The Little Nightmares video games are filled with intriguing and mysterious lore, mind-bending puzzles, creative platforming, and, of course, terrifying monsters and villains. The “Nightmares” in the title is putting it loosely with how horrifying some of these beings are. With the series’ unique aesthetic and wonderfully twisted character design, each of these villains leave their own impression on those brave enough to play Little Nightmares. Some, though, are much scarier than others, so here’s a list of the antagonists seen in the Little Nightmares video games ranked from least scary to “keep you up at night” terrifying.

17) The Hunter

The Hunter is the first antagonist you meet in Little Nightmares II, and he’s not all that scary. He sets bear traps, which can easily be maneuvered around or set off with sticks. He also uses a shotgun to gun down Mono and Six, which is rather grounded compared to what other monsters and evildoers are capable of in these games. He wears a burlap sack over his face which is sort of spooky, but he overall just feels like a regular person with a gun rather than a nightmarish creature.

16) Leeches

Real-life leeches are gross and scary-looking enough with their slimy and squirmy bodies and horrible-looking mouths, but these little guys take it up a notch. The Leeches in Little Nightmares are roughly the same size as a human child, devour their prey whole, and dangle from pipes and ceilings to dive onto anyone who walks underneath. It is certainly creepy when they snatch you up, but that’s only if they do. They’re very easily avoidable. Plus, where they’re just big leeches, they’re far from the most creative designs in the games. 

15) The Doctor

The Doctor can somehow crawl on ceilings, is threateningly ginormous, and transforms his patients into living mannequins. He’s undoubtedly creepy. That being said, he looks like Tim Burton’s version of Homer Simpson, which is a little more silly than it is scary. It’s also worth noting that he’s so preoccupied with his patients that it’s very easy to slip by unnoticed. His own creations are far scarier than he is.

14) Flesh Walls

The Flesh Walls in Little Nightmares II are just as disgusting as their name suggests. They’re sentient blobs of flesh with massive eyeballs that make up the walls of the Signal Tower. They look like something straight out of a David Cronenberg film or an H.P. Lovecraft story. The Flesh Walls close in on their prey to squash them or suffocate them. They’re probably the worst foe to face for those who have claustrophobia. They would be higher on the scare-o-meter if they didn’t feel more like a spooky setting than an actual threat, or if they were able to go anywhere outside the Signal Tower.

13) The Shoe Monster

For some reason, there’s a room full of discarded shoes in The Maw, and there’s a monster that lives under said mass of shoes. We never see this monster, which works for it and against it in terms of scariness. Not knowing what is under the shoes adds a sense of mystery to it, which is quite spooky. It can pull people under, probably to eat them or suffocate them. Plus, the feet smell must be awful. However, not being able to see it prevents the player from ever seeing how truly scary it is. If anything, it’s just sort of a random stage hazard more than it is a terrifying monster. The idea of being pulled under a pile of shoes by an unseen monster is still pretty creepy and creative, though.

12) The Guests

The Guests are obese individuals who seem to only know eating and nothing else. They arrive at The Maw and are met with an enormous feast. They eat so much that they’re willing to eat anything in their path, including human children. They crawl and stampede after Six in attempts to eat her, and can even crush her under their weight. Being eaten alive by mindless cannibals is terrifying, but them just appearing as normal, overweight people means they’re far from the scariest things seen throughout these games.

11) Monster Six

Toward the end of Little Nightmares II, Six is briefly transformed into a gigantic, monstrous version of herself. Her arms are twisted and she walks with a hunch. She is insanely strong and can destroy anything in her path and can squash Mono in her grasp. After spending the entirety of the first game playing as her and most of the second game teaming up with her, the sight of her transformed into a monster is a little more sad than it is scary, but is still a threatening sight nonetheless.

10) The Viewers

The Viewers are regular folks who were mutated by strange TV signals. Now their faces are disformed and stretched to bizarre proportions and they cannot pull away from staticky TV screens. If there are no TV sets powered on near them, they’ll seek out the closest one by any means, even if that means jumping off of buildings. They also become incredibly violent when they’re not looking at a TV screen and can kill people by emitting sonic waves from their distorted faces. They’re scary looking, sometimes travel in large numbers, and are vicious. However, they’re essentially zombies that are defeated by turning a TV on.

9) The Bullies

Creepy children have definitely become a horror staple. There’s something about them that adds more fear to any horror movie or game. The Bullies in Little Nightmares II are no different. They’re living porcelain dolls that are malicious as they are violent. Some of them are missing parts of their faces while others have completely empty eyes. These troublemakers kidnap Six to hang her upside down, outnumber Mono and attempt to murder him, and set Home Alone-like traps throughout their school to harm anyone else who enters. They’re strong, fast, and clever, which makes them an actual threat outside of just looking creepy. Thankfully, one good hit to their noggin smashes them pretty easily.

