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“It’s Chilling”: 47 Disturbing Found Footage Stories That Still Haunt The Internet
We all know that truth is stranger than fiction. But in many cases, it can be more terrifying as well. And in this day and age, those haunting moments are often caught on film.
If you’re in need of some spooky stories to impress your friends with on Halloween, we’ve got you covered, pandas. Reddit users have been recalling the most chilling and disturbing pieces of found footage they've ever seen, so we’ve gathered their replies below.
Now, we have to warn you that we’ve intentionally omitted the links to these videos, as many are quite unsettling and gruesome. If you really want to see the tapes, you can search for them at your own risk. But if you’d prefer to err on the side of caution and simply read about them, this list has just enough details to spare you from being scarred!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Officer Kent McGowan kicked in the door on a felony warrant and shot 41 year old Susan White claiming she'd pulled a gun on him. At first, everything seems kosher, but later on that night, the officers investigating the shooting found that she was on the phone with 911 at the time and isn't the aggressor, she's scared out of her mind.
It appears that McGowan had been stalking her and had basically fabricated the circumstances that led to her having a warrant out against her. He then broke into her house, ran up to her bedroom and shot her. She's frantic, telling the operator that he's trying to break into her house. One of the last things she says is "HELLLLLLP!!!!" It's chilling.
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#2
I'm going to go with the man they found alive in a sunken tugboat 3 days after it capsized.
>As a rescue diver probed the wreckage of an overturned tugboat, it was assumed that all he'd be doing would be recovering the bodies of those who perished.
However, as he was swimming through the murky water inside the capsized boat, a hand suddenly reached toward him.
It was the ship's cook, Harrison Okene, who had somehow survived for approximately 60 hours in only his underwear in the freezing cold water by breathing from a small air pocket and taking sips of Coca-Cola.
Okene was the only one of 12 crew members who survived when the Jacon-4 tugboat capsized.
#3
Recently there was a guy in Chicago who was breaking into houses. He was caught on security cameras slowly creeping down some stairs and just watching the homeowners sleeping on the couch. Not as violent as some of these other posts, but super creepy.
#4
That chimp owner's 911 call while her escaped ape was eating her friend, Charla Nash; coupled with her recovery photos this was pretty disturbing.
Not as bad as some of the others on this thread but a fair contribution, I think.
Upstaged75 1 month ago
This is absolutely one of the worst things I've ever heard. I don't recommend you listen to it if you're sensitive to violence.
#5
19 year-old Russian girl and her stepfather are camping. He gets attacked and dies. His stepdaughter calls her mom on a cell phone in-between attacks by a brown bear and her cubs.
"Mum, the bears are back. She came back and brought her three babies. They’re... eating me."
then...
“Mum, it’s not hurting anymore. I don’t feel the pain. Forgive me for everything. I love you so much”.
Upstaged75 1 month ago
I just read about this after I saw it on another BP article. Poor people.
#6
A call from the weepy voiced k****r fits the bill although it's audio only. Basically if you don't know this guy would k**l almost involuntarily, and then usually call the police expressing remorse for what he had done while crying.
He eventually got caught because his final victim injured him in self defense. Knowing the k****r was injured the police were on the look out for anyone checking into hospitals with injuries like his.
angelmomoffour62 1 month ago
I seen this story before that killer was really strange by doing that calling 911 and crying. I wonder if he had a reason for doing that....
#7
The recording of the 9/11 call where the guy is calling 911 and then you hear his terrified bloodcurling scream as the tower collapses...and then silence as the line goes dead.
F****d me up for a while.
#8
I saw a road rage video on Reddit that was absolutely terrifying. This m*thd out lady was trying to run some girls off the road and was impersonating a police officer so they would open the car door.
#9
The sinking of a ferry filled with Korean students that were told to put on their life preservers and stay seated in a ship the captain knew was sinking. The part that makes it all seem real is when a kid jokingly sings a song from the titanic thinking it'll all be fine.
#10
I don't remember her name but the lady in a hotel was wigging out in the elevator like someone was there (she was alone) and then later her body was found in the water tank.
#11
The video diaries of Bjork stalker Ricardo López. His descent into madness is fascinating to me. There's an hour and a half video on YouTube that shows him progressively getting worse. It doesn't end well.
