What makes your humble abode special, pandas? Is it the garden you’ve spent hours tending to ensure that each flower is perfectly cared for or the kitchen you renovated to create your dream cooking space? Perhaps it’s the creepy basement that looks like it was once a medieval torture chamber!
We’ve taken a trip to the Oddly Terrifying subreddit to find photos of some of the creepiest and surprisingly disturbing things people have ever come across in their homes, and apparently, there's no shortage of this spooky content. So enjoy viewing these pics, and be sure to upvote the ones that would have you immediately running to a realtor if they had been taken in your home!
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Built In The 18th Century, This Is One Of The Oldest Buildings In Hattfjelldal Municipality In Norland, Norway
The Ice Made Me Do It
When You (Hear A Bang And) Discover An Aircraft Engine Lodged In The Wall Of Your House
We all find different things scary. Some of us couldn’t stand being in the same room as a clown, while others might consider having to touch a snake their worst nightmare. But aside from the obvious things that are widely considered scary, such as ghosts and the dark, there are also many things that sneak up on us and are unexpectedly pretty frightening. The Oddly Terrifying subreddit is a catalog of all of those things that are “not the ordinary type of terrifying,” but still freak us out.
The community has amassed an impressive 2.6 million members since its creation a decade ago, and among all of the unsettling posts people share there are plenty of strange pics from real life homes. Creepy basements, disturbing ice formations, snake skin found inside homes and fungus that looks like toes all come together to create the perfect list of strange items that might make homeowners assume their houses are haunted. And according to evolutionary psychologist Frank T. McAndrew, there’s a simple reason why we find haunted houses to be so frightening.
Xylaria Polymorpha, Commonly Known As Dead Man's Fingers, Is A Saprobic Fungus Growing From The Bases Of Rotting Tree Stumps And Decaying Wood. It Has Elongated Upright Stromata Poking Up Through The Ground, Much Like Fingers
Reflection In A Steam Iron
Silent Hill Type S**t
“From a psychological point of view, the standard features of haunted houses trigger feelings of dread because they push buttons in our brains that evolved long before houses even existed,” McAndrew writes for The Conversation. “These alarm buttons warn us of potential danger and motivate us to proceed with caution.” Haunted houses aren’t scary because they are actually posing a threat to us, but we find them frightening because we can’t actually determine whether they’re threatening or not. “This ambivalence leaves you frozen in place, wallowing in unease,” McAndrew explains.
We don’t want to overreact by running out of the house screaming, but we do sense danger, so it can be difficult to ignore our intuition and continue towards it if we’re going to later regret it. But we can often feel the same way in our own homes too, when we stumble upon something that doesn’t seem quite right. We don’t want to freak out because we know, logically, that our home should be the safest place in the world. However, when you find something oddly terrifying, it can be hard to shake the feeling that someone or something is out to get you.
Was Playing Video Games When I Heard A Sounds To My Left. Looked Over And Saw This
Last Night I Hear A Tapping And Snaps. Looked At The Window And..this Is On The Outside. Not The Inside.(I Am In A Two Story House, Second Floor. Under The Window Is A Roof Above The Front Door)
There Is This Line In Our Basement Our Dog Doesn’t Want To Cross And Will Anxiously Wait At The Entrance
There are also certain types of homes that we find particularly terrifying, and for some reason, Victorian homes always fit the bill. What is it about these houses that are gorgeous during the daytime that seem absolutely menacing and fear-inducing once the sun goes down? Well, according to Rachel Kurzius at The Washington Post, there are a variety of factors contributing to the reputation Victorian homes have, including pop culture and architecture. When it comes to the construction of these homes, Kurzius notes that they’re “as far from an open floor plan as a house can get.” There are typically many rooms, many doors and long, narrow hallways. Ample opportunities for jump scares and creaking doors!
Ceiling Water Bubbles
Found This In My Apartment While Living In Japan. They Are Fast!
Are those similar to house centipedes (please google them before downvoting, that is their name) in North America?
