The All-Time Scariest True Stories People Have Ever Heard
Reddit user Ok-Bid-1179 asked: 'What’s the scariest 100% true story you’ve heard of?'
People love horror films because they know the terror depicted on the big screen is pure Hollywood magic and completely fake.
But when it comes to true-life terrors, even the most dedicated horror film aficionados can be left trembling in their boots.
Curious to hear some of the most absolutely hair-raising events from strangers online, Redditor Ok-Bid-1179 asked:
"What’s the scariest 100% true story you’ve heard of?"
These real-life stories may keep you up at night.
Befriending A Murderer
"My uncle was in a bar one night and started talking to this random guy. He described him as 'a really nice guy.'"
"He met him a few other times in the same bar. They drank and talked about random stuff. Soon after, my uncle stopped seeing the guy at the bar."
"Idk how long after, but my uncle got notified that he had jury duty. He showed up and found out what it was for. A serial killer and the killer was his friend from the bar. Derrick Todd Lee."
"My uncle was promptly dismissed from jury duty for obvious reasons."
– I_am_dean
People had sinister stories related to jobs.
Late Night Shift Employee
"I work midnight shift at a gas station and I have for quite awhile at various stations in different areas with varying levels of criminal activity."
"I have regulars, of course. I’m a small-statured woman (as is my partner the other half of the week, and we’ve always been partners) so these regulars often worry about us and keep watch on creepy occurrences when they can."
"I had one man who worked in the metro an hour away who would stop in every morning for his cigarettes. He never smiled or seemed friendly, and as I often do, I tried to think of what I could do that might make him smile one day."
"It took many months but I finally pulled it off by having his cigarettes ready on the counter and already scanned for him to pay for as he walked in. He smiled, and then asked me"
“Do you ever get scared on the night shift? You small girl, is not safe.”
"I said I sometimes did but we could lock the doors and hide if we had to, and that the provincial police (think state troopers, if you’re American) had a station close by and came in often to get their highway vehicles washed. I had a good rapport with those police. He nodded and then told me a story about when he first moved to our country from Eastern Europe with his wife and child back in the late 80’s, early 90’s."
"He fell asleep at work one night at the gas station he worked midnights at. When he woke up, the phone had been ringing for hours and his manager was shaking him violently asking if he was alright. He was fine, he said, what was the problem? He was sorry he fell asleep."
"His manager screamed that it was fine he fell asleep, to look outside. All of their motor oil was missing and the outside of the place was a mess."
"The thieves had come and swiped all the oil and left him be because he slept through the entire thing, and then moved down the road to the next station for an encore. At that station, the clerk was awake and fought back, so the thieves stabbed him to death and left him to bleed out."
"When he finished telling me this, he concluded with."
“If you ever feel sleepy just lock the door and do it, it might save your life”
"I don’t work at that station anymore but I think about that guy all the time and wonder how his grandkids are."
"Here is a link to an article talking about how that poor other clerk’s killers were finally found 25 years later:"
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/mobile/arrest-made-in-1990-murder-of-gas-station-attendant-1.2650933
– IgnorethisIamstupid
Trapped
"There was an incident in Trinidad where some maintenance divers were removing a plug from an oil pipeline and were instantly sucked into it. One was able to escape but the other 4 were trapped for days in a small, oil coated pipe for days with only a small air pocket to breathe in before they died. Thinking about it in detail and imagining what it must have been like for them makes me extremely uncomfortable."
– superficial_user
There's no creepier place than being in the woods. Especially when these sorts of encounters happen.
The Wrong Friends
"When I was 17 I was hanging out with 2 friends and they wanted to go smoke in the woods. I didn't feel like it so I drove them and waited in the car."
"After a while I was getting bored and decided to go meet them but there were 4 paths going off in different directions so I just took the biggest one. After walking for a few minutes in the pitch black forest (before flashlights on phones), I come across this dip in the trail and on the other side is a bench lightly visible due to the moonlight."
"On the the bench is sitting a man and another one in standing in front of him but I can only make out silhouettes. Being sure these are my friends I yell out to them before walking over. If you ever walked the woods at night it's just an uneasy feeling all around so I was cautious to begin with."
