Line #27 NightmareFuel/BatmanArkhamCity


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4	''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' turned everything about the first game up to eleven, and the SequelEscalation includes anything you can think of. ''Asylum'' was dark, ''City'' is {{darker\|AndEdgier}}. ''Asylum'' was scary, ''City'' is scarier. Read on if you dare.
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6	'''WARNING:''' Spoilers are unmarked.
7	----
8	* The NonStandardGameOver in Catwoman's penultimate mission. If the player choses to leave Arkham City with the loot rather than save Batman, the credits roll, and the player hears a horrifying distress call from Oracle. In a fuzzy transmission, she pleads for help, stating that Joker has won, Wayne Manor has been compromised, and everyone is dead. All because Catwoman didn't save Batman. Thankfully, the scene rewinds back so she can make the right choice. But even as a throwaway gag, it's enough to genuinely scare you.
9	-->'''Oracle:''' Can anyone hear me? My name is Barbara Gordon. We're under attack. Joker's forces are too strong. My father's dead. [[EverybodysDeadDave Everybody's dead]]. [[DownerEnding We're going to lose!]] [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs Wayne Manor's been compromised]]. [[TheBadGuyWins Joker's won! I can't believe I'm saying this. He's won!]] There's nothing we can do! [[TheHeroDies Bruce is dead. He's gone]]. They're all gone. Please, if you can hear this, send help. Please!
10	** At the end of the rewinding part, there's a barely-detectable garbled voice. Rewind the rewind (that is, make it go "forward") and slow it down: It's Joker saying "'''Thank you for the entertainment, Bats'''." He's literally [[WhatTheHellPlayer thanking Catwoman/the player for letting him run rampant through Gotham and maybe the whole world]].
11	* Hugo Strange and Catwoman. If you get seen during Catwoman's StealthBasedMission, Strange appears in the [[GameOverMan game over screen]]. One of them has him holding a scalpel with a SlasherSmile on his face and smugly saying "I will ''enjoy'' dissecting your brain, Miss Kyle!" in his Creator/ChristopherLee-[[Creator/CoreyBurton esque]] voice. [[AndIMustScream The way he says it makes it sound like he's eager to slice Catwoman's head open while she's still alive]].
12	* The premise itself is based on the idea of a city, or a large portion thereof, being turned into what is, for all intents and purposes, a free-range concentration/extermination camp.
13	** Protocol 10. On Strange's orders, TYGER just starts shooting Arkham City up. Extra horrifying because a fair portion of the prisoners are either in there on incredibly flimsy charges or because they [[HeKnowsTooMuch know too much]] about Strange's plan. They murder roughly a quarter of the prisoners before Batman shuts them down.
14	** Worse, the helicopters start firing at YOU, the player, if they catch you while you're trying to find the Master Control Program needed to shut down Strange's operation or racing to Wonder Tower.
15	** Also, Strange was planning to do this over in [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Metropolis]] and [[Franchise/TheFlash Keystone City]] once he was done eradicating everyone in Gotham. While the plan might not have flown quite as well as it did in Gotham, the thought of having the likes of Metallo, Captain Cold, Parasite, Zoom, Brainiac, and the like locked up in an isolated part of each city, then blasted to smithereens.
16	** Also, consider this: at the start of the game, ''you'' are captured and incarcerated. This would be terrifying if not for the fact that you're the stinkin' ''Batman''! A guy who not only has years of martial arts training under his belt, but is incredibly smart and resourceful. Handling situations like this comes as easily to him as grocery shopping. The same can not be said for all of the other innocent victims that got tossed in here, who now have to deal with not only all of the other inmates who are more willing to prey upon any helpless victims they can find, but also a good portion of Batman's criminally insane rogue's gallery. One has to wonder if any of them fell victim before Batman arrived...
17	* If you're out wandering, you might hear [[EvilPhone a phone ringing in the street]]. If you happen to be outside the refugee camp, you'll see a crowd of inmates gathered around a ringing payphone, egging each other on to answer it. Listen long enough, and they'll start talking about how [[ParanoiaFuel if you answer it, you'll be dead by morning]], or worse, "he'll" keep you in a cage for days, [[ColdBloodedTorture cutting pieces out of you]]. One will mention how a fellow inmate "bought it" by answering and apparently his killer "cut off his fingers, stuck 'em in his mouth, and left him to choke on them". None of the inmates want to answer the phone... How about you, Batman?
