Creepypasta
Horror-related media shared around the Internet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A creepypasta is a horror-related legend which has been shared around the Internet.[1][2][3] The term creepypasta has since become a catch-all term for any horror content posted onto the Internet.[4] These entries are often brief, user-generated, paranormal stories that are intended to frighten readers. The subjects of creepypasta vary widely and can include topics such as ghosts, cryptids, murder, suicide, zombies, aliens, rituals to summon supernatural entities, haunted television shows, and video games.[1] Creepypastas range in length from a single paragraph to extended multi-part series that can span multiple media types, some lasting for years.[4]
In the mainstream media, creepypastas relating to the fictitious Slender Man character came to public attention after the 2014 "Slender Man stabbing", in which a 12-year-old girl was stabbed by two of her friends; the perpetrators claimed they "wanted to prove the Slender Man skeptics wrong".[1][5] After the murder attempt, some creepypasta website administrators made statements reminding readers of the "line between fiction and reality".[1] This case is part of a pattern of people, especially children, developing misconceptions around the reality of creepypastas.[4]
Other notable creepypasta stories include Jeff the Killer, Ted the Caver, and Smile Dog.[1][6][7]
Definition
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Perspective
The word creepypasta first appeared on 4chan, an online imageboard, around 2007. It is a variant of copypasta (from "copy and paste"), another 4chan term which refers to blocks of text which become viral by being copied widely around the internet.[8][9] Creepypastas are a form of modern day folklore following many of the same narrative techniques such as first-person narrators and integrating true information.[10][11] The integration of true pieces of information within the stories of creepypastas is part of what makes them appealing and somewhat believable, as it does with folklore. Where people spread folklores by word of mouth, creepypasta stories are spread through digital channels, making them easily accessible and creating a sense of community amongst those who participate in them.[10]
Unlike copypastas, creepypastas are all horror fiction and also encompass multimedia stories, with creators using videos, images, hyperlinks and GIFs alongside text.[9] Before people knew the website best for its creepy folk-like stories on their website, creepypasta existed as short scary stories to send to your friends in text format.[12] These messages consisted of a short form scary story or video that sometimes ended with a threatening message that something bad would happen to you or your family if you didn't forward the message to a certain number of people [12]. These copy-and-paste chains of scary stories became common practice for people to send to friends or coworkers when they were bored and existed as the first form of creepypastas[12].
History
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Perspective
According to Sara Bimo, "there is debate over what exactly counts as the 'first' creepypasta".[9] Scholars and writers such as Time's Jessica Roy have seen similarities in the chain emails of the 1990s, which disseminated hoaxes and urban legends, for example, by promising a terrible fate for users who did not pass them along.[1][9] Horror stories such as the Rake, a fictional monster created by 4chan users in 2005, have been retroactively considered creepypastas.[13] Some consider the 2001 story "Ted the Caver" the first.[4][14]
The earliest creepypastas originate from 4chan, and the website's culture was influential in shaping the characteristics of the genre.[9] Major dedicated creepypasta websites started to appear from the late 2000s: Creepypasta.com was created in 2008, while the Creepypasta Wiki and Reddit's r/nosleep were both created in 2010.[15][16] According to Time magazine, the genre had its peak audience in 2010 when it was covered by The New York Times.[1]
The definition of creepypasta has expanded over time to include most short horror fiction whose first publication is online.[17] Over time, authorship has become increasingly important: many creepypastas are written by named authors rather than by anonymous individuals.[17]
Creepypasta entered the news cycle most prominently in 2014 with the infamous "Slender Man stabbing." Authorities charged one of the girls in the case, Morgan Geyser, and have held her in a psychiatric facility since her conviction. In 2025, a judge ruled that Geyser would not be up for consideration to leave the facility.[18]
Cultural impact
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Numerous short films, games, feature-length films and merchandise have been produced based on creepypastas, such as Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story, Slender Man and Beware the Slenderman. In 2023, a new film from production company A24 was announced based on "the backrooms," a source of lore in creepypasta based on a series of pictures. The filmmakers will directly base the film on a YouTube series doing an in-depth exploration of the backrooms.[19]
In addition to merchandise and film adaptations, numerous amounts of fan content and independent settings/mythos have been established from creepypastas, such as with the SCP Foundation, the Backrooms and The Mandela Catalogue, with the prior serving as an example of the creepypasta descendant subgenre, analog horror.
Due to its online prevalence, a portion of creepypastas has been archived by American Folklife Center and added to their digital culture web archive under their initiative to document the development of web culture.[20][21] Some folklorist view creepypastas as the digital age manifestation of legend,[21][22] while others view the majority of creepypastas as anti-legends.[23] Anti-legends are similar to legends except that they seek to purposely subvert the legends of the era by challenging the audience's expectations of what constitutes a contemporary legend.[24][25]
In May 2015, Machinima, Inc. announced plans for a live-action web series curated by Clive Barker, titled Clive Barker's Creepy Pasta, focusing on Slender Man and Ben Drowned;[26] although following the shutdown of Machinima, the series was never produced. Each season of the American television series Channel Zero from Syfy is based on a different creepypasta, taking inspiration from the stories themselves as well as the associated subreddit.[27] Filmmaker John Farrelly was set to release a film titled The Sleep Experiment, based on the Russian Sleep Experiment, in 2020,[28] but the project never materialized.
Genres
Lost episodes
Some creepypastas exploit childhood nostalgia and distort it into something more horrific, unfamiliar. Creepypasta.com describes purported lost episodes of television shows as one of the most popular tropes.[29][30] These episodes often focus on suicide or imply the viewer will suffer great harm. Some lost episode creepypastas focus on local public access shows rather than nationally syndicated shows. Notable examples of these include Squidward's Suicide, Suicidemouse.avi, and Dead Bart.[31] A SpongeBob SquarePants episode, titled "SpongeBob in RandomLand", had to re-edit a scene that referred to the Squidward's Suicide creepypasta.[22][32][33]
Video games
Video game creepypasta focuses on video games containing grotesque or violent content; this content may spill over into the real world and cause the player to harm themselves or others. Many video game creepypastas reveal the conflict to be caused by malevolent entities such as ghosts or artificial intelligence.[34] Notable examples of these include Sonic.exe, Ben Drowned, Herobrine, and the Lavender Town Syndrome.
Belief as real
Due to the narrative techniques of creepypasta stories and their popularity amongst children, these stories are sometimes mistaken as true stories by their readers, especially younger ones. The ease of access of these stories and their mix of fantasy and reality appeals to children, and the common themes of uncertainty and ambiguity in the narratives can cause confusion in the reader.[35]
One misunderstood creepypasta led to the "Slender Man stabbing" in Wisconsin in 2014, where two 12-year-old girls, one of whom had been experiencing auditory hallucinations as a result of schizophrenia, tried to kill another girl in order to appease Slender Man and prove that the character was real.[36] After the attack, the official creepypasta website put out a statement in response to the media attention, expressing sympathy for the incident that occurred, and clarifying that its stories are fictional.[37]
In Indiana in 2015, a 12-year-old girl fatally stabbed her stepmother, believing that a clown character from the Creepypasta website had directed her to do so. The girl was found to have been experiencing dissociative identity disorder for some months prior to the attack.[38]
See also
References
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