The good thing about Halloween is that it gives you the perfect excuse to play some scary games. The great thing about these games, though, is that you can play them all year on your iPhone or iPad. If you want to get scared this Halloween, here are the best horror games for iPhone and iPad you’ll find on the App Store and Apple Arcade.
Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery
Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery is the first exclusive game of the franchise for mobile devices. Instead of controlling someone by using regular controls, Special Delivery uses Augmented reality to bring the animatronics you love (or hate) to life.
You’ll have to use your iPhone or iPad to look at your surroundings and try to catch the animatronic before it catches you. Unlike other games in the franchise, you can collect parts and create your own animatronics. Not only that, but you can also send those animatronics to your friends, and compete against them on the leaderboard.
If you’re a fan of the franchise, this is one of the best iPhone horror games you can find.
Into The Dead 2
Into the Dead 2 improves on just about every aspect of the first game, and delivers a solid and exciting gameplay experience.I
nstead of being an endless runner where you’re only competing to top your own high score, the game has added a narrative and some progression to the run and gun gameplay. The story is fairly simple: you play as a man named James who gets into a car accident in the middle of the road while trying to get back to his wife, Helen, and his daughter, Maggie. Of course, James is immediately swarmed by zombies forcing him to run and shoot his way to safety.
Armed with a handgun, a walkie-talkie, and a strong desire to return home, James starts running through the hordes of zombies. While it may be a pretty simple story, the voice acting is surprisingly well done, and as I have been playing through the story I find myself invested in getting James back to his family.
Gameplay overall hasn’t changed much from the first game, which is more of a blessing than a curse. You’ll automatically run through the wilderness that’s filled with zombies, needing to move left and right to avoid getting eaten alive or tapping on the screen to fire your equipped weapon.
The addition of a story mode and a more prominent in-game progression scale has given the shoot-em-up zombie runner a breath of fresh air making it a delight to play. The visuals and sound are absolutely outstanding, and the game does an excellent job of really setting a tense and spooky tone.
All in all, Into the Dead 2 is a fantastic experience, and whether you’re a fan of the prequel or new to the game, you should be able to enjoy this one for hours on end.
Lost Within
Although Lost Within came out years ago, it’s still one of the top-rated horror mobile games on the App Store and for a good reason.
Lost Within puts you in an abandoned asylum and tasks you with escaping, but of course you can’t just walk out the door. Creatures, people, ghosts, something is roaming the halls of this creepy old building, and you’ll need to fight, run, and hide your way to safety.
With plenty of jump scares, some solid graphics, and some robust gameplay mechanics, like crafting weapons from scrap materials, Lost Within is perfect for anyone looking for a good scare.
White Night
The first thing you’re bound to notice about White Night is the game is almost entirely in black and white, and not like a grayscale photo, but hard contrasting black and white. This obviously is one of the layers that make White Night so spooky, with giant portions of the screen being blacked out, it always leaves you wondering what could be lurking in the darkness.
The soundtrack is hauntingly beautiful and its constant presence really does wonders for the atmosphere by never giving your ear a break from the eerie strings and hollow-sounding wind instruments. The music almost takes on a life of its own, when something important happens in the story the music builds and crescendos to epic proportions making the player feel like they are moving with the music.
When you run out of matches or wander from the light, the music immediately starts to ramp up, your character starts to breathe heavily, the screen gets darker and shakes, and the strings build so intensely it felt like the walls are closing in on you. It’s a brilliant reminder that the darkness will get you if you let it, and it makes you want to light a match as fast as you possibly can. I have never experienced an iOS game that gave me such a visceral reaction, White Night had my heart rate up in the cardio zone multiple times.
It isn’t all perfect, the story isn’t particularly original and the controls could be a little fine-tuned; however, White Light makes up for these shortcomings with some amazing visuals and superb sound design. Plus, the game is definitely long enough to justify the price tag.
The School: White Day
Whether you’re still studying, or you’re already out, we can all agree school can be scary sometimes. And The School: White Day probably won’t help settle your nerves.
This mobile edition of the 2001 PC cult classic takes place in South Korea, where a group of students is caught in their school after hours. Much like a lot of popular horror games, The School: White Day gives you no way to fight back. You’ll only be able to run away from danger as you attempt to survive a student’s worst nightmare.
The story is rather compelling and features seven different endings based on the choices the player makes, so there’s even some replayability. Plus, the animation is pretty solid and if you like the Asian manga/anime art style, The School: White Day has plenty of it.