18	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr9gAAMP1_Q Listening to Zsasz ramble on about his life before he became a murderer is made worse by the gradual anger in his voice and the sudden breaks in his monotone.]] And in [[NintendoHard Zsasz's side missions]], you're trying to go save Mr. Freeze and, all of a sudden, you hear a phone ringing off in the distance. Pick it up, and Zsasz taunts you with a challenge of finding him within a certain amount of time. The stakes: You have to find out where he's calling from by going to every phone in the city within a extremely small time limit, pick it up, and try to triangulate the source, rinse lather, repeat, until you find him. If you fail the side mission, or if you choose to ignore or miss the first several phones, he threatens and kills countless scores of people. A rather unnerving deviation from the storyline, especially if you choose to go back to the main trail.
19	** One of Zsasz's [[HaveANiceDeath game over screens]] has him delivering a chilling WhatTheHellHero:
20	--->'''Zsasz:''' I'm going to [[ColdBloodedTorture take my time]], Batman. After all, ''[[YouBastard you took yours]]''...
21	* Hush's hideout, and his gradual transformation into "Bruce Wayne."
22	** Special notice goes to Creator/KevinConroy for taking the voice that fans know, grew up with, and associate with being a voice of justice and good... and making it terrifying.
23	** After the Stealth Tutorial on the church, you can see Hush being treated by another doctor. Said doctor promptly starts to narrate how Elliot cut off his own face.
24	** In his inspection of the Identity Theft killings, Batman notes that the surgery - read, the removal of the victim's face - was done ''while they were still alive.'' Because Hush cared far more about what he took than what he left behind, he would paralyze his victims with a drug and then mutilate their faces until death [[AndIMustScream while they were frozen, unable to fight back.]] The random nature of it makes it even worse: all of Hush's victims were meticulously targeted only because part of their face would help him look like Bruce Wayne - he's only even in Arkham City because a handful of his earmarked victims were arrested. By the end of it his face is a Frankenstein's monster of stolen parts.
25	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWEsT4im7I Penguin's shark, Tiny.]] It's like Killer Croc in the last game, only while walking on ice as it cracks.
26	-->'''Penguin:''' Sorry, Batman. Did I forget to mention my little friend there? Meet Tiny. Who'da thought such a big fish could be so useful? Not me, that's for sure. He's like a mobile garbage truck. Whatever I drop in that tank, just... [[ThreateningShark vanishes.]] Poof. (laughs) Problem gone.
27	** Actually it's '''worse''' than Croc the first time you play it because, at least in the sewers of ''Asylum'', you know he's there. [[JumpScare Tiny, on the other hand]]...
28	* [[TheSpook Azrael]]. He follows Batman everywhere, and if you throw Batarangs at him, he will simply catch them (there's an achievement for doing that, though). Yes, that's right: [[ParanoiaFuel Someone who can stalk]] [[MemeticMutation the Goddamn Batman]]. Curiously swinging to the top of a Ferris wheel results in finding some guy [[InTheHood in a hood]] calmly staring you down.
29	* When fighting Solomon Grundy, he's constantly shedding supernaturally huge maggots that attack you. Maggots the size of Batman's foot.
30	** Grundy, in general! The guy is three times the height of Batman, and the longer the fight goes on, the more ravaged his body becomes. By the end of it, [[BodyHorror Grundy's body has been put through all kinds of abuse]]: [[ManOnFire Set aflame]] from [[LightningCanDoAnything all the electricity jump-starting him]], [[TorsoWithAView his rib cage has been shattered, and his organs are pounded into mush]].
31	*** A [=YouTube=] comment summarizes a whole other level of horror behind Grundy being in Arkham City. His presence is built up well in advance of actually fighting him, but you might miss it on the first playthrough even as a couple of Penguin's goons talk about a poster depicting Grundy and quote his famous rhyme, "Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday." Then, after you've cleared the rest of the museum and probably Shoryuken'd Penguin, to boot, he sets off a bunch of explosives which send you falling into Grundy's lair beneath the Iceberg Lounge--which, going ''even further'', means that this hulking undead abomination was there under Penguin's very public nightclub the whole time, including back when it was open long before the events of the game--and Penguin says that he just happened to find Grundy there when he bought the museum. So...
