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Old Flash Horror Games You Can Still Play

Flash games were where many players met horror first, and many still run today: Newgrounds plays them in the page with its own Flash player, free and with no plug-in. These are Flash horror games from the mid-2000s to the early 2010s that still load, rated well by the players who keep coming back to them.

The games

  1. Exmortis art: a derelict two-storey house behind bare trees under a pale full moon, in dark brown and black tones Puzzle horrorExmortisThe 2004 classic most lists call the scariest Flash game: no memory, a house in the woods and ancient beings, rated 4.58 by over 4,000 players.
  2. Gretel and Hansel art: Gretel in a yellow headscarf reaches toward her taller brother in brown, painted in pale watercolour by a wooden door frame 2D horrorGretel and HanselA watercolour Grimm tale where almost every wrong click ends in a gruesome death, played millions of times on Newgrounds.
  3. Alice is Dead - Ep 1 illustration: Alice, blonde in her blue dress and white apron, lying slumped in a pit against a dark earthen wall PsychologicalAlice is Dead - Ep 1Wake beside Alice's body in a locked Wonderland room with no memory, a ten-minute puzzle rated 4.70 by almost 5,000 players.
  4. The Visitor: the pink alien slug sits in a pool of blood at the foot of a blood-smeared tree by dark swamp water, a crow watching from a stump Body horrorThe VisitorPlay the monster: an alien parasite that eats its way from frogs up to the family in the farmhouse, rated 4.60 by over 5,000 players.
  5. Arrival In Hell title art: a bloodied bald prisoner in orange faces a blood-smeared inmate holding a blade behind cell bars, drawn in cartoon style 2D horrorArrival in HellThe 2006 original: a prisoner in a cell while a beast tears through the prison, and a dead man's hand among your tools.
  6. Exmortis 2 key art: a grey stone church with a cross on its tower under a blood-red sky, the title in dripping letters Puzzle horrorExmortis 2The sequel: the last survivor flees the Exmortis through a church, a ranch and stranger places.
  7. Gretel and Hansel 2 key art: the title in brown twig letters with a large 2 over a pale watercolour forest of bare trees 2D horrorGretel and Hansel Part 2Longer and deeper into the woods, with an inventory and just as many deaths.
  8. Alice is Dead - Ep 2 art: a grinning man in a top hat with a bloodied heart card in the band, pointing a cigar, in a grimy blue-green room Puzzle horrorAlice is Dead - Ep 2The second episode takes the Rabbit into a seedy, gangster-run Wonderland with harder puzzles and voiced characters.
  9. The Visitor Returns title art: a bloodied bald man slumped at a table beside a whiskey bottle and glass, with cigarette butts on the floor Body horrorThe Visitor ReturnsThe parasite's sequel: seven new scenes of grisly kills around a lonely home, and six ways the last one can end.
  10. Ghostscape key art: a ruined house with a collapsed roof, bare trees and a stone cross under a stormy night sky, the title in metal letters EscapeGhostscapeGather evidence of ghosts in an old house and perform a candle ceremony to escape.
  11. Killer Escape key art: a red-lit basement corridor with a rusty tank of valves and gauges and a locked barred gate, under the cracked title EscapeKiller EscapeEscape a masked serial killer's basement cell by its valves, fuses and the notes of his earlier victims.
  12. Killer Escape 2: The Surgery title art: a dentist's drill, a syringe and a scalpel on blood-spattered tiles beside the title, with a faint masked figure on the right EscapeKiller Escape 2The 2013 sequel: climb into a blood-soaked surgery run by a second psychopath and find a way out again.
  13. Killer Escape 3 key art: a grey alien face with a dark eye and blood spots beside the cracked metallic title on a blue background EscapeKiller Escape 3The 2014 third game: escape for good and learn who you are, as the series turns toward science-fiction horror.
  14. Goliath The Soothsayer art: a painted figure in shadow covering their eyes with both hands, lit amber in a dim brown room EscapeGoliath The SoothsayerFrom the maker of Exmortis with The Mars Volta: locked in a missing brother's attic by a malevolent force.
  15. Ghostscape 2: The Cabin key art: a dark grayscale forest track with No Trespassing, Cabin and Keep Out signs, under the metal and red title MysteryGhostscape 2 - The CabinInvestigate a cabin in the woods and its old owner with a camera, a metal detector and his diaries.
  16. Inculcation title over a dark cluttered room where a faceless, scratched brown creature stands with its back turned Puzzle horrorInculcationA first-person point-and-click survival horror from Halloween 2009, made in the spirit of Silent Hill.
  17. Arrival in Hell II key art: a dark drawn demon face with a glowing red eye and blood splatter under the white title 2D horrorArrival in Hell 2Escape a demonic prison through dozens of puzzles, toward one of three endings.
  18. Purgatorium title art: a pale child with a bloodied, shadowed face in a dark knitted sweater stands against a dim wall above the title in scratched black letters EscapePurgatoriumBen Leffler's few-minute Halloween 2006 escape from a filthy room, with grisly images that jump at you.
  19. Bars of Black and White title art: the name hand-lettered in black ink over a barcode on white, with the developer credit below PsychologicalBars of Black and WhiteA quiet room escape in black line art, where a barcode reader shows the world is wrong.
  20. The Breach: a green-armoured soldier aims a rifle from a ledge in a dark 2D starship corridor lit by a red warning lamp 2D horrorThe BreachA side-on sci-fi horror shooter aboard a silent starship, rated 4.47 out of 5 by its players.
  21. Outpost:Haven key art: two armoured marines with green visors fire rifles in a dark station corridor, an orange muzzle flash and the Outpost logo top left 2D horrorOutpost:HavenA top-down shooter on a space station where aliens come out of the vents.
  22. Shadow Tag: a worried cartoon man in a grey hoodie holds a flashlight outside a log cabin with glowing windows at night 2D horrorShadow TagA 48-hour jam game: a flashlight, a cabin at night and children playing a cruel game.
  23. Deep Sleep Trilogy key art: a skeleton lies on a rotting bed in a ruined, moss-covered room under a night sky, in grainy pixel art EscapeDeep Sleep Trilogyscriptwelder's Flash dream trilogy, no longer playable in the browser but preserved on Steam.
  24. Don't Escape Trilogy art: a grey pixel-art corridor with metal doors and a round porthole showing a log cabin in a green field Puzzle horrorDon't Escape Trilogyscriptwelder's Flash-era reverse escape rooms, where you must secure yourself inside before night falls; free on Newgrounds and collected on Steam.
  25. Red Oz key art: the title Red Oz Part One scrawled in red over black ink splatters on a dark blue-grey background ShortRed Oz Episode 1From the artist of Alice is Dead: a dark, macabre Wizard of Oz that begins with a crash in your own house at night.

