Horror movies allow viewers to engage with their most primordial fears without immediate concern for their safety, where the thrill of being terrified is subverted by the knowledge that none of the catastrophes are real. One of the most popular additions to the horror genre is the concept of introducing a "game" into the plot, thereby taking something playful and innocent and turning it into something nightmarish.
Adding a game component is effective for both augmenting the suspense, and making viewers more invested in the tribulations of the victims. As the puzzles deepen, the simple concept of "win or lose" takes on a whole new meaning when the stakes become "life or death."
Updated on November 13th, 2021 by Kayleena Pierce-Bohen: The fact that these days, fans can live out their fantasies in real horror games like "escape rooms" only adds to the sinister fun, when the lines between reality and fantasy begin to blur, and winning means living to play another day. Therefore, it's not surprising that with recent movies like Ready or Not and Escape Room, they still love being scared by the concept of seemingly innocent activities becoming deadly games of survival.
Saw - Survival Of The Fittest
What began as two strangers waking up in a room with no memory of how they arrived turned into a franchise involving elaborate puzzles and the manipulation of dozens of innocent people. Except they weren't all that innocent, and their indiscretions, secrets, and lies landed them in this deadly game.
A notorious serial killer devised numerous puzzles and challenges, the winners of which survived, the losers of which died horrifically. Those that were willing to do whatever it took to survive usually did at great cost to themselves. Saw was followed by seven sequels films.
Truth Or Dare - Truth Or Dare
A common childhood party game is turned into something sinister in Blumhouse's underrated horror movie Truth or Dare, about a group of fun-loving college students who play it while en route to Mexico. Soon they invite horrific accidents and mayhem into their vacation by revealing their darkest truths and well-guarded secrets.
If they don't tell the truth, perform the dare, or they try to stop playing, they'll be killed by a demonic presence who won't rest until they've seen the game through to the last player. By taking a simple adolescent game and making its answers a matter of life and death, it inverts something that should be innocent and makes it harrowing.
Ready Or Not - Hide And Seek
Game night with the in-laws turns into something even more horrific for a young bride in Ready or Not. When Grace decides to participate in her new family's ritual, she and her deranged relatives commence a rousing game of "Hide and Seek" in their mysterious manor home.
The game is not how Grace remembers it; she is urged to not only stay hidden as long as she possibly can but finds herself forced to participate in active combat against other players, lest she be found by a family member wielding a shotgun or a meat cleaver. The movie not only acts as commentary for the unaccepting nature of in-laws, it also forces its heroine to cut the budding emotional ties of her potential nuptials in order to survive, giving a new meaning to the marriage vows "til death do us part."
The Game - The Game
In the Michael Douglas-led The Game, a wealthy financier who has everything is given an invitation to participate in a game tailor-made for him, and what he thinks will be a diverting joy ride becomes a pulse-pounding race for survival.
Not only is he pursued by rogue gunmen at every turn, but there he finds his number of trustworthy allies dwindling as the reach of the Game's creators extends to his friends and family. What makes the movie so frightening is the fact that at first, he thinks everything is just a simple scary game, but soon realizes it'll be something that could drive him to end his own life as he questions what's real and what's not.
Ouija- Ouija
When their friend Debbie dies under mysterious circumstances after playing with a Ouija Board as a child, five friends try to summon her spirit with the help of the famous oracular board game. After believing themselves to have come in contact with Debbie, they soon realize they've actually met a demonic presence.
Ouija Boards have been a sign of impending evil since they first appeared in movies like The Exorcist. What makes the movie clever is not simply that it reveals the consequences of playing a scary horror game commonly found at slumber parties, but that it's already found in thousands of people's homes, ensuring that an everyday object becomes a purveyor of terror.
Cube - The Maze
Six strangers suddenly wake up in a strange room in the underrated '90s indie horror classic Cube, each having no idea how they got there or why they're being detained. As their varying personalities begin to clash, they're forced to work together to try to determine the reason for their imprisonment. When they exit the room, they only enter another room identical to the last, part of an endless maze that contains deadly traps.
As they move through the rooms, activating the traps sometimes by touch or by sound, they realize they may each possess a special mental gift that will allow them to escape. The real horror lies in the fact that just when they think they have the maze figured out, they realize the mystery is far worse than they imagined, and that they will probably wish for death before they go insane from the repetition.
House On Haunted Hill - Last Man Standing
In House On Haunted Hill, an eccentric millionaire offers a substantial sum of money to any of the five people who can last a night in his spooky mansion. He doesn't expect to be one of the contestants himself, but when he becomes trapped in the house along with his guests, they must all work together to find a way out.
