The PlayStation 5 has been an excellent console for horror game fans. It’s not just that it can render horrible monsters, gore, and viscera at higher resolutions than previous systems; the DualSense controller means that you can feel your character’s heartbeat, the tension of the trigger under your finger, and the horror manifesting within your hands. In some of the best horror games on PS5, you’ll be able to fend off the terrors that are coming for you, whether they be shambling zombies, ravenous werewolves, or something even more sinister. Others will only let you run and hide, which can sometimes be even scarier. There are classic franchises, like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and some newer entries in the horror canon.
Here’s our list of the best horror games with native PS5 versions to keep you busy and scared over Halloween. For more horror games across all systems, check out our list of the best horror games.. For more horror games across all systems, check out our list of the best horror games.
The Last of Us Part 2
- Developer: Naughty Dog
- Release Date: January 19, 2024
- Jump Scares: Several
While The Last of Us Part 1 is a game with scary moments, Part 2 really ramped up the horror, giving you more Infected types to fight across numerous terrifying environments. The PS5 version of The Last of Us Part 2 features numerous upgrades from the original PS4 version, including DualSense integration, early-development versions of three extra levels, and a new roguelike survival mode that’s even more intense than the original game.
The Last of Us Part 2 is full of amazing horror moments, but the most intense of all is the Rat King fight in its back half. In a game full of difficult fights against horrible monsters, it stands out as true nightmare fuel.
Resident Evil 2
- Developer: Capcom
- Release Date: June 13, 2022
- Jump Scares: Quite a few
We’ve included Resident Evil 2 here over the amazing Resident Evil 4 for one simple reason: It’s scarier. This remake, which came to PS5 in 2022 with various enhancements over the PS4 version, tells the classic tale of Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield’s extremely bad night in Raccoon City in the wake of a zombie outbreak. The pair need to investigate the town’s police station and beyond while being beset by zombies, devil dogs, giant lizard-like creatures called Lickers, and even worse monsters.
The scariest part of Resident Evil 2 is Mr. X, the trenchcoat-sporting Tyrant who slowly follows you throughout the game. He can’t be killed, reasoned with, or even slowed down for long, and the thought that he might be around every corner is hard to get out of your head while playing.
Alan Wake 2
- Developer: Remedy Entertainment
- Release Date: October 27, 2023
- Jump Scares: Not many, but they’re very effective
Alan Wake 2 dramatically ramps up the scares compared to the original game, with stranger enemies, weirder diversions, and far more creatures that go bump in the night. This sequel, which picks up where the original Alan Wake left off 13 years ago with protagonist Alan stranded in another dimension, takes the series in a survival horror direction, making each encounter tense and scary by virtue of your limited means of fighting back.
Alan Wake 2 was scary enough that Remedy eventually included the ability to turn off the game’s tremendously effective jump scares, which was good news for anyone who couldn’t get past that one particular moment in the nursing home. Meanwhile, a later update lets you play an ultra-easy version of the game, just in case the horror gets to be too much but you still want to experience the excellent story.
Silent Hill 2
- Developer: Bloober Team
- Release Date: October 4, 2024
- Jump Scares: Many, many jumpscares
Bloober Team has made several strong horror games, including Cronos: The New Dawn and The Medium, but this remake of horror classic Silent Hill 2 is the studio’s best work. The original is one of the most beloved works of horror fiction in games, and the remake manages to, if not improve upon it, at least offer something both new and familiar. It’s a game that is able to live up to the legacy of its beloved predecessor.
In GameSpot’s 9/10 review of the game, Mark Delaney noted that the game’s sound design is particularly strong: “The environments host a cacophony of inhuman noises, metallic grinding, and subtly soft whispers that lead you to wonder what is around any corner.” Bloober Team’s remake has effectively introduced the game to a new generation of horror fans, and it’s well-worth playing. It’s now available on PS Plus Extra.
Resident Evil Village
- Developer: Capcom
- Release Date: May 7, 2021
- Jump Scares: Not many
While it’s generally agreed that between the two modern first-person Resident Evil games, Resident Evil 7 is the scarier game, Resident Evil Village is overall a better experience. As is traditional in the series, you’re dropped into a horrible setting (this time a snowy village featuring an ominous castle) and made to fight a procession of monsters and freaks.
Village taps into some of the energy of the more action-centric games in the series, like Resident Evil 4, but its best horror creation is the one that spawned a thousand memes–Lady Dimitrescu, the massive, vampiric enemy who briefly broke the Internet. It turns out that 9-foot tall vampires who want to kill you are a lot of people’s fetish–if they’re yours, too, give Resident Evil Village a play.
