History NightmareFuel / Borderlands1

* ''Crawmerax The Invincible'', the terrifying BonusBoss. The player is treated to a brief look at it as they enter Crawmerax's Lair (the loading screen), and its mere appearance is enough to get you quacking on your pants. A nightmarishly deformed [[EldritchAbomination Crab Worm-tarantula-walrus-]]''[[EldritchAbomination whatever]]'' that absolutely [[DavidVersusGoliath towers over the player(s)]], it's no wonder why Crawmerax is the stuff of legends in-game.

** [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Psycho midget]] [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies zombies]] are [[UpToEleven even worse]]. Basically, as fast as a typical midget psycho, has a ranged attack guaranteed to knock down your shields, and they leap at you like skags. Not to mention, [[FromBadToWorse they are always surrounded by bigger, more dangerous enemies]]. Oh, joy.

** His even more infuriating {{Mook}}s. That's right, [[FlunkyBoss he's got a handful of unique Crabworms]] that are [[DemonicSpiders far worse]] than the baby ones, if not ''[[UpToEleven worse than Crawmerax himself]]'', because the Craw Maggots and Green Maggots love to charge at you and push you off the ledge when you're not looking, and all three kinds are resistant to all forms of damage except for their correlating elemental weakness (Craw Maggots are weak against Shock; Green Maggots are weak against Incendiary; Armored Maggots are weak against Corrosive). At least the Armored Maggots are slow and won't knock you off, but the other two maggots will put you in a flurry of crippling fear and seething rage.

!! As usual, Administrivia/SpoilersOff for the moment pages.

!! Main game

* If you have a thing against giant hissing cockroaches or bugs in general, then the Scythids when you first encounter them in a tiny, hard-to-maneuver space is going to be [[BlatantLies fun!!!]]

* Rakk hives. Worse yet, when you have to fight one later at Trash Coast, you realize that it's not the first one you've seen in your travels... Thank goodness they're dormant.

!! ''The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned''

!! ''The Secret Armory of General Knoxx''

!! Claptrap's New Robot Revolution
* Fighting the Bandit-Traps becomes disturbing fast when one of their death cries is "Please... Just let me die". Suddenly it puts the Claptrap conversion into a [[AndIMustScream VERY different light.]]

* The eerie soundtrack heard across the game, which only adds to the scary mood of the overall Jakob's Cove area.

* ''Crawmerax The Invincible'', the terrifying BonusBoss of ''The Secret Armory of General Knoxx''. The player is treated to a brief look at it as they enter Crawmerax's Lair (the loading screen), and its mere appearance is enough to get you quacking. A nightmarishly deformed [[EldritchAbomination Crab Worm-tarantula-walrus-]]''[[EldritchAbomination whatever]]'' that absolutely [[DavidVersusGoliath towers over the player(s)]], it's no wonder why Crawmerax is the stuff of legends in-game.

** His maximum is Level 72 -- a full three levels above the set limit of 69...
** Easily the most difficult boss in the game -- even with four players he's tough. While he's not really invincible, by God, [[NighInvulnerability he's damn close]].
** ''Then'' the glitched ledge was discovered...and subsequently [[NightmareRetardant he's become a bit easier to beat]]. Just be on the look out for his more infuriating {{Mook}}s. That's right, [[FlunkyBoss he's got a handful of unique Crabworms]] that are [[DemonicSpiders far worse]] than the baby ones, if not ''[[UpToEleven worse than Crawmerax himself]]'', because the Craw Maggots and Green Maggots love to charge at you and push you off the ledge when you're not looking, and all three kinds are resistant to all forms of damage except for their correlating elemental weakness (Craw Maggots are weak against Shock; Green Maggots are weak against Incendiary; Armored Maggots are weak against Corrosive). At least the Armored Maggots are slow and won't knock you off, but the other two maggots will put you in a flurry of crippling fear and seething rage.

** Shock weapons make their victim stand up ramrod straight, twitching madly as the flesh melts off their ''skull'', leaving two eyes staring at you from it. Then an eyeball pops out. Then a part of the skull pops off, exposing the brain. Then they fall over and their head ''explodes''. In the [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}} sequel]], they're merely vaporized, not that it makes it any better.

* The Destroyer's arrival & its, ahem, "introduction" to Steele. Steele opens the Vault only for both you and her to discover that it's not a cache of Eridian tech like the vault Atlas found was. It's a ''prison'' for a civilization-destroying EldritchAbomination[=/=][[UnreliableNarrator Out of control]] [[MultipleChoicePast Eridian Bio-Weapon]] called ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Destroyer]]'' that spears Steele on it's tongue and smashes her retinue to bloody paste with its CombatTentacles before [[EatenAlive dragging her screaming into it's maw.]] For such a derided GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere that even gets mocked in future games with the phrase "Tentacles and Disappointment", the FinalBoss of the main campaign makes an ''impact.''

