Summary
Horror video game developers may be terrified of mothers, pregnancy, and childbirth. Looking at the past two decades of horror video game development, there is a definite trend toward depicting anything to do with mothers as horrifying.
Mothers in video games are often ghostly victims or already dead before the game even starts. And other times, mothers are absolutely terrifying in their own right. From Mumma Bears determined to protect their babies at all costs to those that aredownright abusive or neglectful, here are some of the scariest mothers in horror video games.
Tasi is a gentle introduction to this list as she doesn’t start the game as scary. But otherworldly mutations can change a lot about a woman in a few hours. InAmnesia: Rebirth,the player plays as Tasi, an amnesiac engineering drafter stranded between the inhospitable Algerian desert and the no less-threatening Other World.
Her grief at the loss of her child and her supernaturally advancing pregnancy is the driving force as she navigates the maze of tunnels and caves. As she is exposed to the dark and the Other World, she becomes increasinglyparanoid, violent, ghoulish, and monstrous, culminating in her beating someone to death in a fit of rage. In the end, she may either become a murderous ghoul or choose to condemn others to an eternity of unimaginable suffering.
One of the scariest mothers in video games is taken straight from horror cinema. Pamela Voorhees looms large over the Friday the 13th franchise, andthe ill-fated video gameis no exception. As one of the driving forces of Jason’s vengeful rage, Mrs Vorhees is the ever-present voice in his head and the person playing as the killer will hear her voice lines as they hunt the camp counselors.
Hearing her voice is one of the first things the player encounters when playing as the killer. How much of Pamela’s murderous statements are hers and how much the crazed invention of her homicidal son is up for debate.
While the main game ofElden Ringhas some scary moments,Shadow of the Erdtreetakes a hard turn into horror conventions. In the midst of this horror is the Mother of Fingers.FromSoftwareis notorious for its troubling depictions of motherhood and pregnancy, but mothers are often victims in these games.Elden Ringchanges this up by making mothers the explicit aggressors.
Unlike The Mother of Rebirth inDark Souls 3, Marika is not nurturing or passive. Queen Marika could be one of the most formidable women FromSoftware has ever created, but as a sheer horrifying spectacle, she is eclipsed by the Mother of Fingers. She is an optional boss found in the Ruins of Miyr and is not only made of what looks like a mass of fingers, but they emerge from within her stomach as the fight progresses.
Infanticide is possibly the scariest thing a mother can do. Mother from The Binding of Isaac hears a voice in her head that, in her religious fanaticism, she believes to be the voice of God. This leads her to cut her young son off from the world to stop him from being corrupted. Then finally to sacrifice him.
Seeing her terrifying visage through the eyes of young Isaac is harrowing as he tries to make sense of her crazed behavior and the reality of his life. The paper models that he uses to tell the story of thedungeon-crawlingadventure game are his only escape from his abusive home life.
Mother Miranda has left a trail of destruction behind her, with the consequences of her dangerous scientific endeavors stretching from the Village to the Louisiana Bayou. In a series packed to the brim withangry, evil, or morally ambiguous mothers, Mother Miranda takes it to the next level. She is a shape-shifting murderer and supernatural cult leader, but she is more conceptually frightening than immediately threatening.
Not only is she on a crazed mission to resurrect her dead daughter, but she will go to any lengths to control and enslave those around her. Her surrogate child, Lady Dimitrescu, could have easily been a later addition to this list as the way that she reanimates young women to adopt her daughters is nothing short of horrifying.
Alma has one of the most deeply troubling backstories in video game history. Video games have a whole host of women and girls who are victims of forced pregnancies, from Bloodborne to Silent Hill 3. These insanely predatory and violating events spawn many supernatural crises. The sheer violence of this trauma and desire for vengeance is part of what informs the terrifying and tragic events of F.E.A.R. and the psychokinetic revenge of Alma Wade.
Alma had strong psychic abilities, and her father exploited them, experimenting on her from a young age. She gave birth to what was hoped to be a form of psychicsuper soldiersas part of the Prototype Program at just 15. Alma is responsible for the violent deaths of a huge number of people in her vengeful rage.
Marguerite is the matriarch of the Baker household and a major antagonist inResident Evil 7: Biohazard. She tries to force-feed the player’s grotesque human offal and stalks them around the house. In herboss fight, she transforms into a monstrous creature and begins to birth swarms of insects.
Like many of the women on this list, Marguerite has a tragic backstory and isn’t always a monster. She was an average older woman and seemed to have been a loving mother and wife before Eveline came along and infected the house with the mutamycete mold. From then on, she began to experience memory loss and gradual cognitive deterioration.
Lisa is a vengeful and terrifying antagonist in thedoomed trailerP.T.Not a huge amount is known about Lisa, but her role as a mother and wife is key to her identity. She was a pregnant mother, making her death at the hands of her husband all the more tragic.
Lisa stalks the player as they traverse through the looping corridor, hovering just out of sight behind the player. She is definitely the most immediately physically threatening of the mothers on this list and most likely to induce a genuine jumpscare.
Dahlia Gillespie is the main antagonist of theSilent Hillseries and is the fanatical cult leader ofThe Order. She performs cult rituals on her own young daughter Alessa, trying to impregnate her with the reborn god The Order worships. She is ruthless in pursuit of her goal and is willing to do whatever it takes, however horrific it may be.
She is the puppet master who orchestrates Harry’s movements throughSilent Hillas he frantically looks for his adopted daughter Cheryl. He has no idea that Dahlia has lured them there to reunite Alessa and Cheryl, who are two sides of the same being.
