As a horror writer, I was always interested in the horror genre. I’ve always searched for new and scary content ever since I could go online. In the 2000s I mostly read horror manga and watched horror movies, but I hadn’t really bothered with any other horror content online. Neither did I know it existed.

This all changed when I found a thread about creepypasta on 4chan’s /x/ board. I spent the entire day reading creepypasta after creepypasta. Some were bad, some were good, and some were truly amazing.

So what exactly are creepypasta?

Creepypasta are campfire tales spread via the internet.

Some are quick, frightening anecdotes, barely a few sentences or paragraphs long, others can be of novella-length.

In the early days of the internet, content was often shared via emails or copied and pasted to image and message boards. Users on 4chan were quick to call such reappearing content ‘copypasta’, a catchy name for content that was copied and pasted.

While most of those messages were normal or humorous, some were scary tales and urban legends. Derived from the word copypasta those soon became known as creepypasta.

Somehow the name stuck and is now the predominant name for all scary stories shared via the internet. Many of those early creepypasta carved out their own place in early internet culture.

Creepypasta spawned many different communities. The two most famous ones are Reddit’s famous Nosleep subreddit and the SCP foundation.

Creepypasta are often written in first person to emulate someone depicting a real incident. There are however some that use different formats. Some use a pseudo-documentary style, incorporating blog posts, diary entries, and even email correspondences. Others are more literary and more akin to short stories.

There are even creepypasta who gained such popularity, they became urban legends of themselves. Others developed a cult following and spawned TV series or even feature-length movies.

It stands to say that creepypasta are some of the most unique and most popular content the internet has spawned.

That’s why I, a longtime fan, put together a list of all the best creepypasta. This list won’t include stories posted on Nosleep since I already created a separate list exclusive to Nosleep.

And now, on with the list!

127. Who Was Phone?

What better way to open this list than with this infamous little creepypasta. Who Was Phone? is most likely known by anyone who ever read creepypasta online.

Who Was Phone? is popular not for its story, or for how creepy it is, but for how bad it is.

Ever since it was published, it regained a meme-like status. It stands for the fact that the creepypasta genre differs in quality. There are some great ones out there, but there are also many terrible ones.

126. Annora Petrova

Annora Petrova is a classic in the realm of creepypasta.

It details the story of a young American ice skater named Anna Petrova. One day the girl googles her own name and comes upon a Wikipedia page about herself that tells her the future.

All is well until Annora, desperate to win a competition the next day, edits her page.

Soon enough, things spiral out of control because of her actions.

This creepypasta shows that it’s not always a good idea to google your own name.

In essence, Annora Petrova is a tale about messing with unknown forces, altering fate, and trying to get more than you deserve.

125. The Sandman

The Sandman is another fantastic creepypasta.

We get to know a man named James and his son Daniel. One day James finds a strange man, or better a strange creature, sitting in front of his son’s bed.

After this strange visit, his son changes. The boy refuses to speak. Even worse, mysterious things happen around the house.

James grows increasingly paranoid and is desperate to save his son from the creature he thinks is lurking around the house.

The Sandman is a great tale that truly shows a father’s desperation to save his son before the story comes to an unexpected conclusion.

124. A Strange Night in the City of Angels

It’s seldom that we come upon historical pieces in the realm of creepypasta. This is one, and it’s a great story.

A man returns home after World War II. Not knowing what else to do with his life, he becomes a bartender in a run-down bar in downtown Los Angeles.

One night a strange young man appears at his bar.

This tale is more short story rather than a typical creepypasta. What makes it work is not only the unusual setting, but also the great writing.

123. The Dering Woods

Here we have another textbook example of a creepypasta.

This one tells us about the mysterious Dering Woods, the supposedly most haunted woods in Britain.

This creepypasta is less a story, but more a Wikipedia article explaining details about and incidents related to the titular Dering Woods.

122. Hands

I always enjoyed stories that are written this way, it makes things much more interesting and realistic.

A short little creepypasta about a strange practice a group of teenagers did one summer. They uncovered a way to make each other pass out.

In the few seconds they are unconscious, they have extremely lucid and vivid dreams.

One day, one of the narrator’s friends who’s never tried it before joins in on the fun. The results, however, are much different. What he saw wasn’t a vivid dream, but something utterly horrible.

I don’t know why I like this creepypasta so much. I guess it’s the setting and the narration. Bored teenagers are often up to strange things, and often those things can have dire results, as proven here.

121. Jvk1166z.esp

I don’t know what it is I like so much about video game creepypasta.

This one features a Morrowind Mod called Jvk1166z.esp. It’s a cryptic and strange mod that only works after some tinkering.

The story first describes the narrator’s attempts at uncovering the secrets hidden within the mod. He soon gives up, but an acquaintance of his he got to know via the internet isn’t so easily deterred.

The story then details what the narrator’s acquaintance uncovers and what happens in the Mod the further he progresses.

As someone who played Morrowind, I enjoyed the details given in this creepypasta. If you enjoy cryptic mysteries related to video games, give this one a try.

120. Room Zero

This creepypasta is a follow-up to Abandoned by Disney. In this story, we hear more anecdotes about Disney and the weird things that keep happening in their parks.

One such thing is the ominous Room Zero, and we soon learn what took place in it.

I don’t know why Disney is so often featured in creepypasta. I guess it just fits that a place that a place that’s supposed to be happy might hold some very dark secrets.

119. Satan’s Fall

Satan’s Fall is a creepypasta that’s a bit longer and that I only discovered recently.

A young man recounts that one of his neighbors, Wayne Warren, pretended to be the devil each year on Halloween. He painted himself red from top to bottom, sat on his sunken porch, and gave away candy to those kids brave enough to approach him.

The narrator reveals that Wayne didn’t give him candy. Instead, the man gave him something very special. It’s an item that puts into motion the actual events of the story.

Satan’s Fall is a strange story, one very different from what you might guess it’s about. Yet, it’s another great story.

118. Whispers

Another creepypasta I only recently read and really enjoyed.

We get to know an internet blogger named Debra Lindsay Caine, who goes by the screen name of Sugercain. She used to be a web comedian before she disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Not much is known, and she’d probably been forgotten if the tapes she recorded while staying at a certain haunted house wouldn’t have been found.

It’s an interesting story. Its beginning brings us right back to the mid-2000s when Myspace was still a thing and web-blogging had just taken off.

Another thing that makes this creepypasta so great is the format. Big parts of it are written as audio transcripts of the tapes recorded by Debra.

117. Roadwork

Roadwork is a weird and surreal creepypasta.

We get to know Conner, a delivery driver of questionable goods.

The story starts with him calling his boss because the thing he just picked up is unnerving him. His boss calms him down and tells Conner everything’s all right.

Conner continues, but soon the strange feeling of apprehension returns. Mixed with his sleep-deprived state, things soon get foggy. He uncovers what’s in the trunk, but that’s only the start of a surreal night.

Things get progressively stranger and we’re unsure that what’s happening is real or if Conner is hallucinating. Eventually, he finds himself on an unknown road where he encounters the titular roadwork.

Roadwork is a strange and surreal creepypasta that will make you question what’s real and what isn’t. Still an enjoyable read.

116. Shower Princess

This creepypasta starts with an interesting little question. Why do we feel so vulnerable when we’re naked, yet save when we wear a few layers of clothing?

The narrator’s fear most likely comes from her youth when she watched scary movies in a dark room alone. It was the shower scene in Psycho that particularly stuck with her.

It was this scene that spawned her habit of always locking the shower door and always keeping it locked until fully dressed.

This habit should prove to save the narrator’s life.

It’s a short, scary little creepypasta with an ominous ending.

115. The Message

Here we’ve got another creepypasta classic.

I won’t say anything about this to not spoil the fun, but it will make you look over your shoulder.

114. I Told You To Smile

Another short, but good creepypasta.

The narrator wakes up one morning to knocking on her door. Believing it to be a prank, she goes back to sleep. Two hours later, though, she’s woken up by her front door slamming shut.

A moment later she discovers the message ‘smile’ written all over her window. When she checks her phone, she finds a similar message.

When the police don’t believe her, she puts up a camera in her bedroom.

There’s something deeply unsettling about this little creepypasta and it ends perfectly. A short, but great read.

113. The Harbinger Experiment

The Harbinger Experiment is a longer creepypasta I only recently discovered but enjoyed quite a bit.

It details the titular experiment announced by a man named Zimmerman in 1971. The narrator of the story is one of the people working for Zimmerman for the duration of the experiment.

