Social Issues,CuriositiesMAY 17, 2023

“My 70-Year-Old Father Married A 20-Year-Old”: 35 Creepy Things Folks Online Have Witnessed

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Why watch horror movies if life can provide you with ample amounts of it?

Being disconnected from the pathos and ethos and all of the other -thoses of fiction takes away the main thing that makes horror... well, horror. And that is the sense of impending doom.

Nothing really gets the blood flowing and the adrenaline pumping quite like understanding just how thin the line between life and anything that is even remotely the opposite of it in a horror scenario really is.

Folks on Reddit have been sharing stories of true horror, one where their own or someone else's livelihood depended on it. Keep scrolling to experience true horror.

More Info: Reddit | Dark Horror Tales

#1

“My 70-Year-Old Father Married A 20-Year-Old”: 35 Creepy Things Folks Online Have Witnessed

I had a scene straight outta horror movie play out for me a couple years ago. I was sitting out back with my friend when I see my neighbor in his house, we meet eyes, I wave, he waves, only one problem - that wasn't my neighbor - I tell my friend we gotta go inside, NOW. We turn the lights off and lock the doors, then I shoot my neighbor a text asking if he has any guests, he says no, so I call the cops, my neighbor calls as well.

Guy was still there when the cops arrived. Apparently he was dumb enough to think I didn't recognize he wasn't my neighbor.

Playingpokerwithgod, My Photo Journeys

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218points

#2

One random night in middle school I woke up and had the odd feeling that something or someone was present in the house and coming towards my room. I was scared so I closed my eyes to pretend to be asleep. I could faintly hear something come in my room and it felt like someone was standing over me, looking to make sure I was asleep. I laid on my back, eyes shut, until the feeling passed, and ended up falling asleep.

I woke up in the morning to find out that our house was robbed.

ThatOtherOtherGuy3, Ave Calvar Martinez

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196points

#3

My boyfriend in college sat bolt upright in his sleep and said “don’t look, if you make eye contact with it, it will [end] us both.” Then he fell back down, still asleep. Damn near peed myself.

Physical_Stress_5683, cottonbro studio

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171points

#4

Used to have a job inspecting bank owned foreclosed homes. I had a house in East Cleveland, OH to inspect that was a huge old mansion but completely abandoned for years and utterly trashed. I had to inspect and photograph every room, looking for any damage. Basically the entire house was damaged, holes punched in walls, trash everywhere, mold, used needles, feces etc.

So I get to the basement which was mostly unfinished, and there is one door all the way at the other end. I swear I hear music playing. I open the door and there’s a perfectly preserved office with high end stained wood judges paneling on the walls, a plaster ceiling, and fancy old carpeting all in perfect condition. In the center of the room is a huge old bankers style desk with a huge leather office chair behind it. On the desk is an old fashioned radio from probably the 1950s or so and it is playing some AM radio station with big band music on. There’s the radio playing and a lamp turned on in the room, and as far as I knew the house was supposed to not have power turned on.

I got this overwhelming sense that I shouldn’t be there, was sufficiently creeped out and left. To this day that whole situation just weirds me out.

Itsnotajeepthing, Quoc Nguyen

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163points

#5

When I was serving my time as an engineer in the merchant navy we used to have to clean out what are called "sea chests"; they're basically big filters for sea water that we would pump in to use as coolant and if the pumps were on when we were dock side we'd find all sorts of things like bottles, fish, crabs etc.

One day we opened up the chest, pulled out the filter and immediately saw this gold shiny thing which turned out to be a rolex watch. Usually we'd just dump out the filter but with the mitigating circumstances we went through it thoroughly and found a piece of a shirt with cufflink still attached and last but not least a nicely rotted finger.

The police ended up closing off the dock and dredging it but never found anything on the end.

MarkyBhoy101, paramsach

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148points

Bored Panda reached out to horror movie expert and blogger Palvi Sharma to talk about what makes things straight up creepy and downright scary.

According to Sharma, good horror stories need several key elements to make them scary: a creepy setting and believable threats as well as good pacing and proper structure in the story.

“But the most important factor would be creating three-dimensional characters. They are the ones who take the story forward, and they are the ones the audience needs to sympathize and care enough about to want to root for them to survive whatever threat they encounter,” elaborated Sharma.

“At the same time, creating a terrifying antagonist is just as important. The antagonist is the one who is going to make a horror story scary because of what it does and how it behaves. Characterization definitely plays a key role in making a horror story effective.”

