What is a creepypasta? Think of creepypastas as online versions of terrifying campfire stories (whether if it true or not), they come in forms of urban tales and myths posted on sites like Reddit and 4chan or found in video games. Some creepypastas have prompted horror film concepts using their compelling and well-developed narratives, and many fans have started petitions to have studios pick them up.
The Backrooms
A picture of a big, carpeted room with fluorescent lights and dividing walls, known as The Backrooms, went viral on several message boards between 2011 and 2018. Then, on 12 May 2019, an anonymous user started a thread on 4chan’s paranormal-themed board, /x/, asking users to “post disquieting images that just feel ‘off.” The picture went viral again and made lots of users feel uneasy with the photo.
Users started posting stories about The Backrooms on subreddits like r/creepypasta and later r/backrooms, days after the initial photo went viral and gained popularity. As a fandom grew around The Backrooms, users added further floors or “levels” and living things to the initial creepypasta, therefore expanding upon it.
The popular film company A24 announced on February 6, 2023, that Kane Parsons will be directing a film based on the initial creepy image after seeing fans of the creepypasta become captivated by it. The screenplay will be written by Roberto Patino, with production scheduled for James Wan, Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear, Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, and 21 Laps’ Dan Levine.
Herobrine
For this one, we’re going to enter the world of Minecraft. Herobrine is a well-known creepypasta that centres around a ghost that haunts the game’s code. A user shared a story on the /v/ board of 4chan, which at first attracted very little attention before eventually becoming well-known. It described how Herobrine had shown up in a single-player game, stalking, shaving trees and building different structures all over the map – most notably tunnels and pyramids.
Described as having the exact same appearance as the protagonist “Steve”. Herobrine, on the other hand, has bright white eyes that glow in the dark. Because Herobrine was such a popular myth in Minecraft, and because so many fans were engaged with the mystery, the game creators included the term “Herobrine Removed” in certain game patches to support the fans’ narrative.
Annora Petrova
This well-written and well-liked creepypasta scared a lot of people who read it.
An excellent figure skater with a penchant for Olympic competition, Annora Petrova, is the protagonist of the story. Upon conducting a Google search one day, she finds a Wikipedia entry on herself; the page predicts that the next day, she would triumph in an ice skating competition. Assuming it was an error, she dismissed it, yet she did prevail the next day and she won.
She continued her winning streak by checking the wiki page every time she had a competition, as it predicted her victory each and every time she viewed the page. However, one day before the sectionals, when Petrova was not doing as well, she edited the result in the hopes of fixing the competition. Instead, awful things were written about her, and it failed. Her parents’ deaths were prophesied, and they actually did happen, so soon her whole world collapsed.
She attempted to get in touch with Wikipedia to request that they remove the page, but they were unable to locate it. The page then updated to state that she would die. In a panic, she kept refreshing the website to see if she could find out how it would happen to try to prevent it. But the next day the officers discovered her lifeless body slumped over the computer keyboard.
The Cul-De-Sac Is Purgatory
Much attention has been paid to the widely accepted fan theory around the popular & beloved animated series, Ed, Edd, and Eddy. According to this creepypasta, the Cul-de-sac where the series’ protagonists live in is actually Purgatory and they are all actually dead. The hypothesis goes on to say that the characters passed away at various points throughout history.
For instance, Edd/Double D was raised by extremely rigorous, authoritarian, and emotionally aloof parents throughout the 1980s, a time when it was socially expected to start college preparation early. They encouraged him to excel academically and maintain impeccable hygiene. It is thought that a gas leak from his chemical set’s Bunsen burner caused an explosion, which is how he passed away.
The theory with Sarah (Ed’s little sister), which explains how their mother grew aloof and uninvolved after their father was killed in battle during World War II. In an attempt to take on the role of her parents had before their father passed away and their mother stopped caring, Sarah adopted a demanding demeanour as a coping mechanism. On the other hand, Ed closed himself off from the outside world and lost himself in the fantastical realms of comic books and monster films, which gained immense popularity both during and after World War II.