#12
Not found footage exactly, but the one where a family a driving and a brick from the truck in front of them goes through the windshield k*****g the mother. Their panicked shrieks are f*****g heartwrenchingly terrifying.
I'm not going to link to it because I don't want to accidentally see it again.
Kerry Borthwick 1 month ago
I watched wish I hadn't the pure agony in the family's voices I hope the family are ok and got help they needed for such a horrid incident
#13
Yuri Lipski.
A diver that got disoriented in an underwater tunnel in the Red Sea and went down and down until he died.
Annik Perrot 1 month ago
I did à lot of diving in my younger years, but always refused to enter any underwater tunnel, and in the Red Sea there were lots of them, often formed by corals. "Come on, it's easy, you can see the other end." Nope.
#14
In 1984, a Cessna L-19 Bird Dog crashed in the Tabernash, Co. The wreckage wasn't found until 3 years later by a couple backpackers. The local law enforcement found this heavily damaged VHS tape and were able to figure out what happened. From Wikipedia:
> On August 10, 1984, a Cessna L-19 Bird Dog (registration number N4584A), piloted by James Jeb Caddell, 38, crashed in a forest near Tabernash. The aircraft was en route from Granby, Colorado to Jeffco, Colorado. The wreck was found by a pair of backpackers three years later on August 23, 1987. A 6½ minute video shot from a VHS camcorder mounted on the instrument panel was found at the site. The heavily damaged tape, some of it hanging from tree branches, was recovered and repaired by Colorado deputy sheriff Dale Wood. Subsequent analysis of the footage revealed that the pilot had not taken into account the density altitude conditions that existed on the day of the flight. The aircraft was unable to climb away from steadily rising terrain due to the fact that it was essentially at or above its service ceiling, and in an attempt to remedy the situation, the pilot stalled the airplane three times during a steep bank to the right. The pilot could be heard yelling, "D**n, hang on Ronnie!" to his one backseat passenger, Ronald Hugh Wilmond, 36, three seconds before impacting the terrain.
It's the "D**n, hang on Ronnie!" that gets me.
#15
There's a documentary on YouTube that details the m****r of a farm family in Texas. The survivor was Robin, the 10 year old daughter. She was watching from her bedroom door, she ran back into bed and they shot at her as she laid in bed and missed. The most disturbing part is probably how she'd hang her robe up on a hook on her door every night, and after she "got shot" she lay on the bed, pretending to be dead for hours, because she thought the robe was the man who did it watching her. And the most heartbreaking part is when all the police arrived, and she just cried about needing to feed her animals. One of the saddest stories I've ever heard.
#16
There was a clip of an elderly woman calling 911 about a suspicious looking man outside, you hear the door creek open, then she screams bloody m****r and the call ends. There was no resolution. It's on YouTube somewhere.
#17
The video of the 9/11 attacks filmed by a NYU student from her dorm. It captures the feelings of confusion, shock, and hopelessness when they realize s**t just got completely real.
#18
Timothy Treadwell aka Grizzly Man. He went up close to the bears on multiple occasions. The most horrifying footage is the audio captured of his screams as a grizzly mauls him to death.
Partypants 1 month ago
This guy was an absolute nut job. Did more damage to those bears by constantly being in their space. Rowdy finally had enough.
#19
Stephen McDaniel peeping Tom video before he breaks into Lauren Gidding's apartment and k*lls her.
Edit: Bonus: McDaniel being interviewed several days later by local news as a "concerned friend.
Wysteria_Rose 1 month ago
The video of him being interviewed by a reporter is very unsettling. When they let it known to him that a body was discovered (they did not say it was hers b/c they couldn't confirm, just that the police had found one) he immediately blanks out and you see his life just drain away. He has to take a seat, and innocently you'd think it's b/c he's a caring friend, but no, it's because he realized he was done for and his life was over.
#20
The WTTW pirated broadcast that happened in Chicago 1987.
#21
The Estonia cruise/car ferry sunk in the Baltic Sea on 1994, taking an estimated 853 passengers with her into the deep, ice-cold water, in the middle of the night. Most people drowned in their cabins.
Just a handful of passengers managed to get out of the ship before she sunk, most of them freezing to death while waiting for the rescue :(
It might not be "found fotage", but here's the whole, actual mayday call and radio communications between her and the other ferries in the area. It's chilling that no one realized how bad the situation is, not the captain, and not the other boats, but you can hear the panic rising on the radio from the ship, as Estonia starts to tilt over and looses the electricity.
