There’s still 40 days till Halloween, but it doesn’t mean we can’t start getting ready by pumping up the blood early. And the corner of Reddit known by the name r/Creepy is a perfect place for that. Created for “all things creepy,” the subreddit is home to a whopping 14.2M members, proving that spine-chilling content is a big hit here on the internet.
So today, we selected some of the most creepy posts that range from hard-to-explain sightings of figures caught on camera to eerie places that probably won’t be on your holiday destination list.
Ever wondered what the inside of the Chernobyl reactor looks like? Well, wrap yourself up in a warm blanket, scroll down below, and get ready to jump from the sofa. Don’t tell us we didn’t warn you, things are creepy here.
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Handmade Ghost Ship
Artist With Dementia
“There isn't really one, universal answer as to why people seek out or enjoy creepy, spooky, scary things; it depends a lot on cultural context, as well as on each person individually,” Lucia Peters told Bored Panda. Lucia is a writer, editor, the creator of the website The Ghost In My Machine, and author of the book “Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark.” “For instance, fear does some interesting things to us, physically and psychologically; it puts our bodies into a state of high alert, often triggering the fight-or-flight response and releasing adrenaline and endorphins,” she continued. “Some people enjoy the feelings and sensations these responses inspire, while others don't.”
Lucia explained that there's been some research into why some folks like being scared and others don't. “For example, it's been found that people who score highly on specific personality traits associated with thrill-seeking tend to enjoy being scared more than those who don't score as highly on those types of traits,” she said and added that there are so many factors at play, like environment, personal experience, etc.
A Friend Went For A Walk The Other Night And Saw This Woman Just Standing On A Roof
Had a woman with dementia live in the apartment next to us and she would do buzzard stuff hopefully that’s not. Sleep walker or someone with dementia
Famine Memorial In Dublin
According to her, narrowing it down to one, specific answer is difficult (and probably doesn't really serve us well, anyway).
Speaking of herself, Lucia said that she was fearful as a child. “Scared of seemingly everything -- and eventually, I started wanting to understand exactly why I was so scared of so many things.” Therefore, she started “deconstructing horror stories and other spooky things, and along the way, she started to really enjoy the little frisson she got, like “the shiver running up and down my spine and exploring spooky things.”
“And this, too, can be a big factor as to whether someone enjoys being scared or not -- some folks enjoy the sense of mastery they get over making it through a spooky experience,” Lucia said.
Xylaria Polymorpha Is A Saprobic Fungus Commonly Known As Dead Man’s Fingers
This Wasp Nest
“It's also worth noting that everyone finds the same things creepy or scary. For example, body horror or gore doesn't do much for me, but I love a good ghost story; I'm also very fond of the uncanny -- that is, when something looks familiar, but feels just a little bit... off. But some folks feel the opposite: They find ghost stories or the uncanny boring and love body horror and gore. And that's just personal preference!”
The Missing Persons Map Has A Frightening Similarity To The Cave Systems Map
Went To Lock The Back Door. There Was A Visitor
The white makes it all the more scary, almost like it's a ghost spider.
Saint Bartholomew
He was said to have been skinned and beheaded in Armenia for converting the king to Christianity. He's the patron saint of dermatology.
According to Lucia, not everyone finds the same things creepy or spooky. “When it comes to the variety of spooky storytelling we find online, though--whether it's in words, pictures, video, or some combination of the above--the most effective pieces of work tend to be the ones that blur the lines of reality and fiction.”
She continued: “think pieces of art that add fictional entities or monsters to real photographs (that's how Slenderman began, after all), short stories that have a kernel of truth in them somewhere ("Abandoned By Disney" does this really well), and the like: Deep down, we know that these images and stories are fictional -- but they look or feel just real enough to make us wonder, ‘What if...?’”
Factory Farm
Got A Notification From My Smart Home App In The Middle Of The Night Saying "Your Doorbell Detected A Visitor"
An Eerie Underwater Cave Death Warning Sign
"There's nothing in this cave worth dying for"...you just KNOW that some idiot will treat this as a dare
Lucia believes that the roots of the fears remain similar, although the ways in which they're expressed can change or evolve over time. “Take the fear of the dark, for instance -- a fear that's been around for basically all of human existence. Often, what being afraid of the dark is really about is being afraid of the unknown. We can't see what's lurking outside our little circle of light; it's masked by the darkness. Anything could be out there; it's the not-knowing that scares us,” she explained.
“Then, consider some of the fears associated with the internet--the kinds we see in horror films like Unfriended, The Den, or Cam. Although the medium here is obviously modern--the internet is very young, comparatively speaking!--these fears, too, tap into the fear of the unknown: We don't really know who or what might be hiding behind those screen names. Again, just as it is with the dark, it's the not-knowing that scares us,” Lucia concluded.
