Top Ten Best Creepypastas on the Internet
Everybody likes a good urban legend, and there are plenty of them on the net. They’re collectively called creepypasta, a play on the word copypasta (copy and paste) for how often they’re repeated. They’ve come to be popular not only for their down-to-earth everyman tone, but because of the way they grab our attention and keep us up at night, wondering, watching, and straining our senses to be sure everything really is calm and quiet before we drift off to sleep. Here are some of the absolute eeriest, nightmare-inducing stories from around the web.
This one has been around for quite some time, but hasn’t lost any of its potency. It reads like a diary and tells the story of a man who discovers a slim crack that seems to beckon to him from the darkness. The story is a long one, but it’s definitely worth it. It plays on fears of the unknown and our perverse need to explore and see even when we’re scared to nearly a state of panic. Without spoiling too much, for those of you who like mystery, the unknown, and a taste of something sinister, this is a great story to get into.
Not all creepypastas need be tomes. This story is short, sweet, and to the point but does an excellent job of being unsettling. It’s not much more than the story of somebody walking home and feeling unnerved, but it’s does a fantastic job of keeping you on the edge of your seat. Disclaimer: Don’t read this if you regularly walk home alone at night.
Everybody has experienced the magic of Disney, even if they’ve never been to one of the parks. Who doesn’t know the words to at least a few songs? That innocence is why this story works so well. A man does some not-so-urban exploration to check out the ruins of a supposedly abandoned Disney site, and finds the typical creepy post-apocalyptic fare that comes with hastily dismantled corporate projects. However, as he delves deeper, he winds up finding curiouser and curiouser scenes created by the long-gone employees of the defunct park. Best read with your mouse ears on.
7. No-End House
We love the idea of a good challenge, and one-upping a buddy, and the author of this delightfully weird tale gives us the opportunity to say, well I could do that. If you’ve ever thought yourself capable of overcoming your greatest fears for the promise of a good cash prize, this story will definitely make you rethink your bravado. It’s surreal and fantastic, and plays off of the senses in dramatic ways, like an homage to Alice in a dark and creepy eternal Wonderland.
6. The Strangest Security Tape I’ve ever Seen
If you’ve ever worked a boring retail job, you’ve probably had the pleasure of meeting more than your fair share of odd characters. The banality of this story makes is almost tedious at first. We feel for our everyman, sitting in a gas station with no control over his life, forced to do his boss’ work because well, that’s what happens when you’re at the bottom. However, the story quickly becomes about something else reminiscent of Fringe, and we’re left with an almost Kafkaesque ending. Who is Jeremy?
5. Squidward’s Suicide aka Red Mist
Again, we have a story based around something innocent, meant for children. This one is best listened to because the music and ambiance are actually enough to make it plausible. The legend goes that an unaired episode of Spongebob Squarepants depicts a very depressed and forlorn Squidward coming to a decision. It’s creepy, it’s eerie, and it definitely shines a whole new light on our pineapple-dwelling porous friend. After you’ve watched it, you can read the story here.
4. The Russian Sleep Experiment
Shirking the typical format, this one tells of inhumane experiments on prisoners. Deprived of sleep and proper living conditions, these men start to change in horrifying ways and seem to almost devolve. Even though it’s told in a more authoritarian tone, it is still very creepy, especially because insane experiments really did take place during the cold war era in all parts of the world. It reminds us how messed up the world can really be, and how little we know about our own limitations.
3. BEN Drowned
Gamers all know this one, probably by heart. It’s the story of a haunted Zelda cartridge that gets more and more insane. It first made the rounds as a true story, as most urban legends do, and there even exist debunking videos. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, game glitches can be creepy late at night as you sit in your room sleep deprived and completely caught up in the story of a good game. All it really takes is one out of place NPC, seeming just a bit too aware and alert to make you uneasy. Here’s the supposed gameplay footage.
2. Candle Cove
Creepypastas seem to have a thing about kids. Shorter ones often involve a little kid doing something weird and unnerving. This one however, takes a whole new approach. It’s a story in the form of a question. Do you remember Candle Cove? It unfolds as people recount odd and disturbing moments from the show that seemed to be coopting little kids. It’s creepy because it’s presented as a casual conversation, the kind we have every day, reliving childhood moments with an adult disposition.
1. The Rake, Goatman, and Slenderman
These three entities are far and away the creepiest and most well-known legends of the internet. They share a lot of features like coming out at night to stalk children and weak-willed adults. They have strange, elongated and stretched out appearances though they can pass when they need to, and are often accompanied by odd happenings, like fog, strange smells, or time loss. They also each come with a rich and vivid history of hauntings and sightings throughout history, and have transcended forum posts to become real, mainstream myths and legends. They’ve spawned stories, inspired movies, and have wound their way into the collective consciousness of the internet as ever-present boogeymen waiting for you to drop your guard.