While many may think of film, television and books when it comes to horror as a genre, horror in video games has also been around as long as gaming has been a thing.

With the advent of the adventure game in the early 1980s, horror games were first born. Sometime around the mid- to late '80s, games based on horror greats—like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween—started showing up on store shelves. Games that go bump in the night continue on on to this day, but the current indie scene is what has found new ways to innovate and also scare your pants off.

The following are eight games that have defined the genre: four old school games that inspire other developers and four indie games that have made the horror genre truly shine.

1. Splatterhouse, 1988 

Splatterhouse is one of the first very early takes on the slasher/beat-'em-up type games, with such a level of violence that the TurboGrafx-16 release of the game came with the following warning: “The horrifying theme of this game may be inappropriate for young children... and cowards.”

This game heavily borrows from western movies such as Friday the 13th and Evil Dead. Splatterhouse has you take on the role of Rick, who transforms into a superhuman when a living mask forces himself on Rick. The two then go on a violent rampage through a mansion—which will be a recurring choice of location setting you’ll see in many of the other games on this list. 

2. Alone In the Dark, 1992

Infogrames/Atari, Inc.

Alone in the Dark is often regarded as one of the first examples of a 3D horror game. Not only was it met with critical acclaim, but it also helped set the stage for future games in the same space.

In the game, you had the choice of taking on the role of either a male or a female character—a huge deal for games in 1992. As Edward or Emily, you find yourself trapped inside a haunted mansion, set in 1920s Louisiana. Alone In the Dark stressed puzzle-solving over simply fighting off monsters—many of which did not die soon after their introductions. The plot of the game also heavily borrows from Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story “The Fall of the House of Usher," which tells the story of a decaying castle that's taken on a life of its own. 

3. Resident Evil, 1996

Capcom

When someone thinks back on old school horror games, Resident Evil will usually pop into the conversation. Not only did it help define a genre, but it also paved the way for its own sub-genre: survival horror.

The Resident Evil franchise has gone onto spawn multiple sequels, six successful films and even books. The series started out on the Sony PlayStation and was released and re-released for the Sega Saturn, PC and many others. Originally titled Bio Hazard in Japan, its name changed when the US arm of Capcom realized they couldn’t trademark the name and thus Resident Evil was born. It’s best known for zombies, violence and horrible voice acting.

4. Silent Hill, 1999

Silent Hill is another game that went onto grown into a huge franchise which also spawned sequels, a visual novel and a Hollywood movie.

While the series has been dormant as of late, respected video game producer Hideo Kojima is currently producing the ninth entry in the series, along with Director Guillermo del Toro with The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus starring as the lead protagonist.

Silent Hill did something only later indie games have truly embraced: The character you play, Harry Mason, is just an ordinary man who's searching for his daughter in a town overrun with monsters. As Mason you encounter trouble-shooting, long bouts of running around and lots of damage. The only source of light for a majority of the game comes from a single flashlight, which, of course, adds to the super creepy vibe during the whole game.

5. Lone Survivor, 2012

Superflat Games

Lone Survivor takes you on a post-apocalyptic journey to escape from the apartment building you once called home. The objective? Find other people—or are there even any to find? Are you hallucinating? Or is what you're seeing on the screen actually happening? 

While it plays as your average survival horror game, there's a big twist: Everything you do matters. How you treat others and yourself adds and subtracts from your descent into madness and will affect which ending you ultimately experience upon completion of the game. Everything you need to survive—food, batteries, ammunition, weapons—needs to be scavenged. Your character needs to return to his apartment building often to sleep... and to prevent the onset of madness. There are pills that can keep you awake but they'll also be detrimental to your mental health.

At one point early on in the game, you find yourself in a room filled with people who seem oblivious to what is going on outside. It turns out they just don’t care and want to drink their problems away. Later on, you enter that same room to find monsters—and the previous people occupying the room all dead. The questions here: Did they just die or were they dead the whole time? Did your character just imagine what he saw earlier?

Things like this happen throughout the game, which makes the journey all the more mind-bending.

6. Don't Starve, 2013

japandragon.tumblr.com

Don’t Starve is a clever mix of horror, action-adventure and open world gaming. Its first release happened in mid-2013 but after both critical and commercial success, it would also come to PlayStation 3, 4 and an upcoming “Definitive Version” for the Wii U.

Created by indie studio Klei Entertainment, Don’t Starve claims many influences, ranging from Minecraft to the works of Tim Burton. The game drops you into a randomly generated world and leaves you with the (seemingly) simple task of not starving to death. While brutally difficult at times, it makes great use of the day/night cycle and the fact you can literally go crazy over time. Monsters from your imagination have the ability to appear if you become insane and they can—and will—kill you. Add to the fact that once you die, that’s it—game over. You have to actually put in work if you want to survive and thrive on your own for very long.

7. Outlast, 2013

Outlast is a game from developer/publisher Red Barrels where you know you are pretty much screwed from the very beginning. You have a camera, night vision goggles and not much else other than your wits and a few places to hide.

As investigative reporter Miles Upshur, you visit a psychiatric hospital—which, really, should be your first clue that some stuff is going to go down. Once you get there, you find a hospital under the control of a cult leader who has mutated and brainwashed patients into murdering anyone that stands in his way. If you want to go through a game that will scare you at nearly every turn, Outlast is the game for you. 

8. Five Nights at Freddy's, 2014

Five Nights at Freddy’s is the kind of game that knows exactly what it is and uses that to scare the crap out of you. Even though it’s a point and click type of game, nothing is ever the same. A person could play the game many different times and get many different outcomes.

You play a night-shift security guard at a fictional kids' pizza place—think a dingy, possessed version of Chuck E. Cheese. As the night goes on, the animatronic characters somehow come to life, and if you don't keep an eye on them, they will kill you.

Even though this game met with great reviews, it wasn’t until Let's Plays and multiple YouTube gaming celebrities like PewDiePie (above) showed off their walkthroughs that it truly gained the amount of traction it has now. Now on their third game, developer Scott Cawthon has a veritable hit on his hands.