- 7/8/2025
Sleep is overrated anyway... Join us as we count down our picks for the most unsettling and disturbing video games that left players too terrified to continue. From twisted fairy tales to psychological nightmares, these games masterfully combine disturbing visuals, oppressive atmospheres, and haunting stories to create experiences that linger long after you've turned off your console.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and we're getting so unsettled by the creepiest video games of all time,
00:16whether it be through the game's visuals, atmosphere and art design, or disturbing lore,
00:20that we don't know if we'll ever recover, let alone finish our playthrough.
00:24Mary, could you really be in this town?
00:33Number 10, Madness Returns.
00:36Are you mad?
00:37I'm not mad.
00:38Rabbit.
00:39That's not right.
00:40What's he doing?
00:40There's something wrong.
00:43Something wrong?
00:45Alice in Wonderland was already a pretty dark story, but in the hands of American McGee, it's an outright nightmare.
00:52The twisted interpretations of familiar characters and the world itself produce a warped version of Wonderland,
00:58which is given a gothic steampunk makeover, industrializing everything from the various levels to even the weaponry Alice uses to fight off the world's creatures.
01:08Alice herself is even given a much darker backstory, starting with her escape from a mental institution,
01:14with Alice believing she is responsible for the fiery deaths of her family.
01:19The world is disturbingly gorgeous, and the new approach to the beloved classic is sure to unsettle and stick with you far longer than the source material.
01:28Your view conceals a tragedy.
01:31The whole truth you claim to see eludes you because you won't look at what's around you.
01:39Number 9, Amnesia The Dark Descent.
01:42Horror games always set out to make the player feel helpless, but none manage to capture that sense of complete defenselessness the way Amnesia The Dark Descent does.
01:52The title of Dark Descent is wildly appropriate, as not only do players need to descend into the depths of the castle,
01:59but also uncover the mystery of their missing memories,
02:03all while being relentlessly stalked by all manner of insanity-inducing creatures and abominations.
02:08The fact the player can't fight back only adds to the game's tension, as your only defense is to run and hide.
02:24The oppressive atmosphere is only matched by the castle's disturbing history,
02:28as the more you uncover, the more you can't wait to escape with your sanity intact.
02:33Number 8, Detention.
02:35It's always the most unassuming ones that traumatize you the most.
02:38Set during a period of martial law in the 1960s in Taiwan,
02:43players find themselves trapped inside their school,
02:46and with night approaching, the nightmares begin to creep in.
02:56With the school warping and distorting around them,
02:59creatures begin to stalk the player through the halls as they try to find a way to escape.
03:03As if this wasn't bad enough, the more the players uncover,
03:07the more disturbing their own backstories are,
03:10and the game's world becomes a purgatory in which they uncover the dark history of the school
03:14and relive their most traumatic moments until they finally accept responsibility for their actions.
03:20It's the most traumatic form of therapy.
03:22Number 7, Alan Wake 2.
03:31First things first.
03:33What's your name?
03:35My name is Alan Wake.
03:38I'm a writer.
03:38The first Alan Wake introduced players to the Dark Place,
03:42and with the sequel,
03:44Remedy threw players inside,
03:45locked the door,
03:46and turned off the lights.
03:48The sense of complete and utter dread Alan Wake 2 immerses the player in
03:52is unlike any survival horror game before it,
03:55full of twisted characters,
03:56unsettling locations,
03:58and a new endless stream of jump scares.
04:01Split between two worlds,
04:02the Dark Place and the real world,
04:04neither is any less unsettling,
04:06as Alan must deal with the shadow creatures
04:08and manipulative nightmares of the Dark Place,
04:11while Saga deals with Alan's writings coming to life
04:13and affecting the residents of Bright Falls and the surrounding areas.
04:17There are not enough flashlight batteries in the world
04:20to fight off these nightmares.
04:22Number 6, Iron Lung.
04:33Approaching maximum depth.
04:35The hole's sealing it, but it's still holding strong.
04:40Closing port hole shielding.
04:44Speaking of unassuming,
04:45Iron Lung has probably some of the darkest lore
04:48out of any of the games on this list.
04:50Set after an event known as the Quiet Rapture
04:53in which all living things and planets mysteriously disappear,
04:57only those who were inhabiting space stations remain
05:00and continue to search for the cause
05:02and any remaining survivors.
05:04Locked inside a bathysphere,
05:06players are dropped into a mysterious blood ocean
05:08to search for materials to sustain the remnants of humanity.
05:11With no windows,
05:12the only way to guide yourself
05:14is a radar and a blurry camera
05:16to capture your findings.
05:17The single room play area
05:19quickly becomes increasingly claustrophobic,
05:22even more so as you slowly realize
05:24you aren't alone in these waters.
05:26Number 5, Dead Space.
