Summary
- Horror games offer emotionally rich and atmospheric storytelling, perfect for TV adaptations.
- The Evil Within's surreal, psychological horror could make for a visually stunning and emotionally complex series.
- Visage's focus on dread and rich storytelling could translate well into a slow-burn miniseries with deep psychological horror.
The best horror TV doesn’t just scare, it lingers. It makes audiences obsess over tiny clues, scream at their screens, and argue on Reddit about what the ending really meant. No medium captures that kind of tension quite like horror games. They’re already atmospheric, already serialized in structure, and in many cases, already more emotionally rich than what passes for “prestige television.”
The Scariest Horror Video Games Of All Time, Ranked
From the torture of Doki Doki Literature Club to the eerieness of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, here are the scariest horror video games of all time.
Some of these horror games have twists that could anchor an entire season. Others are built around slow-burning mysteries, creeping dread, or morally complex characters that viewers would grow dangerously attached to. In the right hands, these horror games could be transformed into truly unforgettable TV shows. Here are seven horror games that feel like they're just one good showrunner away from being the next must-watch nightmare.
7 The Evil Within
Give This Man A Therapist And A Streaming Deal
The Evil Within
- Released
- October 14, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Survival Horror
There’s psychological horror, and then there’s The Evil Within, which shoves players into the fragmented, blood-soaked mind of a man falling apart at the seams. Detective Sebastian Castellanos doesn't just fight monsters—he fights grief, trauma, and a nightmare-scape stitched together by a rogue STEM system that merges everyone's minds into one shared horror dimension. Yeah, it’s a lot. But that’s exactly what would make this perfect for TV.
Think Inception meets Silent Hill, with a splash of The Haunting of Hill House thrown in. Each episode could delve into a different aspect of the collective consciousness, revealing more about the characters and unraveling their pasts while ramping up the body horror and surrealism. The visual variety alone—from blood-drenched mental hospitals to collapsing cityscapes that fold like paper—would give any director a field day. And Sebastian? He’s not just a grizzled cop with a drinking problem. He’s a man whose reality keeps breaking, and that kind of role screams Emmy bait.
6 Visage
PT May Be Dead, But This Game Haunts The Same Halls
Visage
- Released
- October 30, 2020
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- SadSquare Studio
- Genre(s)
- Horror
Players who still mourn the loss of Silent Hills found something deeply unsettling in Visage. This indie psychological horror game is structurally built like an anthology series, with its haunted house serving as a vessel for different tragic stories. There’s no traditional combat or escape sequences—just players slowly uncovering the intimate, often brutal details behind each former occupant’s death. And that house? It shifts. It breathes. It watches.
TV doesn’t need another jump scare parade—it needs dread, and Visage is all about dread. It would work brilliantly as a slow-burn miniseries, with each episode focusing on one of the house’s inhabitants. A family shattered by suicide. A child lost in the dark. An old woman who just... Vanishes. There’s so much rich, morbid storytelling already baked into the game that a screenwriter could basically lift it wholesale. And because it’s mostly left to interpretation, a show could go wild with expanding the lore without angering purists.
5 SOMA
Existential Dread, But Make It Science Fiction
SOMA
- Released
- September 15, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- t
- Genre(s)
- Horror
If any horror game deserves a cerebral, high-concept adaptation a la Black Mirror or Devs, it’s SOMA. It trades traditional scares for philosophical terror—what it means to be conscious, to have identity, and to suffer forever. The underwater research facility PATHOS-2 is falling apart, both physically and ethically, and players navigate its ruined halls as Simon, a man who died a century ago but wakes up in a robotic body he doesn’t understand.
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This isn't just a survival story. It's a slow, creeping meditation on humanity and memory, with monsters that are terrifying not because they want to eat Simon, but because they used to be people. The gameplay supports long monologues, desperate audio logs, and moral quandaries that practically beg for adaptation. Every encounter could be its own mini-episode, ending in gut-punch decisions no one walks away from cleanly. And the ending? It’s one of those endings that demands a rewatch, discussion threads, and several therapy sessions.
