Halloween is coming soon, and if you love the spooky season, you may be tempted to participate in some weird stuff. But whatever you do, don’t try any of these 6 ritual games if you want to survive the night without being cursed, kidnapped, or killed!

Much like classic creepy games like the Ouija board or Bloody Mary, the following 6 games (shared in no particular order) may have scary or unforeseen consequences that make playing just not worth the risk. Is it the repetitious ritual aspect of these games or the intentions with which someone plays them that makes them dangerous? Or are they just plain wicked?

Read on to learn more about these 6 ritual games (just a handful out of many similar supernatural games), including why you shouldn’t play. To make game play a bit harder, we’ve omitted certain specific directions for playing and just used the word specific instead - so if you want to throw caution to the wind and press your luck by playing, you’ll have to do a little more digging for the exact rules. Good luck, Godspeed, and may the odds be ever in your favor… we hope we see you again some day!

1. The Elevator Game

Backstory: In essence, The Elevator Game is a lengthy set of directions that, if followed to the letter (or rather, number), will deposit you right into the Upside Down. Most likely originating in Japan (although some believe it came from Korea) early online mentions of the game, written in Japanese, can be dated to at least 2008. The game has also been called Elevator to Another World and Elevator to Hell - which if it were called more widely, surely no one would play (we hope). There are some people who theorize that Eliza Lam was attempting to play the Elevator Game when she disappeared from the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles on January 31, 2013. Security camera footage from the hotel showed Lam acting strangely on the elevator and seemingly speaking to someone who wasn’t there, before her body was discovered inside the cistern on the hotel’s roof on February 19, 2013. The actual circumstances surrounding her death still remain a mystery. Was the Elevator Game to blame?

How to play : The primary game piece needed for this eerie elevator game is a building with at least 10 stories. Some versions of the game allege that it can be played with multiple people at the same time, but the “purest” (and creepiest) rules dictate that it must be played entirely alone for the ritual to work. For the game to proceed, you must press the elevator buttons for the floor numbers in a specific order, one button at a time as you arrive at each new floor, and never leave the elevator even when the doors open. The sequence continues for about six different floors, but no one can get on the elevator with you at any time or the game will fail and must begin again from the ground floor. So if you’ve selected a particularly crowded building as your play space, you might be playing the Elevator Game for a really, really long time.

After half a dozen trips up and down the building, it’ll finally be time to visit the fifth floor - and this is where things start to get spooky. If you are truly working your way into another dimension, at the fifth floor you will encounter an unknown woman who boards the elevator with you. Although you still cannot get off, you also cannot look at or speak to this woman, who isn’t really a woman at all (dum dum dummm). If you talk to her or answer any questions she may ask, the strange woman will keep you for her own… no one knows what happens if she claims you.

At this crucial junction the elevator will either travel up or down - down means failure, and you must exit the building as quickly as possible. If it goes up, you’ve reached your last opportunity to run for your life. Because once the elevator hits the tenth floor, you should be stepping out into another world. Except you might not know it right away, because the other world looks exactly like ours.

If you have really taken an elevator ride to another place (that hopefully isn’t hell), everything you see will continue to look the same, until you start to notice a few subtle differences - namely, no one else will be in this mirror world. You’re all alone here. Your electronics also won’t work, so there’ll be no TikToking of this experience. The other major change is the view outside, which will be entirely black but for a glowing red cross outside the windows, always visible and unchangeable.

At this point, you’ll probably be feeling really grateful you spent hours riding up and down an elevator just to experience a dark Upside Down where you can’t even check your Instagram, so you’ll be heading back to the elevator from which you came. Make sure it’s the same one as before and follow the correct floor numbers in order to reenter the Rightside Up, or you’re doomed to spend eternity wandering the empty floors of Elevator World.

Why you shouldn’t play:

1) If the game doesn’t take you to hell, you’ll at least be stuck in limbo when it resets every time another person wants to use the public elevator.

2) Purposefully opening a portal to another world always falls into the sardonic category of “What could possibly go wrong?!”

3) No social media access in the mirror world. On second thought, that’s probably a plus.