#6

I once saw an old guy follow a young girl on the street and clearly staring at her butt, so as anyone would, I clear my throat real hard, the girl looked behind her and the guy noticed he'd been seen and went away

HlTLERS_HIDDEN_CHILD, Ryutaro Tsukata

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144points

#7

When my daughter was 5 years old. She woke up crying and as I was carrying her out of her room she said mammy dont touch the lady she at the door but can you give her some bread she is very hungry. Found out later the house were built on ground that used as mass grave to bury people that died in the Irish famine.

sheeba10, Michael Winters

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139points

#8

I grew up somewhere very rural - no streetlights and far away from any town with them. At night it was DARK. My bedroom door also never closed properly - you could latch it but it would pop open if you pushed the door lightly.

One night I woke up suddenly, without knowing why. As my mind tried to make sense of things I looked to my left, towards the bedroom door - I could see the outline of a figure. In the tiny amount of predawn light I could just see a white shape, long dark hair hanging down and sunken eyes. I could also hear it breathing.

After a few seconds of absolute mind bending horror, where I literally felt every hair stand on end it took a step into my room, out of the dark hallway. The hallway had no windows, so my room was slightly lighter. The change of the light also changed the face slightly - I could see it more clearly.

I saw that it was in fact my mother's face and she was sleep walking. She very occasionally did - and also had a lot of other sleep problems, including very vivid nightmares.

She quickly left and went back to bed - fortunately for my own sanity I never saw her sleepwalk again.

mordenty, Orin Zebest

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128points

#9

Delivering parcels to a Scientology building in the UK.

Usual receptionist wasn't there so wandered a bit to find someone to sign for it.

Found a room full of people robotically typing into computers, all identically clothed with identical hairstyles. Not one of them even made eye-contact, let alone react to me opening the door...

Was horror-film levels of creepy.

fail_quail, isghoul

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125points

#10

When I was probably 15 I went kayaking with some friends. We came across what looked like a log in the water. There were some people on shore that were waving us over saying someone was probably trapped under the canoe.

They used one of our kayaks to go out and look. There was a kid only a few years older then us that had gotten wrapped up in some rope when the canoe turned over. He didn’t make it. They found his dad a few days later. Also didn’t make it.

That image I will never get out of my mind.

kitkatrampage, Roman Pohorecki

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124points

But that’s fiction. What about real life horror scenarios? Is horror in fiction and real life similar, and could there be a parallel drawn between how people would experience the same horror situation watching a movie and living it out in real life?

“There used to be a joke about horror movies and how characters don’t run the other way when they hear creepy sounds at night,” elaborated Sharma. “I think that we are all curious by nature and when we do hear an unusual sound, our first instinct is going to be to investigate it rather than just run the other way. Especially if that sound is coming from our house. We would want to know if our house is safe.”

“Knowing is better than not knowing, and so chances are, we will go around the house looking for the source if only to allay our fears.”

#11

When i was about 12 I was sleeping on my trampoline with a friend and we heard the bushes move behind us and flashed our flashlight to the bushes and a mountain lion was laying there stalking us, I have never ran so fast in my life.

Fortherecord87, Lil Rose

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120points

#12

Was working in a restaurant. Nice place.

That night we held a charity dinner for a "youth in need" type of house.

The guy representing the house, a worker there, was such a nice and kind man. Every teen there was only saying nice thing of him. A good soul, that was giving every thing he could for these teens.

At one point they gave a big cheque for the charity. I must guess an ammount they rarely received.

Well under the excitement, that poor man had a cardiac arrest. Dropped there on the stage, cheque in hand.

He could'nt be brought back. He died.

Seeing this was already bad enough, but the kids every where in the restaurant screaming and crying for hours after.... haunting.

Agronut, On Shot

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119points

#13

I was hiking a little outside of Vancouver in a densely wooded area known to have many cougars (mountain lions). I had my dog with me, who was a huge, tall thing, part Irish wolfhound and fiercely loyal. We had been hiking for about an hour and were far enough back by then that we hadn't seen anyone else in quite some time. I stopped at a log to take a short break. We'd been sitting there for about 5 minutes when my dog goes stiff, hackles up, and starts growling while staring into the dense brush. I stare into the woods, but can't see anything at all. It's gone quite though, that kind of eerie silence the forest takes on sometimes. The dog is still growling, looking at a spot about 6 feet off the ground. I decide it's time to get out of there and take up a quick pace back the way we came. The dog lets me get a bit ahead, then stops growling and follows me. He's anxious though and keeps stopping to check behind us. We get about 15 minutes down the path when the dog stops again, facing the woods along the path, and barks a sharp 3 or 4 times, then resumes growling intensely. I keep moving and he sort of stiff legged walks a few steps, stops and growls, catches up to me, walks a few more steps growling, etc. He occasionally barks. I can not for the life of me see anything in the woods. No movement, no animals, nothing.

The whole hike back goes like that. I never see a thing. Once we reached a bridge, and more people, my dog finally relaxes and stops growling/barking, but he's still keen to get out of there.

