50 Of The Creepiest Things People Have Spotted In Real-Life Homes

We all find different things scary. Some of us couldn’t stand being in the same room as a clown, while others might consider having to touch a snake their worst nightmare. But aside from the obvious things that are widely considered scary, such as ghosts and the dark, there are also many things that sneak up on us and are unexpectedly pretty frightening. The Oddly Terrifying subreddit is a catalog of all of those things that are “not the ordinary type of terrifying,” but still freak us out.

The community has amassed an impressive 2.6 million members since its creation a decade ago, and among all of the unsettling posts people share there are plenty of strange pics from real life homes. Creepy basements, disturbing ice formations, snake skin found inside homes and fungus that looks like toes all come together to create the perfect list of strange items that might make homeowners assume their houses are haunted. And according to evolutionary psychologist Frank T. McAndrew, there’s a simple reason why we find haunted houses to be so frightening.   

“From a psychological point of view, the standard features of haunted houses trigger feelings of dread because they push buttons in our brains that evolved long before houses even existed,” McAndrew writes for The Conversation. “These alarm buttons warn us of potential danger and motivate us to proceed with caution.” Haunted houses aren’t scary because they are actually posing a threat to us, but we find them frightening because we can’t actually determine whether they’re threatening or not. “This ambivalence leaves you frozen in place, wallowing in unease,” McAndrew explains.

We don’t want to overreact by running out of the house screaming, but we do sense danger, so it can be difficult to ignore our intuition and continue towards it if we’re going to later regret it. But we can often feel the same way in our own homes too, when we stumble upon something that doesn’t seem quite right. We don’t want to freak out because we know, logically, that our home should be the safest place in the world. However, when you find something oddly terrifying, it can be hard to shake the feeling that someone or something is out to get you.

There are also certain types of homes that we find particularly terrifying, and for some reason, Victorian homes always fit the bill. What is it about these houses that are gorgeous during the daytime that seem absolutely menacing and fear-inducing once the sun goes down? Well, according to Rachel Kurzius at The Washington Post, there are a variety of factors contributing to the reputation Victorian homes have, including pop culture and architecture. When it comes to the construction of these homes, Kurzius notes that they’re “as far from an open floor plan as a house can get.” There are typically many rooms, many doors and long, narrow hallways. Ample opportunities for jump scares and creaking doors!

Lauren Kelsey, production designer for the Netflix thriller The Midnight Club, shared with The Washington Post how her set utilized “long hallways and creepy hallways” with big round arches with enough space for characters to hide behind them. Building materials used during the Victorian era also can’t help but give off a macabre feel, Kurzius noted, pointing out the use of dark wood. “The era’s characteristic stained glass and thick draperies added to the ominous vibe, but they actually had a utilitarian purpose, too: They protected elaborate furniture and decor from the sun. In urban dwellings, the curtains helped insulate interiors from street odors,” she explained.

And if you ask Adam Lowenstein, author of Horror Film and Otherness, he’ll tell you that Victorian houses don’t age well. "The image of the haunted Victorian house probably has real reference in all kinds of American neighborhoods where these ornate houses lost their wealthy tenants and became sort of neglected, derelict houses that looked haunted because they weren’t being taken care of," he told The Washington Post.

Krystal D’Costa at Scientific American has even explored the topic of creepy Victorian houses, and she points out that Victorian houses were perceived as gross symbols of wealth during the latter part of the 19th century in the United States. Following the Civil War, the Southern states were devastated economically, and the memories of those they lost in the war weighed heavily on them. So when wealthy Northerners lived in massive Victorian homes, these houses were seen as tone deaf and offensive.