2. Charlie, Charlie

Backstory: Charlie, Charlie is a divination game that utilizes two balanced pencils and a “yes-no” answer system written on a piece of paper, much like a rudimentary Ouija board, to summon spirits - namely, Charlie. According to different accounts, Charlie is perhaps a child who committed suicide, the victim of a fatal car accident, or a pagan Mexican deity with ties to the Christian devil. In any case, Charlie is not exactly someone you’d want communing with your children. The game has origins in Spanish-speaking regions, where it was first known as Juego de la Lapicera. Although it seems to have existed for years prior to 2015, that was the year the game went viral as the #CharlieCharlieChallenge. Playing it became so popular and so feared that it was banned by all schools in Fiji, and any student caught participating in the summoning of Charlie faces disciplinary action.

How to play: Grab two pencils (or pens), divide a piece of paper into four quadrants, and label them “yes” and “no” alternately. Balance the pencils one on top of the other at the center of your four quadrants, and begin the game with a specific question. At this point, the Charlie Charlie game becomes a waiting game, as players wait for the pencils to move and point to either yes or no. How “Charlie” chooses to answers you then determines whether the game can proceed and if you can ask even more questions, this time of your own choosing. The ritual focuses on the repetition of “Charlie Charlie” with each question, kind of like how “Beetlejuice” needs to be chanted three times before he appears.

If you want end the game, that choice is also left up to “Charlie’s” discretion, as you must first ask him permission to stop playing. If he agrees the game is over, you must bid him farewell before packing away your paper and pencils - in separate locations, mind you. Otherwise, “Charlie” may continue communicating whether you’re there or not.

If Charlie does not give permission for the game to end, you may be stuck asking yes-no questions until you end up as dead as Charlie himself.

Why you shouldn’t play:

1) No one really knows who “Charlie” is, so who can tell just what kind of spirit you may be summoning?

2) You may end up playing the game ‘til death do you part if “Charlie” doesn’t want it to stop.

3) You’re going to get in a lot of trouble with Fiji.

3. The Closet Game

Backstory: Little kids are often scared of a monster in the closet (some adults too, TBH). Playing The Closet Game is a great way to make sure there really is a monster in there. The origins of The Closet Game are largely unknown, but it has been passed around the internet as a creepypasta for some time, and it tests a person’s innate fear of the dark (and demons).

How to play : The game is typically played alone like some kind of sinister Solitaire, but friends can join in too if they enjoy 1) standing in the dark and 2) being haunted. To play, a brave soul must wait until night (naturally), turn off every light in their room, and enter their closet. Once inside, they must face the closet door while waiting in the blackness, say a few specific words to get the attention of “the other side”, and then light a match - always a smart move when standing inside a tiny enclosed space full of fabrics.

The game continues by following a series of if-then directions, depending on whether you hear whispers, see glowing eyes, have your match go out, and more creepy things. If you follow the directions in the correct way, you will be able to successfully exit your closet unscathed. If you don’t, you may have just invited a demon to live inside your closet or, arguably worse, you’ll get dragged away by the ankles into another dimension. Some of those who have played the game reported unexplained activity happening in and around their closet area afterward. After playing and “winning,” never forget to turn on your closet light every time you enter from now on, or you may just see glowing demon eyes looking back at you.

Why you shouldn’t play:

1) If you open a portal in the closet during the Closet Game, you can be sure it isn’t taking you to Narnia.

2) A demon living in your closet is not going to be an ideal roommate.

3) You may set yourself on fire.

4. The Fortune Game

Backstory: Another game with several names, the Fortune Game is known as Tsuji-ura in Japan, Crossroads Divination across Europe, or the just Fortune Game on the internet. The game/ritual is played with the intention of having one’s fortune told at a crossroads by a random passing stranger. Crossroads are often a key element in folklore, as they mark a spot where journeys begin and places converge - sometimes, where the human world and the “other world” meet. In Europe crossroads are often believed to be places where ghosts walk at night, or where you may encounter Satan waiting in human form. In Japan, tsujiura was a type of fortune-telling practiced at an intersection. These elements seem to have combined to create the online version of the Fortune Game, which is played by either the very brave or the very reckless.

