Creepypasta and the Evolution of Internet Horror


Origins • Popularity • Genres • Examples • After the Peak • My Thoughts
Here are some examples of "Classic Creeypastas" as some call them, of course these aren't all of them, so you could try and find some more. Remember, just because they're popular, doesn't mean they're good. Not all of these stories are amazing, in fact, having read a lot of these, some of these are really bad, but this is about noteable and popular examples, quality doesn't really factor into this list. Ted the Caver Previously mentioned to be the first of its kind, all the way back to 2001. The story is a series of blog posts from Ted originally from Angelfire. In them he recounts the experiences with his friend Brad exploring the strange "Mystery Cave" they started to drill into. Strange occurances start to occur within the cave, terrifying the spelunking duo. The final blog post was never published to this day. The Russian Sleep Experiment A detailed explanation of a Soviet Union military experiment done in the late 1940s. 5 people were kept awake for 15 days using a stimulating gas in a sealed room. The first few days showed no sorts of oddities, apart from their conversations becoming darker and darker in subject matter. After 9 days the men start to act out of the ordinary, and it all falls apart from there. The Woman in the Oven A short story about a case in 1983 near Minneapolis, Minnesota. A charred corpse of a woman was found inside of her stove along with a video camera pointing to the oven. No video was found until the farm's well dried up, revealing a worn and torn VHS tape that shook the case to the very core. Jeff the Killer The big kahuna, the mascot, one of the most popular stories. In it, 13 year old Jeff and his family had just moved into a new neighborhood. The boy and his brother, Liu, have a couple of run-ins with the local bullies, led by Randy. Jeff starts growing more and more violent towards them until snapping, and then the rampage begins. Jane the Killer A fanmade companion story that shows the original story from another perspective. Neighbor Jane watches the events unfolds and gets caught in the action herself, and ultimately planning to enact revenge on Jeff for what he did to her. Eyeless Jack A short story in which man named Mitch and his brother Edwin move in together, shortly after, Mitch is attacked in his sleep and is rushed to the hospital. He then comes face to face with a strange humanoid creature with mask and is charged at. Laughing Jack A single suburban mother watches her son, James, play around with his imaginary friend, "Laughing Jack". However, strange occurances start to occur after James talks about his friend, and it starts to seem like his buddy is more than just imaginary. The Rake A collaborative document that details a humanoid creature that's been somewhat unknown due to most records of its existence disappearing. The document shows notes, journal entires, and witness testimonies, all to remind everyone of what seems to be a forgotten being. The Statue Just a normal night with a babysitter and a 2 kids. Not much is happening, the kids are asleep and the babysitter is itching for some cable TV, but the angel statue outside the window is making her nervous. Suicidemouse.avi The author, with the help of some sources, shares a rumor about an unreleased classic Mickey Mouse cartoon. The first few minutes show a slightly glum Mickey walking down a sidewalk as loud and incoherent piano banging plays the background. After that the screen cuts to black for a while, and the tape ends. Although, when it was digitalized as an .avi file, it was revealed to be longer, and beyond the black screen was something darker. Abandoned By Disney One explorer goes through an abandoned Disney resort called Treasure Island, which was closed due to being the main attraction of various controversies, particularly about how Disney pratically took over the area they built it in. The author enters the place finding the place in a state of rot with vandalization everywhere, and something else a bit more unusual. Squidwards Suicide An intern at Nickelodeon details his experience watching a specific production copy for a new SpongeBob episode, what was once the comedic "Fear of a Krabby Patty" was now "Squidward's Suicide". The video is filled with various strange occurances and dark turns, and it would shock the entire team watching it. Dead Bart A lost season 1 episode of The Simpsons, one that no staff member on the show wants to acknowledge. The episode starts off normal, although with some things being a bit off. As it goes on, however, strange happenings start to occur, and then episode devolves into madness. Candle Cove A group of users on an internet forum reminisce about an odd TV show called Candle Cove, with characters and events that would be too creepy for kids, but this is the 1970s. 1999 The year was 1999, the author was just a small child itching for some TV, but only had a cheap TV with local channels. He comes across Caledon Local 21, featuring programming like Mr. Bears Cellar, and Fork and Spoon. It was all poorly made and somewhat nonsensical, but there were alterior motives hidden within. Smile.jpg An image called smile.jpg was posted on the BBS, showing an image of a menacing dog with a human smile, "Smile.dog", as it's referred to. The image itself is able to produce effects to those who view it, such as epilepsy and anxiety. Most people who witnessed the image are long gone, maybe dead, and the author wants to find out just what it was. Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv A strange YouTube video that features 20 seconds of a man staring at the camera, and nothing else. At least, that's the version YouTube wants you to see. Username: 666 A video that showcases a user searching for a YouTube user named "666". At first, nothing is out of the ordinary, but a few refreshes cause the site to morph more and more until becoming an unrecognizable mess. BEN Drowned A series of posts on 4chan that soon turn into an ARG (Alternate reality game) about a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The writer, Matt, gets the game from a weird old man for free, who said it belonged to "a kid who was about my age that didn't live here anymore." Matt then discovers the game is haunted by the kid, being named Ben, and starts to fear for his own life. Godzilla NES Nostalgic for his childhood games, everyman Zach decides to pop in a copy of the NES game, Godzilla: Monster of Monsters! Progressing through the game reveals glitches, those glitches become new content, that new content becomes sentient, and starts toying with Zach in ways he never thought would be possible. Sonic.exe Dedicated Sonic fan Tom finds an executable file for what seems to be a remake of Sonic 1 on the Sega Genesis, but pressing start reveals the real contents of the game. Pokemon Creepy Black Our main character is a collector, specifically of bootleg Pokemon games. One bootleg they stumbled across was called "Pokemon Black Version". The game was essentially the Gameboy's Pokemone Red, except with a new little character to the collection, "GHOST".

