Characters that inspire absolute terror from a francise?

[Gorilla Gunk]

Crimson Heads from the Resident Evil remake.

 

[Purplecoyote]

ACK, GET AWAY FROME ME!

These guys first appeared in Fatal Frame II but also get an appearance in Fatal Frame III and they can one hit kill you sometimes.

Also basically every main bad guy (bad woman?) from every single Fatal Frame game. When they spawn you can only run as fast as you can away from them while the screen distorts and becomes black and white. Ick.

 

[Malty Milk Whistle]

Those hidden world guardian thingies in Skyward sword, i mean, when you play as link you get into the mindset that there sis nothing that cannot be killed or delayed by use of item or a few sword slashes,but these things OHK you and are invincible...the ambient and background sound made it even creepier

 

[sheah1]

Dark Souls of course has the most terrifying enemy in gaming. Those. Fucking. Frogs.
Five minutes ago, while trying to reach Ash Lake, I saw a.... Victim. Just.... Just frozen there in agony. My reaction was something along the lines of "Oh please god, no not again, just leave me alone please".
To non DS players:
Dark Souls has these weird bug eyed giant frog things. They can take about two hits of an alright weapon before dying, they hugely telegraph their attacks, and they can almost always easily be lured out of groups one by one.
But their attack consists of breathing a foul mist on you that immediately kills you. Even worse, you're left cursed; half of your HP is gone until you can find an awfully rare cure. It stacks.
Worst of all though, because Dark Souls is permanently online, when another player in a different world gets cursed, a grotesque statue of their death throes is left in your world.
So a frogs warning sign is the dead body of a comrade in awful pain.
.....
I just remembered that the only way back up..... Is through those frogs.
I'm so scared.

...

I've never actually been cursed in Dark Souls. The mist isn't instakill, it builds a meter, and like you said, they telegraph their attacks about 10 minutes in advance, so how people get caught in the mist long enough to die is beyond me.

The meter is super small so it takes about a second to fill. And I've only been cursed once, but that experience, and the huge difficulty of finding a cure (I tried to get past the ghosts, dumb move considering the cure was on sale just 'round the corner) has instilled a huge fear of the frogs in me.

It would probably be a bigger deal if it wasn't so easy to kill them, but then again, I have a faith build, so I just Wrath of God the living shit out of everything

We warriors need to rely on swinging wildly while shouting "Get it away!" Ace Ventura style.
The game can put you in some precarious positions though, like dropping you into a nest full of them and having two charge you while you try to get up.

 

[Andropov4]

Houdini splicers from Bioshock. Oh, and the Little Sisters are just about the creepiest thing I have encountered in gaming. Not necessarily scary (at least not until later), but certainly ridiculously creepy.

 

[Eric Morales]

Lisa Trevor from the Resident Evil 1 remake. With her distinctive rattling chains and throaty moan, you usually heard her before you saw her. Her outline is basically human but at the same time completely warped. And of course she was invincible, so all you could do is run your stupid ass away. Maybe the graphics in that game don't hold up anymore, but still, she gave me nightmares.

 

[Mariakko]

You know dragons? Those things that came close to destroying the whole of Tamriel?

Meet the guys who put them on the endangered list the first time.

Yeah... I avoided them like the plague/blight.

HOW? Those things would quite literally pop up out of nowhere.

Sorry, *tried* to avoid them.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

You know dragons? Those things that came close to destroying the whole of Tamriel?

Meet the guys who put them on the endangered list the first time.

Yeah... I avoided them like the plague/blight.

HOW? Those things would quite literally pop up out of nowhere.

Sorry, *tried* to avoid them.

Awwww, I thought that maybe you had some sort of super secret technique for staying clear of 'em.

 

[KingCrInuYasha]

Albedo - Xenosaga
One of the few characters that I really like in the series. Would I want to meet him? Uh....no.


Other mentions:
Psycho Mantis - Metal Gear Solid
Bad Girl - No More Heroes
Majora - The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Along with any undead like ReDeads and Dead Hand)
Kefka - Final Fantasy VI
Saavedro - Myst III

 

[Tanis]

You want...TERROR?!?

You want...FEAR?!?

You want...CHAOS!?!

FEAR THE DARK GODDESS KNOW AS...

!!!NAVI!!!

