The Best Horror Game Schools, Ranked

For some people, schools are a pretty scary concept. The long hours, the hard lessons, the tough teachers, and the pressures to succeed. But these mundane environments are ripe for horror, as it’s usually where people feel safe from monsters and danger.

Houses, medical facilities, and hotels have been used to great effect in horror, transforming their hallways and common rooms into dilapidated, eerie ruins that may be abandoned by people, but ghosts or other such creatures may still lurk there. Learning halls have been used in a similar way, where people will not learn algebra, but how to survive.

5

Yeondu High School (White Day: A School with a Maze Name)

Labyrinthine in name and nature

• Platforms: PS4, PC, Android, iOS
• Released: September 5, 2001
• Developers: Sonnori
• Genres: survival horror

Most know that building a building in a place known to have seen a lot of death is not the wisest decision, since it is practically inviting ghosts to terrorize those who inhabit the building. A school could be considered a safe building to build, since people are only there during the day, while ghosts usually appear only when it is dark. However, Yeoundu High School faces its fair share of problems, specifically a fire in one of the classrooms responsible for the death of a student, adding another ghost to the legion of the undead.

Exploring any building after hours is scary enough, but Yeondu High School is on another level. The ghosts and the hostile janitor pursue the player mercilessly, and the numerous corridors and rooms are like a large labyrinth in which it is very easy to get lost and cornered with no hope of escaping death. There has never been a more appropriately named game.

4

St. Sybil’s High School (survived 2)

Flashbacks take place in a dark and creepy school

In the Arizona desert, a pregnant teenager was found dead, prompting investigative journalist Lynn and her camera assistant and husband Blake to investigate the murder and travel by helicopter to the approximate location where she was found. In typical horror game fashion, their investigation quickly goes awry. The helicopter crashes, Lynn disappears, and the pilot dies, so Blake must arm herself with his trusty camera and find his wife.

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There is another side to the game when exploring the spooky rural villages, as occasionally, players will be dragged into flashbacks that take place in an abandoned school, where players will be relentlessly pursued by a demon. These flashbacks serve to reveal some important backstory elements, but they are also some of the most memorable and terrifying segments of the game. The school serves as the perfect setting for this, as a demon patrolling a Catholic school is the perfect juxtaposition.

3

Heavenly Host/The Nirvana Elementary School (Corpse Party)

Although its name is angelic, the school itself is more similar to hell

What better place to meet up with school friends and tell ghost stories than the school itself, which is what the students of Heavenly Host decide to do to celebrate their school’s upcoming festival. After participating in a ritual that is said to solidify the bonds of friendship, they are struck by an earthquake that teleports them to Nirvana, the “true” form of the school.

Even with its basic RPG Maker graphics, Heavenly Host manages to be a place full of terror and intrigue, with its infrastructure in ruins and so many ghosts trapped in the moment of their death, condemned to eternal agony. That the player knows that this could be the fate of their characters because of one wrong choice, a single misstep, makes the exploration of this terrifying school even more tense. Every corner and door is proof of your bravery.

2

Greenwood High School (detention)

A normal high school transforms into a nightmare kingdom

Set during the White Terror period in Taiwan, students Wei and Ray become engulfed in supernatural horror after becoming trapped at Greenwood High during a typhoon that chased away all the tutors and students on campus. The deserted school is pretty creepy to begin with, but in a similar nature to silent hillThe school becomes a nightmare scenario.

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Playing as Ray, players will traverse the school and witness all sorts of monsters against which they have no defense other than to sneak past unseen. Horrific scenarios such as Wei’s death are also used to test players’ nerves, as the game and its surroundings will continue to surprise them. It could be a metaphor for the problems the students faced in that period, but nonetheless, the terrifying Greenwood High will remain with players long after the credits roll.

1

Midwich Primary School (Silent Hill)

One of the most iconic locations in the game

silent hill

Systems

Released

January 31, 1999

silent hillTo this day, it continues to be praised as one of the greatest and most influential horror games of all time, inspiring sequels and many other franchises. The basis of the story seems simple enough, a man searching for his missing daughter, but nothing in the titular city could be that simple.

A nightmarish version of the city often bubbles to the surface with facets of twisted metal and bubbling flesh, popularizing the places among monsters. Midwich Elementary School is one such place, which is completely transformed during Harry’s exploration. It houses memorable enemies like the Gray Children, who can be as disturbing as they are annoying. The otherworldly transformation the school goes through is chilling and only makes the exploration that much more exciting.

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The most iconic video game schools

The video games have various settings for players, one of which is the iconic school or magical institute that allows players to learn vital skills.