05:43Like John Carpenter's The Thing on Steroids,
05:46players are dropped into the nightmare of the Ishimura,
05:49which has become overrun
05:50with horrendously mutated creatures
05:52born and grafted from the remains
05:54of the once-human crew
05:55on board the enormous mining vessel.
05:58With dangers able to attack you from every side
06:00due to their affinity for crawl spaces and vents,
06:03the flickering lights and constant screeches
06:05and howls from within the walls
06:07immediately put the player on edge.
06:09Simply surviving the necromorphs
06:11is unsettling enough,
06:13but uncovering the origins of the creatures
06:15and its effects on those who come in contact with it
06:17proves to be just as unnerving.
06:19Try and relax, Mr. Clark.
06:23Convergence is so close.
06:27Maybe your death will take the balance.
06:32Number 4, Poppy Playtime.
06:34She loves watching you play.
06:36When you're having fun, she's having fun.
06:40The new Mommy Longlegs from Playtime Co.
06:43What's the time?
06:44Initially appearing as yet another
06:48in a long line of mascot horror games,
06:51the cutesy nature of the game's central characters
06:53is stripped away,
06:54and the deeper you go into the Playtime Co. facility,
06:57the more disturbing and unsettling the world becomes.
07:01Full of horrific experiments,
07:03many including orphaned children
07:04and a mad scientist obsessed with his creations,
07:08to the point where he murdered
07:09all the remaining staff at the facility,
07:11the public face of the toy company
07:13hides its disturbing true nature.
07:15With each subsequent chapter,
07:17the inner workings and history of Playtime Co.
07:20become more horrific,
07:21and considering the story is still ongoing,
07:24we can only imagine what horrors
07:26are waiting to be uncovered.
07:28If I were you,
07:29I'd start running.
07:36Number 3, Little Nightmares.
07:39Any game that puts you in the shoes of a child
07:41is already going to be more terrifying,
07:44making you feel even more helpless
07:45than you already would in a typical horror scenario.
07:49Little Nightmares doubles down on this already suspenseful setup
07:52by hunting players with some of the most unsettling
07:54and horrific creature designs in decades.
07:57The deeper you find yourself in the Maw,
07:59the massive ship within the game,
08:01the more disturbing each encounter becomes.
08:03Limiting the player's options to run and hide
08:06only amplifies this feeling of helplessness
08:08as the oppressively dark atmosphere swallows you
08:11in its grimy depths,
08:12pulling you further into your little nightmares.
08:16Number 2, Visage.
08:17I haven't seen you out of the house in about three weeks.
08:21Is everything alright?
08:23Could you call me just to let me know everything's fine?
08:26Haunted houses are such a classic horror staple,
08:29it's surprising the games don't adapt
08:31the style of horror more often.
08:33Heavily inspired by Hideo Kojima's Silent Hills teaser, P.T.,
08:36Visage allows players to explore their house
08:39as the paranormal activity becomes increasingly more prevalent and aggressive.
08:43What makes Visage so terrifying
08:45is the way it takes the familiar,
08:47in this case, a family home,
08:49and uses the family's hidden secrets
08:51to make you feel like a stranger,
08:53someone who isn't supposed to be there.
08:55The game's opening sets up the events of the game
08:57and is arguably more horrifying than anything else within the game,
09:01but in attempting to escape your own personal hell,
09:04the layers of terror slowly peel back
09:07and the entire playthrough becomes even more unsettling.
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09:30Number 1, Silent Hill 2
09:35Excuse me, I...
09:36Oh, I'm sorry.
09:39I... I...
09:40No, it's okay.
09:41I didn't mean to scare you.
09:44I'm kind of lost.
09:45Silent Hill already has some of gaming's most disturbing lore,
09:49but the nightmare was deepened even further
09:51with James Sunderland's arrival in the fog-laden town.
09:54Forced to confront his own demons brought to life,
09:57as players uncover more about the town,
09:59they also discover the disturbing history
10:01that led James there in the first place.
10:03Full of nightmare imagery,
10:05twisted creatures,
10:06and two versions of the world to explore,
10:08the game focuses more of terrifying
10:10the player's psychological state of mind
10:12rather than in-your-face terror.
10:14And because of that,
10:15alongside incredibly memorable characters and foes,
10:18Silent Hill 2 remains the benchmark for survival horror,
10:22and one of the most memorably upsetting
10:24video game experiences of all time.
10:26It's time to end this nightmare.
10:30No!
10:31I won't let you!
10:32What was the creepiest video game experience you ever had?
10:35Let us know your trauma in the comments below.
10:38Did you enjoy this video?
10:40Check out these other clips from WatchMojo,
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10:54Wii U co-op!
10:56Wait...
10:59See you next time!
11:00See you next time!
11:02See you next time!
11:08Bye bye!
11:18See you next time!
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