Subnautica
Developer: Unknown Worlds Entertainment
Release Date: May 13, 2021
Jump Scares: No intentional jump scares, but enemies can surprise you
Your mileage may vary with Subnautica depending on how you feel about the ocean and survival games. If the thought of being deep underwater and encountering something horrifying sounds like an adventure to you, then perhaps the game (and its excellent sequel) won’t scare you. If you’re like GameSpot reviewer Brett Todd, who called this open-ocean survival game “terrifying, mystifying, massive, and brilliant,” Subnautica’s aggressive deep-sea beasties will put the fear into you.
Little Nightmares 2: Enhanced Edition
- Developer: Tarsier Studios
- Release Date: August 25, 2021
- Jump Scares: Only minor jump scares
While the first Little Nightmares was enjoyably spooky, and Little Nightmares 3 offers a good riff on the series from a new studio, it’s generally agreed by most fans that Little Nightmares 2 is the series’ peak. This puzzle platformer about two kids (newcomer Mono and Six from the first game), working together to escape the eerily named Pale City, has been celebrated for its horrific enemies and moments of brutality. The team behind this game is now working on Reanimal, which GameSpot’s Mark Delaney called the “evolution of Little Nightmares you’ve been waiting for.” It’s also coming to PS5 in 2026.
Dead Space
- Developer: Motive Studios
- Release Date: January 27, 2023
- Jump Scares: Yes, but not as many as the original
Yes, it’s another remake on this list–but it’s also another horrifying, violent banger of a game. The original 2008 Dead Space has held up well, but Motive’s 2023 Dead Space remake really ramped up the visual fidelity of the gore, while also opening up the level design a bit, and, crucially, giving series protagonist Issac a voice (he spoke in Dead Space 2, but never in the original). Now that we know Issac better and care about him more, the peril he’s in is even scarier.
This is a very action-forward horror experience, which can be quite cathartic–Issac can rip his mutated enemies apart, limb by limb, but they can also do the same to him. It sounds like we’re unlikely to see a new Dead Space anytime soon, sadly, but we’re glad we got this remake on PS5.
Crow Country
- Developer: SFB Games
- Release Date: May 9, 2024
- Jump Scares: Yes, several
Crow Country is a survival horror game in the style of an old PS One frightfest. You play as Mara Forest, who has been sent to investigate an old theme park, searching for its missing owner. Naturally, things go wrong.
Crow Country’s old-school sensibilities go beyond its graphics: It’s got that classic “stand still and fire” combat style, and that classic mix of solving puzzles and finding keys to progress. You can only save in saferooms, and enemies can easily overwhelm you if you’re not careful. If you want to turn the horror down, though, Crow Country’s “exploration” mode lets you play without any enemies, letting you walk free around the park. It’s a cool horror throwback with a great story, and earned an 8/10 from GameSpot.
The Quarry
- Developer: Supermassive Games
- Release Date: June 10, 2022
- Jump Scares: Yes, but not many
Supermassive has been very busy since the PS5 debuted: The Quarry is one of eight games the studio has released for the system so far, not counting the remake of its PS4 hit Until Dawn. The Quarry is the best of them, though, and the game that most effectively feels like a playable horror movie.
The Quarry has something for everyone–teen camp counselors looking to get in some trouble, a pack of angry lycanthropes, and–for all you Scream fans out there–an extended cameo from David Arquette as the camp’s owner. It’s a game defined by its commitment to player choice, so each time you play, different characters might live or die. The couch multiplayer mode–which lets up to eight viewers vote on every decision–is a hoot at a Halloween party.
Immortality
- Developer: Half Mermaid
- Release Date: August 30, 2022
- Jump Scares: No
Immortality director Sam Barlow is no stranger to horror–he previously directed the Nintendo Wii cult classic Silent Hill: Shattered Memories–but Immortality ramps things up beyond even that notorious foggy town. In Immortality, you’re playing what is, ostensibly, a piece of software that lets you explore footage from three films starring Marissa Marcel, an up-and-coming actor in the ’60s whose three potential debuts all went unreleased. As you scrub through the footage, Immortality slowly reveals what the story is really about–and without spoiling it, it’s pretty horrifying.
Immortality isn’t the scariest game on this list, but it’s also the only one here to have given me actual nightmares. It’s at its best on PS5, too, thanks to excellent use of the DualSense controller to replicate the clacky, whirring feel of a moviola.
Luto
Developer: Broken Bird Games
Release Date: July 22, 2025
Jump Scares: Only a few
Luto, the debut game from Broken Bird Games, takes obvious inspiration from P.T., the demo for Hideo Kojima’s tragically cancelled Silent Hill game. Like that game, Luto involves a lot of walking down looping, shifting corridors, exploring a space that morphs and changes around you. It’s a ghost story–a very creepy one–with gorgeous graphics and some real scares, especially in the game’s first few hours.
In GameSpot’s Luto review, Mark Delaney wrote that “a game like Luto is difficult to praise in detail because so much of what it does so well shouldn’t be explained; it should be seen for yourself.” It’s a perfect game if you want something surprising, and a horror game that’s a bit more cerebral.
