13 Horror Board Games
August 22, 2026
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Horror board games are a way to spread spooky fun throughout the year. I love to play horror-themed board, card, and dice games with friends. There are a plethora of
Horror board games are a way to spread spooky fun throughout the year. I love to play horror-themed board, card, and dice games with friends. There are a plethora of interesting games with varied play styles – from competitive games to co-op. Here is a list of 13 fun games to try at your next games night.
I want to start this list with one of my favorite games to introduce to friends. The Faceless is a horror board game from Italian publisher MS Edizioni. I bought this game through Kickstarter during the pandemic, It is one of the most expensive games in my collection, but worth every penny!
The Premise: Dive into a cooperative game set in the fearsome Duskworld, home of Billygoat, where kidnapped children were brought to be deprived of their memories.
Using the compass you descend into Duskworld to save Ethan before Billygoat turns him into another Faceless. Each figure in the game contains a magnet and reacts with the kid’s compass: change the magnetic field to predict the movement of the compass, move over the memories to retrieve them and win the game!
But be prepared to face the sudden threats of this corrupted world.
As mentioned in the description above, what makes this game so unique is that it uses magnets and a compass for character movement. Double-sided monster figures can be manipulated around the board by cards, changing the magnetic field and redirecting the compass needle. Your hero (represented by the compass) can only move in the direction of the compass needle. Players must avoid the evil Billygoat while also moving around the board to collect tokens.
It is a challenging game, but very fun for the science nerd in me. There are also a few different play scenarios – so if you can ever master the base game, you can still have fun and exciting challenges.
I am also a sucker for any game that features a goth girl character named “Emily”.
This game is hard to find in the U.S., but if you are able to get your hands on a copy, you will not be disappointed! It has a great horror premise and beautifully spooky artwork. Play with 2-4 players.
Flying Frog Productions is a game company I will feature multiple times on this list. Their games full embody the genre they are set in, and spark create gameplay and player interactions. I also love that their artwork features real actors embodying each character. It adds to a cinematic feel.
Last Night on Earth and its various expansions pit humans against brain-eating zombies. Play either as heroes or zombies and work together to achieve your goal (either survival or brains, depending on your team). For 2-6 players.
The Premise: When night begins to fall on the sleepy town of Woodinvale, a living nightmare erupts as the once peaceful community is overrun with the restless dead…scratching and clawing their way to the surface with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Now only a handful of unlikely Heroes are left, banding together to fight for their very lives on a night that never ends!
Last Night on Earth has challenging gameplay, with multiple scenarios to keep things fresh. It also has a wonderful sense of humor that draws from beloved horror tropes. I personally love the “This Could Be Our Last Night on Earth” card, which makes any male & female characters sharing a space lose their turn.
One of the first advanced horror board games I have played, this one will always hold a special place in my heart.
We had humas vs. zombies, now it is time for a more sci-fi take of carnies vs. aliens in Flying Frog Production’s Invasion from Outer Space. Like Last Night on Earth, this game allows 2-6 players to control either the humas or monsters, each working together to achieve their goals.
The Premise: In a small field, just outside of a sleepy town in 1940’s middle America, Martian Saucers hover in the night sky. Having chosen their first target, a large group of humans gathered around a traveling carnival on the outskirts of town, a legion of Martians march to war. But not all of the Humans are defenseless. As the crowds flee in terror and are vaporized by the saucer’s death rays, one brave group of circus performers step forward to defend their planet – Earth’s first line of defense! This will be their greatest performance and maybe their last.
Each carnival hero has their own unique talents to fend off the fiendish Martian Invaders. Martian Soldiers and Flying Saucers blast humans with ray guns and unleash their vile alien technologies upon the Earth.
The game features a modular board and multiple game scenarios for varied gameplay. Additionally, this game uses the same mechanics as Last Night on Earth, making the two games compatible. Martians can attack Woodinville, zombies can overrun the carnival, or you can play a massive game of zombies vs. humans vs. aliens.
Finally, where else can the hero of the adventure be a dancing carnival bear named “Jojo”? Possibilities are endless in this love-letter to b-movie sci-fi.
A Touch of Evil is the final Flying Frog Productions game on this list (though they have a wider catalog that is worth checking out). This one definitely gives more autumn vibes with the New England horror setting. From a Spectral Horseman to Vampires & Werewolves to a living Scarecrow, players encounter a ghastly bunch of fiends as they race to save a cursed town from its descent into darkness.