The experiment is conducted in a large underground shelter. The project is supposedly testing the effects of extended isolation. However, the true purpose of it is much darker. Zimmerman is obsessed to prove the existence of a supernatural world.

The Harbinger Experiment spends outlines the set-up of the titular experiment, but when the horror slowly sets in, it’s a delight to witness.

112. The Hanging Munchkin

Here we have another popular urban legend turned creepypasta.

The Hanging Munchkin is a theory that’s been around for a very long time and has been debunked multiple times. Yet people still believe it to be credible.

It explains a difference between the original and the edited version of the movie The Wizard of Oz. Namely the theory that in one specific scene you can see one of the Munchkin’s dangling from a rope in the background.

Even though the idea has been debunked multiple times, it’s still interesting to see what people notice and what theories they come up with.

111. Robert the Doll

Another creepypasta classic. It details the creation of the titular doll named Robert and the events related to it.

The doll was given to artist Robert Eugene Otto by a servant when he was a boy. The man continued to keep the doll until his adulthood. As the story goes, the doll supposedly took on a life of its own. It tormented Robert Eugene Otto’s family and later drove his wife to insanity.

What makes this story so much more unsettling is the fact that it’s all based on a real, supposedly haunted doll. Robert now resides in Fort East Martello Museum in Key West.

110. The Girl in the Photograph

This story isn’t so much a creepypasta, but a well-known urban legend that has been passed around long before the internet became popular.

It’s the story of a boy who finds a photograph of a beautiful girl holding up two fingers. He soon grows obsessed with her and tries to find out who she is.

Even though this is not directly a creepypasta, it’s a great little tale, so I decided to include it in this list.

109. The Rotunda

The Rotunda is another interesting creepypasta.

After their last semester, three friends make a road trip and go hiking in the Great Smokey Mountains.

After their hike, they stay in a small town at the base of the mountains and enjoy the town’s many tourist attractions.

Eventually, the narrator wants to pay a visit to the town’s haunted house. His friends, however, decline to join. Deciding to have some fun, he enters alone.

As he’s about to enter he’s warned that he shouldn’t go in alone and to beware the titular rotunda.

This is an interesting little creepypasta that moves into quite a different direction than you originally might expect.

108. Funnymouth

Funnymouth is a creepypasta set in the realm of the internet.

It details the narrator’s strange encounter with another user named funnymouth. Funnymouth joins a chatroom the narrator is in and sends a couple of weird messages before he leaves again.

The narrator follows the user to his channel. His actions seem weird, but inoffensive at first, and soon the narrator discards him for just another, albeit strange, user. However, he’s soon plagued by weird dreams, and soon funnymouth contacts him again, this time via email.

What makes this creepypasta so interesting is the format. The chat format and the added email correspondences add a certain level of realism to the tale.

107. Fog

This is a creepypasta written by Josef K.

It details what’s written in a note left by Lieutenant Commander Ryan Simmons of the USS Mistral. It starts off by instructing whoever finds the note to leave and sink the vessel immediately before detailing the events that took place.

After a distress call from an Icelandic fishing vessel, the Mistral made its way deep into the North Sea.

They find the Icelandic vessel, but apart from one dead fisherman no other member of the crew is found. Even worse, thick, heavy fog reduces visibility to only a few hundred feet.

The crew is left with more questions than answers regarding the fate of the Icelandic vessel.

Soon enough the crew notices more strange things about the location before their ship’s stunted and unable to function.

I enjoy creepypasta and horror stories set at sea. There’s something terrifying about being stuck or isolated in a boat in the middle of the ocean. As short as this tale is, it captures the topic of isolation very well. It describes a dire scenario and hints at things out there, beneath the frozen seas.

106. The Silence of the North Woods

Don’t we all enjoy creepypasta that incorporate folklore?

In this story, we get to know a writer who wants to spend some time in a small Native American village to get inspiration for his newest novel.

He soon gets to know his guide, Abraham, and the two of them are supposed to spend a month together in a tent out in the wilderness.

When they arrive at the campsite Abraham acts nervous and our narrator soon starts to see things.

This is a classical creepypasta of a man encountering a wendigo. The premise might be simple, but it’s a well-written tale.

105. The Comfy and Cozy Cabin

Another creepypasta I first read on my days on 4chan’s /x/ board.

This story details what happens at a place called the Comfy and Cozy Cabin. It’s a three-story cabin rented out to guests by its owner.

His newest guests unsettle him the moment they arrive. Sam and Martha Anderson are young, thin, and very pale, almost sick looking.

From here on out, things get creepier before they turn into a surreal and gruesome nightmare.

The Comfy and Cozy cabin is another longer creepypasta one that isn’t shy to use gore and unsettling imagery. At times the story might focus a bit too much on gruesome details, however, it’s still quite a good tale.

104. Sarah O’Bannon

This is another very short creepypasta.

We learn that in days past coffins were made with holes in them. Via these holes, copper tubing was attached to a bell to allow people who were mistakenly buried to call for help.

One night the gravedigger hears one of those bells ring.

It’s a simple and short, but very effective little creepypasta.

103. Kisaragi Station

It’s unusual to find a creepypasta that’s set on or at least starts out on a train.

This one originated on the imageboard 2chan where a man details strange things happening at his train ride. He notices that the train doesn’t stop at any of the usual stops. Even stranger, it doesn’t seem to stop anywhere.

That’s until the train reaches the titular Kisaragi Station, a station that neither the narrator nor any of the other users on 2chan have ever heard before.

From here on out, things only get stranger and more bizarre.

What makes this creepypasta so interesting is its unique nature. It’s not told in a normal, conventional way, but as a series of posts on an imageboard.

102. The Couch

What a fine little creepypasta The Couch is. It creates terror in a place where no terror should be, our very own home.

There’s something disquieting about those small, dark corners and small spaces in our homes.

This story features one such spot, the space below the couch.

This is quite an unsettling creepypasta.

101. Summer in Texas

Here we have another creepypasta more akin to a short story.

We get to know two adolescent boys, Joey and Jason, who are worried about a girl named Sarah. As the boys lay in wait in front of her home, we’re told the events that took place during the last three days after Sarah and her family first arrived in the neighborhood.

After meeting Sarah for the first time, the two boys realize that something isn’t right about her home situation.

That’s how the story of two friends in the small town of Lytle, Texas starts.

What makes this tale so good is the fabulous writing. It’s a delight to witness the boys’ adventure and their mission to find out more about Sarah and her family.

It’s another longer tale and while the payoff might be weak for its length, it’s well worth the read.

100. Across the Border

There are some creepypasta that are creepy, there are some that are scary and terrifying, and then there are those that are downright disturbing.

This one details what happens when a couple wants to spend an evening across the Mexican border with their young child.

Let’s all hope this story is nothing but fiction.

99. Think Not of the Morrow

In this creepypasta a man recounts the most fantastical story he ever heard.

Back when the man was the headmaster at a primary school in Northamptonshire, a boy named Christopher was sent to his office.

The boy was panicked, upset and utterly confused, mumbling to himself that this isn’t right and it’s not supposed to be like that.

We then hear the story Christopher told the headmaster.

It’s a great story but what drives it home is the unique and unsettling ending.

98. Burgrr Entries

This has to be one of the weirdest and most bizarre creepypasta on the list.

I really enjoy apocalypse stories, especially those that differ from the norm. By now we’re all used to zombies, aliens, or natural catastrophes. When things are different, they get a lot more interesting.

This story doesn’t just make the apocalypse different, it makes it utterly bizarre.

With Burgrr Entries, the apocalypse starts with a new fast food that appears at the narrator’s city.

There’s one thing that’s even stranger, though. The fast food seems to be only available at weird takeout windows that appeared all over town. We learn about this early on when one such takeout window appears at the side of the narrator’s home with no visible addition or hint of it inside.

People stand in line at those takeout windows to buy and eat disgusting and weird food. Yet, everyone acts as if it’s completely normal. Only the narrator seems to understand what’s happening.

As the story progresses the influence of those new products rises and more and more people fall for them. At the same time, the story also becomes stranger and stranger.

As I mentioned before, this story is weird and at times quite gross. It’s however one of the most surreal and creative ones I’ve read.

Unfortunately, the story devolves a bit into a drawn out fight and escape scene in later parts. The overall plot and especially the first few parts stick out to me because of their gross and bizarre imagery.

97. Just Be Careful Out There

Here we have another one of the creepypasta I read on 4chan’s /x/ board.

There’s no real story here. This creepypasta just asks a question, one that might be a tad bit unnerving if you think about it a bit longer.

96. And Then There’s Martha

Another good little creepypasta. We get to know our narrator, a fifteen-year-old boy. He explains that his mother, Martha, seems to be chronically pissed off. His life is almost unbearable when she’s around.