How to play : A better name for the Fortune Game is probably Test Fate and Hope To Survive, because this game has some serious safety concerns.

To begin the ritual, you’ll need to go at night to the crossroads of your choosing, bringing along a comb and something to cover your face. A giant hat, a pillowcase, a newspaper, a hollowed-out pumpkin - just anything that will obstruct your entire face, rendering you sightless and disadvantaged. Friends can come too, if they want, but they must be bystanders only - no group participation.

At the crossroads, you’ll need to strum your comb with a finger (one of your own, don’t bring an extra) a specific number of times and then repeat a specific phrase another specific number of times. Sorry, I can’t be more specific than that. After strumming your pocket guitar, you wait. And wait, and wait. You wait for anyone at all to show up at the intersection in the dark before the game can continue. You may also want to hope here that they come on foot rather than speeding down the road in a vehicle.

If no one comes, or if you happen to see someone you know creeping around in the dark just like you, the ritual has been unsuccessful. Go home. Forget you were ever here.

But if a stranger comes along the crossroads in the dark, immediately abandon all reason and “stranger danger” survival skills by covering up your face with your face covering so you have no visual of the stranger anymore. If you brought friends along, they must do the same thing, so everyone can stand blindly by as the stranger approaches.

When the stranger is close at hand, politely call out to them to tell you your fortune! If they don’t answer, refuse to give a fortune, or run away screaming because a group of people with masked faces is accosting them in the middle of the night, do the sensible thing and continue waiting for another stranger to come along.

If the stranger does agree to give you a fortune, listen carefully to what they tell you, thank them nicely, and hope they don’t mug you while you can’t see.

Then, go home. Ta-da! You’ve proudly risked bodily harm and valuable time so you can wait the rest of your life to find out if the random fortune you were given comes true.

Why you shouldn’t play:

1) You stand on a roadway in the middle of the night and yell out to strangers with your eyes completely covered. That’s it, that’s the reason.

5. The Answer Man

Backstory: The Answer Man is a creepy urban legend game that requires the use of everyone’s favorite harbinger of doom: the cell phone. The game is played with the intention of calling up (literally) an evil spirit that will supply information in response to the caller’s question. But, the Answer Man is going to ask a question of his own in return. Believed to have originated in Japan at least a decade ago, it’s unclear whether the game is actually played regularly by brave kids at sleepovers or whether it’s just a legend meant to terrify people . But given that some say the Answer Man is the ghost of a child who was born as just a head and now spends his afterlife stealing other people’s body parts to build himself a body, the reality of the game is sharply diminished. How can the head of a ghost child answer questions insightfully? How does it steal body parts without any of its own appendages? Or even answer the phone, for that matter? Too many questions - maybe the Answer Man can give us the answers…

How to play : Despite its dubious backstory, the Answer Man remains a spooky ritual game with actual rules that a group of people can attempt to play, should they be so inclined, but the consequences might follow you for the rest of your life.

Unlike a lot of ritual games that need only one or two players, the Answer Man requires no less than 10 people willing and eager to be cursed for the rest of their lives (however long that may be). Sitting in a circle, each of the 10 participants must give their cell phone number to the person on their left, and call that number on the count of three. Theoretically (at least as theoretical as an urban legend can be), each caller would either receive a busy signal or be sent straight to voicemail, as the number they’re calling is busy calling another number in the circle. If this occurs, the game is a failure, and cannot continue at this time.

However, should you be so “lucky,” someone in the circle may hear their call answered - not by the phone’s owner, but by the Answer Man. When the Answer Man is on the line, the caller may ask him whatever they want. In exchange for their answer, however, the Answer Man will ask a question of his own, which must be answered correctly and honestly - and you cannot hang up. The conversation can carry on this way ad infinitum until the caller runs out of questions, or phone battery, whichever comes first. To end the call, the caller must tell the Answer Man they have to go.

