Editorials
Hacking Horror: Horror-Themed ROM Hacks for Classic Video Games
All the talk of BillyTime!Games‘ ROM hack of Ghostbusters on the Sega Genesis got us thinking of other horror-themed ROM hacks that you may not be aware of. Obviously, the topics of ROM hacking and video game emulation are reserved for a different website, but that shouldn’t stop us from touching on them for this specific purpose. After all, the creativity of fans is shown time and time again when it comes to modding on PC, so why not consoles?
Here are some reworkings of games by fans that either offer a whole new way of playing a game with a horror makeover, or just enhance the original game to add that something that was “missing” from the original release.
Just as a legal note, none of the links in this article lead to the actual ROM images. We are not hosting the ROM files. Google is your friend if you’re looking for more information on emulation, using these hacks, and so on.
EarthBound Halloween Hack – EarthBound (SNES)
Created by Toby Fox (of Undertale fame) back in 2008, this hack creates an entirely new story for the classic SNES RPG, EarthBound. Taking place in an alternate timeline several months after the end of EarthBound where Ness doesn’t return to Onett, you play as a bounty hunter named Varik (of Brandish fame). Varik is hired by ex-mayor B. H. Pirkle, now campaigning on a law & order platform, to track down a mysterious creature who mutilated and ate a little girl’s parents in Twoson. Along the way, Varik encounters increasingly horrible things.
Probably one of the more infamous ROM hacks, the EarthBound Halloween Hack plays much the same as in the original EarthBound, but with a decidedly darker tone in terms of the visuals, humour and story. For this hack, Fox created new enemies (including tentacle-faced dogs, reanimated Starmen corpses and zombies), new areas to explore, and new music. The song “MEGALOVANIA” eventually made its way into Undertale. The hack is also much more difficult than the original game, requiring you to grind quite a bit.
Castlevania: The Holy Relics – Castlevania (NES)
Taking place after the events of Castlevania, Lord Ghulash, a Necromancer and old acquaintance of Dracula, has retrieved six of seven relics of power from the ruins of Dracula’s castle. Using the power of the relics, Lord Ghulash has begun terrorizing the countryside, resurrecting the souls of vile creatures and wicked men. Simon Belmont, himself in possession of a seventh relic, must once again deliver his homeland from the forces of evil.
The Holy Relics hack revamps the original game, adding five new stages that you can visit in any order (a la Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge for the Game Boy), with new enemies, bosses, and reworked music. Alongside that are new subweapons and items, but the biggest gameplay change is the addition of the holy relics, with each one obtained by beating a boss. The relics each have their own unique abilities, including health restoration, temporary invincibility, and more. They also have their own set of charges, so you’ll have to be smart about using them.
Doom: PC Doom Total Conversion – Doom (Game Boy Advance)
As impressive as Doom on the GBA was (questionable music quality and cutbacks on some levels, notwithstanding), you knew that someone would try to tweak the game to bring it that much closer to the original PC experience. And lo and behold, that’s exactly what Kippykip‘s PC Doom Total Conversion hack does.
This patch completely converts the game from using the Jaguar Doom engine, and switches it over to a new homebrew port that’s based on doomhack’s PrBoom port for the Game Boy Advance. This literally gives the game much higher quality sounds, the full set of maps (no cut or scaled back levels here), a more consistent framerate, improved graphics and, thankfully, better music. Plus, all of the music now plays in the correct order. The only thing missing from this hack is the multiplayer, which was present in the original version.
Metroid: Spooky Mission – Metroid: Zero Mission (Game Boy Advance)
Created for the Metconst 2017 Fall Contest (which it won), Spooky Mission sees Samus up against Imago. Imago is threatening the very existence of Halloween, and it’s up to Samus to stop it. Getting to Imago is no simple task, however. It has infiltrated a massive space pumpkin and sealed off all entrances. Legend says that every Halloween, three holy beings appear in the physical realm. Samus will need their help in order to gain access to the pumpkin and save Halloween.
Admittedly a little on the lighter side rather than cranking up the pure horror aspect, it’s easy to see that Spooky Mission was a labour of love (if the readme for the hack is anything to go by). Featuring revamped graphics (including some ripped from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow), new gameplay mechanics such as implementing a tractor beam like in Prime series and new music, there’s also a surprising amount of non-linearity with this one. The creators even managed to include a hidden ending, though achieving it is “near impossible” unless you know the criteria. And no, they’re not telling you what it is.
Pokémon Snakewood – Pokémon: Ruby Version (Game Boy Advance)
Set a few years after the events of Ruby, you are the younger sibling of Ruby‘s protagonist. You awaken in a destroyed Littleroot Town with no memory of what has happened. It soon becomes apparent that the Hoenn region has become infested by zombies. Working with Professor Birch, you set off to find your brother Landon and Birch’s daughter, May, both of whom had set out to find the source of the plague, and have since gone missing.