Even when the other boats arrive to the scene and Estonia is gone they just can't get their minds around the fact that this cozy, "safe" luxury hotel has been swallowed whole by the sea. Chilling, especially as someone from the Nordics who travel with these huge ferries fairy often...RIP :(
#22
Surprised no-one mentioned Unknown russian soldier yet. It's a video from the Kazaa era of a guy getting his throat slit. Cured me of all these kinds of videos. The sound the guy makes and the way the knife pretty much saws through his throat is forever ingrained in my mind.
Upstaged75 1 month ago
I accidentally watched the Daniel Pearl video. (He was beheaded) I wish I had known what it showed. I guess I didn't really believe until I saw it.
#23
Definitely the shooter's first-person view of the live on air shooting in Virginia last year.
David Houde 1 month ago
I saw that footage (if it's the one I'm thinking of). It was just so bizarre. The guy is filming himself pointing a gun at the newscaster who is giving her report, and her cameraman. He's only a couple of feet away and neither notice the gun until her starts firing. It was both surreal and terrifying at the same time.
#24
Definitely, definitely, *definitely* this dash cam footage from a strange road block in the middle of the highway in the middle of the night.
#25
The Leonard Lake footage. Now I am not 100% sure this is verified to actually be the video they found at lakes home. But it is incredibly unsettling. Lake was a serial m******r who had a t*****e chamber in his home. The video basically consists of him interviewing a woman about the terms of her imprisonment and talking about his desires with his partner in crime. The story is creepy as. Give him a Google.
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 1 month ago
A serial mudlarker who had a trifle chamber. That's terrifying.
#26
The death of Kelly Thomas has to Be one of the most disturbing ones.
Worst thing about the incident is the
fact that Kelly suffered from Schizophrenia and because of that saw his father just standing there watching.
And I think the police Officers who beat him to death got their charges dropped after a while.
John Dilligaf 1 month ago
Happened in Fullerton CA. Two of the three cops went to trial and were found not guilty. Charges were dropped against the third after the not guilty verdicts against the first two came in. All three were fired though and the police chief resigned.
#27
I don't know if you can still find the video online, but google Luka Rocco Magnotta. He filmed himself dismembering a young man he had just m******d... Then proceeded to mail body parts to different government institutions across Canada.
#28
A woman wakes up after giving birth without arms or legs.
I think this is especially disturbing because she supposedly got an infection in the hospital and that's why it happened.
#29
I wouldn't call it found footage, as such, but the recording that exists of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady torturing and murdering a child (without looking, I believe it was Leslie Ann Downey) with Little Drummer Boy playing in the background, is one of the most harrowing things I've heard of. My Aunt (who was one of the prison officers who was responsible for Hindley in the early years of her sentence), says its the worst thing she ever heard in her time (and she saw some bad stuff..).
#30
I always thought the Polaroids of the girl who was kidnapped and in that rickety tower with duct tape over her mouth were just terrible.
Jude Corrigan 4 weeks ago
I think this post refers to a polaroid picture of a teenage girl and a younger boy in the back of a van. Some people believe the teenage girl is Tara Calico(19) and the boy is Michael Paul Henley(9).
#31
Anyone got that footage of a b**b going off in a classroom(?) and eviscerating a woman that was in the room.
Then there's the guy who got arrested (I never found out what for), and wasn't searched when he was brought in. He was given a bottle of water and then the cop who was about to have a sit down with him walked out of the room. He took a sip from the bottle, pulled out a gun, and with one hand, flicked off the safety and put a bullet in the side of his head, without hesitation.
He's right in the middle of the frame the whole time, and you see blood flowing out the entrance wound, hear a groan from the moment he pulls the trigger that gets weaker over the following seconds, and his body goes from tense to limp. You literally see the life leave his body. It kinda makes you realize, that s**t isn't instant death.
Chich the witch 1 month ago
Read an account of first responders going to a s*****e. Guy had shot himself in the head but did not die right away. There was nothing they could do. Blew enough of his head away to ensure he wasn't going to make it but left enough so that he was conscious till the end as his eyes followed them around as they worked to get him ready for transport.
#32
The photos from the cellphones of the Dutch girls who went missing in South America scare the s**t out of me.
