The Scary Maze Game: The Story of the Internet's Most Famous Jumpscare

Updated October 16, 2026 · 4 min read · By Varinder

If you were online in the mid-2000s, you probably know the scary maze game: a simple steady-hand maze that ends with a screaming face filling the screen. Here's where it came from and why it still works.

Where it came from

The original game, often just called The Maze, was a Flash game made by Jeremy Winterrowd and released in 2004. It looked like a harmless test of mouse control: move a dot along a path without touching the walls. On the third level, a still image from the film The Exorcist suddenly appeared with a loud scream.

How it went viral

The game spread by word of mouth and email, but YouTube made it famous. Around 2006, people began filming friends and family playing it, and reaction videos became one of the early viral formats on the site. Some of them reached millions of views and were shown on TV.

Flash itself reached end of life at the end of 2020, so the original no longer runs in modern browsers. The idea lives on in remakes, including ours.

Why the jumpscare works

• Concentration: the narrow third level makes players lean in and focus hard on a tiny dot, so the brain isn't expecting anything else.
• False safety: two easy levels build confidence that it's just a maze.
• Sound: a sudden loud noise triggers the startle reflex on its own, before you've even seen the picture properly.
• Timing: the scare comes mid-move, not at the end, when the player is most absorbed.

How to play the prank today

1. Open the scary maze game and press Fullscreen.
2. Turn the sound up to a reasonable level, not full blast.
3. Challenge them: "Nobody gets past level 3."
4. Watch, and be ready to laugh together and apologise.