Bathroom Over An Abandoned 15 Story Lift Shaft
Lauren Kelsey, production designer for the Netflix thriller The Midnight Club, shared with The Washington Post how her set utilized “long hallways and creepy hallways” with big round arches with enough space for characters to hide behind them. Building materials used during the Victorian era also can’t help but give off a macabre feel, Kurzius noted, pointing out the use of dark wood. “The era’s characteristic stained glass and thick draperies added to the ominous vibe, but they actually had a utilitarian purpose, too: They protected elaborate furniture and decor from the sun. In urban dwellings, the curtains helped insulate interiors from street odors,” she explained.
When You Go Into Your Attic For The First Time And Find A Recently Discarded Snake Skin
A Mother Centipede Protecting Her Babies
Body-Sized Shallow Hole/Grave Behind My New House. Authorities Came And Looked At It And Said It’s 'Odd, But Probably Nothing' But They Don’t Know What It Is. Said Not To Touch It Just Yet And They Will Check Their Records (Which They Said They Already Did). So Now I’m Just Waiting Until They Come Back
And if you ask Adam Lowenstein, author of Horror Film and Otherness, he’ll tell you that Victorian houses don’t age well. "The image of the haunted Victorian house probably has real reference in all kinds of American neighborhoods where these ornate houses lost their wealthy tenants and became sort of neglected, derelict houses that looked haunted because they weren’t being taken care of," he told The Washington Post.
Ghost Light
A Black House In Germany
I'm Not Going Near This Chandelier, I'm Already Imagining It Falling
Krystal D’Costa at Scientific American has even explored the topic of creepy Victorian houses, and she points out that Victorian houses were perceived as gross symbols of wealth during the latter part of the 19th century in the United States. Following the Civil War, the Southern states were devastated economically, and the memories of those they lost in the war weighed heavily on them. So when wealthy Northerners lived in massive Victorian homes, these houses were seen as tone deaf and offensive.
Apartments
i grew up in an old soviet housing block so i actually don’t mind this too much 💀
Saw This During A Virtual Tour Of A House. What Are The Chances We Buy This House And A Week Later The Doll Is Back In That House?
Pulled Up The Carpets In Newly Purchased House To Find This
“Critics such as Hamlin Talbot decried the [Victorian] style as a blight upon the American landscape, labeling them ‘wooden monstrosities,’” D’Costa explained. “This sentiment grew into the 1920s, following the aftermath of WWI where numerous disillusioned veterans and their families saw things in a new light: The cost of technological and economical advancement was dirty factories and poorly made mass produced goods. The world had become a corrupt, dirty place, and Victorian-style houses were a physical manifestation of this stain; they represented the persistence of corruption and thoughtlessness that was thought to have originated in the Gilded Age. Where they were once a symbol of material wealth, these homes were now a weight on the progression of the American soul.”
I Feel Like I’m Living In The Overlook Hotel
There appears to be a distinct lack of fire doors on that corridor. You don't get them like that in the UK, as there has to a be a fire door every so many metres.
I swear I blinked and there were two children way down there, then blinked again and they were gone. I'm so scared right now. jk
Where are the fu🔞ing doors??? Let me guess that I will stay in there, forever and ever ever?! 👭🚪🪓
I used to live in an apartment complex that looked just like this. I refused to leave after dark (which in Anchorage is basically all the time lol)
Found This In The Basement Of My New House
That's a bigger problem, for sure. Call the police, they should be able to track down former owners.
Hive
There was then a movement attempting to portray Victorian homes as creepy, unsettling and unwelcoming, and it seemed to work. Artist Charles Burchfield released House of Mystery, which depicted a “dark and unsettling” home through pictures, and many critics agreed that it looks “ghostly and murderous.” In 1925, Edward Hopper continued the trend by releasing House by the Railroad, which looked uninviting, despite the elaborate architectural style it had. “Critics found it desolate, ominous, inhuman, and haunted--responses that echoed the perception of the Victorian legacy overall,” D’Costa continued. So it seems like Victorian homes may be more likely than many others to wind up on lists like this!
