Scary Games to Play in Real Life: 12 Games for Sleepovers and Parties

Most scary games people play in real life are old sleepover classics played in the dark: Sardines, Murder in the Dark, Bloody Mary and Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board. None of them need more than a dark room, a flashlight or a mirror. The fear comes from the dark and from everyone’s imagination.

The games below are grouped by type, with the number of players and what you need. A short list of games to skip is at the end.

Hide-and-seek games in the dark

1. Sardines

Players: 4 or more. You need: a house with the lights off.

One person hides while everyone else counts. Seekers split up, and when someone finds the hider, they quietly squeeze into the hiding spot too. The game ends when the last seeker finds a closet full of silent people. That last seeker hides next.

It gets creepier as the house empties out, because the remaining seekers can’t tell where everyone went.

2. Flashlight tag

Players: 4 or more. You need: one flashlight and a large dark space, indoors or out.

The player who is “it” holds the flashlight. Anyone caught in the beam is tagged and becomes “it” next. Hiders move in the dark and try not to make noise.

3. Ghost in the graveyard

Players: 5 or more. You need: a yard at dusk and a home base.

One player, the ghost, hides. Everyone else counts off the hours from one o’clock to midnight at base, then goes looking. Whoever spots the ghost shouts, and everyone races back to base. Anyone the ghost tags becomes a ghost for the next round.

Mystery and murder games

4. Murder in the dark

Players: 6 or more. You need: a deck of cards and a room you can darken.

Deal one card to each player. One card marks the murderer and another marks the detective, and the detective announces themselves. The lights go off and everyone wanders. The murderer taps a victim, who counts to five and screams. Lights on, and the detective questions everyone to find the killer.

5. Wink murder

Players: 6 or more. You need: nothing.

Everyone sits in a circle. The secret murderer “kills” players by winking at them, and victims dramatically fall over. The detective in the middle has three guesses to name the murderer. It works in daylight too, which makes it good for younger groups.

6. Werewolf

Players: 7 or more. You need: a narrator and a way to assign roles, such as slips of paper.

The narrator secretly makes one or two players werewolves. At “night,” everyone closes their eyes and the werewolves silently choose a victim. During the “day,” the group argues and votes to banish a suspect. Villagers win if they find every werewolf. The same game is often played as Mafia.

Legends and rituals

7. Bloody Mary

Players: 2 or more. You need: a mirror in a dark bathroom.

Players take turns standing in front of the mirror, usually with a single dim light, and say “Bloody Mary” three times. According to the legend, a figure appears in the glass. Nothing appears, but the build-up does the work.

There is a real reason the face in the mirror can seem to change. In 2010, the Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo described a “strange-face-in-the-mirror” illusion: after staring at your own reflection in low light for about a minute, most people see their face distort. Knowing that can take the edge off for nervous players, or make it scarier for everyone else.

8. Light as a feather, stiff as a board

Players: 5 or more. You need: floor space.

One person lies flat while the others kneel around them and place two fingers under their body. One player tells a spooky story about how the person “died,” the group chants “light as a feather, stiff as a board,” and then everyone lifts together.

The person rises surprisingly easily because their weight is split across many fingers. The game is centuries old; a version appears in Samuel Pepys’s diary in 1665.

9. Charlie Charlie

Players: 2 or more. You need: paper and two pencils.

Draw a cross on paper and write “yes” and “no” in the four boxes. Balance one pencil across the other. Players ask “Charlie” questions and watch which way the top pencil swings. It swings because a balanced pencil moves at the slightest breath or bump. The game went viral online in 2015.

Storytelling games

10. Red door, yellow door

Players: 2 or more. You need: a quiet room.

One player lies down with their eyes closed and their head in the guide’s lap. The guide rubs their temples and asks them to picture a hallway of colored doors. The player describes what is behind each door they open. The guide ends the game by walking them back out of the hallway.

It is more atmospheric than frightening. Agree beforehand that the player can open their eyes and stop at any time.

11. Scary story chain

Players: 3 or more. You need: one flashlight.

Sit in a circle in the dark. The person holding the flashlight adds one sentence to a scary story, then passes it on. The story usually turns funny halfway through, which suits mixed groups.

12. Glow-stick scavenger hunt

Players: any number. You need: glow sticks and a list of hidden items.

Hide small objects around a dark house or yard and give each team a glow stick and a list. The first team back with everything wins. For a class party, swap the list for Halloween-themed clues. Our fall quotes for teachers post has lines that work on clue cards.

Games to skip

Some “real life” scary games that circulate online are not worth the risk.

Skip anything that uses candles or matches in the dark, such as the “Midnight Game.” Skip anything that involves a knife, such as “Hide and Seek Alone.”

Skip anything that involves restricting breathing. The so-called choking game is not a game, and the CDC has documented deaths among children and teens from it.

Some families also object to Ouija boards or “summoning” games on religious grounds. Check with parents before a sleepover.

Tips for a scary game night

Agree on a “lights on” word before you start, so anyone can stop a game without explaining why.

Make sitting out a normal option. Not everyone enjoys being scared, and a job like narrator or timekeeper keeps them in the group.

Clear the floor of anything to trip over before the lights go off, and keep one flashlight per person nearby.

Feed everyone first. If you’re hosting, our lazy 30-minute one-pot dinners are easy to scale for a group.

FAQ

What scary games can two people play?

Bloody Mary, Charlie Charlie, red door, yellow door and a two-person scary story chain all work with two players.

What is a good scary game for a large group?

Werewolf and murder in the dark both work well with eight or more players.

Are these games OK for kids?

The games in the numbered list are fine for most kids with an adult nearby. Wink murder and the scavenger hunt suit younger children, and Bloody Mary and red door, yellow door suit older kids and teens.