History Main / MookHorrorShow

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':

** ''Episode VI -- Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'': The moment Luke Skywalker and his lightsaber are reunited at the Pit of Carkoon, everything goes downhill fast for Jabba the Hutt's assorted gangsters as they are blasted, sliced, sent flying headlong into the Sarlaac's gaping maw, or all three. Jabba himself is strangled to death in the dark by Princess Leia.
*** It doesn't go much better for the Imperial stormtroopers on Endor's moon once the Ewoks get into the fight as they go from having the "Rebel scum" dead to rights to being massacred by a swarm of waist-high teddy bears and their booby traps.

* In ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'', Wei Shen can cause any enemies around him in a fist fight to flinch by grabbing one of their friends and breaking their leg with a stomp to the side of the knee. He can also use the environment to do things like set mooks on fire, impale them on hooks or electrocute them. Typically, the drug bust side missions involve beating down a certain number of guards to hack surveillance devices and end when any remaining guards run for their lives.

* It's easy to forget because of his family-friendly portrayals, but [[Characters/SpiderManPeterParker Spider-Man]] sometimes comes across this way, especially when he intervenes in muggings. Just imagine how you'd react to a gruesomely contorting silhouette with wide, staring eyes scuttling down the wall at you...

* ''Fanfic/TheTotallyAmazingSpiderMan'': [[WesternAnimation/TotallySpies The spies]] find themselves on this end of the trope. After being ordered by Jerry to bring Franchise/SpiderMan in for questioning, the spies attempt to lure him in by staging a mugging, but quickly find themselves out of their element. Clover screams for her life and ends up in Spidey's web, to her disgust, and Alex runs for her life when she sees Spider-Man approach. Afterwards, Clover is far more cautious in trying to capture Spider-Man.

* The title character of the Creator/StephenKing novel ''[[Literature/NightmaresAndDreamscapes Dolan's Cadillac]]'' seeks revenge against the title character, who ordered a hit on his wife. To this end he quits his job as a teacher and becomes a road worker in order to set a trap for Dolan when he passes by in his you know what. [[spoiler:He digs a large hole and covers it with a weak stretch of road so that the Cadillac plunges into it. He then taunts Dolan for a while before filling up the hole.]]

** The PS2 title ''Gundam: Zeonic Front'' can have Mission 06: Trojan Horse turn into one if the player is careless. the player controls multiple teams of Zaku on a mission to gather data, but if discovered by White Base the enemy will unleash [[TheDreaded Amuro Ray piloting the RX-78-2]]. Quick demise usually follows as Amuro picks off your entire team one by one while counting his kills. The player can ever hear the iconic Newtype Flash Sound as their team dies one by one.

** ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'': After being reduced to only a belt after his defeat to his son, [[spoiler:[[AbusiveParents Banno]]]] is reduced to a whimpering wreck just as Go is about to prepare the Shingou Axe's {{finishing move}} on him. [[spoiler:Banno [[VillainsWantMercy pleads]] to Go to not kill him because doing so will rob him of his glorious knowledge. Only for his pleas to fall on deaf ears as he screams in horror before the axe gets dropped on him.]]

* * ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': [[TheCorrupter Parado]] kept goading [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Emu]] to fight him and pulled all sorts of sick tricks to get his attention because Emu has always prioritized saving people over antagonizing him. When Emu finally ran out of time, options and patience, Parado got [[GoneHorriblyRight more]] than he could handle as his every move proved entirely [[NoSell futile]]. Even worse, Emu exploited his fragile [[VillainousBreakdown mental]] [[ImmortalsFearDeath state]] to wreck him on the inside too by mocking and [[DarkReprise twisting]] his own words. By the end of the fight Parado is reduced to a sobbing mess begging for mercy. [[spoiler: Kuroto]], the absolutely bonkers bioterrorist with a god complex, who would regularly mock Emu's kindhearted nature, is [[HorrifyingTheHorror disturbed]] by watching the fight.

*** [[spoiler:The revelation that the mooks have been indoctrinated and can no longer fear for themselves implies that [[HorrifyingTheHorror ''the Reapers'' are terrified of Shepard.]] This is pretty much confirmed in the Leviathan DLC.]]

'''Garrus:''' ''[BoomHeadshot]'' You're not.\\

*** [[spoiler:The revelation that the mooks have been indoctrinated and can no longer fear for themselves implies that their Reaper masters are as scared of Shepard. This is pretty much confirmed in the Leviathan DLC.]]

