History NightmareFuel / Bloodborne

* If you give Alfred the Cainhurst invitation, he'll take the opportunity to turn Queen Annalise into ground beef to properly canonize Logarius as a martyr. While this is already horrific on its own (and admittedly standard fare for Bloodborne), seeing him stand triumphantly over her remains, ''completely'' covered in blood and sinew and raving madly all the while, is a far, ''far'' cry from the kind, helpful Alfred you first met in the Cathedral Ward. Arguably, the fact that he shares Solaire of Astora's voice actor makes hearing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8TfajpbtvM the following dialogue]] even more disturbing.

* The question of just what the witches were actually after, given that they appear to have been accepted by the hunters and church, they are protective of the One Reborn and are likely connected to it's creation, can be found near the baby old ones implying that they were either aware or involved with their creation as well as the creation of Mergo, and the only way to Cainhurst is in their main area implying a connection with the vampires as well.

* You know that a game isn’t messing around when it hits you with nightmare fuel right out of the gate. Less than thirty seconds after you finish the character creation, you awaken to find a ''nasty'' looking werewolf creeping towards you, emerging from a massive pool of blood… all while you are immobilized and utterly helpless. [[NothingIsScarier The game never explains where all the gore came from]], but as the beast slowly reaches towards your face in a leisurely fashion, you can tell that it intends to [[ToThePain take its sweet time]] in dealing with you.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"An unsightly beast... a great terror looms...!'' ''[[ThatOneBoss Ludwig]]'' ''[[BodyHorror the Accursed]]'' ''is coming..."'']]

** What's worse is that the scream sounds vaguely like a person's. A ''very agonized'' person's...[[spoiler:Since we know that in ''The Old Hunters'', Laurence WasOnceAMan and made those very same sounds during his boss fight...[[FridgeHorror what does that say about regular Cleric Beasts]]?]]

* Amygdala, a gigantic GiantSpider featured in the [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whydidithavetobespidey_6930.png background]] of the city, grasping a tower with her massive legs tipped with ''human hands''. [[http://i.imgur.com/tdLr9ie.gif A closer look]] shows that her looks like an unholy cross between a spider and ''Cthulhu''. '''That''' was just in the Alpha test! In the game proper, she's revealed to be [[spoiler: a [[EldritchAbomination Great One]] who lives within the [[EldritchLocation Nightmare Frontier]], and is one of the game's harder optional bosses.]] Also, did we forget to mention that [[spoiler: there are lesser versions seen clinging to buildings in Yharnam once either Rom is killed and the illusion broken or you have enough Insight? Some of them even in places you've frequented from low levels, like the Cathedral Ward entrance. [[SarcasmMode Always nice to know]] there was a giant nightmare spider watching you the entire time]].
** Even before you can see them, [[spoiler: the Lesser Amygdala can be a source of a couple of unexpected scares. For example: you are minding your own business traveling through the city when suddenly a laser beam fires at you out of nowhere, or worse you suddenly get grabbed by a massive hand and are staring at an EldritchAbomination which causes you to [[YourHeadAsplode go into a frenzy]] followed by the EldritchAbomination throwing you to the ground]].

** The area's local WolfPackBoss isn't any better, either. They first appear as shadowy hooded figures, which while still intimidating isn't too bad. Damage them enough however? [[spoiler: The snake hydras pop out of their heads as well.]] Thought that was all? [[spoiler: Damage them more and they will start conjuring GIANT snakes to attack you during the fight.]]
** Even getting inside the Forbidden Woods is a chilly moment. The way is blocked by a door that will only open if you give the man on the other side the password. Going by his coughing and wheezing, it sounds like he doesn't have much time left. So, after you give him the password, the door opens [[spoiler: to reveal an ancient skeleton seated on the other side. Long dead.]]