Upstaged75 1 month ago
They were taking pictures to use the light from the camera flash to find their way in the dark. Unfortunately they went hiking in a dense jungle unprepared and got very lost - and then died out there.
#33
I can't find the video but I recall a video of a number of workers getting electrocuted. When others come to investigate the power flips on again k*****g even more people. So eerie. They just drop.
#34
The night club fire. F**k that. I've seen some s**t, but that one stuck with me for a while.
#35
Three guys one hammer was a tad bit unsettling.
Upstaged75 1 month ago
From Google: Three guys one hammer" refers to the Dnepropetrovsk maniacs, three Ukrainian serial killers who committed a series of gruesome murders in the summer of 2007. The name is derived from a leaked cell phone video, "3 Guys 1 Hammer," showing two of the perpetrators brutally murdering a man.
#36
At the 5:36 mark of Vsauce their video "If", it shows and lets us hear what Americans would see and hear on radio/TV when a nuclear attack is happening. It honestly gives me a f**k-ton of chills just listening.
Lila Allen 1 month ago
The Day After was a movie shown in the US and it realistically depicted what would happen if there was a nuclear strike/war. It traumatized a generation and actually led to Ronald Regan changing his beliefs and starting nuclear disarmament
#37
The Valentich Disappearance. The original tapes have been destroyed, but there's a full transcript available, and several dramatic reenactments on youtube.
Valentich was flying a plane off the coast of Australia when he began to give a report about 'something' in the sky with him.
> Valentich: Is there any known traffic below five thousand [feet]?
> Robey: No known traffic.
> V: I am—seems [to] be a large aircraft below five thousand.
> R: What type of aircraft is it?
> V: I cannot affirm. It is [sic] four bright, it seems to me like landing lights. . . . The aircraft has just passed over me at least a thousand feet above.
The transcript continues for a few pages of Valentich describing this thing passing around his aircraft. The final part of the transcript is as follows:
> V: My intentions are, ah, to go to King Island. Ah, Melbourne, that strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again. [Silence for 2 seconds.] It is hovering, and it’s not an aircraft. [Silence for 17 seconds, open microphone, with audible, unidentified staccato noise. End of transcript.]
Although some theories suggest that the four bright 'landing lights' were just the planets Mars, Mercury, Venus, and Antares - which is a little goofy, as it might be quite difficult to confuse a planet for landing lights.
Wrecked pieces of Valentich's aircraft were later found washed up on several beaches around Australia.
#38
Theres a guy who dives i think its the red sea, with a gopro on and he decends further than his tank is fit for. Upon recovery they got the gopro, you basically just dive down with him and he dies.
Bob Brooce 1 month ago
If you descend fast enough to not run out of air a scuba cylinder is "fit" for a few thousand feet (you'll be dead much shallower). This post is probably about Yuri Lipski, who was attempting a deep dive and became severely disoriented as a result of nitrogen narcosis. Regular air becomes toxic due to the oxygen pressure at depths over 230' but the nitrogen can cause an effect similar to being drunk at far shallower depths.
#39
The recording of Byron Smith murdering two teens who broke into his house. He was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. super creepy and really NOT SAFE FOR WORK.
Upstaged75 1 month ago
Yes, those kids were incredibly stupid to break in, but he went completely overboard. He was not quite sane to begin with. They definitely picked the wrong house to rob!
#40
I can't remember the account name but this kid did a series of Slenderman videos that were ridiculously convincing. Still gives me chills thinking about them.
ArchangelLoki 1 month ago
I don’t think its the one referenced, but The Everyman Hybrid is a brilliant YouTube series for this.
#41
There is a video of a dude driving through Mexico on a dirt road at night and this crazy woman in white appears in front of his headlights and starts screaming and running up to his car and chasing him as he drives in reverse. Not going to try to find it.
#42
Sorry for the lack of details but there was a tv show about serial killers I watched and one of the murderers would abduct women off the street and record what he did to them in his basement. They didn't show that footage but they showed him on camera afterwards saying (Paraphrasing) '(Date and time) First victim, name... I don't know... (you can hear how that bothers him) *chuckles* and I don't give a F***.)' Eventually he got caught and hung himself in the back of a police van if that's any consolation.
#43
The dashcam footage of a young cop getting shot by a guy in a routine traffic stop. They show that video in police training.
