It's all fun and games until someone dies; game shows are cheerful, safe, and rewarding. Then some director probably got bored of the usual formula and asked themselves: Family Feud, but what if it's actually a violent blood feud? Or maybe Jeopardy! but more faithful to the dictionary definition of the word. Fast forward to today and we have Squid Game as a result of that twisted genre of horror or thriller films.
This is Netflix's latest offering at the time of writing and it's such a haunting and relatable flick that most viewers will be begging for more violent and deadly game show horror afterward. They needn't worry. Turns out the horror game show genre is almost filled to the brim with impressive titles from all over the globe.
10 Squid Game
- First release year: 2021
Squid Game has a pretty popular setup among the Koreans. What if their favorite childhood games came with the risk of death and with their financial salvation as a reward? From there, the series builds up to an interesting and enigmatic plot full of a diversely personified cast of characters.
All the contestants of said deadly game show have one thing in common: they're either economically bankrupt or are in huge debt, maybe both. Thanks to that circumstance, the series also doubles as a socio-political commentary that ought to be familiar to anyone who has seen Parasite.
9 Liar Game
- First release year: 2007
Moving over to Japan, Liar Game is another series that's also an adaptation of the titular manga. Like Squid Game, Liar Game also pits several individuals in a bid to win hundreds of millions in cash. The difference here is that it's mostly a battle of wits and that the participants aren't all wretched or entirely helpless (save for the protagonist, initially).
Don't expect Liar Game to be as brutal or as gory as Squid Game though. It's mostly a battle royale of psychological warfare waged by con-men/women. There are also fewer contestants so each person's life doesn't appear as cheap compared to Squid Game.
8 Deadman Wonderland
- First release year: 2011
Fancy some anime instead? Then Deadman Wonderland and its battle/fighting arena anime format ought to satisfy. The whole contest begins when a boy named Ganta Igarashi suddenly gets blamed for murdering his entire classroom, including his friends.
He is then imprisoned in a high-security jail called Deadman Wonderland where he can fight other inmates for his freedom using his strangely bestowed blood powers. That's literal blood power since Ganta uses his blood to make deadly projectiles or other weapons.
7 Danganronpa
- First release year: 2013
If one finds Deadman Wonderland too vicious as a game show anime, then something wittier such as Danganronpa covers the other end of the spectrum. This video game franchise that has its own anime is all about 15highly competitive and intelligent students who managed to get into Hope's Peak Academy.
Too bad they got more than they bargained for; Hope's Peak Academy's eccentric bear principal suddenly traps them inside and their only hope of escape is through murdering one of their 14 other peers without anyone finding out the suspect.
6 Alice In Borderland
- First release year: 2021
Alice in Borderland is Squid Game's Netflix cousin but it focuses more on the game. The story is about three friends' weird circumstances as they suddenly find themselves transported into an alternate reality Tokyo which is empty and there's nothing to do but participate in games.
What do they get in return? More days for their visa which allows them to stay in that rabbit hole version of Tokyo without getting lasered to death from above. The problem is, the games themselves are lethal, treacherous, and exhausting.
5 3%
- First release year: 2016
Most of the entries here have been either Japanese or Korean thus far and that makes 3% a unique take. It's a Brazilian thriller series that's similar to most dystopian films where society is divided into districts and socio-economic classes. As usual, the protagonists are impoverished individuals who aspire to win The Process.
It's a tournament whose winner will be shipped off to greener pastures. The show's title comes from the fact that only three percent of all the numerous 20-year-old candidates who join The Process survive the trial.
4 Hunger Games
- First release year: 2012
Based on the award-winning book by author Suzanne Collins, Hunger Games is about a political dystopia where countries are divided into districts each of which represents social castes. To keep everyone distracted from such an unfair society, the top authorities wage a yearly game show called Hunger Games. There, teenagers compete against one another in a brutal last-man-standing contest.
At the heart of it all is Katniss Everdeen— a hopeful and rebellious girl from the poorest district. Together with Peeta Mellark, she must win the Hunger Games while also raising her district's banner and indoctrinating herself into a secret revolutionary faction.
3 Battle Royale
- First release year: 2000
One of Suzanne Collins' inspirations for Hunger Games is the underrated and bloodthirsty Battle Royale from Japan. It's a film where a class of 9th graders is suddenly sent into a remote island where 42 of them must kill one another where the only winner is the last one standing.
For such a setting, one would expect it to be conservative with all the blood and visceral savagery but that's where Battle Royale's shock value comes from. Get ready to see 9th-grade students wantonly slain in such a fashion that would have made even Quentin Tarantino giggle with glee.
2 As The Gods Will
- First release year: 2014
Squid Game wasn't exactly novel in its idea of turning childhood games into meat grinders. As the Gods Will, a Japanese film has gone there several years prior. There is a difference in that the protagonist is a high school student who's a few years away from becoming a NEET.
Also, most of the game's participants are in high school and the manner in which the games are conceived or presented is supernatural. Much of the themes surrounding As the Gods Will deals with atheism and the existence of a more powerful being who toys with mortals.
1 The Purge
- First release year: 2013
An American film that has since become a franchise due to its rave reception back in 2013, The Purge is a horror game show unlike any other. Whereas other horror game shows have some tangible or symbolic reward at the end of the rainbow, the Purge is all about blowing off steam.
It's an annual one-evening event where all laws in the country are waived so as to distract the population from its dissatisfaction and poverty. This quickly became a murder-fest where only the most fortunate and well-off usually survive. The real reward is the people they kill along the way.