32	--->I think the most disturbing part of the fight was when the Penguin said "I found him here when I bought the place". I mean, we are talking about a reanimated corpse just lying around in an abandoned building, how did it get there? How long has it been there? Where did it come from? Who did that guy used to be? Who revived him? and, most importantly, WHY IS IT THERE?!
33	** Grundy can't die, so Batman's ThouShaltNotKill approach goes out the window. And because Batman's not holding back this time... Well, no wonder Batman pulls punches on normal goons.
34	*** There's also the fact that, well, Grundy can't die. It's established elsewhere in the game that not only can he not die, he comes back stronger than he was before every time he's killed as if he's Doomsday, the ''extraterrestrial'' abomination that killed frickin' ''Superman!'' So that begs the question: what if he comes back ''again'' after the beating Batman dished out to him?
35	* Mad Hatter's mission is twenty shades of disturbing, especially because it shouldn't be. The hats, the tea party, the Alice references, putting a bunny mask on Batman... it should be ridiculous. [[ItMakesSenseInContext Except it isn't.]]
36	** Said bunny mask is shown as a JumpScare when you struggle to take it off. It's not helped by the eerie similarities between the bunny mask and the one seen in ''Film/DonnieDarko''.
37	** Hatter's interview tapes count as well: Strange giving him free rein to MindRape several test subjects who "Nobody will miss" is a pretty horrifying idea. Even worse for the new assistant Strange hired to become [[SerialKiller his new "Alice"]].
38	*** Those interview tapes, plus the ''Arkham City Stories'', reveal more: Remember those gibbering lunatics who liked to jump on Batman's back in ''Asylum''? Those are the guys Strange was already testing mind-control devices on.
39	*** Furthermore, it's implied that the [=TYGER=] guards are those same inmates and others that were experimented on, brainwashed, and lobotomized. From either ordinary people walking the streets of Gotham, ruthless but dumb goons working for the various crime bosses, or otherwise unresponsive madmen locked up for their safety and everyone else's in Arkham Asylum to ruthless [=PMCs=] that will murder everyone and everything in Arkham City if Strange gives the order. And he ''does'' give that order.
40	* Harley Quinn has a pregnancy test that reads as positive in Joker's hideout. If you finish the game in New Game Plus, she sings to the baby at the end. [[IronicNurseryTune "Hush little baby, don't say a word... momma's gonna kill, for you, the whole damn world..."]]
41	** Turns out the test was a false positive. In ''Harley Quinn's Revenge'', you can find a lot more used tests, all of them negative. They have been circled around a crib... with a Joker-ed up Scarface. It's safe to say that Harley has indeed "lost it, big time."
42	* The various NonStandardGameOver sequences.
43	* Early on, in the processing area of Arkham City when Bruce is being corralled with other inmates by TYGER guards, you can see a lone inmate being taken to an interrogation room, where TYGER guards armed with stun batons and other weapons are waiting. Terrified, the inmate attempts to flee but is forced inside. What happens in that room is left up to the imagination.
44	* The political prisoner who is unceremoniously shot in the head mid-sentence by Deadshot. Just the idea Deadshot had Batman and his target in his crosshairs the whole time is scary enough, not to mention the idea that even with Batman physically there you’re still a dead man walking. Nothing will save you from Deadshot.
45	* TYGER guards are revealed in an Arkham City Story to have been psychologically manipulated and surreptitiously drugged by Strange and essentially brainwashed Manchurian Candidate style. They are totally loyal to him, and have almost no control over their own actions.
46	* Joker's literal swan song during the credits: "Only yooooouuuuu...", though it's sort of funny in a BlackComedy sort of way. Which was probably the point.
47	** The downright creepy ambient soundtrack of the credits following Joker's song is insanely unsettling as it sounds like the combination of ominous wind blowing and eerie industrial bellowing. This seemingly simple yet unsettling ambience really can paint an image for the player regarding the future for Gotham, Batman, and the inmates of Arkham City which doesn't seem for the better even after Joker's death. You think there would be a JumpScare coming at some point, [[NothingIsScarier but nothing happens]] besides Harley's "Hush Little Baby", but only if you've completed the game in New Game Plus.