** ''Then'' the glitched ledge was discovered...and subsequently [[NightmareRetardant he's become a bit easier to beat]]. Just be on the look out for his more infuriating {{Mook}}s. That's right, [[FlunkyBoss he's got a handful of unique Crabworms]] that are [[DemonicSpiders far worse]] than the baby ones, if not ''[[UpToEleven worse than Crawmerax himself]]'', because the Craw Maggots and Green Maggots love to charge at you and push you off the ledge when you're not looking, and all three kinds are resistant to all forms of damage except for their correlating elemental weakness (Craw Maggots are weak against Shock; Green Maggots are weak against Incendiary; Armored Maggots are weak against Corrosive). At least the Armored Maggots are slow and won't knock you off.

!! The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned

!! The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
* The whole "Secret Armory of General Knoxx" storyline, because of its reveals about the utterly [[CrapsackWorld crapsack nature of the whole universe]]. Gross incompetence, corruption, nepotism... It's an awful stew of everything that could go wrong with the government and big business, to the point where the Vault Hunters, who are seen InUniverse as bloodthirsty anarchistic psychos who simply kill everything in sight for profit and pleasure, [[BlackAndGrayMorality really do look heroic by comparison]].
** The DLC implies that there are ''worse'' places than Pandora that Atlas personnel can be assigned to.
* The [[http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Drifter Drifters]]. Effectively four-legged spiders with aspirations to be skyscrapers, towering over you and firing acid at you. To make matters worse, they have no movement noise, meaning they can easily sneak up on you.
* General Knoxx's descent into nihilistic despair is played in-game for laughs, but when the reality of it sinks in, it's quite chilling. The sheer resignation of Knoxx to his situation, the fact you literally interrupt his efforts at committing suicide, the fact he insists you ought to just blow Pandora up and kill everyone on it when he dies...

** Easily the most difficult boss in the game -- even with four players he is tough. While he is not really invincible, by God, [[NighInvulnerability he's damn close]].

* Sledge's SafeHouse, passing the Arid Hills, is extremely disturbing the first time around. "[[RoomFullOfCrazy THEY GOT ME]]" [[CouldntFindAPen written in blood]] on the walls, [[FridgeHorror presumably written by the victims in their own blood at the command of their captors]], bodies chained up all over and strung up like chandeliers leaking pools of blood, huge blood splatter everywhere, bodies stuck to the walls and ceilings via steel rods jammed through their eyes, a room with an armless body along with several dismembered appendages and a body stuck up on the ceiling, a small "Colosseum" where victims were presumably forced to fight the cannibalistic Psychos for sport, and on and on. In many cases, fresh blood still drips down from strung up bodies.

* Sledge's Safehouse is extremely disturbing the first time around. "[[RoomFullOfCrazy THEY GOT ME]]" [[CouldntFindAPen written in blood]] on the walls, [[FridgeHorror presumably written by the victims in their own blood at the command of their captors]], bodies chained up all over and strung up like chandeliers leaking pools of blood, huge blood splatter everywhere, bodies stuck to the walls and ceilings via steel rods jammed through their eyes, a room with an armless body along with several dismembered appendages and a body stuck up on the ceiling, a small "Colosseum" where victims were presumably forced to fight the cannibalistic Psychos for sport, and on and on. In many cases, fresh blood still drips down from strung up bodies.

* Another area near Patricia Tannis's place has a body [[ChainedToARock held out over the edge of a cliff by two rods]]. He's tied by his neck to the top and by his feet to the bottom, plenty of rope between his body and the rods, and with a brace on his neck so he doesn't actually suffocate. When you go up there, you find three bodies impaled on steel pipes to a wall, with dart boards visible behind them, and barrels under them to collect the blood. One barrel is on fire. So you go to the strung up man, and as you do, a flock of Rakks attack you. So apparently the man was put there to be fed on alive.

