Happy Halloween!

Here are some fun scary things to do online, or to download, or to have fun with or interact with or to wonder why.  It turns out the Internet can be scary, but in the fun way, not the stolen identity or I’ve-got-a-virus way. Who knew? And let’s be honest, everyone likes to be scared, right? We all love it.

With that in mind, here is a list of seven fun, scary, strange things to do online for Halloween. Oh who am I kidding – anytime.

1. Surprisingly fun and tense scary mobile game: Into the Dead

Into the Dead by TikTok

Does that screenshot look like things are going to end well? No. No it doesn’t. That’s a shot from Into the Dead, a surprisingly entertaining endless runner-type mobile title from PikPok that has you regaining consciousness after a helicopter crash to find yourself surrounded by zombies. You start running automatically, and you just have to tilt your device right or left to avoid running headfirst into something that considers you to be an entree. Occasionally you’ll have a gun. I’m not a big fan of mobile gaming, but this one is easy to control, moody, atmospheric, and tense. For iOS, Android, and Windows/Windows Phone platforms. Also available on Amazon.

2. Best Classic Horror Movie(s) You Can Watch Online for Free: Nosferatu and Night of the Living Dead

I couldn’t decide between these two glorious films so I’m listing them both. The Max Schreck classic Nosferatu is well-recognized as the first Vampire movie, predating Bela Lugosi’s appearance in 1931’s Dracula by ten years even though Nosferatu was an obvious telling of the same Bram Stoker novel, merely substituting the name Count Orlok for Count Dracula. Dracula is a masterpiece too, and has one of my favorite movie lines ever, but Nosferatu as a silent movie from the very early days of filmmaking simply can’t be beat.

Night of the Living Dead, directed by George A. Romero who still makes movies in the franchise to this day, is the penultimate zombie movie, absolutely terrifying in its Karo syrup-covered black and white back in 1968. Also possessed of one of the most well-known movie lines of all time, it’s the movie that started it all and gave us the zombie craze that continues to this day, and it’s public-domain due to one of the biggest copyright-related screw-ups in history. I’ve embedded both movies below.

Nosferatu:

Night of the Living Dead:

3. Terrible, terrible trick to play on your friends: The Scary Maze Game

BE CAREFUL

Look, I’m not screwing around here, this is not a trick to play on anyone with a weak heart. It really isn’t. The Scary Maze Game is (obviously) a maze game in which you have to navigate a tiny dot through the blue lanes of an on-screen maze. The first two levels are easy enough, but level three gets a little tricky and requires some concentration. Of course, that’s when everything goes to hell.

I’m saying it again – if you, or your friends/family have a weak heart, do not show them this. You know those warnings they have on the wall stating you should be in good health before you get on some Disneyland rides? The very same warnings apply here. I’m not kidding.

4. A Video-Based Choose-Your-Own Adventure: The Outbreak

Choose-your-own adventures have never really been my thing. When I was a kid, books that had you turning to a specific page based on what decision you made were all over the place but I never put much time into them. Even so, I have to give The Outbreak credit: It’s very well done and very clever, and even well-acted.

You are part of a group trying to survive a zombie outbreak, and the way it works is that you watch a video-clip then decide what you will do as seen in the screenshot above. Good luck surviving, but if you end up zombie-food, which you will – you most definitely will – you can chapter-select your way back and try again.

5. Korean creepy web-comic: Bong-Cheong Dong Ghost

The site itself is in Korean, but the comic is in English. The Bong-Cheong Dong Ghost web comic, in which you scroll down the page to see the panels, starts out innocuously enough, but as you follow the story it throws more surprises in front of you, and they’re mostly subtle yet effective. You only need the first unexpected event to happen to realize you’re in for something different. I can’t describe it in too much detail without giving away the fun, so I highly recommend giving it a try, if you’re into the creepy. And you are.

6. Halloweenify your pictures over at Google+

Over at Google+’s Halloweenify page, you can apply some spooky effects to a picture of your choice. I wasn’t about to use a personal picture of myself as an example on this public site, so I decided to use a picture of the cat. It’s a relatively creepy image all by itself and shows her inner demon quite well, but the effects just drive it home, as you can see below.

7. Absolutely the best on-line radio station there is: Halloweenradio.net

Face it, you need atmosphere. Halloween atmosphere. Sometimes I need that in June. Easily the best way to get that atmosphere in your very own home is on the halloweenradio.net website.

One of the things that makes this site so great is that it isn’t just generic Halloween radio. No, this site has specific channels for whatever you’re looking for. There’s a main channel that plays a mix of scary stuff, but there’s a channel just for sound effects, one just for Halloween-related music, one channel with fun Halloween stuff for the kids, one channel for Halloween-themed oldies, and one that plays scary-movie themes.

If you happen to be more the Christmas type, then you’re in luck! They have a sister station just for you.

Happy Halloween! Be safe.