15 Moments That Remind Us Horror Isn’t Just in the Movies

Halloween is a time for all things creepy. We have scary movies that stir our emotions and make our skin crawl, and stories that have the potential to send chills down our spines. Here are 15 true stories that are so scary they could put Halloween itself to shame.

• It was 2.30am when my bedroom door slowly creaked open. My cat hissed at the empty doorway and hid under the bed. I saw nothing, so I brushed it off and went back to sleep.
  The next morning, my stomach drop when Mom woke me in a panic: “Hurry up! We have to go to my parents’ house now. Your grandmother died last night.” Then she burst into tears.
  I’ve always wondered if it was my grandmother coming to my room that night to say her last goodbye. Maybe not, but I like to think so. I was her favorite, after all.

• When my grandparents bought their house for a family of 10, my grandpa found a fake wall upstairs. He tore it down to make more room for the family. Behind the wall, were children’s clothes and play toys, almost like they walked off the room in a hurry. My mom told me stories of sitting in her room and something circling the walls around her, sounding like wall paper being torn.
  When she moved out, my aunt moved into the same room. She would wake up with pictures she hung up laying on her chest in the morning. My cousins also have stories of hearing footsteps coming up the stairs and stopping outside their door in the middle of the night.
  I still don’t go upstairs at their house because it’s always cold, and I get weird vibes up there. Even in my adult life, I have scary dreams that take place in their upstairs. © D***nuts / Reddit

• One summer when I was 15, I stayed at my grandparents’ house. Around 11 p.m., I went to the kitchen for water and saw my grandma at the table, humming as she sewed. I said hello, but froze when I noticed her hand. There was a large mole on it, and my grandma never had one.
  Then she looked straight at me and grinned oddly. I ran back to my room as fast as I could. In the morning, I asked my grandma if she had been sewing the night before. She said no.

• Back in high school, my friends and I made it a mission to find abandoned houses to throw parties in. We had a few good candidates, but the mother lode was this house I would pass on my home from work. It was an undeveloped shell of a home with a large property.
  I had told one of my friends about it and one day, I took him to the house. I pulled into the front of the house, and we were there for like 10 seconds before we pulled back to go to the main road.
  A minute later, this big truck pulls up behind us. My friend and I took note of it, but paid it no mind. At the light, I turned right, but the truck cut through the gas station and blocked us off.
  Out of the truck comes this big hulk of a man. He raps on the window and I roll it down. He asks us what we were doing at the house, and I quickly lied and said we were making a U-Turn. He stares at us for a few seconds, smiles, and sends us on our way.
  To this day, the house remains unfinished. © Unknown author / Reddit

• So I was sleeping, and in the middle of the dream a character of my dream who was doing something turned her head, looked at me very seriously and said, “There’s someone in your apartment, wake up.” I nearly had a heart attack, and my apartment was empty. © Jahonay / Reddit

• When I was about ten all of my cousins and siblings were over, the parents and grandparents were out for an adult dinner. So it was just the kids sitting around watching a few movies when all of a sudden the house shook and there was a large flash coming from the backyard.
  As a pack, we ran into the hallway. The eldest cousins in the group debated on calling the police but opted to call the parents. After a few minutes, we gained our courage and ventured out into the living room again.
  After a half hour with no other issues, the parents came home and thought we were insane. There was nothing wrong with the backyard and no neighbors reported anything.
  It’s been ten years, and we still talk about it, trying to figure out what it was. That has been the scariest thing to happen to me by far. © moostache2258 / Reddit

• When I was a young child, I had the same dream every night for years about drowning when a huge wave swept over me and I sank to the bottom. Years later, I had a temp job delivering mail one summer during college.
  I saw this old lady sitting on a front porch waiting for me. When I got up there, she looked at me and said in a foreign accent, “You drowned when Oceania sank beneath the waves.” Freaked me out. © nopep*** / Reddit

• I was in high school, doing homework at the dining room table. From there, I could see the front door. Our front door at the time had a 2’x5’-ish pane of glass in it, with a lace “curtain” over it.
  I remember hearing a noise, like somebody was on the porch. It was probably 9pm or so, it was very dark outside and the porch light wasn’t on. As I’m watching the front door, I can see the screen door opening. It stands open for a minute or so, and there’s nobody there — or they were dressed all in black.
  I’m frozen, waiting to see what happens next. The screen door just slowly closes. If someone was there, they didn’t just let it go, someone was closing it carefully so that it wouldn’t make noise. © BMFunkster / Reddit

• When I was 13, my mom used to drop me home from school and then pick my brother up. One day, I was dropped home and went on the computer like always.
  Minutes later, I heard the sink in our kitchen turn on and off and the microwave door open and shut. I assumed that my mom still hadn’t left and didn’t think anything of it. Another couple minutes go by, and I hear my mom and brother come in.
  I greet them saying, “Wow, that was fast! You just left!” My mom was confused and said that she left awhile ago. I’m still not sure what happened. I think the scariest part was not expecting that something weird was happening. © dawtroo / Reddit

• I live in Norway, and it was winter at the time, so it was kinda creepily half-dark. I was around 10 or 11 I think. I was walking to my friend for a visit, and to get to him, I had to pass over my school yard, no biggie.
  But as I got to the school grounds, I saw a ton of crows plastered all over the school. Literally, hundreds of them, just sitting there, no one else was around. Needless to say, I walked around that time. © mau5*** / Reddit

• While in my basement on the computer, I saw what appeared to be a white tissue dropping from up near the ceiling — from the corner of my eye — about 5 feet away. When I looked over, I didn’t see anything resembling a napkin on the ground or elsewhere. Noped outta my basement for a while. © nubb1ns / Reddit

• We lived in a very creepy, very old house when I was little. One day, my mom was cleaning my little brother’s room while we were at school, and every single one of his electronic toys turned on all at once. Two of them did not have batteries in them.
  She was so freaked out she had us “camp out” in the living room for three days because she didn’t want my brother alone in his room. Up until we moved, that would occasionally happen. © LameGhost / Reddit

• I was driving at night on an unfamiliar forested road during a thick fog 30kms out of Vancouver, Canada. Suddenly we were going through an ’old-timey’ town with tin sign advertisements for 1920s type products with similar era buildings. Then we drove under a sign saying, “You are Now Leaving the United States.” Seeing I didn’t think we had entered the States, it was quite unsettling. © AusCan531 / Reddit

• In high school, I was longboarding with my girlfriend around her neighborhood in the middle of the night. It was pitch black as there were low-level clouds blocking the moon.
  All of a sudden, I see a huge orange flash and vividly remember it lighting the bottom of the clouds, meaning it came from the ground. About 5 seconds later, there was a big boom. We head over that direction, expecting there to be a train fire or something, but find nothing and turn back.
  Once we got to her driveway, we saw it again. Never heard anything on the news about it, and never figured out what it was. © Unknown author / Reddit

• Several years ago, when my son was young, I was sitting at the computer doing some work when I heard him wake up. He made the tiny whimper sound and the typical toddler, pathetic sounding cry/moan “mommmyyyyy”. So I jumped up to get him.
  Then I remembered my son was not home. He had been on a sleepover at my parents. © Cellophaneflours / Reddit

Those definitely aren’t the types of stories you want to read before going to bed, especially if you’re faint of heart. But they could make some fantastic Halloween tales.

If you enjoyed them, we have another article you might like. Check it out here: 10+ Stories With Endings More Disturbing Than a Halloween Film.