Fictional horror stories — whether they come in books or movies — rely on artistic devices to creep us out. But real-life terror doesn't need a droning score or sudden jump scares. The mere fact that a person has actually experienced something horrifying implies that it could also happen to us — and that's what makes it hard to shake. One Reddit post asked platform users to name the creepiest verified pieces of found footage they've ever stumbled upon, and their answers remind us that some nightmares strike while you're still awake.
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I'm going to go with the man they found alive in a sunken tugboat 3 days after it capsized.
I can't imagine the guy's feelings of both terror and relief when the diver found him.
That is the look of a man in shock. I can't even imagine.
Load More Replies...I feel aweful for the guy, and very happy he survived.. that being said, lets take a moment for the sheer terror the diver probably felt when his foot was tugged by what he thought at first was a 'living dead' guy. No one was expected to be alive, then some guy, without acuba gear is tugging your foot, that far down under water, after days... i woulda had a heart attack.
Omayra Sanchez's picture, when she was slowly dying, in Colombia, after the 1985 eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano.
There's something about these dark eyes, and her resigned look that just gives me chills everytime I look at that picture. There was a huge scandal afterwards, about how long it took the government to send help. People around couldn't help her as she was trapped under some part of her house that collapsed, and she slowly died over the course of 60 hours.
I was a young child when this happened so I had to Google. Apparently they spend several hours trying to extract her but she was encased in concrete from the waist down with her legs at odd angles. It was determined that the way her legs were pinned she would be snapped in half it they completed the procedure. Doctors were brought to the scene to try to amputate her legs. They couldn't amputate because the doctors could not access that part of her body, as she was encased all the way to her waist. It was ultimately concluded they was simply no way to free her without k*****g her in the process. The black eyes and white hands are symptoms of gangrene, or tissue death from lack of blood circulation. That is likely what k****d her, but she also has symptoms of hypothermia, so unclear which k****d her.
I think the way I wrote my post could possibly be upsetting, but I do believe she should have been able to be euthanized in her families arms before she suffered death from water related injuries including temperature.
Load More Replies...I had always wondered about her black eyes. Then we had to put a much-loved elderly dog down...and her eyes turned black as she was dying. I will never forget it. This poor girl; her mother's heart must have been breaking.
If they could take this picture how could the not get someone in there to help her?
If I'm standing next to e.g. a large concrete slab, I can make a photo of it very easily, but sure as heck can't lift it. Lots of people worked around this poor soul to help, nut they sadly did not succeed. This was a rural area, not an American metropolis. There were no firefighters with large trucks and all sorts of heavy equipment. Just a bunch of villagers with sticks and stones.
Load More Replies...I remember her, always have. Truly heartbreaking. She spoke with the journalist during this. It's a video I'm not watching again
When I first heard about her, I was still very young and for a long time I didn't understand why she couldn't be rescued, as it appeared to me that it could have get done rather effortlessly...I was way to dumb to comprehend that there simply was no place where she could have been taken to survive, in an infrastructural meaning of the whole matter......😔
There is a 450 mile highway stretch in British Columbia, Canada, where 40 or more women have gone missing from in the past 48 years. They call this stretch the "Highway of tears." Most the women were aboriginal and were hitch hiking. Authorities suspect this to be the work of one, or more, serial killers who use this stretch of road because of how vast and often unoccupied it is. One of the missing women, Amber Tuccaro, was on the phone with her brother when she was picked up by the last man to see her alive. They pass around that recording to see if anyone recognizes the man's voice, but what gets me is that she is already worried when shes talking to her brother. She hides her phone at her side so he can hear what shes saying and she demands to know where they are going and telling him that they aren't where he promised to take her. Very sad to hear first hand what many women must have sounded like as they realized their fatal mistake in taking that ride. I hope they find the b*****d.
The scariest part is that it's not just the work of one b*****d. When pickton was first caught many believed the disappearances would stop. While he may have been behind some of the deaths they did not stop (obviously).