** A small-time crook sees the superhero Jack-in-the-Box change into his civilian clothes. At first, he thinks that he's struck gold by discovering this potentially valuable information, but then starts to imagine all the ways in which selling the info could go wrong, including nightmares of being pursued by Jack (a light-hearted-yet-potentially-[[MonsterClown scary]] ComicBook/SpiderMan {{Expy}}). He eventually gets so stressed out he leaves town without revealing the secret to anyone.

->"''Are you feeling the pressure? You're alone in a room, your friends have been picked off one by one... now it's just you and '''[[Characters/BatmanTheCharacter him]]!'''"''
-->-- '''[[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]]''' [[BadBoss to an unlucky henchman]], ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum''

* This is a staple of the ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries''' "Invisible Predator" sections, where Batman takes on groups of armed enemies by stealthily picking them off one by one. As the fights wear on, the mooks get more and more terrified (you can even check their elevated heart rates via Detective Vision) and start behaving more erratically. And to make matters worse, their boss is often there to berate them via loudspeaker for their failure (Joker being the worst of the lot since, as seen by the page quote, he actually seems to ''[[BadBoss enjoy]]'' pointing out to his men how utterly screwed they are).
** Joker has been usurped as the worst person to ever be on Mook MissionControl duty by Scarecrow in ''Arkham Knight''. He doesn't angrily berate his men for their incompetence. He doesn't gleefully taunt them about how screwed they are. Instead, he gives them a ''very'' detailed and "educational" lecture about the exact psychological nature of the fear they are currently experiencing, and how it will haunt them for years to come and perhaps the rest of their lives. No wonder he was only allowed to do this once in the entire game. All other times you are in a Predator section against militamen, it's the Arkham Knight himself on the radio. [[spoiler:Or Deathstroke, after the Knight is defeated.]]

* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', Trevor's introductory mission has him fighting a whole platoon of Lost gang members. Once you've killed certain number of them, the remainder will immediately drop their guns and run for their lives.

** In the fourth episode of Season 1, the Ranskahovs kidnap Claire Temple and start beating her to get information on the "Masked Man" who's been troubling their business interests. Suddenly the lights all go out, and then, one by one, Matt picks them off one at a time, with them unable to see him.

** The PS2 title ''Gundam: Zeonic Front'' can have Mission 06: Trojan Horse turn into one if the player is careless. the player controls multiple teams of Zaku on a mission to gather data, but if discovered by White Base the enemy will unleash [[TheDreaded ''Amuro Ray piloting the RX-78-2'']]. Quick demise usually follows as Amuro picks off your entire team one by one while counting his kills. The player can ever hear the iconic Newtype Flash Sound as their team dies one by one.

** The PS2 title ''Gundam: Zeonic Front'' can have Mission 06: Trojan Horse turn into one if the player is careless. the player controls multiple teams of Zaku on a mission to gather data, but if discovered by White Base the enemy will unleash [[TheDreaded''Amuro Ray piloting the RX-78-2'']]. Quick demise usually follows as Amuro picks off your entire team one by one while counting his kills. The player can ever hear the iconic Newtype Flash Sound as their team dies one by one.

** When Marv killed the police death-squad goons at the Farm after they had just [[spoiler:blown away his parole officer Lucille]], he faced the last one and said "[[{{Catchphrase}} That there is one damn fine coat you're wearing]]." The next page showed him chasing the guy down with a hatchet while cackling like a lunatic.

* Literature/TheBible mentions how terrified the pagan nations were of the Israelites after [[{{God}} their god]] laid waste to Egypt and then went around destroying everyone who attacked them in the desert. See, for example, the Moabites in Numbers 22 (the beginning of a VillainEpisode) or the people of Jericho in [[Literature/BookOfJoshua Joshua 2]].

* The ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}'' character Vibheeshana sees Parvati -- the real Parvati, not [[GodInHumanForm the human woman]] she currently looks like 0 -- and almost [[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes crazy with fear]]. Imagine seeing Someone who is truly, inhumanly pure, before whom you feel just how venal and mortal you are. Someone so [[RightMakesMight holy that they could incinerate you with a touch]], and the only reason they don't is they know Fate has decreed a more humiliating death for you in the future. And all the while your rakshasa buddies are laughing, totally unaware that they are krill in the shadow of a whale. So, Vibheeshana defects. They call him a coward. Vibheeshana replies (paraphrased): "Yes, I am afraid, and if you could see what I see, ''[[FearIsTheAppropriateResponse you would be too!]]''" Vibheeshana is the only soldier who survives the oncoming divine wrath -- solely because he had the sense to flee.

* An early episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' opens with a demon fleeing from a "rogue demon hunter" on a motorcycle. In a comedic twist, [[spoiler:it turns out it's Wesley]].

** In ''VideoGame/SplinterCellChaosTheory 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.