MetaChat - Feelin' Creepy

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01 July 2008

Feelin' Creepy All these links and stories about numbers stations etc. have me in the mood to get wigged out. I'm at work, so my surfing is limited. Tell me about something that gives you goosebumps!!→[More:]

My short list:

1. Ghost videos/evp/photos- even if they are suspect, a god one will make my butt clench.

2. Numbers stations/weird transmissions- just icky, like the end of John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness" (not a great film, but that ending made me sleep with the light on).

3. There was a web page I saw years ago where someone had set up a hoax to make it look like the head crabs from Half-Life (?) were real, complete with photos of devoured skulls and pseudo-scientific text explaining this mysterious event. The creepiest part was I was listening to a rather eerie track by Boards of Cananda at the moment. Even though I knew it wasn't real I had to get up and turn on the lights for that one. I have tried to find the site again, but it looks like it is gone now.

There's more, but I am out of time for the moment!

post by: evilcupcakes at: 19:58 | 33 comments

"I found a digital camera in the woods."

These pics are brilliant, and creepy as hell. You have to look at them in the larger sizes to see all the trickery going on, but it works on you subliminally even if you just glance over them... or it did me, anyway. I saw these close to the time they were originally posted, and I'll never forget how heart-stoppingly creepy they were to me at the time.

Numbers stations give me the creeps, too.

The haunted eBay painting made my skin crawl.

I love stuff like that. It doesn't matter when it's fake- when it's presented as real the first time you see it, you have a moment of "WTF??" before you realize, and that is delicious.

posted by BoringPostcards 01 July | 20:15

Ooh yeah, the "found a digital camera in the woods" link creeped me out for hours. It was more creepy for what your mind was projecting into the photos than what was actually in them.

And that haunted painting is just the most terrifying thing ever painted, regardless of it's paranormal status.

posted by evilcupcakes 01 July | 20:42

Ok, thought of some more to share:

1. This bizarre ghost story always freaks me out for some reason. It's just so surreal.

2. The Black Eyed Kids story

3. Harlequin type ichthyosis, and you REALLY don't want to click that link unless you have a high tolerence for severe birth defects. I used to work in a medical library and had to make copies of articles for doctors. I always dreaded the orders from ultrasound because it was always some neonatal nightmare of biblical proportions.

posted by evilcupcakes 01 July | 20:58

I actually made this many years ago as sort of a tribute to that painting, with a little bit of David Lynch thrown in, but now that I look at it again it's not half as creepy as all those little hands in the window.

I'd never seen the "black-eyed kids" story.. that's excellent.

Clones in Guelph is a first-person account of someone fighting schizophrenia, but since it's first person, it puts you in the position of wondering, "Is this my partner coming home from work, or a (slightly different) replacement?" Very creepy, to me.

posted by BoringPostcards 01 July | 21:11

The opening of this post has inspired this:

Slow down, you ghoul too fast
You gotta make the full moon last
Just mowin' down the pedestrians
Lookin' for blood and
Feelin' creepy...

(best I could do on short notice)

posted by jonmc 01 July | 21:23

HAHAHA! You read my mind!

Hello gallows!
Whatcha knowin'?
I've come to watch your corpses blowin'
Kicking puppies, and kittens too
Doo doo doo do do feelin' creeepyyyy...

posted by evilcupcakes 01 July | 21:30

I actually made this many years ago as sort of a tribute to that painting

eeeewwwwww.... it's like Torgo's evil baby.

