Top 10 Creepypastas

Warining: This post may contain text and imagery that readers may find disturbing/scary. Discretion is advised. Continuing with our month of horror for October this week we'll be looking at a recent horror phenomenon from the last few years: Creepypastas. Derived from the internet slang 'copypasta' creepypastas are fictional internet horror stories designed to disturb and terrify. Like their predecessors of folk stories and urban legends they have been scaring us in the darkest parts of the nights. Today I'll be going through my personal top eleven, (there was one that I felt I couldn't leave off the list), creepypastas.

11. Jeff the Killer

Jeff the Killer is easily one of the most popular creepypastas. I do enjoy the creepypasta but find there are others which are more creative. It is still creative and the good narrative of the creepypasta meant that I could not leave it out. The story revolves a young teen named Jeff who moves to a new town where he and his brother is bullied. When Jeff stands up to the bullies they later retaliate by smashing a bottle of vodka on him and set him on fire. When he wakes up his mind breaks after seeing his reflection. He cuts off his eyelids and murders his parents however, when his brother (who he loved dearly) wakes up Jeff whispers to him 'go to sleep'...

10. My buddy Sandman

My Buddy Sandman is a little known creepypasta which is both creative and believable. It even has accompanying (edited) pictures to go with it but only the photo above can I show due to the graphic natures of them. The plot centers around a college student whose friend (the titular Sandman) is making a video game called Warlocke with a few friends. Sandman is processing several images to be used in-game. He tells the Narrator that Warlocke is a fantasy RPG built on two premises, gore and nudity, and he wishes his friend to try it out. The Narrator does to find a basic video game with very gory images in it which gradually become more and more disturbing. Eventually we find out the origin of the video game's images...

9. Annie96 is typing

This is a creepypasta that I've only recently found out about and the way it is set out, as well as how realistic it is, has made it an overlooked gem. The premise is simple: two friends (annie96 and mcdavey) are on a chatroom late at night talking. It is revealed that annie96's parents have gone away and left her alone for the weekend. However things become sinister when annie96 starts hearing strange sounds outside. When she sees someone in her garden all hell breaks loose. The story of annie96 is simple but effective and the twist at the end adds another sinister edge to the story making it one of my new favorite creepypastas.

8. Normal Porn for Normal People

This unusual titled creepypasta is possibly one of the most disturbing creepypastas for not only the subject matter but also how well written it is making it a realistic creepypasta. The plot revolves around the Narrator receiving an email from an anonymous user with the link to normalpornfornormalpeople.com. On a whim he checks the link to see a badly made website with the tagline 'Normal Porn for Normal People, A Website Dedicated to the Eradication of  Abnormal Sexuality'. After seeing that the first video is simply a woman making peanut butter sandwiches for a man to feed a dog for thirty minutes he decides to watch the others to see if the others are just as bizarre. What follows are several videos filmed in decrepit rooms which become more and more visually disturbing. The final video has a tied up woman being mauled by a shaved chimpanzee. Normal Porn for Normal People turns from one of the most bland creepypastas to one of the most memorable and believable thanks to what we can find on the darker side of the internet. It is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

7. Smile dog

Smile Dog can be considered a chainmail creepypasta with disturbing imagery to boot. The plot revolves around an amateur writer who goes to visit an old woman who had informed him about a possible story. When he arrives he finds the woman has locked herself in her room, crying about dreams and visions stemming from a floppy disk with smile.jpeg on it. It is revealed that the woman was one of many people who saw the image on the jpeg. It had since been passed around the internet through chainmail but no real image of it can be found; only photo replicas such as the one above. It supposedly shows a smiling husky. However, the picture slowly becomes more distorted and demonic looking with Smile Dog appearing in your dreams telling you to spread the word. Insanity ensues and eventual death thanks to the supernatural torment of the Smile Dog. The only way to save yourself from the constant torment inflicted upon you is to send the photo to someone else. Supposedly the original photo was of the devil himself...

