Oftentimes, horror fans find themselves drawn to the gaming industry. As a huge aficionado of all things creepy, macabre, visceral myself, I can probably tell you why this is. While watching horror movies can sure as hell be a harrowing experience in its own right, there’s something about the immersion video games provide that movies can’t quite match. In my eyes, anyway.
You’re a viewer, after all, which is a passive role by definition. It doesn’t matter how many randy skinny-dipping teens are being torn into spam by the chainsaw-wielding killer, you aren’t phased. You’re watching the torsos roll across the forest floor as an outsider, completely detached from the situation.
This isn’t to say that horror movies can’t be immersive, because that’d be patently untrue. It’s just that games give you the opportunity to control a character outright, throw you into the situation and put your own freaking life in danger (if vicariously). This is what gives the medium an edge when it comes to scaring us out of our undercrackers.
Over the years, video game horror has built up a lot of steam and mainstream popularity. Developers have become quite adept at using new tech —and a whole range of sophisticated and creative mechanics— to make their horror feel real, feel genuinely frightening. Genre fans like myself can’t get enough.
But how about you? Do you have the cojones for some true horror? Check out our 15 Chilling Photos That Will Make You Terrified Of Horror Games.
15 Nice Doggy…
If those tighty-whities your mama brought you were still their ‘unsoiled’ best, but after this surprise encounter, what can I say? You’re a braver woman/man than me, friend. I’m not always a fan of jump scares, they seem a little cheap to me at times, but this moment was just beautiful.
14 Aye Aye, Captain
When you’re a seasoned horror buff like myself, you can find yourself somewhat desensitized to a lot of scares. You’re able to predict a lot of twists, creepy moments, and grisly kills in movies, and that can tend to dilute the experience a little. This isn’t to say I’m some kind of invincible, fearless badass (hell, you don’t know me in real life, I am an invincible seasoned badass), this is just a natural effect.
My horror Achilles heel, if you will, is anything eye-related. I was completely and utterly traumatized by my one and only experience trying out contact lenses at the opticians, so I was by no damn means able to handle this notorious moment from Dead Space 2. It makes the hairs on my you-know-wheres stand on end just thinking about it.
13 The On Again, Off Again Mystery Of Allison Road
If you’re a horror buff like myself, I’m sure you’ll be familiar with Silent Hills. This was to be the ninth entry in the Silent Hill series, and a collaboration between Metal Gear maestro Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro. Early signs were that something great was on the way, as would be expected from these two creative nutbags.
The mysterious fallout between Kojima and Konami led to the cancellation of the project, a sad day indeed. A team of fan developers took up the mantle, working on an homage they called Allison Road. In another bizarre twist, this project too was supposedly canceled last June, before the announcement two months later that development work was resuming. Nobody’s quite sure of the status of Allison Road these days, but it sure does look like a doozy.
12 Heeeeere’s Jason!
You know what they say about licensed games, don’t you? They say, “Licensed games are usually garbage, aren’t they?” That’s what they say, and they’re right for the most part. It’s a sad fact that acquiring a license means that your game will sell damn well regardless of its quality, just on the strength of the name on the box. You could hire a couple of elderly arthritic chimps for a couple of hours to code the game (I think that’s actually what happened with Superman 64), it wouldn’t matter.
While a lot of fans were wary of Friday the 13th: The Game, for this reason, it’s a whole lot of fun. It has its performance issues, certainly, but there’s a solid foundation here, and it’s clear that the devs of this asymmetrical multiplayer title care about the source material. Long may the grisly Jason kills continue.
11 Heeeeeere’s Freddy! (Wait, I Just Did That One)
Now, granted, I’ve already griped about jump scares, and how I find them a little cheap in the grand scheme of things. I know that the whole concept of horror requires a sudden scare every now and then, a dumb-blonde-creeping-along-the-hall-in-the-dark sort of moment, but I like them to be kept to a minimum. Psychological horror, something a bit deeper, is more my kind of bag.
Five Nights At Freddy’s, though, isn’t assed about my horror preferences. This is, by all accounts, the house that jump scares built. Scott Cawthon’s indie horror hit is the story of a fast food joint haunted by terrifying animatronics, and the poor beleaguered night watch-person who works there. That’s you, by the way. If that wasn’t clear.
10 Where Are They Now: The Girl From ‘The Ring’
You know, you look kind of familiar. I’m sure I know you from somewhere… Wait, didn’t you crawl out of my TV like a crazy, crazy be-atch and kill me a while ago?
Now, when it comes to horror tropes, the girl with the super long dark hair and claw-ish fingernails is one of the big ones. The sight of Sadako (or, her vengeful spirit, if you really want to be pernickety) emerging from that well is that sort of thing that sticks with you. As such, it’s the sort of thing that has been repeatedly referenced over the years.
2014 survival horror The Evil Within had its own Sadako moment, a long and protracted boss battle against an almost indestructible force. Tense is not the word.
9 What The Hell’s The Deal With Pyramid Head?
Speaking of a more psychological, insidious form of horror, here comes our old buddy Pyramid Head. This guy calls Konami’s Silent Hill franchise home, and his appearance stems from the titular town’s origins as a place of execution. Sure, Mr. Head has no qualms about splitting people right in damn freaking half through the middle, but he’s no simple slasher villain.
He appears most prominently in Silent Hill 2, constantly stalking protagonist James Sunderland. Sunderland came to the town in the first place after receiving a letter from his late wife, Mary, and his monstrous nemesis is intended to symbolize the player character’s fragile psyche. ‘Haunted’ by the past, and driven by his twisted desire to be punished for his wife’s death, he is his own worst enemy. So is Pyramid Head, the manifestation of our hero’s troubles.