I am reading Clones in Guelph, it's making me question my sanity.

posted by evilcupcakes 01 July | 21:35

evilcupcakes, I tip my hat. that was really good.

posted by jonmc 01 July | 21:48

The fact that 70,000 years ago, nearly all the human beings on earth died out.

posted by mdonley 01 July | 21:57

On the topic of EVP, there's The Ghost Orchid: This massive tape archive, property of an organisation called the Parapsychic Acoustic Research Cooperative, is designed to bring the curious up to speed on the weird and vexing issue of ghost voices, disembodied speech and alien verbal communication. Using a high frequency radio receiver, some simple recording equipment and enough patient determination, it is possible to get in touch with a plethora of mysterious entities who, in time, will not only speak directly to you but also offer oblique, sometimes threatening comments about your current circumstances. Whether benign or just plain evil, these beings have exercised the minds and patience of several researchers over the years ... The polyglot word play as the mysterious voices switch from English to German, Latvian and Russian during a single utterance has a raw phonetic appeal, however puzzling their origins might be. Are they speaking from beyond the grave, the far reaches of the galaxy or some cosmic dimension as yet undiscovered on this fleshly plain? Who can say?

posted by mykescipark 01 July | 22:07

Oh man, Clones in Guelph has given me panic-attack material for days. Thanks A LOT!

But I can't say I wasn't forewarned. Why do I click on those links I know aren't good for me????

posted by treepour 01 July | 22:11

I really shouldn't be reading these when I'm home alone.

posted by desjardins 01 July | 22:28

These pictures are given me a hard case of the creeps right about now.

posted by jrossi4r 01 July | 22:29

Aw, man, the I Found A Camera In The Woods link tells me I'm banned from their forum :(

posted by jtron 01 July | 22:30

Thomas Kinkade, American Girl dolls, inspirational figurines, and angel kitsch just creeps me the hell out.

Anything to do with ghosts just makes me irritated.

posted by arse_hat 01 July | 22:35

Numbers Stations are probably #1 on the "creep me out in a good way" scale. Someone mentioned in that thread that they sometimes late at night tune the AM dial in thecar between stations, which is something I do as well. It's unsettling and makes for an eerie experience - especially if you're driving on dark roads without any other cars around. Usually at some point I snap and have to turn on a familiar song.

I've noticed that I tend to get very creeped out by things that involve surveillance and/or being watched and/or manipulated by something or someone (whether it be ghosts, a crazed murderer, or some sinister government/corporate plot. And it's the slow burn that get me - give it time to sink in and get its hooks in me. Instantly shocking or scary things don't have much appeal for me.

I'm also a big fan of the House on Loon Lake - one of my favorite This American Life episodes ever. It's the story of some kids in the 1970s that were vacationing in New Hampshire and found a house that had been vacated decades earlier, but all of the personal effects were still there. It's not scary, but the way the story unfolds is just captivating and it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it again.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 01 July | 22:39

arse_hat - Mrs Slack loves watching TV shows about ghosts and spirits and get pretty upset when she asks "isn't this freaking you out?" and I reply "no". I can't even fake it. The skeptic and realist in me kicks in too fast for that stuff to grab hold. Numbers stations are real (even if their reason for being is far less sinister than I imagine) and most of the other things that scare the hell out of me are tangible. I'll give in a little to the "I felt like something was in the room with me....watching" side of ghosts, since I can understand that feeling, but once it's attributed to an actual ghost and not just a creepy feeling, the extra baggage makes it less scary and more something I want to disprove.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 01 July | 22:50

Same here Slack. I think the reason I are creeped out by some kinds of kitsch is because of the depth of, something that is almost worship, a lot of the collectors put into it.

Closed institutions with left behind records also creep me out. Places like closed mental hospitals, residential homes, orphanages, etc. creep me out. I think most people want to be remembered but it just seems so bad to me that someone can be remembered only as a person held not of their own free will.

When institutions are shut down the operators should be sure all records are removed.