A remake of the 1959 film of the same name starring horror icon Vincent Price, the 1999 version amplifies its predecessor's thrills and chills and offers a clever contribution to the classic horror trope of haunted house thrillers.
The Hunt - The Hunt
When twelve strangers find themselves waking up in a clearing with no idea how they got there or even where they are, they're unaware that they've been specifically chosen to participate in a game called the Hunt.
A remake of The Most Dangerous Game, The Hunt highlights the savagery of moral inequality as wealthy elites gather at a remote location to stalk humans for fun. Fittingly, they aren't prepared for the resourcefulness of one captive, who turns the tables on her pursuers.
Would You Rather - Would You Rather
A sadistic aristocrat who preys on the desperate comes to the aid of Iris, a young woman who needs to help her ill brother and pressures her into playing a deadly version of the child's game "Would You Rather" that becomes a true psychological thriller. It tests the thin barrier of her morality and throws into question how far she's prepared to go for the means to save her brother's life.
The game takes place at a mysterious mansion, where others who haven't received "a fair shake in life" gather to also receive the philanthropist's help. As their evening unfolds and more greed and avarice is revealed, Iris finds she must figure out how to survive.
Circle - Process Of Elimination
Like a terrifying version of television's The Weakest Link, Circle is a film that acts as a social experiment to determine how selfish or altruistic humans can be if given certain choices. When 50 captives are asked to vote for who they feel deserves not to be executed, they naturally each vote for themselves.
As people begin to be eliminated, the ever-shrinking circle is asked who they feel should survive next, and why. As the people begin to squabble over more strategic voting, the true nature of humanity is revealed when they're at their most sadistic.
Stay Alive - Stay Alive
Playing video games with friends might involve some high-stakes action from time to time, but when the console is shut off, the danger is supposed to end. When a group of friends start playing the indie survival horror game "Stay Alive", they each get killed off in ways that eerily mirror their character deaths in the game.
While there are many video games based on horror movies, there aren't nearly as many horror movies that feature a deadly video game of their own, making Stay Alive a unique contribution to a special niche. Even the movie's dated graphics won't prevent gamers from shaking the feeling that their next playthrough could be their last...
Gerald's Game - Gerald's Game
Adding a little risk in a couple's intimate moments can take hanky panky to an exciting level, but in Gerald's Game, the lines between pain and pleasure blur into something resembling a living nightmare after a woman is left alone handcuffed to a bed in the middle of nowhere.
Mike Flanagan's take on Stephen King's scintillating story is a riveting thrill ride unfolding in real-time as one woman must survive an unprecedented situation, taking the already vulnerable nature of intimacy and turning it into an exploration of viewers' deepest psychological anxieties.
Hellraiser - Puzzle Box
The key to the gates of hell resides in a curious puzzle box in Hellraiser, where a man consumed by avarice tries to solve it and unlock the untold pleasures of dimensions beyond the mortal coil, only to be plagued by the wrath of the beings that dwell within them.
A terrifying interpretation of a Rubix cube, the puzzle box (or Lament Configuration, as the powerful object is known) knows that it's irresistible to someone who feels entitled to unlocking its secrets, but solving the puzzle doesn't give anyone what they want or even what they need -- it gives them what they deserve. Therefore, playing with it serves as a sort of indicator of someone's morality, with the most humble and righteous choosing not to play with it in the first place.
Battle Royale - The Battle Royale
In this Japanese thriller, dozens of 9th-grade students find themselves on a remote island with only a map, provisions, and weapons to survive. Each teenager has been fitted with a collar that explodes if they break a single rule in the Battle Royale, the object of which is to be the last one standing.
Battle Royale is as much a social experiment as it is a horror movie, taking elements of Lord of the Flies to convey subtle messages about primordial drive and sociological motivation amidst its terrifying premise.
Escape Room - Escape Room
Based on the exciting group adventure game of the same name, Escape Room follows six strangers who find themselves solving puzzles in different rooms throughout an unmarked office building, each one getting progressively more fatal as they proceed. With a large cash prize at the end of the game, they're willing to do just about anything to get it, from solving riddles to killing each other off.
Escape rooms have become a fun group activity for thrill-seekers around the world, with most of the adrenaline derived from locating clues and solving puzzles in a certain amount of time. Making the ticking clock count down the minutes of players' lives adds a whole new dimension of peril to the concept.