"Well it turns out, juste after yelling out to my 'friends,' both silouhettes turn around towards me. Not a word, not a sound, the guy sitting down starts sprinting FULL F'KING SPEED towards me in complete silence. I got the absolute f'k out of there sprinting also the other way and tripping over sh*t because I couldn't see anything."
"I finally get out and lock myself in my car, but I was really worried for my friends. Maybe a minute later I see them both coming out of a completely different path, they also confirmed they never saw me or anyone else. My heart still sinks just thinking about that dude sprinting in silence wtf was that sh*t."
– NoFutureGuy
The Homeless Camp
"Weird....I have a similar story!"
"Years ago I remember sneaking out of my friends house at night to really do nothing but walk around the neighborhood and hide from car headlights. We were young and bored. There was a 'homeless' camp that was down in some woods off the railroad tracks not too far from his house. We had seen the trail and knew what was back there."
"One of the homeless guys that lived there was actually an old friend of my buddies Dad, and he had stopped over a few times and my friends Dad let him shower there and everything. He could have worked if he wanted, but legit told us he just liked living 'off the grid'. Just wanted to give you some backstory on the reason why we thought it would be cool and 'safe' to go check it out at night."
"We were a bit nervous at first thinking what if we get there and his Dads friend isn't there...so we were sneaking up on it. It was a longer walk than we thought. We got kind of close and saw there was a fire going lighting up the woods a bit."
"We start sneaking closer but the trail seemed to continue straight, while the camp set off the trail to the left. We got idk maybe 100 feet from the camp (about 30 meters) and we looked down the trail and saw a faint silhouette of what we thought was a person. The silhouette looked like it was coming from deeper in the woods towards the camp. We froze and ducked slightly to the side of the trail."
"I told my friend that I didn't like it, and we should just sneak the hell out. He said he had the same feeling. As I said, the fire at the camp was just enough to light the area well enough to see. We end up slowly creeping slightly off the trail back to the railroad tracks. We get probably 30-40 or so feet (9-12 meters) and I told him I would rather just hit the trail and just slowly walk back because the bushes and trees and everything were hard to navigate and I would rather be able to see something coming so we could book it out. We played football and were both pretty fast."
"We slide out of the brush and see the silhouette has gotten closer, however moving further from the fire, the light was dimmer, but we could still make out someone or something was standing there moving closer. My first thought was that maybe they saw us duck into the bushes and were coming to check, but it just felt off. My friend and I looked at each other and both mutually and silently decided to pick up the pace. Almost on que, we both looked back and the silhouette was now BOOKING IT TOWARDS US ABSOULTELY SILENT. No noise, just fast movement. We high tail it as fast as we can."
Thankfully, the trail was wide so we weren't bumping into each other or anything. Neither of us looked back until we hit the railroad tracks, then hit the railroad track bridge and were on the other side. I looked back as I was slowing down, past the bridge and didn't see anyone. We got back to his house pretty fast and luckily that was the end of it."
– ZekeMoss18
Life is full of many creepy mysteries.
It's no wonder many films are based on actual events.
The ones that terrify me the most are the home invasion movies like The Strangers.
It may have been Hollywood that dramatized events depicted in the film, but there's no doubt such horrific events that have happened in real life are enough to keep us up at night and on high alert.
Not all knowledge is power.
Some knowledge is straight-up horror-inducing.
I mean, I suppose it's good to know as much bad stuff as possible so we can try to avoid it all.
Redditor Possible_Hawk495 wanted to hear about all of the worst possible things in life, so they asked:
"What is a disturbing fact you wish you never knew?"
I'm not sure I'm ready for this...
"WARNING - The following is not for the faint of heart or anyone under 17. Or anyone with a pulse probably..."
Preferences
Whitney Houston Reaction GIFGiphy"It's illegal in India to find out the gender of your baby, because so many prefer boys over girls."
dont_u_know
"Just like China, they don't think long term enough about it."
Rock_of_Spaces
While You Were Sleeping
"That one can be aware they are in coma and not able to get out of it. I get anxious just thinking about it."
tooshyforreddit
"I’ve been in a coma, it’s different experiences based on the conditions, I believe. I was in it when I had multiple organ failure when I was 22."
"Even though you’re aware, I wouldn’t equate my experience to being fully aware and stuck. It kind of feels like when you wake up from a very very deep nap, and things seem fuzzy. Weirdly enough being in that state for a few week was some of the most peaceful my body ever felt being honest."