I've always assumed it was a cougar stalking us, we never went back there.

flippantcedar, Elina Volkova

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116points

#14

Before cell phones, I accidentally dialed the wrong number, but got the person I was trying to call at that wrong number. She was at her uncles house, he picked up the phone, I asked for her and he sounded confused as he handed her the phone.

banditk77, Bruno Cantuária

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114points

#15

Well dressed 50 something business dude on a quiet Chicago L train reading a Wall Street Journal. Pretty woman with long curly hair dozing in the seat in front of him, her hair dangling behind the seat. The guy is rubbing and playing with her hair while reading his paper so I figure she's his wife or girlfriend who just wanted some space to nap. He is now intently rubbing and fondling her hair and not reading anymore. Suddenly she snaps awake and pulls in her hair like a bug was in it or something. She gets off at the next stop, he continues reading. They didn't know each other at all.

mtzuker, Pixabay

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111points

Sharma continued: “The only thing I don’t find believable in horror movies is when characters willingly give up their phones at the start of most slashers. Considering that cell phones act as lifelines in today’s world, the last thing I would expect is for teenagers to give up their phones.”

“But of course that is also the one thing horror writers need to get rid of immediately. It is the one piece of technology that could lead to potential plot holes. I suppose it is challenging to write a horror story with working phones.”

#16

I was in a restaurant years ago on lunch break. At the time I was a very thin 25 year old woman. There was this big creepy guy sitting there who would NOT stop staring at me from the moment I walked in the door. I mean just open face staring without blinking for the entire 15 minutes I was eating several seats away. I asked for a box and left early to get away from him. As I walked out he said, "You shouldn't be out alone. Someone's going to grab you and steal you away." 100% convinced creepazoid had someone locked up in his basement.

xain_the_idiot, lil artsy

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91points

#17

I set a mousetrap in a cupboard in my house and caught a mouse. Next to the mouse was a tiny mouse-sized pair of elastic-waisted trousers. The trousers were not there when I set the trap.

The only person who could have put the trousers there was my wife, but I am convinced she didn't. Not only was she unaware that I'd set a trap there, but she was genuinely upset and disturbed when I told her about the trousers.

The best explanation I have is that they're doll's trousers that had become lodged in pipework in the cupboard decades earlier and, became dislodged when the trap sprang and happened to fall right next to it. It's not very believable, but it's the best I've got.

prolixia, Skitterphoto

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89points

#18

I had a friend in college whose mother had a lot of mental health problems. She periodically did things like try to crash the car when they were all inside.

One night I was sleeping over at my friend's house and she told me to lock the bedroom door so her mom couldn't come in because sometimes she did that. Well, I forgot to lock the door and woke up in the middle of the night to see her mom standing there in the doorway with a knife.

It was a total Michael Myers-esque moment. She stood there staring at me, didn't say a word, didn't move. The knife was just in her hand, which was hanging down by her side. I stared back at her, waiting to see if she was going to do anything. She didn't. I got bored and eventually went back to sleep.

The next morning, I was like "hey so your mom was lurking in my doorway last night with a knife for a while" and she was like "omg wtf you should have called for me."

griffonfarm

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86points

#19

My 70 year old father married a 20 year old

boomba58-, Abdel Rahman Abu Baker

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82points

#20

You know how your parents always warned about guys asking for directions, and you never thought it would happen to you so you of course said "Yeah, i'll never get in," and just don't think about it?

Well, it happened to me once. I was 15 and taking a walk through my (relatively safe) neighborhood when a guy in an old truck pulls up and asks for directions. I pointed him to the next street over, and he asked me to get in the car with him. Luckily I was right by my backyard, so I cut through the bushes and beelined it inside. Called my dad to make sure he was coming home and I wouldn't be alone for long.

Never saw the man again, but it was incredibly creepy, and it was a while before I took walks alone after that.

I_Ace_English, Gabriel Hohol

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82points

Now, horror is a bit of a difficult genre for some to get into. Most watch movies as a form of leisure and winding down for the night, or there is enough horror in one’s own life to justify not tuning in to watch Jason be choppy for the 12th time. But, for others, it’s all about horror.

“We all have something that we fear and most people find it better to deal with the things they are afraid of when it is on screen and they are in the safety of their homes,” Sharma explains the appeal of the genre.

“Horror movies pull the audience into a scary setting and make them experience everything that can go wrong. But minutes later, the movie is over and so is the threat. I believe some people enjoy watching horror movies because they enjoy the thrill and rush they get when they see and then come out of a frightening scene. Others may see the demons and other monsters being defeated at the end of the movie as a way to deal with the problems they face in their personal lives. If the scariest monsters can be defeated, then the problems they face can’t be as difficult to overcome, can they?”

But, hey, when you really think about it, if you’re a huge fan of horror, you’ll be more than prepared for whatever creepy real life situations fate might throw your way, right?

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