The Maze

The third level in The Maze.

"I made this game in October of '04 for Halloween and sent it to a few of my friends in an email. About 5 months later, someone had sent the same email back to my mother! It had turned into a viral email joke. I was very flattered and figured I should make a website for all the stupid prank games I've made.  

-Jeremy Winterrowd"

The Maze

The Maze, also known as the Scary Maze and Dont touch the Walls, is a Flash game created in 2004. It was made by game developer Jeremy Winterrowd.

It disguises itself as a simple maze game in which you have to move your mouse to progress in the game. Usually, there is note saying that few people have completed the four levels to intrigue the player further. The first two levels are really easy, but at the end of the third level, the walls begin to shrink, making it very hard. This usually makes it so that the player will concentrates on the screen. Then, a picture of Regan from the movie The Exorcist appears along with two loud screams, scaring the user. The game was uploaded in 2005 on winterrowd.com. The original version was yellow instead of turquoise. Due to copyright, there is also an alternative version used in America's Funniest Videos where the picture that pops up is the one from What's Wrong. As of August 2015, it is estimated that The Maze has been played over 50 million times. 

Reactions

A lot of people have posted videos of other people reacting to the game. The first reaction video on YouTube was uploaded by user CantWeAllJusGetAlong, on May 20th, 2006. As of June 2015, the video has almost 30 million views. In the video, a young kid, Justice, is playing the maze. Then, he gets surprised by the screamer. Shocked, he starts screaming and repeatedly hitting the computer screen. He then runs to his stepdad, Chad, and starts crying.

The most viewed Maze Game video was uploaded by YouTube user nalts and has accumulated over 40 million views as of August 2015.

Parodies

The Maze has been parodied on Saturday Night Live. There is also a game called Save Justin Bieber, created by Jeremy Winterrowd himself, that replaces some parts of the game with Justin Bieber.

NOTE: The following games contain screamers, at the end of the third level.

• winterrowd.com/maze/
• web.archive.org/web/20060115052208/winterrowd.com/maze1.swf (original version, orange)
• winterrowd.com/afvmaze/ (TV version, alternative face)