Movies, video games, and books aren’t the only things that can be terrifying. You can find plenty of strange and ominous things in real life, too. The kind of stuff that is unsettling to look at for too long.
It’s always spooky season in our hearts, so our team at Bored Panda compiled this list of creepy, odd, and lightly cursed images from all over the net to get you in the mood for Halloween. Scroll down to check them out. Oh, and don’t forget to show this list to your sleep paralysis demons and the monster living under your bed.
#1 30 Vultures Chillin On My Neighbors Roof This Morning. Not Ominous At All
Image credits: Joe_Jacksons_Belt
#2 Blursed Dogs
Image credits: elbirb121
#3 When You Find Yourself At 3am In The Wrong Side Of Town
Image credits: izacktorres
Looking at these images on the screen can be spooky, sure. But seeing these things in real life is another level of terrifying. When you find yourself in a dangerous situation or you get extremely stressed, your body reacts in one of four main ways. You probably already know about fight or flight. But you might also freeze or fawn.
When stressed, your body goes for the strategy that ensures the best chances of your survival. It’s instinctive. For instance, you might enter fight mode if there’s a fairly good chance of you overpowering the threat you face. However, if the danger is something that you have a better chance of outrunning, you might go into flight mode.
#4 Woke Up And Discovered My Mom Moved Our Coat Stand Yesterday
Image credits: Kryczka88
#5 I Ordered Delivery And The Driver's Name Makes This Sound Ominous As Hell
Image credits: LargeArmadillo5431
#6 The Grave With A Window
There is a curious grave at Evergreen Cemetery in the West River neighborhood of New Haven, Vermont, the United States. It’s a small grassy mound with a large slab of concrete placed at the top. This concrete block has a small fourteen inch square glass window facing towards the sky. The glass window is hazy and has beads of water hanging on the underside from condensation, and you can’t see much inside. But back in 1893, you could have peered inside and straight into the decomposing face of Timothy Clark Smith.
Image credits: my_vision_vivid
Alternatively, if neither fight nor flight is a good strategy, your body might simply… freeze up. Another survival strategy is to enter fawn mode. This is essentially a socially-focused strategy where you try to present yourself as someone who is agreeable and overly helpful. You hope that by keeping the threat happy, you reduce the danger to you.
#7 Asian 19th Century Depiction Of An American
Image credits: TheOddityCollector
#8 Coworker Got A Ransom Note For Her Kidnapped Toy
So, my coworker has brought in this little snowman toy, which is motion activated and sings Christmas songs when you activate it. She made a game out of hiding it around our workplace, to annoy everyone. Someone snatched it and she's been a little annoyed that her little game is over. Today, I came into work and found this envelope with her name on it, and the picture sitting beside it. I think it's freaking hilarious, and I hope whoever stole it keeps up the joke.
Image credits: Sunshineyr
#9 Imagine Driving Down The Road At 12am And Seeing This
Image credits: ShaneTVZ
While feeling stressed isn’t a lot of fun, a well-functioning stress response is what helps keep you safe.
However, problems start to pop up when you’re constantly stressed and alert when there is no real, tangible danger to be found.
If this continues for a long enough time, it can damage your physical and mental health. It can contribute to anxiety, depression, and damage your immune system.
#10 Snapchat Filter Goes Wrong
Image credits: raidencrypto
#11 Reflection Of Light That Shows Up On My Wall
Image credits: FumblinginIgnorance
#12 Blursed Pilot
Image credits: reddit.com
“Our fight-or-flight response was designed to help us survive under life-threatening circumstances. Today, there are, arguably, less threats to our survival,” registered psychotherapist Natacha Duke, MA, RP, explained to the Cleveland Clinic.
“Our fight-or-flight response can also be activated from psychological or mental stress, such as an important work meeting or even attending a social gathering. This is only usually a problem if the fight-or-flight response becomes frequent, chronic, or disproportionate to the situation.”
#13 Our Village Has A Yearly Scarecrow Competition... I Hope This One Wins
Image credits: latro666
#14 Merry Christmas
Image credits: fyrstikka
#15 Ominous Photo Taken After The 6.4 Magnitude Earthquake In East Coast Taiwan
Image credits: tricktricky
According to Duke, people become more easily triggered when they are overwhelmed with stress.
For instance, if you have a ton of chores to do, you might be less patient with your loved ones.
This is an indication that you need to spend more time focusing on self-care. What’s more, you should strive to find healthier strategies to cope with stress.
#16 I May Not Have A Doctorate In Physics, Nor In Engineering... But I Feel Grandma Might Be Breaking More Than The Sound Barrier
Image credits: Barsidious_White
#17 Max The Rat Has Lived In My Aunt & Uncle’s Basement For Over 40 Years
Image credits: HTD_Bros
#18 My Nextdoor Neighbour
My neighbour does this on a daily basis….