Picton? He operated in Vancouver and concentrated on lower east side hookers. I used to live along "The Highway of tears" and it is a 10+ hour drive north.
Load More Replies...The problem is not safe transportation and poverty and govt omission. These stories are always written like they were just hanging out hitchhiking for no reason. Truth is their home might be 10-20 miles from a crappy gas station/grocery story and they don't own cars. This is a result of their culture being torn apart by colonialism and lets throw in alcohol, because that is a factor in a few of the deaths. But basically lack of safe transportation is really the number one reason these women are so vulnerable.
Yup. Problem where I live also. So many native American women missing, from all tribes. There is a complete breakdown of government intervention and a lack of trust of government created from years and years of oppression and a***e. It's not an easy problem to overcome at this point, and so many women have been taken and put into human trafficking rings. Law enforcement can only seem to arrest the Johns but fails to figure out the key players.
Load More Replies...Sounds like what happened with the green river killer. There's an assumption by the public that it was one person (Gary Ridgeway) while law enforcement suspects there was more than one killer. Pretty sure this many women over a 48 year period isn't just one person.
There is something similar Texas called the Texas K*lling Fields
What in the actual F*CK is wrong with you? Pathetic.Blessings on you, apparently much needed.
Load More Replies...Sometimes people have trouble determining which found footage is real and which was created for entertainment.
The horror subgenre has evolved from its humble beginnings into one that blurs the lines between reality and fiction and has produced quite a few hits on the big screen.
This storytelling technique typically presents the narrative as if it were discovered film or video recordings, portraying events through the perspective of characters involved, often accompanied by their real-time, off-camera commentary.
The genre's effectiveness lies in its ability to immerse audiences in horror that feels more immediate and personal.
The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans
Found this one posted on reddit a few months back and got captivated by the story. Basically, a German family underestimated the American desert and tried driving from Nevada to California off-road in a stock rental minivan. After getting stuck in the middle of nowhere they ventured off in search of help. The van was found weeks later and triggered a massive search effort. Rescuers found clues and searched extensively in the direction they thought they traveled. No bodies were found until the stubborn author searched a completely different direction no one thought they would take years later.
I can recommend following the link in red above, it's a very interesting & informative read about the search for the remains of the missing people
If anyone's interested, it's called The Death Valley Germans. They were led astray by a bad map in a tourist book and thought they could get help at a military base marked on another map, not realizeing that bases in the SW are just tracts of endless desert with no patrols or anything else. Very sad story about people not realizing where they were or what they should be doing. Never drive off the pavement in the SW.
I read about this story quite a bit. After becoming lost, they headed out in the direction of a somewhat nearby military base for help, thinking it would be patrolled with a manned perimeter like the American bases they were familiar with back in Germany. However, nothing had prepared them for the vast, desolate area of the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Center (after all, what better place to test weaponry than in a desolate area). Imagine the “oh s**t” moment when they crossed the hill and saw nothing but desert where they thought they’d find rescue.
The desert can be a very scary place even in daylight. We use to live in the desert. We would get lost at night. When it's dark it's really scary.
The author of the article linked to (the red print just above the text). He and a friend found the remains 13 years after the family got lost.
Load More Replies...Just read the above article. Heck of a read. Reaffirms my desire to NEVER try to camp in DV National Park
More tragic than creepy but the people who lost their parents to the 2004 Tsunami got hold of their parent's last photos of being happy on holiday and the waves coming in.
>"At first I didn't want to even look at them. Then once I looked at them a few more times times I got to really stare at them," Knill says.
>"I saw that the waves were just so huge and powerful and people were just standing there."
>Knill says he does feel some comfort in what he can only imagine as his parents last few moments alive.
>"I just picture my parents hugging each and knowing it would happen and taking pictures, just in case someone found the camera and it did survive, they'd have something to see.".
I am having flashbacks to the movie Deep Impact. Where the hero's parents were not allowed in the bunker, and you watch them embracing as the shock wave from the meteor comes for them
Any black box recording where a plane is crashing and the pilots slowly realise they are going to crash with all the passagers on board.