The Premise: Tis the dawn of the 19th century – an age of science, superstition, and witchcraft. Howling fills the night as a full moon rises over the small, secluded village of Shadowbrook. Gruesome murders have become a daily occurrence and terror haunts the streets at night. An evil creature has taken up residence here and the countryside is engulfed by a tide of darkness. But all is not lost…not yet. A small group of heroic individuals, with the courage and strength to fight, have arrived in town. Some just passing through while others have come with a purpose. It will take a cunning mind and strength of spirit to determine who is friend and who is foe…to solve the mysteries and hunt the beast to its lair.
This game for 1-8 players can be played cooperatively, competitively, or as a team competition.
This game take a little bit longer to learn than the previous two, but is quite intriguing once you get going. Each monster has unique mechanics and win conditions, keeping playthroughs fresh for quite a few games.
From the ink-on-parchment style game board to the characters ripped from the pages of Washington Irving and his peers, this game will transport you to the world of New England traditional scary stories.
Build your own haunted mansion tile by tile in Betrayal at House on the Hill by Avalon Hill. Encounter spirits, monsters, and frightening omens that decide your fate. Will you be able to find a way out?
The Premise: The creak of footsteps on the stairs, the smell of something foul and dead, the feel of something crawling down your back — this and more can be found in this award-winning and highly acclaimed tabletop game of strategy and horror. The game includes 50 fiendish scenarios and dozens of danger-filled rooms. You will return to the house again and again — as often as you dare — and never face the same game twice. Gather friends together for a game night of monsters, miniatures, and modular board pieces in this immersive, story-driven hidden traitor game for 3-6 players.
With a new layout and monster scenario pretty much every time you play, this is a game my friends and I keep coming back to. The rule books are lengthy (though many sections are only for the specific monster scenarios), so it can be daunting for novice players. However, if you are patient and read though the rules, this can be a great addition to your board game collection. I love that even the explorer figures have variation – with a choice of two personalities for each. There is also an expansion, Betrayal at House on The Hill: Widow’s Walk, that offers 50 new haunts, 20 new room tiles, 30 new cards, and 78 new tokens. This is one game that will never get stale!
Okay, I know that this is a board game list and this is a dice game, but hear me out! Lucidity: Six-Sided Nightmares by Renegade Game Studios is a fantastic horror game to add to your collection. Enter the world of dreamers and fend off terrifying nightmares. Roll the dice, collect powers, but be careful not to become too corrupted or you may become a nightmare yourself!
The Premise: You have the ability to enter the dream world: a world of vivid hallucinations and horrific monsters. Draw power from the Nightmares that live there, but do not let them corrupt you. For there are other Dreamers seeking power this night, and there is only room for one to escape from the realm of Nightmares. Should you become corrupted and turn into a Nightmare yourself, you must hunt down the other Dreamers and consume their power. When the night is over, only one Dreamer or Nightmare will be left standing.
This is a great game for novice games night members. 1-4 players take turns rolling the dice and collecting symbols on their player card. What I find interesting about this game is that there are two ways to win. You can either collect 15 power symbols and escape the dream world. Or, if you become a nightmare, you can win by consuming the dreams of the remaining players or sending minions after them to prevent them from becoming more powerful than you. If nobody has collected 15 power symbols to escape by the end of the game, the most powerful Nightmare wins.
With a play time of 20-30 minutes (my games typically run shorter than that), it is a nice quick game to play.
Time to gear up for a post-apocalyptic road trip with Hit Z Road from publisher Asmodee. I love the theming with this game. Each card and token perfectly fits with the premise that it is a cobbled-together game after the zombie apocalypse.
The Premise: You and your fellow players embark on a road trip going south from Chicago along America’s famous Route 66 — now infested by zombies. As you travel though a deck of adventure cards rife with dangers, you battle zombie hordes, drive abandoned school buses, scavenge for gas and bullets, and explore a darkened, tainted American countryside full of shambling undead, haunted carnivals, and plumes of toxic gas. Your goal is to stay alive until you reach the safe, sandy beaches of the California coast. Zombies of all types await, with cannibals, anti-personnel mines and radioactive wastes also being among the hazards awaiting the players. Who will survive the zombie onslaught?
This game includes bidding for card encounters and turn order, resource management, and trying to get ahead of your friends. I love it for the kitschy nature of the design and fun world-building. Gameplay, however, can be a little frustrating – the person who gets ahead at the start is likely to be the one winning the game. As a game for 1-4 players, I have most enjoyed the solo play for this one.
Disney’s iconic Haunted Mansion comes to life (death?) with Funko’s Disney The Haunted Mansion – Call of the Spirits Game. It offers a fun dose of nostalgia for the classic dark ride while accommodating 2-6 players. This 30 minute game is easy for beginners.
