History NightmareFuel / RedDeadRedemption

** Poor Sam Odessa: trying to make his way across New Austin to California, but unable to because of the impassable mountains ''that are the edge of the game's world''. His inability to go any further has driven him crazy in your second encounter with him, and by the third... he's fully-fledged insane. The fourth encounter, [[spoiler: with his rotting corpse from which you retrieve the letter he wrote for his family that explains why he abandoned them, is a real TearJerker.
** And it's up to you to send it to them. If you don't, his family will never know what happened to him.]]

** Poor Sam Odessa: trying to make his way across New Austin to California, but unable to because of the impassable mountains ''that are the edge of the game's world''. His inability to go any further has driven him crazy in your second encounter with him, and by the third... he's fully-fledged insane. [[spoiler: The fourth encounter, with his rotting corpse from which you retrieve the letter he wrote for his family that explains why he abandoned them, is a real TearJerker.]]

** Poor Sam Odessa: trying to make his way across New Austin to California, but unable to because of the impassable mountains ''that are the edge of the game's world''. His inability to go any further has driven him crazy in your second encounter with him, and by the third... he's fully-fledged insane. [[spoiler: The fourth encounter with his rotting corpse, from which you retrieve the letter he wrote for his family in which he explains why he abandoned them, is a real TearJerker.]]

** Poor Sam Odessa: trying to make his way across New Austin to California, but unable to because of the tall mountains ''that guard the edge of the game's world''. His inability to go any further has driven him crazy in your second encounter with him, and by the third... he's fully-fledged insane. [[spoiler: The fourth encounter with his rotting corpse, from which you retrieve the letter he wrote for his family in which he explains why he abandoned them, is a real TearJerker.]]

[[caption-width-right:230: You don't look a day over thirty...]]

[[quoteright:230:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/death_3496.bmp]]

** The old man collecting flowers for his wife is [[spoiler:keeping her decaying corpse, pictured right, in his house]].
*** Go back inside the house afterwards. [[spoiler:Her head will simply fall off.]]
*** What's WORSE? [[spoiler:Some gamers see her faintly breathing, meaning she might still be ALIVE!]]

*** 'Course, it sort of loses its edge when you whip out your double barreled shotgun and kill the [[spoiler:cannibal]] without him even putting up a fight. That line's genuinely creepy, though...
--> [[spoiler:[[ImAHumanitarian Fella's got to eat.]] [[MadnessMantra Fella's got to eat...]]]]
** An old woman begs you to find her fiancee. You ask around and discover where he is. Simple, right? Wrong. [[spoiler:Turns out the man is dead and buried, his tombstone reading that he died from a concussion. The old lady is never seen again.]]
*** It gets worse. [[spoiler:The guy's been dead for ''twenty years'' at the start of the game.]] Either his fiancee has totally lost it, or [[spoiler:she's dead too, and this whole time you were talking to a ghost.]]

* All of "I Know You" especially when you figure out who the strange man possibly is and what he meant with his final words. [[spoiler:When John attempts to shoot him in a cutscene he is unaffected and disappears through the Great Plains, near John's burial place.]]

** And what makes that whole mission even worse? [[spoiler:Those three women you save are the LUCKY ones! Everyone else is either dead, tortured and dead, or raped and dead. They are the only ones you were able to save, possibly after they themselves have been tortured / raped, and you almost didn't even manage that!]] Try not to think about how often something like this may have happened in the RealLife old west...

* [[spoiler:John Marston's LastStand against the people who had tormented him into going back into his old life after kidnapping his family.]] [[PlayerPunch And there's]] '''''[[PlayerPunch nothing]]''''' [[PlayerPunch you are able to do to stop it,]] only just watch.