JelloisYummy
Horrifying
"Just how painful and torturous extreme radiation sickness is."
Scarfs-Fur-Frumpkin
"Between that video and the scene in HBO’s Chernobyl where the firefighter is screaming for help in the hospital as his skin falls off, I have learned not to be too cavalier about the use of nuclear armaments or nuclear safety."
aspidities_87
The usual suspects...
"After any significant natural disaster or conflict starts up, human traffickers swarm to the country looking for unattended children. Law enforcement will start watching ports of entry for the usual suspects... the usual suspects."
Ausramm
Good Lord
Red Carpet Teeth GIF by Recording Academy / GRAMMYsGiphy"A toddler's adult teeth are right below their eyes."
SuvenPan
"Yeah, I saw a photograph of a small child's skull with part of the area around the jaw removed and it's just packed with teeth."
CRtwenty
My teeth were where? OMG!
From the Inside
"Tarantula hawks are giant flying wasps that sting tarantulas, inducing paralysis. They then drag the paralyzed tarantula back to their nest and lay eggs in them. The eggs hatch, and the larvae slowly devour the still-alive, paralyzed tarantula from the inside."
GlassHalfFullofAcid
Fatality
"Rabies. Just everything about rabies."
spade13F
"Once you're symptomatic, 99.99% fatality rate and that 'lucky' iota that survive in medically-induced comas end up with permanent neurological damage. Also, the horrifying hallucinations."
Tiny_Parfait
"Rabies is pretty interesting. if you are vaccinated then it's 100% preventable, if not your chance of dying is 99.9%."
Unaccounted_fart
After the Hatch
"I remember watching an episode of the show Monsters Inside Me where this 16-year-old kid was doing something outside and a fly flew into his eye. It only made contact for about a microsecond, but it was enough time for it to lay eggs. After they hatched they started eating his eye from the inside and he was starting to go blind until a doctor finally figured out what was wrong."
"Just imagine that, getting your eye eaten from the inside and losing your sight all because a fly very briefly made contact with you. Ever since I learned about this I get really paranoid when there is a fly around my face because of the fact that this could possibly happen to me."
-eDgAR-
The Spine Attack
"A guy I used to work with had either a condition or got a virus (I don't remember which, this was about 20 years ago) that attacked his spine; he went to bed fine and woke up the next day totally paralyzed from the waist down. He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. There was no slow progression, just walking fine one day and completely unable to walk the next."
"I just looked up his obituary (he passed in 2011) he apparently had Transverse Myelitis that led him to become paralyzed."
A911owner
Put it Back
Giphy"Seems obvious when you think about it, but after an autopsy, they don't put everything back where they found it. It goes in a bag in the abdominal cavity."
clevebeat
Well I'll never sleep again.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.
Horror movies aren't for everyone.
The violence and endless sense of anxiety in anticipation of jump scares are both elements of the thrilling cinematic genre that certain demographic of audiences can't get enough of.
But even these adrenaline junkies have their hard limits when it comes to their favorite movie category.
Curious to hear from horror cinephiles who have been pushed to the limit, Redditor GW2RNGR asked:
"What is the most f**ked up movie you've ever seen?"
There was blood. Lots of it.
List Of Gore
"A Serbian film is super gorey but theres this layer of juvenile edgelordiness and bad dialogue that kind of took a lot of the sting off it and I was just straight up laughing at times"
"Men behind the sun is probably the most stomach churning movie ive seen and I wouldnt recommend it to anyone."
"Irreversible and Come and See messed me up the most but are also genuinely incredible films that are so much more than just messed up."
– charles-dickens24
Spotlight On A Serial Killer
"Henry-Portrait of a Serial Killer. I wish I could unsee that movie."
– Anti-Fanny
Kids
"This is the one for me. It’s not horror by any stretch of the imagination, but what transpires in the movie is very upsetting."
– Hanyabull
Even dark comedies can be downright disturbing.
How Divine
"Pink Flamingos"
"EDIT - This is a John Waters cult classic from 1972. Based on the responses being of contemporary films, the production value of Pink Flamingos makes the film even more jarring."
