44 Scary Videos, Pictures, Games, & More 🫣😨

Fear is an essential part of what it means to be human. We evolved the ability to sense fear as a survival mechanism—you see something scary, you naturally avoid it. So, we associate dangerous things with being scary! In this article, we’ve rounded up the creepiest videos, images, stories, games, and more. Plus, we’ll even cover the most common phobias, where they come from, and how to avoid them, with exclusive insights from a psychologist.

What things are scariest to people?

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Around 1 in 5 people struggle with an intense phobia of some kind, and it’s natural for people to be scared of some things. The most common phobias include:

A fear of flying ✈️
A fear of dentists 🦷
A fear of clowns 🤡
A fear of spiders 🕷️
A fear of the outside 🌳

Section 1 of 10:

Scariest Videos Online

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The Original Backrooms Kane Parsons’ first “Backrooms” video kicked off a phenomenon that would ultimately lead to him being asked to direct a Blockbuster film titled Backrooms (see the trailer here) on the subject. Parsons’ original work still holds up, though. Seriously. It’s deeply unsettling. One Reddit user even describes the original video as “much creepier” than the Blockbuster film!
- The video: The first Backrooms video.
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Dining Room or There Is Nothing It’s hard to even say much of anything about this one, other than the fact that it has a strong possibility of keeping you up at night.
- The video: Dining Room or There Is Nothing
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The San Diego Incident Did something happen in San Diego in 1997? November 3rd, specifically? You’ve likely seen the movie that inspired this one, but it’s a terrifying found-footage spectacle looking at the events from a different perspective.
- The video: The San Diego Incident
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Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss What starts off as a video about a guy telling you how you can earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss slowly unravels into something very unsettling.
- The video: Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss
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I Feel Fantastic “I Feel Fantastic” is a music video for a synth pop band that may or may not actually exist. The music video is a surreal and creepy VHS-style portrait of an Android intermittently singing the lyrics “I feel fantastic / hey hey hey” interspliced with messages of warning. As a Reddit user put it, “I think the most unsettling part is the music, honestly. It just goes nowhere, like it doesn't belong.”
- The image: I Feel Fantastic

Section 2 of 10:

Scariest Images

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The man in the doorway We’re going to be honest, this one still sends chills down our spine every time we look at it. 10 years ago, a Reddit user uploaded this photo alongside the title, “Got a notification from my smart home app in the middle of the night saying ‘Your doorbell detected a visitor.’” If it’s a true story, it’s downright terrifying. If it’s not, it’s still one of the most unsettling images we’ve ever seen.
- The image: The man in the doorway.
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The cave diving warning The sign in question is spooky, but it’s even scarier knowing that it was the sign that diver Ben McDaniel saw before wandering further into an underwater cave and disappearing entirely, never to be found again.^{[1]
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- The image: The cave diving warning.
- Don’t a lot of caves have these signs? Yes. As Instagram user History Reported put it in one of their posts on the subject, “Extreme warning markers serve as terrifying but necessary deterrents. They bluntly remind untrained explorers that pushing forward directly invites tragedy.”
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The demon dog We actually have zero idea if this is a real dog or not, but the original Twitter user to upload the image swore up and down it was legit. Whether it is or it isn’t, it’s still terrifying. Just imagine walking out into your yard and finding that dog staring at you!^{[2]
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- The image: The demon dog.
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The woman on the roof The story goes that there was a Redditor whose father would take walks every morning at the crack of dawn. One day, he was strolling through his normal neighborhood, and he heard something making noise. He looked up, and he saw it…the woman on the roof. One Redditor in the original thread pointed out a disturbing detail: “If you zoom in on her the angle at which she is standing is unnatural, and makes it look like she's not touching the roof.”
- The image: The woman on the roof.
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The child in suspenders It’s tough to find information on this one, but one user originally uploaded this image to Imgur under the title, “Mom was going through old photos of me.” Take a look and see if you can see it. As one Imgur commenter plainly and calmly put it, “NOPE. GET THE SALT.”
- The image: The child in suspenders.

Section 3 of 10:

Scariest Stories & Creepypastas

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The lamp This story comes from a comment in an r/AskReddit thread. The question was, “Have you ever felt a deep personal connection to a person you met in a dream only to wake up feeling terrible because you realize they never existed?” Fun question, right? In a now-deleted comment, one user shared a story so unsettling, vivid, and real, that it went on to become one of the most iconic internet stories of all time.
- The story: The lamp (reposted in the original text in the r/Glitch_in_the_Matrix subreddit).
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The Russian Sleep Experiment One of the most iconic creepypastas of all time, “The Russian Sleep Experiment” asks a lot of troubling questions about just how far the human body can go. As one Reddit user explains, part of the horror comes from the existence of the story itself: “I think the creepiest thing about this story is that even if it isn’t true, it came from someone’s mind and probably draws from at least SOME truth somehow, somewhere. No matter how twisted … I could try to make a story, I don’t think I could muster up this kind of horror.”
- The story: The Russian Sleep Experiment
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SCP-2718 SCPs are a collective science fiction creative writing project that focuses on supernatural entities and occurrences. SCP-2718 ranked #1 on our list of the scariest SCPs of all time, and for good reason. It’s an absolutely terrifying vision of what might happen after you die. Check it out!
- The story: SCP-2718
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The strange notes This has an added dose of terror due to the fact that it’s confirmed to be real. One day, a woman woke up to find a handwritten note on a sticky note on her fridge. The thing is, she never wrote it, and it’s not her handwriting. What follows is a terrifying tale that could legit happen to anybody, anywhere, at any time.
- The story: The strange notes.
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Jeff the Killer “Jeff the Killer” is another popular creepypasta about…well, a guy named Jeff who is a killer. It’s considered a classic staple of the genre, and it’s worth using as a starting point if you’re interested in diving deeper into the genre.
- The story: The original “Jeff the Killer” story.

