Horror is an art and it takes a great mind to be able to create an experience thattruly haunts audiencesfrom start to finish. It’s a difficult genre to capture and sometimes when too many aspects miss the mark, the screams start to fade into hearty laughs instead. Fortunately for these games that failed to scare their audiences, “so cheesy it’s funny” has slowly grown into its own category of games itself over the years.
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Although these particular games made a genuine attempt at horror, luckily for them, their flub hasn’t completely backfired and players have found a way to salvage them. Here are a few cheesy horror games that make for a great laugh rather than a genuine scare.
10Michigan: Report From Hell
Perhaps this unique horror game would have been a bit more terrifying if the voice acting were a little more convincing but the reality of it is thatMichigan: Report From Hellis notorious for its hilariously bad voice acting.
Truthfully, the game has a lot of horrific imagery and terrifying monsters; and its unique “found footage” tactic they’ve implemented is actually quite interesting! But no matter how much players try to find some solace in those aspects of the game,Michigan: Report From Helljust remains a campy mess due to its mix of over-the-top and flat-out unconvincing voice acting. Although it may not deliver on the scares, it definitely is worth a try evenjust for the laughs instead.
9Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within
This sequel toClock Tower,Clock Tower II: The Struggle Withinis sofar from the storyof its predecessor, it’s even considered a spin-off rather than a true sequel in Japan. This slow-paced point-and-click game followed the possessed Alyssa and her journey to a family friend’s estate as she struggles with the demonic spirit within her.
Overall, with the absence of the Scissorman, this sequel truly feels out of place. Bates' (the spirit within Alyssa) on the nose spooky voice acting almost feels like they went for a ribbing of the horror genre than an actual attempt instead. Overall, the tropes and stereotypical voice acting/sound design make for an almost ironic horror game.
8Lucius II
Although the actual premise ofLucius IIis menacing and rather dark, the gameplay is a little different from the demonic story. The player takes the place of Lucius, the son of Lucifer, with the sole goal of committing as many murders as possible to gain more power. After the criticism of the first game being too linear,Lucius IIis asandbox-style game, leaving plenty of room for janky A.I.
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Unfortunately, the A.I. is just one of the many aspects of this game that make it goofy rather than spooky. The comedic ragdoll of the corpses, the hilarious excessively violent murders, and distracting NPCs with donuts, all add too many laughs to have this game be a true horror experience; regardless of its incredibly dark premise.
7Escape From Bug Island
Most of the time, bad controls make for a frustrating game, however, in the case ofEscape From Bug Island, it almost adds to the hilarity. Sure some of theactual enemies are terrifying; who wouldn’t be scared of giant bugs? Unfortunately, the game’s fear factor takes an abrupt halt there.
The stifled voice acting, the ridiculous banter between the characters and the giant tarantulas that for some reason make screeching hawk noises are a little too difficult to ignore. Luckily for this particular title, its flubs are so far gone they actually ended up working in its favor so long as players areexpecting an amusing timerather than a genuine horror title.
6SCP- Containment Breach
Originally spawning from the web-based SCP Foundation,SCP- Containment Breachis all about encountering mysterious entities all featured in the collaborative-fiction project of the SCP and trying to learn more about them, while also making it out alive.
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This particular title is an interesting one as although it’s cheesy and has its laughable moments, it can still deliver a few genuinely good scares! The lore hidden throughout the SCP facility is well written and intriguing; not to mention the blinking mechanic implemented is an incredibly effective way of creating tension. However, with many free games, detail is often lacking, and because of this, some of the enemies encountered are a bit goofy when given a second look. Although these enemies will deliver a good scare once in a while, it’s almost always going to be followed by a hearty laugh.
5Granny
An indie game that somehow makes horror fun instead of keeping players up at night,Grannyis a great find. The player has five days to find all the tools they need toescape the evil grannythat’s taken them hostage in their dilapidated house.
Granny, although terrifying at first glance, is in the end, void of any real detail and ends up being a rather amusing enemy to run from. As goofy as Granny is, she’ll give most players a scare at least once!
4Friday The 13th: The Game
Even after the formal release, too many bugs remained in the final version ofFriday The 13thfor it to be taken seriously as a horror title. Animations were janky, controls were clunky, and there were just too many hilarious bugs to even find a second to be terrified of Jason pursuing the helpless camp counselors.
On top of all of that, having a player take the role of Jason rather than a patrolling A.I. definitely encouraged players to take advantage of having some fun and trolling their pursuer. The deadly combination of hilarious facial animations, various bugs, and players trolling Jason rather than fearing him really set this game’s status as a campy laugh-fest instead of a terrifying game.
3Saw: The Video Game
Following Detective Tapp,Saw: The Video Gamewas filled with strange deviations from the film series that didn’t really fit its characters or original plotline.
Jigsaw (at least within the first three or so films) had the goal of ensuring his victims treasure their lives after escaping or punishing those that sin. However, in-game Jigsaw has Tapp duking it out with other random victims while wearing a shotgun necklace for combat’s sake and solving clunky puzzles that truly lack his flare exhibited in the films. Not to mention the hilarious technical plotholes such as Tapp dunking his entire hand into a syringe-filled toilet to retrieve a key instead of simply taking each syringe out one by one to grab the key without taking any damage.
The whole experience would be awful if it weren’t so laughable instead.
2Ju-On: The Grudge [Haunted House Simulator]
The films may have done wonders for the horror genre but this particular addition to the franchise was a rather questionable one.The Wiiwasn’t exactly well known for itsamazing graphicsso Kayako and Toshio are lacking a lot of the detail that made them so threatening in the films.
The scares were cheesy and didn’t quite reflect the same atmosphere and feel of the films. On top of that, the “controls” (which really were just motion controls to point, plus holding a single button down to walk) didn’t allow the player to navigate very well through the stages and ended up feeling a bit frustrating if anything. However, not all hope is lost as the “scares” did end up being hilariously cheesy and allowed players to enjoy the game in a different way instead.
1Night Trap
The word “scandalous” had a whole different meaning in the early ’90s andNight Trapdefinitely tried being as scandalous as it could be. While the game doesn’t exactly hold up to its “controversial” reputation it had back during its release in 1992, it definitely works for a great laugh in today’s day and age.
Once heavily criticized forgratuitous violence, capturing the bloodthirsty Augers in 2021 is difficult to take seriously. The campy old-school acting paired with the cheesy soundtrack is too deadly of a combo to make any players resist wanting to relabel the infamousNight Trapa comedy instead of horror.