– couscous-moose
Not Your Typical John Waters Film
"Went to see this recently for an anniversary reissue thinking 'I’ve heard this is a cult classic and John Waters made Hairspray which was kinda great in a quirky but fun way so what could possibly go wrong?' and oh my god, even having heard about the final scene, I was not prepared for the level of gleeful depravity I witnessed."
– nastyfriday
Haunting To This Day
"It's been like 20 year since a friend who was a film student made me watch that.... The steak bit still haunts me..."
"And that friend made me watch some weird sh*t. We went to a theater to see puppet porn. And yet, Pink Flamingos was still the thing that crossed the line."
– DoctorCaptainSpacey
Obsessed With A Walrus
"Tusk."
– Odd_Adhesiveness4804
"I can't look at walruses the same after seeing it."
– Ziggy_Stardust567
The Gruesome Experiment
"Human centipede."
– Mbrown0525
Foreign horror films are on another level.
The One With The Piano String
"Audition."
– yrjooe
"Is that the film where the guy holds auditions but is looking for a wife? The one where she says tickytickyticky with the wire?"
– legendweaver
South Korean Masterpiece About Vengeance
"Old Boy."
– frontporchshitter
"Most horrific twist I’ve ever seen."
– CrypiticBalcony
Funny Games, based on the original Austrian home invasion movie was downright disturbing and most definitely deserved the title for the most effed-up movie.
It wasn't just about the implied violence that was haunting. It was a social commentary on how horror fans like myself are entertained by Hollywood violence.
The unsettling moment comes when one of the attackers breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience as a nod that they're getting exactly what they came to look for at the movies.
Chilling.
And that is just one moment from a series of nightmare-inducing scenes of the homeowners being relentlessly pursued for absolutely no reason.
So, yeah, check it out.
CW: Graphic stories and experiences.
Life is full of all kinds of events.
Events and things we can never unsee.
Or actions we can never undo.
I don't know if there is any way to be prepared to see the worst of life or to find yourself involved in such things.
It all just seems to happen.
A dark twist and turn can be just around each and every corner.
Redditor Similar_Helicopter27 wanted to see who would share about some of life's darker moments, so they asked:
"What's the most f**ked up thing you’ve ever did/saw?"
I've witnessed muggings and car accidents.
That's why I try not to leave the house.
Bounced Back
Kid Dancing GIFGiphy"I saw my little brother getting hit by a car and flying a few meters through the air when he was only 6 years old. Fortunately he didn’t even break a bone but damn, I‘ll never forget this."
ShaiHuludTheFirst
In a matter of seconds...
"The most f**ked up thing I’ve seen was a guy who had just been in a motorcycle accident bleeding out on the side of the freeway. He was clenching onto the hand of the girl who was the driver of the car involved. She was crying hysterically. I saw his hand turn white in a matter of seconds. I remember it whenever I see someone on a bike."
Mellopiex
Like a Movie
"I witnessed a bad car accident once. The car launched off of an overpass as I went under it. The car flipped several times. It was like something out of a movie. I was the first person on the scene, my wife called 911. It was not a pretty sight. wasn't much left of the person's body."
Upbeat-Character-938
That's a NYC Story
Bored Episode 15 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy"Found a dead body on the sidewalk in front of my building on my third day living in NYC. When I told my supervisor about it at work, hoping to process it with someone, she just kind of brushed it off like 'welcome to New York.'"
quinnards
Only in New York is a dead person on the street just another ordinary day.
3AM
excuse me wtf GIF by Chicago FireGiphy"I tripped over a dead body in tall grass working an accident trying to find the missing passenger. It was 3am and raining."
HAWMadden
It was spiritually bad
"I worked for a horse training ranch for a month when I was a kid. Me and the dude I worked with found a cow that had been dead for a while out in the field. It was bloated and gonna' blow soon. We did not engage with the cow, we weren't prepared for a clean up that day."
"When we came back prepared for cleaning the next day it had ruptured and the smell was life changing. It was spiritually bad. Since I was basically an unpaid intern, the paid guys told me to take a hike. 14 year old me took a hike. I was a hard working kid and they knew it so let me off with that one."