Teeth In A Squid Suction Cup
I Went To Dachau Concentration Camp And Felt Almost Like It Didn’t Do Anyone Justice. It Didn’t Seem To Reveal The Extent Of The Horrors Of What Happened There. Until I Saw This. My Heart Was In My Stomach
I was there as a pupil and although I am not easily scared, I was very happy to get the f**k out if there. It felt like a wave of horror and sorrow
Load More Replies...My great aunt died in Treblinka. That was just 20 years before I was born. Please let us never forget the cruelty of ethnic nationalism and fight it in the US with all our power.
Happening right now in India and no one lifting a finger to stop it or even acknowledging it.
Load More Replies...I went to the holocaust exhibit in NYC, The Museum of Jewish Heritage. They had a door there. The worst though was tiny shoe with the sock tucked in, waiting for the owner to return after the "shower."
I've been to Auschwitz 3 years ago... cried all the visit and spent a few days really touched. The worst part was the gas room...Still have chills and tears come to my eyes any time it comes to my mind.
I went in 2009. I felt tat way as well. It’s such a heavy, overwhelming feeling, knowing what happened there. I saw Birkeneou as well. I only took a few photos. I can still see it so clearly, over a decade later.
Load More Replies...Just look at the Taliban right now today! S**t still happens right under our noses!
I was in Dachau with high school. The chills when you enter the camp. And yes this room and the gas chambers are the most terrifying. I will never forget that feeling.
Dachau only had one gas chamber, which was never used though. Certainly doesn't lessen the horrors of the crematorium. But Dachau wasn't used as a mass execution site.
Load More Replies...When we lived in Berlin , my “mother” went there for a visit. She was told that there were so many buried that grass or flowers wou,d never grow there again . For some reason when I was so young, that really hit me . I went on to study the 2nd world war relentlessly. The things I could tell you, certainly not a place for BP
You're not the only one. Did you go to the town? We drove to it, thinking that we can get something to eat or drink - but it's like a ghost town. Driving around, we only saw a handful of people, and they were looking at us like we are weirdos. lol. Our Czech friends say that no one really goes there, except for the concentration camp. The buildings were as if it was still in the 1940s, dark and gray.
Load More Replies...It boggles my mind that human beings could be so unimaginably cruel. I just can't wrap my head around it.
I visited Dachau when I lived in Germany. It was a truly horrifying place, made even more disturbing by the fact that it was a beautiful sunny autumn day. Unfortunately many of the visitors were acting in ways that I felt were entirely inappropriate. They were posing for Instagram shots with the autumn leaves on the pathway between the concentration camp quarters and a group was even laughing loudly inside this exact room. I have no idea what they thought was so funny but it made me extremely upset - my family is Russian and all of my great-grandparents either fought in WWII or contributed to war efforts; several of my family members went missing and easily could have ended up in a place like Dachau as POWs. Visiting Dachau was my way of honouring my family and these people were just treating it like an amusement park... Please if you visit a place like this, remember the meaning it might have for other visitors.
They should have been escorted from the premises. Publicly.
Load More Replies...I went there as well. I remember that the second I entered this room, and smelled it... My heart broke and I couldn't stop crying
I was there in 1983 and there was plenty of pictures depicting the horrors there.
Dachau was primarily a forced labour camp, not an extermination camp like Auschwitz
So, what? Does that make it better? What a horrifying thought. People were still tortured and died.
Load More Replies...I watched a documentary that was all military footage of the liberation of Dachau, Auchwitz, Bergen Belsen, etc. It was all firsthand footage from 1945, was about an hour long. It took only 6 minutes in to the documentary to make me cry. The absolute inhumanity of the Nazis and the horrors they inflicted on innocent people; seeing the faces and broken bodies of the dead broke my heart. Just seeing that a human could do such heinous things to another human made me actually weep.
Please could you say the name of the documentary? I would be interested to watch, even though it will be horrendously upsetting.
Load More Replies...Humans are the most despicable animal ever to walk this planet. Name one other species that kills for pleasure.
Our chimpanzee cousins are right behind us. Some will kill and eat the baby chimp offspring of another male, then rape the grieving mother to ensure the spread of their seed. Just give them more time to evolve and the Planet of the Apes might come true!
Load More Replies...To say I am sorry is just not enough. No words are enough. Bless you and your family❤️
Load More Replies...If those bricks could talk smh I don't even wanna contemplate what what happened.
When I saw the picture I wasn’t phased as my Uni building is next to and old crematorium. I read the caption and now I don’t want to go back to uni.
I went there in high school. What makes it creepier is that those beams at the top of the picture is where they would hang people then slide them into the furnaces.
I still can't get mind around the fact that a lot of people worked in these camps as guards or whatever and went along with this.
