Basic Trope: A scene that plays out like a horror/slasher film but casts the hero as the monster.
- Straight: Hell Mask stalks and systematically kills mooks working for the Big Bad, freaking them out in the process.
- Exaggerated:
- Hell Mask goes to great lengths to scare the mooks, including stringing up the dead bodies of their friends, spelling out the names of who's next in blood, and even going so far as to threaten their loved ones.
- Instead of mooks being terrorized, it's the main villains themselves being terrorized in the same location.
- Downplayed:
- The mooks are generally scared of Hell Mask since he's a badass and the beatings he gives them would be pretty stressful to experience.
- Hell Mask isn't going out of his way to scare the mooks, but for all their efforts they only manage to slow him down. Having an unstoppable and seemingly unkillable badass tearing through everything you throw at him would scare the crap out of anybody.
- Justified:
- Hell Mask is waging psychological warfare on the mooks. The more mind games he plays, the sloppier they get.
- Hell Mask is on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge because they killed Alice.
- He's called "Hell Mask" for a reason.
- The villains' previous fights have happened with opponents who are terrified, unarmed, or otherwise not fully capable of facing them. When they meet someone who is, they're scared half to death.
- Inverted:
- Hell Mask is stalked by a gang of mooks who try to terrorize him as much as possible.
- A Serial Killer goes after cops, scaring the crap out of them as he takes them out one by one.
- Hell Mask's attempt to Outscare the Enemy ironically worked too well and has driven the mooks to fight back even more savagely out of suicidal desperation.
- Subverted:
- The mooks know Hell Mask is playing mind games and refuse to be terrified.
- A bunch of Elite Mooks are on guard with them who aren't afraid as they are.
- Double Subverted:
- That is, until Hell Mask laughs and reveals he "was just playing" and the idea that he is being so nonchalant about killing them scares the crap out of the mooks.
- Hell Mask's battle with the Elite Mooks still terrifies the regular mooks caught between it.
- Parodied:
- Hell Mask wears a stupid mask and shouts "Boo!", making all the mooks crap their pants. For bonus points, a mook is so scared he bitch slaps Hell Mask out of self defence... And actually knocks him out.
- The mooks are watching the security monitors, and think it's a horror movie going on. Then Hell Mask comes to remind them that This Is Reality.
- When Hell Mask's massacre of the mooks begins, the story abruptly resembles a campy slasher flick, complete with wooden acting and VHS-style visual quality.
- Zig Zagged: The mooks are not afraid of Hell Mask and attack, believing they have killed him, only to find out they killed The Dragon of the Big Bad. That frightens them enough to force them into hiding but Hell Mask finds them and blackmails them into helping. Feeling comfort due to Hell Mask's protection, the mooks set out to help him take down the Big Bad, only to find out he was lying the whole time and plans to torture and kill them.
- Averted: Hell Mask takes the mooks down in a very professional and clinical manner with no psychological mind games involved.
- Enforced:
- The writers want to let the readers know Hell Mask is not messing around at all with these bad guys.
- The writers want Hell Mask to have some moral ambiguity as he frightens and kills the mooks.
- Lampshaded: "Oh man, this is just like those horror movies... except the killer is a good guy."
- Invoked: Hell Mask's a Badass Normal who can't hope to take out dozens of armed Mooks in a straight fight. Stalking them one by one allows him to whittle away their numbers while driving the rest into a panic (and thus making them less dangerous).
- Exploited:
- During the Mook Horror Show, one of the Mooks video tapes the carnage and uses it either to make Hell Mask appear much worse to the public or to use when training new underlings on why they take caution in regards to Hell Mask.
- Hell Mask is actually practicing his intimidation skills on random mooks to see how scary he can be.
- Defied:
- Hell Mask is a nice guy and is actually polite to the mooks as he beats them up, refusing to scare them.
- It is impossible to scare the mooks for whatever reason (maybe they are zombies/robots, maybe The Mob Boss Is Scarier, maybe they are too dumb...), so Hell Mask dispenses with the mind games and goes straight to the part where he tears them all to shreds.
- Discussed: "Why is he doing this? He's the hero. He's not supposed to be scary, right? ...R-Right?"
- Conversed: Characters discuss how this sort of scene in their favorite cop show resembles a horror film.
- Deconstructed:
- Hell Mask's actions get a What the Hell, Hero? reaction from Alice who can't believe he went so far.
- One of the surviving mooks shows the aftermath at how all of their friends are dead and crosses the Despair Event Horizon.
- Knowing that Hell Mask is out to get them and what he can do if he gets his hands on them, the mooks perform even greater atrocities that they would normally do, believing that it's not like it can get any worse.
- Reconstructed:
- Hell Mask then reveals that, despite the mooks' terror, they were never seriously injured and their fear led them to give the whereabouts of the Big Bad. She accepts his methods after this.
- Part of the reason is because they come to the realization that they and their friends should have known to expect this might happen to them for being involved in things that even Hell Mask would never do.
- As a result, Hell Mask leaves behind brutal reminders that he can do worse to those who escalate, and make those who cross the Moral Event Horizon and go beyond the pale dearly regret it, making them decide that it's not worth the gamble.
- Played For Laughs: Hell Mask uses Cool and Unusual Punishment to scare the mooks in funny ways, having a good laugh about it as it happens.
- Played For Drama: Hell Mask's actions are so heinous, they even scare his fellow heroes who don't look at him the same way again.
- Played For Horror: "Hell Mask" is an X-Rated Slasher Film starring a hyper-violent Serial-Killer Killer as a "hero". The things Hell Mask does to the poor villains makes people (In-Universe and out) feel faint.
- Implied: Hell Mask is The Dreaded among the mooks due to a Noodle Incident that is never explained.
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