Start with the classics. Exmortis, Ben Leffler's 2004 game, is the one most often named as the scariest of the Flash era: you wake in the woods with no memory, shelter in a house in a clearing, and read your way into its dark past and the ancient beings behind it. Exmortis 2 picks up a year later with you as the last survivor, fleeing through a church, an abandoned ranch and stranger places while a sinister figure follows. Leffler's Goliath The Soothsayer, made with The Mars Volta, locks you in your missing brother's attic, held by a malevolent force, and his Purgatorium, made in about a week for Halloween 2006, is a few minutes in a filthy room with grisly images that jump at you.

Arrival in Hell, from 2006, is where skideh and cicla's prison series began: you wake in a cell as a beast tears through the building, and you walk your prisoner between a handful of rooms using whatever you find, a dead man's hand included. Arrival in Hell 2 puts you in a demonic prison with dozens of puzzles across sixteen scenes and three endings, though players warn that a key card can vanish and leave you stuck.

Some of the best known turn fairy tales dark. Gretel and Hansel, by makopudding, looks like a watercolour storybook and plays like a trap: you walk the children through a Brothers Grimm tale where almost every wrong click ends in an animated, often gruesome death, and Part 2 takes them deep into the woods. Alice is Dead, by ImpendingRiot and Hyptosis, starts with you locked in a Wonderland room beside Alice's body with no memory of who you are; the first episode takes about ten minutes, and the second follows the Rabbit into a seedy, gangster-run Wonderland with harder puzzles. Hyptosis, who drew Alice is Dead, went on to Red Oz Episode 1 in 2015, a macabre Wizard of Oz in which a crash wakes you in your dark house, cryptic messages appear on the walls and something is plainly wrong outside.