 

[Montezuma's Lawyer]

Amnesia the Dark Descent: The Water Monster

You can't see it, but can certainly see you. No matter what you put in it's way, be it door or boxs, it will get to you. Three hits and your dead. Dead, and having the game over screen tell you to stay out of the water. That thing was simply freaky.

Just the scream from that thing scared me away from Amnesia for a month.

 

[Captain Booyah]

This one is pretty recent ... but the Deathclaws from Fallout New Vegas.
I'm a low-level stealther. I'm walking normally, I see something in the distance I think is another damn rock. Then it moves.
I hit that L3 button and sit there frozen. Slowly, I identify the legs and tail and realize what it is. I know I'm too weak to kill it, but I can't help thinking Maybe if I can just sneak up on it with my machete ... I spend the next ten minutes inching toward it as slowly as I can, carefully flanking it, knowing that it could turn around suddenly and eat my face.
Suddenly the word on the top of the screen starts flashing DANGER. I'm too confused to react - the thing's not even looking at me! It hasn't even moved in fifteen minut-
A couple of other Deathclaws have snuck up behind me and killed me instantly, presumably with a bite to the neck. As a final insult, with the camera slowly panning away from my dead body, the Deathclaw I was stalking hasn't even turned around.
Oh, and the Cazadors. And the Radscorpions. And the Centaurs. And - fuck it, every single thing in the Mojave is trying to kill me!

Simultaneously the best and worst thing about the Deathclaws in New Vegas is that they don't just pop up in random locations like in Fallout 3 -- if you see one, it's a guarantee he's got a whole family waiting nearby. (This was my cue to scarper and find an alternate route...)

I think the one exception to that rule is a glitch where one will abruptly apparate out of thin air at the top of Black Mountain. I remember this vividly because it was only my second experience with a Deathclaw and it was the closest I ever got to a heart attack. Happily marching along, keeping an eye out for Nightkin, and then -- pop! Message box: "Arcade has died." I literally hadn't even managed to fully turn around to see what the hell was going on before a Deathclaw was all up in my business and knocked away over half of my health with one swipe. Thank God for regular saves.

 

[Olas]

The most terrifying enemy I've encountered in a video game came from half life 2 episode 2. It wasn't a headcrab zombie though; it was

Spoiler: this terrifying monstrosity from the bowels of hell

Now normally headcrab gaurdians are just big charging bulls that you can dodge, no big deal. But when you're forced to run from one through narrow chambers while they charge after, like in episode 2, suddenly things become frantic as hell. Seriously, this is some heartpounding shit. I would suggest taking a trip to the bathroom before playing that part of the game.

 

[Mariakko]

You know dragons? Those things that came close to destroying the whole of Tamriel?

Meet the guys who put them on the endangered list the first time.

Yeah... I avoided them like the plague/blight.

HOW? Those things would quite literally pop up out of nowhere.

Sorry, *tried* to avoid them.

Awwww, I thought that maybe you had some sort of super secret technique for staying clear of 'em.

Boots of blinding speed. They're not scary when you can't see the horde and if you hear one you run for 2 seconds and you wont hear them anymore.

 

[Nouw]

Ontopic: I'd say the Predalien from AVP2 for the part where it stalks you for a very long time. It keeps screaming and you keep looking back. Then BAM! It arrives with other aliens and facehuggers. I didn't even bother to aim with the PC. I just keep hitting fire...*sobs.*

I keep seeing STALKER pop up with scary games. Which one should I get?

 

[DoctorObviously]

Tidus from Final Fantasy X.

 

[EvilMaggot]

ill be the first to say .. Alma from the FEAR series... you could predict when she would show up.. even where and when.. but still she would freak me out also the invicible bastards in the first game... suddenly there with a LMG up in your face T_T

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

SKREEEEEEEEE!

 

[putowtin]

Banshees in mass effect 3s multiplayer are Downright frightening, especially since they can chomp your face off

agreed!
Was playing late last night/this morning had turned down the volume so as not to wake up the hubby when all of a sudden I hear the shriek, I'm being picked up and the ***** has ripped my heart out!

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Lisa Trevor from the Resident Evil 1 remake. With her distinctive rattling chains and throaty moan, you usually heard her before you saw her. Her outline is basically human but at the same time completely warped. And of course she was invincible, so all you could do is run your stupid ass away. Maybe the graphics in that game don't hold up anymore, but still, she gave me nightmares.

It's even creepier when you read the in-game documents on her backstory... and how if you look closely at her character model, she wears her mother's face...