* [[EldritchAbomination Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos]] is a Great One boss that lurks beneath the Great Cathedral. You can find her after you've beaten the boss in the Upper Cathedral Ward. Of all the strange and gruesome creatures that walk the streets of Yharnam, "her" bizarre [[https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9Yox7Ad9cOqYTbWAR3LrZzdR3GE=/28x0:2843x1583/1280x720/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45995234/Screen_Shot_2015-03-27_at_6.10.59_PM.0.0.png appearance]] stands out as something [[StarfishAlien truly alien]]. Her bulbous head is covered in fungus-like growths, her slug-like body has a set of arms, two sets of tentacles, and a pair of huge, membranous wings. She's an intimidating fight, as well; [[spoiler: she's much quicker than she looks, hits hard, AND has devastating long range spells she can fling at you.]] Any Hunter who wants to bring her down had better be prepared. [[spoiler: She is apparently a celestial being from the cosmos that the upper members of the Church, known as the Choir, commune with for guidance and, in turn, lead their followers in worship of her.]]
* The introductory cutscene of Mergo's Wet Nurse. You are guided by the wailing of a baby, and when you stumble into the garden where said baby's voice is coming from, [[spoiler:the Wet Nurse swoops down on the baby's cradle and appears to devour it, before turning her attention to you, armed with six blades and deploying dark, grim reaper-like wings. Bizarrely, her head is invisible, but the way her long hood stretches as she moves implies that she has something far more alien than just a humanoid skull..]].
** When you get close to the Wet Nurse to attack her, [[spoiler: you can hear [[FridgeHorror the baby is ''still'' crying]]!]]
*** Even worse, if the background story of how Mergo's Wet Nurse come to be is to be believed, it is possible that [[spoiler: the baby in the cradle is actually Mergo himself/herself and that the Wet Nurse was actually protecting him/her from potential threats, like a Hunter passing by]]. If this is true, then the introductory cutscene just took on a whole new meaning. [[spoiler: The Wet Nurse is not feeding on the baby, she is simply comforting the crying baby that is her duty to take care of when she notice you as a potential threat to the baby. This also explain why you can hear the cries of the baby when you are fighting the Wet Nurse; the baby is not dead, he/she is being cradled by the Wet Nurse during the whole fight! And when the Wet Nurse is defeated, the cries stop as well]]...

* After finding [[spoiler: Father Gascoigne's and Viola's daughter and handing her back her mother's brooch, you have the option of taking her to [[TheMedic Iosefka's]] clinic... unfortunately, the ''real'' Iosefka is dead by then, and the impostor taking her place pretty much intends to use the girl as her latest test subject.]]

** Think the game couldn't top itself after that ? [[FromBadToWorse Wrong.]] If you come back to the house after the blood moon has appeared, you meet the sister of the girl, asking you if you've seen her sister. Now you've got the choice of either lie and let her in the dark, or give her the bloodstained ribbon and watch as she [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Goes Mad from the Revelation]]. Think that's depressing enough ? Come back later. Look at the bottom of the nearby ladder and watch the game throwing the [[NothingIsScarier nothing is scarier]] approach out of the window. '''[[DaylightHorror With the girl.]]''' It's almost like the game is telling you "Yeah, you really should stop expecting something like a [[FetchQuest fetch quest]] to end well in this town."

** And the source of their blood? It's heavily implied to be [[spoiler: Queen Yharnam and her dead fetus.]]

** It’s unsettling enough that a [[spoiler: massive city has existed within Yharnam]] without anyone ''realizing it'', but the real shock comes when you first glimpse the city... and see [[spoiler: dozens of Eldritch Lords crawling over the cityscape like maggots on a corpse.]] That's the moment where you realize the game has been influenced by [[spoiler: H.P. Lovecraft]] the entire time, and that you're stuck in a [[spoiler: cosmic horror story]]. [[FromBadToWorse It all goes downhill from there. ]]

** The Yahar'gul set says that they had their own hunters. But did they hunt the beasts, or men? [[spoiler: It was definitely men.]]
** The most horrifying aspect? [[spoiler: The church knew about this, knew about the corpse statues, the horrors, the monsters, all of it. And what did they do? Put up signs to warn people? Spread the word that bad things were here and they should keep away? No. They built a city around it, and started worshiping the Great Ones, while keeping the true nature of their so-called gods hidden. How many people sickened, and became monsters, begging for help from a god that was real, but was a nightmarish abomination who was responsible for their being sick in the first place?]]
* In one of the endings, ''Childhood's Beginning'', if you [[spoiler:consume 3 or more thirds of an umbilical cord, and manage to defeat Gehrman, you get to fight the [[EldritchAbomination Moon]] [[TrueFinalBoss Presence.]]]] Your reward for victory? [[spoiler:You're turned into an infant EldritchAbomination that looks like a strange squid-like creature. At least the doll will take care of you...]]