The Premise: Explore all the classic rooms of the ghost-infested manor, from the festivities-filled Ballroom to the Attic and out to the Graveyard and beyond in search of spirits. Beware, though, of the Hitchhiking Ghosts, who are notorious for “following you home” as that may spell your doom in the end!
This is a family-friendly board game, and a nice introduction to horror gaming for young ones. Don’t expend complex gameplay or the type of game where you discover something new each time. As a Disney fan, I am happy to own this in my collection.
Face off against the most notorious monsters of all time with Horrified: Universal Monsters from Ravensberger.
The Premise: Imagine living in a place so wretched that it’s not plagued seven of the most horrifying fiends! In this game, you’ll come face to face with them all as you work together to rid the town of the maniacal or misunderstood creatures – before it’s too late. Encounter Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Just as each monster is unique, they require different strategies and tactics to be defeated.
In this co-op game for 1-5 players, everyone must work together to defeat up to four monsters at once. Each villain must be defeated in a different way. Also, characters will encounter a cast of villagers at iconic Universal movie locales to help.
Ravensburger has released 5 other versions of Horrified (at the time of this blog post):
Each version has its own twists for beating the villains. Main gameplay, however, is similar enough that once you learn one, it will not take long to learn how to play the others. The Universal Monsters edition is still my favorite as it truly brings your into the world of these classic horror films
If you want more of a trip down memory lane than a strategic challenge, try Monster Crunch! The Breakfast Battle Game from Big G Creative.
The Premise: It’s ok to play with your food! Pick your favorite Monster Cereal character and battle to see who can “eat” the most cereal. In this fast-paced game of luck and strategy, players collect as many Cereal Cards in their Bowls as they can. Each Monster has special powers to give you an advantage and help you gobble up the most cereal. Use Milk Tokens to combine Cereal Cards and take bigger bites. The Monster Cereal character that munches the most wins the game!
In this 2-5 player game, play as Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Boo Berry, or the lesser-known Fruit Brute or Fruity Yummy Mummy. With a 20-minute playing time, this is a fun card game that brings back memories of Hallowen-season mornings.
Fluxx by Looney Labs is a fast-paced and unpredictable card game where the win conditions and rules are constantly changing. There are two versions I highly recommend for horror game fans: Monster Fluxx & Zombie Fluxx.
The Premise: This game doesn’t have a story, but instead it is full of the horror iconography fans love. As with all versions of Fluxx, the rules start as “Draw 1, Play 1”, but players can play New Rule cards to change the rules of the game. Goal cards change the winning conditions, which are met by a player having certain Keeper cards in front of him. Players also play Action cards for one-time effects.
For a truly epic monster mash, you can combine both decks. Looney Labs suggests adding a “Meta Rule” for that scenario:
“If the deck contains cards from multiple versions of Fluxx, a Goal from each version can be in play simultaneously. Goals only replace Goals from the same version. You win if you meet any Goal currently in play. Double Agenda creates one additional “slot” that can be filled with any type of Goal.”
The box says that the game is for 2-6 players, but you can expand to any number of people. Games take between 5-20 minutes, so you can play multiple times in one games night. Another option is to use this as a quick dose of fun in between longer games.
Get ready for garden warfare with Risk: Plants vs. Zombies from The Op Games. Based on the hit video game franchise, this 2-person version of Risk has one person playing as the zombies and one as the heroic plants. The game features a double-sided game board and three play modes: mission objectives, tower defense, and total domination.
The Premise: A mob of fun-dead zombies are invading the quaint town of Brainsborough, while the pea-packing plants branch out for a battle of suburban domination!
This game is an easier version of the classic Risk. The board’s flipside has a skirmish game that feels like the video game. Pants try to defend their home from a zombie attack. As a fan of the video games and children’s comic books, this is another fun way to interact with these adorable fiends & flora.
We are at the end of this list, and I have once again included a card game rather than a board game. In my defense, however, the title “13 Horror Board, Card, and Dice Games” was just a little too long for relevant SEO. Campy Creatures from Keymaster takes players into the world of B-horror and sci-fi.
The Premise: Campy Creatures is the ghastly game of bluffing, deduction, and set collection. Players are mad scientists, deploying their fiendish hordes of ghouls and monsters to capture townsfolk for their weird experiments. But these mortals won’t go down without a fight.
The game is played over three “locations” (rounds). Play stock b-movie monsters including “The Blob”, “The Invader”, “The Invisible Man”, and more as you try to capture various mortals for points. This is a great game to play in the middle of a horror movie night with classic horror/sci-fi films.
The above are just a handful of the games I love in my horror board game collection. Other games to check out include:
Let me know what you and your friends are playing by reaching out to me on Facebook & Instagram.
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