One day she leaves on a business trip to Australia. When she returns, she’s changed, different and all around happy and caring woman.

It’s interesting to witness the narrator’s conundrum and to follow his thought process. He knows something’s wrong, but on the other hand, his life’s much better now.

The creepypasta continues to outline his life before it comes to an unsettling conclusion.

95. Always With You

What a nifty little idea this creepypasta brings forth. It’s another older one that gives us quite an interesting spin on the boogeyman and other, similar creatures that might watch us in the dark of the night.

It’s a quick read, but one that I can recommend to anyone.

94. The Masked Man

Ah, Halloween, the time when kids dress up and go trick-or-treating and when adults watch scary movies.

This creepypasta resolves all around Halloween. Our narrator is the father of a seven-year-old boy named James. James wants nothing more than to dress up as Buzz Lightyear.

The narrator knows few trick-or-treaters will make their way to his home in the outskirts of town.

Still, decorating his home is one of his favorite activities around Halloween. His next-door neighbor, however, seems to decorate his home this year around as well. His decorations, however, prove to be more sinister, consisting mostly of bones, skulls and what looks like intestines.

Soon enough, our narrator notices a masked figure sneaking around the neighborhood.

From here on out, the creepypasta gets progressively weirder and creepier before it reaches its terrifying conclusion.

The Masked Man is a typical creepypasta that follows the creepy neighbor trope, or at least it starts out that way. It’s one of the longer ones on this list, but it’s well worth the read.

93. A Knock on the Window

A short, but scary creepypasta.

The narrator’s woken up by the sound of knocking against his door. As he lays in bed, fear slowly creeps in. He tries his best not to move or to turn towards the window. The knocking, however, doesn’t let up.

Eventually the narrator turns around to see who or what’s knocking against the window.

This tale is creepy in two ways. First, it’s the scenario. Hearing someone or something knocking against your window at night is unnerving enough. Second, it’s the revelation of this creepypasta, which is way scary than we could imagine.

92. Midnight Train

Midnight Train is not exactly a creepypasta, but more a short story. It’s a rather sad tale, but it’s fantastic writing lands it a place on this list.

It tells the story of a man named Daniel. We get to know him when he’s barely six years old. The young boy catches his father with another woman. The father promptly beats his son into submission and makes sure Daniel doesn’t talk to anyone about what he saw.

That day was the first time Daniel heard the sounds of the Midnight Train near his home.

From then on the story continues to outline Daniel’s life and details the other times when he sees the titular Midnight Train.

It’s a great creepypasta, a life story really, and it’s vividly and amazingly told.

91. The Statue

Another creepypasta classic that’s well known.

A girl’s babysitting and after she puts the kids to bed, she decides to watch TV in the parent’s bedroom.

She calls them ask for permission and asks if she’s allowed to cover up the strange angel statue in their house.

It’s right at this moment that things take a turn for the worse.

The Statue is a creepypasta well known, and that I enjoyed ever since I first read it. It’s a simple, yet effective tale.

90. Room 308

Here we have another typical creepypasta.

Two friends who love to explore abandoned buildings check out an old hospital. As so often before, the two of them split up to add to the creepiness factor of the experience.

Eventually one of them gets lost and his friend has to help him find his way out via the portable radio they use to communicate with one another.

From here on out, things get progressively creepier.

It’s a rather simple tale, but it’s nonetheless creepy.

89. Public Restroom

What could go wrong in a public restroom? Well, a lot if we’re to believe this creepypasta.

A young woman makes her way around campus to the only woman’s restroom that’s still open at this time of the day.

Bathrooms are never clean, but this time the smell is worse than ever, and soon the narrator realizes there’s something strange going on.

We all know that public restrooms aren’t the nicest of places and since this is a creepypasta, we also know that something scary or creepy is bound to happen. While this one appears to be rather predictable, it ends in a rather satisfying way.

88. The Girl on the Train

Another well-known creepypasta that has appeared in various different forms.

One night, a young woman on the last subway home encounters a group of three people. One of them, a woman, keeps staring at her the entire time.

Before long, another passenger sits down next to her and tells her to get off at the next station. Afraid and unnerved about the situation, she does as the man tells her.

She soon learns why he told her to get off.

As I said, this one’s a classic.

87. The Trap

Another scary little creepypasta, detailing a supposed historical anecdote.

At the end of World War II, a young woman in Berlin encounters a blind, old man who asks her to deliver a letter to a specific address.

The woman agrees, but the moment she turns around she finds the old man running away. As it turns out, there’s more to the letter than she thought.

What makes this tale so creepy is that it’s quite realistic and might very well be based on something similar happening.

86. Our Little Roanoke

I’ve always enjoyed coming-of-age stories or movies. There’s just something about them that makes them so relatable. I guess it’s because we can all look back at similar times, the adventures we went on, and how things eventually changed as we got older.

This creepypasta begins with the narrator telling us he was always told to avoid the woods.

Becoming a teenager is a strange time, the narrator explains. You’re changing, you find new interests, new friends, and often old friendships from our earlier years drift apart.

In the summer at the end of sixth grade, our narrator realizes that things for him are changing, too. So he and his friends go on one last adventure together.

The place they want to go to is an old lumber mill in the forest. The old mill has its share of stories. Workers disappeared and mysterious incidents happened before the mill was eventually closed down.

As it turns out the trip should prove to be their last.

Our Little Roanoke is another great creepypasta.

85. It Has No Face

I only read this creepypasta recently and was surprised by how good it was.

It’s the story of a young man who’s on the long drive home from California to Oregon during the winter. On his way north, he’s hit by a snow storm.

Eventually, the storm gets so bad he needs to stop. He does so in a small, lonely cabin.

He finds the door opened and the cabin unoccupied. When he looks around, he soon finds a painting of a family. What’s a little unnerving is that three of the four family members depicted appear to be completely smooth. There are no facial features to them at all.

This, however, is only the beginning of the strange things that happen to him at the cabin.

It Has No Face is a great creepypasta that surprised me by its unique approach to what would otherwise have been a rather normal, mundane horror story. It’s a great read.

84. Home Alone

Home alone is another super short creepypasta, but nothing short of a classic.

There’s just something about the entire scenario depicted in this creepypasta that makes the hair on your neck stand up.

83. Hanging Man Hill

Another creepypasta that stands out because of its great writing.

We learn about the small town of Gaston in South Carolina. After the narrator’s mother lost her job, the two of them move back there.

Before long the narrator befriends another boy, Terry. There’s one thing special about Terry, he loves scary movies and pretty much anything else that’s scary.

It’s Terry who tells the narrator about the legend of Hanging Man Hill.

This creepypasta is a typical story of two young boys trying to find out if an urban legend is true.

The idea has been done before. Still, Hanging Man Hill makes the list because of its fantastic prose.

82. Ground Score

Handling and describing a state of intoxication can be tough, and I’ve seldom seen it handled satisfactorily. This creepypasta succeeds where many others fail.

Our narrator goes to a music festival called Lot. While wandering the festival grounds she suddenly finds an aluminum pouch containing a few squares of paper. She recognizes them to be plotter acid.

A few months after this festival, she’s forced to move back in with her parents. When they leave to travel, the narrator decides it’s time to try some acid she found.

Her high this time turns out to differ greatly from usual. When she tries to ease the effects of the acid though, things take a turn for the worse.

Ground Score is another very interesting and strange creepypasta. What stands out to me is the description of the narrator’s high and the strange dark world she seems to be trapped in.

81. On the Bus

In this creepypasta, we’re brought to the streets, roads, and dusty lanes of Colombia. Many stories and legends are set there.

With the changes of civilization and the growths of cities there comes a new set of urban legends, for example, that of the phantom bus.

This story however isn’t about the phantom bus. Our narrator, a young woman, enters a bus one late afternoon in Bogota. There’s one peculiarity though, she notices that everyone on the bus seems to be rather old.

Another great little creepypasta.

80. The Algorithm

It’s seldom that one comes upon a creepypasta that depicts mental illness or paranoia satisfactorily. This is one of them and man is it a good one.

There’s also enough mystery here, enough possibility for interpretation to see it in multiple ways

79. The Thing in the Window

Here we have another typical, short creepypasta. There isn’t much about it, just a brief account of something creepy happening.

The narrator explains that for almost a week there’s been a featureless figure staring in from outside the window.

Unsettled about the entire thing, he finally covers up his window. It should prove to be a mistake.

The Thing in the Window is another early example of a creepypasta, but one that’s well done.

