< Pokémon

Pokémon/Nightmare Fuel


Isn't Lavender Town a wonderful little place?


We all know Pokémon, don't we?

You know Pikachu and all his adorable friends, battling each other in a Crapsaccharine Death World with soul-stealing monsters, horrifying ghosts, terrorists and Complete Monsters worshipping apocalyptic monsters, and NPCs that will stop at nothing to hunt you down and fight, where even the music itself is enough to give you nightmares...

On second thought, maybe not...

Glitch Pokémon and other hacks

Glitch Pokémon are Pokémon that manifest through errors in the game's programming. The stuff they do to your file is all kinds of messed up. Perception through the reality of the game can result in plenty of Fridge Horror.

  • Many players don't ever want to surf up and down the eastern shores of Cinnabar Island or Seafoam Island in any version of Pokémon, due to the glitch "MissingNo." and its "twin" 'M from Pokémon Red and Blue, who on top of looking like garbled towers of pixels, had the potential to corrupt one's graphics and, in the case of 'M, the player's save file. The battle music slows down or drops tracks. The text also becomes screwed up because these Pokémon have moves whose names seem to go on forever (or really weird names like "TM20").
  • Also unsettling is the Glitch City, a garbled mess of pixels which, if traveled into too far, will cause the screen to freak out and the game to freeze.
    • You can also get a different version of MissingNo in Pokémon Yellow, where encountering it becomes a lot more screwy. The aforementioned "perception through the reality of the game" results in the protagonist essentially walking around in the grass with the Pikachu that Professor Oak just gave him, dreaming about becoming a Pokémon Master, when suddenly he's attacked by a wild Pokémon and everything glitches out. After some screwed up noises, the game freezes.
    • Another Yellow glitch with a similar effect to the Yellow Missing No. is "Female Symbol", whose name is just the symbol for "female". Just like the above scenario, except this time the Eldritch Abomination screams at the player, freezes the game and kick-starts a creepy remix of what appear to be multiple different musical tracks from Lavender Town, the Team Rocket hideout, and other places in RBY with creepy/scary music. Have a listen.
    • For a 10-year-old trainer (as in, the in-game character), finding himself in Glitch City would be horrifying by itself; however, as the player stares at it more and more, it becomes obvious that the whole place simply should not be. Then comes the shocking surprise: there's no way out from there.
  • Missingno's stats imply he's almost as tall as Wailord (the biggest one), and heavier than Groudon (the heaviest one).
    • In Crystal (not Gold or Silver, since glitches are different there, like in case of Red/Blue and Yellow), Glitch Egg weighs even more, at 6146.5 lbs (~2788 kg; also about 300% of Groudon weight). Too bad it's remarkably small for its mass, at only 22 inches (55.88 cm; technically should be foot and 10 inches, but game wrote it as 22 inches), making about 146 (147 with forme) real Pokémon smaller than it, most of them are at basic stage however.
  • Meeting not just Missingno and Pokémon over level 100, but glitched trainers as well (if one used grammatic symbols in the 3rd, 5th, or 7th part of their name) is another freaky experience. Example: a Channeller outside Cinnabar Island whose Pokémon were a mess of glitched names and graphics. The Pokémon also glitched the background music into a never-ending stream of randomly distorted sound effects. Also, the glitched trainers neither said anything nor rewarded money when defeated.
  • Missing No's most famous appearance that M' also takes is a bunch of pixels shaped like a backwards L. More people are scared by what a glitch Pokémon does than by what it looks like, but Missingno occasionally takes the shape of a Lavender Town ghost (Gastly and Haunter sans Silph Scope), a hollow shell of a Kabutops that hasn't been revived, or the skeleton of an Aerodactyl that hasn't been revived.
  • M', if it's level 0, and you send it to your PC, it destroys everything the trainer knows and loves just by existing (more specifically, by corrupting the PC and making it unaccessible).
    • If it isn't level 0, giving it a Rare Candy and it will evolve into a Kangaskhan with Water Gun, Water Gun, and Sky Attack.
  • The dead static that serves as 'battle music' for the Yellow Missingno.
  • 4.4 is a Glitch Pokémon who initiates battle with the Critical Annoyance low Health Siren. Said music begins as soon as the Wild Pokémon Battle music starts and doesn't stop until the Pokémon appears, where it's replaced with a discordant glitchy sound that sounds like a mix of another Pokémon's cry and a telephone ringing. The glitch then goes very quiet and freezes the game. It can also cause the player character to disappear with clones of him through the air, apparently.
  • Hacking the life out of a older game can cause it to retaliate. When cheats are forced upon the game, it can still works until players "cross the line" and get to Pallet Town: then the screen freaks out alongside everything else until it turns into a pattern of white and black stripes.
  • The Glitch Pokémon named h POKe. It is harmless by itself, but what is creepy is its height and weight: a mess of garbled pixels, over 80 feet tall and 3 tons heavy.
  • 3TrainerPOKe in Pokémon Yellow Version, which amongst other things can really mess up the appearance of the player's Pikachu.
  • There is one glitch in Generation 4 where when using the walk-through-walls with Action Replay and walk up through the Elite 4 blackness: this eventually results in the player arriving at Floarama Meadows. Trying to backtrack result in the player eternally stuck in the Elite Four door.
  • Third Gen (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald) has the Bad Egg, which may be the game punishing the player for cheating. To elaborate, its a glitched Pokémon egg that shows up when one uses a Gameshark or otherwise screws with the game's data, and can either be benign and simply appear in an encounter as a "Not recorded yet" Pokédex question mark with the name ??? and caught as a bad egg, or turn one of your Pokémon in your current party into one that can not be removed, or worse, replace the first Pokémon in your active box with an egg (as well as any others you try to replace it with). When hatching, Bad Egg can actually erase the player's save file (maybe as a Shout-Out to the cruel Copy Protection in EarthBound), or sometimes, the glitch Pokémon does so without hatching at all.
    • A similar, but different, glitch from Generation II is the Glitch Egg. Acquired from doing the Celebi egg glitch improperly, the Glitch Egg appears to be nothing more than a normal egg; however, it hatches into another egg. And will continue an indefinite cycle of hatching into another egg forever. While Glitch Egg itself is harmless (other than hatching into itself and having a badly garbled Pokédex entry), it can be quite horrific for a player attempting the Celebi egg glitch, as the only way to truly know if the glitch was successful is for the egg to hatch, potentially rendering all their effort for naught.
    • When the Bad Egg hatches, you only see another Bad Egg. Then the game freezes. This implies that its form is even more alien than the other glitches, to the point the player can't imagine it hatching. And with the game freezing, it either implies the trainer's mind is completely broken, or that the egg killed the trainer.
  • The ZZAZZ glitch. It gets rid of the in-battle music and replaces the cries with late-arriving, grating noises. It also changes the player's name to ZZDZZAZZ4ZZ Z ZIZZ9ZZ[box]ZZ. In addition, it makes the sprites of almost anything become garbage, and almost anything players do makes their Pokémon explode.
  • Thanks to a certain glitch, the real reason why trainers need Pokémon before going into the tall grass is revealed: this is why.
  • While thankfully only accessible with a Gameshark, one little thing makes the GSC version of Glitch City ecen worse: a black-and-white woman (resembling a ghost) will sometimes be waiting for the player there. Walking towards her results in her attacking, playing the Burned Tower music when she does. Trying to battle her will only result in madness. Additionally, there's unused text in Gold and Silver suggesting somebody's daughter going missing in the Burned Tower.
  • A few glitch Pokémon have stats high enough to make even Arceus's pale in insignificance. To put that in perspective, Arceus is the Pokémon equivalent of God himself.
    • Glitch Pokémon can actually be traded.


The Misery of Orre

The region of region of Orre from Pokémon Colosseum gets its own folders thanks to mad scientists that enjoy corrupting Pokémon, a barren wasteland, and thugs galore.

