Written by Toralar | Edited by Denayed | Originally Posted Oct 31, 2021.

It’s Halloween! You can always play a good horror game to get yourself in the mood, but I think it’s scarier when a bug or glitch appears in a game that wasn’t intended to be creepy. Of course, you can’t always reproduce those on command, so in the spirit of the season, I’ve scoured the internet and compiled a list of five creepy, scary, and unsettling video game glitches.

1. Watson the Weeping Angel

In the game Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis (released in some countries as Sherlock Holmes Versus Arsène Lupin), the player takes on the role of the legendary detective in a struggle to find and apprehend a master thief. And what is Holmes without his trusty sidekick Watson? The game follows the pair as they traipse from crime scene to crime scene, attempting to catch up as Arsène Lupin absconds with various historical British artifacts.Well, the player traipses. In a demo version of the game, Dr. Watson takes a more efficient (and creepier) form of transportation: instantaneous teleportation. The effect only takes place when the player puts some distance between themselves and Watson and then looks away, creating an effect reminiscent of the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, an alien race that can only move if they aren’t being observed.

(Video Link: Creepy Watson by tdous)

His head tracks the player in an unsettling way and then as soon as you try to get away from him he appears within arm’s reach, staring silently and ominously. It’s not as fatal as the Weeping Angels, but in a game where you’re supposed to be hunting down a thief in a series of thrilling escapades, it’s more than a little unnerving to be haunted by your supposedly loyal assistant.

2. Wall-Phasing Viking Deer

The Viking themed survival game Valheim was released for early access in February 2021. The focus is on defeating powerful mythical beings, creating cool architecture, and messing around with your friends. As with most early access games, it has its fair share of surprising bugs and unexpected events. Most of these are just your run-of-the-mill bugs: getting stuck in a hole or piece of terrain, enemies not quite doing what they’re supposed to, and so on. Nothing particularly spooky or terrifying, really.

And, although the game has skeletons and ghosts for you to beat down, the real terror lies in the innocent deer that roam the forests in the lowest level areas of the game. Well, it lies in a bug that sometimes allows the deer to phase through walls unexpectedly.

(Link to reddit post: Arcrave – It’s a good life)

Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but having a deer poke its head through my bedroom wall to watch me sleep does not really make me feel very comfy or safe. Imagine waking up in -game to see this creepy motherfucker looking down at you. It might be seeking vengeance for all of the deer you’ve hunted and eaten in order to survive. Anyway, time to get out the bow and have some venison for dinner!

3. (Missing) Faces of Fallout

No article about video game bugs and glitches would be complete without Bethesda games, of course. Although well known for the myriad and often hilarious bugs, there are also a few that fall more on the unsettling and terrifying side of things. One that has been fairly consistent throughout Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Fallout 4 is a glitch that causes face textures to disappear, often leaving just the eyes and mouth, or sometimes just the eyes.

(Link to reddit post: JBP47 – NPC Face Bug)

In a game that has you fighting super mutants, weird irradiated wildlife, and ghouls, it’s still pretty creepy to walk into a building and see the proprietor looking like something out of a creepypasta story. I prefer my shopkeepers to have normal faces, thanks very much – even if they are an irradiated ghoul missing their nose. Something about the featureless void with just eyes and a mouth is a bit too unnerving for me. Of course, the player isn’t immune to having their features switched up a little either, as seen in the image below.

(Link to reddit post: RockingAlong – Character Face Bug)

The fully detailed eyes in this version of the bug are a lot creepier, in my opinion. Not to mention that instead of having a head, albeit one that’s just a black void, there’s just nothing there. The hair and eyes are just magically floating there, as if held up by some sort of eldritch magic. Also, let’s be honest, the eerily lifelike mannequins in the background are not helping at all.

4. Night of the Living Mannequins

Speaking of mannequins, a list about scary gaming bugs wouldn’t be complete without Skyrim’s surprisingly mobile mannequins. Like I said before, Bethesda games are famous for their bugs, and Skyrim is at the top of that list. Most of those, like mammoths ejecting themselves into the stratosphere, are more hilarious than mannequins that move around and track your movement whenever you’re visiting your own home.

It’s like the toys in Toy Story, except these guys aren’t worried about being caught by their owner. They’re showing off their capabilities, letting the player know that they’re watching every move. You can get mannequins in every purchasable house except one, which seems to indicate that either realtors in Skyrim are trying to scare their buyers off (or mannequin murder them) for a quick resale, or that the real estate market is almost entirely controlled by sentient mannequins. I’m not sure which is worse, honestly.

(Link to reddit post: GIF of creepy mannequins)

If I walked in on those mannequins watching me, breathing, shifting their weight around, and possibly preparing to kill me while I sleep, I’d pull out my best weapon and start hacking away. Apparently, the reason for this glitch is that Bethesda coded the mannequins as NPCs that weren’t supposed to be able to move and do things that normal NPCs can. Of course, we can all see how well that worked out.

5. The Walking Denim

Last on the list is a bug from Sony’s Spider-Man, which I have to admit is not a game I expected to write about here. The game is set in New York City, and while it primarily follows Peter Parker, there are chances to play as other characters. It’s during one of these segments that the denim people were discovered. Miles Morales, another version of Spider-Man, treks through the city surrounded by citizens completely covered in denim.

It’s more than a little unsettling and eerie, especially given that the models and textures are so glitchy and rough. The people appear to be completely normal otherwise, they don’t threaten Miles or act like something out of a horror movie. Although going about their daily business while looking like that it is pretty creepy too, I’d say.

With that, our list of creepy bugs and glitches is finished. Enjoy Halloween, and if you find anything unsettling or creepy that wasn’t supposed to happen in game, grab a recording or screenshot so you can spread some holiday scares!