ProfessorWhat42
Poor Baby
"The photo evidence for a child murder case that they showed in court when I worked for the department of human services. The parents wanted to retain custody of their older son which is why they were involved with CPS. I was 22. There were just countless pages we had to look at while the expert witnesses explained what we were seeing. The images are burned into my brain forever, and I’ll never forget his name as long as I live. That poor baby."
FloridaMomm
The Boy
"Saw a kid I knew get hit by a car, flip through the air, jump up and picked up one of his shoes and then collapse and got airlifted out. The rest of us were sitting on the corner eating hamburgers. Never saw him again. They said he was paralyzed."
"I brought his banged up bike and glasses and shoes back to my house but they never got picked up. My dad was on the volunteer fire department and managed the Medivac landing and was first on scene because we only lived a few doors down."
unwittyusername42
Silence
Sad Rabbit GIF by Muffin & NutsGiphy"Watching a car traveling at about 130mph in my rear view mirror almost hit me but instead hit the base of a bridge, the crunching sound then bodies flying everywhere, then total silence."
PinotGreasy
"The instant silence after so much noise is odd it is like a second but almost feels like several minutes of pure peacefulness then bam the sound is back and everything is crazy."
Ok_Dog_4059
Well, that is a lot of nightmares being relived.
Bless you all for sharing.
The Craziest All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Horror Stories According To Employees
There's possibly no better bang for your buck than an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Where you pay a fixed, often relatively low, price, and can then indulge in anything from scrambled eggs and bacon, to sushi, custom-made pasta dishes, and a carving station.
Needless to say, with so much at their disposal, customers often find themselves carried away by the experience.
As a result, employees who work at all-you-can-eat buffets have seen all kinds of things.
Resulting in stories that they can't wait to tell friends and family when they get home from work and some things which they make their life's mission to erase from their memories.
"All you can eat buffet workers, what are your horror stories?"
Just... How?!?!?
"Years ago, I worked at an all-you-can-eat country buffet in South Carolina.'
"I was a busboy."
"One day, I went to a table."
'It was a mess, as per usual."
It looked to be a large family/group of families of around 12 people or so."
"The thing that stuck it in my memory is that whenever they had finished with what they were going to eat, they would scrape their plate and use it again.'
'Scrape their plates... onto the floor next to their chairs."
"So next to each chair, there was a 6inch to 18 inch pile of chicken bones, crab legs, mashed potatoes, remnants of backed potatoes, etc."- OdessaVNixon
Cover Your Mouth!!!!
"I work in a hotel's restaurant, and at breakfast, it was a serve your self carvery."
"Anyways, this happened at the beginning of March, the COVID-19 anxieties were on the rise, we had a dance party in all weekend, and they were heading home today, because it was a Sunday."
"We, all the staff, were wearing gloves as we had gotten severe, even bloody, cases of dermatitis from overwashing."
"Not ideal, but we were clearly going out of our way to protect ourselves and our guests."
"Back to the story, this ady walks up to the carvery and starts coughing."
"Spluturing everywhere all over the food."
"Not even covering her hand."
"Then she put her pudgy fingers in and picked up a sausage and ate it as she made her way down."
"Touching the counter etc."
"There was glass covering the carvery, but it only went halfway down to allow them to serve themselves."
"The head waitress of the time saw out of the corner of her eye as she was busy serving coffee or something, and the rest of us were elsewhere."
"The breakfast chef was also elsewhere bringing out food or something."
"It was another busy shift."
Sick Seth Meyers GIF by Late Night with Seth MeyersGiphy"We got the food in ASAP and it all had to get thrown away."
"It was such a waste."
"We then got so many complaints, because there was no food, as the chef was having to recook everything."
"Unsurprisingly the coughing lady was one of the many who complained, but there was very little we could say to her."
"We all got a mouthful of abuse for not having someone watching the carvery at all times, which wasn't possible due to us been deliberately understaffed."
"A**holes ."- SaveMePls22
There Is, Indeed, A Wrong Way To Eat Sushi!
"I saw a dude nearly empty a sushi buffet and took it to the hot plate and told the dude to stir fry it and add extra grease."
"The sushi dude literally threw a knife into the sink and left."-Jellcat
Classic Conditioning
"One time I went to a Golden Corral with my friend and his girlfriend."
"My friend's girlfriend had a lot of edibles before we went and long story short, she was 'too high to tell' that she was full and ate so much that she vomited alllllll over our table."