4 Resident Evil 2
A Cop, A Girl, And A City Full Of Regrets
Resident Evil 2
- Released
- January 25, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Intense Violence
- Genre(s)
- Horror
Forget the over-the-top gun-fests of some later entries—Resident Evil 2 keeps things tight, personal, and terrifying. Two parallel stories, one collapsing city, and enough dramatic irony to fuel an entire season of TV. Players can follow Leon’s rookie cop nightmare or Claire’s desperate search for her brother, and both routes deliver classic horror tropes with surprising emotional depth.
Raccoon City is the perfect urban horror backdrop: sirens wailing in the distance, streets flooded with undead, and a police station that feels more like a Victorian mansion than a government building. And then there’s Mr. X—a trenchcoat-wearing, wall-punching menace who never runs but always catches up. He’s the kind of looming threat that could anchor an entire season as a slow, unstoppable antagonist.
Capcom already nailed the remake’s tone with its grounded performances, reworked puzzles, and devastatingly effective lighting. A show adaptation wouldn’t even need to stretch the plot—the tension comes baked in.
3 Silent Hill 2
They Deserve Rest, Not Redemption
Silent Hill 2
- Released
- September 25, 2001
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
No jump scare will ever hit harder than the dawning realization of what Silent Hill 2 is actually about. What starts as a man searching for his dead wife in a foggy town quickly spirals into a meditation on guilt, grief, and denial—all wrapped in one of the most quietly devastating horror stories ever told in gaming.
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Every part of the titular town reflects the emotional decay of the protagonist, James Sunderland. From the eerie, near-empty streets to the monsters that aren’t just horrifying—they’re symbolic. Pyramid Head, the game’s most infamous creation, isn’t just a slasher villain. He is judgment made flesh. Even the supporting characters, like Angela and Eddie, bring their own baggage, each one haunted by their own trauma and warped realities.
A TV adaptation could dive deeper into each of their psyches, stretching single scenes into full episodes of psychological horror. The town of Silent Hill doesn’t just scare people. It undresses them, emotionally and spiritually. And no adaptation would leave viewers feeling clean afterward.
2 Dead Space
Cut Off Their Limbs
Dead Space
- Released
- October 14, 2008
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
Claustrophobic corridors, flickering emergency lights, and an engineering protagonist just trying to keep his limbs attached—Dead Space is survival horror with all the makings of a perfect season arc. The USG Ishimura, a derelict mining vessel overrun by mutated corpses called Necromorphs, would be a terrifying setting for a bottle episode. Or ten.
Isaac Clarke doesn’t speak in the original game, but in the remake, his voiced reactions to every nightmare unfolding around him only add to the tension. He’s not a soldier, just a man trying to survive a nightmare with a plasma cutter and a lot of regret. The lore gets deeper with each installment: ancient alien markers, hallucinations from a brain-melting virus, and a religious cult that thinks all of this is fine, actually.
And if a series wanted to produce multiple seasons? There’s a whole Dead Space timeline to explore, from the doomed planet-cracking colony on Aegis 7 to the unraveling of EarthGov. It’s grim, it’s gory, and it’s got space zombies that scream like dying whales.
1 Alan Wake
You Can’t Kill An Idea
Alan Wake
- Released
- February 16, 2012
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Survival Horror
With its episodic format, voiceover narration, and literal “Previously on Alan Wake…” recaps, Alan Wake barely even tries to pretend it’s a game first and foremost. It’s Twin Peaks meets Stephen King, soaked in fog, drenched in paranoia, and wrapped in the kind of unreliable narration that keeps viewers—and players—guessing until the credits roll.
The town of Bright Falls practically begs to be explored in greater depth. There's already a built-in supporting cast: the eccentric locals, the obsessed FBI agent, the best-friend-slash-agent with the world's worst timing. Add to that a dark presence rewriting reality from the shadows of Cauldron Lake, and this show writes itself. Every flashlight click and page of the manuscript is a cliffhanger.
Alan Wake 2 only doubles down on the TV-ready format, introducing a dual-protagonist structure and jumping between worlds. It’s layered, stylish horror that would translate effortlessly into a serialized psychological thriller.
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