The Skinner Brothers are the most horrifying gang in Red Dead Redemption 2, but they may be even more terrifying than most players realize. The Skinners don't make an appearance until the epilogue, and their sheer brutality is horrific to witness. Even so, some well-hidden details provide clues that the Skinner Brothers gang is even creepier than initially thought, and that a supernatural element may be at play.
[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for RDR2.]
The Skinner Brothers are one of Red Dead Redemption 2's many gangs. Unlike most of the game's gangs, who spend a lot of their time robbing and killing for money, the Skinner Brothers don't seem to care about money at all. Everything that the Skinners do seems to be focused on killing and torturing people in terrible ways only matched by RDR2's serial killer Edmund Lowry Jr. Although they don't show up until the John Marston-led epilogue, the sheer cruelty of their actions makes them arguably the most memorably horrific gang in the game, only rivaled by the Murfree Brood and Night Folk.
However, there is something deeper to the Skinner Brothers' actions that makes what they do even more disturbing. According to a video by GTA and Red Dead Redemption YouTuber Arthur Morgan can fight a vampire in RDR2, the Skinner Brothers are the most horrific threat roaming Rockstar's Old West.
RDR2's Skinner Brothers Gang Might Have A Supernatural Secret
What the Skinner Brothers believe they will receive from their higher power for their killings is not made clear in Red Dead Redemption 2. They seem concerned about displeasing it, but their plans never include anything but wanton slaughter, so they clearly believe that is what the being they worship wants. That also paints their murders in a new light, specifically regarding their excessiveness and torture. According to these hard-to-find comments, their killings are potentially rituals to their god. When one re the elaborate torture that they used when they captured Uncle in one mission, it's easy to see how they could have considered that to be a ritual. Even among RDR2's many tragic deaths, it's hard to imagine a worse end than those of the Skinner Brothers' victims.
The Skinner Brothers being a cult rather than a gang makes them much more terrifying. Their fervent devotion to killing for their god makes them much more sadistic than the game's other gangs. The fact that their camps are decorated with the corpses of their victims shows the amount of cruelty that they believe their god requires from them. Since they do not commit burglaries or perform any of the other sorts of crimes that most of the game's other gangs get involved in, it is clear that they have devoted themselves entirely to killing. Their fanatical murders are scarier than any other gang's actions because they believe that they are driven to do them by a higher power that overrules any other thoughts they may have.
The Skinner Brothers were already the most disturbing and immoral gang in RDR2, and the discovery of their sadistic cultish beliefs make them even more horrifying. They have no rationality or reason - just an overwhelming desire to kill in horrible ways. It's a good thing that they play such a small role in the game, otherwise, Red Dead Redemption 2 would be significantly more mortifying.
Source: YouTube/Strange Man