48	*** To make it even creepier, the music that plays at the end of the credits is the same music used in the Visitor Center in ''Asylum''.
49	* Joker's interview tapes, which describe in disturbing detail how he murders all the doctors Strange sends him. Strange found one of them ''dismembered'', and then there's Joker's comment on another one:
50	-->'''Joker:''' It was worth it to see the look on her face. Hey, you know what, I think I've got a piece of it here in my pocket.
51	* The Penguin, who finally gets to show off some of the "depraved mob boss" cruelty he's had in the comics. He becomes a BigBad to rival Joker, and is generally unsettling with his unpleasant mannerisms and the way he [[ColdBloodedTorture brutally tortures the cops he holds hostage]].
52	** This gem: "I hope you're breathing through fractured ribs and punctured lungs! And if you're not, then you'd better summon up all your energy and run, because after I finish with the Bat, ''you're all next!''" Sure, slight paraphrasing, but take a chill pill, Penguin.
53	** [[BadBoss Penguin isn't a good boss to work for]], either, as a few of his henchmen find out.
54	--->'''Penguin:''' ''[blows up a bridge]'' See, I told you it would work. Blow up the bridges and cut off the clown's forces. Easy.
55	--->'''Thug:''' But, Mr. Cobblepot, we're stuck too!
56	--->'''Penguin:''' So?
57	--->'''Thug:''' We can't get back!
58	--->'''Penguin:''' And your point ''is''?
59	--->'''Thug:''' You've left us here with Joker's crew!
60	--->'''Penguin:''' Try an' take some of 'em down before ya die, son! ''[disconnects]''
61	** Not to mention that his customary monocle in ''this'' version is replaced with the butt of a glass bottle [[EyeScream shoved into his face in a bar fight]]. Apparently, it can't be removed without killing him, but that doesn't matter, because [[NightmareFetishist he likes the look of it anyway]].
62	** "What you're hearing now is the sound of an undercover cop's fingers being frozen to sub-zero temperatures. Now, I wonder what would happen if I take this hammer and..." ''[[[{{Fingore}} WHACK!]]]'' "Well, what do you know? His whole bloody hand explodes!"
63	** Penguin has "modified" the exhibits in the museum. Many of them show off his stolen military gear, or how he plans to kill the other crime lords in the city, Bruce Wayne and Batman. And they're almost all decorated with corpses or skeletons. Even when Penguin is just inflating his ego, ''people have to die''.
64	** One of the displays is one that used to contain Mr. Zsasz and it's very clear that he broke out with a vengeance. After all, the Penguin is the reason he lost all his money. Making it creepier, if you touch the information button for Zsasz's display, [[EvenEvilHasStandards the Penguin's description has no jokes and he sounds on the verge of disgust as he describes Zsasz's crimes]]. You know you're a monster when ''the Penguin'' thinks you are.
65	** This is all made somehow worse by [[EvilBrit his Cockney accent]]. Penguin sounds just so cheery when doing all these horrible things, as if he's just having a jolly good time. He sounds like a friendly man in the pub, and then he rants at Batman about putting the Caped Crusader in a museum of bodies for the rest of his life.
66	* Regardless of how horrifying Two-Face was in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', the Arkhamverse's Two-Face is somehow worse.
67	** ''Way'' worse. [[Creator/ChristopherNolan Nolan]]'s Two-Face's burned face is ''nothing'' compared to the exposed raw flesh of this incarnation.
68	** It somehow gets ''even damned worse'' in the remastered version, as the new model shows that even some ''bones'' are exposed, with bits of flesh having seared off of his skull.
69	* Joker has always looked creepier than usual in the Arkhamverse, but this time around, his appearance borders on BodyHorror. His disease has taken an obvious and terrible toll. After encountering him at the Steel Mill, the loading screen of his white face and expression make him look like a decaying skull.
70	* At the climax of the boss fight with Mr. Freeze, Batman hits Freeze's helmet hard enough to shatter it and starts repeatedly punching him in the face. After a few blows, however, Freeze is suddenly replaced by the Joker, who lets out a distorted laugh as Batman reels from the Titan poisoning.
71	* The glowing bloodlines in Bane's Venom-fueled body, in yet another instance of BodyHorror.