78. The House That Death Forgot

This is another creepypasta I enjoyed a lot.

There’s something about roadhouses in the middle of nowhere. It’s pretty much the perfect setting for a horror story.

In this story, we get to know a woman Melinda. One night she gets the first call from her father in fifteen years and makes the long trip to meet up with him. When she arrives, however, she can’t find his name on the buzzer.

Annoyed, she makes her way back home, only to get lost on the small, lonely stretch of road. Eventually, she stops at Granny Royce’s Road House to get some directions. However, there’s something very special about the place.

The House That Death Forgot is more a short story than a creepypasta. It’s well-written, however and presents us with quite a unique concept.

77. Keep a Diary

What an odd little tale this is. I first read it on 4chan’s /x/ board and it was the first diary-type creepypasta I ever read. I thought it was quite a unique little tale.

We get to know a man who wakes up in a giant, never-ending white room. All he has with him is a diary in which he records and details his experiences.

Each morning, after waking up, he’s provided with supplies that help him survive in this white room. First, it’s only gloves and some water, but soon boxes containing coffee and later building materials for a shelter.

Before long, other people arrive as well.

As I said, this is an odd creepypasta, but there’s something about it that makes it interesting. The survival of the narrator, the forming of a small society, and the diary format make this quite a unique experience.

There’s also a deeper theme here, a deeper story that hints at things that make you ponder for a bit.

76. Four Hours it Started

In this creepypasta, we get to know a woman living in a shanty in the city of Manila. she works in a questionable profession and is often in need of money.

One day, when the night gets colder, she decides to buy herself a sweater at a thrift shop.

When she tries it on, she finds a small note inside. On it, she finds an address and some instructions. She’s to enter a specific building and spend the night there with her eyes shut. If she does as the note instructs, she’s paid a thousand pesos. Being short on money and dreaming of a better life, she eventually follows the instructions.

This story is all about tension and suspense, and it’s handled in great detail. A fantastic tale that I recommend to anyone.

75. The Kaleidoscope

Here we got another shorter creepypasta, but it’s another great one.

In this one, we follow a man to a small antique store in Main. After checking out various items, he becomes interested in an old projector-kaleidoscope.

When he tries it out, it shows him weird, twisting swirls projected against the wall of the store. Interested in the strange object, he wants to purchase it. The old shopkeeper tells him then that there’s more to this specific kaleidoscope.

There’s just something about stories like this that play with our fear of the unknown and things invisible to the human eye.

74. Never Turn Around

Here we have another classic.

It’s a short creepypasta that plays into our fears of seeing someone or something strange staring at us from a different apartment.

Living in a huge apartment complex myself, this story is very relatable. There’s this eerie feeling whenever you see another window alight in the middle of the night or the early morning hours. What would you do if you saw someone waving at you?

73. Who’s in my Bed

In this short creepypasta, a father tucks his son into bed. The boy asks his father to check under the bed for monsters.

He doesn’t find a monster there, instead he finds something else, something much more unsettling.

This short creepypasta was adapted as a short film. You can watch it here. It’s as unsettling as the original.

72. Lights in the Distance

I first read this creepypasta back in the day on 4chan’s /x/ board and really enjoyed it.

Lights in the distance features a young man who suffers from insomnia. Looking out the window, he notices two streetlights in the distance. These solemn lights soon help him fall asleep.

This is another short, classic creepypasta well worth reading.

71. Anomaly

I’ve always enjoyed stories that shed light on specific professions. It’s the small details, the workings of things that add another little layer of reality.

In this creepypasta, our narrator works for a small publisher. The story centers on the photo collection of an old man. He describes those photos as anomalies.

The narrator shares some of these photographs with the reader and the captions for each one of them.

It’s an interesting little piece of creepypasta because it ties together old black and white photographs with historical anecdotes and real-life events.

70. The Devil’s Cosmonaut

Most creepypasta are set in our normal, mundane world. Not so this one. This one’s set in space, in a space station, to be correct.

We get to know a cosmonaut named Boris, who’s alone in a space station in earth’s orbit.

Communications with the ground are broken down and soon strange things start to happen. The station grows increasingly hotter, even though the temperature stays the same and strange noises can be heard around the station.

This is an absolutely amazing creepypasta. The idea to be confined in a small space station all on your own is a scenario that already makes me feel uncomfortable. Even worse is strange, unexpected things happening.

It’s a crazy thought to be stuck somewhere and not knowing what’s real and what’s not.

The mental decline of the narrator Boris is masterfully handled.

On another note though, this is a long story, a very long one and it’s also one that develops rather slowly. Still, it’s a fantastic read.

69. The Blue Man

This creepypasta is more a selection of anecdotes, all featuring encounters with the titular Blue Man.

People encounter the ominous character on the road in various ways. While these chance-encounters themselves don’t prove to be dangerous, what follows is. For a meeting with the Blue man ultimately influences people in one way or another.

It’s another great and interesting creepypasta. There’s no real explanation given who or what the Blue Man is, and once again, the mystery makes the story so much better.

68. The Rugrats Theory

The Rugrats Theory is yet another very popular creepypasta.

It entertains the idea that all the Rugrats are nothing but figments of Angelica’s imagination.

It’s another creepypasta that twists a seemingly harmless children’s TV show and intermixes it with a very unsettling theory.

67. Cave-In

Cave-In is yet another, shorter creepypasta.

It describes a young man’s thoughts after a cave-in. The thought of being stuck inside a cave with no hope of getting out or being rescued is utterly terrifying.

This story, however, adds another, even more terrifying detail.

I really enjoyed Cave-In when I first read it back on 4chan’s /x/ board and the unexpected ending serves to be one of my favorites.

66. Bad Dream

What can I say, Bad Dream is another short creepypasta classic.

It’s a very simple tale. The narrator’s daughter appears at his bed, telling him about a particularly scary nightmare she had.

She tells him the details of the dream which prove to be quite unsettling.

As I said, this one’s short, but good and an absolute creepypasta classic.

65. Killswitch

Killswitch is more an urban legend than a real creepypasta. It details the story by the same name which was supposedly released back in 1989.

What makes this one special isn’t necessarily the content of the game itself. While cryptic and bizarre, it’s the circumstances of the game, and its creation that makes this creepypasta so interesting.

Supposedly only 5000 units of the game were ever created. The game itself was uncopiable, and it deleted itself upon finishing. Even stranger, the game had two characters, but it was almost unplayable should one choose the second playable character.

It’s an interesting and weird little creepypasta that makes you curious if a game like this might exist somewhere out there.

64. Baby Dolls

Another short, but good creepypasta.

Baby Doll describes a malfunction in the baby dolls of a certain toy manufacturer.

The dolls wouldn’t stop crying and the annoying sound would only stop once the doll was completely destroyed. As one can expect, mistakes can happen.

This creepypasta follows once again the urban legend character detailing a supposed gruesome incident that happened.

63. Mr. Widemouth

Mr. Widemouth is another creepypasta classic.

A young boy encounters a strange creature that looks similar to a Furby. He befriends the weird creature which calls itself Mr. Widemouth.

As it turns out, the creature’s motifs aren’t all that friendly.

Mr. Widemouth is another one of the most popular creepypasta out there.

62. The Rake

The Rake is another widely popular creepypasta. Like many famous ones, The Rake originated from 4chan. It was created in a thread where users tried to come up with monsters.

It started with a description of a pale, hairless humanoid figure. The creature had no apparent mouth and walked on all fours.

The Rake was originally nothing but a picture of the creature with a brief description attached to it. Once the creature went viral though, people wrote stories and create their own media about The Rake.

The story linked above is one of many and follows the diary approach. It details various encounters that people had with the titular creature.

There are countless other creepypasta about The Rake, and images, videos, and various other media related to sightings of the creature.

I always found the idea of The Rake and other cryptids who might stalk humans fascinating. The Rake, however, proved to be the most popular of those.

61. The Magician’s Game

What a great creepypasta.

A magician, Tom, receives a strange letter after one of his shows. The letter states that the game is on.

Confused, Tom wonders what’s going on, but joins into the absurd situation. Soon enough, a character named Daburu reveals himself and their game begins.

Things, however, aren’t what they seem.

It’s a good creepypasta on its own, but what lands it a place in this list is the fantastic final.

60. My Older Sister

Some creepypasta are well written, others end with a bang. This one fits both criteria.

It details the life of a wholly average young girl and her relationship with her sister, Jenny. Jenny was everything the narrator would never be.

The story continues and tells us how Jenny was found dead, with a bottle of pills next to her.

This is not the last time the narrator saw Jenny though because she’s soon visited by her dead sister.

