It’s a tale as old as time. Or, at least as old as fantasy stories.
Folks getting pulled into whatever media they’re currently consuming, left to fend for themselves
against the dangers of a magical world with their real-world knowledge.
Isekai anime are the latest to employ this self-insert friendly storytelling tactic,
with choose-your-own adventure novels and player-centric video games laying the groundwork
before. I can even remember when I was little, making
movies with my friends with plots concerning being sucked into the gamecube and having
to duke it out to escape. It’s a classic fantasy! Who wouldn’t want
to actually participate in the far-out scenarios outlined in endless make-believe media?
The most famous instance of this might be the Jumanji series of movies based on the
Jumanji and Zathura children’s books. In these flicks, we see characters transported
into the very board games they were playing. But this is a horror channel, so we’re gonna
to talk about the scariest of board games instead of the safari space adventures people
have come to expect. Betrayal at House on the Hill is a blast,
sure, but also not truly terrifying. What we need are some cursed board games!
Demons, ghosts, ghouls, the works! Real danger!
Hello horror heads, and welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTube: Top5ScaryVideos!
I’m your horror host, Keegan Hughes, and today we’re counting down the Top 5 Scary
Cursed Board Games You Should Never Play! Grab your lucky D20, and maybe write a quick
last will and testament, because things are about to get way too real.
Before we get started, make sure to give this video a big thumbs up, and subscribe for more
dice rolling damnation. Perfect, let’s get to it.
NUMBER FIVE: JOC DE MOARTE Starting us off as fantastical as possible,
this is a board game commissioned by a vampire. It is said to exist somewhere, but hasn’t
been rumoured to be around since the 70’s. Although, if that’s true it is an extraordinarily
sturdy board game, being created at some point in the 1700’s.
Joc de Moarte means Game of Death, of course, and was created to ease the boredom of one
Prince Dracula of Wallachia. Our second-generation vampire was bored of
the ins and outs of daily murder and bloodbath. He wanted a real challenge, one that couldn’t
be provided by his cushy vampire heir lifestyle. So he reached out to the sorcerer Dimitri
Diablo, who took up the challenge to create the ultimate supernatural board game of death.
He slaved over the coals of hell for over a year before coming up with the definitive
death-dealing dice-rolling Dracula-pleasing experience.
The first playthrough was attended by Dracula, Dimitri, another vampire, a witch, a Lycan,
and a human. The playing board takes you through a damned
castle, and the surrounding cursed forest. There are dice, riddle cards, and a magic
crystal ball move the game along. Sounds pretty boilerplate for a board game,
but just you wait. Magical beings will materialize during play,
and attack the participants. Demons, poltergeists, vampires, werewolves,
zombies, and more will show up as active astral projections.
While warding off these aggressors, players will quest for the Devil’s unholy grail,
said to give a pure evil soul the ultimate power, while damning the rest straight to
hell. High stakes to say the least.
On this initial playthrough, only Dracula and Dimitri survived, to the prince’s great
delight. After a while, as all princes do, Dracula
got bored of his new toy, and sent it off into the human world for a laugh.
Humans, without the powers associated with being a vampire prince, are easily haunted
and possessed by the beings that inhabit the game, causing all sorts of trouble.
Coming back to the last sighting in the 70’s, it killed 43 people, despite only 6 actively
playing. It did happen in Iowa, though, which at least
added some excitement to their dry, boring lives.
Sorry Iowans, it’s not you, it’s me. NUMBER FOUR: BOARDS AND BEANS
Okay, this one isn’t any one specific board game, but it is an entire, haunted board game
cafe. You should probably avoid playing for too
long here, unless you want to adopt a little ghost to take home with you.
Back in 2016, the owners of a Regina-based board game cafe started noticing some strange
happenings around their store. They saw a little girl looking out the window.
Doesn’t seem too spooky right? In fact, at first she thought it was her granddaughter.
But then her granddaughter walked in from the other side of the room, scaring her absolute
PANTS off. After this, many other sightings took place
in the board game cafe. Customers would complain about strange noises,
and that they had been touched by an unseen presence during their time at the coffee shop.
Multiple sightings of a new employee behind the counter were reported as well, and there
was no new employee to speak of. Ghosts would cause mischief as well, opening
their industrial dishwasher, and sending baked goods flying across the room.
There’s supposed video of a spectre moving through the store as well, causing footage
of the owner to distort in an odd way, that has yet to be fully explained.
Eventually the Paranormal and Supernatural Team was called in, leading to the debunking
of some of the claims. However, the investigators did still find
some unexplainable things, and went away not being 100% sure what to think of it.
So if you want to play some normal board games in a haunted environment, Boards and Beans
is the place for you. NUMBER THREE: OUIJA
What would a cursed board game list be without the classic spirit talking board?
You take a board with the alphabet, numbers 1 through 10, and yes or no printed on it.
You put a planchette on the board. You put your fingers on the planchette.
BAM. Paranormal experience. Interestingly enough, ouija boards were regarded
as simple parlor games when they first came out, until American spiritualist Pearl Curran
popularized their use as a divining tool during World War One.
Since then, the spooky ouijas have grown in popularity as spirit mediums.
