All Episodes

July 14, 2025 • 17 mins

šŸŽ™ļø MAKE YOU SCREAM presents: Don’t Play Scary GamesWelcome back to another episode of Don’t Play Scary Games, the series where we dive into the creepiest rituals you should absolutely not try at home—unless you want something following you back. šŸ‘ļø

This week on the Make You Scream podcast, your host Nicki Baber is joined by the brilliant and spooky Mel (@NerdyContent) to explore one of the internet’s most infamous paranormal rituals: The Picture Game.

We’ll break down:
šŸ”Ŗ What you need to summon a spirit using just a camera and a dark room
šŸ“ø The chant that opens the door (and why it’s dangerous)
šŸ‘» Real stories of people who played the game and captured something
🧠 And of course, the psychology of why games like this feel so real...

Would you dare to try it?

Hit play… and don’t forget to check the photos afterward. You might not be alone.

šŸ”® Follow them on Instagram @Nickiand @NerdyContent for more!

#ParanormalRitual #ThePictureGame #UrbanLegend #ScaryGamesPodcast #HauntedRituals #GhostStories #HorrorPodcast #NickiBaber #NerdyContent #MakeYouScreamPodcast #DontPlayScaryGames #SpiritPhotography #CursedGames #ModernFolklore #GhostHunting #SleepParalysis #ScaryStorytime #HorrorRitualExplained #ParanormalTalk #ScaryStoryPodcast #UrbanLegendsExplained #GhostGames


Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of Scary Stories that will make
you scream. I'm your host, Nikki Baber, and
tonight we're going to talk about one of the most terrifying
games you've probably never heard of, the picture game.
I'm not screaming alone tonight.I've got Mel here with me.
Hey. Everyone, I'm Mel roommate with
Nikki in college and just, you know, lifelong friend.
Now I like to stream horror games on Twitch.

(00:22):
My channel is nerdy content, butthat's kind of just how we've
stuck around. I guess.
We both like spooky things. Spooky girls.
What's your favorite scary movie?
Well, the scary movie that made me go to film school where I met
you was Paranormal Activity. That one scared me so bad I
still to this day will not sleepwith my feet out of the sheets.
Stop. That's so funny.
I just a little the wind just. Push.

(00:43):
Yeah, when they like push it. And then they get dragged out of
the bed. No, thank you.
Well, it's really funny because my cousin's name is Mika and I
don't know why, but that always stuck with me.
You know my friend Dalton, I have this friend and he would
never watch the Insidious seriesbecause the main character was
named Dalton. That's so funny.
What's the creepiest thing that has ever happened to you?
Oh. Ever happened to me besides my

(01:04):
13 haunted dolls? Yeah.
I don't know. Probably living in the Hill
House with you. I'm, like, fully convinced that
the Hill House was haunted. Like, there had to have been a
demon. Tell me why in the same like 24
hours we had a knife sticking out of our window and our
roommate went like absolutely insane.
Yeah. So a little background for the
viewers. Basically, we moved into this

(01:25):
house. Mel found a bunch of people when
we were in college, all these girls who didn't know each other
by the way, to move into. The my bad.
House on a hill that was in quite literally the middle of a
Canyon and and one day we get home and there's a knife stuck
in the window and then the next thing we noticed there's a card
sticking out of the door like someone was telling us that they

(01:48):
were trying to break in. Yeah, like a credit card.
They're like, why? And then one of our other
friends that was living there said that she saw like a guy
fade into the fog. Oh yeah, because there was like,
always fog, like constant fog. And mind you, this was in
California, so that doesn't really make any sense at all.
But it was like, it wasn't smog,it was literal fog.
Yeah, it would roll in and all creepy.

(02:09):
Like I remember one day I was there home alone and I was
calling you guys because someonewas walking around banging on
the different walls of the house, but I didn't see anyone.
And I I ran outside and grabbed a pole that just happened to be
in the backyard. And I was like ready to attack
him. And I couldn't find anybody.
I. Remember that because I remember
rushing home from school, but itwas like a 25 minute drive

(02:31):
because it was in the middle of nowhere.
We were just all the funny, likeI'm sneaking around the back.
I don't see anyone but I could like hear them on the audio
banging on the House but like there was nobody there.
Yeah, I wasn't crazy. Fully commits.
There was a demon in the house. I think so too.
Also guys we broke our lease after like one month and we
left. Yeah, because our roommate just
went totally insane. Maybe we should move back in.

(02:52):
That's more content. For real we we have been talking
about getting a ghost house. We've definitely been talking
about getting a ghost house, butthat's for another day.
Let's get into the game. So here's what it is and why
people say you should never playit alone.
I've never heard of this game. You've never heard of this?
No, I've heard of it from two different people, but I've never
played it myself so this story'sa little bit new to me as well.