8) The Lady

The Lady is the primary antagonist of the first Little Nightmares, and she’s certainly fitting for the main villain of a game with “Nightmares” in its title. She can blend in with darkness, teleport, levitate, and absorb life energy from others. She’s undoubtedly a threat. It’s quite terrifying when she jumps out of the shadows at you. She’s a bit creepy looking, too. She’s unnaturally tall and slender with empty black eyes, which is off-putting. She may not be as monstrous as some of the other beings seen throughout these games, but she’s still pretty creepy.

7) Living Hands

Living Hands are exactly what their name suggests. They’re re-animated, severed hands from patients at the Hospital. They scuttle after Mono and grab at his face. They’re one of the few enemies in the games that can follow the player up shelves and into air vents, which takes away the few safe places they have. There’s almost no difference between them and Thing from The Addams Family, so they’re about as spooky as he is… if he wanted to claw your face off.

6) The Teacher

Everything about The Teacher gives players the heebie-jeebies Her crooked smile, beady eyes, and sharp teeth make her incredibly creepy to look at. Throughout the school in the second game, there are plenty of hints found as to what she does in her spare time, like tying up children and torturing them, chaining children to walls, and even murdering children. Her “teaching” consists of scribbling jagged lines on a chalkboard and punishing students. What makes her truly terrifying, though, is that she is able to stretch her neck at great lengths and twist it around corners. Practically no one is safe from The Teacher since she can reach them from just about anywhere by extending her neck to find them and snatch them up with her razor sharp teeth.

5) The Thin Man

The Thin Man is the primary antagonist of Little Nightmares II and feels like a blend of other horror characters. He’s sort of a mixture between Slenderman, Samara from The Ring, and a little bit of The Cigarette Smoking Man from The X-Files. He’s extraordinarily tall and thin; so much so that he’s somewhat unhuman-like despite being one of the few villains with a normal human face. He appears to be made of TV static which further gives him a unique design. There’s something especially chilling about his long, slender arms reaching out of a TV screen as he climbs out. His ability to teleport makes him incredibly difficult to escape from. He’s been known to kidnap children, leaving Glitching Remains in their place. The Thin Man is a perfect mix of unsettling in appearance and actually being a major threat.

4) The Granny

The Granny is absolutely one of the most bizarre foes in all of Little Nightmares. She’s a giant, decrepit old woman who swims around the flooded depths of The Maw. What makes her such an out-there monster is that her purpose in The Maw is completely unknown, unlike the other antagonists of the first game who have clearly defined jobs there. She’s just sort of there… to swim and kill children. She is absolutely horrifying-looking and the way she swims is extremely unsettling. She’s super strong and destroys most structures she swims into. Let’s not forget how terrifying it is when she reaches out of the water to grab the Runaway Kid. There’s almost no story reason for her existence. The developers included her for pure fear factor and it works.

3) The Twin Chefs

A pair of chefs may not sound too scary, but these two will haunt your nightmares. They’re usually spending all their time cooking for the hungry guests at The Maw, but turn excessively violent if they catch someone in the kitchen who shouldn’t be there. If they see a child, they will make them a part of whatever meal they are preparing next. Most of the meat they cook is likely human to begin with. Their loud screeches are unnerving to hear as they chase children they seek to chop up and cook. What truly makes them so disturbing, though, is that their faces aren’t actually attached. Either they’re wearing someone else’s skinned flesh, or their own faces are rotting off. What could be under those flesh masks of theirs? 

2) The Patients

The Patients are what the Doctor spends his time creating and transforming. They were once normal people who were unhappy with their looks and went to the Doctor for help. Now, most of their bodies have been replaced by prosthetic limbs and have been transformed into living mannequins, none of which are completely finished. They walk as though their bodies are mangled and they’re in pain. They’re also surprisingly fast for what they are. The Patients only move around in the dark, which is unfortunate for any gamers who already have a fear of the dark. There are also a lot of them and can easily gang up on Mono. These things are pure nightmare fuel, and the only reason they aren’t number one on this list is because they can be stopped just by turning on the lights.

1) The Janitor

The Janitor is not only the scariest entity you’ll come across in Little Nightmares, but one of the most frightening figures in any horror game. He’s the one tasked with capturing children, enslaving some, and wrapping up others to be “prepared” in the kitchen. His long, gangly arms are insanely unsettling. He can grab others from long distances away and anyone hiding in high places. He can also use those disturbing limbs of his to climb just about anywhere. He’s blind due to his rotting skin drooping over his eyes, but he has a strong enough sense of smell that it doesn’t seem to matter and his long arms allow him to feel around quickly and easily. If you’re hiding, nothing is scarier than those long arms reaching at you or feeling around for you. He’s also the antagonist seen the most throughout the first game, so he leaves a major impression on anyone who plays it.