Section 4 of 10:

Scariest Games

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The Maze This is a really hard game with a very satisfying ending. It’s a maze game, but with a twist. Just check it out!
- The game: The Maze.
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Baldi’s Basics Baldi’s Basics is a full-blown online game complete with goals, objectives, chapters, and an open world. You play a math student who has to solve basic problems…or else. One Redditor described it this way, “It's the eeriness that it has that adds it to the horror category. The characters are weird, the graphics look old, retro. Everything about it makes it obscure, almost like it's an old game lost to the time that was never meant to be played.”
- The game: Baldi’s Basics
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Santy Is Home Imagine it’s Christmas and you’re just a little kid waiting for gifts from Santa. But what if Santa doesn’t want to bring gifts? What if he wants to bring…murder?!
- The game: Santy Is Home
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Tung Sahur Horror Do you like Italian Brainrot? Are you a big fan of rooms made of flesh that make squishy sounds whenever you take a step? Do you enjoy being hunted by nefarious machinations beyond your comprehension? Then this is the game for you!
- The game: Tung Sahur Horror

Section 5 of 10:

Scariest Real Stuff Caught on Camera

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The fake roadblock In 2014, a driver in Jersey City, NJ, encountered what initially looked like a nighttime work crew on the highway. In the video, they pull up, stop, and out of the darkness, a strange figure emerges.^{[3]
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- The video: The fake roadblock.
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The Missy Bevers suspect Missy Bevers was a yoga instructor who was murdered in a church one early morning in 2016 while setting up for class. The crazy thing is that the killer is caught on camera. In the clip, you can see the murderer wandering around the church in what looks like a fake SWAT team outfit. If that wasn’t scary enough, the killer’s behavior is really weird. They meander, poke around at stuff, and walk calmly from random room to random room as if they’re looking for something…^{[4]
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- The video: Missy Bevers’ killer.
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The bigfin squid In 2007, a submersible robot operated by the Shell Oil company was scouting potential drilling sites underwater when the camera captured something equal-parts awe-inspiring and spooky: a bigfin squid—on video!^{[5]
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National Geographic
Website of the National Geographic Society

Go to source} These rarely-seen deep-sea squid live miles below the surface of the Earth and grow up to 20 ft (6.1 m) long, giving them the appearance and overall vibe of an alien.^{[6]
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- The video: The bigfin squid.
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The Halloween burglars Do you have a doorbell with a camera? If so, how do you think you’d react if you took a look outside late at night to find three clowns standing still, staring your home down, before they slowly work their way around the building, trying to find a way in? Well, that’s what one family had to deal with in 2025. It’s still unclear if it was a “prank” or not. Either way, it was captured on this video.^{[7]
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- The video: Halloween burglars.
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The Elisa Lam elevator tape Elisa Lam was a young woman who met an unfortunate accidental end when she climbed into a water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel. She was in the midst of a bipolar episode, which probably explains her strange behavior in the scary elevator footage.^{[8]
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- The video: Elisa Lam in the elevator.

Section 6 of 10:

Creepy Common Situations

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Dogs barking at stuff that isn’t there is also up there, but the creep factor feels like it’s amplified if it’s a cat for some reason. What exactly are they so upset about? Is it the spirit of a dead loved one? Did someone quietly break in?
Ever been lying half-asleep in your bed and heard a weird footstep or a strange creak? Pure nightmare fuel. Hearing weird stuff in your home is never a sign of something good. It’s not like a happy guy crept in to leave cupcakes all over the place. At the absolute best, it’s your home settling or an animal trapped in a wall.
If you’ve ever gone camping, you know how utterly terrifying it is to see someone emerge unexpectedly from the underbrush late at night. Even if it’s just a wayward raccoon or a hungry deer, something appearing in the night in the middle of nowhere is terrifying.^{[9]
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If you’ve ever hiked or gone exploring on your own, you may have had that moment where it dawns on you that you aren’t sure where you are. This can be especially scary if you don’t have your phone or the weather isn’t playing nice. Thoughts can start to race through your head of dying of starvation, running into someone dangerous, etc.
We don’t care who you are. When that door knocks randomly, there’s always a little 3-5 second moment where the hair stands up on the back of your neck, and you think, “Surely I’m in danger of some kind,” before realizing it’s just a delivery. People seem to universally agree on this one, too. One Redditor says, “Knocks at the door are horrific. I don't answer. Takes like 15 minutes to calm my heart rate down after.”