Churches have publicly warned against their use, claiming that demonic possession is a
very real risk. Occultists tend to be more divided. On one
hand, there are plenty of positive aspects to contacting the spirit realm.
You can learn a lot, or get closure from a loved one.
However, they also know that inexperienced or reckless users do have a higher chance
of being attacked or possessed by otherworldly entities.
The scientific community remains unconvinced. They believe Ouija to be a form of pseudo
science, with unconscious movements controlling the pointer through something they call the
ideomotor effect. Whoever you believe, there’s no denying
the popularity and notoriety of a ouija board. Demons and malevolent spirits have been reported
to show up, especially in the last decade or so.
One of the more popular tales is that of Demon Zozo, who we’ve done a video on in the past.
A man claims that his daughter was almost drowned thanks to Zozo’s influence, and
that she got very sick with an undiagnosable illness as well.
There have also been stories of folks not respecting, or even outright laughing at demons
they’ve conjured, and paying the price big time.
Don’t mess with the ouija. NUMBER TWO: BEYOND THE GATES
Remember VCR board games? You would set up a board with all the pieces,
and then fire a tape into the VCR and it would instruct you on how to proceed?
You could pause it at certain times to make sure that the timing was right, and they almost
always had ridiculous mascots/hosts? Yeah, those were the days.
Beyond the Gates is one of these, found in a family’s old video shop.
A pair of brothers discovered it while going through their estranged, deceased, alcoholic
father’s video shop. When they play it, the host, Evelyn, asks
if they are willing to risk their souls. She also asks about their father, and has
a creepily specific knowledge about the players. Of course, they turn off the tape, but soon
they find themselves waking up at 3:13am, and drawn to the cathode-ray-tube TV.
To win the game, they must collect four keys, each of which is hidden somewhere nasty.
After pulling keys out of drifter midriff and police heads, they face off against some
narsty ghouls in a secret gated dimension in their basement.
At this point, it’s play or die. When they asked the proprietor of a game shop
about the game, it is revealed that nobody has ever beaten in in the past, and whenever
the game is returned to the shop, it’s not the players doing the exchange.
Gotta love a cursed game return policy. Just in case.
If you didn’t know, this hypothetical board game originated in a 2016 movie of the same
name: Beyond the Gates. If Barbara Crampton is gonna steal my soul,
so be it. NUMBER ONE: RAP RAT
He’s rap rat, and he’s the boss. Better listen up, kids!
Another VHS board game, this one was meant for kids, done in a similar style to Mouse
Trap. An anonymous storyteller posted his experience
with the game online, detailing all of the sick, twisted details.
The first time he and his siblings played, his little brother left the room crying immediately
after seeing Rap Rat. This hideous mascot barely resembled a rat,
with ears too big, a swollen mouth, and two rotten teeth.
The thing that scared them most, though, were his glassy fish eyes.
He screamed WAIT YOUR TURN in a demonic, low-pitched voice, before flashing terrifying images on
the screen. A tarantula, a hornet stinging someone’s
eye, a pit of writing cobras, a bloodied syringe, you name it.
Naturally, they got rid of the tape right away, but not before seeing enough nightmare
fuel to last a lifetime. Years later, the same guy found it in his
childhood bedroom. He and his girlfriend decided to watch it
for laughs, but did not end up laughing. There were even more terrifying images than
before, and when they tried to take the tape out of the player, it burned their hands.
A neighbour even called the police because a strange person was scratching at their front
door. Needless to say, they wanted to know what
the hell was happening. After doing some cursory research, they found
out that a child had died in the sweatshop where the rat puppet was made.
The child’s mother laid a curse upon the production, and claimed to summon a fear demon.
Her last words to the folks at the company were APARAT WILL CURSE YOU.
So of course, the big shots over there had a chuckle and named their mascot after a loose
anagram of the demon. Smart move.
Now anyone who sees rap rat will be unable to escape him.
Even if you see a NORMAL version of the rat, he could still be lurking in the shadows,
waiting to reveal his true, horrible self.
Sheesh, and I thought board games were just for fun!
What do you think? What’s the creepiest board game you’ve
ever played? Are there any good ones I missed?
Make sure to let me know down in the comments. Speaking of comments, let’s take a quick
look at some of your more spicy ones from TOP 5 SCARIEST SCP MONSTERS FROM SERIES 1
PART 2: Adam Jenks says “The Plague Doctor has a
great look” Something about him just screams iconic eh?
No wonder he’s so popular among SCP fans! John Shannon says “Cardio is hard? More
like Cardio is hardio!” I’m ashamed that I didn’t come up with
that first. Let’s see, running is not funning? Sweat makes me regret? Oh man, I gotta get
back to the gym… Blue8Angel6 says “I didn’t know I had
an Aunt Tate” Well now you do! Expect extra birthday gifts
from now on. I wouldn’t keep them for too long though, who knows what anomalies might
manifest… Random Street Theater says “Show the doctor
to the flesh that hates” That’s… actually a very interesting idea.
Would he see pestilence? Would it even die from his touch? Hmmmm…
Homegrowntwinkie says “Meat disease, eh? I think I’ll use that the next time I get
into it with somebody.” Uh, well… I guess I can’t tell you how
to live your life… Good luck with that… And that’s all the time we have for today!
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.