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13 Days of Horror, Day 6: Six New Games You Need to Play this Halloween
With Halloween creeping ever closer you might need a little extra something to get you in the holiday spirit, and because of that I’ve decided to compile a list of some new games that might just be able to bring out that long lost trick ‘r treating kid in you.
Seeing as I’ve done this before and I’d like to keep things fresh, here’s a list of six recently released games that may just help get you in the mood for Halloween. Though, if you haven’t checked out the original ten I highly suggest you do so, because they pretty much rock.
Developed by Tim Schafer’s Double Fine Productions, Costume Quest is a humorous turn-based RPG that revolves around Halloween. The best thing about it is its humor works for kids or adults and it’s all about my favorite holiday. Spend some time with it and you’ll definitely be in the mood to be a kid again getting ready to go trick or treating. For a small amount of cash you get roughly 6-8 hours of playtime, depending on how many of the side quests you complete, and the addition of hidden items and costumes gives you a reason to return to the game after it’s over. This is also probably the only game on this list that anyone can play.
Sure, this isn’t necessarily a horror game, but it has horror elements like creepy environments, puzzles, and monsters. I only recently began playing Lords of Shadow but so far I couldn’t recommend it enough. If you’re looking for an excellent fantasy action game with incredible boss fights and more than a few intense moments, Castlevania won’t disappoint.
Without a doubt the most terrifying game on this list, The Dark Descent throws you into the shoes of Daniel, a man who’s lost his memory. What makes his situation worse is he’s trapped in a labyrinthine castle and he’s being chased by dangerous creatures that threaten to take what little that’s left of his fleeting sanity. Amnesia packs more than a few scares and on top of that it looks great and has an interesting story. If you think you can handle it, turn off the lights and get ready for an adventure.
Despite Alan Wake being out since May, we’ve seen two DLC packs come out to extend the experience, The Signal and The Writer, the latter of which came out earlier this month. I’ve already beaten the game twice and played through the DLC so I’m obviously a fan, so if you want a gorgeous horror game with a great story, excellent cast of characters and some fierce fights, look no further than Alan Wake.
Not necessarily a scary game, Dead Rising’s legions of zombies, buckets of gore and brutal ways to dispose of the former earn it s solid spot on this list. If you’re willing to forgive its outdated save system and the need to visit your daughter every 24 hours being able to mow down thousands of zombies with a plethora of insanely ridiculous weapons, Dead Rising 2 should keep you more than a little busy over Halloween.
The first Saw wasn’t necessarily terrible, though I’ll admit my expectations were very low when I played it, so all Flesh and Blood has to do is give us more of what we’ve come to expect from the franchise, and maybe fix a few of those nagging issues the first game had along the way. Unfortunately, many of my issues from the first game have lived on in the sequel but despite that there’s still a good amount of thrills and chills to glean here, so long as you’re willing to overlook its flaws.
In case you missed the rest of the series, here’s a quick recap:
Day 1, A Resident Evil Retrospective
Day 2, A Silent Hill Retrospective
Day 3, What Do You Fear?
Day 4, The Four Scariest Kids in Gaming
Day 5, A Look Through the Lense
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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