* The Upper Cathedral Ward. Everything about this place is downright chilling. It's one of the few areas in the game where a persistent soundtrack plays, and the whole area is just one dilapidated building [[spoiler: that's connected to the roof of the Cathedral Ward's main church, where Vicar Amelia was]]. Despite this, the area is absolutely ''draped'' in a thick fog, and the place is completely abandoned. The inside of the main building is severely dark, and only gets darker when a bunch of Wolf Beasts crash through the ceiling and knock down the chandelier, which was basically the only thing giving off any light. The place is also crawling with Brainsuckers, which really makes things even more tense. This is also not mentioning the [[spoiler: Celestial Larvae all over the area, which implies that this was a site of mass human experimentation]]. What exactly is happening here is left up to interpretation, but it's undeniable that this is probably the scariest location in the entire game.

* Ever since the Old Hunters DLC has been announced, we've been witness to the [[SarcasmMode beauty of one of the bosses,]] [[spoiler: Ludwig.]] [[spoiler: His]] design is like a mixture of the [[spoiler: Cleric Beast, a horse, a dog and a human.]] Pure [[BodyHorror body horror.]] And not to mention [[FacialHorror the face...]]

* The long awaited [[spoiler: Ludwig]] at last makes his presence known, and he is a sight to behold. A twisted, broken, massive wreck of a man and his once noble steed somehow melted together through means thankfully unknown, his every characteristic seems to ooze mockery; of the hope he once gave the people of Yharnam, of the KnightInShiningArmor Archetype, and in the second half of the battle, [[spoiler: the reason and sanity of man]].
** Bloodcurdling howls would at least be appropriate for this guy, [[spoiler: but the clear, intelligent way he soon speaks is somehow worse than the screeching, due to how surreal and wrong it sounds coming from such an abomination]]. [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters It’s a shocking and grotesque testament to how our humanity can create the most horrific beasts. ]]

** Said final area contains possibly the most horrific thing to exist in Bloodborne, and perhaps in the whole of the CosmicHorrorStory type of story: [[spoiler: A fully grown HalfHumanHybrid child of Kos, coming out of her dessicated corpse.]] This thing reveals two of the most shocking reveals in the game: one, that [[spoiler: Kos was a ''real, flesh and blood creature''; no one could interact with her because she is a sea creature, and more importantly, long dead.]] Two, that, against all odds, [[spoiler: Kos actually ''[[TheBadGuyWins suceeds in creating an heir]]''.]]
** Said thing, [[spoiler: the Orphan of Kos]] is one of the most horrific things in the entire game. [[spoiler: It is a huge humanoid creature, almost skeletal-like, that shrieks and hollers as it attempts to cut you down with its own placenta covered in eyes, and containing a sharp blade. While that doesn't sound too bad, it doesn't take long to realize what this thing is supposed to be. The Orphan of Kos is a pale imitation of '''the hunters'''- an extending, transforming weapon, agile movements, ranged shotgun like attacks, and brutal swings. Hell, the organ even ''looks'' like the sawcleaver. Kos's greatest creation, her goal all along, was to create a beast powerful enough to cut down those who hunted her own kind.]] If that isn't chilling and tearjerking, I don't know what is.
*** What does said creature do once it is revealed to the player? [[spoiler: Crawl out of its mother's corpse, stand up in the rain, look into the sun, [[LastOfHisKind and begin to sob.]] Is it crying because it is the last of its kind, or because, as a hybrid, it doesn't truly belong anywhere?]]
** [[spoiler: "Sweet Child of Kos" is fridge horror because, even after killing the boss, you see this thing crawl of out of the corpse... and we're given no clue what it is. Was it the soul of the boss you just killed? The spirit of Kos itself? No explanation is given, just that it is, and is the source of the nightmare, so there's every possibility that whatever is dreaming this dream, it has to die before the nightmare can end. ...And there's no guarantee that killing in the dream truly killed it, or just woke it up, wherever it was.]]

