Spooky season has officially arrived. All around the country, horror fans are curling up with their favorite scary movies as they dig into their third box of Halloween candy. But with the COVID-19 pandemic still requiring people to stay home, many have already exhausted that list of movies – and, let’s face it, that’s probably their fourth or fifth box of candy. But fear not, boils and ghouls: horror movies aren’t the only way to get into the spooky spirit this season.
Over the past twenty-five years, horror games have grown to become a staple of the video game industry. From survival horror games like Resident Evil to the Lovecraftian terrors of FromSoftware’s Bloodborne, horror permeates video games across multiple genres. But players need not have played every single Silent Hill title since 1999 to get in the game – there are many horror games accessible to even the least experienced gamer, many of which share traits with the flagship horror films fans genre fans know and love.
Here is a list of the best video games for horror movie fans, based on genre.
Kids’ Horror: Little Nightmares
Fans of horror stories that gear toward a younger audience, such as Coraline and Goosebumps, are sure to enjoy Little Nightmares. The ultra-creepy puzzle-platformer follows a young child named Six as she attempts to escape The Maw, an aptly named ship that plays host to a variety of horrors. Though the main character and title skew younger, make no mistake: with underlying themes of cannibalism and speculated matricide, Little Nightmares is definitely not for kids. It is, however, a very fun and suitably spooky little game perfect for the Halloween season – and, to horror film fans’ delight, actually set for a television adaptation directed by Henry Selick, the director of Coraline and the much beloved The Nightmare Before Christmas.
One of the shortest games on this list, Little Nightmares can easily be completed in an afternoon. Luckily, for gamers looking to stay in the spooky spirit right through October 31, the game also offers a three-part DLC, The Secrets of the Maw, and a mobile spin-off titled Very Little Nightmares. There’s plenty of Little Nightmares content to keep fans engaged through Halloween night – and with the sequel’s release just around the corner, The Maw is one ship horror fans should definitely jump on.
Teen Horror: Until Dawn
Teen-skewing horror films like Scream and Halloween are a staple of the genre, and Until Dawn offers the perfect video game homage. Essentially Cabin in the Woods as a video game, Until Dawn follows a group of friends as they revisit the remote cabin where two of their group went missing the previous year. The night soon becomes a nightmare, and every little decision counts as the player assumes the role of each of the eight characters as they attempt to survive until morning.
Similar to Cabin in the Woods, what starts off as a basic slasher premise soon expands into a much bigger story with supernatural undertones, one which is sure to please horror fans across the board. Until Dawn also features a bonus offering for movie fans in its cast of recognizable voice and motion capture performers, which includes Jordan Fisher, Hayden Panettiere, and Academy Award winner Rami Malek.
Monster Horror: Alien: Isolation
The Alien franchise has become a juggernaut of horror and sci-fi media, spawning a variety of adaptations including novelizations, comic books, and multiple Alien-themed video games. However, 2014’s survival horror game Alien: Isolation easily takes the chest-burster cake. Set fifteen years after the events of the original film, the game plays homage to its predecessor by focusing on stealth and survival-based gameplay, rather than falling into the common video game trap of repetitive onslaughts of enemies.
Isolation’s Xenomorph is a true monster: the player cannot defeat it, but rather evade and outsmart it, a task that becomes increasingly difficult as the AI-based Alien learns and adapts its behavior based on the player’s actions. The frequent need to re-evaluate one’s tactics under the constant threat of discovery makes for a truly terrifying game experience, one absolutely worth of Alien: Isolation’s legendary titular monster.
Mind-Bending Horror: Inside
The spiritual successor to another critically-acclaimed horror game, Limbo, Playdead’s Inside defies categorization. Part psychological thriller, part dystopian nightmare, part honestly-who-knows, the puzzle-platformer starts off very Nineteen Eighty-Four and ends up somewhere between Craven and Cronenberg. Players assume the role of a young nameless boy as he attempts to escape a dystopian society, the true nature of which is slowly revealed (though never definitively explained) over the course of the game.
With an emphasis on suspense and mystery and a final act twist straight out of an episode of Black Mirror, fans of cerebral horror will certainly get their money’s worth with Inside. Fans continue to debate possible meanings of Inside’s ending to this day, and the game’s alternate ending will leave players thinking long after they put down the controller.
All Horror: Dead By Daylight
Originally released in 2016, Dead by Daylight has grown into something of a horror hall of fame, featuring licensed characters from a variety of touchstone franchises including Halloween, Silent Hill, and Stranger Things. In a 4 vs. 1 multiplayer match, players assume the role of either a survivor or killer as they attempt to appease a mysterious character known only as The Entity, who feeds off the energy of the encounters. Survivors most outwit and evade the killer, working together to repair generators and escape the arena, whereas the killer must sacrifice all four targets before they manage to get away.
In addition to its famous licensed characters, Dead by Daylight offers a rich and ever-expanding cast of original survivors and killers, from the terrifying, teleporting Nurse to the horrific and wicked Blight. Each new character comes with a backstory that deepens the game’s fascinating lore and expands its mind-boggling universe, keeping millions of players across the globe engaged four years after its original release.
