Creepypasta have long been a staple of internet horror story-telling. They are short, scary tales, reminiscent of urban legends.
Yet, over the years, creepypasta have evolved and now come in a variety of formats. Some are written as blog posts or email correspondences, while others are reminiscent of pseudo-documentaries or diary entries.
Creepypasta is incredibly popular and there are now thousands of them out there. Over the years I’ve read countless creepypasta, some good, some bad and some fantastic, as you can see in my list of the best creepypasta of all time.
While creepypasta are horror tales, not all of them are necessarily scary. That’s why I put together a list of my favorite scary creepypasta.
Table of Contents
- 11. Who’s in my Bed
- 10. The Devil’s Cosmonaut
- 9. Cave-In
- 8. 1999
- 7. Wake Up
- 6. Mother’s Call
- 5. The Hidden Things
- 4. The Russian Sleep Experiment
- 3. Ted the Caver
- 2. Normal Porn for Normal People
- 1. Psychosis
11. Who’s in my Bed
Who’s in my bed is a very short, but also extremely scary creepypasta. It’s about a father who tucks his son into bed, but is asked to check under the bed for monsters.
Yet, he doesn’t find a monster there, but something much more unsettling. This scary creepypasta proves you don’t need a lot of words or a long narrative to unsettling readers.
It was also adapted as a short film. You can watch it on YouTube right here.
10. The Devil’s Cosmonaut
The Devil’s Cosmonaut is an extremely unsettling creepypasta set in a space station.
It’s the tale of a cosmonaut, Boris, who’s alone in a space station in earth’s orbit. Communication with the ground breaks down and soon strange things happen. The station grows increasingly hotter and Boris begins to hear strange noises around the station.
This is an absolutely amazing and scary creepypasta. Being confined to a small station in space is unsettling enough, but strange things happening there, makes it even worse.
It’s a crazy idea to be stuck in space, not knowing what’s real. What makes this so great and a truly scary creepypasta is to witness the decline of our narrator Boris.
It is, however, a rather long creepypasta, one that develops slowly. It’s well worth it though, and a fantastic read overall.
9. Cave-In
Cave-In is yet another short, but scary creepypasta.
It describes what happens to a young man after a cave-in. The thought of being stuck in a cave with no hope of being rescued is terrifying enough.
There is, however, another detail that makes this a truly scary creepypasta.
I enjoyed Cave-In when I first read it on 4chan’s x board and the unexpected ending is still a favorite of mine.
8. 1999
1999 is a very long, very scary creepypasta. It starts with our narrator, Elliot, in the year 1999 when he was five years old.
Back then, he was in love with the TV-show Pokemon. His dad, fed up about his son’s whining to watch the show, buys him his own TV.
One day, Elliot discovers a secret channel, Channel 21, which airs strange and disturbing shows.
The first part of 1999 is written more like an anthology in which Elliot describes the various strange shows airing on Channel 21. Eventually, Elliot writes a letter to his favorite show on the channel, Mr. Bear’s Cellar, and receives an invitation to the show.
Driving there with his father, they don’t meet Mr. Bear, but the police and soon discover the true nature of Channel 21 and Mr. Bear.
This, however, is only the beginning of this epic tale. In college, Elliot remembers the strange channel, Mr. Bear, and starts his own research about the events that took place during his childhood.
1999 works so well because it’s not written like a traditional short story, but as an internet blog detailing Elliot’s quest.
And the longer his research lasts, and the more details he uncovers, the more unsettling this scary creepypasta becomes.
7. Wake Up
There are many scary creepypasta out there. Some detail creepy beings or monsters, others describe unexplained incidents. Then there are some who are scary for completely different reasons.
This is one of them.
Wake Up is a tale that unsettled me. There’s always this tiny little voice in the back of my mind, asking me ‘what if’?
Ever since I first read this story, I’ve always regarded it as a truly scary creepypasta.
6. Mother’s Call
Mother’s Call is a classic in the realm of creepypasta.
This tale is short, extremely short, and comprises only a few sentences. Yet, as I mentioned before, you don’t need a lot of words for a scary creepypasta.
Go Read it!
5. The Hidden Things
The Hidden Things is another effective and scary creepypasta. When a hotel owner receives no word from the man in room 304, he pays him a visit.
When he gets no answer, he enters the room using a spare key. Inside, he finds the man dead in a corner of the room and the walls covered in strange writings.
After a few days, the narrator enters the room again to figure out what happened to the man.
When I first read this story, I was impressed. The story is fantastically written, provides some great imagery, and the old man’s descent into madness is masterfully done.
The Hidden Things is a scary creepypasta and a delight to read.
4. The Russian Sleep Experiment
The Russian Sleep Experiment and the image accompanying it is without a doubt one of the most popular creepypasta of all time. Yet, this popularity is for a good reason because it’s also a truly scary creepypasta.
Set in Russia, the story details what happens to a group of political prisoners who are subjected to an experiment. For the duration of thirty days, they are put in a room and kept awake by an experimental gas.
The men grow increasingly paranoid and slowly lose their mind. Things, however, don’t end there.
The Russian Sleep Experiment is an absolutely scary creepypasta classic.
3. Ted the Caver
Ted the Caver is a story about caving. I never liked the idea of exploring tight spaces or caves. No, it’s unsettling to me. While I’m not claustrophobic, the idea of squeezing through dark caves and tight spaces makes me anxious.
What makes Ted the Caver such a scary creepypasta is the way the story is told and the details that are put into it.
It begins as a blog by a caving enthusiast who discovers an unknown part of a cave system. The first posts detail the process of laying bare the entrance to this unknown system. Each post comes with a variety of photographs that give you more insight and immerse you more into the story. It makes it feel you aren’t reading a creepypasta, but an actual story.
Ted the Caver is a slow-moving, long tale, but it proves to be a fantastic read. While the beginning is about caving, weird details are slowly added to the story as it continues.
What makes Ted the Caver such a scary creepypasta is first the unsettling setting, but also the atmosphere the tale conveys.
Ted the Caver is truly one of the greatest, most detailed and scariest creepypasta ever written.
2. Normal Porn for Normal People
I’ve always loved internet horror and this creepypasta details just one such depraved and sick internet discovery.
The story begins when the narrator receives a chain letter about a weird website called normalpornfornormalpeople.com. When he visits the page, he discovers it features various, strange videos. Soon enough, the narrator shares his discovery on a certain image board. In time, members discover more and more unsettling content.
I don’t know why, but I always enjoyed stories about the strange, hidden corners of the internet. What makes this such a scary creepypasta is the idea that videos such as featured on the page most likely exist out there somewhere.
I recommend this story to anyone out there, but especially to those people who are looking for especially scary creepypasta. It also inspired one of my earlier stories, Fetish Webcam.
1. Psychosis
Psychosis by Matt Dymerski is one of my favorite creepypasta of all times. It’s a long, well-written story that details a man’s descent into madness.
It’s the story of a young man named John, who notices that many things in his life don’t seem to add up anymore. Before long, he wonders what’s real and what isn’t, and is not sure if he can trust his surroundings.
He isolates himself from the world and we witness his paranoia getting worse and worse.
What makes this story so great, and what makes it such a scary creepypasta is John’s descent into madness. As we read on, we can somewhat share his feelings, but we’re never true what’s really going on.
Psychosis is a fantastic story, a study in paranoia and isolation and one of the scariest creepypasta ever written.