* We finally get an answer to Micolash's question "Kos, some say Kosm, can you hear our prayers? [[spoiler: No, she can't, she's dead. And has been for a while. So all those profane rites you performed, trying to gain its attention? They were for nothing.]]

* The Upper Cathedral Ward. The inside is severely dark, and only gets darker when a bunch of Wolf Beasts crash through the ceiling and knock down the chandelier, which was basically the only thing giving off any light. The place is also crawling with Brainsuckers, which really makes things even more tense.

** That's because [[https://bloodborne.fandom.com/wiki/Cramped_Casket "something"]] ''can'' come out, at least in Yhar'Gul and certain Chalice dungeons. Said something is [[BodyOfBodies a family's worth of plague-infected corpses all mooshed together from being stuffed into the same coffin and rotting together in the dark.]]

** That's because [[https://bloodborne.fandom.com/wiki/Cramped_Casket "something"]] ''can'' come out, at least in certain Chalice dungeons. Said something is [[BodyOfBodies a family's worth of plague-infected corpses all mooshed together from being stuffed into the same coffin and rotting together in the dark.]]

** That's because [[https://bloodborne.fandom.com/wiki/Cramped_Casket "something"]] ''can'' come out, at least in certain Chalice dungeons.

** That's because [[https://bloodborne.fandom.com/wiki/Cramped_Casket "something"]] ''can'' come out.

** That's because [[BodyOfBodies "something"]] ''can'' come out.

*** Listen to the screams of the Orphan of Kos. Part of it appears to be animalistic, bestial roaring, but listen closely; it seems to be screaming "NO!" over and over again.

* Amygdala, a gigantic GiantSpider featured in the [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/whydidithavetobespidey_6930.png background]] of the city, grasping a tower with his massive legs tipped with ''human hands''. [[http://i.imgur.com/tdLr9ie.gif A closer look]] shows that his looks like an unholy cross between a spider and ''Cthulhu''. '''That''' was just in the Alpha test! In the game proper, she's revealed to be [[spoiler: a [[EldritchAbomination Great One]] who lives within the [[EldritchLocation Nightmare Frontier]], and is one of the game's harder optional bosses.]] Also, did we forget to mention that [[spoiler: there are lesser versions seen clinging to buildings in Yharnam once either Rom is killed and the illusion broken or you have enough Insight? Some of them even in places you've frequented from low levels, like the Cathedral Ward entrance. [[SarcasmMode Always nice to know]] there was a giant nightmare spider watching you the entire time]].

* The fact that there aren't any fog gates. One day you might be minding your own business, then some strange, freakish Lovecraftian amalgamation jumps down, and you realize you have to fight it. Although can be NightmareRetardant since they are typically large, open areas easy to spot.

* Yahar'gul, the Unseen Village, is pretty much entirely this. It's housed in one of the churches in the Cathedral Ward, filled with zombies, hunched over old women that will carve your eyes out, and Snatchers, black-cloaked figures with sacks on their backs. They ''deliberately'' kidnap people off the streets to use in whatever unholy rituals they conduct, and the Yahar'gul set says that they ''had their own hunters.'' But did they hunt the beasts, or men? [[spoiler: It was definitely men.]]

** For people who have never played a game in this franchise, it's something else altogether. When you start playing, there's a sense of looming horror for every thing you fight, but nothing that appears ''too'' abnormal. But then the Cleric Beast appears, and you realize that you are in ''way'' over your head.

** Another muted, silent one in the tower on Mensis; near the place where you fight the Host of Nightmares, there are entire rooms full of people wearing the same cage he was. They are all dead; nothing left but desiccated bodies and skeletons that must have expired some time ago. Some of them are quite small. Yet while ferocious monsters infest the entire building, each and every body looks like they perished non-violently. No cuts, scrapes, or broken bones, every body completely intact and reclining in a chair. For whatever inexplicable reason, the beasts utterly ignored these people, who were nevertheless content to sit and wait as their bodies withered, even the children. Whether they were unwilling, unaware, or simply unable to save themselves is never learned.

