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This Online Group Shares Creepy Old Photos And These 27 Are Pretty Unsettling (New Pics)
As a photographer, you hold a lot of power in your hands in terms of making your audience feel a certain way. When you focus on spine-tingling subject matter and play around with the lighting, you can create images that might chill people decades after being taken.
‘Old School Creepy’ is an online community that embraces the slightly cursed vibes found in vintage photos. We’ve curated some of the scariest ones for your viewing pleasure. But be warned, you might not want to look at some of these twice.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Two Psychologists In The 1930s Adopted A Baby Chimp And Tried To Raise Her Alongside Their Own Baby Boy, Donald, To See If This Caused The Chimp To Learn Human Behavior
After nine months, they stopped the experiment because their son started behaving more like a chimp
Billo66 1 week ago
I propose instead of "Karen" we use "Donald" Ok Donald, whatever you say Donald, Stop being such a Donald.
P R 1 week ago
Ah, no. I know 3 people named Donald, and they are all very nice people. Let's not use a real person's name.
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glowworm2 1 week ago
Gua, the chimp, was returned to a primate center, where she lived until she died from pneumonia in December 1933, just after her third birthday. Donald grew up but faced challenges, with his father noting the difficulties in adjusting after Gua left. Donald later died by s*****e in 1973.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
This just meant that the human was more observant and had a greater capacity for altering his behavior. Which is not unexpected.
RELATED:
#2
Max Schreck Relaxes Behind The Scenes Of Nosferatu, 1922
Premislaus de Colo 1 week ago
His characterisation is so evocative that it seems only he was relaxing there...
persephone134 1 week ago
And that is his real name. What is that in his face though? It's not his real nose.
#3
A Letter From Schizophrenic Patient Emmy Hauck To Her Husband.
It consists only phrase “herzensschatzi komm” (darling please come) and “komm komm komm” (come, come, come ) repeated over and over.
Toujin C'Thlu 1 week ago
Poor woman, I can only imagine what she went through in one of those institutions
ƒιѕн 1 week ago
Emma Hauck (1878–1920) was a German outsider artist known for the letters she wrote to her husband while in a mental hospital. The letters were never delivered but are now regarded as art for their abstraction and repetition.
PeepPeep the duck 1 week ago
As an artist it is creepy that it became art based on it’s aesthetic when they are letters calling for help etc
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Dee Hampton 1 week ago
As I live with schizophrenia, I can tell you that we tend to repeat ourselves because we feel that no-one is listening to us
Laserleader 1 week ago
Probably not. Back then once you went in, there was no coming out.
Load More Replies...Typically, when somebody gets scared or finds themselves in a dangerous or stressful situation, we talk about their fight or flight response activating. However, your body can also go into freeze or fawn mode, two lesser-discussed stress responses.
Broadly speaking, these stress responses are your body’s way to survive and return to a calm, relaxed state by decreasing, ending, or evading danger.
#4
A Rare Photo Of The Notorious Couple Bonnie And Clyde, 1933
Stephanie A Mutti 1 week ago
I was thinking,,, well Bonnie was cute but Clyde,,,, no Warren Beatty for sure.
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Serial pacifist 1 week ago (edited)
Yes, they were notorious, but the photo is neither creepy or unsettling, as the article title suggests.
ƒιѕн 1 week ago
I think Bonnie is holding her pet rabbit Sonny Boy that was an easter gift from her mother Emma Parker
WookiesMaMa 1 week ago
I think this was when they were at Bonnie's family picnic. I am probably wrong.
Purple Gurl 6 days ago
Story goes-that position is her at her most comfortable. She was badly injured during an escape and could barely walk
KC Lancaster 2 days ago
I think this is before that since there aren't any bandages or dressings on her leg. Per Wikipedia, "...while driving with Jones and Parker near Wellington, Texas, ... the car flipped into a ravine. Sources disagree on whether there was a gasoline fire or if Parker was doused with acid from the car's battery under the floorboards,... but she sustained third-degree burns to her right leg, so severe that the muscles contracted and caused the leg to "draw up". Jones observed: 'She'd been burned so bad none of us thought she was gonna live. The hide on her right leg was gone from her hip down to her ankle. I could see the bone at places'."
