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“Oddly Terrifying”: 50 Times People Spotted Creepy Things And Just Had To Share Them (New Pics)
Interview
Even though we are way past Halloween and should be focused on all that Christmas cheer, it’s hard to avoid having some chills going down our spines every now and then. And no, not because of the cold winter nights crawling on us, we mean real creepy stuff.
The internet is famous for its random and disturbing content, so we cannot help but spread the most interesting bits we find! So let’s plunge into the subreddit r/oddlyterrifying, a place that, as you might have guessed, is dedicated to sharing strangely terrifying images. It has 2.5M members, which isn’t that surprising considering the pictures there are weirdly enticing to look at.
Scroll down through the newest stack of tingly scenes and don’t forget to check out our previous posts here, here and here.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Hate Waking Up To This
RELATED:
#2
The More I Learn About Mushrooms The Less Comfortable I Am With The Idea Of Mushrooms
#3
A Screaming Dead Sun
Glancing at these images, we experience a paradox. It’s terrifying to look at them, however, it’s also hard to look away. To find out what fascinates people about the unsettling photos, Bored Panda spoke with Francis McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology at Knox College and Coltan Scrivner, behavioral scientist and expert on the science of horror and morbid curiosity.
#4
A Schizophrenic Patient’s Last Drawing Before Suicide
#5
Instead Of Carving The Jack-O-Lantern Myself This Year
I poked a bunch of small holes in a pumpkin and stuffed the holes with peanut butter. I then let the squirrels go at it for two days. The result is something truly disturbingly.
#6
Just A Little Reddit Before Bed
Prof. McAndrew told that there are different types of creepiness, but they all have one thing in common: ambiguity. "In its most extreme form, it is about the uncertainty of threat or danger. We can get creeped out by a spooky place because it is uncertain if the place contains hidden things like predators, ghosts, or badly intentioned people who mean to do us harm. Similarly, we can be creeped out by a person who is behaving strangely and not obeying the usual rules for interacting with a stranger. Our uncertainty about whether the person is dangerous or just awkward leaves us wallowing in discomfort and feeling 'creeped out.'
Sometimes, we can get creeped out by things that we know are not dangerous, but they still make us uncomfortable because we do not know how to categorize them or react to them. For example, dolls or robots that are too lifelike trigger responses that we would make to an actual human being, but the fact that we know they are not human creates an uncomfortable tension that we need to resolve. We do not like uncertainty."
#7
These Bathroom Tiles
#8
If We Drew Modern Animals The Way We Draw Dinosaurs, Based On Bones Alone
MarcyParlomerNerdGirlsRock 2 years ago
For all I know, Dinos could be fluffy big birds with rainbow feathers and Christmas sweaters.
#9
Seems Like A Stone Giant Is Waking Up
C. Scrivner explains creepiness as the feeling that something might be dangerous. “When we are sure we are facing something dangerous, we feel afraid. When we are facing something that is more ambiguous, we feel creeped out.”
People are attracted to learning about danger, particularly when they can safely learn about danger (in this case, looking at these oddly terrifying images). C. Scrivener explained that things that are unsettling are creepy, which means we aren't sure if they're dangerous or not. “This uncertain danger is particularly attractive for our minds. We want to learn more about the unsettling thing so that we can know if it's dangerous or not.”
#10
Signature Evolution In Alzheimer’s Disease
Sonia Ward 2 years ago
My mum has alzheimers. Her writing is still fine but she used to be an English teacher and every time I see her spelling, crossing outs and grammar it breaks my heart. This is one of the very small ways the disease has effected her. She is now delusional and paranoid most of the time; nearly always terrified and anxious.
#11
A Sweet Potato Dug Up From A Garden
#12
A Bat Nursery
C. Scrivener continued: “Creepiness differs a bit from individual to individual, just like fears. However, just like there are some things that are more likely to be feared (e.g. heights, snakes), there are probably some things that are more likely to be creepy. Things that have both elements of danger and safety might be more likely to be creepy, like a life-like doll or an abandoned house. Dolls are cute and safe, but maybe not if they're alive. Houses are places of refuge, but maybe not if they're abandoned.”
#13
Appears I Had A Visitor While Working Alone In A Large Abandoned Basement…
JoJo Anisko 2 years ago
I hope it's just the lighting that makes it look like bloody footprints.
#14
Why Even Need This Is What Scares Me
#15
The View From My Grandmothers Sun Room…
#16
Lake Mead 1983 vs. 2021
According to prof. McAndrew, things that are novel or strange automatically attract our attention. "For good evolutionary reasons, we need to figure out new things we encounter in case they are a threat to us or possibly a good thing that we can take advantage of. That is why we can't look away until we have figured them out."
"Some people are more comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity than others, and the people who are least comfortable with it are the people who will be most easily creeped out."
#17
Mother Centipede Cradling Her Children
#18
A 4-Year-Old Boy Named Bobby Dunbar Disappeared While On A Trip With His Family
8 months later, they found him and reunited him with his family, and they lived out the rest of their lives together. Nearly 100 years later, DNA evidence proved that the boy they rescued was not Bobby Dunbar.
adam craker 2 years ago
They didn't just find him. They straight up stole him from his real parents
Monday 2 years ago
Real mother and uncle yes. Pretty sure his uncle was prosecuted for kidnapping too even though he had permission to be with his nephew.
