Pumpkins are carved, animatronic jumping clowns are in the front yard, and the fog machines are prepped... but there's still something missing before it can properly be called Halloween season.
For the gaming community, its time to start installing those horror DLCs and throw your favorite spooky skins into Minecraft! From classic horror movie icons like Freddy and Jason to esoteric cosmic horror entities, we've rounded up the 15 best skins to use this Halloween season.
Want to inject even more of the October spirit into Minecraft? We also recently put together the top 8 scary seeds and horror maps for those who need more blood-soaked adventures with skeleton and zombie spawners!
Sully
We'll start with something fun for the little ones before getting into the more R rated creature features, although to be honest, I still maintain that Monsters Inc. is absolutely a horror movie and not a comedy. I mean come on guys, its about a city of monsters powered by the screams of human children!
That whole argument aside, this take on James P. Sullivan is adorable, but his smile is just creepy enough to make it worthwhile as a Halloween Minecraft skin.
Headless Horseman
Poor Ichabod Crane and his encounter with the headless horseman is classic Halloween spookiness that has led to a huge number of pumpkin-faced creatures over the years.
This one's more of a direct, modern take, and the shading on the sides makes the pumpkin actually manage to look rounded and full rather than square and hollow.
Samara
Just looking at this thing makes me concerned she's going to pop out of my TV even in blocky Minecraft form! Poor drowned girl Samara makes for a killer Minecraft skin, and frankly it seems like more work went into this reproduction into any of the latest entries in the series like Rings or the ultra ludicrous The Ring Vs. The Grudge (yes, it's a real thing).
Devil Girl
This one's more of a unique spooky creature than a direct representation of any character (unless I'm missing something and this is from an anime -- in which case feel free to mock me endlessly in the comments).
From the half-devil face to the lacy red stockings, this is some killer Minecraft skin design that goes above and beyond what you'll typically see browsing the Halloween section of any given download site.
Freddy Krueger
I'll admit, the melted face and claws have to be hard to get right when working with such a limited medium like the blocky pixels of Minecraft. This version of the Freddy skin does it better than most, giving the impression of a burned Robert Englund or Jackie Earle Haley getting ready to slaughter some teens for the sins of their parents.
The Babadook
Move over The Grudge, because The Babadook has now replaced you in the "spooky throat sound" department. I'll never forget that terrifying first time I heard babaaaaaaaaaa.... DOOK DOOK DOOK!
Aside from giving us that glorious "Why can't you just be normal?!?!?" meme, this unique 2014 flick has also spawned a whole series of stellar Minecraft skins. This is easily one of the best, nailing the hat design and giving off that smudged charcoal feel.
Pennywise
You had to know this one was coming, right? The updated Skarsgard version of the world eating clown is ripe for pixelized form, and that single red ball with the fiery hair are instantly recognizable.
Of course if you're more old school, there are plenty of '90s Tim Curry versions floating around, but most of them just look like standard clowns and don't really have a particularly creepy vibe at all.
Slenderman
While a lot of these skins feature painstaking detail recreated with shading by varying up block color and placement, sometimes less is more.
This particular skin shows how simplistic design can evoke a specific eerie feeling -- you'd never look at that image above and think "he's just a dude in a suit." You know its Slenderman, and you know something unpleasant is going to happen if you spot him.
Leatherface
On the exact opposite end of the Slenderman skin, its obvious an absurd amount of work went into making this one look a bit more "realistic," as Leatherface doesn't use the same old square head design as normal, with actual bits of hair and blood floating out there.
If you're going to use this skin, you'd also better make darn sure to go craft a chainsaw!
Jason Voorhees
You know you want to download the skin and go terrorize villagers who are hanging out around a lake when they are supposed to be watching kids!
There are lot of different eras of the character to play around with on the skisn front, from the disfigured bag head of the first two movies to the iconic hockey mask that would show up later, and of course the metallic nano-powered thing from that ludicrous space adventure Jason X.
If you're looking for more than just a Minecraft tie-in, don't forget the full asymmetric horror game Friday The 13th is still around!
While its future looked grim for awhile there as legal battles saw the rights to the series ping ponging between different companies, the servers are still live and the game is free for Xbox Games With Gold subscribers until October 31st.
Pinhead
While there sadly have been more awful Hellraiser films in the franchise than legitimately good ones at this point, I've got to admit to being a major Pinhead fan, and I wouldn't make a skins list without the prince of pain.
Of course plenty of the other cenobites have gotten their own Minecraft skins, whether you want Butterball, the Chatterer, or something else. I'm particularly fond of the Angelique skin here.
Michael Myers
Its kind of hard to believe that "the Shape" has been part of the horror movie lexicon for more than 40 years now! While there's much fewer versions of Michael Myers to play around with than Jason Voorhees, there's still room to put some personality in a skin like this by changing up the mask and hair design, and this one nails the Halloween aesthetic.
Bonnie
Aren't we like, long overdue for a new Five Nights and Freddy's at this point? If you've got a craving for mechanical animal mayhem (and don't have a VR headset to relive the series through the Help Wanted collection) then a Bonnie skin is the next best way to go.
And yes, of course, Chica, Freddy Fazbear, Foxy, and the rest have all got skin versions as well readily available, so spend some time searching around if you've got a favorite, or just add them all to your Minecraft seed!
Cthulhu
Mythos creatures and storylines sadly don't get as much attention in video games as they could, but there has been a resurgence of Lovecraftian madness lately with the dueling Call Of Cthulhu and The Sinking City hitting PC and consoles.
If you like your Lovecraft creatures more on the classic side, this is the iconic Cthulhu himself to throw into your Minecraft game, complete with tentacles, wings, and seaweed!
Chucky
We'll wrap up this look at creepy Minecraft skins with a dressed up Good Guy recreation of everybody's favorite killer doll (no, not you Annabelle). Whether you prefer the voodoo Brad Dourif version or are on board with the new Alexa-gone-bad Mark Hamill rendition, this skin still has you covered.
What did you think of our top spooky Minecraft skin picks? Sadly, there were some spooky skins I either couldn't find at all, or couldn't find a high enough quality version to list.
If you've managed to find any great skins for Halloween mascot Sam from Trick 'r Treat or any of the Killer Klowns From Outer Space crew, drop us some links in the comment section!
When you're down downloading these skins, be sure to also check out our other Minecraft lists here:
Published: Oct 28, 2017 11:41 am