  • Orre is a Crapsack World compared to other regions, including Sinnoh and Team Galactic who attacked it. Basically, a region-wide Pokémon equivalent to Gotham City, which is saying something. See below.
  • Orre itself seems to be a rather darker setting than the other Pokémon games. Most of it is a desert wasteland, save for one little grove of trees that Celebi's power presumably keeps green. The wastes cut off a little further west in XD, but still, Fridge Horror kicks in when wondering how the rest of the region got that way.
  • Phenac City, with Colosseum's Big Bad Evice as its mayor. The fact that the chief of the biggest crime syndicate in Orre is running the city should give anyone nightmares, but XD manages to top that with not just the mayor, but everyone in town - the real civilians are locked below the Gym, its Leader included - being a Cipher agent in disguise.
  • The deserted cruiser Libra in XD, with no music but the sound of the wind and the sand pelting against the outside of the ship...
    • Also, how a ship got out in the middle of the desert in the first place - the Pokémon onboard were jacked by Cipher while the ship itself was being psychically carried by XD001. This time the syndicate doesn't fool around: they beach a ship as a weapons test.
  • Cipher. The organization as a whole can be factored in as a Complete Monster of an entity.
    • "Seal the hearts of Pokémon" may be cheesy for an Evil Plan, but the real horror is what it implies - they Mind Rape a Pokémon by stripping it of all sense of compassion, emotion, and empathy, leaving nothing but a soulless, heartless killing machine behind. Any remotely "scary" Pokémon becomes suddenly even worse, much worse. It's also a Deadly Upgrade in XD, thanks to the Pokémon refusing to receive items from the trainer and sustaining damage at the end of each and every turn of the battle. Not even Pokémon Centers can do anything about Shadow Pokémon other than healing them.
    • The Mind Rape can also be seen as an unnervingly accurate metaphor for real-life cases of shock and self-injury stemming from abuse or trauma. Multiple continuities show Pokemon having personalities similar to young children, especially Togepi who is said to share its happiness with others: this doesn't keep an ex-R&D Hordel in XD from giving players a Shadow Togepi with a request of purifying it.
  • The actual owners of Shadow Pokémon fall into four categories - people who want to set them right (Wes, Rui, and Michael), people who don't know the bum deal they got, people who want them for their power, and the members of Cipher. Ranks in said organization are typically indicated by how many Shadow Pokémon the members possess - lowly grunts typically have one or two, with higher-ups having up to four. Greevil has a grand total of seven, four of which are legendaries, and one of which (XD 001, that is, Shadow Lugia) is so thoroughly corrupted that its physical appearance even changed to reflect this. Considering Cipher is one of those Names to Run Away From Really Fast, it's easy to see how the whole group beats out Cyrus in terms of sheer evil.
  • There are, in all of Orre, only two police officers the player can meet with. Even with the expected RPG visible-to-actual population issues, that's not enough police to deal with Team Snagem, let alone Cipher. And with all the other hooligan types in the region, particularly in the police department's turf in Pyrite City, the criminal underworld can be suspected to be much larger. While in other regions, the police are incompetent, in Orre the inmates are running the asylum.
  • Nascour. His white hair is Medusa-like, he wears a skirt along with his uniform, and he was toting the red iris/black sclera look before Master Albert on top of that. He's essentially the face of Cipher in Colosseum (Evice, aka Es Cade, is the real boss, but Nascour runs things overtly to keep heat off him). He also promises, before your fight with him, to show you "the humiliation of total domination" before the spectators at the Realgam Colosseum.
    • Also, when fighting him there is no music at all. All that can be heard is the crowd chanting "BATTLE! BATTLE! BATTLE!" endlessly. Every time you faint his Pokémon, they boo as one voice; every time the player's party suffers a defeat, they all cheer for him. Basically, the definition of Villain with Good Publicity taken to a ridiculous extreme.
  • In Pokémon XD, there is a video where Dr. Kaminko's eager assistant Chobin details the inventor's creations. While some of these inventions are either completely useless, such as light bulbs that consume ten times as much power, there is one particular invention called the "Haunted Radio". Works like a normal radio, except when tuning in at 2 a.m. and listen very closely, you are said to be able to hear a tiny voice moaning "Please help meeeeeeeee." However, it's just a joke of the professor's.
  • The Ceiling Peon is the last thing players need when their team is on its last legs. Struggling through some "abandoned" complex looking for a healing machine, and a Peon drops right in front of trainers, pulls out his Pokémon, and wipes theirs out. Unlike the other teams, Cipher employs Ceiling Peons regularly in all of its installations. Taking this even further, one Ceiling Peon ambushes the player on the elevator during the ONBS raid.
  • Here's a list of some Shadow Pokémon owned by Cipher's higher-ups: Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Zapdos, Moltres, Articuno, Lugia, Dragonite, Tyranitar, Salamence, Metagross. 7 Legendaries and 4 "semi-legendaries". Cipher was able to not only CAPTURE what equates to gods and demi-gods (something any Pokémon player knows is not easy), but also corrupt them.
  • Lovrina's Death Glare when she's ready to battle for the second time.


Menacing moves

Pokémon are often fighting in battles for their trainers, but players can forget how painful being at the receiving end of an attack can be, just as often.

  • Curse, Ghost-specific version: it involves the user shoving a nail, slowly, into its own face, then doing the same thing to its opponent.
  • Mean Look: erratically blinking eyes in Generation II, Giant Eye of Doom in Generation IV.
  • Screech: a screech that's actually more of a chime from Generation III onwards, but relies on Hell Is That Noise in Generation II.
  • Muddy Water: a muddy version of Surf, involving a wave of muddy water splashing on the opponent.
  • Dark Void: a move that (supposedly) puts the opponent to sleep forever, when combined with Darkrai's ability to cause nightmares accidentally. Also, the animation is scary on its own, with the opponent being slowly dragged in the titular void.
  • Any one-hit-KO move: being sliced in half (Guillotine), frozen to death (Sheer Cold), being drilled into (Horn Drill), and being hurled into a near-endless abyss (Fissure).

Guillotine: A vicious, tearing attack with pincers. The foe will faint instantly if this attack hits.

  • Crunch: a more powerful version of the Dark-type Bite attack. Its attack animation in Gen II has the screen turning dark, and a massive pair of jaws gnashes down on the Pokémon with tremendous force.
  • Pokémon Stadium takes most moves Up to Eleven: Horn Drill's is a giant drill on a black background, and if it connects, the screen and the hit Pokémon flash blood red'.
  • Leech Seed: innumerable seeds stick to the opponent, and before being able to brush them off, they sprout creepers which suck the target's life force.
  • Perish Song: five turns after the move is used, both contestant faint unless either one is swapped. This is accompanied with an animation meant to represent a Last-Note Nightmare.
  • Nightmare: it damages sleeping Pokémon through a smiling winged demon.
  • Extrasensory: it basically overloads the brain functions of the target by giving the other Pokémon a sense they're incompatible with.
  • Belly Drum: the user slaps its belly until half of its HP bar is gone in order to be rewarded with more attack power.
  • Explosion: self-explanatory.
  • Gear Grind: signature move of Klink, a Pokémon made of two connected gears. The move involves crushing the opponent between itself.
  • Wrap, Fire Spin, and other "repeat move for 2-5 turns on use": despite being weak, these moves trap the opponent.
  • Autotomize: "it cuts off useless parts of its body" and sharply raises speed.
  • Acid Spray: it spits out a liquid to melt the opponent. With the only in-game effect of sharply lowering the opponent's Special Defense.
  • Sludge Wave: Muddy Water, only with toxic chemicals.
  • Scald: burns the opponent with searing water.
  • Shell Smash: shatters its own shell for a power boost.
  • Sky Drop: grabs the opponent, flies upwards, and drops them.
  • Final Gambit: the user loses all of its of HP, and the foe takes an equal amount of damage.
  • Inferno: a massive Zap Cannon-ish fire attack that always burns.
  • Horn Leech: pierces the foe with a wooden antler and sucks them dry.
  • Glaciate: signature move of Kyurem, whose dex entries state that it harnesses amazing ice powers. The move freezes it alive.
  • Icicle Crash: impales the opponent with a giant icicle-
  • Spacial Rend: signature move of Palkia. It rips apart the literal space around the target as an attack.
  • Roar of Time: signature move of Dialga. The most common explanation for how this works is to make time move at different rates for different part of the target's body.
  • Gastro Acid: "the user hurls up its stomach acids on the target". The fluid eliminates the effect of the target's Ability.
  • Crush Grip: gets stronger the more health the target has. This implies that it squeezes the life out of the opponent while it tries to escape.
  • Struggle: only used when a Pokemon has no more options left and can only helplessly flail around in full panic mode. In-game reason: this only happens when your pokemon runs out of PP.
  • Metronome: uses a random attack, which includes any of the moves descripted here.


Ghost stories

Every game has them to some extent, whether they're in-universe (canon) or based on the games (fanon/creepypasta).

  • In Black and White, there's a woman on the second floor of Celestial Tower, who asks trainers to battle because she has a strong Pokémon. Upon defeat, she says "... The Pokémon is no longer with me." Now, given Celestial Tower is Unova's Pokémon Tower (a graveyard for Pokémon), her statement is deliberately ambigous as to how she's whether talking about how her Pokémon isn't with her anymore because it's long gone, or because the player killed it in the battle.
  • The Desert Resort in Black and White has Yamask inside: those are Pokémon based off of Egyptian souls combined with death masks. The White Dex Entry states "These Pokémon arose from the spirits of people interred in graves in past ages. Each retains memories of its former life." A Pokémon from the spirits of the dead, in a wrecked tower. Alternatively, the Black dex entry states "They look at their mask and cry". Apparently, the mask is an exact replica of that person's face when they were human
  • In Black and White, there is a bridge that lies in between Route 16 and 15 called Marvelous Bridge. At the end, a man and a woman can be seen. When talking to the woman, she will disappear before the player's eyes. The man besides her is just as shocked as players are.
  • In Black and White, the Litwick/Lampent/Chandelure evolutionary line sucks out people's souls.
  • A NPC in one of the games provides the following exchange just to screw with players:

"Do you believe in ghosts?"
"No."
"Then that white hand on your shoulder must be my imagination..."

  • The Lavender Tower in the original Pokémon games was a creepy tower full of ghosts that your own Pokémon - without exceptions - were afraid to battle. The music was scary as well, and old channellers shout creepy things at players when they engage them in a Pokémon match (because they're possessed).

"Give me blood!"

