[HN Gopher] List of Creepypastas
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       List of Creepypastas
        
       Author : luu
       Score  : 38 points
       Date   : 2022-08-29 07:40 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
        
       | planetsprite wrote:
       | >Order by Name
       | 
       | >Order by Date
       | 
       | >Order by Cringe
        
       | Unbeliever69 wrote:
       | We've all been down the Ted's Caving Page rabbit hole.
        
       | dvh wrote:
       | Surprisingly "then who was phone?" is not on the list
        
       | watercooler_guy wrote:
       | I've always been a big fan of creepypastas --- they can be really
       | well done and scary in novel ways. To some extent, I believed
       | some of them to be real when I was a kid.
       | 
       | If creepypastas were "invented" today, would they have made as
       | big of a cultural splash? Or would they get lost in a sea of
       | other content, or be debunked and discarded too quickly?
       | 
       | Edit: I re-read the list and noticed some more recent creations
       | on there, like The Backrooms. Maybe it's less about believability
       | and more about being a good story, which the Internet is still
       | great at facilitating. So I guess my question is, did anyone else
       | believe some of the earlier creepypastas, and was believability
       | important to the popularity back then?
        
         | pawelduda wrote:
         | Personally I've been felt a lot more scared by creepypastas (or
         | still images/photos of creepy places, entities or w/e) than
         | horror movies for instance. Especially when it comes to images
         | - some have such unnerving vibe to them that I find it
         | fascinating (smile.jpg anyone?).
         | 
         | I was always skeptical (aka treated it as fantasy) of
         | supernatural things these stories are about, but I think the
         | mere fact of getting engaged into reading them and using your
         | imagination (suspending the disbelief) was enough.
        
         | bitwize wrote:
         | I don't think believability as in fooling you into thinking the
         | events were real are as important as verisimilitude, the
         | feeling that it _could_ happen.
         | 
         | An example: In the late 90s, back in the days of pervasive
         | browser pop-ups, there was a Japanese creepypasta-equivalent
         | called "The Red Room", about a browser pop-up that read "Do you
         | like the red room?" Ignoring or closing the pop-up was said to
         | seal your doom. The most popular form of this story took the
         | form of a Flash animation which depicted a boy who saw the
         | popup appear on his computer.
         | 
         | As a finale, after showing the boy meeting his grisly fate, the
         | Flash site caused the popup to appear on _your_ computer.
         | 
         | Not really believable when you think about it. But scary,
         | because it gets you into a headspace of the fictional universe
         | and then breaks the fourth wall, giving you a fleeting feeling
         | that the Red Room curse is real.
         | 
         | I think if creepypasta didn't exist we would have to invent it.
         | It's part of a horror tradition that encompasses Poe and
         | Lovecraft, and even before. Creepypasta comes from the same
         | place as primordial ghost stories told around a campfire, just
         | with updated media and sensibilities.
        
         | wsinks wrote:
         | Ha - how about "Bloody Mary"? I was 8 and that story scared the
         | shit out of me. I love reading creepypastas, and when I was
         | younger, I never knew if they were real or not. It was part of
         | learning how to trust information. They always had enough of a
         | disturbance in the story that made me feel odd.
         | 
         | I JUST saw The Backrooms (the one where she puts the tape
         | measure down the portal) and... holy shit. This is the same
         | level of odd feeling. I can only imagine what sort of VR stuff
         | is out there... That Black Mirror episode has me wondering if
         | I'll actually do something like that.
         | 
         | I think it's also the same sort of thing as the innocuous
         | conspiracy theories I've seen like "Did you know that Spongebob
         | characters are based on the seven deadly sins?" Could be true,
         | you'll never be able to fully verify it unless you know the
         | person who made the content, and ... sounds good and seems to
         | hold up. Why would you want to dispel the theory even if it is
         | untrue? It's kinda fun.
        
         | bentcorner wrote:
         | While it wasn't a creepypasta, The Blair Witch Project tried
         | really hard to convince movie-goers that it was found footage
         | and wasn't a scripted movie. I think it was certainly a product
         | of its time and a similar effort today wouldn't be nearly as
         | successful.
        
           | lelandfe wrote:
           | Right! And the marketing materials said the actors involved
           | were missing or dead.
           | 
           | It kicked off an era of "found footage"-style horror movies,
           | with things like Paranormal Activity using security camera
           | tape, improv, and unknown actors to make the film seem more
           | real. Great call out - that's definitely the film equivalent
           | of a creepypasta.
        
         | actually_a_dog wrote:
         | Not exactly creepypasta, but I do believe the SCP Foundation
         | would make a cultural splash if it were invented today:
         | https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-series
        
       | bpiche wrote:
       | Weird, I didn't see candleja
        
       | fferen wrote:
       | No doubt my favorite creepypasta is the Interface series:
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9
        
         | devindotcom wrote:
         | I liked when it was appearing randomly in reddit threads but
         | ultimately the story kinda fizzled out. Creepypasta type
         | fiction tends to do that, big concept, scope expansion, then a
         | rushed ending. Actually it's kind of a hallmark of SF/F in
         | general...
        
           | bitwize wrote:
           | Build tension and then... man door hand hook car door
        
       | Liquix wrote:
       | BEN Drowned, smile.jpg, The Russian Sleep Experiment.. Some of
       | these were so well done and haunting. What a macabre thing to get
       | all nostalgic about!
       | 
       | For further reading - this site has been up for over a decade and
       | is fairly comprehensive:
       | https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/Creepypasta_Wiki
       | 
       | A personal favorite:
       | https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/The_Memetic_Symbol
        
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       (page generated 2022-08-30 23:00 UTC)