Image credits: Beautiful-Ask-7910
When you find yourself in a traumatic situation, you might develop a generalized fear response to a situation that isn’t dangerous anymore. For example, if you’ve been in a car accident, you might be scared of driving again. The same thing can happen at work or in your relationships, too. What you can do is identify your signs and symptoms of stress.
#19 Tarantula Hawk Wasp Dragging Off A Huntsman Spider To Lay Her Egg In Its Paralyzed Body. In Australia, Of Course
Image credits: Trustrup
#20 Someone Left A House In The Road At 4am
I was coming back from a fishing trip at 4am and nearly drove through a house. There wasn't another person anywhere nearby. Someone tried to tow it with a pickup truck and one of those 4 sided universal hitches. Blowing 3 tires wasn't what stopped them, it was when their hitch sheared off and was left at the front. The road was scarred up for close to 3 miles. The best part was, the house was fully furnished. Initially, the house looked like it had been ripped out of the ground and just dropped there. Being as tired as I was, it was a major WTF moment for me. The first few seconds of trying to process it was really weird. This is on a mountain road in rural Utah if anyone is curious.
Image credits: j42d86
#21 Abandoned Tori Gate Found At The End Of A Submerged Tunnel In Japan
Image credits: TheOddityCollector
For instance, you might discover that, when stressed, you become very irritable or you eat more.
After you increase your self-awareness, you can look for ways to manage your stress. For instance, you might do some breathwork, meditate, or do yoga. You might go for a walk or talk to a loved one about what’s stressing you.
In short, basic daily things like getting an email or being stuck in traffic should not activate a strong stress response, the Cleveland Clinic notes. If they do, you need to change something in your life.
#22 Sioux Falls, SD Turned Green (No Filter) During A Huge Storm Tonight
Image credits: SoDakZak
#23 Strange Plant Formation In My City
Image credits: Adrianthrax
#24 Woke Up To A Strange Noise And Found This Guy Attached To My Screen Door
Image credits: StingRay_City
Some of the images that we’re featuring here today are from the r/Weird subreddit. It is an incredibly popular online group with a whopping 4.5 million weekly visitors and a jaw-dropping 17k weekly contributions. Created back in 2008, the sub is still going strong to this very day. However, the moderators of the sub stress the fact that you can’t share extreme or shocking content. “We love weird, but not in a disturbing way.”
#25 Letter In The Mail My Mom Received Today
Image credits: The-Real-Iggy
#26 Deer Running From A Flying Squirrel, Caught On A Trail Camera
Image credits: TheOddityCollector
#27 My Brother Is In Berlin For A Few Days And This Woman Is On The Wall In Multiple Rooms Of His Hotel
Image credits: ate50eggs
Be honest, which images creeped you out the most? Which ones were the most unsettling of the bunch?
On the other hand, which ones were ‘your type of weird’ and you thought they were pretty interesting?
How weird is too weird for you? What’s your favorite media to consume around Halloween? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
#28 Someone Made This Creepy Decoration In My Town
Image credits: Csenone
#29 These Strange Lights Showed Up In The Sky Over Jeju, South Korea. They Have Been Here For An Hour
Image credits: snap2
#30 I Came Across This Fine Gentleman In My Daughter's Sketchbook
Image credits: Careless_Hellscape
#31 Child With Small Teloscope
Image credits: Stephen_Is_handsome
#32 This Lamp For Sale. Found On My Local Fb Marketplace Page
Image credits: Youngsamwich90
#33 Ominous Fortune Cookie I Got After Eating Lunch At Work
Image credits: Jeronus
#34 Found This Inside The Wall In My Hallway. I've Lived In This House For All Of My 46 Years
..and on the back - so faintly written that I cannot capture it with my camera - are the words "an old man called energy".
Image credits: BeginningSir2984
#35 Strange Shell I Found That Looks Like A Finger
I found this while collecting shells in Daytona beach, it looks so creepily like a finger. I know it’s a species of shell but still so strange it formed this way.
Image credits: melonpoo
#36 This Wax Museum In Brazil - Princess Diana
Image credits: PinkPussycatPower
#37 This Ominous Dark Room Next To My Sisters Apartment Door. I Always Feel Off Around It
Image credits: Squishy_fishy826
#38 I Found This Red Target In My Basement
The people who lived in my house before were really strange. They were talking about a ghost in the basement who'd come out if we were to close up the old well in the basement. It's probably something they put on the wall.
Image credits: SnooBananas6894
#39 I Dreamed About A White House With No Windows. Today, I Found The Extract Same House While Working
Image credits: Inspector_7
#40 I Took A Photo Of Some Very Ominous Looking Cranes
Image credits: idlewildgirl
#41 Meet My Daughter
Image credits: Zebulon_V
#42 My Mom Found This On Her Roof This Morning
Image credits: ConcentrateJust2120
#43 I Found Whatever The Hell This Is On My Toilet
I don't know who put it there but my grandma recently passed and I think she's haunting this lol.