Origins • Popularity • Genres • Examples • After the Peak • My Thoughts

Here are some examples of "Classic Creeypastas" as some call them, of course these aren't all of them, so you could try and find some more. Remember, just because they're popular, doesn't mean they're good. Not all of these stories are amazing, in fact, having read a lot of these, some of these are really bad, but this is about noteable and popular examples, quality doesn't really factor into this list.

Ted the Caver

Previously mentioned to be the first of its kind, all the way back to 2001. The story is a series of blog posts from Ted originally from Angelfire. In them he recounts the experiences with his friend Brad exploring the strange "Mystery Cave" they started to drill into. Strange occurances start to occur within the cave, terrifying the spelunking duo. The final blog post was never published to this day.

The Russian Sleep Experiment

A detailed explanation of a Soviet Union military experiment done in the late 1940s. 5 people were kept awake for 15 days using a stimulating gas in a sealed room. The first few days showed no sorts of oddities, apart from their conversations becoming darker and darker in subject matter. After 9 days the men start to act out of the ordinary, and it all falls apart from there.

The Woman in the Oven

A short story about a case in 1983 near Minneapolis, Minnesota. A charred corpse of a woman was found inside of her stove along with a video camera pointing to the oven. No video was found until the farm's well dried up, revealing a worn and torn VHS tape that shook the case to the very core.

Jeff the Killer

The big kahuna, the mascot, one of the most popular stories. In it, 13 year old Jeff and his family had just moved into a new neighborhood. The boy and his brother, Liu, have a couple of run-ins with the local bullies, led by Randy. Jeff starts growing more and more violent towards them until snapping, and then the rampage begins.

Jane the Killer

A fanmade companion story that shows the original story from another perspective. Neighbor Jane watches the events unfolds and gets caught in the action herself, and ultimately planning to enact revenge on Jeff for what he did to her.

Eyeless Jack

A short story in which man named Mitch and his brother Edwin move in together, shortly after, Mitch is attacked in his sleep and is rushed to the hospital. He then comes face to face with a strange humanoid creature with mask and is charged at.