BEN Drowned
‘The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask’ was pretty creepy to start with – with the game featuring a strange face moon plummeting to Earth, however to make it even eerier, someone took one step further and combined it with this well-known scary tale.
This well-known tale centres on a man who gets a cartridge for “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask” from an elderly man. But the game was a cursed copy that belonged to a little boy called Ben who drowned in an accident. Haunted by the child’s spirit, the warped and glitchy version of the game, shows Ben taking the shape of an Empty Link model. Players who attempt to play the game will be tormented by the words “You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?” and “You shouldn’t have done that” all the time.
Ash’s Coma
There were two very well-known creepypastas from the Pokémon world that were difficult to choose between. Firstly, ‘Lavender Town Syndrome’ asserts that the music in Lavender Town contained frequencies in the Japanese Red and Green versions of the game that were deleted in the Western Red and Blue releases because the music allegedly drove hundreds of children insane and to commit suicide. Secondly, ‘Strangled Red’ is a first-person story in the manner of a journal entry about a player who discovers a Pokémon Red cartridge that has been hacked, and when he plays the game, strange and weird things happen to him or her.
However, Ash’s coma theory, the most well-liked and popular creepypasta to originate from the Pokémon community, so this had to take top spot.
This well-known creepypasta clarifies why, following Ash’s early lightning strike in the anime series, the overall themes, tones, and tempo shifted. When Ash takes Misty’s bike in the first episode to transport Pikachu to the hospital, a lightning strike leaves Ash immobilised and, according to popular belief, puts him in a coma. Days later, he is discovered and taken to the hospital, and due to his heavily medicated dreams, he is able to become a Pokémon master like he always wanted.
Regrettably, the shock to his brain would be immense if he were to ever understand he was unconscious and bring himself to consciousness. The Pokémon community as a whole strongly supports this viewpoint.
Smile Dog
This email is undoubtedly the creepiest and one you would never ever want to receive. This well-known creepypasta, named Smile.jpg, shows a sinister-looking dog with human teeth. As if that weren’t terrifying enough, “Smile Dog” causes anxiety and epileptic seizures in anybody who witness him. He also requests that the receiver tell others about him and if they don’t, the picture will turn into something much more terrifying and will haunt the victim night after night until they consider suicide.
The Russian Sleep Experiment
In this eerie story, which takes place during World War II, five POWs are held in a chamber with a gas that keeps them awake as part of Russian experiment. After the first five days passed without incident, terrible things then started to occur. The inmates experienced social isolation and paranoia, and they begged to be released. But after fifteen days, when Russians restored fresh air to the chamber, the detainees demanded that the gas be switched back on because they no longer wanted to be free. The captives then started disfiguring themselves and devouring their own flesh.
They all died, one by one. Before he was shot and killed, the lone survivor said this:
“Have you forgotten so easily? We are you. We are the madness that lurks within you all, begging to be free at every moment in your deepest animal mind. We are what you hide from in your beds every night. We are what you sedate into silence and paralysis when you go to the nocturnal haven where we cannot tread.”
Jeff The Killer
Jeff the Killer, one of the most well-known creepypasta figures to date, is among the most terrifying online creepypastas. Simply put, Jeff the Killer is a crazy killer who was involved in a deadly accident. The formerly innocent Jeff lost his mind after he saw his damaged face following a serious burn sustained during a fight with some neighbourhood teenagers. He savagely murdered his mother, father, and sibling after slicing off his eyelids and creating a grin on his mouth.
And that’s not even the worst part, he’s still on the loose, terrorising everyone with his menacing appearance.
The Slender Man
Because of his immense popularity since 2012, which led to the release of his own horror film by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2018, he is considered to many as a horror legend as well as a creepypasta legend, popularising the term ‘creepypasta’.
With the game ‘Slender: The Eight Pages’, in which he persistently pursues the player, this monster sprang to fame. Many individuals claim to have seen the Slender Man, who is said to be able to teleport, lengthen his limbs, develop tendrils, and have a tendency to impale his victims whom are mostly children on trees.
Unsettling auditory sounds and strange optical distortions greet anyone who looks at his face.