72	* ''Asylum'' players may have thought Scarecrow's reign of terror was over. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFA0zuArg8U&feature=related It isn't.]]
73	** For those too afraid to tackle the Website/YouTube link, there is a hidden section inside a boat that functions very similar to the Visitor Center in ''Asylum''; it's the only part in the game where you are forced into first-person mode. The place is very dim and low-lit with flickering lights and bugs crawling all over the place. In front of you is a passed-out inmate who is, more than likely, completely screwed up by nightmare gas, and when you approach, he will at one point twitch and scream before promptly passing out again, next to a letter to Dr. Jonathan Crane.
74	* While he doesn't make an actual appearance beyond a quick cameo, Croc's name is mentioned by the prisoners throughout Arkham City, some even saying that they've seen him in the sewers, thus providing ParanoiaFuel that eventually culminates in that JumpScare of a cameo of his, in the sewers. He can smell Batman dying and decides to wait until the poison kills him, then eat the corpse.
75	* If you fail to save the Riddler's second hostage, you get to watch him being roasted alive, onscreen. You can still hear his screams as the screen fades to black.
76	--> '''Riddler:''' And the winner is... ME!
77	* Hearing the screams of political prisoners as they're being picked on and beaten up on by other residents of Arkham City can be unsettling the first couple of times you hear them.
78	* For another JumpScare, there's the mechanical ''T. rex'' randomly popping up and roaring as you make your way into the museum. Even better, [[EnemyChatter one of Penguin's mooks]] remarks [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall "I love it when they scream"]] shortly afterwards.
79	* Riddler in general is pretty nightmare-inducing in this game. He started as harmless in the previous game, even a little silly, only to turn out to be a NotSoHarmlessVillain in ''City'', where [[FromNobodyToNightmare he's putting hostages in equally disturbing death traps]].
80	** Riddler's final challenge room, where you must save Anne Bishop. As you progress through the room, you will hear Riddler shocking her at regular intervals while she screams in agony. And every time, once the electricity stops, she gasps in pain and begs you to save her. And all this while he's taunting you about how stupid you are for not solving it faster.
81	** As for what happened to the rest of Cash and the other hostages? The Riddler forces them to walk a track nonstop because if they do stop, the helmets they are wearing will explode. Batman has to maneuver his way around them without stepping in front of them or... Boom.
82	* Reading some of the ''Arkham City Stories'' unlocked by completing Riddler Challenges (specifically the actual riddles players must scan) can be creepy: One in particular concerns the obscure villain Ratcatcher. When Arkham City opened, he decided to use his rats to smuggle in whatever goods Penguin didn't (mainly necessities like hygiene products, clothing, maybe food, to grant Penguin some kind of monopoly). Eventually, Penguin decided he wanted to meet his "rival" in the smuggling business: Ratcatcher was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the museum that Penguin operates out of and was never heard from again.
83	** Slightly more chilling: You've been through that museum, where Penguin keeps his high-profile victims alive (if only briefly) and on display, and litters the other exhibits with bones. Did you see Ratcatcher anywhere?
84	*** Penguin's minions mention a guy who tried to butt in on his business. Said guy had his legs cut off and was gradually fed to animals. So... guess that answers ''that'' question.
85	*** It gets worse. Penguin first tried feeding him to a pack of rats. For days. But of course, given who he was, the rats just climbed around him harmlessly. So then Penguin fed him to Tiny instead.
86	* When fighting Freeze, you can briefly scan him in Detective Mode before his jammer blocks your vision. The creepy part is that, while most human characters show up as X-ray skeletons in Detective Mode, Freeze is only a skeleton from the neck up. Just a skull and stump of spinal cord in a robotic suit. This only means that, other than the head, the suit can't be penetrated by Detective Mode's x-ray vision. Another detail some people might find unnerving in that, unlike other enemies, his heart rate drops to single digits while you're fighting him, but climbs back to normal when outside the fight.
87	* The whole ending of the main game can be seen this way. "Highlights" include Strange being stabbed through the chest in a bloody fashion, Ra's impaling himself, Talia getting shot, and you face off with [[HumanoidAbomination Clayface]] before watching as Joker dies in a messed-up version of dying with a laugh.
