This Ain't Your Friendly Neighborhood Lumberjack

                Over the many years that the Resident Evil franchise has been active the games have become widely known to have amazing monster designs.  The monsters that you encounter in a Resident Evil game will always be immensely grotesque and have the capability of inducing fear at the mere sight of them.  Some of these designs can be incredibly intricate while others shine in their simplicity; one such monster appears in Resident Evil 4 very early on.  His name is Dr. Salvador or, the more widely used term, the chainsaw guy.

An Iron Maiden. One of the best monsters in RE4.

                Early on in the game I came across a tiny village that wasn’t very inviting.  In the middle of the houses were the skewered, burning bodies of two police officers who had driven me out to the country side only moments before.  This sent up huge red flags and I knew the villagers were hostile.  Upon seeing me I was attacked by all manner of old folks wielding scythes, pitch forks, axes, basically all the farm tools you could think of.  No one was hard to kill and they all just seemed like fodder for my gun, until I entered a house.

So simple, yet so terrifying.

                Upon entering the largest house in the village, I was greeted with a cutscene of a man with a chain saw being summoned.  Picture a big ole stereotypical farm boy (suspenders, pants, boots, long sleeve shirt with rolled sleeves, every farm boy ever), but put a bloodied potato sack with eye holes over his head and you have the gist of it.  The potato sack makes him scary, but the chainsaw noise is absolutely terrifying.  It is a constant humming noise signifying his imminent approach that grows in volume the closer he gets and climaxes in a high pitched revving noise and yell from chainsaw guy himself before he brings it down upon a victim.  Needless to say, it is the epitome of a gaming moment that made me pee my pants.

I'd be lying if I said this never happened to me.

                The creators of Resident Evil 4 were definitely channeling old slasher films when they created the chainsaw guy.  Like the faceless horrors of Jason or Michael Myers, he is a foe that just won’t die.  It was like playing through the climactic chase of a slasher film.  Round after round of ammo riddled into his corpse but he just kept coming.  You might think a grenade could do the trick, but you’d still be wrong.  Two grenades to the face and he still chased me around the village with chainsaw raised above his head.  The first time I died from his chainsaw was a pitiful moment.  I squealed like a scared child as my head rolled on the ground.

Chainsaw guy leading the welcome party!

                Even when the chainsaw guy is killed, it is still fear inducing.  Unlike every other character, his body doesn’t disappear.  The chainsaw stays running and his corpse just stays there giving you that ominous feeling that he might get back up sometime soon.  The Dr. Salvador version of chainsaw guy shows up once, but it appears that he had some inbred siblings who love the same hobby of decapitating visitors because chainsaw people show up at least 4 more times in the game.  One of these times is a wonderful moment where two bloodied farm women brandishing chainsaws with bloodied bandages over their faces.  It is an absolutely horrible experience, but nothing compares to that first time.  Everything about the chainsaw guy is unsettling and that is why I find him to be the scariest monster in Resident Evil 4.

Below is a video of a man playing through that first scene and having close to the worst luck ever.  His commentary is a perfect fit for how I felt the first time I played through the game.  Enjoy!