Load More Replies... #5
A 16th Century Plague Doctors Mask
Floeckchen 1 week ago (edited)
they put herbs and other strong scented stuff into the "beak" because they believed that the plaque was spread through miasma
Laura Gillette 1 week ago
I understand they put herbs and flowers in the "beak" because they thought the disease was spread by "bad air", but why did it have to be pointy?
#6
It Drinks
detective miller's hat 1 week ago
I have one of these, though it does not nearly as good as this one. Found it in a junk shop and it came with a tiny plastic baby in the cup.
Michael Largey 1 week ago
I offer a better deal. Give me the bottle, and you can keep the batteries.
The fight response activates if your body perceives that you can realistically outfight the danger you’re in. Similarly, your flight response is your body signaling that you have a chance of outrunning the source of the danger, WebMD states.
A freeze response is exactly what it sounds like: you freeze up and feel stuck in place because your body doesn’t believe that you can either outfight or outrun the danger.
Meanwhile, a fawn response is typically used after an unsuccessful attempt to fight, flee, or freeze up, and involves you becoming highly agreeable and helpful to the source of the danger to try to soothe them.
#7
Empress Elisabeth’s Mourning Mask And Veil, 1889
John Dilligaf 1 week ago
wish they would include context in these posts:,,,,,,,,Elisabeth (Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie) (Dec 1837-Sept 1898) Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from April 1854 until her assassination in Sept 1898. The mourning mask and veil was for the Jan 1889 death of her only son, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria and heir apparent to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
persephone134 1 week ago
Of course. She hated the fact that she was aging. She hated public appointments. She did not want to present herself to the public in mourning. She was 52 when her son died.
Laura Deckers 1 day ago
In 1889, Elisabeth's life was shattered by the death of her only son Rudolf, who was found dead together with his young lover Baroness Mary Vetsera, in what was suspected to be a m****r–s*****e on Rudolf's part. The scandal was known as the "Mayerling incident" after the location of Rudolf's hunting lodge in Lower Austria, where they were found. After Rudolf's death she was thought to have dressed only in black for the rest of her life
#8
Maria Rasputina Holding A Portrait Of Her Father, Grigory Rasputin, 1972
SCP 4666 1 week ago
Great, now I must complete the line.....Russia's greatest love machine🎶
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Hippopotamuses 1 week ago
It surprises me that Rasputin's children used his name. Rasputin isn't a surname, it's Russian for 'debauched.' His actual name was Gregori Novykh.
Andy Frobig 1 week ago
This is something that bugs me about American writers...when Marvel Comics wanted a couple of Russian X-Men, they named them Rasputin. It isn't a real name, and it's lazy
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olaff 422 1 week ago
We, as a society, has really elevated that weird s*x pest to weird levels.
#9
A Clean-Cut Charles Manson On His Wedding Day In 1955
Danielle Hardesty 1 week ago
Who knows who he might have been had lobotomies been outlawed always.
The ‘Old School Creepy’ subreddit’s roots stretch all the way back to 2014, when it was first created. Originally, it was meant to be a place for “eerie nostalgia, vintage horror, and creepy things from the past,” and the group has stuck to this ever since.
For more than a decade, the members of this online community have been gently scaring each other, as well as casual visitors from other groups, with photos that they’ve dug up from the past.
According to the moderators, you shouldn’t post anything modern or off-topic in the group. “If it doesn’t feel like it crawled out of the past, it doesn’t belong here,” they stress. What’s more, everyone is encouraged to avoid reposting photos that have already been shared before.
