Fear takes many forms, so why not embrace the variety? There’s just something about watching horror movies, dressing up, reading terrifying stories, or playing scary video games on Halloween. Whatever gets invited in on this day carries an augmented sense of terror. You don’t get scared on Halloween. You get terrified. Things aren’t just unsettling. They’re disturbing. Bones don’t merely get chilled. They get shaken.
Here are three horror experiences (and a few honorable mentions) that’ll stoke your fears just right to get you ready for Halloween. Enjoy.
- Witchcraft! A solo-play card game
If you have some time to kill before the big costume party you’re going to, consider a game of Witchcraft!, a card-driven solo game where you play witch cards to convince a monster-ridden town that magic is good. Three judges stand before you, unconvinced as to whether witches are agents of good or in league with the devil. Your job is to persuade those judges of your goodness by embarking on missions filled with possessed townsfolk and evil elder witches that must be overcome to show where your allegiances lie.
Each game takes about 20-40 minutes, but the level of challenge is high. The cards are clearly stacked against you as you decide which witches to reveal and which to keep hidden. Animal familiars help ease the burden, but strategy is a must. Having witches from the same family also alleviate some of the difficulty, but then you have curses and challenge cards doing their best to halt your progress. It’s fun, intense, and steeped in pure Halloween energy.
- Tales for a Halloween Night, Vol. 11, a horror anthology by Storm King Studios
Tales for a Halloween Night has become a horror comics staple, an integral part of the seasonal festivities. Without it, All Hallows’ Eve feels incomplete. Sandy King has shaped Storm King Studios around it, to an extent, and this year’s edition is bursting at the seams with fresh blood and undistilled darkness. Volume 11 marks Killadelphia artist Jason Shawn Alexander’s first contribution to the series, titled “The Second Hand”. Written by Kealan Patrick Burke, it spins a yarn about a bottomless body of water that’s haunted by a creature that’s unlike anything you’ve seen before. It looks like something that has the capacity to murder the entire world.
Another story highlight explores divisive rhetoric in American media and how good it is at creating political zombies led by partisan bloodlust. This one comes off as a bit too blunt with its messaging, but it’s all in service of a clever finale that’ll have you nervously chuckling at how accurate the closing shock feels. Tales for a Halloween Night, vol. 11, delivers on variety, inventiveness, and celebratory horror. It’ll set the tone for the entire day.
- Over the Garden Wall, a folk horror cartoon that is as funny as it is disquieting
Now streaming on Hulu, Over the Garden Wall is one of the best horror cartoons ever to have graced television screens. It’s a humorous take on dark fairy tales that doesn’t sacrifice horror for laughs, or vice versa. It follows brothers Wirt and Greg (who’s endearingly aloof) as they get lost in a mysterious forest known as The Unknown. A mythical beast roams the lands, making the brother’s journey more desperate. A magical bird that’s fed up with magic and a talking horse make an appearance along the way, both wary party members that are invested in escaping The Unknown for their own reasons.
At 12 minutes an episode, it’s an easy binge. Perfect for a busy Halloween day. Make sure you at least make it to episode two, titled “Hard Times at the Huskin’ Bee.” Here, Wirt and Greg arrive in the town of Pottsfield, a quiet town that’s in the middle of celebrating a strange harvest festival where people dress up as pumpkins to worship a massive god-like Jack-o’-lantern. The episode is utterly creepy, but also philosophical. It asks questions that linger, laced with an adequate amount of dread for added effect. It’s one of the best pieces of horror fiction I’ve seen, and it makes it hard not to continue watching the rest of the series.
Honorable mentions:
- Monsters, a TV horror anthology that ran from 1988-1991. I recommend watching “Mannikins of Horror” and “The Match Game,” two nasty little stories that weren’t afraid to push the limits of syndicated television.
- The Last Days of H.P. Lovecraft, a new horror series from BOOM about exactly what it alludes to in the title. Created by Romuald Giulivo and Jakub Rebelka, it centers on a bedridden Lovecraft as he receives a strange visitor that possesses impossible knowledge about the author’s place in future pop culture.
- Monster Train 2, a rogue-like deck building game that takes place on a train that shoots straight out of Hell with the combined forces of angels and demons to battle villainous Titans. You use cards with multiple effects to attempt a full run against the final foes. Fans of Slay the Spire, this one’s for you. If you’re not careful, you’ll spend all of Halloween playing it, maybe missing out on a party or two with little regrets.
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