As spooky season approaches, lots of folks will be asking: what can I do to get in the spirit of ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and other various generic frightening critters? Well, look no further dear phobia fiends. I've got a list for you of some excellent, lesser known horror games for you to try out.
Anatomy
Anatomy's concept is fairly simple- collect some tapes in a house. Sounds easy, right? Well, the trick is staying sane long enough to go and retrieve them. The story is delivered very slowly and methodically, and the atmosphere is just plain anxiety inducing. Fans of slow-burn horror a la Midsommar or Hereditary will probably enjoy this quite a bit. There's no jump scares to speak of, but there is some truly unsettling imagery and body horror. I'd recommend this game to any horror fan out there, and it's only 2.99 on KittyHorrorShow's website. She's published a huge variety of other bite-sized horror games, so give those a try too.
Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion
As the name implies, this is a bit of a sillier game, featuring a huge number of corny jump scares. The irony here is that the actually scary stuff that happens in the game is all jump-scare free. While the game starts with a comedic bent, it quickly devolves into mind-bending horror that will certainly keep you up at night. I don't want to spoil too many details about this one, as I think you'll get the most out of it going in blind. Plus, it's free! Who can say no to free?
Little Nightmares
A charming little platformer that reminds one of Tim Burton's classic stop motion films like Coraline or Nightmare Before Christmas. You play as a small child in a yellow raincoat exploring a terrifying dreadnought adrift in the sea, The Maw. The levels in this game are decently lengthy and bring no small amount of nail-biting close calls and puzzle solving as well. Each level focuses on a different creature or person pursuing you, with its own set of rules to boot. Besides being a genuinely disturbing game, the level design and art style are truly incredible. It's on just about every platform around, so give it a shot if you've got the coin.
