Let's be honest, The Legend of Zelda series has had some weirdly creepy moments in it. Nintendo may be making games for kids first, but someone over on those Zelda teams sure seems to be interested in scarring as many of them as possible at times. Why the series needs so many hands coming out of toilets is a solid question we should all ask more.
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That's not even the worst part. There are more than a few moments that could be plopped right into your favorite horror movie. People might be a bit confused about why the scenes suddenly became so. polygonal, but I'd bet they'd still be creeped out nonetheless.
Every single kid whose first Zelda was Ocarina of Time already knows what I mean. After traveling through time for the first time, you're probably excited to see how Castle Town has changed. Maybe it'll be futuristic and the Mask Shop will have changed to a full costume shop!
Ha! You wish. The entire town is brutally destroyed and is now filled with horrific Redeads. It's such a jarring moment in what, to that point, had been a relatively bright game. I'm sure I'm not alone in admitting I noped outta there and ran right back into the Temple of Time for far too long.
Speaking of terrifying Redeads, the absolute scariest in the series has to be from the most unlikely of Zelda games, The Wind Waker. The developers must have thought that the game was just too cute and timeless for too long, so they needed to throw in horrific Redeads, just as a fun little Salt Bae sprinkle.
If you don't think they're a big deal, you haven't played The Wind Waker recently. Just go look up a video of the shriek they let out, you'll probably jump immediately. It's also possible that just applies to me, meaning I'm just as cowardly as Luigi, but it is what it is.
You can experience this classic moment now remade on the Nintendo Switch, but it's so much creepier on the original Game Boy. If you're feeling like applying the five-finger discount to the local shop of Koholint, you're going to get so much more than you bargained for.
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The next time you enter the shop, that shopkeeper is going to absolutely obliterate you with his best David Blaine impression. It's obviously scary to show kids that stealing is wrong, but just wow Nintendo, you go hard. Respect.
Who in the world thought that the animations that accompany putting on those transformation masks in Majora's Mask were a good idea? It might be a bit of a weirder and darker game, but it is still a kid's game. I remember always avoiding the masks because of just how creepy they were.
The fact that Link lets out an anguished shriek as he puts them on only adds to the creepy animations. Clearly, it's not a fun experience for Link, so why does he keep putting them on? I've seen speedruns of the game; I know Link could make it through the adventure without putting himself through all that.
When I started to see the chatter of Tears of the Kingdom being a much creepier game than anticipated, I scoffed. It's a Zelda game, how bad could it be? Then I wandered into another ordinary cave on a routine exploration, and things got creepy.
I didn't even see the hands spawn. They just snatched me off the wall and absolutely demolished me. The creepy music that crept on and the sudden attack was the most surprising moment in the game for me, and it was one that, to put it nicely, almost caused an involuntary bowel evacuation.
While some people think the Shadow Temple is a thing of horror, I'm more of the opinion that it's the perfect temple for an edgy goth kid. We all had that phase at some point, so just throw on some Taking Back Sunday, and you're fine to get through that.
It's the bottom of the well that's the true horror. You have to be Young Link with his mid equipment, which is bad enough, but you also have to face fake floors and walls, giant skulls, and of course, Dead Hand. You have to do all of that for a magic magnifying glass. Whoever thought of that is pure evil. and probably really likes bugs.
There's just something about zombies in Zelda that are so incredibly creepy. Everyone was probably thrilled to revisit Gerudo Town in the hopes that maybe the team brought back the incredible Gerudo Valley theme from Ocarina of Time, but we were (re)dead wrong.
Walking into Gerudo Town for the first time is like walking into a school for the first time. You have no idea where to go, and everything just looks wrong. Luckily, you're only stuck there for the next few hours instead of more than a decade of your life, but still, spooky stuff.
The creepiest part of Majora's Mask is easily that fever dream of a moon that is just chilling up in the sky the entire time. Ole constipation face is just waiting for his moment to come crashing down on the planet, and it's there the whole time you're adventuring around.
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Whoever decided that the moon needed a face is probably the same person who decided that horror movies need more jump scares. It was so unnecessary. It really could have just been an ordinary mooning crashing to the earth, and the horror would already be real enough.
While it's easy to point to Zant and plenty of Twilight-based creepy moments in Twilight Princess, the absolute scariest was the Interloper cutscene. We probably all remember that creepy soulless Link face, and that creepy Ilia only makes it worse.
Somehow, the Dark Links in the scene are the least creepy part of the whole thing. We've seen him before and put the smack down on him so hard he fell through the floor. Link is supposed to be good, not the kind of guy who stares at people the same way I do at donuts.
Skyward Sword is a relatively simple and upbeat game for the most part, but there is one shocking moment that caught us all off guard. When you make a mistake in the Silent Realm, the various beings that dwell there will absolutely come sprinting at you.
Mixing the pounding music with the horrific beings coming at you makes for one of those moments where you just say "Oh, crap" over and over until you're safe. Plus, this is one of the Zelda games with a hand in a toilet. Had to mention that as well.
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