I enjoyed My Older Sister so much because of how well it was written and the way it ends.

59. The Photographs

Another short classic.

A photographer goes out camping to take pictures of the woods and the wildlife.

It’s only when she develops those pictures she discovers something else.

This creepypasta proves once more that a scary story can be done very simply.

58. Polybius

The most popular and infamous video game creepypasta of all time. While not technically a creepypasta, but more an urban legend, I still decided to include it in this list because of its influence and popularity.

The story of Polybius is infamous and is about an arcade game by the same name that appeared in the arcades in Portland, Oregon.

As the legend goes, the game proved highly addictive, but all who played it suffered from mysterious side-effects. Those led to amnesia and night terrors up to suicide.

All the Polybius machines were removed after only a month by men in black, and all traces that the game ever existed vanished.

While it’s a relatively short story, it has garnered a lot of attention throughout the years. Polybius was featured in innumerable YouTube videos and has been referenced in movies and pop culture over the years.

There are even some YouTube videos who talk about the history of the urban legend and trace it back to its roots.

Polybius is a very interesting creepypasta, not so much for its story but for its history, how it spread and became the dominant urban legend it’s today. If you want to find out more about Polybius, I highly recommend this YouTube video by user Ahoy.

57. The House by the Tracks

I only read this creepypasta recently and loved it.

In the summer of 1987, a young boy and his friends are bored and walk alongside the train tracks near their hometown.

Soon enough they stumble upon a house near the tracks. The boys go exploring and find the house in a run-down state and in dire need of maintenance.

As his three friends vandalize the place, the narrator runs back home. The next day he goes there to apologize to the owner and meets an old woman called Maggie.

However, not all is well in The House by the Tracks.

This is another shorter creepypasta that proves that even a simple idea can work well when done right.

56. Knocking

Man, I love this creepypasta classic. A young boy describes his encounter with strange entities that seem to follow him and knock on doors once he’s closed them.

The first time it happened, the narrator was barely six and on the school toilet. After that, the incidents continued to happen on a monthly basis.

He eventually gets used to the mysterious incidents and twenty years later his life is as normal as it can be with these strange incidents happening. But then, one day, things get worse.

Knocking is a great creepypasta that surprised me with its unique idea. It’s definitely worth the read if you haven’t read it already.

55. Barricade

Another great creepypasta, but one that’s different from usual. We don’t know what’s actually going on, and so we share in the narrator’s confusion.

The story beings with the narrator explaining that he’s sick and has mental issues. He takes pills to keep his delusions and hallucinations at bay and function normally.

In the story’s course, we learn that something strange might have happened. We’re greeted with emptiness, smoke and eventually screams.

The narrator barricades himself inside his home, but before long he doubts what’s going on.

I really enjoy creepypasta that toy with our perception of reality and leave us guessing about what’s happening.

54. The Memetic Symbol

There are sometimes creepypasta so strange they make you wonder what the hell you just read. This is one of them.

One day the narrator, a studier of memetic theories, uncovers a strange symbol when browsing the internet. The next day he realizes in shock that the symbol has somehow affected not only his computer, but everything in its vicinity.

The story progresses and slowly more and more of the narrator’s world is taken over by the strange memetic symbol.

This is a short tale, but it’s one that’s so outlandish and strange one can’t help but be reminded of The Doscape and other bizarre creepypasta.

53. Lavender Town Syndrome

Lavender Town Syndrome is another video game creepypasta and the most popular one related to Pokemon. It’s fair to say that anyone who’s read creepypasta online knows about this one.

Lavender Town Syndrome is more an urban legend, recounting the occurrence of suicides related to the original theme of Lavender Town.

It’s a quick read and a typical creepypasta, detailing nothing but an unsettling urban legend.

52. Mice

Another favorite creepypasta of mine.

The narrator talks about a colony of finely bred mice. As the story continues he talks about training them and how he’s basically their god.

But this is a creepypasta, so things aren’t always what they seem.

51. Doppelganger

Another great, early creepypasta and one of the first ones I read.

This one recounts how a man discovers that his wife is changing and acting strangely. He slowly believes that the woman sitting across him is not his actual wife.

As we continue to read, the man describes how things change, and how his paranoia and knowledge about the titular doppelganger slowly grows.

It’s an absolutely splendid story, well-written and all around fun to read.

50. White with Red

Another classic creepypasta.

A man stays over at a hotel, but gets warned to stay clear of a certain room. Ignoring the warning and curious, he looks into the room and sees a pale, white woman.

When she notices him he retreats. Later he tries to look again, but this time, all he sees is red.

Eventually he consults the receptionist about it.

White with Read is a fantastic short little creepypasta that’s sure to scare you.

49. A Painter From Queens

Another short little creepypasta. There’s a bum living in the narrator’s neighborhood in Queens. The man paints with whatever supplies he finds, but his paintings are amazing.

Soon enough the man offers portraits. No one who got a portrait done, though, seems to like it. The narrator, however, believes them to be beautiful and eventually he gets one done for himself.

The result proves to differ greatly from what originally expected.

This is another one of the earlier creepypasta I read back in the day, and I still hold it dear for its strange, unique idea. It’s a short, wonderful read.

48. House of Rules

This was one of the weirder creepypasta I read first in the day, and I absolutely loved it.

It starts with the narrator stating that he lives in a house of rules. We soon learn that the rules aren’t enforced by any of the neighbors or the renting company, though. They are enforced by the house itself.

Should he not follow them, the house will punish him. That’s what this story is all about, rules and punishment.

It’s another creative story, one that gives off a hopeless feeling, one of isolation. How’s one to rebel against a building, against your own home?

House of Rules is, as the title states, a rule-based horror story. In recent times there have been a plethora of rule-based stories. This one however was written much earlier.

House of Rules is an absolute delight to read.

47. Suicidemouse.avi

I’m a fan of lost episode creepypasta, at least if they are well made.

Suicidemouse.avi details a strange Mickey Mouse cartoon that shows Mickey walking down the street. In the animation, however, Mickey behaves differently than usual, showing a distraught facial expression and unusual music is playing.

When the cartoon gets digitized, it’s noticed that the cartoon is much longer than originally thought. Soon enough the disturbing nature of the clip is revealed, or at least hinted at.

What I like about this story is the number of details added. We don’t just hear about a strange and creepy clip, but it’s described to us in various details. I also enjoy that much of the mystery remains hidden. As so often with other, similar creepypasta, less is more in horror.

46. 1999

This creepypasta is an absolute delight to read. It starts with Elliot in the titular year of 1999, when he was no older than five years old. He was absolutely in love with the TV show Pokemon.

His dad, fed up with his son’s whining, buys him his own TV.

Originally the TV was only meant to have 20 channels, but one day Elliot discovers Channel 21, and the disturbing shows aired on it.

1999 is a very interesting creepypasta. It starts off almost like an anthology as Elliot describes each show he saw on the strange channel.

Eventually, a young Elliot writes a letter to be invited to his famous show on the channel, Mr. Bear’s Cellar, and receives an invitation.

Driving there with his dad, they are met with the police and uncover the true nature of Channel 21 and Mr. Bear.

This, however, is only the beginning of the story. When Elliot enters college, he remembers the strange channel and begins to hunt for answers.

What makes this story work so well is that it’s not written like a traditional story, but an internet blog. It’s almost a diary in which the narrator details more and more of his findings.

45. Wake Up

There are creepypasta that are scary because of unexplained incidents, creepy beings, monsters, or serial killers. Then there are those who are scary for an entirely different reason.

This is one such story.

Wake Up is a tale that always unsettled me. There’s always this tiny little feeling of ‘what if’ in the back of my mind?

44. Stevie

This creepypasta is told in a somewhat unconventional format.

A psychotherapist named Sylvester Penn visits a young patient at an asylum to interview him. Said patient, named Michael, is at the asylum because he murdered someone.

As he talks to Michael, he slowly learns more about him and his past. He lived in a pleasant neighborhood, but there weren’t many kids there.

His only friend was a boy named Andrew, a big boy that was a bit slow in the head. Michael often used to play tricks on Andrew and grew mad at him. Still, Andrew stuck to him and after another one of his pranks, Michael feels responsible for him.

Eventually, more families move into the neighborhood with their kids. One of them was Stephen DiMisaco, or Stevie, a weird, lanky boy obsessed with taxidermy.

As the story continues we learn more about Michael’s relationship with his new friends and Stevie.

Eventually, things take a turn for the worse and get progressively darker as the story continues.

Steve is one of the longest creepypasta on the list, and one that develops slowly. Still, it’s a fantastic story that will keep you engaged throughout until the end.