Image credits: Elian_hall
#44 My Girlfriend Left Me This Note On Her Way To Work This Morning. I've Never Seen This Flash Drive Before
Image credits: kerobyx
#45 I Didn't Know Until Today That The Library I Usually Go To Has A Medicine Museum Inside It
Image credits: Girasole98
#46 Found This In The Basement Of My New House
Image credits: franco-noce
#47 Turned On The TV To Watch The Inauguration And Saw This
No clue what happened. Everyone on screen literally looked zombified or like they'd been through a war or something. It genuinely creeped me out. Turned the TV off and back on and it went back to normal. Feels ominous.
Image credits: Fortunecookiegospel
#48 My Contribute To The Weird Hand Post
Was born like this. That’s about all I got.
Image credits: ClassroomBitter8627
#49 Woke Up To Find An Ear Print On My Back Door. I Will Be Buying Home Security Cameras Immediately
Image credits: itch-the-anus
#50 The Rothschild Surrealist Ball (1972)
Image credits: grandeluua
#51 He's Looking At You
Image credits: fi_si8124
#52 Show Baby Love
I was working in a remote part of Australia's Northern Territory a few years ago when I stumbled across...this. I was 50km from the nearest town and a long way from the nearest road. There was no phone signal, I hadn't seen any signs of people in hours save the dirt track I was driving on and an arrow stuck in a nearby tree. I left half my Vegemite sandwich...I hope that was enough to Show Baby Love.
Image credits: Saltuarius
#53 Toilet Statue With An Ominous Poem And A Baby? In The Bowl?
Found in a thrift shop in Pine, AZ. Apparently made in Japan in the 50s, seems to have been a part of a wider trend of art and statues following this concept.
It’s weird and ugly and inexplicable and I’m obsessed.
Image credits: -Chromaggia-
#54 90’s Halloween Costume
Image credits: bulmakai
#55 This Inmate.. Creates Dolls.. In His Cell
Image credits: Capricorn007_
#56 Someone Burned Three Phones In The California Desert- There’s Also Remnants Of Burnt Mail, Binders, And Handwritten Documents
Image credits: Boring-Boron
#57 Do Ominously-Placed Abandoned Baby Strollers On Hiking Trails Count As Oddly Terrifying? Certainly Spooked Us Out
We were a little scared to see what was in it…haha. Tried to walk around it.
Image credits: elhombrepositivo66
#58 I Snapped This Photo In Bryce Canyon Right As A Crow Landed On A Sign. Nothing Spectacular, But It Made It Look Kinda Ominous
Image credits: vergro
#59 I Don't Have A Second Joint In Either My Thumbs Or Toes
Image credits: 1520SedgwickRoad
#60 Blursed Lightyear
Image credits: TheBellend28
#61 Just Some Planters For Sale
Image credits: CrypticGumbo
#62 Was Going To Paint And Found Some Wasps In The Outlet
Image credits: christmasskids
#63 These Creepy Fossils That Were Recently Discovered Look Like They Came From Outer Space
Image credits: AeliosZero
#64 Left Home For A Couple Months, Came Back To Find Tiny Hand Prints
Image credits: YvngHag
#65 But How
Image credits: imgurofficial
#66 A Young Woman's Head After An Allergic Reaction To A Home Hair Dye Kit
Image credits: TheOddityCollector
#67 Vintage Doll With Creepy Eyes
Image credits: MarcoEmbarko
#68 This Is Weird For A Resturants Bathroom Wallpaper Right?
Image credits: VenomXTs
#69 In Vancouver This Week
Now that’s a new one. I love humor like this.
Image credits: GoblinBugGirl
#70 Forgot My Printer Turned On The Whole Night And Woke Up To This
Image credits: reddit.com
#71 Creepy
Image credits: Kryczka88
#72 Throughout My Career I Have Installed Tons Of Spy Cameras. There Are Eyes Everywhere, Trust Nothing
Image credits: Skylantech
#73 Accident Today In Chester County, Pa
Image credits: miss_nephthys
#74 Many Years Ago It Started "Only" With Hanged Babies. Now There Are Heads On Spikes And Mannequins Too
Image credits: Fulid
#75 There Is A Man In India Who Raised His Arm One Day And Never Put It Down. His Arm Has Been In The Air For More Than 50 Years
Image credits: TheOddityCollector
#76 Blursed Angle Of View
Image credits: Hurt_Wedding_
#77 Hellraiser Park And Urban Bird Observatory In Oregon
Image credits: j3ffr33d0m
#78 Found A Bunch Of Human Bones In A Cave In Mizoram, India
Image credits: papachulo666
#79 One Of My Kindergarten Students Drew This. They Were Supposed To Draw The Facial Expressions Associated With The Emotion. And, Well, I Guess He Did Precisely That
Image credits: suminagashi_swirl
#80 The Greenway Where I Live In Northern Ireland Lights Up An Ominous Red At Night
Image credits: throwawaylr94
#81 Someone Put This Strange Statue In A Empty House In My Neighborhood
Image credits: devSenketsu
#82 Are You Really That Keen To Watch Your Number Twos Pass Before Your Eyes?