* Did you think the Whetstone wilderness in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' was creepy? [[WildWilderness Tall Trees]] says hello. As [[SceneryPorn beautiful as the dense forests and snowy mountains are,]] the place can also be your worst nightmare at night or during a storm. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Tall, imposing trees]] that block out the sunlight apart from some clearings, making the whole place pretty shadowy even during the day. Often creepy atmospheric music. And worst of all, this is [[BearsAreBadNews Grizzly territory.]] Not only do they just love charging you from behind, but they're rarely alone and often attack in numbers. And when they're not around, your mind can play tricks on you, leading you to ''swear'' that you just heard the sound of a bear's heavy breathing nearby. And it gets worse... There's a [[spoiler:legendary bear named "Brumas". And he's one of the hardest creatures to kill. If you stumble upon him, good luck surviving.]]
* The "manimals" [[GoodBadBugs glitch]] is funny until you apply FridgeHorror. A person / animal acting like another animal. Kill it and skin it and it reverts back to its original form. It'll suddenly dawn on you that it's not glitch. The animals are getting smarter and dressing up like people, or each other.
** Considering the commonality of the glitch, it's quite possible that Rockstar knew about it, and then remembered where the game is set and realized that there's actually multiple Native Americans tales about such sort of nightmares. The most famous are the Wendigo and the Skinwalker. One is a human transformed into a beast as a punishment for horrible crimes, often cannibalism, and the other is a shapeshifter. There's also the Deer Woman, which is more benign, but is also sometimes a succubus esque figure. Some others are the Kanaima, a Carib evil spirit that would possess people and allow them to shapeshift and go into a murderous rage, and was invoked by people seeking revenge for dead relatives, the Rugaru, which is a werewolf like creature that you either end up being for cannibalism, greed or seeing one, and the Stikini. That one best goes with a quote: "The Stikini are sinister monsters from Seminole folklore. Originally they were evil witches, who transformed themselves into owl-beings. By day they still resemble Seminole people, but by night, they vomit up their souls (along with all their internal organs) and become undead owl-monsters that feed on human hearts. In some Seminole communities speaking their name is thought to put you at risk for turning into one, so Stikini stories are only told by certain medicine people. In other communities, they have been spoken of more casually as bogeymen to frighten children." Oh, and they're not the only ones with that "Speak of the Devil" rule. There's some others, including the Wendigo in some myths. Hope you're not reading this outloud.
* Welcome to the GhostTown of Tumbleweed. Visiting the town at night after taking out a group of bandits invites a serious case of the spooky. From the engraving of "The Devil got into that beast" in a church altar, to the mysterious dog barking from seemingly nowhere. And then there's the mansion. There's ''something'' watching John as he explores it. You just [[NothingIsScarier never find out what.]] [[spoiler:A glitch reveals that the sounds at least are coming from a group of people behind an un-openable door.]] Everything else remains to be seen.

* After meeting [[spoiler:Abraham Reyes, the rebel leader, you learn pretty quickly that Captain [=DeSanta=]'s descriptions of him weren't that far off, as the guy turns out little more but a conceited leader wannabe. Listen to his and John's conversation during the ride in "The Gates of El Presidio", however, and Abraham's comments just takes the cake as he will talk about how he can't possibly have a wife when, as future president of Mexico, it's his duty to "breed" and spread his seeds as much as possible "to create more Reyes". He will also refer to the Chinese as "an inferior race". It really makes you wonder who is the worst choice between him and Allende, worse yet as you actually ''help'' this guy get to power. It might all double as darkly humorous as well.]]

** John's whole Nuevo Paraiso journey has NightmareFuel aplenty, and it isn't supernatural in any way. It's just ordinary, baseline human beings doing unspeakably vile things to each other, either out of desperation or because they're ordered to. One mission sees Marston joining Allende's Federales to slaughter a town's worth of rebels, then burn down every building just to ensure they can never return... and then do the ''same thing'' a few missions later. Only this time your "allies" are executing men by marching them to the edge of a cliff, shooting them, and watching them plummet down, chuckling and joking all the while. And this isn't even ''getting into'' the way Allende kidnaps young girls for his "amusements", and his men are basically thieving, extorting, abusing and murdering as they want. Not to mention the fact the rebels end up doing pretty much the same thing whenever they capture a handful of Federales alive, and as the former example shows, [[spoiler: their leader is no better then Allende]]. After the relatively [[BlackAndWhiteMorality clear-cut, Good vs. Evil]] nature of the New Austin, such a blatant, unvarnished CrapsackWorld can be more than a little horrifying.

* Did you think the Whetstone wilderness in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' was creepy? Tall Trees says hello. As [[SceneryPorn beautiful as the dense forests and snowy mountains are,]] the place can also be your worst nightmare at night or during a storm. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Tall, imposing trees]] that block out the sunlight apart from some clearings, making the whole place pretty shadowy even during the day. Often creepy atmospheric music. And worst of all, this is [[BearsAreBadNews Grizzly territory.]] Not only do they just love charging you from behind, but they're rarely alone and often attack in numbers. And when they're not around, your mind can play tricks on you, leading you to ''swear'' that you just heard the sound of a bear's heavy breathing nearby. And it gets worse... There's a [[spoiler:legendary bear named "Brumas". And he's one of the hardest creatures to kill. If you stumble upon him, good luck surviving.]]

* Hearing the distinct sound of a rattlesnake and not knowing where it is. Your choices are either to run away before it can strike or try to spot and shoot it. Good luck...