The Visitor turns the creature feature around: you are the alien parasite, solving each scene so it can eat its way from frogs and birds up to the family in the farmhouse, growing more grotesque with every meal. The Visitor Returns, by ClickShake Games, adds seven new scenes and six ways the final kill can end. Both are bloody and darkly funny rather than tense.

Ghostscape turns the haunted house into a ghost hunt, gathering evidence and diary pages before an occult ceremony with five red candles lets you out, and Ghostscape 2 - The Cabin sends you to investigate a cabin in the woods and its old owner. The same maker, Psionic, made Killer Escape in 2012: a masked serial killer has locked you in his basement cell, and the notes of the people he held before you, valves, fuses and a safe code are your way out. Killer Escape 2: The Surgery picks up straight after, on a blood-soaked floor run by a second psychopath, and Killer Escape 3 sends you after your own identity while a figure called the Observer watches, turning the series toward science fiction.

Inculcation, from Halloween 2009, is a first-person survival horror adventure its maker says was inspired by Silent Hill and Resident Evil: still, grey scenes of a house and a block of flats, puzzles built from what you find, and sudden appearances that make players hesitate before every door. Bars of Black and White is the quietest and strangest: you have not left your room in a long time, a barcode reader arrives in the mail, and what it scans shows the world is not what it seems.

If you want a gun in your hand, two sci-fi games answer a distress call. The Breach, by Berzerk Studio, sends a lone head of security aboard a prototype starship that has gone silent, a side-on shooter through red-lit corridors full of creatures and gore. Outpost:Haven is played from above: a station with a radiation leak, aliens that burst out of the vents and the dark, hacking, upgrades and one level seen only through night vision. Shadow Tag is the shortest, made in 48 hours for a game jam: two children have pulled you into a paranormal game of tag outside a cabin at night, and you have a flashlight and a car to reach.

Some Flash classics no longer run in a browser at all; Newgrounds asks for its desktop player for those, as it does for Psionic's Urbex and for Lost Outpost, the follow-up to Outpost:Haven. Deep Sleep, Deeper Sleep and The Deepest Sleep, scriptwelder's pixel-art dream trilogy, are the best known, and they live on as the Deep Sleep Trilogy on Steam, preserved as they were. The same maker's Don't Escape games, from 2013 on, turned the escape room around, asking you to lock yourself in before nightfall turns you into a werewolf or a zombie horde arrives; the originals still run free on Newgrounds, and the three are sold together on Steam as Don't Escape Trilogy.

If you only try one, play Exmortis for where Flash horror began, Gretel and Hansel or Alice is Dead for the most memorable look, The Visitor to be the monster for once, or The Breach if you would rather fight back.

Questions

Can you still play Flash horror games?

Many, yes. Newgrounds runs Flash games in the page with its own player, so the games here play in a normal browser for free. A few need Newgrounds' desktop player instead, and some, like the Deep Sleep trilogy, were moved to Steam.

Do I need to install Flash?

No. Flash itself is gone from browsers; Newgrounds' player runs these games without it.

Are these games free?

The Newgrounds games are free. Deep Sleep Trilogy and Don't Escape Trilogy are paid on Steam, though Don't Escape's originals are still free on Newgrounds.

Which old Flash horror game is the scariest to start with?

Exmortis is the one most lists name first, a slow occult mystery in a house in the woods. Inculcation, whose loading screen asks you to play with the lights off, is another; Killer Escape and Arrival in Hell are grimmer and gorier; Bars of Black and White is unsettling rather than violent.

Is Gretel and Hansel still playable?

Yes. Both parts are free on Newgrounds in the browser, and a remake with a new Part 3 is coming to Steam, where a free demo of Part 1 is out.

Are there short Flash horror games for a quick scare?

Yes. Purgatorium takes a few minutes and the first Alice is Dead episode about ten; Shadow Tag was made in 48 hours and is just as brief.

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