As a disclaimer, I don’t recommend doing these games. If you do so happen to play the game and end up summoning an entity into your home or are injured, I am not held responsible for any harm done.

While Halloween isn’t here just yet, all the spooky decorations, movies, and music has gotten me in the mood (then again, when am I NOT in the mood for something creepy?) to make a list of some of the scariest paranormal games I have ever heard of. I compiled a list of games I’ve found on random websites, Reddit, YouTube videos, and basically, anywhere else you could think of. Come with me on an adventure into madness, horror and bad decisions, fellow ghosties and ghouls! Are you ready to spook yourselves silly?

1. The Midnight Game

I’m sure most of you horror lovers have heard of the infamous Midnight Man and his game, but it’s just so damn creepy I have to list it here anyway. If you aren’t familiar with the rules and purpose of this game, I’ll tell you here.

What comes to mind when you think of the Midnight Game? A game played in the dark? The Creepypasta? Or maybe even the video game adaptation? While all of these are valid, the Midnight Game actually has roots as an ancient Pagan ritual that was used as a form of punishment for those who disobeyed the Gods. The “game” itself is pretty simple, but the ritual/summoning is complex and not for those of you who can’t see something to the end or follow rules closely. For those of you with a morbid curiosity, this is how you summon the Midnight Man, and how to play his game.

First things first, you need:

candle/candle holder

plenty of matches (you cannot substitute the matches for a lighter)

a pen and paper, something to draw blood with

a wooden front door

Salt

Now that you have all your supplies, let’s sort out what you’ll be doing. Everything should be set up and ready before 12:00am, as you won’t have time to go back for everything you need once the game has begun. Do the following:

Write your name on the paper with the pen

Prick yourself and put a drop of blood on the paper

Gather the rest of your supplies

Place the paper with your name and blood in front of the wooden door

Turn off all your lights, electronics, everything

Light your candle

Once it has reached 11:59, set your lit candle next to the paper and begin knocking on your door 22 times; completing the 22nd knock as the clock strikes midnight.

After the 22nd knock, open your door, blow out your candle, close your door and IMMEDIATELY relight your candle.

Begin moving all over the house. Don’t stop moving.

Keep doing this until 3:33am

Like I said, the game itself is fairly simple, or so it seems. During the course of the game, be mindful of the following:

DO NOT stay in one place for longer than a few seconds AT MOST, or else he will catch you

DO NOT taunt the Midnight Man

If your candle goes out and you’re unable to relight it within about 15 seconds, STOP what you are doing, draw a circle of salt around you, and DO NOT MOVE UNTIL 3:33am.

DO NOT leave your house until the game has ended

Even if you aren’t sure if the summoning worked, follow the rules until 3:33am… just to be safe.

DO NOT go to sleep during the game.

DO NOT turn on any lights or electronics; your candle is the only light source allowed.

You’ll know when he’s near, as you’ll feel panic, dread, hear voices, see movement out of the corner of your eye, hears knocks and thuds throughout the house, etc. Long story short, don’t let him catch you. Some say he will make you hallucinate your greatest fear, some say he will haunt you for the rest of your life, and others say he will rip out your organs one by one if he catches you. If you guys want to try this, you’re nuts.

2. One Man Hide & Go Seek

This is another game that has deep roots in a ritual. Necromancy, to be exact. In this game, you summon a spirit into the body of a doll, who then plays hide and seek with you. Seems innocent enough, but think about it. If you’re like me, you have a deep-set fear of dolls, mannequins, etc… this is like my worst nightmare. Anyway, enough about me… let’s get into how you summon this entity and what is said to go down after you possibly ruined your life.

To do this ritual, you need:

A doll (obviously)

Scissors or something else sharp

Red thread and a needle

Rice

Hair and/or nail clippings from yourself

Salt water in a cup

A bathroom

There’s going to be a fair amount of work for this ritual, so you’ve been warned. An important note: you must name the doll. This will not work if you have not named the doll. You can not give the doll your name.