    • The ghosts themselves without the Silph Scope: in the remakes, they look misty, but the originals are quite creepy, as well as one of Missing No's forms.
  • The battle with the rival on the S.S. Anne? He had a Raticate. Players' next bump into him is in the Pokémon Tower, this time without a Raticate; he is seen staring at a lone grave stone. And he questions "why you're even here" when none of your Pokémon are dead. The implications speak for themselves.
  • The Preexisting Encounter with Marowak at the top of Lavender Tower.

"Be gone, intruders..." (cue Fight Woosh)

  • The Old Chateau in Diamond/Pearl actually has non-Pokémon ghosts (as in, actual people).
    • In Platinum, it's heavily implied that Charon lived there as a small child.
    • The Old Chateau has a dining area which is split into an unreasonably large dining table and a kitchen. One trash contains an Antidote.
    • In order to catch Rotom, players must go there at real-time night. The fact it comes out of a haunted television may count as a Shout-Out to The Ring.
    • Escape Ropes do not work in the Old Chateau. Lost explorers can only get out by themselves.
  • In Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, when heading up Route 217 to Snowpoint City, there's an old woman telling trainers about the lack of visitors. After giving trainers the Spell Tag - a Ghost-type enhancing item - she's not there anymore when the house is accessed again. A trainer that's near the cabin actually mentions legends of hauntings in the area.
  • Although it's not a straight haunting, at the Ruins of Alph in the HG/SS remakes, if the player talks to his party members, they'll remark the place is freaking them out.
    • The same thing happens when you're inside Mt. Silver: the player's Pokémon suddenly freak out and howl, and occasionally "sense something" and nervously call out. Also, most of the mountain, the route leading up to it, and the Pokémon Center at its base are totally devoid of trainers.[1]
  • The Old Mansion in the third Pokémon Ranger game has with plates that float up and launch themselves at the player.
  • Giratina's place in Diamond/Pearl. Unlike the equally scary Distortion World from Platinum,D/P things are a little closer to reality: Giratina lies in a hidden cave, called Turnback Cave, where supposedly the reality boundaries are distorted, and "dead pokemon can come back to this world". It's literally the door to afterlife. The cave is hidden in a quiet forest, the "Sendoff Spring"; the creepy "Old Chateau" theme starts playing, giving the feeling that it's not a good idea to stay in the spring; and for good measure, the japanese name for that place is "Funeral Spring Path", further implying that's where people's ashes are thrown.
    • It's still there in Platinum, and you can still enter it. In fact, you and Cynthia appear in front of there when you leave the Distortion World. So now we have two equally creepy locations connected to the same Pokémon, both accessible in Platinum, which makes you wonder if Turnback Cave is just an extension of the Distortion World.


Haunting Melodies

Every game or show worth its salt has music with that proper feeling: Awesome Music has plenty of Awesome Music, but sadly part of that awesomeness is devoted to convey fear.

  • The Lavender Town music in the original game was really creepy. It got toned down and sounded almost touching in some of the later games, but it didn't stop fan remixes from cranking the scary aspect Up to Eleven.
  • The music played during the fight with Arceus in Diamond and Pearl is a mess of dissonance and thunderous MIDI-timpani. Fitting the situation, as Arceus is the Pokemon equivalent of God.
    • This music is reused in HeartGold/SoulSilver in an event involving Arceus creating an egg containing either Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina for the player. It's combined with strange geometric shapes and backgrounds made of actual photographs of the real world.
  • The Hall of Origin itself is designed to creep players out given the place's ridiculous height and the eerie music, which is the title screen music, backwards.
  • The music from the Silph Co. building in the original Pokémon games, which has been taken over by Team Rocket.
  • The music in the background of the Ruins of Alph in Pokemon HeartGold And SoulSilver.
  • Team Rocket's evolution signal at Lake of Rage. A level of cacophony that wouldn't sound out of place in a Beatles song.
  • The original games had a lot of creepy music. The Lavender Town theme is just the first of many examples, such as Viridian Forest, the Celadon Rocket Hideout, the Mahogany Rocket Hideout, Pokemon Mansion, Pokémon Tower, Dark Cave, Ilex Forest...
    • In HeartGold and SoulSilver, most of the scarier themes have been toned down. However, the GB Sounds item will change the music back to its original 8-bit form, restoring the creepiness.
  • The music that plays when meeting the legendary birds in Platinum (Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres) is made unexpectedly disturbing by the fact they're roaming Pokémon in that game, and as such, they can appear anytime.
  • In Pokémon Ruby Sapphire And Emerald, the music that plays when battling the Regis gives an ominous sense of ancient ominousness.
  • Giratina's battle music. It's like it's saying, "you're in my world now".
  • The Crystal legendary beast BGM. This song would be okay for the scripted event battle against Suicune, but not against against the roaming (read: randomly-appearing) Raikou and Entei.
  • The drought theme from the third generation is creepy in its own right: demented and insane as the people would be with such an unnatural drought.
  • Mt. Pyre's indoor theme, as expected from Hoenn's "Pokémon Tower equivalent".
  • The third Pokémon Ranger game has an in-universe example; there was a song that was banned for being too scary for kids, talking about black clouds and lightning. Bonus points for the book containing it being found in a haunted mansion.
  • This unused Pokémon track from Pokémon Yellow, said to have meant to be used during a scene where players walk into the grass before getting their first Pokémon, and doing anything but run results in the message "Hurry, get away!"
  • The music used in the Old Chateau (among other places) in the Diamond and Pearl games is downright creepy: it has everything - including the mandatory piano - to fit the Haunted Mansion it plays in.
  • Deoxys's theme. Bong, bong, bong.
  • The music that plays during a battle with an Event Pokémon (like Victini) in Black and White. It sounds okay at first, but after a while, it starts getting increasingly - and subtly - deranged.
  • The final battle music in Black/White with Ghetsis. Creepy pounding Timpani drums, striking, chilling chords, and Ominous Latin Chanting.
  • Years after the release of Pokémon Red and Blue, an incomplete, unused track has been found in the game's coding. Although it sounds like it could have potential as an actual song (with fanmade restorations of it indicating such), the track almost seems like it could rival the Lavender Town theme in terms of creepiness. Listen to it in this video.


Unnerving Pokédex entries and implications

The Pokedex acts like a real world wiki: as such, there are some pretty scary things in there.

  • Porygon-Z. It's a glitched version of Porygon-2 evolved using a mysterious disc that was not approved by Silph-Co, as a jarring metaphor for software piracy: "Porygon-Z can sometimes be seen shaking rapidly for a short time. Whether this is intentional or a glitch is unknown.".
  • Learning that Cubone's headgear is the skull of its dead mother is illogical (and proven false by in-game Cubone breeding), but nevertheless a very disturbing experience for a Pokémon player.
  • Cacturne. It's a four-foot-tall-desert-crawling-cactus-turned-scarecrow that apparently stalks travellers (not Pokémon, not people, just "travellers") until they can no longer move. And then it drains them dry.
  • Banette, while creepy enough in appearance (a maliciously grinning, red-eyed, ghost-creature with a zipper for a mouth), are explained in the in-game Pokédex as being possessed dolls seeking revenge on the children that threw them away.
  • According to legend, Shedinja, which looks like a cicada skin, will steal the souls of those looking in its back. Too bad it's seen from the back when it's one belonging to the player.
  • Drifloon, a cutesy balloon Pokémon, apparently tries to drag people to the underworld.
  • Dusknoir is a huge cycloptic ghost with no legs, weird markings, and a rather haunting body, with a reputation of dragging people to the spirit world. The markings on its chest are actually a second mouth.
  • Gengar, who appears at every full moon and scares people by pretending to be their shadow.
    • Haunter, in the manga had a tendency to use its Dream Eater attack to steal people's souls.
      • When combined, Haunter's Pokedex entry imply he's an Eldritch Abomination slowly killing whoever it wants to kill.
    • Gastly. This adorably goofy-looking ghost head is cute, but also over four feet tall. And since it's made of gas, it can "sneak into any place it desires", according to several Pokédex entries, and can "envelop an opponent of any size and cause suffocation" as well.
  • Darkrai. The Pokémon that locks a small child in a perpetual nightmare until players find a MacGuffin. Its in-game ability is acting as literal Nightmare Fuel. However, Darkrai doesn't even do it on purpose, but it's his defence mechanism.
    • To capture Darkrai, players must go into the previously locked Harbor Inn, where a 'hotel manager' says that he has been waiting for them only to force them into a bed aftwerwards; the player character falls asleep, where he's transported to Newmoon Island. He or she will have to defeat or capture Darkrai to escape. When waking up, the man is nowhere to be seen, and out of the inn, a sailor will say "you that you were asleep for a long time", and mention that no one's lived in that inn for 50 years.
  • Parasect, once a cute little Paras that becomes consumed and controlled by a fungus. The Pokédex entry says that in Parasect, the mushroom has grown so large that it literally sucks the nutrients from Paras' body to the point that it's stunted Paras' growth permanently. In other words, Paras is a Nymph (IE: Larval stage) insect, but Parasect is one as well. Only the mushroom has grown, making the timid Paras into a very aggressive Parasect.
  • Mewtwo. He's essentially a genetically mutated feline created for the sole purpose of being used for Team Rocket's conquests. While all Mewtwo wants is to be left alone in peace, making him angry is still never a good idea.
    • The movies showed him using horrendously powerful telekinesis to all but murder everyone around him.

