IN order to get into the holiday spirit, why not wrap up warm, hide away from the trick or treaters and put on a good horror film? Well, films are overrated – what will really scare your pants off is any one of our top 10 picks for horror games this Christmas.

10 Telltale’s The Walking Dead

It’s pretty hard not to mention The Walking Dead around Halloween time. Especially with the new episode that aired this week. The game doesn’t stray too far from the series besides from the characters being completely different. The lack of control due to the point and click gameplay makes the game somewhat hard to properly get into and though there are some great jump scares and tense scenes, these would be made better if the player had a little more freedom. But then it wouldn’t be a Telltale game.

9 Call of Duty: World at War (Zombies)

One of the more popular of the Call of Duty franchise and the one thing that made this particular one quite popular is great way in which Treyarch implemented the zombies. This put the classic first-person-shooter into a whole new ball park a welcomed the franchise to the world of horror. Certainly one of the best zombie games and that isn’t even the game’s full purpose.

8 Slender

A game that has been done to death. A great, amazing horror that has been over stretched and over hyped, unfortunately for the developers Parsec Productions. The game was still a very successful horror for its time and has inspired many other games, films, TV shows and it makes a great Halloween costume. For the more casual gamer, this game is free to download and play here, and doesn’t require a ridiculously powerful computer to run.

7 Dying Light

An underrate horror game and it certainly doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. For those who don’t know the game, try combining the free-running style of game play you get in Mirrors Edge with the hoards of blood thirsty zombies you get in Resident Evil add a dash of home crafted weaponry similar to Fallout 4 and you almost have this game. Non-stop action, non-stop fear, non-stop fun.

6 Silent Hill

Silent Hill has always been renowned for being a horror series and Konami are very good at their job. The games have always been more psychological than most horrors, less jump scares and more ‘ew.. wtf?’. However, their latest reveal P.T. looks truly terrifying, again they have played on the mind with this one as all we have seen so far is the same household over and over again with ever so subtle, yet disturbing changes. This is also the first Silent Hill that is in first person, doe we sense VR perhaps? While P.T. is not yet available to play, we can all but brace ourselves by playing through some classic Silent Hill games.

5 Fatal Frame

A total horror classic and a game that was particularly ahead of its time. First released on PlayStation 2, Fatal Frame was based in China, there are many intertwining storylines, but the premise is you’re alone, walking around a haunted house trying to catch ghosts by a camera flash. It sounds very simplistic when put into words, but players need to see for themselves in order to understand the true horrors of the game.

4 Until Dawn

Until Dawn is a more recent release on the list, this is the closet you will actually get to a film. A classic slashed-horror with a twist – you get to live it, and your actions have an effect on who lives and dies. A great game full of jump scares and great tension building, highly recommended for horror fans. The best part is that you can play over and over again as it will usually have a different outcome.

3 Resident Evil

The long running series has been famous for its incredibly disturbing characters and intense horror scenes, it has even released films much like its competitor Silent Hill (a film where Sean Bean doesn’t die too!) and this year Resident Evil seemed to have taken over with the release of their game teaser. Not only rumoured but confirmed that they will be on VR with a playable demo.

2 Five Nights at Freddy’s

Five Nights at Freddy’s definitely tops  the charts for creepy, a very basic style of game play with limited controls, the inability to do anything really makes the horror element. All you can is observe the security cameras and keep a watchful eye on the evil puppets plotting your impeding doom. And you have to survive five whole nights! If it couldn’t get any worse, in the added content you will find yourself playing as a toddler, stumbling from door to door peaking at the evil entities. If not for the basic gameplay, maybe this would have been top.

1 Outlast

The top contender, Outlast has made a big name of itself, from originally being free to download on PlayStation Plus, you now have to pay £8 for just the DLC. In the original game, you play as an investigative journalist called Miles Upshore who is investing the downfall of a corrupt insane asylum. During the investigation you come across the likes of cannibals, genetically modified weirdos, insane doctors, and more. To make the game that bit more terrifying, your only companion is a handheld camera, which you will find particularly useful when stumbling around in total pitch darkness due to the night vision on it. The game also keeps in the popular horror movie theme of using handheld in filming giving it a far more realistic approach.