It's very chilling.
The one from the German Wing flight that crashed in the French Alps. The pilot desperately trying to axe the cockpit door open after the copilot locked himself in...
If you don't know the copilot had suic!dal tendencies. He was being treated and had been declared unfit for work, but he didn't report it. When the pilot was out of the cockpit he locked the door and changed the code so no one else could get in. Captain was unable to break down the door and everyone on board died. Last audio recording is of the passengers screaming. Horrifying. And I can't believe there was no law requiring the doctor contact the employer directly to advise he wasn't fit for duty. Should be required for any profession where you're responsible for other people's lives.
Load More Replies...There is a show called Mayday air disasters that show the whole investigations of plane crashes
Yes! I highly reccomend that show. It's currently available for free on Tubi.
Load More Replies...Knowing your going down and there's nothing you can do about it...
The photo is of an American airplane that crash landed in Iceland. Nobody died.
The black box records mechanical, such as altitude, flight control positions, air speed, . . Audio records the pilots screams and prayers. p.s. the black box is red.
The Cockpit Voice Recorder, or CVR, is what records the audio in the cockpit, so investigators can hear conversations and whether procedures were being followed correctly, as well hints at every crew member’s mental state. The Flight Data Recorder, or FDR, is what catches all the operating data, to tell investigators what was going on mechanically at the time of the crash that the crew may not even have been aware of.
Load More Replies...The subgenre gained significant traction with films like The Blair Witch Project (1999), which capitalized on the then-nascent internet culture to promote the film as a real documentary.
This marketing strategy, combined with the movie's minimalist approach, created a sense of authenticity that resonated with audiences. Subsequent productions, such as Paranormal Activity (2007), continued to explore this format.
It was audio tape, not film: When I first started working with nuclear submarine programs in the 90s, we had to go to "training" (really just a presentation) about the Sub Safe program, which is an extraordinary QA program enforced for nuclear subs. They played audio of the USS SCORPION sinking and breaking up as a result of an equipment failure.
I don't remember the exact number, but the entire crew perished.
I watched "The Station" when I was at a fire safety course. Everyone should see that. A nice party with a band turned distaster and initially noone saw the danger. A man filmed the whole event, he evacuated slowly and within a minute or two dead bodies piled up against the wiindows.
There is no recording of the implosion that is known to have ever existed.
This picture of three girls taking a selfie next to a railroad track.
All three are k****d moments later by the train behind them they didn't see. You can see its light right behind them.
The girls were looking at the train coming towards them failing to notice another train approaching from behind. Stay well away from railway tracks.
Teens are not the most intelligent. Source "I have been a teenager and have done really stupid stuff"
Load More Replies...One girl initially survived, but died a while later. 2 of them were sisters - so the poor parents lost both kids that day.
Many people don't realize that the train is much wider than the wheels and track. Many people stand too close for a selfie and get hit by the train.
There is a video of a guy filming a train and so focused on it that he does not see another coming on the track he is leaning over. Somebody runs up and pulls him away just in time.
There were those photos of the guy that went out in the bush and ended up dying (they made that movie about it) he was living in a bus?
Chris McCandless - those photos always creeped me out. (Its late so i'm not going to look at them before I sleep).
And then all these idiots who thought his story was "inspirational" went there to take selfies and s**t, and also died. The local authorities removed the bus in the end to put a stop to it.
Read both "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer's and "The Wild Truth" by McCandless's sister, Carine McCandless.
Yeah, this is the current feeling about him churned out by the socials. Most people don't know about his family life. His father's other wife and children and other shocking sh@t that sent him on this journey. Anyone who's been in the wilderness knows it can turn on you fast. Tragically there was a crossing a few miles down he didn't know about, so he felt stuck. I find it fitting with the zeitgeist that his personal tragedy gets the typical fragile male rage that was so unlike Chris's true nature. I've read Krakauer and his sister's biography. He just made a mistake and didn't know how to fix it. Alaska just happens to be the place you don't want to get stuck during winter and not having adequate food. Anyhow I know I will get down voted, but I am super sick of this angry bullsheet response over him, like people project their own anger onto him. FFS, he was a kid, for all intents and purposes, stuck.
