With Halloween drawing near, the creepiest enemies of Hyrule and its surrounding territories begin to roam amongst the living once more. While The Legend of Zelda series boasts decades' worth of horrific enemies, Nintendo's family-friendly series continues to frighten many of its young players.
Nintendo knows how to draw fear through its players. Some of these memorable creatures have returned throughout Zelda's history redesigned to look more terrifying than before. In the honor of the spooky season, remember these abhorrent and encounter a few new thrilling faces.
10 Floormaster
In Ocarina of Time, this enemy crawls around the floor seeking to ram into Link. While its attack method is basic, the fact that it takes the form of a giant, undead hand makes it detestable. Upon defeating it initially, Floromaster splits into three hands. The hands can reform into one or even a small hand can drain Link's energy and grow back into a big one.
Floormasters have since reappeared in other titles including The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap. In the former, it appears from the shadows as an outstretched arm. This creature will move much faster than before, skating across the room or even appearing suddenly to drag Link into the abyss.
9 Like-Like
While the Like-Like has appeared since the original The Legend of Zelda, their design became fairly more grotesque in Ocarina of Time. These slimy, faceless creatures move slowly in an attempt to devour Link. Sometimes, they will even drop on him from out of nowhere.
Like-Likes themselves aren't too damaging as much as they are unsettling. However, they can also eat Link's shield. Save for the Mirror Shield, which cannot be eaten, this makes Link prone throughout the game until he can purchase another one.
8 Desbreko
The much larger cousin of the game's Bonefish, the Desbreko appears in several parts of Majora's Mask, including the Gerudo Pirates' Fortress and the Great Bay Temple. Despite their rare occurrence, they remain an unsettling sight.
Unlike the Bonefish, the Desbreko does not let go once it bites. This giant fish will eat away at Link's life until he uses the Zora transformation to shock it off himself.
7 Seahat
This monstrosity deviates from the Peahat enemy which originally appeared in the NES's The Legend of Zelda. Unlike the Peahats seen in Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker, the Seahat is much larger. What's worse, however, is its terrifying, permanent grin.
These creatures come in hordes surrounding the player. If Link gets too close, they will attempt to ram him. It becomes prudent to avoid this abomination until the player is armed with the cannon and Boomerang. Alternatively, perhaps it's best to avoid the Seahat entirely.
6 Blizzeta
Originally Yeta, a kind, demure NPC that greets Link in the Snowpeak Ruins of Twilight Princess, she becomes the boss fight of the mansion. Yeta comes across a shard of the Mirror of Twilight. In doing so, she transforms and becomes possessed by the demon within.
What makes Yeta scary is the boss's introduction cutscene. It is the creepy "behind the back" scene that builds suspense before turning around to reveal her grotesque, horrifying face once possessed. This cutscene also set a trend in the Zelda series for suspenseful moments such as the Remlits in Skyward Sword, a certain character's true intentions in A Link Between Worlds, and Magda's rage in Breath of the Wild.
5 Dead Hand
In Ocarina of Time, this horror serves as mini-boss twice: Once in the Bottom of the Well and later in the Shadow Temple. Unquestionably the creepiest area of the game, if not the entire series, the Shadow Temple was host to horrors and execution devices of all kinds. Dead Hand was perhaps the creepiest of the bunch.
Appearing with nothing but arms stretched out of the grounds, Dead Hand grabs Link to initiate the fight. Its blood-colored claws extended from its pale, white, lanky arms, as its horrifying visage slowly crawls towards the player, jaw outstretched, ready to attack while Link cannot move.
4 Armogohma
The biggest and ugliest of the arachnid species, Gohma, the boss of the Temple of Time took on the form of a massive, armored spider. The Gohma has appeared in the series since The Legend of Zelda on NES. It's taken on many forms including a centipede in The Wind Waker.
In Ocarina of Time, Gohma was already one of the creepiest bosses thanks to its arachnid appearance and how it dropped down to Link in the first dungeon. However, Armogohma's massive spider appearance makes the creature downright horrifying. Interestingly, the Armogohma also appeared in the Wii U The Legend of Zelda tech demo at E3 2011.
3 Wallmaster
In The Legend of Zelda for NES, the Wallmaster appeared through walls to send Link back to the beginning of the dungeon. However, in A Link to the Past, they began to cling to ceilings and drop down and send chills down the spines of many players. To make matters worse, even if players killed it, the Wallmaster would always return. A Wallmaster boss known as Knucklemaster also appeared in A Link Between Worlds.
In Ocarina of Time, it became even more grotesque in appearance while maintaining the same purpose. No matter what game it appeared in, Wallmaster would surely stop young players from progressing through dungeons until they mustered the courage to return to them. The difference between Wallmaster and other creatures is that this one would frighten kids enough to not even want to clear the dungeon.
2 Skulltula
The classic giant spider enemy of the series loves to surprise players. For anyone arachnophobic, this enemy already tops the list. Skulltula makes waves just because of its sudden, surprising appearance meant it could attack out of nowhere. Adding a Big Skulltula to the mix just makes it even more unsettling.
Skulltulas later appeared in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. Featuring redesigns, these horrors now attacked Link head-on. As if their drop from the ceiling wasn't enough, the player would now have to endure their sickening crawl.
1 ReDead
Debuting in Ocarina of Time, these zombified remnants moved slowly and made low groaning noises. Upon being approached, the player would hear a loud screaming noise before the creature tackled Link and began biting him.
ReDeads appeared in The Wind Waker. While redesigned, the atmosphere of the Earth Temple coupled with their now louder, longer scream made them even more terrifying. If Ocarina of Time didn't do it, The Wind Waker assured that ReDeads will no doubt remain the creepiest enemies in all of Zelda. Redead separates itself for its multiple dungeon appearances, grotesque visage, and the way it just appears around a corner before uttering its shrill cry.