10 Terrifying Batman: The Animated Series Episodes That Gave You Nightmares

Digging into Batman's psyche is one of the most interesting and unsettling things the show has ever done. The greatest villain to do that is Scarecrow, and there is no better place to do that than Arkham Asylum. He's dosed by the Scarecrow and is in fact insane when brought to Arkham.

There are two instances in this episode that truly push psychological buttons, and they're both dream sequences. The second dream Batman has while investigating begins with a simple rat suddenly morphing into Joker, then the Penguin rises from the ground and his head literally pops open to show Two-Face's head. He throws his coin that turns into a buzzsaw then melts into Poison Ivy. Ivy wraps her tendrils around Batman and begins to pull him towards an abyss, all the while Robin and Alfred try to comfort him, telling him that it is for the best.

His first though, and probably one of the frames that everyone remembers from this show, is the first dream. Batman leaves the padded room he's in to walk through an angular interpretation of Gotham's back alleys. As he wanders, suddenly he sees his parents. They walk towards a tunnel, but Batman cannot catch up with them. They walk in, but the ground shifts and shatters, revealing it to be the barrel of a gun. The hammer cocks and it fires, bathing Batman in white light.