Image credits: CroakyPyrex
#83 Found This Little Alien Like Head In An Antique Store
Found in a nice little antique store in New England. In a ring box for size reference. Came in the ring box.
Image credits: skipearth
#84 This Area At Work Makes Me Feel Like I'm Being Watched. I Hate Smoke Alarm Duty
Image credits: LordEldritchia
#85 What Is In My Yard? Was Scrolling Through Photos And Found This Picture From My Old House?
Image credits: tharealyunggoat
#86 Check Out This Lizard With Three Tails My Wife Found On Her Car Today
We have a ton of these little guys running around our house all the time, first one we've ever seen with three tails so I had to share.
Image credits: Infomaniac63
#87 Found This In The Front Yard?? Most Of Our Plants Are Dying As Well
Image credits: ProfessionalGold8448
#88 Moved Into A New Apartment. This Is Where The Kitchen And Bathroom Window Lead To
Image credits: Desperate_Ad_222
#89 Someone Locked My iPhone Overnight. I Sleep Alone
This morning my iPhone showed the locked out after 10 attempts screen. I sleep alone, no pets inside the bedroom, and would like to think I’d hear if my roommate entered my room. First thought was someone was trying to hack into my phone, but my other 3 devices running on the same Apple account were as usual today. I wonder what the heck happened last night. Unfortunately these are old devices and I’m not able to use the Passcode feature, so I’ll wait.
Image credits: Lianrue
#90 Should I Call The Cops?
My bf thinks they were just trying to be funny but I truly don’t know…
Image credits: frickmeplease
#91 Looks Like Someone Was Locked In The Basement Of The House We Just Bought
Just noticed that one room in the basement of the house we just bought has a steel door with the knob oriented so someone could get locked in the room. Then looked closer and noticed all these scratch marks around the knob on the inside of the door, and some dents too. There is a window in the room but it's small and high up so it would be hard for some people to get it open and get out of it.
Image credits: AlarKemmotar
#92 My Boyfriend Found This In A Jacket Pocket At The Thrift Store
Image credits: jacquesadilla
#93 Me IRL
Image credits: DreadSpud
#94 Naughty Little Body
Image credits: IsThisAUserName86
#95 Explain These Footprints In The Snow?
Why so pointy and how are the footprints both backward and forward at the same time?
Image credits: dillllyyy
#96 Someone Put Chicken In My Engine. What Does It Mean?
I was working on my car and the doors were unlocked but hood was closed. I went back in my office to get oil and when I popped the hood this was under. I feel like it's either targeted (probably not) or a crack head doing weird stuff. I live in the city so you never know.
Image credits: jininberry
#97 I Present To You Chicken Nelson
Image credits: 420Keep
#98 The Case Of The Imposter Trash
Image credits: psycopuppy
#99 Weird Keychain With Fish In It
It's 30 years old, at least. Fish seems real.
Image credits: ContributionBrief226
#100 Saw In Disney TV
Image credits: laurifroggy
#101 My Chipped Mug Repaired Itself (I Live Alone)
Last year I bought these clay hand made mugs with my girlfriend in San Diego. I’m originally from there, but was only visiting, as I now live in the U.K. Mine is the brown one and hers is the blue one.
About 4 months ago I noticed that my mug had a decent sized chip in the handle, roughly about 10mm wide. It was quite noticeable, as you could see the exposed non-glazed clay, which was a lighter color and rough to the touch. I thought this was strange as I’ve never once knowing dropped it or dinked it. I’ve always hand washed it with care. But annoying as it was, things happen…things can get damaged.
A couple weeks goes by, and one morning I come downstairs to make a cup of tea. I go to grip the handle of my mug and notice it doesn’t feel rough anymore. I go to turn it around and notice the chip is completely gone. As if it had never even been broken in the first place. Nobody could have repaired it as I still currently live on my own. Plus, there are no hairline cracks in the handle to suggest that maybe the chipped piece had been glued back on (I never had the chipped piece to begin with when I first noticed the damage).
Lastly, the mug couldn’t have been swapped with a double, as these mugs came from 5,000 away and were all 1 of 1 unique to each other. Do clay mugs self heal? Am I missing something? Or do I need to get the hell out of my house?
Image credits: Jimmy_mac3030
#102 You’d Think This Was A Horror Movie But It’s Just 90s Nickelodeon
Image credits: TheOddityCollector
