Category Archives: horror

Co-op horror games are taking over, so here are the best ones to celebrate 2025’s spookiest day

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Co-op Horror Games Are Taking Over: The Best Ones to Celebrate 2025’s Spookiest Day

Halloween is almost here, and so are countless co-op horror games that have collectively earned a specific moniker revolving around the word “friend.”

And be the sentiment around them as it may, I still find them incredibly fun to play, especially when it comes to gathering the squad for some late-night gaming. Of course, you could just all fire up CS2, but instead of losing your mind playing to get an imaginary number 400 points higher, you have the option to get scared s**tless—and I think that’s quite better.

So, I’ve gathered four recent co-op horror games and one classic that can and will make your 2025 Halloween night much more exciting.

Misery

Misery sure does love company.
Image via Platypus Entertainment

Having released just a few days prior to this article, Misery places you in the midst of a mysterious Zone, itself located in a fictional Eastern European Republic of Zaslavie. It’s very much Soviet Ukraine and Russia, with its fictional town almost an exact counterpart to our own Chornobyl.

Inspired by hits like STALKER, it allows you and your friends to explore the Zone, gather loot, craft materials, and survive the irradiated, anomalous wasteland. Your characters can go insane, be poisoned by abject radiation, warped by mysterious nuclear apparitions, or beaten to a pulp by a bunch of gopniks in Adidas tracksuits cursing at you in Russian.

It’s a unique and very different style of co-op horror, one that does not shy away from its inspirations.

Vein

Wrecked zombies? How fun!
Image via Ramjet Studios

Described by some as a “first-person Project Zomboid,” Vein is a post-apocalyptic zombie survival multiplayer horror game that places you and your group of friends into a walker-infested hellscape. You are, naturally, tasked with surviving these circumstances and are given free rein over how you want to do it.

It’s a sandbox experience through and through, emphasizing player agency, which, in turn, promotes creativity and “on-the-go” thinking that’ll lead every group of survivors into different outcomes. Want to build a five-star hotel out of the scrap you find? Go right ahead. Or, if it’s more your prerogative, you can mow down any zombie you come across until you get bored. Whatever you want to do, you’re free to.

Cryo

The environments are ultra spooky.
Image via Valko Game Studios

With Lethal Company almost singlehandedly spawning this entire co-op horror subgenre that loves its proximity voice chat, it’s no wonder that a game very close to the origin is on this list. Cryo puts you in the shoes of a mysterious company worker, sent to Antarctica to figure out why the continent has gone dark and cut its communications.

You and your friends really will be on the edges of your seats with this one, having to figure out things quickly but quietly, lest you disturb whatever dark horror awaits you in the pitch blackness of our world’s most remote piece of land.

Escape the Backrooms

Liminal spaces never get old.
Screenshot via Fancy Games

The crown jewel of the Backrooms meme, Escape the Backrooms has recently received its 1.0 update, releasing in full on Steam. With this huge milestone, the game has been expanded with several new levels and lots of additional content, making the trudge through the liminal spaces much more fulfilling and, of course, fun.

Various creatures of the Lovecraftian kind await behind every hallway, with puzzles and riddles along the way that’ll make escaping quite the ordeal. Make sure to keep track of who and where your friends are, because some of these monsters have a tendency to copy, mimic, and imitate, tricking you into falling prey to them.

GTFO

GTFO is among the best co-op shooters out there.
Image via 10 Chambers

And while these relatively new Company-likes are all fun and games, sticking to some classic hits doesn’t hurt a bit. GTFO is one of the best mission-based horror games ever made, combining incredible weapon realism and feedback with that recognizable Left 4 Dead-style gameplay loop where a group of players survives an onslaught of enemies.

It’s usually cheap on Steam this time of year, and brings with it loads of content to play through, which shouldn’t only last you through the spooky season, but also serve as a gateway to fun at any time of year. Its dedicated community means you’ll be able to find a group of eager players almost always, even when your own group is offline.

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Skin-crawling pics inside CT house of horrors where wicked stepmom is accused of locking up son for decades

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**Haunting Photos Reveal Interior of Connecticut “House of Horrors” Where Stepson Was Allegedly Imprisoned for Over Two Decades**

Skin-crawling photos have emerged showing the chilling interior of a Connecticut “house of horrors,” where a wicked stepmother allegedly imprisoned her stepson in appalling conditions for more than 20 years.

The images, obtained by The Post just weeks after a judge ruled Kimberly Sullivan, 57, could return to the Waterbury home, reveal a scene of devastation. The house was scorched by a fire set by her 32-year-old stepson in February, as he attempted to escape from her clutches, according to police.

Now standing empty after the blaze, most of the rooms have been reduced to bare beams and boards. Drywall and plaster have been torn from nearly all the walls, while loose wires, dirt, debris, and broken glass litter the dark, nearly uninhabitable halls.

One room, however, appears untouched by the fire, offering clues to the tastes of the lady of the house. In a hot pink den on the first floor, a large pair of women’s eyes with full red lips seductively peer across the room toward a poster of a kitten lounging in a lawn chair, with “Lazy Days” scrawled over it. Hanging in a ceiling corner, a doll with blonde hair and piercing blue eyes watches over the room.

In the remains of the kitchen, a half-melted poster of Marilyn Monroe hangs over the counter. But the rest of the house is barren. Upstairs, nearly all traces of the alcove where Sullivan’s stepson was allegedly held since age 11 have been burned away or knocked down after the fire tore through the room.

One relic remains: a stained lace angel’s wing pinned to the raw wood where the stepson spent years imprisoned, forced to use bottles as a bathroom and passing the endless hours by counting cars out the windows.

The stepson, known only as “S,” weighed just 68 pounds when responding firefighters discovered him covered in filth amidst the burning home on February 17. He quickly recounted a horrifying tale, claiming Sullivan had held him prisoner for more than two decades. According to authorities, she withdrew him from school as a child and locked him in an 8-by-9-foot storage space, providing only scraps of food and water for 22 hours a day or more.

Sullivan was seen at the home after the fire but was arrested within weeks. She now faces charges including unlawful restraint, kidnapping, and other abuse allegations. She has pleaded not guilty.

After posting $300,000 bail and being released, a judge issued a protection order for her stepson, who listed the Waterbury home as his address. This barred Sullivan from returning to the house. She subsequently petitioned a Connecticut court to amend the order, arguing that her stepson no longer lived there.

On October 3, a judge ruled in her favor, allowing Sullivan to return, according to NBC Connecticut. However, it remains unclear if she has gone back since. The home appears completely forgotten, with neighbors reporting no sign of her presence.

“It’s all open and it looks abandoned to me,” said next-door neighbor Zeffrey Guarnera, who has not seen Sullivan since she posted bail. “There was something I never really liked about her. There was something weird about her. I can never tell you what it was, but all our other neighbors are very friendly, wave and say hello.”

Guarnera also revealed he was unaware of the stepson’s existence until he was rescued from the home. “There was no him,” he said. “There were two daughters, that’s who I ever saw. When I found out there was a him, I was shocked.”

Sullivan has denied holding her stepson captive, instead blaming his father—who lived in the home until his death last year—for what happened. Her lawyer has also claimed the stepson could have walked away whenever he wanted.

“This is a woman who has never committed a crime in her life,” said Sullivan’s attorney, Ioannis Kaloidis, after a recent court hearing.

Sullivan is expected back in court on Halloween.
https://nypost.com/2025/10/23/us-news/inside-connecticut-house-of-horrors-where-stepmom-locked-up-son/