Year Walk
Loosely based on Swedish folklore, Year Walk is a very eerie game that blurs the line between natural and supernatural.
Set off into the dark woods where strange things roam the forest on a vision quest set in 19th century Sweden. You’ll need to solve cryptic puzzles and listen in your search if you hope to see the future and finally discover if your true love truly loves you.
The game has quite a few tense moments throughout the story and will probably make you jump out of your seat once or twice. It also has a free companion app, which dives deeper into the folklore aspect of the game and explains the history behind the game’s roots.
Lifeline…
Lifeline is an older game on the App Store, but it’s still a great game. Lifeline is a text-based game where you shape the story. Your job is to help Taylor. His crew is dead and you’re the only one he can communicate with. You’ll tell Taylor what to do, and every decision can be the difference between life and death.
The story in Lifeline is extremely interesting. Granted, Lifeline is considered an adventure game, but the atmosphere and the story let your mind go wild and think of the worst possible scenarios in every choice you make.
What’s cool about Lifeline is that you can from basically everywhere. You can play on your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. You just tell Taylor what to do and then you’ll have to wait real-life time until he contacts you again. It’s a really great and simple game that started the whole Lifeline universe in the App Store.
SIMULACRA
Simulacra is another game that’s been around for a while now. That doesn’t mean is bad. In fact, it’s probably the best one of the series. This game is a sequel to Sara is Missing, another great scary game, and one of the best horror games for iPhone and iPad.
In Simulacra, you find someone else’s phone. You don’t know whose is it or how to give it back, but you know something is wrong right from the start. As you start to unlock more secrets on that phone, you’ll discover what happened to Anna, the owner of the phone.
It’s amazing how much horror can exist in just a phone. But the developers did a great job adding scare videos, photos, and even jump scares. If you want to get scared, just by tapping on your iPhone, this is the game for you.
Best Horror games for iPhone and iPad in Apple Arcade
We’re not done just yet. There are still some great scary games in Apple Arcade that you might want to try out for yourself. The great thing about Apple Arcade, is that you can play it basically everywhere, even on your Apple TV. All you need is a great game controller, your Apple Arcade subscription, and you’re good to go. Here are our favorite horror games in Apple Arcade.
Stela
Stela is a beautifully crafted game. Everything, from the sounds to the overall aesthetics is perfectly created to give you a sense of confusion, fear, and loneliness. Despite not being a scary game, the enemies, and the whole world has such an ominous feel to it. It’s a perfect game to play during the Halloween season, especially if you like post-apocalyptic worlds.
You’ll play as a young woman who’s witnessing the last days of an ancient civilization. You don’t know exactly what you’re doing or where you’re going but you have to continue. Basically, everything in the world around you is a threat to you, which makes Stela even scarier.
The gameplay is simple but it works fine most of the time. The story, although a bit confusing, it’s cryptic enough that makes you want to keep playing for hours on end.
Neversong
Besides treating these topics, Neversong also throws a bunch of cool things into the mix. You play as Peet, a boy who just woke up from a terrible coma only to find out his girlfriend, and all the adults in town are missing. It’s your job to find out what’s going on, without falling victim to every enemy, and monster you come across.
Right from the start, you know you’re not playing a light-hearted game. The dream sequence at the start is scary enough to make you want to stop playing. Afterward, you’ll get to explore the Neversong world, which is filled with colorful characters, a bunch of mysteries, and beautiful scenery with a secret dark side you’re about to discover.
Jenny LeClue – Detectivu
To wrap up this list, we’ll add a game that’s not necessarily scary. Jenny Leclue is a mystery game, not a horror one. But it does have some dark moments and mysteries to unravel. If you don’t want to play a horror game, filled with jump scares and monsters, and you’re only looking for a good, Scooby-Doo-type game, Jenny LeClue Detectivu is the one for you!
You’ll play as Jenny, the youngest detective in town. After seeking a good mystery to solve, you find a dead body. The only suspect? Your own mother! Now it’s your job to find the real killer and unravel all the mysteries that the town or Arthurton is hiding.
Because of its amazing graphics, charismatic characters, and amazing story, Jenny Leclue is one of the best Apple Arcade games available right now. If you want to solve a mystery, or just have some fun, you can’t go wrong with Jenny LeClue.
Updated October 2022: Reformatted and updated the list of Spooky Games!