Creepypasta and urban legends are stories spread on social media platforms such as Reddit. Urban legends are defined as a humorous or horrific story or piece of information circulated as if it was true. Creepypastas are similar in the sense of horror stories but are copied and posted on different platforms like Reddit, which often includes pictures. Here are some fan-favorite and scary creepypasta and urban legends.

Slenderman                                                                             

Slenderman is a fairly recent urban legend, his first pictures popping up in 2009. Though there isn’t much story behind him, the photoshopped pictures are certainly creepy. Slenderman is a nine-foot, no faced, monster. He is sometimes has been “seen” with tentacle arms. He is a stalker of children and often, in the stories, kills his victims. Though many pictures of Slenderman are photoshopped, there are rumors that some may actually be real. In 2014, two girls in Wisconsin stabbed a fellow classmate, all three of them twelve years old. That same year, a thirteen-year-old attacked her mother in Ohio. In Florida, a fourteen-year-old set fire to her home with her mother and nine-year-old brother inside. All three of these attacks were in 2014 and were for one reason, pleasing the Slenderman.

Polybius

In 1981, a mysterious arcade game showed up in game rooms around Portland, Oregon. “Maintenance” on the games was done by mysterious men in suits. Two teens disappeared after playing the game of geometric patterns and colorful shapes. This game was addictive and dangerous. Many people believed this was a part of the CIA’s MK Ultra 

experiment. MK Ultra was mind control experiments on civilians by the CIA. This wasn’t proven, but many teens were affected by hallucinations and couldn’t stop playing the game.

Jeff the Killer

Jeff the Killer is described as a noseless man with long, black hair and a Heath Ledger Joker smile carved into his face. He is known to kill with his pre-murder catchphrase of “Go to sleep.” He started showing up in photos online, as Slenderman had. Jeff the Killer is based on a fake story where one person said their sibling committed suicide but the sibling didn’t and, as the story goes, turned into Jeff the Killer. Jeff the Killer is used in reference to the Creepypasta and often is used to make fun of people’s appearances or goth aesthetics.

Carmen Winstead

The legend started to circulate in 2006 through chainmail. The mail basically says who she is and what happened to her. She said if someone didn’t forward the message within five minutes, they would die. People have looked for records of Carmen, but no proof has come up saying that she was a real person. Though this is a fake story, it is scary that bullying can go so far. 

These stories are meant to scare people, though some of them really don’t. These stories can grow as more information is found but many of them are fake. Some actually are based in fact so think what you like about these stories. For more about these stories, look in the credits at the bottom if you wish as I didn’t go into full details about any of these stories. 

Credits:

Slenderman: Something Awful 

Polybius: The Polybius Conspiracy Podcast 

Jeff the Killer: Dictionary.com

Carmen Winstead: Scary for Kids