"We dreamed of creating the world's strongest Pokémon... and we succeeded."

  • Harley's (Not to Be Confused With Harley Quinn) Wigglytuff, whose evil-looking purple shadow across its face is actually a facial marking.
  • Hypno, a Child['s Dream]-Eating Pokémon. It leads children away by hypnotizing them and they're never seen again. There is an official shirt that played upon this, featuring a photorealistic Hypno leading away silhouettes of actual children. Pedophiliac undertones are rampant.
    • In FireRed and LeafGreen, the child Lostelle loses her way in the Berry Forest on the third Sevii Island. She's found in the deepest depths of the forest, crying about a scary Pokémon chasing her - to no one's surprise, it's a Hypno.
    • Pokédexes imply that people may sometimes wake up "to find one of them standing over your bed, catching and eating your dreams".
  • Kadabra and Alakazam are said to have incredible intelligence and psychic abilities (more so with Alakazam) like telekinesis: nothing could stop them from doing whatever they want.
    • Pokédex entry: "It happened one morning - a boy with extrasensory powers awoke in bed transformed into Kadabra."
    • According to the old Red/Blue Pokédex entries, Alakazam's IQ is said to be 5,000 (compared to Stephen Hawking's 200-ish), and in Yellow, it states that Alakazam can memorize anything.
  • Hitmonlee: Karate King of the Uncanny Valley, with mutated, short arms, virtually no mouth, not even a nose, just eyes that stare.
  • The Voltorbs and Electrodes disguised as item balls in the first-gen games. It should be noted that Voltorb and Electrode were only discovered after the creation of Poké Balls: their Pokédex entry for Ruby and Sapphire outright says they're Poké Balls that came to life.
  • Gorebyss: despite its beautiful looks, "it consumes its prey by sucking out the victim's body fluids". Or to quote Gorebyss's Pokédex entry from Emerald, "Its light pink body color turns vivid when it finishes feeding." Its name is a portmanteau of the words "gore" and "abyss".
  • Golbat. From the Pokédex, we learn that Golbat "feasts upon the blood of both people and Pokémon and does not stop until it is full", and Golbat is 1.6m tall and weighs 55 kilograms (5 feet, 3 inches, and 121 pounds). In caves and at night, they can be found everywhere.
  • Ekans, Arbok, and Seviper, which are pretty much giant, poisonous snakes.
  • An episode of the anime, a Mismagius was totally messing with everyone's dreams.
  • Grimer and Muk leak "horribly germ-infested fluid".
    • According to the entry on Bulbapedia, a single drop of Muk's body can kill everything in a lake and make it uninhabitable. Touching it's footprints can give horrible flu. Basically, the "facts" imply a rampaging Muk is the Poké-verse equivalent to Chernobyl. As always, though, there's Gameplay and Story Segregation.
  • Gulpin and Swalot play on the Primal Fear of getting eaten. Swalot can swallow just about anything (the Pokédex says a car tire is the largest thing it can eat).
  • The Dark-type Absol senses disasters and tries to warn people, but not only they don't listen, they actually blame it for the disasters.
  • Gligar looks like an Ugly Cute cross between a scorpion and a bat, but the Pokedex states it "swoops in silently, latches onto your face, and injects you full of poison". Basically, it's a flying facehugger Pokémon.
  • Bug Pokémon. While Misty's phobia of bug Pokémon is Played for Laughs in the anime, the fact of the matter is that they are often at least the size of car tires.
    • Beedrill are said to attack in big swarms, are as aggressive as hornets, have stingers for hands, and are 3-foot tall.
    • Scyther is a bug the size of a person which is apparently permanently pissed off. It also has scythes instead of hands. Which, according to one of its Pokédex entries, get sharper as it cuts things, meaning it gets deadlier the more it kills.
    • Beautifly is a three feet tall swallowtail butterfly whose multiple Pokédex entries say to be savage, and has few qualms about stabbing things with its proboscis and - like Gorebyss from further up - draining all their fluids.
    • One of the largest Bug-types out there is Yanmega, based on an actual prehistoric giant dragonfly, it is over six feet long, can dislodge trees when taking off, is capable of lifting a grown human off the ground, can shred its enemies' internal organs from the shockwaves created by its wings, and is known for "biting apart foes midflight". Its appearance is scary by itself as well.
    • Cascoon's Pokédex entries state: "Encased withtin its tough cocoon, it endures attacks. it never forgets the appearance of its foes.", and in Platinum, "It never forgets any attack it endured while in the cocoon. After evolution, it seeks payback".
    • Dustox, Cascoon's three-foot-eleven and Psybeam-firing evolved form, is a moth, and as such, it's only active at night, hunting people down while they sleep. Andboth this and Silcoon/Beautifly come from the same extremely common worm Pokémon, Wurmple.
  • Combee are really cute, but being swarmed by a bunch of them would be frightening, which is what Vespiquen forces them to do. The Combee fly out of the honeycomb at the bottom of Vespiquen's skirt-like abdomen, which is exactly why it's shown lifting up its abdomen in its official artwork: "Vespiquen is about to shoot its angry bee babies at you". While sporting a red-eyed Death Glare.
    • Black/White has Scolipede, an oversized centipede that dwarfs even the abovementioned Yanmega by being eight feet tall, weighing in at over 400 lbs, and generally being fast. Its signature attack involves curling up and rolling, with each of its stings having the same poisonous effect.
  • Nidorino's horn is "strong enough to pierce diamonds", and he's a Poison-type.
  • Pinsir apparently likes to grip its prey in his enormous pincers until it is torn in half. Said pincers are strong enough to shatter thick logs.
  • Houndoom is basically a Hellhound, with a little skull pendant and a call that the ancients once imagined to be the call of Death itself. And yet they're still capable of becoming the player character's loyal and trusted friend. They probably have the same problems as Rottweilers do in Real Life.
  • Latios and Latias are found in the game carrying the item Soul Dew, which increases their stats. In the movie "Pokémon Heroes", it's discovered that the Soul Dew is actually made from the soul of a dead Lati. So the Lati seen in the games is carrying around a trapped soul to make it stronger.
  • Vileplume is a carnivore. It spreads hyper-allergenic pollen that's also toxic, then chews on those who are immobilized by it.
  • Spiritomb. It's a Ghost/Dark-type that was sealed away for 500 years as punishment for misdeeds, made from 108 souls. Additionally, Ghost/Dark types have, so far, the only combination that's not weak to any attack.
  • Gyarados is infamous in-game for knocking down cities when berserk - that is, always. It also has the Intimidate ability, that has the in-game effect of scaring other Pokémon as well. It can be found in tons of bodies of water.
  • The flying-type birds are the counterparts of pidgeons, sparrows, starlings, and crows; yet in the Pokémon world, they're all big and pretty aggressive, attacking in flocks. In the anime, a swarm of Spearow were going to actually kill Ash and Pikachu as soon as in one of the first episode. Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" inevitably comes to mind. Then there are bigger evolved form of said birds: pelicans that can launch tidal waves, the eagles that know kung fu, and even Giant Flyer ones.
  • Machoke's arms. "The skin has stretched apart because it can barely contain its huge muscles". Whether those lines are exposed muscles, veins or stretch marks is never explained, and yet, Machoke somehow manages to smile about it. Manliness alone fails to justify it.
    • Machamp in general is also creepy. He grows extra arms out of nowhere, and his evolution before has no sign of 2 extra arms coming in from the back of his very spine.
  • Froslass is based on the yuki-onna, a type of ghost in Japanese folklore that appears during snowstorms and takes the form of a beautiful young woman without feet coming into being when a regular, foot-having young woman freezes to death in the mountains during frigid weather. Depending on the disposition of the ghost, which varies from story to story, it will either guide you to safety or get you hopelessly lost so that you suffer the same fate as she did.
  • Kabutops' Soul Silver's Pokédex entry managed to make it outright horrifying. To clarify, Kabutops is a vampiric 4-foot tall bipedal horseshoe crab with scythes for arms.

Pokédex: "With sharp claws, this ferocious, ancient Pokémon rips apart prey and sucks their body fluids."