''[[VideoGame/BloodBorne Bloodborne]]'', as a spiritual successor to ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' and ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'', is bound to include things that can be nightmare-inducing... and now that it's been released in its full terrifying glory, there are some horrors that put the aforementioned games to shame.

*** It is implied that the One Reborn is the final results of the School of Mensis' experiment with creating a vessel for a Great One in their image. It isn't an eldritch abomination or yet another horror spawned by the plague of beasts; [[CreatingLifeIsBad a pack of sick human fools envisioned it, yearned for it to exist, and made it so]]. [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Mankind alone bears the guilt of this travisty]].

* The fact that there aren't any fog gates. One day you might be minding your own business, then some weird Lovecraft amalgamation of fuck jumps down, and you realize you have to fight it. Although can be NightmareRetardant since they are typically large, open areas easy to spot.

* While Martyr Logarius isn't all that terrifying by himself, his opening cutscene can scare some players. First, you're treated to a frozen corpse resting upon a throne. Then, it starts moving. First his hand starts to move, grabbing the scythe. The ice around him then starts to break, and while doing so he lets out inhuman grunts. He then gains full mobility, and starts to trudge towards you. The fact that it's implied he was conscious while frozen doesn't help. AndIMustScream, indeed.

* Winter Lanterns, ''oh dear god''. Also known as Brain Trusts, these hulking monstrosities are formed from the remains of the Messengers you see regularly throughout the game, creepily adorned in The Doll’s attire, and their most prominent feature is their massive, bulbous head that’s more of an amalgamation of grotesque tentacles and eyes than an upper body, and let’s not forget they have MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily as shown during their nightmare-inducing grab attack. [[HellIsThatNoise Even more unsettling is the off-key, disjointed]] ''singing'' they emit seconds before you encounter them that sounds like what Azathoth’s mindless henchmen sing to him to get him to sleep. Eeeugh…

* Perhaps the greatest amount of FridgeHorror comes from [[spoiler: the Yharnam Sunrise ending; after Gehrman beheads you, you awake on an abandoned street in Yharnam, but not the Yharnam you know. This is the ''real'' Yharnam, the Yharnam of the waking world. That's right; the '''whole damn game''' was AllJustADream, one perpetuated by the Great Ones and the Moon Presence either as part of the ploy to use humans to incubate more Great Ones and [[CreepyGood to possibly give the humans a means of fighting back by using the cycle of the Hunt,]] respectively. What's worse is that we don't get to see what happens after you wake up. No cutscene of you leaving the city, no confirmation on whether your disease was cured or not, nothing but the Doll giving a final and familiar message as you make your way through the now sunlit streets; [[ArcWords "Farewell, good Hunter.]] [[TheEndingChangesEverything May you find your worth in the waking world."]] After everything you went through, all the pain and suffering, for it to have possibly meant ''jack shit'' in the real world is a bigger turnaround than the Link the Fire ending from VideoGame/DarkSouls.]]
** And worse part [[spoiler: since it was all a dream and you are implied to have no memory of it, who knows how many times you have experienced it and how many times you'll experience it going forward, as your character may stay in town long enough to become reinfected by the nightmare. Now think of how the NewGamePlus starts?]]
*** Except [[spoiler:you're now dead in the Hunter's Dream]], which means that [[spoiler:just like Eileen the Crow, not only are you now unable to dream, but the next time you die, it will be permanent]]!

* So, you're walking through the Forbidden Forest. Nothing too bad just yet; mostly just more angry villagers and a few traps and pitfalls. But then you get to the ''lower'' parts of the forest where the villagers don't go. The first guy you see is walking away from you...and his head explodes into snakes! SNAKES! The rest of the Forbidden Forest is filled with horrible hydras, some of which are still living inside people. Talk about ramping up the creep factor.