*** What's WORSE? [[spoiler:Some gamers sees her faintly breathing, meaning she might still be ALIVE!]]

* After meeting [[spoiler:Abraham Reyes, the rebel leader, you learn pretty quickly that Captain [=DeSanta=]'s descriptions of him weren't that far off, as the guy turns out little more but a conceited leader wannabe. Listen to his and John's conversation during the ride in "The Gates of El Presidio", however, and Abraham's comments just takes the cake as he will talk about how he can't possibly have a wife when, as future president of Mexico, it's his duty to "breed" and spread his seeds as much as possible "to create more Reyes". He will also refer to the Chinese as "an inferior race". It really makes you wonder who is the worst choice between him and Sanchez, worse yet as you actually ''help'' this guy get to power. It might all double as darkly humorous as well.]]

-->'''John:''' [[SarcasmMode You have all the makings of a great leader, [[spoiler:Abraham.]]]]

* After meeting Abraham Reyes, the rebel leader, you learn pretty quickly that Captain [=DeSanta=]'s descriptions of him weren't that far off, as the guy turns out little more but a conceited leader wannabe. Listen to his and John's conversation during the ride in "The Gates of El Presidio", however, and Abraham's comments just takes the cake as he will talk about how he can't possibly have a wife when, as future president of Mexico, it's his duty to "breed" and spread his seeds as much as possible "to create more Reyes". He will also refer to the Chinese as "an inferior race". It really makes you wonder who is the worst choice between him and Sanchez, worse yet as you actually ''help'' this guy get to power. It might all double as darkly humorous as well.
-->'''John:''' [[SarcasmMode You have all the makings of a great leader, Abraham.]]

* After meeting Abraham Reyes, the rebel leader, you learn pretty quickly that Captain [=DeSanta=]'s descriptions of him weren't that far off, as the guy turns out little more but a conceited leader wannabe. Listen to his and John's conversation during the ride in "The Gates of El Presidio", however, and Abraham's comments just takes the cake as he will talk about how he can't possibly have a wife when, as future president of Mexico, it's his duty to "breed" and spread his seeds as much as possible "to create more Reyes". He will also refer to the Chinese as "an inferior race". It really makes you wonder who is the worst choice between him and Sanchez, worse yet as you actually ''help'' this guy get to power. It might all double as Funny as well.

* After meeting Abraham Reyes, the rebel leader, you learn pretty quickly that Captain [=DeSanta=]'s descriptions of him weren't that far off, as the guy turns out little more but a conceited leader wannabe. Listen to his and John's conversation during the ride in "The Gates of El Presidio", however, and Abraham's comments just takes the cake as he will talk about how he can't possibly have a wife when, as future president of Mexico, it's his duty to "breed" and spread his seeds as much as possible "to create more Reyes". He will also refer to the Chinese as "an inferior race". It really makes you wonder who is the worst choice between him and Sanchez, worse yet as you actually ''help'' the guy get to power. It might all double as Funny as well.

'''John:''' [[SarcasmMode You have all the makings of a great leader, Abraham.]]

* The mission "Hanging Bonnie [=MacFarlane=]". Title pretty much speaks for itself, but John enters the Marshal's office where Drew is present and terrified as Bonnie has been kidnapped. A gang member then rides by and threatens the Marshal to return one of their imprisoned gang members, or his group will "let out all their anger, and ''their loneliness''" on Bonnie. ''Shudder''. Luckily John and the others will arrive in time before they seriously harm Bonnie, but as you save her from being ''hanged'' her clothes are torn and she's covered in bruises, meaning they still gave her a beating. She appears to recover quickly (seeming fine when you meet her again several weeks later), but had it been more realistic Bonnie would probably have needed a ''lot'' of time to recover from the mental trauma.

* The mission "Hanging Bonnie [=MacFarlane=]". Title pretty much speaks for itself, but John enters the Marshal's office where Drew is present and terrified as Bonnie has been kidnapped. A gang member then rides by and threatens the Marshal to return one of their imprisoned gang members, or his group will "let out all their anger, and ''their loneliness''" on Bonnie. ''Shudder''. Luckily John and the others will arrive in time before they seriously harm Bonnie, but as you save her from being ''hanged'' her clothes are torn and she's covered in bruises, meaning they still gave her a beating. Luckily she appears to recover quickly in-game, but had such a thing happened to a real person one might reasonably assume some ''real'' heavy therapy would be needed to recover.

*** What's WORSE? [[spoiler:She is faintly breathing, which means she's still ALIVE!]]

* What about the mission Spare the Rod, Spoil the Bandit? When you finally shoot off the wood that's keeping the barn door closed, there's a cutscene of a ''naked body'' swinging on the barn rafters. Worse... ''There is a woman in there, so she spent who know how long terrified with the naked corpse of her friend / relative'' before John and the deputies could reach her. After the ordeal, you see the women, huddled together and they're traumatized, their faces are bloodied and bruised and their shirts are torn.