Load More Replies...Alaska is a dream, but those who grow up there KNOW better than to go out untrained. We have survival trips in middle school, where we get dropped on a island with a visqueen and a coffee can stuffed with whatever supplies fit (firestarter, rice, compass, etc). Those three days teach us a lot about what it really takes. I got best solo survivalsit.
Some people want to make it out to be something profound and deep, and it's really just some guy who didn't account for all the factors OR his own limitations. And then people try to follow him and find the bus like it's s frickin' tourist attraction. I'm sorry, but idiots, one and all.
The research paper “A Corpus of Debunked and Verified User-Generated Videos,” developed by MKLab at the Information Technologies Institute (ITI) in Greece, explored the challenge of distinguishing real from fake videos online. The study compiled a dataset of 380 user-generated videos (UGVs), including 200 videos that had been debunked and 180 that were verified as authentic. In addition, the dataset contained 5,195 near-duplicate reposts, reflecting how content spreads across social media.
The dataset also tracked user comments, which can help identify fake videos or confirm real ones. The results revealed that YouTube videos get far more comments than Facebook or X (formerly Twitter), and real videos often attract more immediate engagement than fake ones. Fake videos, however, tend to accumulate comments steadily over time, sometimes years later, as old videos are reposted across the internet. Many fake videos are near-duplicates that receive few comments, so only a few reposts make a big impact. Overall, fake videos stay active and engaging for longer than real ones.
The takeaway? Make sure the found footage is real before you trust it.
This one where whole indian family swept away in water. Near a dam
I can't believe how fast that happened! It says the father and 2 daughters died, but the 2 sons lived - which is incredible based on how far they fell down the waterfall.
This was horrible. And they didnt seem to understand the danger, had they run right away they prob would have made it
Unfortunately we rarely act rationally while panicked :(
Load More Replies...
Scuba diver Yuri Lipski died at just over 300 feet underwater. When a diver went to retrive Lipski's body at the request of his parents, he made an unnerving discovery: the footage captured by Lipski's helmet camera was still intact. The doomed diver had recorded his own death.
At this depth, the body is subject to nitrogen narcosis, which can play havoc on the mind by inducing overconfidence, euphoria, hallucinations, confusion, and impaired judgment. It didn't help that Lipski had just one tank full of air — technical divers are better served by multiple tanks filled with trimix, a combination of oxygen, nitrogen, and helium that reduces narcosis.
Yuri was an idiot. He wasn't trained or qualified to make the dive, but did it anyway. Even after several experienced instructors told him not to because it was so dangerous. And he went alone. All because he wanted to post it on social media. 🙄
Social media is (in part) the modern version of the old "remove the warning labels and let the problem of idiots solve itself"-joke.
Load More Replies...Waterline Stories on youtube does a good explanation. It's odd how hostile people are when someone makes a mistake. The guy who does waterline stories explains what Yuri was trying to do without the anonymous social media vitriol. Worth watching.
There's a reason they had to send hard hat divers down to get his body.
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.
He was only qualified for night flights in specific weather conditions with specific instrument training. He was a UFO enthusiast. And by all accounts, not a very competent pilot, consistently failing commercial pilots exams and flying without following the rules, which suggests that he is more likely to have crashed rather than be taken by aliens. The authorities reckoned he became disoriented in the dark conditions.
I last read that they think he was seeing his own planes lights reflecting off of clouds. Mixed with his delirium and flying upside down. He really got confused.
Load More Replies...Once read of a co pilot who had been napping on a long flight waking up and going into a dive as they mistook Venus for an approaching aircraft so it is possible. Found the item- https://thefactbase.com/in-2011-the-pilot-of-an-air-canada-flight-saw-venus-in-its-brightness-he-thought-it-was-an-oncoming-plane-and-took-emergency-procedures-to-avoid-colliding/
Mercury is never that bright or visible, it's too close to the Sun, it's more likely to have been Jupiter if it were celestial. Antares is only the 15th brightest star in the night sky, so highly unlikely to have been confused with a landing light.
