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5 Vintage Horror Board Games That Should Be Brought Back from the Dead
Thanks to films like Beyond the Gates and horror-themed board games like Mixtape Massacre, The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, and more, the horror board game is stepping out of the shadows. It probably helps that studios seem to be turning to retro properties more and more to create film adaptations, like Hasbro’s Ouija Board game-turned-Blumhouse film series and the upcoming adaptation of JAKKS Pacific toy brand Creepy Crawlers. This means that a pastime often associated with childhood is growing in popularity, so there’s no better time than now to revive some long-discontinued board games from the ‘60s and ‘70s, a time when it was commonplace for board games to be associated with monsters, ghosts, and other things that go bump in the night.
Here are 5 horror-themed vintage board games that should be brought back from the dead:
Haunted House (1962)
I can see why this one fell into obscurity; the game is massive. Completely opposite to what the name “board game” implies, this game is played not on a board but on a huge three-dimensional plastic haunted house. Produced by Ideal Toy Company, players moved through the standing haunted house using a spinner to direct movement. The spinner was an owl that made hooting sounds. There were secret doors and passageways to navigate as players made their way to the Jewel. The first player to obtain the jewel escaped the haunted house and won the game. While this one is much more geared toward a younger demographic, subverting what a board game is by implementing a 3D playing field is ingenious. More haunted house themed board games are a plus.
Mystic Skull: The Game of Voodoo (1964)
One of the more delightfully twisted game concepts, this one saw players cast in the role of witch doctors. The basic point of the game is to fill up your opposing witch doctor’s voodoo doll with pins while defending your own from being pinned. To do so, players must first stir the cauldron in the center with a bone, and the suspended skull moves around the board to land on numerous voodoo spaces. Players are considered cursed, therefore eliminated, when their doll is too full of pins to continue. Sounds like a wholesome childhood pastime to me!
Séance (1972)
This Milton Bradley board game sees players as the nieces and nephews of dear old Uncle Everett. Uncle Everett passed away and left instructions for his kin to hold a séance so that his spirit would guide them on the distribution of his wealth. Each one starts with $20,000 and gameplay allows them to make more, or lose some. The board itself is of a Victorian room, each chair representing a player set gathered around a table. The table concealed a hidden mini record player that played Everett’s voice from beyond the grave. The coolest part of all is that, according to the rules, “When the game is over and the room is plunged into darkness, it is said that the image of Uncle Everett may be seen.” It sounds like a new generation needs an opportunity to see Uncle Everett.
Haunted Mansion (1972)
Nowadays Disney is known for adding attraction themed facelifts to popular board games like Clue or Monopoly, but back in the ‘70s, Disney’s beloved attraction from Walt Disney World got its own game. The clear highlight is the fun artwork from the attraction, not just on the board itself but on the stand-up backdrop that sits at the edge of the board. The gameplay is straightforward; players use doom buggies to make their way through the mansion with the sole objective to escape. Spinning ghosts, however, work to throw the player out of direction via turntable. This one was a silly family game that utilized the charm of the Disney attraction on which it was based.
Alien (1979)
Movies get product tie-ins all the time, but what makes this one extra cool is that this Alien themed board game was aimed squarely at kids. In case anyone had forgotten (I know you haven’t), Alien is pure R-rated terror. It makes the game’s objective even more amusing, considering the ages 7+ game sees its players guiding their crew members through the ship to the safety of the escape pod while using their Alien to eliminate the crew members belonging to other players. A strategy game resembling the one-by-one picking off of the crew of the Nostromo with cool themed art meant a fun game; even if it’s a bit puzzling that this ever got made. Considering the film franchise is just as popular as ever, this is a board game that seems like a no-brainer to put back out on the shelves.
Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.
If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series.
Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with Casper. I was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”
For Sawa, “Chucky“ is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue,“ Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”
Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this,‘ the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.“
It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?
“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two,“ Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”
Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”
CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)
The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.
“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot,“ the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”
The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.
“I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque,“ Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost,‘ and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, which is a movie I love.”
The finale of “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.
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