Top 10 Hardest Horror Video Game Bosses

“Fatal Frame III: The Tormented” (2005)

In the Fatal Frame series, you’re tasked with taking down hostile ghosts with your trusty Camera Obscura. The franchise is home to many tough boss battles against these spooky specters but the one that stands out above the rest is the final tattooed Priestess Reika Kuze. The speed that she moves around the map will be very fast, meaning you’ll have a tough time keeping up with her to deal damage, not to mention that her arsenal of attacks are quite devastating. Reika will also enter you into a slow motion “miasma state” sequence where you’re unable to use your Camera Obscura. If she reaches you here she’ll deliver a one-hit-kill touch, meaning your efforts will be all for nothing.

“The Last of Us Part II” (2020)

Whilst making her way through the Seattle Hospital for medical supplies, Abby comes across quite possibly the most disgusting monstrosities we’ve ever seen in all of video games. The Rat King is a hulking mass of multiple infected merged into one and will persistently attack you in a dark and claustrophobic room until it ends you. Once you’ve finally inflicted enough damage to this super-organism, an invincible stalker will tear away from it, meaning you’ll have to contend with two tough enemies at once.

“Resident Evil 2” (2019)

Widely known by many fans of the franchise as “Mr. X”, this Tyrant will relentlessly pursue both Leon and Claire throughout their campaigns. During this time T-00 will be completely invulnerable, the best you can hope to do is slow him down temporarily. This is until your final showdown with him at the end of Leon’s campaign. In a limited amount of space, and with a countdown ticking, Leon will not only have to dodge his large claw attacks but also use whatever ammo that is left to take him down. Survive long enough, and you’ll be given a handy Rocket Launcher from Ada, which will be enough to put him down for good.

“The Evil Within” (2014)

You’ll first encounter this twisted reincarnation of Laura Victoriano in the fourth chapter of this game, but it’s not till chapter 10 where you can finally put an end to her. Despite her slow movement speed, Laura has the ability to teleport over short distances and she can also spawn out of any corpses left on the ground, making avoiding her a grueling task. Laura will also sport a large amount of health, but luckily for our protagonist Sebastian, there are a variety of different ways in the area to inflict her biggest weakness upon her; fire.

“Dead Rising” (2006)

After fending off his tank, freelance photojournalist Frank West (Who’s covered wars you know!) finds himself in a final showdown against the man who’s responsible for the outbreak’s cleanup operation. What sets this apart from pretty much every other boss fight on this list is that he's no monster - just another human being, but you’ll be battling it out against him atop a tank with no weapons, all the while surrounded by zombies. Brock can reverse most of your moves, and will effortlessly throw you into the crowd of zombies, allowing them to easily take a bite or two of your health. The worst part about this is if you’re defeated, you’ll have to do the annoying tank fight all over again!

“Resident Evil: Revelations” (2012)

It just wouldn’t be Resident Evil without the big bad mutating themselves into a hulking monster, and Revelations is certainly no exception, with Veltro’s leader consuming the T-Abyss Virus in the games final act. Unfortunately for players this resulted in one of the most frustrating battles in the franchise. As to be expected from a battle of this kind, Ultimate Abyss has a huge amount of health and very few weak points. This is made even worse due to his two incredibly broken abilities: he’ll teleport around the room and make copies of himself, resulting in him striking you down more often than not. The icing on the cake is the fact that your partner, Chris, is completely and utterly useless throughout this entire nightmare of a battle.

“Silent Hill 3” (2003)

When Heather Mason finally confronts her fathers murderer Claudia, the cult leader brings forth a newly born god after consuming a fetus. This boss fight certainly lives up to its namesake, with its extremely large health pool you’ll find yourself in a very long battle of attrition, especially due to the fact that this is the final boss of the game, meaning your resources will most likely be low at this stage. Each of God’s attacks will deal heavy damage to Heather, meaning you’ll have to have a lot of patience and extreme focus, especially when God uses its fire attack, which covers most of the playing field.

“Friday the 13th” (1989)

LJN’s lineup of media tie-in games at the time were infamous for being complete and utter trash, and this adaption of the legendary horror franchise “Friday the 13th” went the extra mile. Before you even get to him, players are given the extremely hard duty of protecting the camp's inhabitants from Jason, and when you finally confront him, things get even more grim. You’ll be thrown into a battle much like one from the “Punch-Out” series, except this one is badly designed. Jason will quickly move around the area, striking you with cheap blows, which are almost impossible to dodge as you’re only able to move left or right at a very slow pace.

“Rule of Rose” (2006)

Rule of Rose was notorious back in the day due to misinformation surrounding its content, leading to the game being completely banned in the United Kingdom, despite only being a 16+ by the PEGI rating system. If there’s one consolation for UK horror gaming fans, at least they didn’t have to go through this extremely infuriating boss fight. The Mermaid princess will constantly drop from the ceiling in random areas, meaning it’s hard to figure out where she’s going to land, especially considering the game is in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Her main attack is a green vomit, which will not only leave the player stunned for an extended amount of time, but will deal a ridiculous amount of damage.

“Bloodborne” (2015)

Encountered in Bloodborne’s “Old Hunters” DLC, Orphan of Kos is not only one of the toughest bosses in the horror genre, but in of all Soulsborne. Armed with a placenta-like club, this Orphan is absolutely relentless with their attacks, and boasts an incredible speed, leaving you very little time to react and counter attack. Things get much, much worse when the Orphan of Kos bites into its weapon and transforms, entering its second phase. Not only will this enhance its abilities, but it’ll start to unleash a devastating AOE lighting attack that’ll cover most of the area. Only the very best Soulsborne players will be given the honor of defeating this foe.