Content Warning: This article contains graphic depictions and descriptions of violence.
Published by Bethesda Softworks in 2017, The Evil Within 2 has garnered a reputation for being one of the most genuinely frightening survival horror video games to be released in the past few years. The primary reason for this is its ghastly collection of hyper-violent mutated monsters and ghoulish creatures out to kill protagonist Sebastian Castellanos on his quest to search and save his lost daughter, Lily.
Aside from the main bosses, there are roughly 18 different monsters in The Evil Within 2. Some belong to the same species, and others are wholly unique in their macabre appearances and murderous motives.
The Lost
As the most common monsters encountered in The Evil Within 2, The Lost is comprised of four distinct variants. They include the gaunt female Hysterics, the fiery-skeletal Disciples, the enormous, boil-covered Gluttons, and the grisly psychoplasmic Albedos.
Collectively, The Lost resembles The Haunted from The Evil Within. While the Hysterics are the most common in the game, the Gluttons are the scariest of the lot. They are tumescent, repulsive blobs of deformed skin covered in giant boils and lesions with a disembodied head jutting from their rib cage.
Harbinger
First encountered in Chapter 11, Harbingers are former human beings who've been corrupted to act on behalf of the evil Theodore Wallace. Their terror is derived from their alarming appearance and distinct weapon of choice.
Harbingers resemble humans with metallic skulls and faces swaddled in an eerie bandage connected to a gas mask, two breathing tubes, and air tanks strapped on their backs. They roam around with giant blood-soaked flamethrowers that shoot fireballs from midrange.
Anima
Anima is a mortifying phantom that resembles a cross between a mummy and a banshee. Often shrouded in shadow or silhouette, the Ring-like apparition is only visible to her victims, making her a frightening prospect whenever or wherever encountered.
What makes Anima so scary is her agility and ability to move extremely fast and close great distances in a hurry. Worse, she creepily hums Debussy's Clair de Lune when out of attack mode, but the more humming grows louder, the more threatening she becomes.
The Keeper
Functioning as a sort of upgrade to the Sadist, The Keeper is a psychopathic serial-killing humanoid that uses his trusty meat-mallet tenderizer to slaughter his victims. Donning his trademark butcher's apron, gloves, and boots, The Keeper also wears a square-shaped safe on his head.
The only facial feature The Keeper has is a deformed mass of palpitating flesh situated in the middle of the safe. The Keeper ambles around Union carrying a large sack of decapitated heads he's collected from former victims.
Aperature
The power of the all-seeing eye has never been a more terrifying prospect than the manifestation of Aperature in The Evil Within 2. The monster resembles a giant detached eyeball with a glowing blue iris and huge pupil surrounded by a circuit of bloody connective tissue.
Patterned after a camera lens, the permanently hovering Aperature can wield its tentacular veins to fatally smash victims on the ground below. The ghastly appearance and fear of constantly being monitored make Aperature one of the scariest monsters in the game.
Effigy
The Effigy is one of the scariest and nightmarishly surreal monsters in The Evil Within 2. Mainly composed of white milky viscera called psychoplasm, the monster resembles a flesh-melted, bifurcated hellion drawn from the collective minds of Clive Barker and Francis Bacon.
Attached to a large industrial telephone pole fused at its spine to give it energy, Effigy walks by using its oversized arms for legs. Its rangy attacks include using electricity from the pole to fry its victims and using its huge hands to crush Sebastian's head.
Lament
In terms of sheer repulsive grotesquery, Lament is one of the most unsettling monsters in the entire game. Resembling an indiscernible mass of bone, mutated body parts, and gorily eviscerated appendages, Lament lumbers around with a wide-open mouth and bloodshot eyes that drip acid.
With high perception skills, Lament can spit deadly acid balls at Sebastian while emitting loud, strident screeching noises that round up reinforcements among The Lost. If he catches Sebastian, he can kill him by lifting him up and puking lethally caustic acid in his face.
Spawn
In terms of the most hideously deformed and physically terrifying monsters, the Spawn ranks among the top three in the game. The grotesque quadripedal mutants appear to be the eviscerated fusion of at least four human beings melded into one ghastly creature.
The front of the canine-like beasts includes dual heads connected to an enormous maw of spiky blood-soaked fangs. Walking on arms with large claws, the back of the Spawns have a third head cocked toward the sky. Spawns often attack in pairs, making them doubly frightening.
Obscura
With one lone exception, the balefully bizarre monster known as Obscura is the scariest monster to be reckoned with in the game. Formed from the fetid remains of at least two of Stefano's victims, Obscura resembles a contorted corpse fused with an ancient format camera for its head.
As if the mortifying appearance wasn't enough, Obscura uses its flashbulb to stun and blind its victims long enough to attack with a series of hidden blades on its backside. Creepier yet, Obscura takes pictures of his victims in their final moments.
Matriarch/The Watcher
As the final boss in The Evil Within 2, Matriarch is the scariest monster the game has to offer. Not only is she a frightening foe in her own right, but she is also responsible for dispatching the aforementioned Effigy, as well as The Watcher.
Indeed, Matriarch resembles a skeletal phantom covered in bubbling boils and lesions. Her trademark weapon is the excretion of white milky psychoplasm, which forms both Effigy and The Watcher. The Watcher is a floating mass of viscid white goop with a jawless skeletal face and glowing orange eyes that can attack with a large hand and giant claws. If it isn't defeated, The Watcher will swallow Sebastian whole.