  • Kirlia and Gardevoir: apparently Kirlia can distort reality and create a rip in dimensions whenever they use their psychic powers. Gardevoir can do that, but are stronger to the point they can create black holes to protect their trainer.
  • Tyranitar is strong enough to make entire mountains crumble: after one goes on a rampage, "maps have to be redrawn to account for the damage".
    • Aggron (a fellow beastly-looking Pokémon who's a bipedal metal Triceratops) lives around mountains and will savagely protect its territory from all comers, and repairs any damage to its home. What if a Tyranitar rampaged around an Aggron's mountain home?
    • About the map changes, Tyranitar pre-evolutions (Larvitar and Pupitar) are found in the wild in Mt. Silver, near the Victory Road. A zone whose geography has severely changed from Gen I to Gen II, disappearing a whole route. A very transitated route, leading to the Pokémon League.
    • Larvitar's Pokedex entry describes it as "A Pokémon that eats soil. Once it has eaten a large mountain, it goes to sleep so it can grow."
  • Mr. Mime's laugh in Pokémon Stadium.
  • Unown are a Hive Mind of Eldritch Abomination Reality Warpers shaped like Alphabet characters (plus Question and Exclamation marks).
  • Bellsprout's Generation I sprite looks like a skull on a plant.
    • Victreebel is implied to be a man-eating plant: one of the Pokédexes mentions that "any and all explorers who have found Victreebel's secret society in the jungle never come back".
  • A fair few of the Gen I sprites are scary-looking, in fact, due to being very Off-Model in comparison to their official art: see Exeggutor's Red and Blue sprite, Nidoqueen's Green sprite, Golbat,Mew's original sprite in the Japanese games, Haunter's sprite.
  • Giratina's overworld sprite in Lost Cave (moreso than in Distortion World) because it's there and you can be walked around. If it equated to actual size, and considering proportions to the player, Giratina is about six times taller than the player and just looks like some sort of Eldritch Abomination centipede/dragon/ghost... thing. It doesn't help how purely roar-like its ID cry is.
  • Wobbuffet and Wynaut are cute, funny, and surprisingly awesome. But the first is that they're usually banned in tournaments, due to their ability, Shadow Tag, which prevents the opposing Pokémon from switching out. Also, its tail: it's mentioned in the Pokédex that there's a secret about them, and that Wobuffet are oddly protective of their tails. Someone figured this out when looking at how Wobuffet looks and acts like an inflatable punching bag, because it actually is (and in the Super Smash Bros. games it acts exactly as such). The 'eyespots' on Wobuffet's tails may well be its real eyes, and the tail might well, in fact, be the actual Pokémon: the entire body is merely a protective decoy.
  • Dusclops is a cyclops shell with a giant glowing red eye; a shell as in, "it is a black hole on the inside", that can brainwash people just by waving its hands around. Duskull have always been creepy to some despite the "But it's so cute!" found in much of the fandom; nevermind the Pokémon's very Grim Reaper-esque features.
  • Xatu is a clairvoyant Psychic/Flying Pokémon that the R/S Pokédex describes as silent and unmoving because "shocked by the terrible things it sees in the future". In other words, Xatu is a Pokémon that spends most of its life paralyzed in fear: a flying-type, paranoid bird with psychic powers.
  • Poliwag's cute spiral is, in fact, its internal organs, which can be seen though its skin. However, when evolving, the swirl changes direction.
  • Tentacool and Tentacruel are based on jellyfish. Jellyfish have tentacles lined with millions of tiny stinging structures designed to inject venom that, depending on the species, can cause incredible pain or death in humans (also mentioned in its Pokédex description). What makes this words is Tentacool's status as Goddamned Bats in the water areas seen in the games.
  • As mentioned before, taking an Arceus (provided players own one) to the Ruins of Alph results in the most out-of-place, trippy cutscene ever; afterwards, Cynthia points out that "this is what happens every time an egg is created". As in, what always happens at the Day Care. According to Word of God, the images you see are actually Arceus recreating the universe from scratch just to give that egg.
  • Gen V Pokémon Musharna, with pink smoke protruding from its head, who seems to be perpetually sleeping: this has the unfortunate effect of making it look as though it's suffered a grievous head injury.
  • Another new Pokémon, Cofagrigus, is a sarcophagus with a malicious grin on its face and ghostly hands peeking out of the inside of the coffin. Its ability, Mummy, gives the same ability to anyone hitting him: in other words, Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Sableye. According to the Ruby Pokédex, they're thought to steal the spirits of people when their eyes glow in the dark. Their eyes are made of crystals. However, Sableye's eyes turned into gemstones because they EAT gemstones. Sadly, doing the math is not for the best here.
  • Magneton: the Pokédex says that 3 Magnemite join together to form one of these. However, Gameplay and Story Segregation makes it worse, as even with three Magnemites in the party, when one evolves, the others are still there, leaving the player wondering where did the others come from.
  • The Dark/Dragon line of Deino, Zweilous, and Hydreigon is a dragon that starts with one head, grows a second one when he becomes Zweilous, and gains a third one as Hydreigon; while two of them become hands. The creepiness comes from the dex entries: It says that Zweilous's heads fight over food, which means that both of them are intelligent. According to Hydreigon's dex entry, "The heads on its arms lack brains."
    • Hydreigon is also one of the few Pokémon who appears to be explicitly malevolent and destructive in nature. It's even called the Brutal Pokémon.
  • Litwick is a cute little Fire/Ghost candle, but the Pokedex says "It burns brighter when it absorbs a human soul", and that "It tricks people into thinking it's a helpful guiding light before doing so". Its evoluted form "wanders the streets actively looking for the souls of the dead", as well as "appearing when you're on your deathbed and severing your immortal soul from your body".
  • Genesect, a Generation V legendary, was feared as the ultimate hunter, and as such, probably locked up somewhere for a really good reason, like Team Plasma boosting its strength to legendary levels.
    • It was feared as the ultimate hunter 300 million years ago, long before humans, when there were mostly small lizards, amphibians, and bugs. That overpowered monstrosity could have easily wiped out all life on the planet. And there wasn't just one of them, it was an entire species. So imagine hundreds of five-foot tall bipedal insects with cannons[2] running around killing whatever they want to, because their closest competition is some ancient lizards, frogs, and giant dragonflies (Yanmega). It's a good thing it went extinct.
      • It gets worse when you consider why it might have gone extinct. Species generally go extinct when the climate changes too much for them to adapt, their food source goes extinct or something else outcompetes them. That provides two new horrors: Either Genesect wiped out the local ecosystem, or something even worse took over...
  • Seismitoad, another Gen V Pokémon, essentially looks like a Politoed, only blue and with a bunch of orbs around its skin: one of its available abilities, Poison Skin, causes any physical contact to have a chance of poisoning the toucher.
  • Primeape is a prime offender. Pretty much every Pokédex entry mentions its Joe Pesci-like tendencies. As in, it can be pissed off by pretty much anything.
  • Jellicent. The line from its Black Pokédex is disturbing: "The fate of the ships and crew that wander into Jellicent's habitat: all sunken, all lost, all vanished." The white Pokédex mentions that "life energy" is its favorite food.
  • Elgyem, the alien Pokémon introduced in Generation V. It and its evolved form, Beheeyem, can completely rewrite a person's memories, and the fact that they're aliens and have seemingly attracted little attention from the scientific community means that they probably do this whenever someone sees them.
  • Durant: ants that are thirty centimetres tall, with steel covered skin that would make it nigh impossible to stomp on them.
    • Heatmor's dex entry. It grabs a Durant, blows fire on it until the heat melts its exoskeleton into slag then delightfully cooks its internal organs and devours them one by one. Of course, given Durant is a steel-type, it's only logical that his Arch Enemy is a fire-type anteater, akin to the Zangoose/Seviper rivalry.
  • Eelektross is an enormous lamprey that is also a living dynamo. It hunts by slipping out of the ocean, grabbing its prey, shocking them, and chowing down.
    • It also has no weaknesses in the games. Its type's only weakness, Ground, is canceled out by its ability, Levitate.
  • While Volcarona is mentioned as having been deified as a bringer of light, it still is an enormous moth that spreads embers wherever it goes; one flap of its wings is enough to set vast swaths of land ablaze. And it's just one of many.
  • As far as openly malevolent Pokemon go, there are Tornadus and Thundurus, the storm djinns. These are pogeys who, for no apparent reason whatsoever, flew around causing massive, land-devastating storms at random. Thankfully, they have a mediator in Landorus.
  • Krookodile's entries describe it as being able to "...expand the focus of its eyes, enabling it to see objects in the far distance..." Plus, "They never allow prey to escape".
  • Kyurem. Apparently, it would actually hunt and consumehumans and Pokémon alike. Worse still, it's a Legendary.
  • Gothorita, the Pokemon that is known far and wide in Unova for hypnotizing people. Sometimes those people are never seen again. Its Dream World Ability is Shadow Tag and its pre-evolved form is known for obsessively staring at people.
  • Ditto. Found where Mew was cloned, with its same colours (both are pink normally, and blue when shiny), and the same weight. Adding the fact that both are the only Pokémon that can learn transform, Ditto might well be a failed clone of Mew.
  • Starmie's Pokedex entries suggest that it might be an alien species and that its core sends out radio signals into space.
  • Some of the sprite animations in Pokémon Black and White. Dusknoir's and Magnezone's constantly-shifting, "floating" single red eye can be unsettling, though at least Dusknoir doesn't open and close its Belly Mouth this time. Bronzong, meanwhile, floats around in the air with its big flashing eyes.
  • The Regi Pokemon: Regirock, Registeel or Regice. They're giant, faceless stone golems that have been around for apparently an extremely long time, as indicated by Regice's pokedex entry of it being formed during the Ice Age. Not to mention their "boss" Regigigas, who has been rumored to move entire continents.
  • Zangoose, while badass, can be scary considering a closer look at its fur suggests the red markings blood and scars. His paws appear to be blood soaked, too. And it's pissed off all the time.
  • Cherubi is a sentient cherry with eyes and a mouth. The fact that it has a second, smaller head it can eat for nourishment is even creepier.


Canon adult horrors (that aren't the Pokédex entries)

This stuff really happens. Ain't no fanon here.