There was a bear enthusiast in Alaska who recorded himself getting close to grizzlies.
There is audio footage of him being mauled by a hungry bear.
Edit: I think the documentary about him is called Grizzly Man (doesn't include audio footage) if anybody is curious about his story.
Timothy Treadwell born Timothy William Dexter. Quite frankly, he was arrogant and his death by mauling was inevitable. It's sad he took his girlfriend with him.
I saw the documentary. His girlfriend allowed herself to be persuaded to go with him and she was so scared.
Load More Replies...And his girlfriend. He was told multiple times to leave the bears alone and did a nice Darwin award.
Any idiot that wants to hug and kiss wild bears will learn painful lessons about wild bears.
I watched a show about him on Animal Planet sum years ago. The guy gave me the creeps.
The audio is locked away, any video you find claiming to be the true audio is fake or a re-creation.
The audio is also said to contain the sound of his girlfriend hitting the bear with a fry pan, in an attempt to save Timothy.
The podcast National Parks After Dark did an episode on him. They played part of the recording and it's a rough listen.
I believe there is a reasonable official explanation, but there were some Dutch hikers that went missing in Panama. The last photos they found are kinda creepy (though they were either taking them as a light source or to try to attract the search parties).
Didn't the pictures show someone following them? Or a shadow of a person at times near them? This may be the wrong story, but I'm not googling this as I already can't sleep lol.
No, they just got massively lost and were likely using the camera flash for light. There were no other people in any of the pics.
Load More Replies...There was no stalker involved in this case. They just went out unprepared and got lost.
Load More Replies... This one always messed with me.
Oh FFS my top rated post is now about a girl being eaten alive by bears.
Oh my god. This is the most horrific thing I've read in several years. And comments under the story are disgusting. "She should've had a gun!" - yeah, guys, it's Russia, not Texas, USA. Regular civilians don't have guns here. "They ventured into bear's habitat!!!" - that's a small town in Siberia. Bears are sometimes spotted near garbage bins there. So much victimblaming and ignorance.
1 in 5 Russian citizens report to having firearms... fyi.
Load More Replies...Hose me down, I clicked on a "Daily Mail" link. There should be a warning on that link.
They shot and ki11ed the bear and her cubs, that is horrible. They were just trying to find food. They are wild animals, that is their natural behavior. (Not saying it wasn't as equally horrible what happened to Olga and her step-dad)
Honey, you do not want human habituated bears eating more humans. Bears aren't stupid, they find a source of food they will go back.
Load More Replies...I don't know. I'm not trying to be insensitive, but this kind of stuff happens a lot. I'm more surprised that Olga was conscious at all.
I read it some time ago and it still gives me shudders every now and then.
Seems like I'm late to this, If I'm not, my friend recently had her face mauled by a dog. The day after it happened I had to send someone an image form my phone. After opening my gallery I saw a pic I had forgotten I'd taken the previous night. The photo of my friend hugging the dog (hours before the incident) sent chills down my spine.
Edit: I'll pass all the love you've send today to her, thanks gals and guys :).
I'm not sure what you mean by verified, but I remember an incident from Northern Ohio back in the 90s. Someone found a video camera lying in the middle of a pasture. When they checked the recording, they found very creepy B&W footage that included someone who looked deceased. Where the footage came from and how it got there was a mystery.
A few weeks later it came out that the footage was from a video shoot from the band Nine Inch Nails, which was a new and up and coming band from Northern Ohio at the time. They had suspended the camera from a helium balloon, trying to get an overhead shot, and the balloon broke away and disappeared. At some point it must have landed in that pasture.
So it wasn't a deceased person after all, just creepy footage from a creepy band.
We had a similar event where a shark was found in a swedish town. Like, we dont have sharks at all. Everone was puzzeled. Later a band confessed to have bought a frozen shark carcass for a video and left it there as a joke.