#10
17th Century Metal Mask That Was Used To Restrain Individuals Who Were Considered To Be Insane
NapQueen 1 week ago
I'm Bipolar and the thought that this could have been me in the 17th century - hurts my heart :(
Upstaged75 1 week ago
And if they weren't already insane, they would be after wearing that mask!
Dee Hampton 1 week ago
How true. The treatment is often worse than the condition
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Pamela Scott 1 day ago
If they weren't insane before they were put 8n that I bet that made them go insane! Makes me think of Doctor's Cybermen
#11
People Used To Believe That Cavities Were Caused By Demons Boring Holes In Teeth.
Laserleader 1 week ago
Almost every event related to "demons" in history can be attributed to germs. So yeah if you dont know what to call them demon works.
Andy Frobig 1 week ago
Not gonna bother looking up "We! Make! Holes in teeth!" in Latin
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Oskar vanZandt 1 week ago
Having endured several root canal treatments, I'm pretty sure the demons lived in the abscesses under my teeth!
#12
Photo Of Two Women With Super Long Hair
ƒιѕн 1 week ago
Two sisters from 1895, New York . Formal portraits like this were often carefully composed, with subjects sitting or standing in a dignified manner. Their expressions are likely a mix of solemnity and formality, as smiling in photographs was not common in that era.
Mel in Georgia 1 week ago
Both my grandmother and great aunt (her sister) had magnificent long hair that they would put up in a bun every day. I remember seeing it down when we visited and being absolutely fascinated by it.
TheOGpandaHavana 1 week ago
They look like they truly are miserable. I've been feeling that way all day and yet, I know now that it could feel so much worse.
Kevin Hickey 1 week ago
Jan's hair isn't as long as mine!!! ..........Marsha Marsha Marsha!!!!!!
Previously, during an in-depth interview, Bored Panda spoke with two of the moderators of the subreddit, Seryan_Klythe and TheOddityCollector. They shared their thoughts about both the online community they’ve built and the unsettling vintage photos that the members of the group focus on.
"The subreddit was created for people who enjoy the eerie feeling of old photos. Unlike modern horror, old pictures can be creepy in a more subtle way—through strange expressions, outdated fashion, or imperfections in the photo itself," moderator TheOddityCollector told us earlier.
#13
W.c. Fields As Humpty Dumpty In Alice In Wonderland (1933)
Michael Largey 1 week ago
The makers of The Wizard of Oz wanted Fields to play the wizard, but he was under contract to another studio.
#14
The Moon From The French 1902 Movie A Trip To The Moon
JokerMan774 1 week ago
Could not agree with you more! I just watched a ton of his movies on youtube back to back the other night. I wish they had all been saved. He was truly a visionary!
Load More Replies... Multa Nocte 1 week ago
Wiki Diki --> " . . . a 1902 French science-fiction adventure trick film written, directed and produced by Georges Méliès. Inspired by the Jules Verne novel From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and its sequel Around the Moon (1870), the film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return to Earth with a captive Selenite. Méliès leads an ensemble cast of French theatrical performers as the main character Professor Barbenfouillis."
Lee Gilliland 1 week ago
Check out his stuff on YouTube, he was brilliant. Most of this movie was in color, not because they had color film back then, but because he hand-painted each frame.
#15
22 Yr-Old Charlie Johns Reading The Bible To His 9 Yr-Old Bride, Eunice Winstead. They Married In 1937 And Went On To Have 9 Children Together
Saltypepper 1 week ago
What kind of parents allow their 9 year old to mery a 22 year old that's sickening
Roxy222uk 1 week ago
They see no other future for her. A poor family, no hope of education and a job. Perhaps they couldn’t really afford to feed her? I wouldn’t have done it, but I can see how to some at the time it would have seemed like the least worst option.
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ann millington 6 days ago
Maybe they didn't have s*x until she was older. If they married because her family could not afford to keep her at home, it's entirely possible they didn't Why brand him as a pedophile?