Once you have everything, go into the bathroom and cut the doll open. Remove all the fluff and filling, then restuff it with the rice and clippings. Sew the doll back up with the red thread, use any remaining thread to tie up the doll. Run a bath filled with water. Put the doll on the sink counter and go to your hiding spot. Place the cup of salt water and the sharp object on the floor of your hiding spot.

Once the time reaches 3am, (you don’t have to be in the same room as the doll for this) tell the doll: “*insert your name here* is it” three times. Go into the bathroom, put the doll into the water-filled tub, then turn off all the lights in your house. After you’ve done that, go to your hiding spot, turn on your TV, close your eyes, count to ten, then pick up the sharp object and go back into the bathroom. The doll should still be there. Say to the doll: “I found you, *insert doll’s name here*” after you say this, you have to stab the doll with the sharp object, place the doll back onto the counter and run back to your hiding place. DO NOT take the sharp object back after you stabbed the doll.

Now that you’re in your hiding spot, remain silent. If anything happens to your tv (flickering, images, turning itself off), that means the spirit/doll is near. After you’ve been hidden for a bit. you have to take half (or as much as you can) of the saltwater into your mouth (don’t swallow it, just hold it in your mouth) then go and search for the doll again. Make sure you bring the rest of the cup of saltwater with you. Once you have found the doll (hopefully still in the bathroom), you have to pour the rest of the saltwater onto it, spit the water in your mouth onto it and tell it “I win” three times. This ends the game.

Once the game has ended, dry the doll, and burn it. If there are any remains of the doll left, put salt on it and discard it far away.

Some things to keep in mind during the game:

If you have your phone, keep it on Do Not Disturb and have the brightness at its lowest (DO NOT use your phone unless you need to call for help)

Try to stay as calm and as silent as possible; especially if you think it’s in the room with you.

Try to keep all the doors unlocked in case you need to run away at any time (this is only an emergency resort, try not to leave the house at any point during the game)

Keep some natural salt with you, and line the door to the room you’re in. Keep some religious tools with you, if it makes you feel safer.

Try not to hide in any places you could get stuck/cornered.

And above all, use your common sense. Try to ask some friends or even neighbors to keep an eye out for anything suspicious while you’re doing this game. Tell them a time to expect the lights to come back on, what to do if they haven’t heard from you for a while, etc.

3. Dry Bones

This game is very similar to One Man Hide & Go Seek; except you’re summoning a demon instead of a wandering spirit. This game also has a few elements of the Midnight Game, so it’s time to break out your matches and candle again.

The summoning process for this one is freakishly simple. You begin by turning off all your lights, lighting your candle, and going into your bathroom (or any room with a mirror) at 12:01am. We’re going to go a little Bloody Mary now. You’re going to stare at your reflection until you can feel a presence in the mirror. Once you know there’s something other than yourself in that mirror, you’re going to do the dumbest thing known to mankind. You’re going to tell the demon “I acknowledge your presence, I welcome you into my home for a game of Hide & Seek until 3am. Come in now”. After that last word has been spoken, you’re going to grab your shit (hopefully there’s none in your pants) and RUN. Try to be as quiet as possible while you find your hiding spot. It must be a good hiding spot, as your very life and soul is on the line here. If this demon catches you, I picture your house would look like a real-life DOOM level…You may want to have DoomGuy on speed dial. Anyway… If you miraculously don’t get caught by 3:00am, go to the biggest room in your house, and announce that the game has now ended, and whatever monstrosity you brought into your home is no longer welcome here and must leave. You’ll most likely hear the demon before it leaves, so don’t jump when you hear something right behind you.

I suppose I should mention why anyone would play this game… If you win, the demon will have to grant you a wish. Any (realistic) thing you want will be yours; material or otherwise.

4. The Closet Game

I heard about this one in a YouTube video from Most Amazing Top 10, and it honestly made me question why anyone would want to do this (why would you want to do any of these?). For this game, all you need is:

A closet

A match

Something to light the match

Basically, you step into your closet with an unlit match, then say the words “Show me the light, or leave me in darkness”. You should hear a demon whisper to you (probably something along the lines of “surprise, motherf**ker”); when you hear the whisper, you must IMMEDIATELY light your match and step out of your closet. If you lit the match in time and didn’t get pulled into Hell by a closet demon, then congratulations! You played and “won” the game!