(03:14):
It's more of a ritual than a game in my opinion.
You need like a lot of stuff. So you need like a shopping
list. Yeah, like literally shopping
list. So you need a rope or string
long enough to form a circle around all participants.
You need a glass, alcohol, a camera that has flash candles,
one per player, salt matches or a lighter, a completely dark

(03:36):
room, and at least three people.You have to block the windows
and turn off all electronics first.
All players sit in a circle, holding the rope or string with
their left hand, the candle in their right hand, and the
circles made of salt. So this is a literal summoning.
This is like a deep Internet game, like you cannot find very
much information about this, butlots of people know about it.

(03:57):
I can't believe I've never heardabout this.
So I'm imagining is everyone standing in the salt circle?
And you're like sitting. Oh, you're.
Sitting and. You're all facing each other.
This is a lot of salt. You place the glass of alcohol
in the middle of the circle and turn off all the lights.
Then you say the chant, The dooris open, please come in.
And you repeat that three times.Everyone has to say it.

(04:20):
You're. Kidding me?
Yeah. So you chant.
The door is open, please come in.
Then one person begins taking photos around the circle with
flash, not of themselves, of someone else.
And after each picture you pass the cameras to the left.
Then you repeat and you don't talk the whole time.
Supposedly, the ghost will show up in the picture.

(04:42):
That's crazy. Is this like a digital camera or
is it like a Polaroid? A Polaroid will be way creepier,
but the people that I know that played it, they use like their
phone camera. That's crazy.
They're like, hey yo, demons, come hang out with us.
Doors open bro. Come on.
Honestly, would you try this? I don't think so.
What about with me? OK, maybe.

(05:02):
Well, just because we're both empaths, so at least there's a
5050 shot that it'll be me. Or it just feels crazy to me
because like even when you play like the Ouija board and stuff,
you put the necklace on the board to protect yourself from
allowing them to come in. But this game, they're just like
AO Demon, so. Yeah, I literally said that the
person I know that did it, they even like they were saying that

(05:23):
part of the rituals, like you give you put out a cup of water
and I'm like, that's like an offering.
Yeah, that is an offering. Also, like there are some water
demons that like feed off of water.
There was an experience I actually had with a friend.
We were using a Ouija board and my friend had his water bottle.
It was like a clear glass water bottle was sitting next to the

(05:44):
board, just like coincidentally.It wasn't like on purpose or
anything. And when we were talking to the
board, it literally said I see you.
And we said how do you see us? And it said water, using the
water to like as like a looking glass almost.
Like a lot of the ghost hunts that I've been on, they have
this weird ghost, have this weird fascination with the
bathroom, and I swear it's because there's water in there.

(06:05):
Because there's just guaranteed plethora of water.
I feel like it's a gateway. Even if you look at religions,
they think water is like holy water.
Water is cleansing, you know, soit dives deep into all different
facets of really the unknown. That's so crazy, so after the
pictures taken, is there like a ending ritual or is it just like

(06:28):
people get up and go? So how you're supposed to end
the ritual? This is very important is
everyone in the group has to sayit's time to go home.
Then you blow out your candles at the same time you cut the
circle, or you remove or untie the rope.
You pour the alcohol outside andnever drink it, and you have to
delete all the photos. Some people say that that part's

(06:51):
optional, and other people say that it's mandatory, but you
can't leave the game while it's active.
You don't break the rope, which is weird because they say to
break the rope when you're done and then it says that sometimes
the spirits get really aggressive if you try to close
the session. But the really scary part about
this is a lot of the posts talking about this game don't
talk about how to end the game. They just tell you about the

(07:13):
game. That's like.
That's crazy. They're just like OK, once we
step out of the salt, they they don't say like when we leave the
salt, the spirit stays in or anything.
They just, they just peace out. And like, psychologically, it's
traumatizing because you're sitting there and first of all,
fear. Anticipation is crazy.
You're just like waiting for your turn and the demon might be

(07:34):
behind you. That's crazy because like, I
don't know, even when I talk to my haunted dolls, like I have
candles lit so I know that they're not trying to like
leave, you know what I mean? Like the whole point is to keep
it in contained. And this way you're just like,
hey, attach yourself to me so wecan live and be homies.
But when you think about it, most of the scary games, they

(07:55):
don't have closing out rituals like Bloody Mary, crybaby.
I don't know that one. I just did a podcast about it.
It's like you're in the bathroom, of course, and it's
very similar to Bloody Mary, except you're holding a baby
that's crying. And then to get rid of that.
Like here's your offering. You like throw the baby in the