  • The books in the Diamond and Pearl games discuss people killing and eating Pokémon (Canalave City Library, third floor).
  • At Celestic Town, another Galactic Grunt mentions a "package"- and he's open with it and going to destroy Celestic Town with it. They aren't just a crime syndicate, they are terrorists.
    • The package turns out to be an actual terrorist bomb designed to drain one of Sinnoh's sacred lakes.
  • Pokémon: Lucario and The Mystery of Mew, the movie featuring Lucario, confirms a terrifying fact: in ancient times, Pokémon used to go to war with their human trainers/soldiers, who used them instead of weapons. Considering what Pokémon have often been confirmed to be able to do, it could actually have been worse than nuclear warfare.
    • Considering what little of Lt. Surge's background is given and dialogue of a trainer in his gym "Gentleman Tucker", wars with Pokemon still happen in the present time..
  • Escalation of the villainy of the various teams: Team Rocket were generically nefarious, but mostly dim and restricted to ordinary organized crime; Team Aqua wanted to expand the oceans, which would have drowned coastal cities, and Team Magma wanted to expand the landmass, mostly by causing a volcanic eruption and drying everything up. Team Galactic wanted to summon a godlike being in order to destroy the universe and recreate it: Cyrus wanted to end existence and create his own, supposedly "better" universe with him as the supreme ruler. In Platinum, the "perfect world" Cyrus wants to create is a "world without spirit". He wants to unmake the world, and purge it of all traces of individuality, emotion, and thought. And even after defeating him and pacifying Giratina, he says that he has not abandoned his plans, and leaves with this ominous line: "One day, you will awake in my world. A world without spirit."
    • According to an old couple in Sunyshore City, "he was always like this, even at a young age".
    • The vast majority of Team Galactic don't even know about Cyrus's true motives and the true nature of the world he wants to create: he's playing them all like fools.
    • Cyrus is made worse in the Diamond And Pearl Adventure manga: in Volume Two, he explains his plan to Hareta. It starts off reasonably calmly as he talks about "a world where there is no fighting and where everyone can live smiling." Then all of a sudden he grips Hareta by the shoulders and blurts out that, for the sake of that new world, "The sacrifice of thousands, even tens of thousands of Pokémon means nothing!", all while sportinga Slasher Smile and telling Hareta that "We Can Rule Together". In the background, there are thousands of Pokemon graves all lined up behind Cyrus, just to make what he's talking about extra clear.
    • Cyrus' fate in the anime is perhaps more disturbing than anything he did in the games. Basically, he walked into outer space, and the portal he used to do so was then destroyed by Dialga and Palkia. It's possible the whole thing went with it and he's dead now.
      • It's WORSE than that: what he walked into WAS his new world that he was having Dialga and Palkia create. Had it kept expanding, it would have obliterated and overtaken the existing world. But now that the Red Chain was broken, it was de-expanding and shrinking in on itself, since it cannot exist in the same space as the existing world. Cyrus, in pure blind insanity, walked right into a dying universe and disappeared into oblivion. The new world goes from a portal to a small beam of light, which Dialga and Palkia then destroy, causing it to collapse upon itself and get wiped from existence forever. So Cyrus isn't dead: he's deader than dead, as if he had never existed at all.
  • The Distortion World, known as the Reverse World in the 11th film. The idea of a world where gravity shifts under your feet may or may not be frightening to some people, but it starts to get disturbing when platforms hovering above an endless void disappear right as players try to step on them... and when very tall sunflowers grow backwards into the ground when approaching them... and when people behave oddly and then suddenly disappear into thin air. That, the dark color scheme, the Eldritch Abomination that flies overhead every so often, and the creepy music add up to an overpowering feeling that this is a place man was not meant to see.
  • In Platinum, the new opening video and title screen got pretty... creepy. It ends with Giratina's wide red eyes and glowing red grin shining up from a swirling abyss. And while it happened back in Pokémon Red and Blue, this is the game that started the tradition of the Version Mascot's scream as soon as players "Press Start".
  • The fate of the Cinnabar Islands and Blaine in the original Gold/Silver: Cinnabar blew up, almost everyone who lived there has left, and Blaine's become a recluse - yet still a gym leader - in the Seafoam Islands. Thankfully, following the eruption, as remarked by one guy found in the Cinnabar Pokémon Center (as of the remakes at least), everybody got away from the island safely.
  • The Lake Trio, Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie, can turn people into stone, take their emotions, or wipe their memories, respectively, as each one acts as the deity in charge of each aspect. And none of this can be reversed for one thousand years.
  • Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2. The plot was so much Darker and Edgier than the first game that several gamers were traumatized. Listing highlights would be redundant, though, as the Mystery Dungeon spinoff series has earned its own Nightmare Fuel tab.
  • How the researchers fill out these Pokédexes in the first place is a big source of Fridge Horror, as, for example, Houndoom's flames inflict never-ending pain, Muk's poisonous "skin" can turn a virgin lake into a stagnant swamp and whose toxicity can lead to death, Froslass ices her victims as trophies, Spoink's heart is dependent on it bouncing up and down constantly (and if it ever stops, it will die), Dusknoir sends souls to the spirit world, and the list goes on.
  • In Pokémon Special, the most popular manga of the series, the battles are very much filled with Family-Unfriendly Violence that often rivals that of other more mature shonen series-es. Not to mention this is (supposedly) most like the real battling of the games.
    • The manga is truly terrifying when it's not being awesome. Reanimated zombie Pokémon with half-rotted bodies (current page image, see above), an Arbok being sliced in half (with gratuitous blood), a kindly old man who becomes a psychotic ice demon upon donning a skull-like mask, said man kidnapping six young children to train as his personal faceless minions, crystal mirrors that trap people in a temporal river, a space-virus-turned-lifeform that contains the blood of the main character, Archie killing Maxie for an immortality-granting suit of armor, and then the same guy later dying when he loses that armor are just some examples.
  • What happened to Giovanni in HGSS: beaten by a kid again, and apparently Driven to Suicide as a result, if the dialogue and the height of the waterfall are taken into consideration.
  • One thing about Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue: some of the friend habitats (a weird system in itself) show clear signs of former human occupation; in particular, the Power Plant and Weird Laboratory even mention specifically that they were constructed in ancient times by humans, and then abandoned. In addition, the Pokémon of this world know what humans are but have never met one, as though they were a legend or relic out of the past. Implications are up to the players' own imagination.
  • For Italians, while it may have sounded funny during childhood, realizing now that this is suddenly, unbelievably terrifying due to the name the card was given in the Italian translation: "Gas Stupidifero", that is, "Stupid-ifying Gas". Basically, a G-Rated Drug got past the censors.
  • Gold and Silver has the Lake of Rage before thwarting Team Rocket, as Gyarados - normally - are described as being unable to control their power, and so they go absolutely crazy with it, vaporizing everything around them until there's nothing left to violate.[3] They have also exhibited tendencies that suggest they are drawn to violence and rage. Apparently, this change in temperament is thought to originate in a Magikarp's brain cells rewriting themselves upon evolution. After these premises, in Team Rocket's hideout, a creepy little Easter Egg melody can be listened to, thanks to the PokéGear radio: it's a transmission that Team Rocket is using to evolve the Magikarp into Gyarados involving plenty of Hell Is That Noise. Team Rocket is impied to have planned to take it even further by having it driving every Pokémon in Johto crazy as well, near populated areas.
    • It's also explicitly mentioned that the Unown communicate using radio signals: Ruins of Alph is the only place to hear them, as that's where they live, only this time the hellish noise can be listened to at will. It's not as hellish as much as it relies much more on scary vagueness.
  • Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure: When the heroes follow Charon and his goons into the Distortion World, they find not only a creepy landscape, but a creepy landscape littered with bodies. All the Galactic grunts are lying around with no signs of life. A moment before, they were screaming for help.
  • The end-game of Ruby and Sapphire: while Team Galactic didn't get to trigger the apocalypse they wanted, Team Aqua/Magma did. Of course, the hero saves the day, but a brief Darkest Hour actually happened for real this time.
  • The Trick House in R/S/E is an optional area that allows players to get rare, exclusive secret base items. It is run by a man who calls himself the Trick Master, who "welcomes" the player by saying "You're being watched" without actually being there. Pedophiliac implications are evident.
  • In N's Castle in B/W, trainers are given the chance to heal their Pokémon and access the Pokémon storage system. In the room allowing that, a scientist says that they "have successfully hacked the storage system, and can now release all the Pokémon stored within as soon as N gives the command". Suddenly, old foes like Team Rocket seem insignificant.
  • N's entire backstory has him isolated from any human contact (possibly from birth), housed only with Pokémon that had been abused and abandoned, groomed by Ghetsis to be pure and innocent in order to win over the Pokémon of legend and defeat the Champion so he could order the entire country to release their Pokémon, and when N had served his purpose, Ghetsis would have murdered him and taken over Unova. Going through N's room in the castle really brings it home, as many of the toys were quite recently played with. N was a pure, innocent Adult Child being massively used by a Complete Monster.
    • Ghetsis himself: although the chanting of his name sounding like Dennis in his battle theme and his taste in clothing diminished this a bit at first, actual players found out that he was not to be laughed at. He is quite easily the single most horrific character in the Pokémon franchise, and only the heads of Cipher, the Mystery Dungeon incarnation of Darkrai, Purple Eyes and Grings Kodai can possibly rival him for that position. The sheer amount of Fridge Horror from the supplementary information in the post-game (what with being implied to not be N's real father and managing to somehow get the Adamant, Lustrous, and Griseous orbs) arguably puts him on a whole new level of Complete Monstrosity, even among the other Complete Monsters of the Pokémon Universe.
  • One of the Seven Sages says that Ghetsis might not be N's real father. Then whatever happened to his real parents is never addressed.
    • The sequel states that N was living in the woods with wild Pokemon when Ghetsis found him and took him in, claiming to be his long-lost father. Two questions then arise: how did N get in the woods in the first place, and where is his mother? If N and Ghetsis are truly related by blood, then did Ghetsis rape some woman, abandon her in the woods before she gave birth to their child, and then had her "removed" after she did?
  • Ghetsis' Pokémon party, coupled with the in-game Pokédex descriptions mentioned elsewhere in this page, implies heavily that their sole purpose is to be their trainer's instruments of murder: his plan to be the only trainer in the whole world pretty much confirms it.
  • In one chapter of The Electric Tale of Pikachu Ash's Charizard is fighting Ritchie's. While in the anime he fights Ritchie's Pikachu and falls asleep on Ash, in this manga he becomes violent to the point where he's using lethal force on Ritchie's Charizard. Ritchie is unable to call back his Pokemon and Charizard won't snap out of his rage so Ash has to put him into his Pokeball. The scene is quite bloody.
    • From the same manga, the designs for the Pokemon. When they aren't sickly cute they're often realistic and/or gritty. There's also a giant Haunter known as the "Black Fog" who murders people.
  • The part of How I Became a Pokémon Card when Dragonite tries to find his son. His eyes are glowing and he's destroying everything in sight. Military try to kill him until a young Bill comes in and stops them.
  • The ending of chapter 11 of Pokémon Special's Black and White arc is rather creepy. White jumps out of a Ferris Wheel while it's still on - though apparently it's not that far up. As her Tepig just betrayed her she's in tears - but she's lying down in an awkward position with Mind Control Eyes.
  • In one How I Became a Pokémon Card oneshot the protagonist, Akane, is an orphan who was raised by Impostor Professor Oak. As his name says, he's an impostor of Oak. Nothing is verified about him in this man and in the source cards he's a Team Rocket member.
    • In Pokemon Special, he appears briefly and is revealed to actually be a Kadabra belonging to Sabrina, who is a member of Team Rocket.