* Undead Ned. That is all.
--> ''HOLY F*#CKING SHIT!!!''
** In addition, the descent into the caverns in which Undead Ned is fought. [[SceneryGorn The tunnels are dripping with blood and gore]] and everything is ''far'' too [[NothingIsScarier tense and quiet]].
* The Destroyer's arrival & its, ahem, "introduction" to Steele.
** For the record, [[spoiler: Steele opens the Vault only for both you and her to discover that it's not a cache of Eridian tech like the vault Atlas found was. It's a ''prison'' for a civilization-destroying EldritchAbomination[=/=][[UnreliableNarrator Out of control]] [[MultipleChoicePast Eridian Bio-Weapon]] called ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Destroyer]]'' that spears Steele on it's tongue and smashes her retinue to bloody paste with its CombatTentacles before [[EatenAlive dragging her screaming into it's maw.]] For such a derided GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere that even gets mocked in future games with the phrase "Tentacles and Disappointment", the FinalBoss of the main campaign makes an ''impact.'']]
* Rakk hives. Worse yet, when you have to fight one later in the game, you realize that it's not the first one you've seen in your travels... Thank goodness they're dormant.
* General Knoxx's descent into nihilistic despair is played in-game for laughs, but when the reality of it sinks in, it's quite chilling. The sheer resignation of Knoxx to his situation, the fact you literally interrupt his efforts at committing suicide, the fact he insists you ought to just blow Pandora up and kill everyone on it when he dies...
** By extension, the whole "Secret Armory of General Knoxx" storyline for what it reveals about the utterly [[CrapsackWorld crapsack nature of the whole universe]]. Gross incompetence, corruption, nepotism... It's an awful stew of everything that could go wrong with the government and big business, to the point where the Vault Hunters, who are seen InUniverse as bloodthirsty anarchistic psychos who simply kill everything in sight for profit and pleasure, really do look heroic by comparison.
** Secret Armory implies that there are ''worse'' places than Pandora that Atlas personnel can be assigned to.
* In Claptrap's New Robot Revolution, fighting the Bandit-Traps becomes disturbing fast when one of their death cries is "Please... Just let me die". Suddenly it puts the Claptrap conversion into a [[AndIMustScream VERY different light.]]
* If you have a thing against giant hissing cockroaches or bugs in general, then the Scythids when you first encounter them in a tiny, hard-to-maneuver space is going to be [[BlatantLies fun!!!]]
* Midget Psychos' screams can be terrifying. However, the sheer demented agony filling the screams of Crimson Lance soldiers dying to fire weapons is scarier than any other sound in the game.
** [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Psycho midget]] [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies zombies]] are [[UpToEleven even worse]]. Basically, as fast as a typical midget psycho, has a ranged attack guaranteed to knock down your shields, and they leap at you like skags. Not to mention, [[FromBadToWorse they are always surrounded by bigger, more dangerous enemies]]. Oh, joy.

* The elemental tech weapons all have unique death animations if they kill a humanoid victim with elemental damage. Explosion just blows them to bits, but the other three are much more disturbing...
** Fire weapons engulf their victim in flames, who screams and flails in an attempt to pat them out even as they burn him into ashes.
** Shock weapons make their victim stand up ramrod straight, twitching madly as the flesh melts off their ''skull'', leaving two eyes staring at you from it. Then an eyeball pops out. Then a part of the skull pops off, exposing the brain. Then they fall over and their head ''explodes''. In the [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}} sequel]], they're merely vaporized, not that it makes it any better.
** Acid weapons make their victim scream and wail as they dissolve in a splashing gush of green fluid. With Psychos and Bruisers, their mask gets left behind.

* The [[http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Drifter Drifters]] added in in the General Knoxx DLC. Effectively four-legged spiders with aspirations to be skyscrapers, towering over you and firing acid at you. To make matters worse, they have no movement noise, meaning they can easily sneak up on you.

* ''[[BonusBoss Crawmerax The Invincible]]''. Holy mother of fuck, is Crawmerax the Invincible terrifying. The player is treated to a brief look at the guy as they enter Crawmerax's Lair (the loading screen), and the mere appearance of the dude is enough. A nightmarishly deformed Crab Worm-tarantula-walrus-''whatever'' that absolutely [[DavidVersusGoliath towers over the player(s)]], it's no wonder why Crawmerax is the stuff of legends in-game.

* ''Crawmerax The Invincible''. Holy mother of fuck, is Crawmerax the Invincible terrifying. The player is treated to a brief look at the guy as they enter Crawmerax's Lair (the loading screen), and the mere appearance of the dude is enough. A nightmarishly deformed Crab Worm-Tarantella-Walrus-''whatever'' that absolutely towers over the player(s).
** And then there's actually trying to beat the guy. Get close to him and he'll lunge and try to ''bite'' you. Go ahead, keep your distance -- he'll start shooting out purple globs from his teeth that are composed of acid and will eat away at the fabric of your shields. You think you're able to avoid his glob-shooting? That's not even his worst attack. He'll burrow underground and then explode out at an unexpected point -- unless you're able to avoid the blast radius or jump at the right time, when Crawmerax pops out again above ground, the sheer weight of him will send you ''flying''.

** Easily the most difficult boss in the game -- even with four players he is tough. While he is not really invicible, by God, [[NighInvulnerability he's damn close]].
** ''Then'' the glitched ledge was discovered...and subsequently he's become a bit easier to beat.

* The New-U Station when you [[FridgeHorror think about it]].