(08:15):
toilet, but it's not a real baby.
No, the baby is. You're pretending there's a
baby. There's no way.
Just throw a baby in the toilet.It's fun.
It's fun. Oh my gosh, people are crazy.
It makes you wonder if like a demon or somebody who like
practice like like dark magic orwhatever is the one who starts

(08:37):
these lores. They start these things because
they're like, hey, let's have a way that our demon can move
around and like grow stronger. You know what I mean?
I think it all starts as like a local legend, like people love
to tell scary stories just like us, and over the years they
evolved. So it's Slender Man.
More like a ritual, yeah. Slender Man evolved into

(08:58):
something crazy. Yeah, and now I swear I've seen
Slender Man, but like he's literally made-up by a human.
But I'm sorry, I've seen something like him but.
It could be just like a spirit that took on that persona, you
know what I mean? They're like, Oh well, people
are scared of this persona. Let's feed off of that fear and
become that persona. And I truly think that that's a
thing that can happen. Yeah, I think that it can like

(09:20):
manifest out of belief, just like Santa Claus.
Just like Santa Claus, the scariest sponsor of them all.
Do you think that like the ghostwould show up behind you or me
if we did it? It would show up behind me, but
you would see it in the flash ofthe camera.
Would you be scared if it showedup behind you?
Hell yeah it would be. What if he was?
Crying it. Not everyone gets a ghost bang,

(09:42):
OK? What if he was hot though?
Like actually. Like take me demon daddy.
Thank you my. God, OK, I don't know if that's
appropriate. I just picture you are the one
taking the picture and you see him in the flash behind me like
you don't even need the picture to develop and you know he's
there. I, I would never play this.

(10:02):
I know two people ever that haveplayed this.
It's really hard to find storiesonline of people who play this.
But the two people that have played it, one of them said that
they all got too scared. They didn't actually see
anything in the camera. Oh, good.
It's like when you're looking through the the piece of the
Ouija board, you know, like the looking.
Glass Oh, I'm never doing that I've.
Never done that. That is so scary.

(10:24):
I'll talk, I'll talk on the little board, but the minute
people start looking through thelooking glass, I'm like, we got
to say goodbye. Why is sight so much more scary
than like, hearing them or talking to them?
Because that brings them into your world.
When you're just talking to them, it's like texting.
It's like we're over the phone, but the minute you see someone
face to face, that's when it's like, real.

(10:46):
Yeah, and it's like you want to see a ghost.
Everyone wants to see a ghost until they see one and then
they're like running away or getout of here or like everyone
wants to see a ghost till they see it.
That makes me think of when we went to be a sane asylum and we
were like using the S box and wewere like talking to him and we
were so excited. And then we actually saw we
actually saw something. We're like, oh, time to go.

(11:07):
Let's go, let's go. Let's.
Go yeah, literally. Well it gets really scary and
I've been ghost hunting alone lately and I've actually felt
like I've been less scared. Well, because the energy feeds
off of fear. So if there's five people who
are scared, it's way less than one person who's scared.
Also, I feel like as an empath, I'm like picking up other
people's fear. So then I'm more scared and then

(11:27):
I seem like the biggest chicken,but I'm like, no, I'm feeling
you guys. Same same.
You and I feed off of each othera lot because we're both super
empathetic. You know anyone that's played
any scary games that worked? I mean obviously like the Ouija
board works. When I was a kid we did Bloody
Mary and my friend and swears upand down she saw bloody Mary and
like literally went home. She was sobbing.

(11:48):
She literally left. But like is it is it childhood
fear? Is it like she imagined it
because she's a kid or did it actually work?
You know what I mean? Yeah.
Because like, I've played BloodyMary as a grown up, I never saw
anything. But like, as a kid, you are more
susceptible to seeing spirits than seeing demons.
And maybe the spirit just wantedto mess with her and was like,
hey, let's just pop in. We hear them saying Bloody Mary,

(12:08):
Let's just what's up, you know? A lot of these games where
people actually see stuff, I don't think they see the Bloody
Mary, but I think that there arespirits that think that, oh,
this will be fun to scare them. Exactly.
They're like jokester spirits. They're harmless, but they're
like, hey, let's just mess with this person real fast, You know
what I mean? Yeah, exactly.
Have you played any games or seen anyone who played games

(12:29):
that like it actually worked? My sister when we were kids did
it in my haunted house, Bloody Mary specifically, and she ended
up with a scratch down her back.Obviously done the Ouija boards.
Didn't you get scratches at the Hill House?
I did. All over your legs.
Yeah, but like, I feel like I still get those and I can't

(12:49):
really, I can't debunk that likeyou.
Have a couple. You have a couple ghosts that
follow you, like Ghost Bay and that other one that's a little
more aggressive. I think we left Ghost Bay at the
Hill House. Not the Hill House we lived in,
but the Hill House in Texas. Oh, really?
Yeah, because I did like printing oil and a cleansing
before I left. And I think he's stuck there

