Tomb Raider/Nightmare Fuel

You shouldn't have done that... no, really, you shouldn't have.

The Nightmare Fuel page for Tomb Raider.

The original Tomb Raider had a few of these:
- The centaur statue in Tomb of Tihocan, which explodes with absolutely no warning to reveal the skinless Atlantean demon beneath it, which then lets out an otherworldly scream as it starts shooting exploding balls of muscle at you.
- The Hand of Midas (see image), a stone hand apparently broken off a big statue that turns Lara to gold, one body part at a time, if you stand on it. By the sound effects, she dies of suffocation just before her head is transformed. You need to use the hand to solve a puzzle. Original-to-Video Game Remake comparison.
- Some decorative objects in the levels were 2D sprites rather than being rendered in 3D. Meaning that when Lara moved, they would appear to spin around to face her. One especially jarring instance of this was a sprite of a mummified corpse seen in the first level.
- The huge drop in the final two levels which gives poor Lara time to scream three times before falling to her doom. Oh yes, and the floor is made of solidified lava that causes Lara's corpse to burst into flames as soon as she hits it.
- In Tomb of Qualopec is a mummy which turns its head to watch Lara as she moves around the room. When Lara approaches her it screams and launches itself onto her.
- The oversized rats that usually manage to sneak up on Lara are unnerving. They have a hideous screech and an unpleasantly wet 'n crunchy sound effect when you kill them.
- The mummified creatures in the Egyptian levels, as well as the regular Atlanteans, are incredibly unnerving - even when they aren't actually attacking Lara. You can hear them stalking around, just out of sight, and uttering creepy, raspy groans. They're also fond of unexpectedly leaping around corners at Lara, shrieking, which usually succeeds in giving the player a good old Jump Scare.
- The now-primitive graphics in the first game actually makes things worse because you couldn't see the mummified creatures clearly. You look at them and think "What the hell IS that?!" And the groaning...
- The various Atlantean creatures bursting out of their eggs. The fact that not all of the eggs explode when you approach them (some explode much later on, others do so when you pull a wrong lever in one particular puzzle) makes the sections of the game with the eggs even more tense.
- The Mummycat cutscene.
The Playstation 1 versions were barely graphic when it came to Lara's many deaths and players found joy in finding ways to kill Lara. When it came to Tomb Raider Legend and the remake Anniversary, the death scenes were ramped up if players failed to keep her alive in a Quick Time Event. One gory example is Lara being killed by a T-Rex by being flung into the air and then being eaten alive in one gulp.
- Drowning was particularly more graphic in the newer games, but surprisingly, a common complaint with Tomb Raider Legend on fan forums was that the deaths were not bloody enough, and the camera often panned away/blacked out before the death actually finished.
The soundtrack alone for II... here's [1] in particular that used to make the Floating Islands level so much worse.
- The Lost Island is pretty creepy in anniversary... the flying demons were already bad, but where they come from... it's just wrong..
This troper is not an arachnophobe by any stretch, but that didn't stop the spiders in Tomb Raider II from being creepy, what with their way of appearing and the sound they make as they move around. The giant ones in the Temple of Xian level were worse.
Natla's knife welding, trench coat wearing henchman Kold who has one white eye and also speaks in a low threatening voice is one scary black guy.
- Most players in Tomb Raider II when they get to the end of the first level will use a zipline to cross a massive pit and reach the finish. More inquisitive players may decide to climb down and check out what shiny powerups could be down there. When you finally get off the cliff and onto the pit floor, as your about halfway across the pit, a T-rex appears out of the cave infront of you. This troper needed new pants and is terrified of large caves.
- Then, should you kill (or just run past) the T-rex and find the secret hidden at the back of the cavern and start to run back... a second T-rex appears!
The appearance of the final boss in Tomb Raider III. Dr Willard mutates into a creature that combines Body Horror, Giant Spider and My Brain Is Big into an unholy combination.
The Damned in Tomb Raider III; they say they are immortal and have tried suicide to no avail, along with the fact you have to find embalming fluid to stop them rotting, which is Nightmare Fuel in itself. There's also Lara shooting them in the previous level, when using bullets it can be assumed they just got up later or something, but she can also blow them up with explosives, which comes with the idea that they are still fully conscious while blown to pieces.
The part in the third game's Temple Ruins where you go into a room and find one of the explorers suspended in midair with a hole through his chest. Cue scary music.
Those Aliens Xenomorph type enemies towards the end of III, who spit blue fire and take several rocket and grenade blasts to kill. Can be Demonic Spiders.
The unfortunate RX-Tech scientists, who have mutated horribly as a result of the energies from the meteorite. They come in two types: those who still look vaguely human aside from the fact that their legs have fused together and they can spit poison, and those who have become gigantic brutes who can pummel Lara to a pulp. The very first encounters with each type are huge Jump Scares, and the first type comes with a Scare Chord for good measure.
Tomb Raider III, more so than the other games, often played a jump-out-of-your-seat musical sting to shatter the ambient silence before rolling a boulder or similar trap towards you. Anyone who remembers the tube station Aldwych knows what I'm talking about. Sometimes, it would pop up for no apparent reason.
Also, the second-to-last level, the Lost City of Tinnos, has the most creepy, unnerving, pant-shitting ambience of any level in the game.
Area 51, which has creepy ambient noises that you don't know the source of, cryo-frozen aliens, and the big, devoid-of-enemies, UFO hangar.
- The ambience from the Lost City of Tinnos level in Tomb Raider III that you're referring to is a rearrangement of "The Dragon" from Tomb Raider II, heard in the Temple of Xian and Floating Islands levels (albeit the sound is deeper in III).
Tomb Raider 4 has those bloody giant scorpions in later levels.
Wandering the deserted streets of Paris at the beginning of Angel of Darkness while that ominous music plays in the background is quite unnerving, especially since you've been hearing about the Monstrum and have no idea where it might be.
Coming across one of the Monstrum's victim's in Bouchard's hideout. The loud gurgling noises he keeps making will give you nightmares for weeks.
The deformed prisoners in the Sanitarium. It doesn't help that they run at you pretty fast.
In Tomb Raider: Chronicles, the entire Black Isle level. From the heartless corpse hanging from the tree to the pale imps that would follow you around and the woman fish thing they'd eat when you'd trapped it in a cage... Not a level you'd want to play when you were only eleven.
As you're swimming towards the tomb of King Arthur in Legend and you hear an echoing growling/roaring noise. You don't see it, you don't know what's making it, and as such, Nothing Is Scarier.
The Kraken in Underworld. The whole level around him is filled with Paranoia Fuel: you must be super careful, and if you touch him, you're dead. The fact that you first meet his tentacle underwater (and you must follow it) and the noises it makes only add fuel to the fire.