15 Horror Games That Will Genuinely Give You Nightmares

Horror games can be even scarier than horror movies – as long as you pick the right ones. Here are some horror games that will genuinely give you nightmares:

“Darkwood. It’s one of the best horror games I’ve ever played. The atmosphere in this game is just unmatched. What makes this game so scary is that it doesn’t rely purely on gore or jumpscares to scare you. Instead, the game builds up tension with its creepy atmosphere and leaves you with a feeling of intense dread. The game does a good job of invoking the fear of the unknown because most of the time you have no idea what to expect or what’s about to happen as you walk through a creepy forest. And it’s a top-down game by the way.” — Vinny_Lam

“SOMA is one of the only horror games that has achieved true psychological horror. Two sequences in particular from the game were so chilling I have thought about them long after the game. These parts of the game were so much more terrifying than the actual ‘monster’ segments.” — omgacow

“The Forest. The first time I turned around and there was a cannibal like 10 ft away just watching me, I took a step towards it and it ran away. So so much more unsettling than having an enemy charge you.” — AtheismoAlmighty

“Fatal Frame 1. I rented this from Blockbuster, it was my first ever time playing a horror game myself. The game, to put it frankly, made me absolutely horrified. I didn’t have a memory card yet for my PS2, so I had to play it in one sitting over a full weekend. I never finished it until adulthood when I bought it again, because the disk from Blockbuster was scratched and the game would crash. Game is still creepy as hell, and a classic horror game I wish more people had experienced.” — zoidybro

“The very first Resident Evil where you walk in on the first zombie eating a dude and it turns around and looks at you in a cutscene proper fucked me up.” — SprawlWino

“Dead Space. When I entered the elevator the first time and it clawed the door open while you’re helpless, I lost my shit. Put the controller down and didn’t try again until morning. It was one of 3 games my parents got me with my 360. I got every achievement for the game except ‘Epic tier 3 engineer’ because that achievement was bonkers hard to get.” — GBBanditt

“The first time I played Phasmophobia with a group of friends I was told to go inside and use the spirit box/radio to try and talk to the haunted spirit. I asked ‘where are you’ and got the response ‘behind’ and heard a bunch of noise. I turned around and saw a bunch of items from the countertop I just walked past tossed all over the floor. It was my first time playing the game and I have literally never noped out of a game so fast in my life.” — Altruistic-Garage-17

“Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem on the GameCube. That game fucking got me so good! I was playing it at my girlfriend’s house, and wasn’t familiar with her TV. So when the volume suddenly turned down and then the colors turned down, I was looking frantically for the remote, thinking I was sitting on it. Also, the annoying fly that landed on the screen, and proceeded to get in the way…! 🤯 For anyone unfamiliar with the game, there’s an insanity meter, and once you lose too much sanity, the game fucks with you. Could be skewing your controls, messing up the level layout, or -as above- playing games with you on the real world.” — TofuAnnihilation

“Inside, that game was creepy as hell and the ending was just crazy… I haven’t played it in years, but even my wife who’s not into video games got captivated by all that was going on and in the end she just turned to me and said wtf?!” — ciscolombia

“Silent Hill. I hadn’t known it was a horror game. I’d gotten a pirated copy from a friend. The goddamn radio static that alerted you to a monster almost broke me.” — Dr-Rjinswand

“Outlast. I love the horror game genre and Outlast 2 was the only game I’ve ever quit. Scared me shitless.” — cosmichowl

“Eternal Darkness. The bathroom part especially. Nope nope nope.” — fab_fierce_feminist

“The Little Nightmares games! While they weren’t the most scary, the plot and the twists and turns had some incredible shock value and ‘HOLY SHIT’ moments.” — sydsbee

“Until Dawn, the full story of what happened to the sisters gave me the strongest feeling of pure dread I’ve ever felt.” — Orangecoloredskies

“Doki Doki Literature Club. That’s probably the only game that has actually fucked with my head.” — SDinoGamer