I went to Mauthausen (Austria) and when I saw those cremation ovens I had something like a nervous breakdown. I fell to the ground crying and felt so sick. Just looking at the image brought back this memory. And entering into the "shower" room caused the same sensation.
I went there too. Lived in Germany for 4 years. My dad and his unit (Army) were going for an educational trip and he decided to bring my sister and me with them. I will never forget the smell of this exact room. This was back in 98/99 and it STILL smelled like burning flesh. Absolutely depressing.
I went to pay my respects at Auschwitz two decades ago. I remarked on that the weather on the day was warm yet the place itself felt cold which haunted me and still does to this day. I cried for days.We must never forget.
I went to Dachau many years ago. Was told the ovens at that particular camp were never actually used.
crematories used to dispose of the millions that the nazis killed
Load More Replies...Looks like nothing. Mundane. Banal even. Just... some ovens. Evil is very often like that.
Your f****d. This is not a place to be making jokes you f**k wad!
Load More Replies...Baby Owls
Bored Panda also spoke with S. Elizabeth, writer and creator of the “Unquiet Things” blog, as well as the author of “The Art of the Occult: A Sourcebook For The Modern Mystic” book. She is particularly interested in horror, the supernatural, and death. “I can tell you that for myself, there’s something cathartic about spending time with scary material, whether it’s a ghost story or a slasher film, etc.,” S. Elizabeth explained her fascination with creepy things.
“You’re engaging with this material from a really passive place, you can experience the threat or menace vicariously--and sure, if it’s particularly well written or well-directed or if the actors and the effects are spectacular, it might become such an immersive experience that for a time you feel like you’re right there in the thick of it.”
Raccoon Hands Reaching Through The Boardwalk
Should I Start Digging?
The stone clearly says No, but that's just reverse psychology so Yes, start digging.
Portland Man Found His Tires Slashed, And This Note On His Car
But my name is John.... they guy I bought the car from was named Mark.
The writer continued: “But you’re not. You can mark your page and close the book when you’ve had enough scares for the night. You can pause the movie and go to sleep. There’s no danger that Michael Myers is going to stab you, that the zombie is going to eat your brains. You’re already the Final Girl.”
Having said that, S. Elizabeth added that “as a woman, I already feel vulnerable in this world, whether I am in a horror movie or not. (And in recent years, it really has been starting to seem more and more like a weird dystopian horror film.) So many of us don’t make it out alive. Horror movies, scary stories, creepy media--I think consuming this type of thing gives us a sense of control in a world that no longer makes any sense,” she explained.
The Mist
Reaper
What a beautiful picture. Seriously i love stuff like this.
Bunraku Puppet
When asked what is it about certain creepy stories that affect us so profoundly, S. Elizabeth said that “I can point to a lot of elements, but they all boil down to one core piece of the puzzle: that something fundamentally feels very wrong. The stories in which things happen when they shouldn’t, people are somehow where they couldn’t possibly be.”
She gave us some examples: “The television that powers on suddenly, even though it’s unplugged. The face you see just outside your window even though you’re on the third floor. The emails you begin receiving from a friend who died half a year ago. The sibling who goes away on vacation and comes back changed, not themselves. It’s their face, but it’s somehow not them anymore.”
S. Elizabeth said that “this sense of wrongness is made that much troubling and lonely and desperate when you realize you seem to be the only one who notices these uncanny goings-on.” According to her, if a creepy story has any of these elements, it’s bound to have an impact on us and give us a sleepless night or two.
The Face In The Moth
The Smile Room
A Soot Covered Spiderweb
This new research conducted by David Zald shows that people differ in their chemical response to thrilling situations. Dopamine, one of the main hormones released during scary and thrilling activities, depends on each individual. To put it simply, some get more of a kick out of the same amount of dopamine. According to Zald, some brains lack something that he calls “brakes” on the dopamine release and reuptake in the brain. As a result, they will be enjoying more thrilling, scary, and risky situations than the rest.
Old Lady With A Knife Seen On A Doorbell Cam In The Middle Of The Night
A Rare Mutation Causing The Tentacles On The Octopus To Branch
Found Out The House We Are Living In Has A Bunker Below. I Managed To Squeeze My Phone In One Of The Cracks Of The Door To Take This Creepy Picture
According to Dr. Margee Kerr, a staff sociologist at ScareHouse, a haunted house in Pittsburgh that takes all year to plan, for anyone to really enjoy scary situations, they must know it’s a safe environment. “It’s all about triggering the amazing fight-or-flight response to experience the flood of adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine, but in a completely safe space. Haunted houses are great at this—they deliver a startle scare by triggering one of our senses with different sounds, air blasts, and even smells,” she told The Atlantic.
Skull Rock Formation In Indonesia
It's actually in the Apostle Islands, Lake Superior, Wisconsin, not Indonesia. Wonder why people lie about it.
