10 Terrifying Moments In NEON GENESIS EVANGELION

Now this is how you start a show. Not even a full two episodes into Neon Genesis Evangelion and we’re hit with one of the most terrifying moments that sees us introduced to the sheer power of the Evangelions, as well as the depths of Shinji’s emotional damage. After being pressured to pilot Unit 01 by Father of the Year Gendo Ikari, Shinji’s rejection sensitivity goes into overdrive and he takes down the angel Sachiel with blind rage and fury. Unit 01’s humanoid roars add an uncanny chaos into the mix which is spine-chilling.

Throughout the Evangelion series, Asuka represents a perfect example of the 'tsundere' character archetype - an emotionally aggressive, standoffish character who conceals a fragile inner self. In Episode 22, Asuka's bratty, loud-mouthed demeanour is confirmed to be a front when she goes head to head with the angel Arael, who engages in full throttle psychological warfare to break her mentally. As her mental barrier crumbles, Asuka is forced to relive the trauma of her mother’s suicide, her father’s infidelity and her feelings of worthlessness. It's a harrowing example of pure psychological terror.

Considered by many to be the magnum opus of the series, the 1997 feature film The End of Evangelion has no shortage of existentially horrifying moments. Perhaps the most viscerally gruesome is a mere 30 seconds long, and revolves around Shinji discovering the mangled, mutilated corpse of Unit 02, and by extension, his friend, enemy, rival and love interest Asuka. What makes this moment so scary isn't just the gore, but Shinji's scream of utter devastation, which, if you're watching the Japanese version of the show (and this writer humbly insists that you do) showcases voice actress Megumi Ogata's unbelievable talent.

This one’s pretty much a given – what’s scarier than the violent dissolution of the entire known universe? The looming threat of the Third Impact, a cataclysmic event that will merge all of humanity into one single consciousness, is a constant through the series, finally coming to a head most spectacularly in End of Evangelion. A surreal and operatic descent into sheer insanity and cosmic chaos sees characters we’ve grown to know and love annihilated within seconds. Masterful and eye-popping animation and a soundtrack consisting of screams of every human on earth contrasting with the deceptively upbeat Komm, süsser Tod left viewers breathless and terrified. It’s a harrowing glimpse into Anno’s mental state from a director who has always worn his heart on his sleeve

The Rebuild series might be controversial among NGE fans, but it can't be denied they contain some truly disturbing moments. Although poor Rei Ayanami and her clones have all died multiple times throughout the series, Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time decided to ultimately put the First Child out of her suffering once and for all. In a rare moment of peace, Rei-Q embraces a simple and humble life on the farm and confesses her love for the desperately lonely Shinji. As soon as she does so, her head explodes, leaving Shinji (and the audience) to pick up the literal pieces in a moment both tragic and deeply disturbing. Decapitation is always terrifying (just ask Charlie from Hereditary.)

Episode 19 sees Tokyo-3 attacked by the 14th angel Zeruel, who quickly ends up regretting his choice to visit Earth. After an arduous battle, Unit 01 once again enters berserk mode and all hell breaks loose. As Unit 01 starts beating the Angel to a bloody pulp with its newly regenerated humanoid arm, the crew look on in awe and horror as they realize just much like people these monstrosities are - and people gotta eat. Unit 01 starts devouring the Angel, complete with the delightfully repulsive squishy, crunchy sounds of mangled flesh and broken bone. When it's finished, the site of the crouching, animalistic Unit 01 gazing ominously at the viewer through the fog is pretty damn chilling.

Asuka manages to overcome her breakdown in End of Evangelion, and, in a scene that's both brutal and beautiful, manages to channel her emotional trauma into a violent assault on the mass-produced Eva fleet. In an anxiety-inducing sequence, Asuka unleashes bloody hell on the creepy smiling Eva units in a massively overlooked cinematic example of feminine rage. It's all in vain sadly, as Asuka is eventually annihilated and, although we see her on screen again very shortly, it feels gut-wrenchingly final. What makes her death even more terrifying is that earlier in the movie, Asuka visualizes her own rotten corpse, in the gruesome split-second frame seen above, that is really hard to shake.

While all of the Angels across the series are terrifying in their own unique ways, there's something especially horrifying about an Angel that weaponizes quantum physics. In Episode 16, the Evas go head to head with the mysterious Leliel, a freaky black and white sphere who doesn't appear too unsettling at first. That all changes when Unit 01 and a helpless, screaming Shinji inside are absorbed into Leliel's 'shadow' and disappear entirely from NERV's contact. As it turns out, Leliel IS the shadow, and has absorbed Shinji into a parallel dimension known as the Dirac Sea. The universally freakish concept of black holes has got nothin' on Leliel.

When so many of the most horrifying moments across Evangelion involve a loss of agency and identity, it should come as no surprise to see this moment from Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance on the list. After the Angel Bardiel infects Unit 03, Shinji is ordered to attack and destroy the now-possessed Eva - except Asuka is still trapped inside. After much begging and pleading from Shinji, Gendo activates Unit 01's dummy system, rendering Shinji helpless to watch as his mecha beats seven shades of crap out of Asuka while an eerily bittersweet rendition of Kyo no Hi wa Sayonara (Today We Say Goodbye) plays, a song Japanese children sing when they leave elementary school. In the original series, it's Tōji Suzuhara trapped inside, but one of the more positive changes in the Rebuild series switched the pilot to Asuka , granting the fight an extra layer of meaningfulness, terror and pain.

The Evangelion series dabbles in a lot of horror subgenres, from psychological to religious to cosmic, but there's perhaps no better example of body horror in the series than during Rei's fight with the 16th Angel, Armisael. Episode 23 sees Armisael attack Rei's mind much like Arael did with Asuka, but of course the stoic Rei is much more chill about it. She does get hit with a pretty massive existential crisis though as she realizes she has to sacrifice herself to save Shinji, but it doesn't matter anyway given that there's thousands of Rei clones to replace her. Bulging veins, bursting guts and some gnarly looking biofusion make this sequence once of the most viscerally unpleasant of the franchise.