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LottieH 2 years ago
His mother always doubted it was him. The film 'The Changling' was loosely based on this.
adam craker 2 years ago
I thought the changeling was based of one of the mothers of the victims of Gordon northcott
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ShaZam Beaubien 2 years ago
As a person who has accidently let in a racoon thinking it was a cat ... I totally could see myself doing that ... sorry kids.
Trillian 2 years ago
How do you not know if it is your child? I can identify my kids by their smell.
OmBoyGanesh 2 years ago
But have you ruled out other kids by their smell? As in, how do you know your kids smell from similar kids that aren’t yours? I’m genuinely fascinated and curious.
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Veronica Alejandre 2 years ago
I've read many stories about babies switched at the hospital by accident, specially back in those days. So I wonder if there is a chance the boy could have been switched as a baby and therefore never would have shared the family's DNA.
Joe Reaves 2 years ago
No. His DNA matched the person who had said he was her son all along. But she was poor and a single mother and the Dunbars had money. Her family always said that the Dunbars had stolen their child.
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Noel Bovae 2 years ago
How in the world was the family not able to tell that wasn't him? At 4yo, that seems completely impossible. Wonder if the family killed the kid, filed a report that he 'went missing,' then when the authorities "found him" they said 🤷♀️ at least we won't get caught now.?
Joe Reaves 2 years ago
He'd been gone a year and at first the mother wasn't sure, then she changed her mind (his real mother did the same thing too). The Dunbar's were desperate to have their child home so they convinced themselves they did.
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Tortuga Woman 2 years ago
There's a great public radio (This American Life) show about this case, if you're interested: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/352/transcript
patricia patricia 2 years ago
Didn't the mother realise the boy was not her son? Trauma makes the brain do weird things, but it's strange the mother didn't suspect anything. Poor kids and poor parents!
Fluffy mommy panda 2 years ago
I'm pretty shore this has happened more then once......but I'm not positive
Elina Wachtmeister 1 year ago
OH GOD WHAT THEN WHO WAS THAT KID THAT JUST PLAYED ALONG WITH IT??? WHY???? OH GOD THAT IS SO CREEPY!???!?!!!!
Rachel Ortiz 1 year ago
With only 8 months In between? They had to have known. But were probably in so much grief, that it didn’t matter to them. But another sad thing is, who was this boys real family?
Melissa Hammond 1 year ago
What the hell? Then who is the kid they found? And where did he come from? Where's the real Bobby Dunbar then? I hate articles like this. These aren't "news" articles. They are question generators.
Harvey Keck 2 years ago
Maybe the DNA evidence simply proved that the child was not the offspring of his supposed "parents". He may have be3en "their child", but NOT "by birth".
Melissa Hamed 2 years ago
They also found out that the kid was taken from a couple because they thought he was Bobby Dunbar. Not only did they prove that that was not Bobby Dunbar but that it really was that couple's kid.
Jane Dorothy Warner 2 years ago
Maybe the boy they had initially had been swapped at birth, so he was never really Bobby.
Ghaniyah Verma 2 years ago
*gasp* What if there was a creature that disguised itself as Bobby after killing the real one and still exists?!
LynzCatastrophe 2 years ago
Are they positive they had the correct kid at birth though? DNA may not be a match but he could have been switched at birth, it does unfortunately happen.
SobyKay 2 years ago
How did they not know their own son after only 8 months apart? Not like it was 5+ years (even THEN wouldnt you know?). Did they just want to believe so bad? Or deep down inside did they know, but just figured this boy needs rescuing, might as well make it work for all of us???.....
John Dilligaf 2 years ago
Investigators found the boy they believed to be Bobby with a man named William Walter who claimed he was Bruce Anderson, son of his friend Julia Anderson. Authorities didn't believe him or her and charged him with kidnapping. She didn't have the money to pay lawyers so the court ruled in favor of the Dunbars. William Walter was convicted of the kidnapping and served 2 yrs before his conviction was overturned by the LA supreme court. A sad story all they way around
Riley Quinn 2 years ago
Okay. I know it's easy to mix up similar looking cats or dogs or pigs or... but they didn't recognize their own child?
the one panda _ 2 years ago
I can’t imagine what the parents (all of them) must have felt like… ;(
Ada Hunter 2 years ago
i’m pretty sure the kid told them he wasn’t bobby… the mom was put in an asylum cuz she said it wasn’t him, and then he told them he wasn’t bobby, he just ran away and went along with it when they found him because he wanted to go to hollywood.
MelO 2 years ago
Different case, crazily enough. That was Walter Collins, in Los Angeles. This was in Louisiana.
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This Banana Blossom
What changes in us when we are creeped out? According to C. Scrivener, feeling creeped out has similar effects to anxiety. “Our mind prepares the senses for information gathering and we are more on alert than usual. This helps us efficiently learn about the potential danger. In the case of images, there is no actual danger. There are likely no long-term negative effects of viewing unsettling images.”