Not so fast though, because there are a couple caveats to mention: First, if one decides to answer the Answer Man’s question either wrongly or untruthfully, legend says a giant gnarled hand will reach out of the phone and rip off a random body part. Exactly how the Answer Man can suddenly get so handsy when he’s only a disembodied head is a trifling detail that the urban legend leaves out. Or, in some other versions of the rules, you may feel a tingling sensation in one of your body parts, signaling that you’ve failed the Answer Man’s test. Someday, later in life when you’re carefree and unsuspecting, you’ll lose that body part… no pressure to answer those questions accurately. Second, the Answer Man may try to keep you on the line once you’ve conveyed your wish to end the call. As a solitary vengeful ghost head, he’s probably starving for company, but do not agree. Continue repeating that you need to hang up until the Answer Man takes the hint and terminates the call.

Thirdly, as a final measure, destroy every cell phone. Because the most horrifying part of this game is the butchering of hundreds of dollars of personal tech.

Why you shouldn’t play:

1) You should hold on to all your body parts for as long as possible.

2) You’re going to be filing a lot of phone insurance claims after this game is over.

3) There’s nothing worse than making a phone call. Texting and memes are today’s only acceptable means of communication.

6. The Binoculars Game

Backstory: A ritual game also known as Eye Spy, the Binoculars Game seems to have originated on Reddit, as all enduring creepy things do. First appearing under the r/NoSleep subreddit in 2013, the original poster has since deleted their account, so there isn’t much definitive background on the game. Overlooking the knowledge that most of the publications in r/NoSleep are fictional, players of the Binoculars Game can follow the exact rules the original poster laid out, which they claimed they copied verbatim from “a creepy book” that had previously been passed around their family.

How to play: The rules of the Binoculars Game are lengthy and exacting, so strap in.

First of all, select a house in which you’d like to play the game - preferably not your own, so the Big Bad in this game doesn’t learn where you actually live.

The game begins at sundown, and requires you and a partner to enter the house, lock every window and entrance/exit, and place an unlit light source on each windowsill. From there, you’ll want to take a rope and tie one end near an entrance/exit door. Then take the other end and tie it around your friend. Yes, you are required to bind your friend securely in the locked house before summoning an unknown entity to enter inside. The rope should not be able to come loose, and your friend should not be able to reach the doors from their position in the room, while also remaining silent for the rest of the game. I’m sure your friend won’t find these rules at all sus.

After you’ve immobilized your soon-to-be ex-friend, you must write specific words on a piece of paper and slip the note underneath the door next to which you’ve staked your bait friend. Grab your binoculars and a sharp object, and then wait for a specific time of night to turn off any remaining lights, all while repeating a specific chant. Return to the door where you submitted your paper to the dark void outside, and listen carefully.

If you hear nothing, you’ve failed the game and must stop playing. (And by “failed the game and must stop playing” we mean you’ve just escaped uncertain death and should gratefully run for your life.) But if you hear someone knocking, the game goes on.

After the knocking, start moving from window to window to turn on your aforementioned light sources, and give a good sweep outside with your binoculars. If you see no one or see someone you already know, turn off the lights again and keep going until… you look out a window and see an unknown figure approaching from the distance. Now it’s time for the Boss Battle.

Once the unidentified figure is spotted, move double-time to speak out a specific phrase, close and open your eyes, and check for the approaching entity again. If it has disappeared, you are in the clear and can take your partner safely from the house, destroying your previous note as you go. If you do still see the figure - it’s already too late. That’s what your sharp object is for. At this point, you have to hope you that didn’t miss locking any doors or windows, and get ready for whatever happens next. And you still can’t untie your friend.

Once you’ve played the game through to the approaching figure phase, you cannot play it again - either because you already tempted fate once and survived by sheer dumb luck, or because you’re probably dead.

Why you shouldn’t play:

1) The risk of being caught locked in with an unknown creature who just stormed your house is not the chillest way to spend an evening at home.

2) Inviting something inside and then rescinding the invitation when it’s already on the way is a surefire way to anger it.

3) Tying your friend to the front door is weird under any context.

Have you ever played any of these - or any other - ritual games? Tell us what happened and how you managed to survive!

For more eerie game play and recreational spookiness, check out 30 Images of Uncanny Coincidences People Experienced Using the Randonautica App and 10 Photos of Unexpected Ghosts and Entities Taken at Family Gatherings!

~ Lindsay W. Merkel