43. Humper-Monkey’s Ghost Story

This huge creepypasta was originally posted in a military story thread on Something Awful. The story quickly became very popular.

In this creepypasta, our narrator, Monkey, joins the US Army in the late 80s. He’s stationed in an undescriptive three-story building high in the mountains in Germany. It’s not only cold and storming, but the place is supposedly haunted.

It’s during his very first night that Monkey gets the feeling that he’s not alone in his room and that he’s very much watched by someone or something.

Thus starts Humper-Monkey’s Ghost Story. As the title says, this is a ghost story. It might also be the single longest creepypasta on this list at a length of almost 30.000 words. The story even spawned multiple follow-ups and related tales, making it even longer.

There’s something about isolated settings that makes things so much more interesting. This is exactly what happens in Humper-Monkey’s Ghost Story. The characters are isolated in a creepy building in the middle of nowhere because of heavy snow and raging blizzards.

As the story progresses, the soldiers search through the building and try to figure out what’s going on.

This creepypasta is popular for many reasons. The writing, the rough language as well as the realistic and historical background.

42. Rabbits in the Creek

Another great creepypasta about a mysterious event.

A young boy, Payton, wants to take pictures of a young lion spotted in the area. Payton asks for advice from the people at National Geographic. They tell him he should put up an automatic camera at a place the young lion might frequent.

Eventually, he decides to set up the recording of a dying rabbit as bait to lure the young lion to a small creek.

Things get strange when the narrator, a young girl, describes how she can hear the recording at night in her home. Even worse, the recording is strangely distorted.

As it turns out, something was lured to the creek, but it might not have been the young lion.

Rabbits in the Creek is a fantastic creepypasta. It’s well written and gives us a nice framework for yet another mysterious and unexplained event.

41. Dead Bart

Dead Bart is a lost episode creepypasta.

It features an episode of the Simpsons which depicts the death of Bart.

What makes this story so special is not that it’s a creepy episode of a cartoon, but the implications it makes near the end.

Dead Bart is short, but I personally found it very interesting and one of the better lost episode creepypasta.

40. The Art of Jacob Emory

The Art of Jacob Emory is more a short story than a usual creepypasta.

It’s the story of a man named Jacob Emory. A jack of all trades, with ambitions and interests too large for the small town he grew up in.

Eventually, Jacob travels abroad. After years he finally returns to his home town, bringing with him a stick of chalk. This stick allows him to draw strange paintings, paintings that are animate.

Soon Jacob has his own shows in which he presents his animate paintings in front of an audience. From here on out, things only get worse.

It’s a great, well-written story and one of the more creative ones on this list.

39. The Woman in the Oven

I love mysterious little tales like this creepypasta, especially those who leave you hanging with something entirely inexplicable.

One day in a quiet town in Minnesota, the charred body of a woman was found in a kitchen stove. However, the details of the case are more than a bit puzzling.

This is another creepypasta that wastes no time on narration and gets straight to the point, the mysterious, titular oven and what it contains.

It’s an unsettling little tale, one that makes you wonder what actually might have happened.

38. Cervin Birth

Cervin Birth is as typical as a creepypasta can be.

It details a strange video that was shared around the internet showing a grotesque birth by what is assumed to be a blind deer.

The story then details other videos by the creator of the ominous video called Cervin Birth.

This is pretty much a perfect creepypasta because it simply details a strange occurrence, an unsettling video that was found online, and what it contains.

There’s no explanation, it’s just a description of obscure videos. That’s why I enjoyed Cervin Birth so much.

37. Ben Drowned

Ben Drowned is most likely the most popular haunted video game creepypasta of all time. This sub-genre generally revolves around video games who are haunted or evil. The people who play those video games are killed or driven insane. There’s a lot of creepypasta that feature haunted or demonic video games, and a lot of them are quite bad.

Ben Drowned is a rare exception and one of the earliest haunted video game creepypasta done well. Many clichés that other, similar tales contain come from Ben Drowned. While I’m not the biggest fan of the haunted aspect of the game itself I acknowledge it for the influence it had on the genre.

There’s something about video game creepypasta I enjoy. I like the intricate details they contain, such as parts of the game changing, new levels or areas being created, strange glitches, and so on. That’s exactly what happens in Ben Drowned. The game gets progressively stranger, warping itself into a surreal experience for the player.

The narrator of Ben Drowned buys a used game of Majora’s Mask. When he starts the game, he discovers a safe file named Ben. From then on, in typical creepypasta manner, the narrator tries to uncover what’s going on as the game gets progressively stranger.

The most interesting aspect of Ben Drowned is not the story itself, but the work that went into it. It contains multiple media types integrated into the story. It’s not only images though, but actual video footage of the supposedly haunted game.

This still wasn’t all there is to the story, though. There’s an entire ARG (alternate reality game) surrounding Ben Drowned. I only found out about it recently because of some videos on YouTube, but it made me see the entire story in a different light.

Ben Drowned, while a very long story, is one that anyone should check out. If only to see all the work that went into it and the ARG surrounding it.

36. Pale Luna

This is another video game creepypasta. I don’t know why, but I always find them interesting, at least if they are as well made as Pale Luna.

The titular game is described as a weird and obscure text adventure shared among a small circle of fans back in the day. When the game starts you’re presented with a description of your surroundings and you’ve to enter various commands to perform actions and move forward in the game.

Pale Luna isn’t a simple adventure game though, it’s cryptic and barely functioning at all. Many people abandoned the game out of sheer frustration. However, there’s one young man with too much time on his hand who finally decides to see if there’s more to this enigmatic game.

Pale Luna is a short, but interesting creepypasta. What I like the most about this one is the mystery surrounding the titular game.

35. The Thing That Stalks the Fields

The Thing That Stalks the Fields is another super and classic creepypasta. It’s well written, creepy, and scary.

The story starts with a farmer noticing one morning that the hay balls in his field are slowly being moved away from his house. At first, he believes it to be the work of thieves or teenaged pranksters. Soon enough, he realizes that there’s something much more sinister out there.

This was one of the first creepypasta I ever read, and that left quite an impression on me.

34. 12 Minutes

In the fall of 1987, a small local news channel in Atlanta, Georgie had a gap in its scheduling.

Eventually, young Reverend Marley Sachs was allowed to take the available hour for his show “Words of Light with Rev. Marly Sachs.”

Things get weird quickly when calls from women arrive complaining about uncomfortable feelings while watching the show. It’s always at roughly the twelve-minute intervals when these feelings come up. Before long the show is canceled so the channel can focus on something else, the local miscarriage epidemic.

A young intern eventually has a look at the tapes of “Words of Light with Rev. Marly Sachs” and discovers something truly disturbing about the show.

I only read this story recently, but I absolutely loved it. There’s something deeply unsettling and truly mysterious about it. It’s a fantastic creepypasta, one that anyone should check out.

33. Pokémon Black

As I mentioned before I’m a fan of creepypasta about cryptic and obscure video games. Pokemon Black is one such tale.

There are a lot of Pokemon creepypasta out there, but this one stuck out to me as one of the few that’s well made.

Pokemon Black is not about a cursed game and neither about a game possessed by ghosts. This one’s simply about a very obscure Pokemon hack by the titular name.

That’s exactly the reason this story works so well. There’s nothing dangerous here, it’s just an unsettling story about a game that can be interpreted in many ways.

32. The Portraits

A short, but good creepypasta. If I remember correctly this was actually the very first ones I ever read.

A hunter gets lost in the forest and stumbles upon a cabin. He decides to spend the night there. All is well, apart from one little detail that unnerves him. It’s the many weird portraits on the walls.

This is pretty much a perfect creepypasta tale. It does nothing but depicts a short, creepy incident and that’s enough to make it work so damn well.

31. The Gallery of Henri Beauchamp

The Gallery of Henri Beauchamp is another popular creepypasta that I only recently stumbled upon.

This is a story that details a set of rules one has to follow to be allowed entrance into the titular gallery.

What makes this one so great to me is the obscure nature of the entire tale, the great writing, and the many intricate details. And the Gallery itself, and what one can find there.

30. Mother’s Call

Another classic creepypasta.

This tale is really short, only a few sentences long, but my god is it effective.

Go on, read it!

29. The Hidden Things

One day our narrator, a hotel owner, goes to pay the man in room 304 a visit. There’s been no word from the guest, and neither has he paid for his room yet.

When no one answers, the narrator enters via a spare key only to find the man dead in a corner and the walls of the room covered in strange writings.

The police are soon called and a few days after the narrator returns to the room to find answers about what happened to the old man.