Ruby has been overhauled to include a darker plot (obviously), new music, new areas, zombified versions of normal Pokémon (two of which are capturable), and “an indeterminate number” of fake Pokémon (known as Fakemon), and more. Snakewood also features a new classification of Pokémon known as the Denjuu with their own stats and moves, but they can talk. It’s certainly a darker take on Pokémon Ruby, but it still retains a “kid-friendly” tone, overall.
Eternal Champions – Special Edition – Eternal Champions (Sega Genesis)
In case you ‘re wondering, BillyTime!Games has been at this hacking thing for a while. With Eternal Champions, this hack overhauls the entire game, most notably its notorious difficulty to be a little bit more forgiving. For starters, the game’s Inner Strength System (which is the meter used to perform special moves) has been rebalanced so that most moves now require the metre, with some moves costing more than before (including taunts). The game’s timer has also been adjusted to count down slightly slower.
In addition, the game’s end boss, the Eternal Champion, is now playable in VS mode, whereas before you had to rely on a Game Genie code to unlock him. The only limitations are that as the Eternal Champion, you cannot resurrect in this mode, and you’re limited to 1 out of 1 win conditions. The hack also reintroduces a Hard Mode Contest Difficulty. Doing so will crank up the difficulty for your current playthrough all the way to Difficulty 7.
Mortal Kombat Arcade Edition – Mortal Kombat (Sega Genesis)
As superior as the Sega Genesis port of Mortal Kombat was when compared to the Super Nintendo version, there was still room for improvement. Namely, the graphics and sound of the Genesis version fell short when compared to the SNES. That’s been remedied with Linkuei‘s hack, which not only adds sound samples directly from the arcade version, but also revamps the graphics. Those revamped graphics also includes new background animations for stages like the Courtyard, Shang Tsung’s Throne Room, as well as remade bio and ending screens.
Linkuei’s hack doesn’t stop there at the graphics and sound. The hack also add a new SRAM system to save the name list for the longest winning streaks (thanks to BillyTime!Games), as well as giving players the option to listen to the original Genesis soundtrack (which is still awesome), or the original arcade soundtrack. You also now have the option to play as Reptile in the game, complete with either Scorpion or Sub-Zero’s movesets. Finally, some of the timing for the moves has also been reworked, as well as removing delays. And yes, there’s still more to discover! There’s even an enhanced version that tweaks the graphics, sound and animation even more.
Sonic.Exe – Sonic The Hedgehog (Sega Genesis)
No set of Sega Genesis hacks would be complete without Sonic.Exe, also referred to as “Ordinary Sonic ROM Hack”. Created by Cinossu, this hack plays out like a normal game of Sonic The Hedgehog until you’re transported to an alternate dimension, complete with a different colour palette and “odd” music. In this dimension, some enemies can’t be hurt, and you can only escape back to the “normal” dimension by hitting an item box.
That might seem easy, but keep in mind that item boxes aren’t exactly in plentiful supply as you progress further. Not only that, in this alternate dimension, you’ll be chased by “creepypasta” Sonic, complete with the music that plays whenever you’re running out of air as he gets closer. To add even more “fun”, these dimension flips can also occur during boss fights. Luckily, an item box will spawn in these instances, but you’ll have to get to it while avoiding the boss.
Contra: Hard Corps Probotector – Contra: Hard Corps (Sega Genesis)
Longtime fans of the series know about the whole Contra/Probotector thing. For those who don’t know, Probotector is the European version of Contra that removes all of the human enemies and replaces them with robots. But what if you could have the characters from Probotector in Contra: Hard Corps, along with some new tweaks? That’s exactly what you get with this hack by IT.GAMER.
Along with an original story, this ROM hack now allows you to select from eight characters, with the Probotector characters having 3 HP, and the Hard Corps characters having 1 HP. You can also select the same character if you’re playing with two players. The hack also tweaks enemy health, as well as tweaks certain weapons for Brawny and Fang to be a little more balanced. Best of all, if you have the means, this hack will work on the Genesis/Mega Drive.
Zombies Ate My Roguelike – Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Sega Genesis)
Ever wondered what Zombies Ate My Neighbors would be like as a roguelike? BillyTime!Games did, and as a result, their hack changes the LucasArts classic into something inspired by The Binding of Isaac. The hack now randomizes the game’s 48 levels across five tiers before ending at the level “Monsters Among Us”. Starting you at a random level in Tier 1, the hack then chooses a random level from the next Tier each time you complete a level. To add to the challenge, you have to do it all on a single life.
There’s even more to the hack than just changing the structure of the levels. Boss health has been adjusted, as has the Purple Ants’ health in “Say it Ant So!” to make them slightly easier to kill. Your Squirtgun also has increased damage, and key pickups have been doubled. And in the latest patch, BillyTime!Games introduced a Mania Mode. This mode now randomizes the levels after completing the first Tier, as well as making the entire game an endless loop which ends only if you die.
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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