10 Most Terrifying Video Game Enemies (And What They Represent)

2. The Mother - The Binding Of Isaac

Intentionally obtuse and abstract, The Binding of Isaac is more of an excuse to blast away imaginative enemies and roll the dice on procedurally-generated levels than a narrative-driven game.

However there is a thematic thread to follow, with the game's main thrust coming from Isaac's religious mother being told by a voice that her son is full of sin. Consequently, the levels themselves see Isaac battling against deformed versions of himself as well as other objects from his childhood, reflecting the character's self-flagellation as he attempts to rid himself of the sin inside him.

However, it's the Mom boss who comes with the biggest symbolic backstory. Represented in-game as a disembodied leg, hand and eye, the enemy design not only reflects Isaac's obsessive and controlling mother who stifles his creativity, but the game's positioning of religion itself as an omniscient and regulating entity.

To top it off, the religious motif comes to a head if you use The Bible item on the boss, which instantly kills her by tapping into her biggest fear: the hypocrisy that she's not as good or as moralistic as she thinks she is.