posted by arse_hat 01 July | 22:54

If the fear of spiders is wired into our reptillian hindbrains and most of them are pretty little...
Well, apparently except in Africa -
Perhaps most well-known is one clear story of the really large ground-dwelling spider collected by Mokele-mbembe researcher Bill Gibbons, who writes:
I first became aware of a giant ground-dwelling spider through Miss Margaret Lloyd, formerly of Rhodesia and now living in England. Her parents, Reginald and Margurite Lloyd were exploring the interior of the old Belgian Congo in 1938 when they spotted something crossing the jungle track ahead of them. At first they took the object to be a large jungle cat or a monkey on all fours. When they stopped their vehicle (an old Ford truck) to allow the animal to pass, they were thunderstruck to see that it was a very large brown spider, similar in its appearance to a tarantula, with a leg span of at least four or five feet. Mr. Lloyd trembled so much with excitement that he was unable to retrieve his camera in time to take a snap, and Mrs. Lloyd was so distraught that she wanted to return home (Rhodesia) immediately. This creature is known as the J’ba Fofi; J’ba meaning “great” or “giant” Fofi meaning “spider” (spiders of all kinds are called Fofi). (Link. Arachnophobes should avoid it.)

...so if the fear is based on something real, how big were they? Creepy.

posted by Zack_Replica 01 July | 23:09

When institutions are shut down the operators should be sure all records are removed.

Along those lines, have you seen this?

I'm fascinated by abandoned buildings, but not creeped out by them. Which is for the best, as I think a fear of them would require me to move.

I am not clicking on any links tonight, though, as I'd like to sleep at some point.

posted by kellydamnit 01 July | 23:59

Not sure why, but Lunar Ruins stuff gives me that good kind of chill.

posted by treepour 02 July | 00:05

I love spiders (yeah I know, weird). In fact, unlike most people very few animals give me the heebie-jeebies. However...

1. Tailess Whipscorpions are just WRONG.

2. Freaky deep sea fish from hell - Just. Say. No.

3. Call it a Hellbender, Snot Otter, or creature from Satan's bunghole, I don't care. That thing is nasty.

posted by evilcupcakes 02 July | 00:24

"Along those lines, have you seen this?"

Yes I have kellydamnit and I have either posted to Metafilter about it or was going to but found it a double. I have been an urban explorer for over 30 years I'm fascinated by abandoned buildings, but not creeped out by them also. It's just when records get left behind like in your link it makes me get odd.

It bothers me that some people have so little respect for other people's basic right to be seen as human.

posted by arse_hat 02 July | 00:36

Heh. My boyfriend loves "Ghost Hunters" but can't even watch it with me in the house anymore because I just stand there deconstructing everything. "That's not Sharon Tate's disembodied voice, that's A GODDAMN BIRD."

I did come across this today, though, and it freaked me right the fuck out.

posted by scody 02 July | 00:51

'Big Dog' gives me the creeps.

posted by misteraitch 02 July | 02:11

'Big Dog' gives me the creeps.

Yeah, aside from the whole "uncanny valley" aspect, the freaky slow motion replay makes me feel like something bad is sneaking up on me.

posted by evilcupcakes 02 July | 02:22

the house centipede that came hurtling at me out of a broken drainpipe earlier this evening whilst moving a pile of bricks to make a raised planting bed?

freaked me right the fuck out, indeedy do. i threw bricks at it and did the heebie jeebie dance (©BoPo, 2008) until the mister came outside wondering wtf was wrong with me.

posted by lonefrontranger 02 July | 02:23

the house centipede that came hurtling at me out of a broken drainpipe earlier this evening

EW!

In the words of Mr. Horse: No sir, I don't like it.

And to think I felt icked out by the earwig I saw this morning. At least we don't have those monstrosities here!

posted by evilcupcakes 02 July | 02:29

I'm with you on house centipedes.

And Ted's Caving Page gets me so bad, mostly because I'm claustrophobic and the pictures make me want to scream.

posted by Specklet 02 July | 05:55

Damn I was just about to post Ted's Caving Page.

Instead I give you Screams From Hell.

posted by essexjan 02 July | 06:27

jan: That last link doesn't work for me.

scody: Those Aztec death whistles are fascinating. (And terrifying!)

posted by Atom Eyes 02 July | 10:42

Along the lines of mdonley's suggestion, there's a theory that at one time the earth was entirely covered by ice.

posted by DevilsAdvocate 02 July | 10:47

Atom Eyes, it works fine for me but here's another copy of the site, unfortunately Geocities.

posted by essexjan 02 July | 11:01

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