To many,The Legend of Zeldaseries might seem like a fairy tale rife with adventure, conflict, and a dash of romance. In fact, if it wasn’t a tightly locked down Nintendo property, it’d be right up Disney’s alley. But that doesn’t discount the unshakable feeling that there are some parts of Hyrule that are home to the worst horrors imaginable.
That’s right. If you’ve truly played through any of The Legend of Zelda games, you understand all too well that there are enemies that could easily return in your nightmares. It’sa scarier game than you might think. Poor Link might need a bit of therapy after his adventures.
Updated on May 21, 2025 by Casey Foot: The Legend of Zelda series has a lot of horrifying enemies despite its kid-friendly reputation. Whether you’re exploring Hyrule Field or completing a dungeon, you never know when a creepy enemy might appear.Tears of the Kingdomintroduced a few more scary monsters, which we’ve now highlighted on this list.
13Gloom Spawn
Tears of the Kingdom’s nightmarish Gloom Spawn dethroned Guardians asthis version of Hyrule’s scariest enemy. You could be strolling around Hyrule, admiring the scenery, when suddenly the sky turns red, and an intense music track begins to play, signaling the appearance of the ghoulish Gloom-red hands.
Attempting to outrun this enemy is futile, as they can easily catch up and grab you, squeezing the life out of Link and causing Gloom damage. Even when you manage to defeat this enemy, the horror isn’t over, as Phantom Ganon will appear and attack you next.
12King Gleeok
Though Gleeoks have featured in multiple Zelda games, it’s their appearance in Tears of the Kingdom that is the most terrifying. Whilethe regular Gleeoks are scary enough, the King Gleeok takes things to another level.
This Hydra-like dragon has three heads, each possessing an element: electric, fire, and ice. It uses its heads to shoot elemental beams at Link, electrifying, burning, and freezing him upon contact. The colossal size of this beast is intimidating enough to make you think twice about challenging it. There is even a Gloom-ridden King Gleeok in the Depths if you can brave facing it.
11Death Sword
After Link cuts through the talisman-covered rope inTwilight Princess’ Arbiters Grounds, the Death Sword awakens and begins to move, seemingly by itself. When Link changes to his wolf form, he can see the ghastly spirit wielding the Death Sword.
It has twisted horns, glowing red eyes, and a snake-like mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. As you fight it, it lets out piercing screams and rapidly flies around the room. Once you beat the Death Sword, it bellows loudly and turns into a swarm of flies. The reason for this is never explained, which adds to the unnerving tone of this mini-boss.
10Skulltula
Ah, the Skulltula. Natural arachnophobia aside, this eight-legged critter is made all the scarier by its general design. If you’re adventuring inOcarina of Timeor Majora’s Mask, these monstrous spiders have skulls emblazoned on their bodies.
DuringSkyward Sword, the Skulltulas have a horrifying visage of wide-eyed facial expressions on their bodies. Generally speaking, Skultullas are the embodiment of death, and these critters can be found across several Zelda games ranging from Twilight Princess to Spirit Tracks.
9Koloktos
This robotic monstrosity has multiple appendages and is ready to give Link a really bad day in Skyward Sword. As a boss fight, it is rather straightforward as Link must destroy the cores that keep its body in operation. That doesn’t discount the fact that the designer of this ‘ancient automaton’ might have been a tad disturbed.
This multi-armed mechanical beast attempts to squash Link before gaining legs and ‘arming’ itself with several swords to cut the poor hero up into tiny pieces. When Link finally defeats Koloktos, the robot outstretches its neck with a creepy, wide-eyed smile and laughs like an infant before imploding. Yikes.
Do you want pure nightmare fuel? Well, here you go. Dead Hand from Ocarina of Time is likely to haunt your worst dreams. It’s an amorphous being with a long slender neck that has a skull-like head attached, with a face that looks like all of its defining features are sunken in.
To add further creep factors to this monstrosity, it has bloody arms that emerge from the ground, attempting to grab the monster’s intended victim, likely so that it can chow down. Just look at the size of those chompers.
7Shadow Beast
Shadow Beasts populate the land of Twilight Princess, and they’re imposing creatures that work together with their own kind and can even revive their downed buddies. But it’s truthfully the dark, faceless form these creatures take that is truly frightening, as they often emit an eerie howl and can quite literally drop in out of nowhere.
Because they like to run in packs, it makes them all the more intimidating. But let’s be honest, you’d soil yourself if you saw one of these creeps running full speed at you.
6Guardians
InBreath of the Wild, Link must contend with these nefarious mechanical monstrosities that dot the land. Often, it proves to be more advisable for your health to silently sneak around them or simply avoid them at all costs.
Once they lock on to Link, they’re terrifying as they shamble to and fro. Their glowing eye beams of death are, perhaps, the most terrifying aspect of their operations. They’re highly accurate, and each hit is devastating.
5Big Poes
Poes are often kind of cute for disembodied spirits. Even the hostile ones look like nothing more than floating lanterns with faces. Big Poes don’t really look all that much different - in most games. However, Twilight Princess decided to inject a bit of hair-raising horror into the design of its Big Poes.
In Twilight Princess, these ghastly specters look more like spooky wraiths draped in white cloaks with black, sunken faces. This more haunting, skeletal approach to the visual design of the Big Poes is enough to create a lasting memory.
4Gomess
Speaking of wraiths, try this one on for size. Gomess can be found in the Stone Tower Temple of Majora’s Mask, where he acts as a mini-boss that preludes obtaining the Boss Key needed to fight the actual boss.
Still, Gomess is rather intimidating in his own right. In comparison, the Grim Reaper is probably the closest description of what Gomess looks like. This being carries a scythe, has piercing glowing eyes, and is often shrouded in bats that Link must disperse with light arrows to deal any meaningful damage to Gomess. He’s creepy, but once you get over his appearance, he’s not too difficult to bring down.