6. Slender Man

Slender Man is easily the most famous creepypasta receiving notoriety through the video game Slender: The Eight Pages and it even influenced two girls to try and murder their friend in 2014. Slender Man originated on the Something Awful forum as apart of a photoshop competition. What followed was internet history. The story of Slender Man is that he is a tall man in a suit who follows you around. He can cause electronic appliances to malfunction when near and can cause depression, anxiety and sickness on the person that he is following. Then you disappear. Like the bogeyman he will follow children and take them away, a few photos being all that remains of them... A supernatural being omnipresent and omnipotent when he chooses you there is no escape.

5. Candle Cove

Candle Cove starts off on a forum of people discussing their childhood shows. One user mentions Candle Cove and slowly other forum users mention how they remember watching that program. Only airing a few episodes it had almost faded out of their mind but they note how odd the show was. The main villain, the Skin Taker, would wear a coat made out of human skin and they all remember how one episode was just the screams of anguish, especially from the main character. When they ask their parents about it all that they said was that they would change the channel to watch Candle Cove but sit in silence for half an hour watching static... 

4. Lavender Town Syndrome

Any fan of the Pokemon games will know about Lavender Town, a town where Pokemon trainers go to bury their deceased Pokemon or to fight ghost type Pokemon like Gastly. All the time the eerie Lavender Town music would be playing. This creepypasta involves the music to of the signature town. Supposedly in the Japanese version of Pokemon Blue and Red there was a second note sheet that could only be heard when the headphones were plugged into the Game Boy. This had a negative side effect with the music causing the kids who heard it to graphically hurt themselves, gouge out their eyes and even try to kill themselves. When it was found out the games were recalled. Although easily debunked it is somewhat believable considering that an episode of the Pokemon anime inadvertently caused seizures in Japan. With the eerie backstory and music along side it the Lavender Town Syndrome is a strangely fitting creepypasta.

3. Where bad kids go

With today's propaganda in the media Were bad kids go is a creepypasta that is very close to home. It involves a journalist who remembers watching a TV show in wartime Lebanon that had a series of graphic images to scare children into going to bed on time, not stealing food from the fridge etc. Each episode would zoom in on a rusted, bolted metal door with the words 'That's where bad kids go' and the sound of feint agonizing screams. Sixteen years later the journalist finds out where the door is an investigates. Inside the journalist finds feces, fingernail scratches on the walls and bone fragments. On one wall was a caged microphone... Living in a world where war crimes are easily committed, messages can be distributed at long distances and the line between fact/fiction being blurred Where bad kids go is an eerie reminder that the world has a very dark side to it.

2. Ben Drowned

Ben Drowned has a simple premise used in the past but done to great effect. With accompanying images and even videos the idea that this creepypasta is real becomes somewhat more plausible. Our narrator buys a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask at a yard sale and decides to play it. They find a previous save file called Ben and decide to play it. He makes his own save file (called Link) and begins a new game. Occasionally however some characters call him Ben instead of Link. After trying out a glitch the game starts acting up with most characters vanishing and the game text saying 'You shouldn't have done that'. As the game glitches more frequently, more aggressive text is directed at the player and being constantly followed by a statue our narrator does more research. Ben, the previous owner, drowned and is now haunting the game. This is a very badly done summary but I strongly advise you to read it. I cannot do the creepypasta justice here.

Before we get to number one here are a few that narrowly didn't make the list: Squidward's Suicide, Suicidemouse.avi, Abandoned by Disney, Russian Sleep Experiment. The Rake and Herobrine.

1. 1999

A good premise, believable tone, disturbing imagery and the fact that it is written like a blog makes 1999 my personal favorite creepypasta. Our author starts writing about a TV channel that could only be picked up by local aerials and aired in at specific times, normally late at night. It made cheap TV shows in a rundown house in the Canadian woods. One called Booby featured someone's hands pretending to talk while another featured Mr Bear, a man in a bear costume who would talk to children on set. The programs start becoming darker in tone, Mr Bear started to use abusive language and the children became more and more distraught. Years later the author starts investigating the TV channel once more to find details of kidnapping, murder and Satanic rituals. Like with Ben Drowned I cannot do 1999 justice on here and the revelation at the end is truly gripping. For a good scare that makes you eager for more I would strongly advise 1999 for any creepypasta lover.