Prof. McAndrew added that they raise our arousal levels and focus our attention. "They create an uncomfortable emotion that will keep us motivated to keep processing information about the images until we resolve them, much the same way hunger or thirst (unpleasant feelings) motivate us to engage in behaviors (eating and drinking) that will eradicate the feeling."
#20
An AI's Interpretation Of The Word "Religion"
#21
Meanwhile, In Australia
#22
Civilians Taking Care Of Zoo Animals In Their Own Homes During Wwii
#23
Lighthouse By The Coast Of Iceland
Arabiata Arabiata 2 years ago
How does the keeper go up there? I see no stairs or cableway there.
#24
This Is Point Nemo, The Spot Farthest Away From Any Land In The World. You Are Closer To Astronauts Aboard The Iss Than Humanity
Sergy Yeltsen 2 years ago
If only you could get some solid land (volcanic island?), internet and food delivery there, I'd move in a heartbeat.
#25
Woman’s Neighbor Sprays Raid, Peeks Through The Slits In The Fence…
#26
Walking Home 4 Miles In Abandoned Railroad Tracks
No other way to get home unless I want to walk through gang run drug areas. that's the scary part, this is safer.
Yayheterogeneity 2 years ago
So sorry, you have to deal with that and have no safer way to get home.
#27
Antheraea Polyphemus... Basically A Tarantula With Wings
#28
A Disease That Has No Cure
#29
Imagine Going To Explore Your Ski Resort On Holiday And Running Into This
Powerful Katrinka 2 years ago
My family owns a ski area in Colorado, and we have quite a few signs like this. People stop, read it, and duck under the ropes anyway. Then my brother and his crew find the bodies when the snow melts.
#30
My Spine. I Went In For Surgery At 5'10", Came Out 6'2", I'm Supposed To Be 6'7"
#31
Bugs Escaping From A Flood
#32
A Three-Legged Dog Licking Its Back
#33
Every Single Frog Is Looking Eerily In The Same Direction
#34
Known Locations Of Bodies On Mt. Everest
#35
So, Did You Like The Zoo?
#36
Stevn King In The 70's vs. Steven King In His 70's
#37
Remindes Me Of Attack On Titan
#38
This Amazon Warehouse In Tijuana, Mexico
#39
This Is The Last Source Of Light For 600 Miles
#40
This Past Thursday Marked The 13th Anniversary Of John Jones Death In Nutty Putty Cave
Jones found himself in a situation no man could help him and after being stuck upside down for 26 hours he died of cardiac arrest while his wife and daughter stood hundreds of feet above.
And i was like WTF!! 2 years ago
I understand curiosity, but what makes you go like "Hmmm i think i will go in this narrow cannal in this part that is not explored where i can barely squeesse and pass, that seems like a smart idea"
#41
Inside A Hong Kong Coffin Home
#42
And They Were Never Seen Again
#43
Ponte City Apartments In Johannesburg, South Africa. The Tallest Residential Building On The African Continent
#44
My Wife Found This Trail-Cam Pointed At The Back Door Of The Restaurant She Manages
#45
This Warning Sign
#46
We Hired A Chimney Specialist Today And They Found This. They Said “Well, This Is A First”
#47
My Father In Their Home Right Now During Ian
Groundcontroltomajortom 2 years ago
I didn't even see the water till I read the comments, just thought it was a really tall guy standing in a really messy room lol
#48
My Friend Went Into A Fugue State And Wandered Into The Countryside At 3am
Phoned me at around 5am explaining that he had no idea where he was, soaking wet to the bone and covered in cuts, bruises and this bite(?)
#49
This Statue Of The Devil Defeating The Archangel Michael On Top Of A Tomb That Is Caged Off
Add New Image
What do you think ?
Jaycen Grey 2 years ago
I cannot explain how uncomfortable I felt this entire time. I think I might go to bed now, or at least try.
Lispel- Lotte 2 years ago
I shouldn't read this kind of stuff before going to sleep. Need a Barbie-movie now.
Saxophone 2 years ago
It says based on user votes it shortened it, but has anyone ever actually voted to do that?
Steve Kenney 2 years ago
No that's not it. It means based on the articles that got the most votes they are displayed while the rest are optional to view. This was something they did awhile back to shorten articles because - some - users were complaining about how long articles were.
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Tanya bielak 2 years ago
Not sure how it works! Tried watching videos but couldn't get thru it!
Jaycen Grey 2 years ago
I cannot explain how uncomfortable I felt this entire time. I think I might go to bed now, or at least try.
Lispel- Lotte 2 years ago
I shouldn't read this kind of stuff before going to sleep. Need a Barbie-movie now.
Saxophone 2 years ago
It says based on user votes it shortened it, but has anyone ever actually voted to do that?
Steve Kenney 2 years ago
No that's not it. It means based on the articles that got the most votes they are displayed while the rest are optional to view. This was something they did awhile back to shorten articles because - some - users were complaining about how long articles were.
Load More Replies... Tanya bielak 2 years ago
Not sure how it works! Tried watching videos but couldn't get thru it!
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