All Hallow on the Eve 2026 - Scariest Video Game Monsters - Scissorman (Clock Tower)
A 14-year-old orphan girl and three other orphans are adopted by a family by the name of the Barrows. An extremely wealthy and prestigious family whose name has been known across the lands for centuries. However, their family name is as much of a mystery as the circumstances surrounding the adoption of four different orphans. Jennifer, the 14-year-old and eldest of the four, enters their massive mansion and settles down with the rest of her kin.
As they await some sort of introduction to the estate, perhaps a family member to guide them through their new household, something more insidious occurs. Suddenly, during a thunderous storm, the lights of the mansion flicker before going out entirely.
The other three orphans scream and run off into separate parts of the mansion, leaving this young girl Jennifer to fend for herself. But what's the worst that could happen? Afterall, it should be a celebratory occasion. Even with the mansion shrouded in darkness, Jennifer and the others should be kept safe in the care of their new family the Barrows...
...shouldn't they?
Undenounced to the recently acquired orphans, the Barrow's family holds a deep and dark secret. As Jennifer begins to explore the mansion more, she comes across a small, deformed man, wielding an extremely large pair of garden sheers that look like a hideous pair of giant scissors.
This is where the Scissorman makes his appearance, after breaking through the door that she had closed behind her. He slowly moves in, a slight limb in his step slowing him just enough for Jennifer to make her escape. Barely dodging a massive swipe of the grotesque blades, she flees through the hallway in an attempt to find a place to hide.
Unfortunately, the Scissorman knows this mansion's layout like the back of his rotten, fleshy hands. Because before she realizes it, the Scissorman has been in this mansion much longer than she has. In fact, one could say that this was his home and to him, she is an intruder.
Or better yet, his prey, as he continuously follows her every move, carefully stalking her whereabouts until bursting through the door once more. He needs her, as a sacrifice...
One by one the orphans are killed off. Until all that's left is Jennifer, a young girl running for her life. The Scissorman's intentions are completely unknown to her, until she begins to uncover documents and relics relating to the Barrows family lineage. Then, it soon becomes apparent that the Scissorman isn't just a malevolent force to be reckoned with, he's one of the Barrow's children.
A stunning revelation to say the least, but worse than that he's been sent out on a mission by his father. His father, who is, practically a corpse lying in wait for more children to be sacrificed so that he may sustain eternal life. It's a very vampirish sentiment, but an idea that many of us wish for, even if the costs are weighed too greatly.
It's bad enough that the Scissorman isn't the only horror living inside of the Barrow's Mansion, but he is the main antagonist and possesses qualities of villains such as Leatherface from Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974), or even Norman Bates from Alfred Hitchcock's "Pyscho" (1960). Though, the main inspiration for the Scissorman actually came from 1981 Canadian-American slasher film "The Burning", which the game director of Clock Tower drew major influence from as a child.
Some could even state that the Scissorman influenced other video game antagonists and monster designs, such as Silent Hill 2's Pyramid Head (the Great Knife in comparison to Scissorman's large sheers). Though such influences are merely speculative and hold no actual merit.
Nonetheless, the Scissorman (although somewhat unthreatening in today's modern era of horror gaming) was an unkillable psychopath Hell-bent on fulfilling his father's wishes through the means of child-sacrifice. And that extra-large pair of "scissors" that he wields is about as comfortable of a sight as his malformed and disfigured body.
In fact, the entire Barrow's family is found to be cultists, and their rituals help sustain the eternal life. And I'm not sure what's more saddening, being the young orphan girl running for her life, or the brainwashed child of an occult family whose only purpose is to murder children for their parents. It's a very dark and touchy subject, but remains food for thought...
Throughout the Clock Tower series there have been numerous "Scissormen" and even "Scissorwomen", all with connections to the Barrow's family tree. And in the horror video game "Haunting Ground" there's even an ending in which a main character holds up a pair of giant scissors maliciously. Haunting Ground, which is an extremely rare title to own these days, is apparently the spiritual successor to the Clock Tower series (which was something that I personally was unaware of until writing this article).
Although the original Scissorman is defeated, being dangled from and falling off the top of a large clock tower (hence the name of the game) attached to the Barrow's Mansion, many more variants of the Scissorman precede him, continuing to hunt children as sacrificial lambs. And thinking over his ultimate death, it took a fall from hundreds of feet in the air and back down to solid ground to eliminate this foe.
Sure, unlike our past articles the Scissorman isn't a humanoid manifestation of our worst human qualities, and neither is he a mutated super-humanoid killing machine. But that's kind of what makes him generally more terrifying, that he still inhabits a human form (although disfigured) and yet has known nothing but death, murder, and his father's cultist commands. The Scissorman, although human, has become more of an animal or... a monster.
And that alone is frightening beyond reasonable doubt...
All Hallow on the Eve 2026 - Scariest Video Game Monsters - Scissorman (Clock Tower)
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