Other Horrors

Anything else that doesn't fit in other folders.

  • Attempting to capture Kyogre in Pokémon Sapphire is surprisingly scary enough, but the analogous bonus stage in the Ruby/Sapphire pinball game is much worse. The stage is nearly as dark as the ocean floor would be in real life, and the player initially only sees Kyogre's eyes, leading to the feeling of being menaced by an invisible predator. The minimalist eerie music aggravates the uneasiness.
  • The description for the Payapa Berry says "This Berry is said to sense human emotions for the way it swells roundly when a person approaches". Basically, sentient fruit: a vegetarian's worst nightmare.
  • The look in Entei's eyes when he puts a spell on Ash's mom in Spell Of The Unown.

Entei: "You... are... MAMA!"

  • The eighth movie gives us a scene in which the Tree of Beginning's antibodies consume both members of Team Rocket. Jessie's slowly pulled into an antibody's maw, screaming like mad and begging James to help her.
  • Exeggcute, the psychic swarm of sentient seeds.Sunkern (sentient sunflower seed), Seedot (sentient acorn), Ludicolo (sentient pineapple fruit), and Cherubi (sentient cherries) all are sentient edibles.
  • The drought section in Pokémon Ruby, when Maxie disturbs Groudon and the sun's rays are magnified to a dangerous level. All the music that plays in outdoor areas (including the happy, upbeat surfing and bike riding sounds) is replaced with a morbid and minimalistic track. Coupled with the pulsating bright lighting, the effect is unpleasant.
    • In Sapphire, during that part the world begins to continually rain. In Sootopolis, everyone is inside their houses cowering, which makes sense as Sootopolis is pretty much a giant secluded basin about going to flood and drowning everyone in it. The moment where the Aqua leader goes "My God, What Have I Done?", the music that starts is one of the scariest things in any video game.
    • Emerald combines the best of both worlds because both teams wake up their mascots simultaneously: it goes back and forth between pulsing heat rays and flooding.
  • In the episode "Pikachu Re-Volts", Pikachu has a brief Face Heel Turn, complete with glowing red eyes and overall creepy faces.
    • Then, in "Battling The Enemy Within" in the Battle Frontier saga. Ash gets possessed by an ancient evil king. Complete with mascara effects to better show the Demonic Possession.
  • Pokémon Snap allows the player to take a photo of anything in-game, including jewels: when their photos are developed, players get Spooky Photographs as a reward. Also, Charmander can get pretty screwed up.
  • The holes on the outside of the abandoned ship in R/S/E look human-shaped.
  • In the Gen II games, the aptly-named Dark Cave can be accessed before getting Flash. It wouldn't be wise to do so, because it's easy to get stuck without knowing the way out. As a workarounf, Generation 3 has a cave like this as well, where players actually can see, but only a small circle around them.
  • The character "Imakuni?" (question mark included) in the Pokémon Trading Card Game for Game Boy is a pretty unnerving character who has scared quite a few kids, mostly because of his theme song, coupled with the lack of context: he's actually a cameo of a Japanese singer, and he is labeled as "Strange Lifeform Imakuni?" which indicates he is a some kind of space alien.
  • The church in Hearthome City lacks any BGM, and is the only place in the city labeled as "Foreign Building". While it simbolizes the concept of all religius beliefs being alike, the people inside it and their Navel Gazing come off as really creepy.
  • The Nurse Joys in the Pokémon Centers, whose "Hope to see you again soon" message, coupled with the reason you're in a Pokémon Center in the first place, comes off as creepy. Probably, this is why the line has been changed to "come back anytime" ever since.
  • In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, the first Pokémon in the party gets to walk with his trainer (like in Pokémon Yellow). It can be talked to and it would be doing something cute depending on the area. One of the text will say "_____ poked your belly!" That sounds really cute if it is a Pikachu... but if it is a Scyther, Fridge Horror ensues.
    • Players wandering through Victory Road who talk to their trailing Pokémon may get the message "___ cautiously eyes the trap".
    • Coupled with each Pokémon appearance, features, and Pokédex description, the Walking Pokémon feature is a Fridge Horror magner: "TYPHLOSION is having a fun time rolling around in the grass"; "WAILORD jumped for joy"; "MUK suddenly hugged you!"; "GYARADOS is making a face like it's angry"; "CHARMANDER is splashing around in the water"; "SHEDINJA turned its back to you defiantly"; and so on.
  • Lorelei threatens some Rocket grunts with her Lapras' Ice Beam in FR/LG.
  • Encountering the Legendary Beasts in Crystal and HGSS can be creepy: walking along in the tall grass, maybe to level grind, maybe to try and catch a few wild Pokémon, who knows, nothing out of the ordinary for a while, and then... another Random Encounter, but the music is different. And then an enormous beast appears instead of a local Pokémon and disappears as quickly as it arrives.
  • The "bus driver" ad that played in Western countries is downright horrifying. Well, okay, just how malevolent that guy is can be hilarious, but considering how buses are a regular part of many schoolchildren's lives...

Hey, little buddy. Wanna ride?

