An underrated marketplace for indie horror gems is Itch.io. Whether you’re looking for a good story to keep you hooked or you want to feel alive through fear, here’s our ranking of the 13 best horror games you can play on Itch.io right now.
Top 10 Free Horror Games on Itch.io You DON'T Know
As a huge fan of Junji Ito, I hate to say that there aren’t many great film adaptations of the legendary horror mangaka’s work. However, a pixelated side-scrolling homage to The Woman Next Door (from Mimi’s Tales of Terror), titled NextDoor, delivers just the right amount of horror you need in a compact setting. The idea of having a neighbor who never makes a sound, even when they’re home all day, is bizarrely unsettling, especially when you see that multiple people live there. Paranoia sets in as you start to believe that something sinister is going on. Is the person behind the door even human?
A free horror game with a play time of 10 minutes, NextDoor is a must-play whether you are an Ito fan or not. While this game is a retelling of The Woman Next Door, it captures the original story perfectly and delivers it in a new art form that is easy to digest.
From the ground floor, Elevated Dread invites you into its cold, dirty, dark embrace. It doesn’t seem like a safe place to visit, but you’ll have to put up those flyers if you want to call it a day. As you climb the nine floors of Elevated Dread, you’ll constantly feel like you’re being watched. The atmosphere is reminiscent of Silent Hill, as static fills your screen as you try to take the stairs. You feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up every time you step into that elevator, but the game forces you to get in.
