook/SpiderIsland'', he's arguably even scarier, since he looks and dresses enough like Spidey that everyone mistakes him for the web-slinger ([[BerserkButton much to his irritation]]), [[WolverineClaws has stingers that emerge from beneath his wrists]] and [[PestController controls spiders]]. Add all that to the UncannyValley terror that Spidey sometimes inspires, the fact he can transform into [[OneWingedAngel The Other]] following his second resurrection, that he's prone to UnstoppableRage, has no problem with killing or torture and he's noticeably faster and stronger than Spider-Man and you get a TerrorHero that has drug cartels wetting themselves, the 'Superior' Spider-Man engaging in a massive freak-out and is capable of tearing through the X-Men and (briefly) ''killing'' Wolverine.