It can take only a short time to make your blood run cold or to make you feel like something is just wrong. You start out feeling okay, but it devolves into a need to leave the light on just a little bit longer or stay under your covers because leaving your bed seems to be a risk in itself for the night. If you love a fast thrill, look no further than the wonderful world of YouTube.
From series about the macabre and strange to the outright terrifying, it can cover any creep factor you need in less than 15 minutes. It also doubles as being highly interesting since you encounter incredible talent in the little known artists found on the web or the YouTube stars that retain their freedom by staying on their own channel and maintaining control of intellectual property.
Below are some great starter channels and/or videos to warm up your adrenaline or run a chill down your spine. These are in no particular order as I can’t quantify what level of freaky or terrifying they will be to you so I have arranged them by videos or full channels.
Enjoy these, and let us know in the comments section what some of your favorites are!
We will begin with videos for those that don’t want to commit to becoming hooked on a channel with a whole library of videos. That can be as awful as Netflix, and we already have that.
I didn’t ever have an issue with clowns until the first video on my list. A James Cawley video by the title Pennywise / Stephen King’s IT Fan Film will give you a complex about clowns, pointed teeth, or any combination of the two for that matter. I can still see his face clear as day, and it has been the better part of six months since I watched that video. A violent looking clown lures a little girl away, and in her family’s desperation they manage to find her… but don’t like what they find holding her in his grasp. Watch this and hate me for introducing you to the reason you’re now super unnerved by Cirque De Soleil.
The channel (with the highly NSFW name) Fuck You Zombie features a video called Selfie from Hell. As someone who runs a style blog and, sadly, takes a shit ton of selfies, this would be a waking nightmare. With each snap the girl takes, a figure appears in the frame, only to be absent once the camera is off. The end is chilling and made me grit my teeth a little to look into my camera. Add that to my childhood shiver over mirrors thanks to legends like Bloody Mary, and I may never see myself again. On second thought we might want to consider mass circulating this video again. It might cut down on the useless selfie epidemic.
There are a ton of very short horror stories I am absolutely in love with. Lucky for us one of the best has been adapted into a short and featured on the YouTube channel 2SentenceHorror. I Heard That Too starts innocent enough and seems innocuous, but that all changes when the little girl’s mother calls from downstairs. With its massive amount of oh-hell-no factor, I can safely say I love this one for its simplicity. It plays on the fact that we fear the unknown and things that aren’t where they should be. Throw in a twist at the end, and despite it easily being one of the shortest, it’s also one of my favorites.
I am not a religious person. I don’t fear iconography or the idea of purgatory. That being said, this is designed to be the visual and audio depiction of purgatory… and it creeped me the hell out. Dining Room or There is Nothing on the David Earle channel has a challenge attached. Play it as many times on a loop as you can (that is how it’s designed to be viewed) and see how long you can go without getting so uncomfortable or creeped out that you finally turn the damned thing off. Just stare at the screen. Really look. Let yourself hear it. Then creep out and turn the computer off. Don’t worry. I won’t tell.
I will start this section by saying I’m fairly pissed off at you for ruining bed for me for the night, Drew. Daywalt Horror: Bedfellows can be found on the Drew Daywalt channel, and it is a screw job and a half. It plays on simple comfort. Knowing who’s with you. The safety of your bed. Once you’re all settled in, it pretty much pulls that rug right out from under you. Sweet dreams.
I saw Ghost Girl; Car Crash on nirvanastrikes years ago and really loved it. It’s creepy and cold. European vacationers are driving down the road and find a hitchhiker in need of help. She’s too quiet. She’s giving directions to unfamiliar travelers. They don’t (at first) seem to see how this can go wrong. If you are familiar with urban legends, you will see where this is going, but it’s very cool and well done all the same. Just one more reason to stop for no one. I’ll keep this one in mind on vacation next year.
I mentioned earlier I am in love with these super short, two-sentence style horror stories. Pop Culture Mixology has set them to imagery and music in their Top 15 Scariest 2 Sentence Horror Stories. It isn’t a video per se; it just goes over a lot of my favorite clips and sets them to a crazy creepy backdrop. It elevates the mood when exploring how screwed or horrifying someone can be in 12 seconds flat. This would be great if you love audio books or podcasts like Welcome to Night Vale or The Black Tapes.
The next couple of channels I happen to like are perfect for the binge-watcher like me. They post terror regularly and continue to creep me out or just have me shaking my head at the idea of having to be in that situation myself.
DM Pranks is hilarious, but again, if you have a clown phobia this won’t help. They stage a series of violent pranks to catch people off guard. The unsuspecting victims don’t know they are walking into a scene of murderous clowns creating what they create best: violence and gore. The scenes are gruesome, and the reactions are priceless. That’s about all I need. If you’re a haunter in need of a fix, like me, you will get a major kick out of this series.
Dark5 is a channel that compiles lists of the strange, macabre, and freaky. Most of it is real life stuff, which makes it even more unnerving. From conspiracy theories to the worst theme park disasters, you can find your freaky factoids on this channel. It has the benefit of being genuinely interesting too. Useless information is always an asset, and studying here will give you all kinds of creepy add-ins to adjunct in conversation. Spread the fear. Tell your sister about the girl who got scalped on a roller coaster. You know you want that info in your pocket.
Rob Dyke. A lot of us already know and love him, but there was no way I was writing an article about creepy YouTube without including him and Seriously Strange / Twisted Tens. These are true life stories as well, and some will leave you with nightmares. They range from the creepy to outright terrifying. The contents are videos like 10 Chilling 911 Calls, Serial Killer Files, and Scariest Stalkers. They are only the tip of the iceberg on this channel. He is a master to me, and this is one of my favorite places to indulge my inner creep that actually wants to hear the 911 calls (a highly disturbing video … proceed with caution). There is a TON of content on this channel so there is a lot to browse on lots of different subjects. Have a field day, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!