Some games provide intentionally scary moments, while others turn into horror masterpieces entirely by accident. In honor of the sentiment, here’s a list of regular games turned into horror masterpieces via the miracle of video game glitches.
Skyrim NPCs can survive decapitation
The world of Skyrim is a magical place, though not all the magics contained within are necessarily good ones.
Remember that guy who gets beheaded right at the start of Skyrim? Well, he does lose his head every time, as there’s no way to mess with that scripting, but the wound isn’t always fatal. This guy — as well as other enemies who wind up headless — can just get up and go on with their lives.
While there’s no recording of this headless horseless man going on a vendetta against Dovakhin for doing nothing to prevent his execution, I would keep my eyes open on a playthrough where that happens.
Chances of it happening on your playthrough: Low
Demon babies in The Sims 3
The Sims series is as far as it gets from a horror experience — or is it? Well, it turns out that babies in The Sims can become pretty hellish. There’s a glitch that turns the babies in The Sims 3 into what feels like an early version of the necromorphs from the Dead Space series.
Putting our offspring in this world can be scary, yes, but I doubt this was an intentional allegory for the fears of parenthood like in David Lynch’s Eraserhead.
Chances of it happening on your playthrough: Low
The Manimals in Red Dead Redemption
The original Red Dead Redemption could sometimes mix up human and animal models, which resulted in human NPCs behaving like animals. No, not in the Wild West sense where we expect everyone to play like barbarians.
I’m talking about people literally behaving like animals. Some move like four-legged animals, some others even fly as if they were birds. Sure, this sounds fun when you’re just reading about it, but it’s probably not as fun to get mauled by a bunch of suit-and-tie-wearing coyotes.
Chances of it happening on your playthrough: Low
The evolved Manimals in Assassin’s Creed Origins
Video games have gotten better over time, and that’s why Assassin’s Creed Origins features an evolved version of the Red Dead Redemption glitch shown above. Now, instead of having humans behaving like animals, we have some animal NPCs that adopt human mannerisms.
This might not be ancient Egypt done right, but it sure as hell is ancient Egypt done cool.
Chances of it happening on your playthrough: Low
Inexplicable Statue in Witcher 3
The Tower of Mice is already one of the eeriest places in the entirety of The Witcher 3, but it gets even worse if you pay attention at the wrong time.
If you stand in the specific spot shown in the video above, you’ll get to see a weirdly lean creature phasing in and out of existence. What is it? Nobody knows for sure, but it’s creepy as hell. The good news is that it’s completely harmless. Maybe it actually likes Geralt.
Chances of it happening on your playthrough: This specter is there for any player who wants to meet it.
Alma following you in FEAR 2
Alma is the little The Ring-inspired girl that serves as the poster child for the FEAR series. She shows up to spook players throughout FEAR 2, naturally, but this weird glitch makes her follow you around nonstop. The player in the video above gets rid of her by throwing a punch, which caused her to fly away in the most awkward manner possible. This is the perfect combination of funny and terrifying.
The FEAR series is already scary enough as is. It doesn’t need its scare factor to get further inflated by wacky glitches.
Chances of it happening on your playthrough: Astronomically low. This may be the only recorded instance of this glitch.
NBA Jam has ghosts
NBA Jam came out in ‘93, a few months after the tragic death of Drazen Petrovic.
Imagine trying to enjoy the game when the arcade machine starts shouting his name — and no one else’s — even though he’s not even playing. That’s as close as it gets to a video game haunting — and it’s totally real.
Chances of it happening on your playthrough: 100%. This glitch is present in every early version of the game.
Fallout 4 companion becomes your greatest enemy
Most Fallout 4 fans don’t like Preston Garvey very much because of how pushy he gets with helping settlements, and most of them haven’t even had to deal with him going mad.
Yes, it’s possible that Garvey will turn into an unkillable Terminator-like figure that will hunt players down until the heat death of the universe. Yes, that’s something that happens, and someone has lived to document it.
This brave wasteland journalist tried everything, from regular bullets to explosives. Nothing would stop Garvey. The best he could do was temporarily stun the unstoppable force. He then had an idea, to build the most powerful settlement ever built. Maybe its concentrated firepower would destroy Garvey. Too bad the settlement refused to shoot Garvey, seemingly remembering that he’s the only person in the land who cares about settlements.
The ordeal ended not with Garvey’s death, but with him randomly going back to friendly mode. There’s no way of knowing how long this peace will last.
Chances of it happening on your playthrough: Extremely low, but keep your eyes open, and don’t neglect your settlements.
Mount and Blade’s terrifying skybox
In Mount and Blade: Warband, a weird glitch might turn the entire skybox into the face of an angry man who merely stares at the player. Who is that? Why is he so pissed? Nobody knows.
I’m assuming that’s a very pissed-off medieval god, which is sadly the worst possible kind of god.
Chances of it happening on your playthrough: Very high. This is a surprisingly common glitch.
More Stories by Tiago Manuel