I was very impressed when I read this story recently. The writing is great; the imagery is amazing and unsettling, and the old man’s descent into madness is fantastically done.

Truly a delight to read.

28. Doors

Doors is a creepypasta that’s very dear to me. I truly love this little tale.

It starts off with the narrator explaining that he was adopted and continues to share the details of his life with his family and sister.

The story continues to outline what happens one night when things take a turn for the worst.

I will not spoil anything about this story, you must read it yourself, but there’s a reason it’s so well regarded.

27. Anansi’s Goatman Story

Ah, this creepypasta. It’s one of the earliest, most popular creepypasta. If I remember correctly, it was also the very first story ever shared on Reddit’s Nosleep forum after it’s creation.

The story itself originated on 4chan’s /x/ board and details the story of a teenager who goes to Alabama to stay with his extended family.

They are out camping in the woods and encounter a strange figure, the titular Goatman. This figure is moving strangely, talking gibberish, and eventually follows them.

Did you ever encounter the feeling that someone or something is watching you and you can’t seem to shake it off? That’s one of the central themes of this story. Anansi’s Goatman Story is a tale of paranoia, fear, and terror.

What makes Anansi’s Goatman Story so interesting is the mixture of fiction and the old Native American legend of the Goatman.

It’s a great creepypasta both for what happens, but also for the general way it’s written. Anansi’s Goatman Story is one of those earlier creepypasta that gives you the feeling that someone’s telling something that actually happened. It’s a casual post shared on an imageboard that details a scary event, not a literary piece.

That’s why Anansi’s Goatman works so well.

26. The Slender Man

Slender Man is probably the most popular creepypasta and internet horror creation of all time. It spawned various different stories, games, video series such as Marble Hornets, and even a feature-length movie.

Slender Man wasn’t a story, but a pair of pseudo-historical photographs depicting the titular character. They were created for a Photoshop contest on Something Awful. From here on out, the images gained vast popularity and eventually went viral.

Slender Man is a tall, lanky man with unnaturally long limbs, wearing a suit and without a face. His primary target seems to be children who he prays on, lures away, and eventually abducts.

What’s most interesting about Slender Man to me is how something as small as two pictures can spawn an internet phenomenon of such magnitude.

There are various tales about Slender Man, but I feel none of them give off the same unsettling atmosphere as the original pictures. I also think less is often more, and Eric Knudsen did a superb job in his depiction of the creature.

25. String Theory

I believe many know about determinism. It means all events happening are pre-determined completely because of previously existing causes.

The central question is then, does free will exist? This is exactly what String Theory is about.

It centers on Martin, who one morning discovers a set of strange strings put up in his room.

It’s one of the more creative creepypasta on this list that describes a wholly unique scenario. It’s really worth the read.

24. Wristbands

All one can say about Wristbands is that it’s short but good.

Wristbands tells us there are different wristbands the patients at hospitals receive. We also learn that red wristbands are exclusively placed on people who died.

I can’t say how much I enjoyed this little creepypasta.

23. SCP-173

Ah, the SCP Foundation. This creepypasta here started it all. SCP-173 was first posted to 4chan’s /x/ board and was written less like a story but more akin to a Wikipedia article. It explained the procedures on how to safely contain the titular entity.

SCP-173 went viral, spawned similar stories, and eventually the SPC Foundation, a fictional organization tasked with securing, containing, and proceeding dangerous entities.

Today the SCP Foundation is one of the largest horror fiction communities on the internet and comprises thousands of SCP created by countless people over the years.

22. Ability

Another short and weird little creepypasta. The narrator encounters a homeless man who seems to be insulting people by calling them various names.

Soon enough he realizes that this doesn’t seem to be the case though.

One day the narrator talks to the old man to find out what’s really going on.

It’s a great little creepypasta in which the horror lays somewhat hidden. I absolutely loved it.

21. The Backrooms

One of the newer entries on the list.

The Backrooms is a creepypasta that started from nothing but a picture of an unsettling room or set of rooms. Accompanying the picture was a short tale, or more a description of what we’re seeing.

The Backrooms is a place you end up in when you glitch through reality.

I love this eerie, creepy idea. It’s depicted as a thing that could happen to anyone. Once you’re there, there’s nothing you can do but walk those endless corridors.

20. Case Report 7591

Another great creepypasta, one that’s again more a short story than a true creepypasta.

Case Report 7591 details a tale that took place in an amusement park created by a man named Travis Leroy. One particular ride in his park is an indoor track-car ride through an enchanted forest.

All is well, the park is profitable and business is booming in the small town it was built in.

Then a small, four-year-old boy goes missing in the outskirts of the town. The case is eventually closed, but five months later another child goes missing.

Soon enough an investigation is started, people are questioned and the amusement park is investigated. It’s there that a terrible secret is discovered.

This is another fantastic tale that lured me in with its narrative and its fascinating story-telling.

Case Report 7591 is a great creepypasta that takes a simple premise and transforms it into something unique. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend giving it a try.

19. Smile Dog

Smile Dog is another interesting early creepypasta. It comes accompanied by a picture of the titular creature. It’s this image that made the story standout and is most likely the reason it became as popular as it is.

In its essence Smile Dog is a cursed image story. It centers on a young man who’s on his way to interview a woman named Mary. We don’t get to know much about her, only that she suffers from nightmares and night terrors.

We learn soon that the reason for Mary’s nightmares is an image of Smile Dog, smile.jpg, which she saw when it was posted on a Bulletin board.

The story details the narrator’s quest to uncover what’s behind the legend of smile.jpg.

It’s a story that brings us back to the earlier days of the internet, and it’s another story that features a strange internet mystery.

18. NoEnd House

So we come to NoEnd House. This creepypasta is another classic and another really popular one. NoEnd House proved so popular it was adapted as the second season of the horror anthology series Channel Zero.

NoEnd House is in its essence a haunted house story. Whoever’s able to make it to the end wins $500. All you have to do is make it through nine rooms in total.

Our narrator David learns about it from a friend and gives it a try. How hard can it be, right?

As if to prove him right, things start out silly, almost childish, but they get progressively creepier before they become outright nightmarish.

17. The Expressionless

The Expressionless is yet another classic creepypasta written by my good friend T. J. Lea.

It’s a short tale detailing the appearance of a strange, expressionless woman appearing at a hospital in California in 1972. She’s covered in blood, chewing on a kitten she discards before she’s evaluated.

What’s strange about the woman is that she seems barely human. Her appearance is more like that of a mannequin.

From here on out, things take a turn for the worst.

The Expressionless is one of the earliest creepypasta on this list, but it’s become a classic for a good reason.

16. The Gift of Mercy

There aren’t many creepypasta set in the realm of science-fiction. This is one of the few exceptions, and it’s a remarkable little tale.

In The Gift of Mercy we don’t find ourselves in a spacecraft, a space station, and neither is there an alien invasion happening. No, we follow an alien narrator who laments about a great mistake that was made by his species.

It’s a very interesting, unique, and creative tale.

15. The Dionaea House

The Dionaea House is a creepypasta told via email correspondences and blog entries.

It’s an interesting format that gives you the impression that what you’re reading might actually be real. It’s not a short story, not a simple creepypasta, but it’s written in a way that makes you think those might be real emails.

The story starts with Eric, who details his email correspondences with his friend Mark. Mark contacts him about another one of their friends, Andrew.

One day, Mark found a newspaper article which details that Andrew shot two people and later himself.

From this point onward we witness the story of Mark trying to figure out what happened to their old friend. Mark’s emails read more like the diary of an investigator and only at times do we get some input from Eric.

Eventually, Mark finds the titular house and from here on out things only get stranger.

This is one of the longest stories on the list, one that develops slowly. It’s well put together, though, and the format adds a lot to the enjoyment. I also absolutely love the idea of the titular Dionaea House itself.

14. The Dream of Every Dentist

Now we’ve officially entered bizarro world. The Dream of Every Dentist is without a doubt one of the weirdest, and probably most unique stories I’ve ever read.

The story starts with a man in a black suit standing in front of a group of dentists. He offers them a large sum of money to reveal the titular dream to him. After some discussion and stating that he won’t understand anyway, the dentists eventually reveal their dream to him.

This is one of the strangest creepypasta I’ve ever read. I caught myself squirming when reading it and once I was done, I couldn’t help but stare at my computer screen dumbfounded wondering what the hell I’d just read.

13. An Egg

An Egg is another weird, yet amazing little creepypasta.

It’s one that plays with our existential fears, our search for meaning, and gives answers to them in one of the most interesting and remarkable ways I’ve ever come upon.

It’s a very short creepypasta, but an absolute delight.