88	** Combined with TearJerker: It's not just Joker's death, but his final moments leading up to it. Right after his last laugh and his IncurableCoughOfDeath, his body suddenly starts jerking as he clutches his chest and makes very loud, painful gasps, indicating that the Titan poisoning has completely taken over his bloodstream. The gasps start slowing down and getting quieter as seconds pass until, at his final gasp, he quietly lets out his long, last breath as he goes out with a smile. Nothing says "painful sadness" like his last moments.
89	* During the final battle with Clayface, one of his attacks involves morphing into a ball with a huge, terrifying face and a gaping black mouth, rolling right towards the player.
90	* As a DarkerAndEdgier HolidayMode, there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shxcoTMQFRo Calendar Man's disturbing monologues]]: While in the main canon he very rarely kills anyone, in ''City'', that's all he does, and each fits the theme of the month in a very grisly way. In general, all of his stories during the major holidays are disturbing or straight-up terrifying and even entering depraved, ranging from spiking green beer with snake venom on St. Patty's, stalking and murdering a lone girl on Valentine's day, to straight-up targeting pregnant mothers going into labor on Labor's Day. Each murder is also described in a CreepyMonotone.
91	** Additionally, for every story that you hear from him, when you come back, you notice that the months get crossed out on the calendar next to Calendar Man, which would be fine...except the calendar is outside the cell he's locked in...
92	** His story about his father takes the cake. It starts out actually kind of nice, although the player is likely wary about what's coming next because this is probably not the first time they've heard one of his stories. If it is, players are in for a WhamLine at the end of the monologue.
93	--->'''Calendar Man:''' I wasn't real close to my dad, and after my first internment at Arkham, we never spoke at all. Seems he wrote me off as a wacko, a loser. So after I was released, I wanted to clear the air between us. The next Father's Day, I dropped by his place and suggested we go fishing. You ever go fishing with your pop? Well, it's some fun, let me tell you. The two of us, out on the water, pulling in one whopper after another. Of course, I was doing the actual pulling. Dad was baiting the hooks. You know, with a finger, a foot, an eye... whatever I had left of him. Even today, whenever I eat a nice piece of fish, I feel closer to my dear old dad.
94	** Another one from good old Julian Day:
95	--->'''Calendar Man:''' [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Ebenezer Scrooge]] was a saint compared to old Judge Harkness. Remember him, Batman? "Gotham's {{hanging judge}}," they called him. Even though the state had ruled me insane, Harkness swore he'd send me to the gallows. So you see, it was all a simple act of self-preservation. I could hardly be held responsible for strangling that street corner Santa Claus for his suit. I needed the disguise to sneak into the judge's Christmas Eve party. Harkness thought it was all in fun until St. Nick caught him around the neck with a string of Christmas lights. The cops found him later, hanging from the elaborate light display of his own roof. Judgie almost looked like a cartoon himself alongside the comical reindeer, elves, and snowmen. I called that murder my "Christmas special."
96	** For those that played ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'', it becomes a literal WhamLine since, on that faithful night, while Batman fought and stopped many other fiends throughout the night, he couldn't stop this [[DoomedByCanon one murder from taking place]]. It really becomes a bit jarring on just how casually Julian delivers this one quote and rubs it into Batman's face.
97	** Julian also has one more monologue, accessed by visiting him on the day Rocksteady was founded. He comments that he's watched Batman since his beginning, and that the end of days is coming, hints at the next ''two games'' in the franchise, and that he will be there to watch Batman's fall. In a FreezeFrameBonus in ''[[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight Arkham Knight]]'''s 100% ending, he makes clear he wasn't lying, as he is visible amongst the crowd gathered as Batman/Bruce activates the Knightfall Protocol.
98	* Exploring the Gotham City tunnels for a long period of time searching for Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins can be creepy as well when, after finding him and heading back to the surface near the subway, you are greeted with a load of bodies piled on top of each other, Holocaust-style. Each of these men were Penguin's soldiers and after Batman took down Penguin and started searching for Ra's, a gang (presumably Joker's) offed the leaderless clan and executed them all. It's a disturbing sight to behold.
99	* In Wonder City, when you enter the second room upon nearing Ra's lair, you're presented with a roomful of hanged inmates, and a still-living one with a sword in his back rasping "They're... everywhere!" before expiring.