…

Yep, that’s it. Oh, and by the way, never open up your closet in the dark again, or you risk meeting the demon you invited into your closet. On second thought, you might as well just board the closet shut; not unless you’d rather risk leaving the door cracked open for a demon to come out and stare at you while you sleep.

5. The 11 Mile Game

This is another game to get something you deeply wish for; but just like Dry Bones, the stakes are high. To do this ritual/game, you need a car or a motorcycle (basically something you can drive, you’d be extra ballsy to do this with a motorcycle though) and a strong wish.

Let’s start with how to find 11 Mile Road. Keep in mind this is a one person game. No friends allowed.

To find the road, you need to:

Begin your drive at night; try to choose a late time where there’s little to no other drivers on the road

Find a back road inside some dense woods. It has to be inside the forest, not outside or around it.

Once you’re inside the woods, begin driving down the desolate roads until your intuition tells you you’ve found 11 Mile Road. Keep your mind and eyes open, you’ll know the road when you find it.

Now that you have found the road, you can begin driving down it right away or take a moment to stop the car and collect your thoughts. This is the only time during the drive you can stop the car and/or turn back, choose wisely.

If you’ve chosen to drive the road before I go over what you can expect, here are some notes to keep in mind during the drive:

DO NOT listen to music or turn on the radio at all

DO NOT open your doors or windows

DO NOT stop the car; especially to investigate anything you might hear or see inside the car or outside. Just keep going.

DO NOT use a phone or any other device

And finally, DO NOT drive faster than 30mph. This one is mainly a safety hazard for you and your car.

Okay, now that we’ve gone over the warnings, here’s what to expect now that you’ve begun your 11-mile drive:

First mile: Nothing much will happen. It may get cold, you can turn on the heat if it gets too cold. Keep driving.

Second mile: Same as the first mile. Keep driving.

Third mile: You will begin to see movement around you… Don’t take your eyes off the road. Ignore ALL movement. Keep driving.

Fourth mile: Ignore any voices. Keep driving.

Fifth mile: If the trees around you seem to start diminishing, you see a lake, and/or you see the bright glow of the moon… don’t stop driving. No matter how pretty and random it may seem. Keep driving.

Sixth mile: The trees will return and the stars will disappear. You’re “back” in the forest. Ignore the flickering of your headlights. Ignore whatever your radio tells you; DO NOT attempt to turn off the radio. Keep driving.

Seventh mile: Keep ignoring the voices, even if they’re coming from your backseat. DO NOT turn around. Keep driving.

Eighth mile: DO NOT stop driving, no matter what. Even if your flickering headlights make it hard to see in front of you, slow down but do not stop driving. Don’t stop for anything. No exceptions. Keep driving.

Ninth mile: Your vehicle may stall. Close your eyes if your vehicle stops; don’t open them for ANY reason until your car starts. Once your car starts, slam on the gas and Keep driving.

Tenth mile: Don’t look in your mirrors; not even to look in your backseat. Keep driving.

Eleventh mile: Your vehicle will stall again in front of a red light. DO NOT look at it. Close your eyes, cover your ears… whatever you have to do. Just don’t open your eyes until your vehicle starts again. Ignore the voices, ignore whatever is grabbing you, ignore everything no matter what. Once your car restarts, Keep driving a little further.

Continue driving further until you reach the dead end up ahead. Here is where you make your wish. Don’t just wish for it, envision it. Imagine it’s with you now. If you wished for something small enough to fit in your pocket, check there. If you wished for something bigger, check your backseat or your trunk. If you wish for something that isn’t material, then go back home and wait. It’ll come to you very soon, but is there a price and was it worth it?

If you can live with the major PTSD and whatever else follows you from your journey, then you can live happily with your newly gained wish, or you can gladly go down 11 Mile Road again.

6. Bloody Mary

Alright, before you all start yelling at me in the comments about how this game is bogus and not scary at all, hear me out. You’ve probably been playing it wrong the whole damn time; so put away your meat cleavers and pitchforks.

