Horror is celebrated year-round, and there have been countless video games that have been celebrated in a miscellaneous, seemingly arbitrary month with no other significance attached to the release date they’ve chosen. But, it’s also colloquially and ubiquitously accepted that horror’s best or most prominent month for video games is October, when gamers and consumers alike are already in the mood for a spookier ambiance and blood-curdling festivities on and/or around Halloween. As such, whenever fates align fortuitously, October will leave on its doorstep a tempting ‘Trick or Treat’ bowl filled withhorror games.
Unfortunately, October looks like it’s going to have a dry spell in 2025. There are a handful of exciting, high-profile horror games on the horizon, includingResident Evil Requiem,Reanimal,Alien: Isolation 2, andClive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, but none of them are being released in October. Rather, onlyLittle Nightmares 3and theLittle Nightmares Enhanced Editionare scheduled for October at the moment, with Supermassive’sDirective 8020recently being delayed. Meanwhile,Cronos: The New Dawnreceived a release date of September 5. Therefore,Cronos: The New DawnandSilent Hill fare bringing horror’s spookiest season to September this year.
October 2025 is Devoid of Horror
With only two horror games slated for this October—and both belonging to the same IP, no less—horror’s spooky season in 2025 is sure to be lacking. Indeed, by comparison with last year alone,October 2024’s horror gamesproudly boasted:
It’s no studio or publisher’s fault if this spooky season is lackluster concerning its output of horror games, but it does inevitably make for a disappointing month when new scary titles would be welcome. To be fair, it’s unknown when it will launch, yetClive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revivalis apparently “closer than you think.”And, while it might be a tad earlier than some Halloween enthusiasts are prepared for, September could be this year’s October thanks to two massive horror blockbusters that are releasing on both ends of the month and sandwichingBorderlands 4.
Cronos: The New DawnandSilent Hill fare bringing horror’s spookiest season to September this year.
Cronos: The New Dawn and Silent Hill f are Early Halloween Treats
Cronos: The New Dawn’s release dateplants it a month shy of when it’d be able to truly thrive as a psychological/survival horror game, but it joining NeoBards’ enigmatic and alluringSilent Hill fin September instead makes a bold statement. Stretching the spooky season backward by a month,Cronos: The New DawnandSilent Hill fare proving that the spooky season doesn’t need to be restricted exclusively to October.
Silent Hill fis already poised to be one of the most thrilling horror games of 2025 as it’s finally contributing a brand-new, original entry to the revered yet blemishedSilent Hillfranchise and is undoubtedly taking the IP in a wildly unique direction.
Cronos: The New Dawnis the first original IP from Bloober since it released theSilent Hill 2remake last year, and will be followed by a remake ofTeam Silent’s firstSilent Hillgame.Cronos: The New Dawnhas earned goodwill as a byproduct of theSilent Hill 2remake’s positive reception, and the former now gives Bloober an opportunity to rewrite its history in terms of the mixed-to-poor receptions of some of its past games, such asLayers of FearorThe Medium. Nonetheless, for all intents and purposes, September has become 2025’s new spooky season month.
