The most terrifying horror games based on movies

Suitable for Halloween, these are some of the scariest horror games made based on movies, although not nearly as successful as the films that inspired them. 

In this piece, we present to you our list of games that are based on horror movies but are just worse than the original.

Aliens: Colonial Marines

The 2013 first-person shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines is a spin-off of the well-known 1986 horror classic Aliens, starring Sigourney Weaver. However, Colonial Marines is about the US Marines. It’s been hailed on Steam as “the most authentic Aliens experience ever” – and a lot of people have been excited to see the game.

But unfortunately, the game was quite a fail. Everything about the game was totally flat — the aliens were misshapen, crudely designed creatures and the storyline were just plain lame, and the game’s graphics were pretty mediocre. All in all, definitely not a good gaming experience.

What the Critics Say: In a 2013 review, Polygon’s Arthur Gies wrote that Colonial Marines is “unconvincing and there is very little gameplay. The end result feels cowardly and exploitative of the source material and the fans, who hopefully will know better.”

Dead by Daylight

Dead by Daylight isn’t a bad game per se, but when you compare it to the movies the playable killers come from, it loses some of its luster – especially given how diverse the characters in each movie are, and how little of which matters in the game.

This is partly due to the fact that the game is very strategic. Dead by Daylight is a multiplayer survival horror game that often features characters from other films as killers (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, and Hellraiser). Dead by Daylight is more about getting into a good game rhythm than illuminating the backstories of the characters. That has its charms, of course, but the game doesn’t go down too well with most fans of horror movies.

Evil Dead: The Game

The game is based on the cult movie The Evil Dead which was filmed in the early 80’s. The game itself isn’t that bad, but again the focus is more on the strategic aspect.

You can either play in a team of four survivors or as a demon intent on killing those four. The game itself is pretty solid, but it doesn’t quite live up to the movie itself. Most importantly, it just doesn’t really frighten players – and that’s the point of a horror game. Not totally bad per se, but there aren’t any real jumpscares in the game.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a 1974 movie that is also a true classic. The 1983 Atari game The Texas Chainsaw Massacre attempted to become a classic, but failed. It may have been one of the first licensed horror games, but the game and the movements are so slow that there is simply no horror whatsoever! A retro pixel sauce horror fail at its finest.

Friday the 13th: The Game

Campsite killer Jason in his hockey mask is one of horror’s most recognizable characters, a silent, heartless ghost. 2017’s Friday the 13th: The Game lets you play the tattered Jason Voorhees himself. It could have worked had it not been for legal troubles that wrecked the game in 2018 before it had a chance to recover. Also, it’s incredibly boring.

Blair Witch

The most disturbing part of the 1999 found-footage horror film The Blair Witch Project is its blend of reality and pure, mythical evil. The shaky shots create a subtle horror that doesn’t require any blood at all. However, Bloober Team failed to capture that gripping sense of mystery when developing the Blair Witch first-person horror game based on the film.

While the 2019 game is visually nice, the protagonist, Ellis, is extremely unlikable and the storyline around him drags on until it feels loose and incoherent. There’s no mystery, no suspense, just a vague anxiety that lessens the longer you’re forced to face it.