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Emma London 4 days ago
The is one reason and there is a special place in hell for them.
Load More Replies... Oskar vanZandt 1 week ago
I just cannot imagine a 22yo man and a 9yo girl having much, if anything, in common... Besides it being morally reprehensible.
Rebecca Joan 1 week ago
Idk if it was cuz of old times or what not, but they did stay together until he died. So 🤷🏻♀️
PeepPeep the duck 1 week ago (edited)
Going by her accounts from a live interview she did - she had fond memories of their time together and marriage etc she says he always treated her well. - I don’t personally like it, but that’s her life and that is how she viewed it. I suppose by comparison of other situations like this, the women would not say the same of their childhood or marriage
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Moderator Seryan_Klythe told Bored Panda that the thing about disturbing vintage photos that truly fascinates them is that they were taken using much simpler technologies.
“The world was different and saw things differently, too. The fascination is part of understanding what was creepy to someone then was simplistic and played more with their blunt fascination to take things at face value or without the use of high-sophistication gimmickry,” they said.
#16
The Infamous Ted Bundy Playing With His Ex-Girlfriend's Daughter
Multa Nocte 1 week ago (edited)
I went to the University of Utah for 2 years while Ted was there also (me in psychology, him in law). He lived several blocks from where my mother worked. Yes, I looked like every girl he picked up and murdered, but we all did back then. I even spent a lot of time in the areas where he targeted women. I think it was only because I was plain enough that I never became a target, but a woman in one of my social clubs was.
Tamra 1 week ago
That's wild. Makes me wonder how many of us have crossed paths with people like that in our lifetimes, but just never know it.
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Lee Gilliland 1 week ago
I was in Tacoma when he was there and we all stopped parting our hair in the middle.
TonjaLasagne 1 week ago
My friends and I lived in Seattle when he was attacking the coeds in the U-District and Lake Sammamish: we were so glad that we weren’t pretty white girls with long straight hair. He really did have preference until that one little girl in Florida.
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#17
I Don’t Like Clowns Anymore
WookiesMaMa 1 week ago
I have always hated clowns. If you have to paint a smile, something is wrong.
Floeckchen 1 week ago
Coulrophobia is often triggered through the uncanny feeling you get from almost but slightly not humanlike features
Rosie Hamilton 1 week ago
The uncanny valley effect. Though I thought automatonophobia was the intense, irrational fear of human-like figures and includes things like mannequins & ventriloquists dolls (ugh) and coulrophobia was clown specific????
Load More Replies... Barong 1 week ago
Clowns never bothered me. It’s amazing how quickly they went from beloved children’s entertainment and figure in classic comedy to a recurrent villain, creepy character, and trigger for a specific phobia .
glowworm2 1 week ago
For me, what I found creepy about clowns wasn’t what they looked like, it was what they were doing to get a laugh. There was an act I remember as a kid where a clown had a toothache and a doctor and nurse were trying to help. This wasn’t funny, this was disturbing to me.
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#18
My Mom And I On Halloween In 1989. Note The Fact That She Has A Cigarette And Is Also Pregnant With My Brother
Antoinette the Red 1 week ago
And the orange Casper head! Wasn't he supposed to be the "friendly" ghost?
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TonjaLasagne 1 week ago
Every picture that I have of my Mom when she was pregnant with me (1963) she had a drink in her hand. It’s no wonder that I was born between two stillborns.
Dragon Ashes 1 week ago
More normal in the Sixties because they didn't start the warning campaigns until the 70s.
Load More Replies... SleepyVampire 1 week ago
My mom smoked when she was pregnant with all five of us kids. Her friends and sisters did the same. My older sisters smoked through their pregnancies. It was normal then, she wasn't doing anything wrong.
Rosie Hamilton 1 week ago
More that she wasn't knowingly doing anything wrong. My mother smoked through all of her five pregnancies too! It isn't that long ago that people just did because there wasn't the awareness.