Laughing Jack

A single suburban mother watches her son, James, play around with his imaginary friend, "Laughing Jack". However, strange occurances start to occur after James talks about his friend, and it starts to seem like his buddy is more than just imaginary.

The Rake

A collaborative document that details a humanoid creature that's been somewhat unknown due to most records of its existence disappearing. The document shows notes, journal entires, and witness testimonies, all to remind everyone of what seems to be a forgotten being.

The Statue

Just a normal night with a babysitter and a 2 kids. Not much is happening, the kids are asleep and the babysitter is itching for some cable TV, but the angel statue outside the window is making her nervous.

Suicidemouse.avi

The author, with the help of some sources, shares a rumor about an unreleased classic Mickey Mouse cartoon. The first few minutes show a slightly glum Mickey walking down a sidewalk as loud and incoherent piano banging plays the background. After that the screen cuts to black for a while, and the tape ends. Although, when it was digitalized as an .avi file, it was revealed to be longer, and beyond the black screen was something darker.

Abandoned By Disney

One explorer goes through an abandoned Disney resort called Treasure Island, which was closed due to being the main attraction of various controversies, particularly about how Disney pratically took over the area they built it in. The author enters the place finding the place in a state of rot with vandalization everywhere, and something else a bit more unusual.

Squidwards Suicide

An intern at Nickelodeon details his experience watching a specific production copy for a new SpongeBob episode, what was once the comedic "Fear of a Krabby Patty" was now "Squidward's Suicide". The video is filled with various strange occurances and dark turns, and it would shock the entire team watching it.

Dead Bart

A lost season 1 episode of The Simpsons, one that no staff member on the show wants to acknowledge. The episode starts off normal, although with some things being a bit off. As it goes on, however, strange happenings start to occur, and then episode devolves into madness.

Candle Cove

A group of users on an internet forum reminisce about an odd TV show called Candle Cove, with characters and events that would be too creepy for kids, but this is the 1970s.

1999

The year was 1999, the author was just a small child itching for some TV, but only had a cheap TV with local channels. He comes across Caledon Local 21, featuring programming like Mr. Bears Cellar, and Fork and Spoon. It was all poorly made and somewhat nonsensical, but there were alterior motives hidden within.

Smile.jpg

An image called smile.jpg was posted on the BBS, showing an image of a menacing dog with a human smile, "Smile.dog", as it's referred to. The image itself is able to produce effects to those who view it, such as epilepsy and anxiety. Most people who witnessed the image are long gone, maybe dead, and the author wants to find out just what it was.

Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv

A strange YouTube video that features 20 seconds of a man staring at the camera, and nothing else. At least, that's the version YouTube wants you to see.

Username: 666

A video that showcases a user searching for a YouTube user named "666". At first, nothing is out of the ordinary, but a few refreshes cause the site to morph more and more until becoming an unrecognizable mess.

BEN Drowned

A series of posts on 4chan that soon turn into an ARG (Alternate reality game) about a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The writer, Matt, gets the game from a weird old man for free, who said it belonged to "a kid who was about my age that didn't live here anymore." Matt then discovers the game is haunted by the kid, being named Ben, and starts to fear for his own life.

Godzilla NES

Nostalgic for his childhood games, everyman Zach decides to pop in a copy of the NES game, Godzilla: Monster of Monsters! Progressing through the game reveals glitches, those glitches become new content, that new content becomes sentient, and starts toying with Zach in ways he never thought would be possible.

Sonic.exe

Dedicated Sonic fan Tom finds an executable file for what seems to be a remake of Sonic 1 on the Sega Genesis, but pressing start reveals the real contents of the game.

Pokemon Creepy Black

Our main character is a collector, specifically of bootleg Pokemon games. One bootleg they stumbled across was called "Pokemon Black Version". The game was essentially the Gameboy's Pokemone Red, except with a new little character to the collection, "GHOST".