  • In the manga, being possessed by the Red or Blue Orbs for too long can turn your body to dust. While this is creepy in itself, here's the catch; in HeartGold and SoulSilver, they're key items.
    • They're key items in Ruby and Sapphire as well, though the one you get calms the version mascot rather than awakening it.
  • The Ancient Mew Card.
    • In the anime movies, each and every time Mew is involved, something bad happens.
  • The implications of the random trainers that dot the landscape in these games: while they're generally implied to train Pokémon as well and battle each other, others outright say they've been waiting for the player.
    • Also, some trainers run around in circles, so they don't stand there ambushing people forever. Also, in Black and White, the NPCs actually walk around and sometimes come up to you to talk.
    • Some of those trainers are just children. Some trainers aren't. Like the swimmers, treading water in the middle of the deep sea, sometimes at night.
    • This includes one kid in Hoenn Route 103, who is seemingly doomed to stand in the middle of a grassy patch even though it sets off his hay fever.
  • Poison-types are weak to Psychics. The probable reason is, the psychic waves overload their senses and excretion of poison, making their bodies damage themselves.
    • Also, Psychic types have three weaknesses: Bug, Ghost and Dark, because those are three of the most common phobias.
    • Dark-types. While their tactics seem to be based largely around playing dirty, their immunity to Psychics has often been described in Fanon as a Dark-type being a sort of Psychic void—throwing Psychic attacks at one is akin to dumping water down a drain.
    • Ever wonder why Fire is super effective on Steel-types? Because metal warms up pretty fast, and sometimes it can even melt.
    • Bug type's weaknesses are flying, fire and rock, respectively symbolizing they're being eaten by a bird, burned alive, or being smashed by... well... a rock.[4] In addition, dragon's weakness to ice makes little sense... until realising that most dragons are reptiles: cold blooded. You're shutting down its metabolism by freezing it half to death. Finally, psychic being strong to fighting seems like simple "brain vs. brawn". That, or trying to resist telekinesis using sheer brute force at the expense of the body.
  • In the original Red and Blue, several Trainers carry whips. Among them are Rocket Grunts. They're abusing their Pokémon.
    • Not necessarily true; AJ of the anime series had a whip, but he used it to signal his Pokémon rather than to actually hit any of them with. Understandable mistake, though; Ash made the same assumption.
      • AJ actually was seen whipping one of his Pokemon - his best friend, Sandshrew, who's made of rock and can thus quite easily take it.
  • Realistically drawn Pokémon can actually be quite freaky in an Uncanny Valley kind of way.
  • Internal Clock Battery failure in Generation II games and not knowing about it before hand: it resulted in the save file Lost Forever, and the game forever losing its ability to save.
    • To a similar effect, clock failure in Gen 3. It's always the same time, the same day forever. It just goes on and on. Just like Groundhog Day, only worse.
    • Fortunately, there are ways to fix this, including replacing the battery, although some of these will erase your current data.
  • Trying to print something from Gold/Silver/Crystal with no Game Boy Printer attached results in an error screen and start playing a strange, haunting and slightly depressing little melody.
  • HeartGold and SoulSilver. Arceus event. Real-life images in a sprite-based game. Cue the Mind Screw.
  • Any humanoid Pokémon counts due to the Uncanny Valley.
  • Palkia's cry sounds like a distorted scream.
  • Some of the Pokémon card images from the early sets were rather disturbing. Particularly Gastly from the Base Set.
  • The idea of the Pokémon world actually existing, considering the aforementioned Pokedex entries.
  • The Zorua/Zoroark movie, when Kodai edits the movie clips out (where Suicune's surf may have killed sleeping Pokémon, and Entei's paws burning everything below it). What might have happened is even worse when left to the imagination.
  • Sturdy lets a Pokémon survive OHKO attacks like being frozen at absolute zero or having its internal organs drilled into mush... or even just a stupidly powerful attack. By that time in real life, the Pokémon would have gone beyond pain, barely coherent and screaming at you to make it stop.
  • In Black & White, there is a post-game town known as "Lacunosa Town". The people there say that thousands of years ago, a meteorite crashed in The Giant Chasm. In it, it contained a monster (Kyurem). The monster (Kyurem) was said to have eaten both Pokémon and people.
    • In the sequels, this Pokemon is the key to Ghetsis' new plan. He has a weapon that draws power from Kyurem's ice attacks and he's using it to cover the entire region in ice so that a potentially fatal chill will make everyone fearful enough to surrender all power to him. We see that he's not only been torturing Kyurem through machines, but through his staff that he uses to control Kyurem's body and mind. When he takes Kyurem to The Giant Chasm, where it's at it's most powerful, he orders Kyurem to use a Glacicate attack...on you, the player character. Yes, he attempts to MURDER you via freezing you alive with icicle spears. N saves you, but he brings his legendary Pokemon with him, allowing Ghetsis to use the DNA Splicers to forcibly merge it with Kyurem! For bonus Fridge Horror, consider the above detail of Kyurem having eaten Pokemon and people, and then imagine what Ghetsis might have in store for any trainer and their Pokemon who resists him.
      • And in a seemingly completely accidental bit of Fridge Horror, The Giant Chasm area looks like the Unova region equivalent to the area in New York where the World Trade Towers once stood. Kyurem is like the airplane that crashed into it. And this is the Pokemon Ghetsis wants to use to commit mass terrorism with.
  • Kakuna may look goofy, but cocoons look just like that.
  • The extent to which Pokémon are Serious Business in-story can get very disturbing. In Hearthome City, there's an NPC with a baby that says "Papa! Mama!", but the parent may actually be thinking about "I can feel the baby stroller getting heavier each and every day. I wonder what kind of Pokémon my child will become friends with first?".
  • Trainers forcing players to battle, whether they want or not. Case in point.
  • The Thundarus/Tornadus event in Pokémon Black & White, where a route attendant says that there's a huge storm going on at Route 7. For those unsettled by storms in the first place, just how huge they are is unpleasant. Then, players have to actually chase the storms, and when the legendary Pokémon is met, they're rewarded with this battle music.
  • Just when the anime starts calming down on scary stuff, Ash and his friends (as well as Team Rocket eventually) find themselves in the Litwick Mansion. While the Pokedex entries state that Litwick, the little candle Pokémon, leeches off a human's life force, the Litwick in the episode actually try doing that to Team Rocket. Not only, Team Rocket's energy is drained slowly, over the course of the episode. Thus we see them become more and more lethargic as time goes on only to end up looking like zombies eventually.
  • When Pokémon Hunter J tried to capture the Lake Trio, the remains of J's vessel are almost assuredly stuck at the bottom of the lake, and while she and her crew would have died quickly, her Pokemon’s Poke Balls may have survived intact. Surrounded by rubble. At the bottom of the lake. For a long time.
  • Apparently the original planned name for the starting town in Gold and Silver beta was supposed to be "Silent Hill". Given that Silent Hill is... well, Silent Hill, that would have been a kinda rough way to begin an adventure.
  • Boldore and Gigalith "eyes" are actually two holes, which is turned Up to Eleven in Pokédex 3D.
  • In the anime, the character J is a mercenary bounty hunter who turns Pokémon into stone to sell to her clients for a high price. One of the episodes she appeared in, Pokémon Ranger and the Kidnapped Riolu! (Part 2) shows that a Riolu she'd captured was still able to reveal its location to Ash using their aura connection. This means that when J turns Pokémon into stone, they can still think and are fully aware of it. One of the targets she petrified wasn't even a Pokémon at all, but Pyramid King Brandon. J also tried to murder Ash. Most villains in the anime would try to push him to the side to continue their plans, but J, on the other hand, tries to kill him. It seems that in every episode she appears in she tries to murder Ash, if he messes in her plans. She's almost like the anime version of Sideshow Bob.
  • During Best Wishes, there's an arc where Ash and friends are accompanied to Undella Bay by the mythical Pokemon, Meloetta, who at random points sings a beautiful yet rather haunting song while looking out at the sea. That song turns out to actually be the key to Team Rocket's mission to take over the Unova region, since it can unlock the seal to the Reveal Glass in the underwater Abyssal temple ruins. At the climax of this arc, Team Rocket attacks the heroes at their villa trying to take Meloetta. Ash and Pikachu take Meloetta and separate from their friends only to run right into Giovanni himself. Dr. Zager (from his helicopter) traps Ash and Pikachu in a prism that starts shrinking, and Giovanni tells Meloetta that it will crush and kill them if she doesn't agree to be their captive, so she has to surrender. Then once at the temple ruins, Team Rocket forces Meloetta on to a slab in a crucifix position and then plays back Meloetta's song that they'd been secretly recording. The song plays as Giovanni makes his ascent to claim the Reveal Glass, and the effect is absolutely chilling. The next episode proceeds to turn the show into a Lovecraft Gothic Horror story as Giovanni uses the reveal glass to summon the Kami Trio and transform them into their other forms all as a storm cloud rises over the temple, and he intends to have them use their powers to thoroughly decimate Unova so that he can conquer it. But that's not the scariest part - the scariest part is when Meloetta gets freed and Giovanni gets blasted by the Reveal Glass, and without Meloetta to keep the mirror's power in check, he turns into...THIS.
  • Almia Castle in the second Pokemon Rangers game. An abandoned castle up north that's literally frozen. And it's kinda easy to get lost. Additionally, its kitchen is messy.
    • The Chroma Ruins, which are filled with ghost type pokemon. The fields around it are constantly covered in dark mist, which is made by a Murkrow that's been hypnotized and forced into it.
  • The dark future in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky is bad enough by itself, but the worst part about it is the Sableye's methods of executing prisoners. They tie them to a stockade and about two or three of them gang up on you and use their Fury Swipe attack until death eventually occurs.
  • Humans are badly outmatched in the Pokemon universes, so they created poke-balls to contain live-threatening beings that are taller and meaner than them to battle other menacing Pokemon. If The Matrix is anything to go by, with the "caught Pokémon eventually bonding with theit trainers" thing aside (and even that has its implications), they can revolt at any given time.
  • Shuckles carry around the juice of the berries they eat on their back until it ferments, in which the liquid is then made into a rare candy. This is eerily similar to how alcoholic beverages are made.
  • That star-shaped marking on Accelgor's forehead is actually a gaping hole for where its shell used to be attached.
  • Jirachi, the wish-granting cute fairy, starred in one of the movies, with its voice actor being Tomiko Suzuki, whose role as Jirachi was her last: Suzuki died of a fatal heart attack only a week and a half before the film's theatrical release. Coincidentally, Suzuki passed away on the day of Tanabata, the Japanese star festival with which Jirachi is commonly associated. Additionally, Jirachi's signature attack is Doom Desire, which is highly volatile but has a delay before it strikes.


I bet you could use a Cresselia right about now, eh?

  1. ↑ Except for Bonus Boss Red, whose Heroic Mime status and training-alone thing just makes things worse.
  2. ↑ Its Pokédex entry only says that Team Plasma powered up its gun
  3. ↑ (Sapphire Dex Entry: rampages have been known to last for up to a month)
  4. ↑ Or, less scarily, "Two birds with one stone".
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