Creepypasta: Horror Stories Shared around the Internet

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While scrolling through the internet, chances are you’ve stumbled upon stories that are weird, horrific, and disturbing. Most of them involve murder, the supernatural, or rituals that summon who knows what.

A lot of these stories are called creepypasta. They float around the web, waiting to snag curious readers into the world of horror stories.

What is Creepypasta?

No, it’s not some weird Italian food. A creepypasta is a user-generated horror story that is shared on the internet. They’re often written anonymously and constantly re-posted so it’s hard to pinpoint their history and origin.

The term “creepypasta” is a portmanteau of the words creepy and copypasta (text that gets copy-pasted over and over on the internet). It was coined sometime in 2007 on the imageboard website, 4chan. 

Creepypastas vary in length, from a couple of short paragraphs to multi-part series that can incorporate several media types. They often involve gruesome, distorted, and shocking details meant to scare the reader.

Think of them as a digitized form of campfire horror stories and urban legends. Like these two, creepypasta is often framed as anecdotal information (from a friend of a friend), ritual instructions, cursed items, and “lost” chapters, episodes, and such.

Examples of Creepypasta

Grab a friend, turn off the lights, and get ready to scroll through stories about the mysterious and horrific. Check some of the most popular creepypastas below.

1. Slender Man

Slender Man is a thin, unnaturally tall humanoid with a featureless face and head, wearing a suit. Most stories about this entity involve stalking, abducting, and traumatizing people.  

There’s no official mythos about it, as its activities, motives, habits, and abilities change depending on each story. Common details include tentacle-like arms, the ability to teleport, and “Slender sickness”—paranoia, nightmares, and nosebleeds caused by proximity to the Slender Man.

It’s one of the most famous creepypastas in existence, having become a pop culture icon that is featured in many types of media. It has since appeared in its own video games, movies, and documentary, even inspiring Minecraft’s Enderman mob.

2. Jeff the Killer

Jeff the Killer is a serial killer who likes to whisper “go to sleep” to his victims before he murders them. Stories about him are often accompanied by the image of a stark white face, small lidless eyes, and a maniacal red grin. 

Most stories tell of how he beats up his bullies but is severely burned in the process. While staying at the hospital, he realizes he enjoys hurting people and goes insane. He gives himself a Glasgow smile (think The Joker) and cuts off his eyelids so he’ll never sleep. 

3. Ben Drowned 

A college student buys a used copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Playing it, he finds the save file of its previous owner, Ben.

Playing the game, the student begins noticing strange and disturbing inconsistencies that turn into glitches the longer he plays. Over the course of his gameplay, he experiments with modifying the game, finding ever more disturbing glitches and scenarios. 

A statue of Link begins following the player around, who is later revealed to be the ghost of Ben, who has drowned in real life. It is revealed that Ben has been hijacking the student’s computer all this time, using it to escape into the internet where he proclaims “Now, I am everywhere.”

4. Suicidemouse.avi

An early example of the lost episode trope, this story revolves around a depressed Mickey Mouse walking down a poorly-drawn street as a piano is playing in the background. The video slowly becomes corrupted, accompanied by frightening noises.

After several horrific scenes, including Mickey’s face slowly falling apart and becoming demented, the video ends with a man uttering “Real suffering is not known.” Several gunshots are heard, implying that the man shot himself.

5. Lavender Town Syndrome

In the early 2010s, rumors started spreading that after the original release of Pokemon Red and Green, hundreds of Japanese children began committing suicide. All of them played the games before their deaths, reaching the Lavender Town area which had high-pitched theme music. 

After conducting research, scientists realized that there was a certain tone in the town’s music that only the children could hear. This is what drove them to insanity and suicide.

6. The Expressionless

A woman stumbles into Cedar Senai hospital, wearing a bloodied white gown. The staff immediately notice her mannequin-like appearance, though she moved fluidly like any other human. 

After taking out the kitten clamped in her jaws, the staff rush her to a room for treatment. However, as they try to restrain her, she rises out of the bed and smiles, her teeth containing an impossible number of sharp teeth.

She massacres everyone she finds, proclaiming she was God. The only survivor of the incident calls her “the Expressionless” and nothing is ever heard of her again.

7. Ted the Caver

In early 2001, A man and his friends begin exploring a local cave. As they move further inside, they begin to see hieroglyphs and experience strange winds coming from somewhere. 

In the last post, Ted talks about bringing a gun back to the cave, after he and his companions begin experiencing nightmares and hallucinations. No update has been published since.

Where to Read Creepypasta

A quick google search will give you tons of websites from which to read these kinds of stories. But here are the biggest sources you can check out:

  • Creepypasta.com is the biggest repository for creepypasta. It includes almost all the classic stories and more recent entries.
  • Reddit has multiple subreddits dedicated to creepypasta, some of the bigger ones being r/Creepypasta and r/nosleep. Both are extremely active, with users constantly putting out new stories.
  • Youtube has plenty of channels dedicated to creepypasta. You might even find one that’s dedicated to stories about your own culture and locale.

Dangers of Creepypasta

Unfortunately, the creepypasta phenomenon has also led to negative effects on society. While the majority of people read these stories for entertainment, there are those who have been affected on a deeper level.

Stories about suicide, self-harm, and other mental issues have surfaced as a supposed effect of reading creepypasta. Some have even been influenced by violence and other disturbing actions.

The most infamous of these is perhaps the near-fatal stabbing of a 12-year-old girl in Wisconsin. The two perpetrators (also 12-year-olds) held the victim down and stabbed her 19 times in an attempt to appease Slender Man.

It’s evidence of how tragic things can get when people take fiction too far. Though the stabbing seems to be an isolated case and no trend has been recorded of such behavior.

Reading Creepypasta

Creepypasta is a clever type of fiction, one that blends mystery, horror, and reality into a story that sounds real. It makes the reader curious, making them dive down a rabbit hole of similar tales.

However, keep in mind that these are only fiction meant to entertain. Prolonged exposure to creepypasta’s favorite subjects might burden your mental and emotional health. Take a break by reading about lighter things.

Creepypasta is this generation’s version of the 50’s to 90’s slasher film. And like its predecessors, some of it is acceptable while others are inappropriate. 

It all boils down to your values and what you’re willing to tolerate. And if your kid ever expresses interest in these stories, make sure you’re there to help them process it. 

What is your favorite creepypasta? Share it in the comments below!

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