PaigeFTW: ReDeads Never Die
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not one for the horror genre. Games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill are too much for me. I like blood and gore, to be certain, but in the context of a swinging bandit brawl or a finessed serial killing, and not so much face-sucker crabs that pull your brains out through your eyeballs.
There’s still plenty to be scared of in conventional games, anyway. Those gratuitous zombies in Uncharted are discomfiting. There are frogs with teeth in The Witcher 3 (I hate things with teeth). The Clickers from The Last of Us haunted my nightmares with their terrible clicks, squeals and hisses.
But the pinnacle of horror for me remains ReDeads, those nondescript brown zombies that lurked around in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I was young when I first played the game, only about 9 years old.
Think about it: You run out of the Temple of Time for the first time as grown-up Link, and then these shambling, featureless men block your path in Hyrule Castle Town, screaming horribly when you get too close. Unpleasant – but not so bad, yet.
When you meet them again in the tighter corridors of the Kakariko tombs, the intimacy is so much worse.
It’s a lot for a kid to take in, but even as an adult, seeing those shuffling ReDeads makes me anxious. It’s the way you lose control of Link in the face of danger; the way ReDeads barely react to being attacked; the way they forcibly wind their arms and legs around Link and suck the life out of him (while thrusting forcibly).
ReDeads are essentially rape simulators.
In comparison, a Clicker just rips your throat out.
Some things are a lot scarier when you grow up.