Found This In My Girlfriends Loft. She Only Moved In 3 Months Ago And Says She Has Never Been Up There. Guess What My Name Is
Mowed My Yard And Came Back The Next Day To Find A Yellow Garden Spider Had Made A Human-Shaped Pattern In Their Web
Had one my brother use to say hi to every day, one day the spider had 'hi' woven in its web.
Opened The Breaker Box In My Shed To Find This
Are you the type of panda who would jump at the opportunity to live in a haunted house, or would you be running for the door if you encountered any of these things? Regardless, we hope you’re enjoying these pics. Don’t worry, they can’t hurt you! Keep upvoting the ones you find most bizarre or shocking, and then if you’re interested in checking out another list from Bored Panda featuring unsettling things people have come across in their homes, prepare to be spooked right here!
This Mushroom That Broke Through My Wall The Same Night I Restarted The Last Of Us
Someone Random Person Put A Dining Set In My Front Yard???
This Tree Being Entirely Covered In Caterpillar Webs
These Scratches On The Inside Of The Door To My Basement. It’s An Old House Too
Basement Entrance In A Bathroom
Woke Up This Morning And Noticed A Very Poorly Patched Hole Drilled From The Outside Of My Apartment Building Into My Bedroom
You'll Love Our Bathroom, They Said
That Thin Line Just Below The First Floor Window. That's How High The Water Rose During The 2023 Flooding In Italy
Small Circuit Board Mailed To Me With No Return Address, Taped To A Piece Of Paper With The Coordinates To My House Printed On It. That Was The Only Thing In The Envelope. No Clue What This Is Or What It Might Be For, I Definitely Didn’t Order It And I’m Not Sure Why It Has No Return Address
Roots Of A Plant Growing On The Rooftop Descending Through The Walls
Neighbour Lost His Shed In The Tantallon Wildfire. This Halloween Mask Was All That Was Left
This Bedroom On Airbnb In A Place Called “Stabbin Cabin”. Sounds About Right
Middle Of The Day In My Apartment. I Can’t See What’s Hiding At The End Of The Hallway
The Views From My Dad's House All Look Like B Horror Movies At Night
I can 1000% guarantee you that there is somebody out there who can see you and you have no idea. It's midnight and you realize you left your very expensive mountain bike outside? Yup, that's EXACTLY where it is staying till morning. If it gets stolen, then God wanted the moody woods murderer to have the bike.
First Month In My New Apartment, And I Noticed Someone Wrote 'I’m Watchin'' In My Doorway. I Never Noticed It Before, Prob A Prank. Definitely Freaked Me Out
Found On Front Porch At 4am
This "Turkey" Being Cooked
My Mom Found This While Raking Leaves In The Yard Of Our New House. Does Anyone Know What This Is? We Named Him Geneva. Help
It's just a Five Nights at Freddy's character that's missing a few bits
Found This Behind A Piece Of Furniture In Our Bathroom
Anyone who can read it properly welcome to correct me, but I think it's instructions for how to lay a traditional patterned mosaic tile floor.
My Apartment In Venice Has This Clown In Their Lobby That They Dress/Undress/Reposition According To The Time Of Day. I Never Saw It Happen But It's Right In Front Of Our Room And It Gave Me The Creeps When I First Saw It
"Contractor" Gave Up Halfway Through The Job
A Note On My Apartment Buildings Door This Morning
Basement Wall Of A Home For Sale In My Neighborhood. Only Two Families Have Occupied This Residence Since 1817
Yeah :( just carry them in a closed container and toss them into an open area with some plants or s**t
Load More Replies...Why do I always read these when I'm going to sleep... Lovely to lie in bed now wide awake and thinking about the bogeyman under my bed
Yeah :( just carry them in a closed container and toss them into an open area with some plants or s**t
Load More Replies...Why do I always read these when I'm going to sleep... Lovely to lie in bed now wide awake and thinking about the bogeyman under my bed