Bloody Mary has become popular amongst young people due to shows such as Supernatural (awesome episode, by the way), movies, and stories throughout modern culture. But originally, Bloody Mary wasn’t summoned for the purpose of eye gouging or other bloody reasons. She was summoned for the purpose of showing a woman her future. The woman would do a candlelit ritual (I’ll detail it below, as well as the modern version of Bloody Mary) and, if executed correctly, she would either catch a glimpse of her future husband’s face… Or she would see a skull (representing the Grim Reaper), indicating she would die before marriage. Much less horrifying and way more depressing than today’s version; if you ask me.

Since I know this is what you all are waiting for, I’ll detail the spooky Bloody Mary ritual first. For this ritual, you’ll need:

A mirror

Candles, preferably black, yellow, purple or white (we’ll discuss why later)

Matches or a lighter

The candle colors mentioned are for protection (white and black), soothing fear, increasing awareness and intuition (purple), and to help open the third eye (yellow). If you aren’t spiritual, then the candle color isn’t important. But recommend having a black candle to protect and absorb negativity, and/or a simple white candle to protect is something I think you should have regardless of your spirituality.

To play Bloody Mary, you need to:

Turn off all the lights in the house, or at least in the room you’ll be in. This ritual is best performed during the late hours (12:00am – 3:03am)

Arrange all but one of your candles around your mirror/on the sides of your mirror (can be in a shrine formation or just so you can see a little). The last candle you’re going to hold while doing the ritual

Light all the candles, including the one you’re holding

Try to calm yourself

Once you’re grounded and calm, close your eyes and begin spinning in a circle while chanting “Bloody Mary” 13 times. Try and visualize an entity as you chant her name.

After the 13th chant, open your eyes (and face the mirror if you aren’t already).

You will either see her form in the mirror or only catch a glimpse of a shadowy figure leaving your mirror before she mauls you. Those who have seen her and survived her encounter have described her as a rotting skeletal figure with nothing more than bloody bones, long sharp nails, some rotting flesh and clumps of matted, bloody hair. Some say she’s eyeless, and others say she wears the eyes of her past victims.

Still, others say she will drag you into the mirror to live with her forever.

Phew. Now, for the more tame, historical version of “Bloody Mary”. For this ritual, all you need is:

Stairs

A dark house

A hand mirror

A candle

For this version, you need to walk up the stairs backward while gazing into the mirror. It’s said you’ll see your future spouse’s face in the mirror, or the skull of the Grim Reaper. If you see the Grim Reaper, you’re destined to die before marriage. That’s it. I told you it was tame.

Bloody Mary goes by many names and has many variations to her ritual, here are few listed on Snopes.com:

“The avenging spirit goes by many names: Bloody Mary, Bloody Bones, Hell Mary, Mary Worth, Mary Worthington, Mary Whales, Mary Johnson, Mary Lou, Mary Jane, Sally, Kathy, Agnes, Black Agnes, Aggie, Svarte Madame.

Summoning Mary requires the right chant. “I believe in Mary Worth” is the key phrase according to one version, but others require the shouting of “Kathy, come out!” or the repetition of “Bloody Mary” into the mirror as many times as the ritual demands. (Sometimes Bloody Mary gets more of a script and is summoned by calls of “Bloody Mary! I killed your baby!”)

The precise requirements of the ritual vary. Some specify that the mirror must be illuminated by a single candle; in others, there must be a candle on each side. In some versions, the message to Mary is repeated by just one girl who is either a volunteer or one selected by the others to summon up the mirror-witch. The number of chants needed to fetch Mary also varies.

What the mirror-witch does upon arrival varies too. She may strike her summoner dead, drive her mad, or fiercely scratch her face. She may merely peer malevolently out through the mirror, or she may drag one of the girls back through it to live with her.”

Well, there you have it! 6 paranormal games that could end in your untimely demise. This, my dear readers is why I don’t play paranormal games. Did you try any of these “games”? Have any recommendations? Tell us in the comments below! Stay safe, my little ghosties and ghouls.