As spooky season closes in and Halloween draws near, players are always on the lookout to see where they can score some October frights. If you’re looking for something a bit more immersive than the cinematic staples, there are several scares to be found across a whole genre of intense horror games.
If you prefer your horror games inspired by classic film franchises, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre just burst onto the scene to give that universe a whole new angle. Of course, players looking for a different kind of madness may find something like Layers of Fear could be the ticket to a racing heartbeat as Halloween approaches.
6 Spooky Games To Freak You Out Before Halloween
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Picking out the right horror games to tackle as Halloween closes in can be challenging. In a genre that has grown and evolved several times over throughout the last decade, few modern horror games feel the same.
The one constant in a good horror game: fear. Whether that’s a healthy anxiety created by the atmosphere or a jumpscare designed to send you tumbling out of your chair, it’s all about the experience. Ahead of this Halloween, here are six perfectly terrifying horror games for you to (attempt to) survive.
Layers of Fear
Whether you’re playing the original version released on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch or diving into the combination remake and sequel that hit PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, Layers of Fear may be the most terrifying game you could play headed into Halloween. From the studio that also released Blair Witch in 2019 and The Medium (see below), Layers of Fear is a must for horror fans.
Almost nothing delivers in a horror game quite like the atmosphere, and Layers of Fear gives it the threat of constant change. Working your way through a haunted house is difficult enough, but the possibility of it being twisted beyond recognition in the split second it takes you to turn around will keep players on edge at every moment. While it might start off more curiously chaotic, before long you’ll be flinching at the smallest sounds as Layers of Fear makes you question every single aspect of the game.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
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One of the most recent arrivals among our six horror games to terrify you before Halloween, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is an extension of the horror film franchise that became an inseparable part of horror history as far back as 1974. Now, they’ve brought an iconic horror monster in Leatherface to life and included nods to several locations players will know from the film franchise.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre went live on August 18, 2023 and is gaining a growing player base that’s sure to spike as Halloween approaches. The game isn’t for everyone as it’s exclusively an online multiplayer experience, but Xbox Game Pass subscribers and regular online gamers should give it a try. If you have a few friends to play with, this could be the ideal spooky season experience. Your scares will vary from match to match, but the sensational kills are exactly what you’d expect in this unpredictable nightmare.
Until Dawn
Released exclusively on PS4 back in 2015, Until Dawn remains one of the best horror games available today. While some horror games look to challenge you with combat or your environment, Until Dawn brought the horror stories we all love to gaming in a whole new way.
This interactive dramatic horror title features top-notch performances by Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere that anchor an intensely fascinating story. Your choices will directly affect who lives and dies when everything comes to a conclusion, should you even survive long enough to see that ending. The story can pull you in and feel relatively calm now and then, but that just means they’re baiting you in for an even more sudden scare that’ll leave you breathless.
The Mortuary Assistant
First released last year as a PC exclusive before making the jump to Nintendo Switch in April, The Mortuary Assistant is a horror game masquerading as a simple sim. While it uses some of the same vibes and mechanics of a game like House Flipper or Lawn Mowing Simulator, The Mortuary Assistant blends a seemingly mundane simulation with the reality of death and a dash of the paranormal.
Fixed camera angles during certain moments like carting a dead body between rooms have a tendency to make the inability to turn around amplify every sound around you. There’s no harm in diving into the demo to see if you’re willing to stay for the full experience, because The Mortuary Assistant can become absolutely terrifying as each moment ticks by. As soon as you get lost in the mundane tasks of the game, you’ll be caught off guard by the scare of a lifetime.
The Quarry
From the same team that brought us Until Dawn, The Quarry is essentially a spiritual successor to that game. While Until Dawn was channeling cabin in the woods horror tropes, The Quarry instead focuses on the summer camp genre with plenty of other horror vibes thrown into the mix.
Released more widely on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, The Quarry has an absolutely star-studded cast including Brenda Song, David Arquette, Halston Sage, Ted Raimi, Ariel Winter, Ethan Suplee, Lance Henriksen, Lin Shaye, Justice Smith, and Grace Zabriskie. Once again your decisions will decide how this choose-your-own-horror plays out, and having a friend watch and get terrified beside you only amplifies the fun. The Quarry delivers the scares, but it’s in the chaos of tough decisions and deciphering the story that you’ll be most scared to make a critical mistake.
The Medium
The last of these six horror games to terrify you before Halloween is another offering from Bloober Team, the developers who created Layers of Fear. They’ve had several strong games, but one of the best and most powerful to dive into this Halloween has to be The Medium. Hitting PC and Xbox in 2021 before jumping to PS5 later that year and Nintendo Switch just this June, The Medium drops psychological horror into 1999’s post-communist Poland.
The Medium follows an amazingly crafted and powerfully written story that weaves themes of family violence and forgiveness into supernaturally haunting visuals. You’ll jump between the real world and spirit world solving puzzles and hiding from monsters as you try to unfurl every haunting secret in The Medium. Hiding from the monsters in both worlds can be truly terrifying, and things only get more frightening as this story unfolds.
You should also check out: Texas Chainsaw Massacre