100	** As you search for robot guardians to cobble together surveillance footage, assassins will suddenly appear and attack you with swords at certain points.
101	** [[FromBadToWorse Even worse]], Ra's eventually left Wonder City's citizens to go insane due to radiation from the Lazarus-based technology as their civilization collapsed. Now, if radiation from a Lazarus Pit can make people go insane and there is one located right under Gotham and has been there for centuries, then there is now a possible reason for why Gotham is such a WretchedHive.
102	** Many players [[ParanoiaFuel expected those robot guardians littered around to wake up and attack at any second]]. They were wrong, thankfully.
103	*** [[DownloadableContent At least, at first.]]
104	* Shortly after exiting the gladiator arena in the museum, you walk through a hall with fish tanks on the walls. You can't see much in them besides the fish, but turn on Detective Mode and you're treated to the sight of corpses.
105	* In the area before the fight with Mr. Hammer, if you wait around in the area where you can see the majority of the crowd, and not much of Mr. Hammer, one of the inmates will look back to stare at you. While he doesn't do anything, the longer you wait around, the more he'll look back.
106	* During the second visit to Joker's hideout, two Joker thugs can be seen hanging a Two-Face mook over molten steel, demanding information on his boss. Granted, it's just a horrible situation, but waiting around long enough will prompt one of the Joker goons to recall the last guy they did it to, complete with disgusting explanations on how his skin started to burn before he even touched the molten metal, including a description of how melting flesh smells. Wait around long enough and you get to see them lowering him into it, only for them to stop and raise him up again (in a "why aren't you stopping this?" kind of way); however, once you do rescue him, [[UngratefulBastard he decides to]] [[SuicidalOverconfidence attack Batman]].
107	* During (or after) your journey through Zsasz's hideout, if you stop near the floating rafter and turn on Detective Mode, you can spot four skeletal figures: One belonging to Zsasz, two are his hostages, and there's a third sitting in the bottom of the flooding and draining room. How it got there in the first place isn't addressed, but then again, knowing [[AxCrazy Zsasz]], it would be almost redundant.
108	** The body is explained in Zsasz's first few calls, where he says he has three hostages. After several calls, if you take too long with decoding his signal, new calls will ensue where Batman tries to bargain with Zsasz, which pisses him off and tells him he will regret that. Worse, the body is always there whether you experienced those calls or not. This is horrifying because in these scenarios either Zsasz is being dishonest about his bargain, or Batman, the man who cannot kill, is indirectly responsible for someone's death.
109	** Or, during the second phone call, Batman tells Zsasz he should have stayed the way he was before he became a SerialKiller. Zsasz, with noticeable anger in his voice, ends the phone call. One could easily imagine him taking his anger out on that poor hostage...
110	* During the first trip to the Steel Mill, we see Harley berating Stacy Baker, a terrified doctor who failed to cure the Joker, before throwing her to a baying crowd of henchman and calling for Mr. Hammer. The sight of Stacy cowering in terror, screaming for help, and the metallic clang of the hammer on the ground as the crowd chants "Hammer! Hammer!" is pretty chilling. Case in point: You aren't going to get there in time. Thankfully, Harley calls Hammer off, but if she hadn't, Stacy would have been brutally murdered with Batman less than ten feet away.
111	* While searching for the stolen Freeze tech, one thug calmly talks about how he once force-fed his own mother to the point of suffocating after she refused to eat it herself. These would have been the guys who went to Blackgate because they weren't insane. Yet they kill family members because of not liking them. The other goon he is talking to is in disbelief about the whole thing, but sounds impressed about what this guy did. Never mind [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill the cake was already poisoned]] in the first place.
112	** What makes it [[FridgeHorror subtly more disturbing]] is the fact that none of the inmates seem to have any problem with this. RealLife prison inmates [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas place matricide as second only to child molestation/murder as the worst crime you can commit]]. It makes one wonder just how screwed up Joker's ''entire gang'' is.
113	* Harley's RoomFullOfCrazy in the DLC: A shrine to Joker with incredibly depressing and incredibly disturbing graffiti all over the walls.
114	** If you zoom in on the Joker television-mannequins, they start laughing quietly. It's unnerving to a first-time player. Add that to the background music and the fact Harley ''sounds'' more insane than she did the first time, and you've got a damned effective opening.