12. The Theater

The Theater is yet another video game creepypasta. This one, however, is not about a haunted game or sentient video game characters. The Theater features nothing but a strange and glitchy game.

There’s something about The Theater that I absolutely love. There’s the mystery, the minor details, and the obscure nature of a game with no clear aim.

I love that there’s nothing scary happening to the narrator here. It’s all anecdotes and references to The Theater.

A very enjoyable little tale and a creepypasta classic.

11. The Russian Sleep Experiment

Who doesn’t know about The Russian Sleep Experiment and the image accompanying it? It’s one of the most popular and best-known creepypasta of all time. If you know about creepypasta, you’ve probably heard about The Russian Sleep Experiment.

The title already makes us guess what’s going to happen. A group of political prisoners is subjected to an experiment. They are put into a room filled with an experimental gas that will keep them awake for the duration of thirty days.

Over the course of the experiment, the test subjects grow increasingly paranoid and slowly lose their mind, but things don’t end there.

The Russian Sleep Experiment is without a doubt an absolute creepypasta classic.

10. NES Godzilla Creepypasta

As the title states, this is another video game creepypasta, and probably my favorite in this entire sub-genre.

It’s the story of a young man who wants to rekindle his childhood nostalgia and his memories of the NES game Godzilla: Monster of Monsters.

The creepypasta starts off normal enough, with him playing the first level of the game. Before long, the game glitches and changes in various strange ways.

What makes this video game creepypasta so special in my book are the visuals, the images. The writer designed entire screens, bosses, and monsters for his glitchy NES game. Even better, he describes entire levels with intricate details and how he’s able to finish them.

My only problem with this creepypasta is the actual story. It’s clichéd at best and lackluster at worst. It’s the game itself and the various different levels and monsters that make it such a rewarding experience.

If you’re interested in creepypasta about video games, this one’s a must in my opinion. Just don’t pay too close an eye on the overall story and its conclusion.

9. Gateway of the Mind

Gateway of the Mind is another classic, well-known creepypasta.

In this creepypasta, a group of scientists conducts an experiment. It’s their theory that a human being without access to any of their senses could perceive the presence of God.

Before long, they find a test subject, a man with nothing left to lose.

In the story’s course, the test subject grows more and more disoriented, paranoid, and eventually hallucinates. He soon hears people talk all around him before things get even more unsettling.

The central idea of Gateway of the Mind is very interesting. What would happen to someone who’d lose usage of all their senses? What happens when you’re stuck inside your own head?

The reason Gatewy of the Mind is so great, in my opinion, is the ending. If you haven’t read Gateway of the Mind yet, do it.

8. The Song and Dance Man

The Song and Dance Man sticks out to me for its writing. It’s a phenomenal piece of fiction and more a short story than a regular creepypasta.

It tells the story of a group of people who one day meet the titular Song and Dance Man. The man appears in their town at one point, sets up a tent, and invites people to listen to music and dance. Many join him at the prospect of free music, dancing, and some fun.

Yet, things don’t just stay this way, and there’s not just a bit of dancing involved.

As I said, what makes this story is the writing. Not only that though, but it’s also the entire way the story is presented to us, the narrative and everything else.

This is one of the most well-written creepypasta on the list.

7. Abandoned by Disney

Another well-known and widely popular creepypasta. Abandoned by Disney details what a young man finds in one of Disney’s abandoned resorts.

The story starts off by giving us some insight into abandoned resorts by Disney before our narrator reveals that he visited one such place called ‘Mowgli’s Palace.’

As the story continues, it details the narrator’s exploration of the ruined resort before he descends into the basement.

It’s a great story, and it depicts the derelict Disney resort in all its details before it grows more and more unsettling.

6. Ted the Caver

Ted the Caver was one of the earliest creepypasta I heard about and I recall reading the first entries on 4chan’s /x/ board, but I only read it in its entirety about a year or two ago.

It’s a story about caving. Exploring tight spaces and caves is something that always unsettled me. I’m not claustrophobic, but squeezing through tight spaces in dark caves still makes me anxious.

What makes this story so great is the level of detail that was put into it. It’s written more like a blog of a caving enthusiast who discovers a new, unknown area of the cave system he’s in.

The various blog posts detail the process of laying bare the entrance to the unknown part of the cave system in intricate detail before the narrator explores it. What makes it even better is that each blog post comes with various photographs that give you even more insight into the process and immerses you more in the story. It gives you the impression that this entire creepypasta might actually be real.

It’s a slow-moving tale. Long parts of it detail the caving and actual scary parts of this creepypasta are only slowly added.

It’s truly one of the greatest and most detailed creepypasta ever written.

5. Dogscape

I like weird, strange, and surreal stories. There’s something about the bizarre that entices me and lures me in. As such, Dogscape has always been one of my favorite creepypasta or my favorite collection of short little creepypasta.

The plot of Dogscape is simple. All the earth has become a never-ending landscape made up of dogs. The ground of the earth has become nothing but dug for, sprouting dog heads and weird dog trees.

The tales that make up Dogscape detail people’s life and their survival in the Dogscape. People are devoured by dog heads, kill each other, rape each other and even become part of the Dogscape themselves.

It’s an utterly surreal selection of tales and quite an experience. Dogscape supposedly started on 4chan’s /x/ board as a joke. Before long people started to write their own little tales set in the Dogscape.

The various tales vary in detail, length and quality. They also feature gore, rape, and other atrocities. Still, it deserves its place in this list for its bizarre scenario and imagery.

If you like weird and bizarre creepypasta, I’m sure you’ll enjoy Dogscape as much as I did. A word of warning though, some of the tales feature some explicit content.

4. Candle Cove

This creepypasta written by Kris Straub is another classic and one of the most popular creepypasta of all time. It was even adapted as the first season of horror anthology series Channel Zero.

The story is written in an interesting format. It’s not told conventionally but written akin to a conversation in a thread on a message board.

A group of people talks about a strange children’s TV show by the titular name. Things start out normal enough, with people sharing into nostalgia. However, the more people join, the more strange details are revealed about the show.

What makes Candle Cove so great is the format and the way it’s told. It starts out simple, with people recalling a silly children’s TV show before the horror slowly creeps in.

3. Normal Porn for Normal People

Another creepypasta classic and a fantastically depraved tale of a sick internet discovery.

The story starts out with the narrator receiving a chain letter about a weird website called normalpornfornormalpeople.com. The site is weird, bare-bones, and features a variety of strange videos. Soon enough the narrator and other members of a certain imageboard explore the page and discover more and more unsettling content.

I’m always drawn to stories about the stranger corners of the internet because you never know if things like that exist out there.

I highly recommend Normal Porn for Normal People to anyone. It also inspired me to write one of my earlier stories titled Fetish Webcam.

2. Psychosis

Oh, Psychosis. Ever since I read this creepypasta by Matt Dymerski, it stayed on my mind. This one’s another longer creepypasta. I first read it, like many others, on 4chan’s /x/ board and I was stunned at how good it was.

Did you ever wonder if the reality you preserve is real? Is there something else going on, something you can’t seem to grasp? This is the question at the core of this story. Things somehow feel odd to our narrator, John, and don’t add up. Soon enough, he’s not sure if he can trust his surroundings anymore.

John isolates himself from the real world, believing there’s something out there, something dangerous. In the story’s course, John’s thrown into a downward spiral of paranoia he can’t seem to escape from.

Psychosis is an absolute delight, and Matt Dymerski is one of the best creepypasta writers out there. There’s always something interesting to creepypasta that depicts a slow descent into madness, and this one is at the top of the genre.

The only problem I can find with this one is the very last part of it, which in my opinion could’ve easily been left out. Everything else, though, is pure gold.

Psychosis was also a huge inspiration to my story The Watchers.

1. The Strangers

The Strangers might be my favorite creepypasta of all time. The writing in this tale is superb, the story is superb, and the world created as well as the imagery is too.

It’s the story of a man named Andrew Erics, who left behind a retelling of the events that befell him. Andrew has a peculiar habit, each time he rides the subway he watches his fellow commuters. One day he discovers a strange man, someone who doesn’t react to his staring at all. Soon enough Andrew gets obsessed with this weird man and tries to figure out what’s wrong with him and the other titular strangers he notices.

From here on out, things get more interesting as the narrator follows the man on his daily trips back and forth on the subway. This, of course, is just the beginning of the The Strangers.

As I said this is a masterfully done tale and one of the best creepypasta. It was one of the first creepypasta I read, and it absolutely blew me away. Even to this day, it still holds up. I can’t recommend this one highly enough. Go, read it!