(13:11):
because he has not shown up since.
So that brings me to the theory that I think he's a demon.
He. Might be, but we kind of made
jokes about that and he like, didn't deny it.
Yeah, but he was like a fun demon.
He was a fun demon. He wasn't like menacing.
But we're getting off track. So back.
Oh yeah, scary games. Can you name any other scary
games? Like how many scary games can
you name? Literally just like the Ouija

(13:32):
board and bloody Mary. When I was a kid there was this
one bridge that everyone was scared of because it constantly
had like fog on it. I don't know if this is like a
lore game or anything. Like if it was just like a town
game, you would walk across the bridge blindfolded and you'd
have to say something. Spirits lead the way or
something like that and you'd like start to cross the bridge

(13:54):
but somehow you would end up turned around and walking back
and you like couldn't cross the bridge.
Oh, like a different dimension? Or like a time loop.
Yeah, kinda like you'd, you'd beblindfolded, you'd be walking
straight the whole time, but somehow you would end up turned
around and be walking back towards us.
Like by the end you'd never makeit across the bridge.
That's so creepy, I don't think I'd play that one either.

(14:15):
Why would you want to be stuck? Well, obviously when you take
off the blindfold, you're fine. The whole point is you're trying
to see who can pass through and like nobody actually gets to
pass through. We all get turned around.
Yeah, but what if you did pass through?
I don't know. No one ever did.
Well, that's terrifying. I wouldn't want to pass through.
I'd be hoping that I don't. Well, maybe people turn around
because they get scared. Maybe that's the whole game.
It's just like psyching yourselfout.

(14:36):
A lot of these I think are really like just dark
psychology, but I do. Humans in general have a
fascination with being scared. I think life is mundane and they
want adrenaline. Why are you fascinated with
like, being scared? I think it's like not
necessarily the fear, because I don't like being scared.
I, I get scared and I leave, butjust the unknown.

(14:59):
When I started ghost hunting, I've like questioned my
religious thoughts since I was akid.
You know, I was raised with no religion.
Then in middle school I was brought into Christianity and
obviously the Bible has some things in it that I don't think
a God would do. So I've always questioned, you
know, is there a eternal being? Is there an afterlife, life, all

(15:22):
that different stuff? And I think that's one of the
reasons why I love ghost huntingso much is because it's like,
I'm not afraid to die, like I'm not.
I know that there's something after.
Yeah, it like confirms it. It confirms your theories.
It's proof and people don't accept it as scientific proof,
but I mean, I I can't debunk a lot of the stuff that we've

(15:43):
captured on camera. I can't debunk a lot of things
that I've just experienced in life.
Yeah, and I mean, maybe we're just all a little loony, but I'm
OK with that. We're all just mentally
unstable. It's fine.
Obviously you know, the stories of like don't whistle in the
mountains and like stuff like that.
But like, that's not really a game.
It's just like lore. It's like.

(16:04):
Folklore, but it could easily beturned into a game.
Where did I hear about Bloody Mary from one of my sister's
friends. Right, I only know about Bloody
Mary when I was like 5. You're in the bathroom as a 5
year old. You're holding a little teddy
bear. You're like bloody Berry bloody.
My friends at the time were two years older than me so that's
that's probably why, but. Yeah, it's just crazy how

(16:25):
legends like this get passed down and they're literally
living legends, Yeah. Well, it's like the tooth fairy,
just like stuff like that. All of it is just like,
interesting. Yeah, it's interesting how it's
lasted this long too. I don't know.
So should you play the picture game?
No, you. Say.
Probably not. I say no, I say unless, I mean
unless you want to get like a little demon, go find a priest

(16:46):
or something. Just have him on like speed dial
just in case. This feels like a full Banshee
initiation type Rick Wall, so ifyou're thinking about trying the
picture game, don't. Don't.
Just don't. Just don't be.
Prepared Be prepared to have a new friend for life.
Yeah, you're going to be stuck with a demon.
So thanks for listening to another episode of Scary Stories

(17:09):
that will make you scream. I'm your host, Nikki Baber.
And a big shout out to my guest Mel for joining The Little
spooky time tonight. Anytime, I'm always here like a
demon but. Before you turn the lights back
on, guys, next week we're going even darker.
There's a game where you step into a pitch black closet
holding a flashlight to your chest and you whisper show me

(17:33):
the light or leave me in darkness.
It's called the closet game and it's one of the most dangerous
ritual games online. So sleep with a night light,
banshees. And remember, don't play scary
games.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.

The Joe Rogan Experience

The Joe Rogan Experience

The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

Ā© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.