"Not a little, but a lot."
"My friend had stepped outside for a smoke a couple minutes before this happened, and I called him quickly and told him his girl just exploded all over our f*cking table and we needed assistance, and he didn't believe me."
"He thought I was messing with him so we went back and forth for a couple minutes while I convinced him I wasn't kidding, all the while we're sitting in a packed restaurant with our table covered in puke."
"A waitress came up and started to ask us how we were doing until she noticed the mess in front of us."
"It was a bad time."
"I have not been back to a Golden Corral since."- wozordmotors
There's A Reason It Tasted Like Rubber...
"There was this one time when a customer ate all our shrimp and two plastic lobsters."- balloonmax
Manners don't seem to be taught at these schools...
"Watching hundreds of twelve to thirteen-year-olds take on an all-you-can-eat buffet is a horrifying experience because usually there are other large groups from schools doing the same thing."
"The people who work there to attempt to control this madness are saints."
"The kids go crazy like they never have seen food before."
"Putting spaghetti in the chocolate fountain, eating crazy combinations of food, etc."
"The 3 hour ride back to school after dinner is always dreadful."- RoseTheChief
Ex-Employee
"Ex buffet worker, STORY 1- so its peak season, and a fairly busy day, I was working in a zone and there was a family that just by looking at them you could see any sort of problem, has usual I go to their table to ask if they want a drink to start their lunch (like a martini), and when I look to my side i see a lady bragging about the size of her plate (best way to describe it is a mountain about 20cm tall, which consisted of fish rice potatoes, meat, etc... we had basically 2 dishes of meat and 2 of fish, plus fried stuff so you can imagine how her plate was), also I should mention that it usual to have people ask for a bag with leftovers for the dogs, but this lady decided it was a good idea to bring a bag made of fabric that absorbed all the liquids from the food, at some I have a coworker entering the kitchen and ask for a plastic bag for her, since she had her bag inside her purse and everything was soggy."
"STORY 2- I always share among friends is that time I thougth I was going to be slapped because of a bottle juice, we usually had 1liter or 2liter bottles of juice for the customers and there was always someone o thought they could have the bottle and take it home, one day enters a couple with 2 daughters, a coworker was doing their zone and from he told me it was a bad service he did due to wrong information, they ended their meal and went out to relax for a bit in the sun, I was serving the bar and it was my duty to ask them if they wanted something to drink, and so I go, has soon has I get out the door I see one of the daughters hide a 2 liter bottle of ice tea almost full, I ask them if they want something, they very rudely tell me no!, and so I get back to a superior to ask if its permitted to take bottles now, they told that I needed to get that bottle since our boss gets mad over it, has soon has get to the table and say they can not take the bottle home the mother stood up and got her body against mine and started yelling and I could see her hand getting ready to hit me."
"Additional facts: theres always someone trying to force you to get free stuff. Our coffee mugs were branded so you could see when someone steals them. Theres always someone willing to start an argument because we didn't have what they wanted for that day. Sometimes we had people take and entire tray of food, usually desert to the table(literally the tray) and then we used to get additional charge because it was an entire cake so they argued about it."
"There were outstanding costumers that I loved serving them and fortunately there are more that I liked than the ones that did this sort of thing."
"STORY 3: It was a busy day and we hosted tour buses during summer, and this was a group of elder people that come every year from a big city, it's all organized by this priest, they had 12 tables in a space that had 16 so I needed to let them know that they need to stand together, my coworkers told he has the habit to get a bit close and touchy with females so they wanted a guy who can handle himself with 60 people so everything can go accordingly, so there I was, helping people find a place to sit, when everybody had a place to sit I was finding a place for the bus driver and chatted for a bit with him, this priest comes over next to me asks me if theres everything ok, he then proceeds to tap me on the back and the make is way down squeezes my butt and walks away immediately. Needless to say that I was shocked and thinking if I could count this has being "blessed"
C0ldKing·
When you have free reign over even the tiniest thing, it's hard not to feel like you have free reign over everything.
But next time you find yourself at an all-you-can-eat buffet, just remind yourself that you are out in public, and not at home.
And it's the, likely underpaid, employees who will clean up your mess after you, not the buffet elves.
Also, if you want to get your sushi stir-fried, just don't!