115	* As Batman pays his respects at the spot where the Waynes had died in Crime Alley, you hear tear-jerking music... and the gunshots that killed them, over and over again until you get up. Not only that, there is Strange's message beforehand, which details how much fun Strange is going to have revealing Batman's secret and watching him crumble.
116	* Take too long to complete the "disarm the bombs" mission in ''Harley Quinn's Revenge'', and you get to see Gordon watching the building that Batman, Robin, and Harley are in explode.
117	* Scarecrow's hidden messages over the radio. Chances are you'll stumble onto them by accident and be immediately freaked out as you try to figure out what the hell that was. But imagine if that ''actually'' happened. You're watching TV or listening to the radio in the car and suddenly everything stops... and all you hear is the sound of static and then a monotone voice calmly stating "9 23 9 12 12 18 5 20 21 18 14 2 1 20 13 1 14" and then ''nothing''.
118	** The numbers, when replaced with the corresponding letter, translate into "I Will Return Batman."
119	*** "YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO ME"
120	*** "FEAR WILL TEAR GOTHAM CITY TO SHREDS"
121	** Do you want to know what's [[FromBadToWorse worse]]? Those messages that Crane leaves behind in Arkham City are foretelling on what is yet to come. Apparently, Scarecrow makes good on his word in them... [[HesBack He]] [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight returns!]]
122	* So how do you make DLC that's DarkerAndEdgier when the main game had already done that? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOpTLRsBIMI The trailer]] demonstrates how it's done.
123	* That oh-so-brief glimpse of [[TaintedVeins Batman's face]] when Talia pulls up his mask for a kiss. Keeping in mind that Bruce was scant minutes from death just before. Talia's horrified reaction is what seals it.
124	* When you come across Nora Fries, Freeze's cryogenically-frozen wife, some of the goons guarding her may be debating thawing her out with the implication that they were going to abuse her. Imagine that the last thing you remember is being frozen by your loving husband and the next conscious moment of your life is being [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil sexually assaulted]] by by a group of psychos and murderers. That is the stuff of nightmares.
125	** Even worse, it's revealed that [[AndIMustScream she actually regained consciousness]] from time to time! So she clearly could understand what could have awaited her.
126	* While Joker's laugh is usually a good mix of funny and sinister, a good portion of his laughs in this game sound a little more terrifying, likely because of the toll the Titan has taken on his body. Just take a look at his laugh-only game over screens...particularly the one where he's not ''as'' over-the-top as the others.
127	-->'''Joker:''' D'ha-ha-ha-heh-heh...
128	** Even the over-the-top laughs he makes can ''also'' be frightening, as they're louder and more sudden.
129	--->'''Joker:''' ''EH-HEH-HEH-HA-HA-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEH-HEEEEH!''
130	--->'''Joker:''' '''RWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA--''HAAAAAA!!!'''''
131	* The BossFight with Freeze. You have to stay out of sight while Freeze uses your heat signature to follow you throughout the forensics lab, [[TheDeterminator slowly but determinedly]] [[ImplacableMan pursuing you]] as he makes threats in that [[CreepyMonotone mechanical monotone]] of his.
132	** Worse, [[TheJuggernaut whatever you throw at Freeze will only work once]]; he even stoically notes "That will not happen again."
133	* The cinematic trailer for the game that introduces Strange, which centers around him interrogating a TYGER guard about a fight with Batman with electroshock treatment and unnamed chemicals in syringes. When the guard dies, his only reaction is a disappointed frown. And the worst part is that you can find the dead guard in-game (you scan him for the solution to a riddle).
134	* When Batman is captured by Joker early on in the game. The thought of the Clown Prince of Crime jumping on you and putting a stunning gas mask on you, followed by Harley knocking you out with a baseball bat through your blurring vision is highly unsettling. And Harley's attack is done with a P.O.V. shot too!
135	* In the interview tapes with Freeze, at one point he asks Strange if he'd ever been in love. Strange's response is an immediate and straight-forward "No." There is something utterly unnerving about the complete lack of compassion or empathy that implies, especially considering the power and authority at Strange's disposal.

Context NightmareFuel / BatmanArkhamCity