Laserleader 1 month ago (edited)
That kind of PTSD is why cops shoot unarmed teens. Should be attached to actual numbers of incidents so cops are aware and careful, but not expecting EVERY interaction to lead to attacks. My 20 yr old sister was picking flowers on the side of the road and cops pulled up, so when she put the flowers in her car and saw the cop she stood back up the cop had his gun on her. Why? Because of this garbage.
#44
Poor Blockbuster employee attempting to do his job while a ghost is coming at him.
#45
The video of the chef that was found alive in sunken ship wreckage during a recovery mission by a scuba diver.
#46
Everybody knows about it but the Paris Catacombs footage.
EDIT: basically the story is a dude who illegally ran into the Paris catacombs (a massive underground burial place iirc, it has a lot of spooky skeletons) got lost and started recording. You can obviously see he's scared and eventually he drops his camera and starts running for an unknown reason.
#47
The creepiest thing I have ever seen is the dash cam footage where they are on the highway and some debris flies through the windshield and kills the person in the passenger seat, you see it go through the windshield, and a second later you hear the blood curdling scream of the driver who apparently just lost their loved one. It was the most heart wrenching, haunting noise I've ever experienced.
What do you think ?
Tea Drinker 1 month ago
Not sure how to express how I feel, but I guess I'd say this was eye-opening, i.e. that these particular crimes, etc. have footage/sound that's available to really just anyone. I mean, I knew it was, but seeing so many people post that they saw/heard it kind of got to me.
BrunoVI 1 month ago
Does Luis Wain's work count as footage? He's the guy that continued painting his popular series of cat paintings as he gradually became worse and worse afflicted with schizophrenia. At first, they seem like cool designs based on cats; as you understand what's happening more, they get more disturbing.
Mavis 1 month ago
Most of these are too gruesome and disturbing for me to look up. One video not on this list that I would recommend is the real time reaction of a group of male friends to the death of Princess Diana. They were having a get together at home and they were filming that, but they just happened to have their TV on in the background as the newsflash comes on about Diana. Their emotional reactions to it are very real and instant.
Lila Allen 1 month ago
The left out Bittaker and Norris, but I expect that is because those recordings are held by the FBI and not published anywhere for VERY VERY good reasons
PenguinEmp 1 month ago
Wow 3 down votes because I asked about the footage? Bp at it again
Load More Replies...
Earonn - 1 month ago
Not 911 but a German TV report about se.xual abvse of children did something quite clever (if horrifying): they broadcast a minute or two of a video of it. The screen went totally black and you could only hear the men (at least two) encourage each other to "push it in deeper" and the crying of the little child, it might have been around 5 years old. THAT hit hard. But it was good they did it. People are too willing to look away, or aren't aware how awful things really are. A good shock to the system.
Tea Drinker 1 month ago
Not sure how to express how I feel, but I guess I'd say this was eye-opening, i.e. that these particular crimes, etc. have footage/sound that's available to really just anyone. I mean, I knew it was, but seeing so many people post that they saw/heard it kind of got to me.
BrunoVI 1 month ago
Does Luis Wain's work count as footage? He's the guy that continued painting his popular series of cat paintings as he gradually became worse and worse afflicted with schizophrenia. At first, they seem like cool designs based on cats; as you understand what's happening more, they get more disturbing.
Mavis 1 month ago
Most of these are too gruesome and disturbing for me to look up. One video not on this list that I would recommend is the real time reaction of a group of male friends to the death of Princess Diana. They were having a get together at home and they were filming that, but they just happened to have their TV on in the background as the newsflash comes on about Diana. Their emotional reactions to it are very real and instant.
Lila Allen 1 month ago
The left out Bittaker and Norris, but I expect that is because those recordings are held by the FBI and not published anywhere for VERY VERY good reasons
PenguinEmp 1 month ago
Wow 3 down votes because I asked about the footage? Bp at it again
Load More Replies... Earonn - 1 month ago
Not 911 but a German TV report about se.xual abvse of children did something quite clever (if horrifying): they broadcast a minute or two of a video of it. The screen went totally black and you could only hear the men (at least two) encourage each other to "push it in deeper" and the crying of the little child, it might have been around 5 years old. THAT hit hard. But it was good they did it. People are too willing to look away, or aren't aware how awful things really are. A good shock to the system.
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