Rattle Me Bones (Milton Bradley)

Hey, you throw a Skeleton in the game and it’s instantly spooky. Especially a pirate skeleton who jumps and shimmies at you for disturbing him. The basic idea behind the battery operated game was that turning kids into grave-robbers was wholesome, family fun! Each player tried to steal jewelry and accessories from the seemingly inanimate pile of bones, who was programmed to jump up and shake if the kids did not have the steady hands of a pick-pocket. It was basically a 3-D version of Operation with less organ harvesting. Pirates these days have been marketed as our wild, aloof uncle, but back then they still had a sense of menace about them, especially their fleshless corpses.

The Dark Tower (Milton Bradley)

This was a game I inherited from my brother who was a big Dungeons and Dragons nut in High School. I’m sure it had a novel length set of instructions for how you were supposed to barter for enchanted potions with Mages and Thieves, but all I ever cared about were the scary box graphics and ominous electronic tower. Just the growling whir of the motors inside was enough to put me on edge. It was like a portal to the netherworld was ready to break through the molded plastic and suck me inside. Then the spinning images within would stop abruptly to reveal dimly lit drawings of Brigands, Dragons or maybe a skull representing a plague. If the game did nothing right, it at least created a mood. A dark, eery, hopeless mood that fit so right with the greasy, brown, earth tones aesthetic of the late 70’s and early 80’s when the game was released. The spook factor here was pretty high and worthy of a couple minutes jabbing at random buttons.

Don’t Wake Daddy (Parker Brothers)

This may seem like and odd choice for spooky, but stay with me here. The idea is innocent enough, a father is peacefully sleeping in bed and the kids playing have to be careful that their choice of card does not require them to press the alarm clock button in such a way that he violently springs to life with a look of terror on his face. The guy is obviously scared of something, but what I find truly unsettling are the possible reasons we shouldn’t wake Daddy. Is Daddy an ex-Green Beret whose battle-honed reflexes would cause him to instantly snap the neck of the first person in the vicinity when we wakes? Is that what happened to Mommy and why she isn’t sharing the bed with him? Does his guilt over the incident manifest itself in an evil alter ego name Yddad who stalks the night for children who don’t stay in bed and delivers them to an eternal slumber? Probably not, but since there is not currently an official novelization of Don’t Wake Daddy to tell me otherwise, I’m not taking any chances.

Ouija (Parker Brothers)

Even though Ouija is more widely regarded as the easiest way to invite a grisly death by demons scenario into your living room, it’s technically a board game. It seems to me that the true objective of “the game” is see who can fool their friend into thinking they are not the one moving the wooden rolley thing (that’s the technical term, right?) and inducing fear to the point of heart palpitations. Isn’t that really how kids played with this? Turn out the lights, gently move the cursor to the letters “M-U-R-D-E-R” and whoever ran out of the room screaming first lost? Personally I don’t even think it needs to be played to be spooky, just set the thing on an end table in a dark corner of the room and let it creep you out until doomsday.

MOTU Battle For Eternia Game (Mattel)

I’ll admit it, I had never seen this game until doing some research for this article, but something is rotten in Eternia if you ask me. Just look at the cover of this box and tell me it is not putting you on edge. He-Man is way too into the game at this point, prostrating himself on the ground to get closer to the action. And why are his eyes closed? It looks like he’s trying to keep in his rage and is about 2 seconds away from bashing the red-shirted kid’s head in. Plus if you look closely the “mouth” of Castle Greyskull seems to be whispering in his ear, “Kill, Kill!” Then there’s Skeletor, grimly kneeling near "Johnny Blue Shirt" as if to say, “I could so easily be roasting you over a flame for Beast-Man’s dinner right now.” Most important of all, what are they doing there? It’s like the fate of Eternia rests in the hands of these kids with bowl cuts and its 2 most powerful beings can’t imagine how they fell so far from being Masters of the Universe to Spectators of the Living Room.

Well, that’s it, those are my picks for spooky board games. Sure, I may have infused the spookiness into a few of them, but the imagination of a child (or a child at heart) can come up with some pretty scary things. So tell me, what are your picks for board games with a supernatural or otherworldly vibe?

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