My Husband Just Sent Me This... It Was Taken On His Way To Work This Morning
The Stairs I Have To Take To Leave Work
Moreover, according to Dr. Kerr, “these senses are directly tied to our fear response and activate the physical reaction, but our brain has time to process the fact that these are not “real” threats. Our brain is lightning-fast at processing threat. I’ve seen the process thousands of times from behind the walls in ScareHouse—someone screams and jumps and then immediately starts laughing and smiling. It’s amazing to observe."
This Was Once A Home
Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia Pa - Photos Taken By Myself
Was that chair used by a barber or dentist? At least it wasn't connected to the electricity supply
This Very Accurate Babadook Cosplay
Interestingly, Dr.Kerr believes that fear is also something that’s culturally and socially constructed. She suggests that “when we look across time and across the world, we find that people truly can become afraid of anything.” An exemplary case of this phenomenon is Baby Albert.
“The poor child was made deathly afraid of white rabbits in the 1920s before researchers were required to be ethical. So we know that we can learn to fear, and this means our socialization and the society in which we are raised is going to have a lot to do with what we find scary,” Dr. Kerr told The Atlantic.
Other creepy things that many cultures find scary are creatures of different kinds, like semi-human creatures, creatures from an outer world, supernatural monsters, and things that defy the laws of nature in some way.
These Three Cages, That Were Used To Hold The Dismembered Remains Of Opposing Religious Leaders In The Region In 1536, Still Hang On St. Lambert’s Cathedral In Münster, Germany
My Mother Received This Terrifying Letter Which Is Supposedly From A Crazy Cousin She Hasn't Spoken With In Over 20 Years Who Lives In The Mountains Of Hawaii Without Electricity
"Ellen,
We'll be by around 7pm on March 23 to pick up you & yours - pack lite, leave your earthly husk behind. As ever, no fornicators or immigrants need apply. I see you @ 7pm (1900 hrs)
U KNOW WHO"
It Was So Windy The Other Day It Raised The Dead
Just Bought A House. Found This In The Basement. Sealed Tight
An Iris Growing Over A Pupil
Found This While Walking My Dog In The Woods. Someone Put Alot Of Time Into Making This
I hope they don´t leave the candles burning after done with their rituals.
Scorpion Carrying Her Babies On Her Back
Halloween, Early 1900s
Tarantula Infected With Cordycipitaceae
If you want a real zombie scare, look this parasitic fungi up. It jumped from plants to animals, so is only one hop away from humans....
Eyes Reflecting In A Camera Flash At And Elvis Concert
Please Don't Rip Please Don't Rip Please Don't Rip....
Is anyone going to talk about how her mouth expression makes this more terrifying?
Voldemort/Quirrell Face Model
Two Wax Department Store Mannequins Melt During A Heat Wave In London, 1929
Just Bears..
Went On A Flashlight Tour Of A Former Sanitarium And Nursing Home Where Over 7,000 People Died
Pinhead Holding A Baby
Inside Chernobyl Reactor No.4
Note: this post originally had 72 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Hello to those make it here safely....Here's cute photos of a puppy to ease your nerves......
creepiest thing that has happened to me was when i moved into a house that supposedly had spirits. would occasionally see 'shadow people' on a loop walking on the indoor porch but nothing else. the upstairs was an entire apartment which i made into a school/craft place. it was fully furnished w/fridge and stove. when my stove went out on 1st floor i cooked & served up there while saving for another. one night i'm chopping veggies, look up & there's this old woman who says 'i'm so glad to see you again!' i even touched her hand to make sure she was real. turns out she had dementia & wandered from her home down the street. strange thing was that my 80 lb dog allowed her not only to come in without knocking but come upstairs with nary a bark or growl. i believe the dog sensed she was not a danger & something was 'off''. still, incident scared the hell out of me for a moment.
Christ on a cheesy, cheesy Ritz. I'd have pooped my pants and passed out
Load More Replies...Hello to those make it here safely....Here's cute photos of a puppy to ease your nerves......
creepiest thing that has happened to me was when i moved into a house that supposedly had spirits. would occasionally see 'shadow people' on a loop walking on the indoor porch but nothing else. the upstairs was an entire apartment which i made into a school/craft place. it was fully furnished w/fridge and stove. when my stove went out on 1st floor i cooked & served up there while saving for another. one night i'm chopping veggies, look up & there's this old woman who says 'i'm so glad to see you again!' i even touched her hand to make sure she was real. turns out she had dementia & wandered from her home down the street. strange thing was that my 80 lb dog allowed her not only to come in without knocking but come upstairs with nary a bark or growl. i believe the dog sensed she was not a danger & something was 'off''. still, incident scared the hell out of me for a moment.
Christ on a cheesy, cheesy Ritz. I'd have pooped my pants and passed out
Load More Replies...