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Christos Arvanitis 1 week ago
I had the same thought... not sure why you were downvoted
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Meanwhile, moderator TheOddityCollector stressed the fact that looking at unsettling photos shows us a world that is at the same time familiar and very different.
“The way people dressed, the way photos were taken, and the way time has changed them all add to the mystery. Some images weren’t meant to be scary, but they feel that way now, which makes them even more interesting,” they told us earlier.
#19
James Dean Posing Inside A Coffin For A Photo Just 7 Months Before His Demise In A Car Crash In September 1955
persephone134 1 week ago (edited)
Death is all fun and games when you are young, until it isn't.
Oskar vanZandt 1 week ago (edited)
I don't think he looked this "put-together" after the horrific car crash he was in...
#20
Carved Ivory Sculpture Of Tenjiku Tokubei: Master Of Frog Magic, Japanese, C. 1800-1850
#21
Behind-The-Scenes Of Teletubbies' In The Late-90s
Greymom 1 week ago
This is a little creepy but the red one (can’t remember their names) down in the background makes it look like a Teletubby frat party! Pair in front with the usual drunk “ I love you man” and a friend passed out cold in the background. 🤣🤣🤣
ƒιѕн 1 week ago
Po (red), Dipsy (green), Laa-Laa (yellow) Tinky-Winky (purple)
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Mel in Georgia 1 week ago
I always assumed that this show was ridiculous when I had little kids. One day it happened to be on when the TV was on and I watched it. I found it strangely soothing and uplifting. The creators were on to something!
Dragon Ashes 1 week ago
My kid was only interested in the baby sun. After that happened he'd was done with the show for the day.
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There are a whole bunch of factors that help create the creepy atmosphere in these images. These include things like the subject, the focus, the color and mood, the original intent, strange expressions, as well as outdated medical or funerary practices, according to the moderators of ‘Old School Creepy.’
“Some photos have mistakes, like double exposures, that make them look ghostly without meaning to," TheOddityCollector said.
#22
An Early Version Of Ronald Mcdonald Photographed Alongside A Crying Baby
#23
Creepy Vintage Halloween Costume
#24
The Other Kids Were Scared Of Him And He Cried When He Looked In The Mirror
Chelle Jones 1 week ago
This is s costume made of beans. It is creepy but just a Halloween costume according to what I found. 🤪 😜
According to moderator Seryan_Klythe, some of the reasons why the community is so popular online include people being “drawn to a life that existed without Photoshop, film effects, and blunt macabre.”
Moderator TheOddityCollector added: “People love a good mystery, and these photos make us ask questions. Who are these people? What happened to them? Why does this image feel so unsettling? It’s a mix of history, curiosity, and a little bit of fear that keeps people coming back.”
#25
Carved Ivory Sculpture Of A European Archer, Japanese, C. 1700-1800
#26
John D. Rockefeller, America's First Billionaire
BoredPangolin 1 week ago
The comments... Some of you are so demeaning and ignorant. This man was extremely sick when he got old, hence his look. He spent his whole retirement funding new universities and make medical help accessible to all. He is often cited as the father of modern philanthropy. But yeah, go at him because he was rich 🙄
PeepPeep the duck 1 week ago
He was well liked at the time he was around too
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#27
1953 Halloween Goblins
Chelle Jones 1 week ago
Scary movies today have got nothing on true past events. Imagine if cell phones existed during the midevil times. Those videos would be beyond frightening.
Multa Nocte 1 week ago
The middle child looks like the little character they used to use in the Alka-Seltzer ads, "Speedy" I believe his name was.
Once you’ve spooked yourself to your limit, we’d like to hear your thoughts in the comments down below. Which of these photos creeped you out the most? Why do you think they had such a strong impact on you? How much horror content would you say that you consume on a regular basis? Let us know.
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