There's the story of 'The Tell - Tale Heart'. A man kills an old man because he can't stand the old man's 'evil eye'. After burying the body under the floorboards, he starts to hear the old man's heart still beating, which drives him to confess his crime. The psychological torment and the narrator's unreliable mind make it truly creepy.
Another is 'The Monkey's Paw'. A family gets a cursed monkey's paw that can grant three wishes. Their first wish seems innocent enough, but it leads to a series of tragic and terrifying events as the wishes have unforeseen and often horrible consequences, like the return of their son in a grotesque undead state.
My phone took a picture by itself. In the photo, there was a figure behind me.
Here's another: 'The old doll in the corner blinked. I was alone in the room.' This is creepy because dolls are often associated with unease, and the idea of it blinking when no one else is around is quite terrifying. It plays on our fear of the inanimate coming to life.
The doll's eyes followed her across the room. Dolls are inherently a bit creepy, especially when they seem to have a life of their own. The idea that its eyes can move and follow someone is really terrifying as it goes against the normal inanimate nature of a doll, making it seem like it has a mind or some sort of sinister intention.
There was a story of a man who was driving on a lonely country road late at night. He saw a hitchhiker in a white dress on the side of the road. He stopped to pick her up, but when she got in the car, she was ice - cold. She gave him an address that led to an abandoned cemetery. As he turned to look at her, she disappeared.
One creepy quote is 'It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.' from a horror story about a haunted existence. It gives this sense of a wasted life being scarier than death itself.
One of the creepiest real - life horror stories is about the Dyatlov Pass incident. A group of hikers in the Ural Mountains died under mysterious circumstances. Their tent was cut open from the inside, and they fled out into the freezing cold, half - dressed. Some had strange injuries, like fractured skulls. To this day, no one really knows what exactly happened there. It's a truly spine - chilling mystery.
One of the creepiest horror novels is 'The Shining' by Stephen King. The isolated setting of the Overlook Hotel, the psychic abilities of the young boy Danny, and the slow descent into madness of Jack Torrance make it truly terrifying. Another is 'It' also by King. The shape - shifting Pennywise that preys on children's fears in the sewers of Derry is nightmare - inducing. And 'The Exorcist' by William Peter Blatty. The possession of a young girl and the attempts at exorcism are deeply disturbing.
One example could be 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It's a story about a woman who is slowly driven mad by the yellow wallpaper in her room. The way the wallpaper seems to take on a life of its own and the woman's descent into insanity is really creepy.
Sure. There's a story about a forest that is said to be haunted. People who enter the forest at night claim to see shadowy figures moving between the trees. They also hear whispers that seem to come from all directions, but when they look, there's no one there. It's a place that locals avoid after dark.
Sure. The Hinterkaifeck murders in Germany are extremely creepy. A whole family was brutally murdered on their farm, and there were strange things happening before the murders. For example, they heard footsteps in the attic when no one should have been there. After the murders, the killer seemed to have stayed in the house for a while, eating the family's food. It was a very disturbing case that has never been fully solved.