50 Creepy Basements That Were So Horrifying, Homeowners Just Had To Share

There's something about dark, damp, poorly lit underground spaces we find particularly terrifying. Is it claustrophobia? Is it the history of what happened there before us? Or is it just our imagination going wild because of the unknown?

To get to the bottom of why we find creepy basements, old hospitals, crawl spaces, etc., so fascinating, Bored Panda decided to consult with the experts on all things strange.

Kat and Jethro Gilligan Toth host the Webby Award-winning podcast The Box of Oddities, where they share their love for unusual stories and inject them with their humor and commentary.

The pair cover everything from the strange history of medical practices to chilling true crime stories. The Box of Oddities has been downloaded more than 26 million times, so you know the stories ought to be good!

In movies, the basement is usually the place where the scary stuff happens. I personally only need to remember scenes from movies like The Ring (2002) and It (2017) to never want to set foot in another basement again. What is it about basements that give us the heebie-jeebies?

Jethro from The Box of Oddities says it probably has to do with the fact that they're under the ground. That taps into our fear of mortality. "The fact that it's underground reminds us that, historically, bodies have been buried underground, graves are underground, crypts are often underground, and catacombs are underground."

His co-host Kat says that basements also elicit a negative physical reaction from us. "The feeling of a basement is often cold and wet, and our bodies instinctively are uncomfortable in those environments." 

"Perhaps this triggers something inside, reminding us that one day, we'll all [pass away]," Jethro adds.

The hosts of The Box of Oddities believe that a building, a room, or any other space is made scarier by its past events. "There's a big difference between going into the basement of new constructions and basements of buildings that have history," Jethro explains. "History leaves an imprint on older buildings, especially ones that have seen a lot of emotion or tragedy over the years."

Kat also tells us about The Stone Tape Theory. "[It] suggests that stones and other materials can record and playback past events or emotional energy," she explains. "It's like recording on a carbon cassette tape. Basements provide a perfect environment for that." There is one famous example people think proves this theory: the basement of Pennsylvania Hall at the Gettysburg College.

"The basement served as a makeshift operating room during the Battle of Gettysburg, where hundreds of amputations took place over three days," Jethro tells us the story of the Pennsylvania Hall basement. 

"Numerous reports of strange activity have been associated with it, from an overwhelming sense of sadness to more extreme experiences, such as ghostly apparitions of Civil War soldiers and scenes of medical procedures like amputations."

People say that the scenes of what happened in the former operating room are playing there on a loop. That's called a 'residual haunting.' "The emotion is stored there, and you feel it when you step down slowly into the darkness of that space," Kat explains to us.

With more than 600 podcast episodes under their belt, the hosts of The Box of Oddities have covered their fair share of strange stories involving basements. In one of their more recent episodes, episode 618, titled Oregon, Owls, and E.T.s, the hosts investigated the Oregon State Hospital and the horrifying discovery in its basement.

"Established in 1883," Jethro begins, "It's a historic psychiatric institution known for its portrayal in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In 2004, over 3,000 copper canisters containing the remains of former patients were discovered in the hospital's basement. These canisters, dating back to the early 20th century, had been neglected in a sealed basement room and long forgotten for decades."

Kat takes us down the true crime road. "I also think that there are many stories of serial [criminals] like John Wayne Gacy who have used basements and crawl spaces to hide the bodies of their victims." The story she shares with us is the notorious case of Dr. Crippen.

"In episode 284 of The Box of Oddities, we told the story of Cora Henrietta Crippen," Kat says. "She was the wife of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, who [executed] her in 1910 in London. Her body was discovered buried in the basement of their home. Crippen was subsequently convicted of murder and executed, marking one of the most famous criminal cases in early 20th-century Britain."

"So, I guess the older your house is, the better the chance something or someone may be buried there," Jethro surmises. "Cue the creepy music."

If you're looking for more unsolved mysteries, paranormal phenomena, and strange cultural practices from all around the world, be sure to give The Box of Oddities a listen! Kat and Jethro masterfully present cases in an informative and entertaining manner, offering a unique look into the dark and mysterious corners of the world!