Section 7 of 10:

Scary Animals

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These freaky-looking eel-like creatures are parasites that latch on and suck the blood and body fluids out of their prey. They’re also an invasive species. Luckily for you, these critters don’t want anything to do with humans, so you get a pass.^{[10]
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You’re a fan of 8–10 in (20–25 cm) centipedes, right? Big supporter of venomous legs, yeah? No? Then the giant desert centipede will probably crack your scariest animals list.^{[11]
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Picture a giant wasp, the size of your entire palm, that preys on tarantulas. That’s the tarantula hawk wasp. Consider yourself blessed that their electrifying bite only affects giant spiders and not humans.^{[12]
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They’re perfectly harmless to people, but the Japanese spider crab totally looks like something from another universe. These 3.5 ft (1.1 m) long crabs really defy all expectations of what a normal crab should look like.^{[13]
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Research source} As one Redditor put it, “That is my sleep paralysis demon.”
Chickens and horseshoe crabs get all of the jokes about being dinosaurs, but the Greenland shark really inhabits the essence of the idea. These colossal beasts live up to 500 years old, and they’re such specialized beasts that they likely haven’t evolved in millions of years. Oh, and they’re all basically blind because a parasite sucks on their eyes.^{[14]
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Section 8 of 10:

Common & Scary Phobias

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Aerophobia (Fear of Flying) A fear of flying is perhaps the most common phobia on our list. It’s estimated that roughly 40% of people have a natural fear of flying, although it is one of the phobias that tends to dissipate in intensity over time as you fly more and more.^{[15]
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- A tip on dealing with this from an aviation expert: One regular contributor in the r/Aviation subreddit who works as a professional pilot had an expert tip: “Go talk to the pilots before the flight, visit the cockpit. I like people saying hello, I have had numerous fearful flyers tell me saying hi, talking about weather, and putting a face on your pilot really helps with the anxiety!”
After a fear of flying, a fear of dentists is probably the second-most common phobia (it appears that up to 36% of people have a fear of dentists). It’s not that people are spooked out by anyone who went to dental school—it’s just kind of scary and unnerving to have someone poke around in your mouth with drills, spikes, and needles.^{[16]
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Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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People with agoraphobia get anxious about going outside, being in a crowd, or exploring open spaces. They may also struggle on public transit or in big open spaces, like movie theaters.^{[17]
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Mayo Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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Arachnophobia (Fear of Spiders) Most people find spiders a little bit spooky, but if the fear is intense enough that it can interfere with your daily life, you may have arachnophobia. It’s estimated that up to 15% of people have arachnophobia.^{[18]
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Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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- In case you didn’t know, the vast majority of spiders are harmless. They actually eat a lot of the nasty bugs you probably don’t want around.
A fear of heights is pretty common. To be fair to people with acrophobia, it makes sense to be a little nervous if you’re standing around edges where you fall to your death if you go over the side.^{[19]
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Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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Snakes are another extremely common phobia. Like spiders, most snakes are perfectly harmless to people. Also like spiders, we totally get it if you’re spooked out by snakes.^{[20]
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Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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If you have claustrophobia, you might be terrified of elevators, tunnels, locked rooms, or even cars. This condition can also make it difficult to get an MRI, use a public bathroom, or board a plane.^{[21]
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National Health Service (UK)
Public healthcare system of the UK

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Coulrophobia (Fear of Clowns) It’s interesting that everyone is basically in total agreement over the fact that clowns are kind of creepy, but we still somehow continue to produce clowns as a society.^{[22]
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Cleveland Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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- Fun fact: You might think that a fear of clowns is cultural, but this fear actually appears across every culture on the planet, which indicates there’s something intrinsic about clowns that makes them scary to humans.^{[23]
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Does this image give you the willies? If it does, you may have trypophobia—a fear of groups of tiny holes. Interestingly, this fear is closely associated with symptoms of depressive disorders, so it may be a sign that it’s time to see a therapist if you’ve been getting spooked out by holes lately and you’re feeling kind of down.^{[24]
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PubMed Central
Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health

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If someone passes out every time they get their blood drawn or horror movies trigger vomiting, they may have hemophobia. Unlike something like a fear of clowns, a fear of blood seems to often be associated with blood-related trauma when you’re growing up.^{[25]
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Section 9 of 10:

Where do phobias come from?

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Phobias come from feelings of anxiety. According to licensed clinical psychologist Susan Pazak, PhD, phobias or fears are displaced on a certain object, place, or situation. When we think other areas of our life are out of control, she explains that “trying to control an external situation is a way of attempting to manage all [of the] fears and anxiety by displacing the worry and fear onto something we think we can control,” like food, flying, spiders, and elevators.^{[26]
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Susan Pazak, PhD
Licensed Clinical Psychologist & Professional Life Coach

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- Dr. Pazak says that “unfortunately, this theory backfires and creates more anxiety and fear.”^{[27]
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  Susan Pazak, PhD
  Licensed Clinical Psychologist & Professional Life Coach
  
  Expert Interview}