** You know what makes that whole mission even worse? [[spoiler:Those 3 women you save are the LUCKY ones! Everyone else is either dead, tortured and dead, or raped and dead. They are the only ones you were able to save, possibly after they themselves have been tortured / raped, and you almost didn't even manage that!]] Try not to think about how often something like this may have happened in the RealLife old west...

*** Um, no. No it isn't.

** The old man collecting flowers for his wife is [[spoiler: keeping her decaying corpse, pictured right, in his house.]]
*** Go back inside the house afterwards. [[spoiler: Her head will simply fall off.]]
*** What's WORSE? [[spoiler: She is faintly breathing, which means she's still ALIVE!]]

*** 'Course, it sort of loses its edge when you whip out your double barreled shotgun and kill the [[spoiler: cannibal]] without him even putting up a fight. That line's genuinely creepy, though...
--> [[spoiler: [[ImAHumanitarian Fella's got to eat.]] [[MadnessMantra Fella's got to eat...]]]]
** An old woman begs you to find her fiancee. You ask around and discover where he is. Simple, right? Wrong. [[spoiler: Turns out the man is dead and buried, his tombstone reading that he died from a concussion. The old lady is never seen again.]]
*** It gets worse. [[spoiler: The guy's been dead for ''twenty years'' at the start of the game.]] Either his fiancee has totally lost it, or [[spoiler: she's dead too, and this whole time you were talking to a ghost.]]

* All of "I Know You" especially when you figure out who the strange man possibly is and what he meant with his final words.[[spoiler: When John attempts to shoot him in a cutscene he is unaffected and disappears through the Great Plains, near John's burial place.]]

** You know what makes that whole mission even worse? [[spoiler: Those 3 women you save are the LUCKY ones! Everyone else is either dead, tortured and dead, or raped and dead. They are the only ones you were able to save, possibly after they themselves have been tortured / raped, and you almost didn't even manage that!]] Try not to think about how often something like this may have happened in the RealLife old west...

* [[spoiler: John Marston's LastStand against the people who had tormented him into going back into his old life after kidnapping his family.]] [[PlayerPunch And there's]] '''''[[PlayerPunch nothing]]''''' [[PlayerPunch you are able to do to stop it,]] only just watch.

* Did you think the Whetstone wilderness in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' was creepy? Tall Trees says hello. As [[SceneryPorn beautiful as the dense forests and snowy mountains are,]] the place can also be your worst nightmare at night or during a storm. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Tall, imposing trees]] that block out the sunlight apart from some clearings, making the whole place pretty shadowy even during the day. Often creepy atmospheric music. And worst of all, this is [[BearsAreBadNews Grizzly territory.]] Not only do they just love charging you from behind, but they're rarely alone and often attack in numbers. And when they're not around, your mind can play tricks on you, leading you to ''swear'' that you just heard the sound of a bear's heavy breathing nearby. And it gets worse... There's a [[spoiler: legendary bear named "Brumas". And he's one of the hardest creatures to kill. If you stumble upon him, good luck surviving.]]

* Welcome to the GhostTown of Tumbleweed. Visiting the town at night after taking out a group of bandits invites a serious case of the spooky. From the engraving of "The Devil got into that beast" in a church altar, to the mysterious dog barking from seemingly nowhere. And then there's the mansion. There's ''something'' watching John as he explores it. You just [[NothingIsScarier never find out what.]] [[spoiler: A glitch reveals that the sounds at least are coming from a group of people behind an un-openable door.]] Everything else remains to be seen.

* In the loft of the barn at Beecher's Hope, the phrase "Oh My Son My Blessed Son" is scrawled on a wall.[[note]]This is a cheat code to play as Jack.[[/note]] Did John write these words? Are they joyful, or anguished? Depending on how you explain them to yourself, they can definitely have a creepy effect.

* In the loft of the barn at Beecher's Hope, the phrase "Oh My Son My Blessed Son" is scrawled on a wall.[[note]]This is a cheat code to play as Jack.[[/note]] Did John write these words? Are they exultant, or anguished? Depending on how you explain them to yourself, they can definitely have a creepy effect.

* Did you think the Whetstone wilderness in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' was creepy? Tall Trees says hello. As [[SceneryPorn beautiful as the dense forests and snowy mountains are,]] the place can also be your worst nightmare at night or during a storm. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Tall, imposing trees]] that block out the sunlight apart from some clearings, making the whole place pretty shadowy even during the day. Often creepy atmospheric music. And worst of all, this is [[BearsAreBadNews Grizzly territory.]] Not only do they just love charging you from behind, but they're rarely alone and often attack in numbers. And when they're not around, your mind can play tricks on you, leading you to ''swear'' that you just heard the sound of a bear's heavy breathing nearby.