8 Old Slack-Jawed Joel
As we’ve probably established by now, we’re talking about the most horror-rific horror games here. Horror with a capital H, O, R, R, O, and R (except not, because all caps is never acceptable unless we’re talking Pokémon, in which case it’s the default for reasons I’ve never understood). What does that mean? It means we can expect some pretty darn grisly deaths, that’s what. The player character in a lot of these titles is subject to some awful game overs if you screw up. That’s just how things work around here.
One of the worst I’ve ever seen comes courtesy of Naughty Dog’s survival horror masterpiece The Last Of Us. One particular breed of enemy, the burly Bloater, will grab you at close range, wrench your jaw in opposite directions and… well, you can imagine what happens next.
7 You’ll Never Outlast The Groom
When it comes to a foreboding, oppressive atmosphere, restricted vision is key. Darkness has always been the key to most horror, and the simple act of flicking off a light switch seems to activate something primal in our brains. Primal, confused and darn cowardly.
Outlast’s DLC, Whistleblower, boasts a sequence I’d rate among the most disturbing in recent gaming history. Our hero encounters an asylum worker nicknamed ‘The Groom,’ who the player witnesses mutilating his male captives in order to create a being he calls ‘the perfect bride.’ It’s awful, it’s graphic, and it’s witnessed through a gap in a door, which heightens our sense of being trapped and rendered powerless in the presence of The Groom. This is one wedding night which won’t be much fun.
6 Having A Dismemberin’ Good Time
Well, um… this is nice to see. Without any context at all for this screen, it’s pretty clear that there’s something all kinds of shonky going on here.
Back in the realm of Visceral Games’ survival horror classic Dead Space, combat mechanics were in play which elevated this one way beyond a Resident Evil 4 clone in space. It’s a similar gun-happy affair, but blindly empty clip after clip into the enemies like Arnold Schwarzenegger won’t get you far. The Necromorphs can only be dispatched by removing parts of their bodies. Player character Isaac Clarke is an engineer, and so uses mining tools in place of conventional weaponry for this most part. This allows him to use the likes of the Plasma Cutter, a precision laser device for cutting through rock, to slice away limbs with brilliant, gruesome efficiency.
5 Until Dawn: Have You Met Dawn? Lovely Gal.
I don’t know if this is Dawn. It could well be. I’d like to think so, at any rate. If that is the case, though, she’s not the friendliest of neighbours. She isn’t big on sugar-borrowing hospitality, but I’m sure she’d give you a damn good, sloppy kiss with those fangs of hers.
Until Dawn released exclusively for the PS4 in August 2015. On the surface, it tells a super cliched story of a band of teenagers staying overnight at an abandoned cabin, and the predictably grisly things that happen to them. Did I mention that they’re staying there on the anniversary of another disappearance? Because they are. The intriguing thing about this one is the choice mechanic, which allows the player’s actions to dramatically alter the course of events.
4 Nice Teeth, Sir
I suppose we’ve got to give the guy the benefit of the doubt here. After all, as the great Captain Jack Sparrow once said, “Death has a curious way of reshuffling one’s priorities.” Being undead and all, it’s pretty darn tough for these people to find appointments with dentists. Hell, it’s hard enough for us live-folk most of the time. Is that enough of an excuse for questionable oral hygiene, though? That’s for you to decide.
You’re looking, friends, at one of the shamblers of Left 4 Dead 2. This one seems to have imprisoned a live one, who looks none too impressed at having been outsmarted and locked away by a zombified Quazimodo. Still, these are the kinds of scenarios you’ve got to be prepared for when you sign up for a horror title.
3 Smile For The Camera
In a lot of zombie-oriented horror titles, plain old standard-issue firepower is enough for our heroes. Zombies are usually a little more resilient than regular human enemies, having already died once and all, but with perseverance, you can take them down.
The more interesting prospects are those that step away from this whole idea. Dead Space and its limb-lopping mining tools, for one. For another, how about one of the more creative Japanese horror franchises, Fatal Frame? Never quite as popular as the mainstream likes of Resident Evil, these titles have a curious key mechanic that has made them a real cult favorite. In these titles, you use your camera to document and tackle the supernatural menace (hence the name). The series is a gripping and novel experience, and that’s just the sort of thing that genre fans dig.
2 Sleep? Who Needs It?
Throughout this rundown, we’ve taken a look at some of the biggest names in horror-themed video games. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Dead Space, Fatal Frame, they’re all here. There’s also been a classic and iconic movie series that made its way to the video game world, in Friday The 13th: The Game. Next, though, we’re dealing with something much more obscure. You’ve probably never heard of Among The Sleep. Look at it, though. Look. At that freaking image. It demands your attention.
This relatively obscure first-person title hit the PC in 2014, and consoles the following year. It plays out from the perspective of a frightened toddler, who carries a teddy bear he can hug for comfort and to light his surroundings. This is a brilliant novel concept, and is worth much more attention than it received.
1 My, Eileen, What A Big Head You Have
Well, um… yes. This is a thing that happened. If you’re a Silent Hill newbie, take a darn good look at this one. Take it all in, every inch of it. What kind of context can you possibly come up with for this freakshow? I’d love to know what the hell this looks like, from the perspective of somebody stumbling on it for the first time.
This creature is a manifestation of Eileen Galvin, a character who appears in –and is central to the plot of—Silent Hill 4: The Room. She has various dealings with protagonist Henry Townshend; meeting his past and future selves, being possessed by demonic powers and all sorts of other Silent Hill-ish events. This ‘monster’ is found in a room of the Otherworld’s St. Jerome’s Hospital, and its meaning and significance is still debated today.