Reminds me of the time a room was unsealed and was full of blood smeared all over the place and such. Turned out it'd been used to film a horror movie and the filmmakers left it as-is in case they needed to do some reshoots and then forgot all about it. And now I'm wondering what movie it was...
Some guy floating on a piece of wood gets shot to death by the crew of an unknown ship.
"A video shows at least four unarmed men being gunned down in the water. Despite dozens of witnesses, the killings went unreported and remain a mystery."
"'Shoot, shoot, shoot!' commands a voice over one of the ship’s loudspeakers as the final man is k****d. Soon after, a group of men on deck who appear to be crew members laugh among themselves, then pose for selfies."
Click on the word "video" in red, which is linked to the story in the New York Times.
Load More Replies...What "cartel boats"? No one has seen any evidence to suggest America is striking "cartel boats". We do know the US is illegally murdering people and we do know the US president is desperate to distract away from his many scandals.
Load More Replies...A teenage arsonist's tapes were found. The other footage at the end where he is pretending to be a vampire is also very creepy.
Investigators got 1,600 calls and possible leads from people across the nation after the videotape was shown on the national television program 'Unsolved Mysteries.'
Investigators were given the tape after a family whose car had broken down found it wrapped in an old military fatigue jacket beside Highway 205 near Stockton, Calif. in August 1989.
The tape shows flames consuming a house at night as an eerie voice whispers, 'Ancient spirit of evil. Look at it. The fire department is trying to put it out. What a laugh.'
The unseen narrator, breathing heavily and laughing, spoke to someone named 'Omar.' Some investigators thought it could be a reference to Satan.
This has been solved, I just watched a YouTube vid of it last night. The teens were sent to juvi.
Omar was probably the other guy (dear god why is always people from our own kind that end up doing this???? And I end up getting blamed for it!)
I always found the one where a couple is on their honeymoon and playing around in waist high water at the edge of a lake. Suddenly the ground gives way and they are struggling to stay above the water until finally you don't see them anymore and the water goes calm.
Yup, and it looks like he pulls her in while he panics. Very poor quality footage and nothing to be gained by watching it.
Load More Replies...The guy loses his footing and pulls her down with him. The guy was an a*s AND a bad swimmer.
A man died getting lost in the catacombs underneath Paris and they found this footage of his last few hours desperately trying to find a way out. Chilling stuff.
This one maybe, but there's evidence of other people getting lost and dying in the catacombs.
Load More Replies...I was downvoted for noting the picture BP shared was boring while providing a more interesting picture. Gosh, I wonder why this could happen.
Load More Replies...Even if this was fake don't go down in catacombs alone. I am not sure but they are like a maze down there. Take a experienced guide with you that knows the catacombs or anywhere you can get lost.
It's a cool little tour, done it twice. They do check bags so don't steal any bones!
Load More Replies...There are sandstone caves near where I live. There have been people going missing in them years ago unfortunately, also teenagers. Ofcourse the caves entrances are locked (now, not sure how it was then).
Some of the polls on bp are *incomprehensibly stupid and pointless. This being a prime example.
BP, can't you just delete all these "I'm making big bucks" messages on comments?!? IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE...IT IS.
The CCTV recordings of the abduction of James Bulger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M****r_of_James_Bulger
I'll add the memory card with Brian Smith's recording of the ending of a lady (thanks BP) at a hotel (Marriott?) in Alaska. I haven't seen it but That Chapter read a description that was absolutely horrifying. I'm glad that ásshát is behind bars.
Some of the polls on bp are *incomprehensibly stupid and pointless. This being a prime example.
BP, can't you just delete all these "I'm making big bucks" messages on comments?!? IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE...IT IS.
The CCTV recordings of the abduction of James Bulger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M****r_of_James_Bulger
I'll add the memory card with Brian Smith's recording of the ending of a lady (thanks BP) at a hotel (Marriott?) in Alaska. I haven't seen it but That Chapter read a description that was absolutely horrifying. I'm glad that ásshát is behind bars.
