* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Croesus Verlac]] is the patriarch of the Verlac family and a man who discovered a dark route to immortality. Long before the story of ''Anchorhead'' began, Croesus's physical flesh became dust...but his spirit survives by [[FamilialBodySnatcher taking over the bodies of his male descendants]] and impregnating the female descendants to create new bodies for him to steal later. The power Croesus has over his descendants is represented in the chilling ArcWords: '''He always returns to his blood.''' Not content with this, Croesus runs a legacy of dark magic and murder, routinely sacrificing children for power to the point where the well behind the village slaughterhouse is full of the bones of missing children. In the present, Croesus takes control of and possesses the nameless heroine's husband, before setting his plan into motion: to open the gates to the EldritchAbomination beings he worships and allow them to devour all that lives.
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Just about every bit of the protagonist's and Michael's relationship.
-->'''Michael''': (When asked about your ring) Well, I thought we'd gone over all that during the ceremony... That ring means I'll love you forever. You know that.
** During the finale, [[spoiler:showing the wedding ring to Michael is ultimately the thing that drives Croesus out of him]].
* NightmareFuel: Well, duh. On top of it being inspired by the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, here's a few examples;
** [[spoiler:William. Attempting to examine him leads to a NonStandardGameOver.]]
** [[spoiler:The church book, when read in its entirety, causes you to ''[[EyeScream rip your eyes out.]]'']]
** [[spoiler:Everything about Croesus Verlac.]]
** [[spoiler: The paintings in the gallery.]]
** [[spoiler: The Verlac crypt. The altar room beneath the town obelisk. The well behind the slaughterhouse full of '''''the bones of missing children'''''.]]
** The NonstandardGameOver where [[spoiler:you are permanently trapped in the Womb of Nephilim, [[AndIMustScream subjected to tortures so horrifying]] that it is a relief when your sanity finally goes.]]
** [[spoiler:During the finale, if you wait too long to banish Croesus Verlac, he murders your husband in quite possibly the most terrifying way;]]
-->[[spoiler:Tendrils of ectoplasm snake out from the ghost's outstretched arms and wrap themselves around Michael, who begins flailing weakly. You rush to help him, but Michael is powerless and you are too slow to prevent [[{{squick}} the tendrils from pushing into his mouth and nostrils, stopping his throat and filling his lungs with noxious gas]]. You work desperately, trying to administer CPR even as his body stiffens and his face turns blue; but in the end, there is nothing you can do. Michael gags one last time, arches his back, and dies in your arms. Thin, thread-like streamers of mist ooze from his mouth along with his final breath]].
** [[spoiler:If you don't give Michael (actually Croesus) the mirror when he asks for it, he kills you by slamming you against the device, then bending you backwards against it, breaking your back, THEN throws you out a window, sending you falling down towards the jagged rocks below]].
-->[[spoiler:The last sight you see before striking the jagged rocks below is the top of the lighthouse rushing away from you, and your husband's face looking down after you, his mouth stretched open in a [[EvilLaugh fit of demonic laughter]], his mad, alien eyes rimmed with red]].
** Doubles as TearJerker, but [[spoiler:attacking Michael/Croesus with the hook in the lighthouse]], triggers this:
-->[[spoiler: Blood suddenly pours from his mouth in a hot geyser, splattering onto the ground and onto your clothes. He looks up as you, gasping, and in his eyes you see a feeble, flickering spark of identity, one last dying spark left of the man you once knew and loved -- and suddenly you realize: He's there. In that body -- the body that you just killed. It's Michael you're looking at. You have just killed your husband]].
-->[[spoiler:"...why..." he whispers, through a dark bubble of blood]].
-->[[spoiler:But you cannot answer. [[HeroicBSOD You are too busy screaming]]]].
* NintendoHard: The puzzles in the game tend to have very obscure solutions and are very difficult to solve without a guide.
* {{Squick}}: Quite a bit of it.
** The fact that [[spoiler:Croesus possesses his male descendants and forces them to commit ParentalIncest to keep the bloodline alive.]]
** At one point, the only way to escape from [[spoiler:William]] is to hide in [[spoiler:a pit full of human bones.]]
* {{Tearjerker}}: At one point you stumble across [[spoiler: William's drawing. It shows a perfectly normal-looking human woman and something that looks like "an octopus on human legs". Next to the woman is scribbled "MOMY", next to the "octopus" - "WILAM (ME)".]]
** That's not even the whole of it. Late in the game, you encounter him near Whateley Bridge and, if you've gone into your attic, can show him the gold locket with a picture of his mother, which he is transfixed by to the point of tears. [[spoiler: And then you kill him with a meat hook to the eye (remember he has the face of a child) and his body falls over the bridge and into the Miskaton River.]]
** The suboptimal ending where [[spoiler:you manage to stop Croesus, but Michael dies. The ending text describes you tenderly carrying his body out of the basement.]]
** If you wait too long [[spoiler:to stop Croesus, after he's murdered Michael, he goes for you next]]:
-->[[spoiler:The tendrils wriggle toward you like eels, and you barely resist as they embrace you. There is nothing left to fight for. As the mist creeps down your throat and begins to drown you in its foetid breath of graves, you welcome the coming oblivion]].
-->[[spoiler:'''***[[NonStandardGameOver You have lost everything]]***''']]
* TheWoobie: Let's put it this way - anyone in the game who's even slightly sympathetic goes through hell.
** Poor, poor Claudia Benson. And Dr. Rebis aka [[spoiler: the bum]]. And Edward Verlac. And his wife Julia. And their daughters Sonia and Gertrude. And Anna. And her son William ([[spoiler: who's also Edward's older brother]]).