The Best Games That Feel Like Horror Movies

With the remakes of Silent Hill 2 and Until Dawn releasing, gamers continue to see how cinematic horror games have become since their rise in the 90s. Arguably, horror is one of the most cinematic genres in gaming thanks to certain games being influenced by famous horror movies.

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Whether it's through the evils that characters face or the aesthetic or even the story's framing device, many horror games have tried to look and sound like watching a horror movie. Some even take it so far that they successfully become as famous as the movies they take inspiration from while providing a worthwhile gaming experience.

8 The Evil Within

Mixes Multiple Horror Genres By The Creator Of Resident Evil

From the moment The Evil Within starts, it looks and feels like a movie, even featuring a letterbox on the screen at all times to simulate the look of a movie in widescreen. Then there are the horrors that Detective Sebastian Castellanos endures, each feeling like a love letter to horror movies of the past, mixing sci-fi, supernatural, and psychological horror all into one.

The Evil Within emulates the vibe of many 2000s horror films, such as the fast-paced editing and gore of James Wan horror movies with enemies such as a chainsaw-wielding brute that hangs his victims on chains akin to Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Combined with strong third-person shooter gameplay, The Evil Within quickly became a modern classic.

7 The Quarry

Homages 80s Horror Movies And Tests Player Decisions

The Quarry is a title made by Supermassive Games who also made Until Dawn, where the player must make choices to guide characters along a horrifying story. The choices do matter and can lead to a happy ending or a bad ending for different characters, with some memorable death scenes that warrant replaying to find them all.

Where Until Dawn felt like a modern horror movie, The Quarry goes all out in replicating the old VHS movie quality look of the 80s. It even features multigenerational recognizable horror stars Lin Shaye, Ted Raimi, David Arquette, and Lance Henriksen as a bonus for horror movie fans.

6 Dead By Daylight

Asymmetrical Love Letter To Slasher Movies

Rather than simply outrunning killers and monsters, Dead By Daylight became a pinnacle of the asymmetrical horror genre, allowing one player to take control of a killer. With its unique lore, Dead By Daylight pays homage to many horror movies in the past, with The Trapper resembling Jason Voorhees and The Legion resembling Ghostface.

Each of their original killers is inspired by different movies of the past, which is half the fun in using them in online multiplayer matches. However, the fame and success of Dead By Daylight has resulted in iconic movie characters joining the roster, including a playable Xenomorph, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Hell Priest, and Leatherface, just to name a few.

5 Silent Hill

The PS1 Game That Revolutionized The Survivor Horror Genre

One of the biggest inspirations for the original Silent Hill was Jacob's Ladder as revealed by creator Akihiro Imamura, which also dealt with the main protagonist experiencing horrors created by trauma and regrets. The movie also features multiple alternate endings, which has become one of the most famous aspects of the Silent Hill games.

The mist enveloping the town in Silent Hill is reminiscent of John Carpenter's The Fog and the twisted yet gory Otherworld harks back to movies like Clive Barker's Hellraiser, with characters mutilated by barbed wire and monsters resembling the Cenobites and their chains. These horror movie elements would continue to be a staple in the games, including the latest remake of Silent Hill 2.

4 Dead Space

The Gruesome Pinnacle Of Space Horror Games

With the premise of a group of people landing on a spaceship to fix it, only to be victims of an alien plague, Dead Space takes notes from multiple sci-fi horror movies. The dark and dreary ship design of the Ishimura feels like it was lifted from the Nostromo in Ridley Scott's Alien, relying on atmosphere and sound design to torment the player as much as the monsters.

In many ways, the 2023 remake of Dead Space is superior. Isaac Clarke explores the ship, he has to contend with Necromorphs, corpses that are mutated into alien organisms, using claws and tendrils to attack their prey. They look and sound like they belong in John Carpenter's The Thing and the result is a survival horror game that brings together the best elements of the original trilogy.

3 Outlast

Found Footage Horror Game Inspired By Movies Like Blair Witch

There was a time when found footage horror movies were everywhere, from Blair Witch to As Above So Below and Outlast is arguably the best attempt to replicate that genre in video game form. A journalist sneaks into a mysterious asylum and becomes the victim of the monstrous inmates that now roam it.

The only tool at the player's disposal is the camera, which has a night vision function. This helps with the immersion in feeling like a found footage movie, especially since there is no way to fight enemies. All that can be done is running and hiding, which makes for intense sequences that made the game so successful that it spawned an expansion DLC and two sequels.

2 Alien: Isolation

A Proper Sequel To The Original Alien

After so many Alien games tried to replicate James Cameron's Aliens, Alien: Isolation goes back to the style of Ridley Scott's original Alien. The result is a game that is now an official sequel to the first movie, one that was as beautiful as it was haunting thanks to its nearly perfect visual replication of the film and the advanced artificial intelligence that made the Xenomorph learn.

That same feeling of claustrophobia and being trapped in a space station with the perfect organism made Alien: Isolation feel more like a sequel to Alien than the actual sequel. It would even be a major inspiration for Alien: Romulus, which borrowed many ideas and elements from the game.

1 Until Dawn

Redefined Story-Driven Horror Games Forever

Similar to The Quarry, Until Dawn is an interactive horror drama that forces players to make choices that could progress the story. However, Until Dawn and its 2024 remake started it all with its deceptively simple story and characters mixed with clever twists, beautiful visuals, and gory kills that gamers loved as a playable movie, so much so that it is becoming a live-action movie in 2025.

Until Dawn borrows from many horror movies, including Friday The 13th, Saw, and even Stephen King stories. The characters became the gold standard for Supermassive Games' style, with even their best characters in other games struggling to match Until Dawn due to them being famous archetypes but with just enough of a twist to make them memorable.

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