Whether it’s a solemn celebration honoring the spirits of the dead or a saccharine, candy-laden costume party, Halloween is a time when we look beyond the everyday and into the weird. Take a deeper look into the holiday, and you’ll find some weird things.

10The Religious Origins Of Costumes

While today’s costumes channel an inner fantasy, they started with a much more solemn purpose. One of the earliest examples we have of people donning costumes comes from Hallow Mass, a ceremonial mass dedicated to prayers for the dead. People appealed to their ancestors for everything from happy marriages to fertility, and costumes were a part of that.

It wasn’t until the Victorian era that the idea of dressing up really went mainstream, and a lot of that started with the Robert Burns poem “Halloween.” Originally, the best costumes were the ones that were creepy, which isn’t entirely surprising. The Victorians were obsessed with the idea of spirituality and the afterlife, so pioneering the ghost costume made a lot of logical sense.

9When Halloween Became Sexy

Halloween is supposed to be scary, so when did we start dressing up as sexy nuns and sexy cops?

Dressing up allows people to push boundaries. There was virtually no such thing until the 1970s, and it all started with a convergence of the flamboyant cultures of the gay community, feminism and female empowerment, and the Halloween parades that capitalized on this newfound freedom. Halloween was the day you could get away with things that were in no way acceptable on any other day, and we’ve never looked back.

8Halloween And Poisoned Candy

We’ve already talked about how poisoned Halloween candy being handed out to unsuspecting kids is nearly a complete myth, but Halloween of 1950 did see countless kids get sick. After that fateful October night, scores of children started experiencing gastrointestinal issues, welts, and rashes. So many got sick that it was brought to the attention of the FDA, who finally traced the problem to Orange Dye No. 1. Even though it had already been approved by the government in 1906, more research found that the orange dye (and six other types of food dye) used products resulting from the processing of coal and contained the toxic chemical benzene. It wasn’t until Halloween that enough children ate enough of the dye and got sick enough that it got the attention of the FDA.

Tests confirmed that it was, in fact, the dye that was causing the illness and that it didn’t even take much of it to kill rats. The dye was banned, and FDA regulations were amended to include colors additives on the list of food ingredients that needed to be disclosed on labels.

7National Youth Honor Day

Today, the “trick” part of trick-or-treating is mostly harmless, but that was not always the case. In Omaha in the 1920s, there was so much vandalism going on that 500 teenage boys received a badge for one night only, in the hopes they would help stop the destruction. In 1938, Boston gave awards to the school districts that had the least damage. In 1948, one Long Island doctor’s home was vandalized to the tune of $100,000 in today’s money, and that was just one incident of Halloween rioting that happened across North America in the 1940s.

The rioting, vandalism, and (in some cases) racially motivated attacks got so bad that in 1950, the Senate Judiciary Committee started looking at getting rid of Halloween altogether in favor of the National Youth Honor Day. Halloween lovers decided that bribing kids with candy was a better way to go, and trick-or-treating became popular.

6Bobbing For Apples

Even if this one is no longer a part most Halloween parties, its pedigree as a Halloween staple is undeniable. The idea went back to the Celtic Samhain, when it was believed that not only did the dead walk the earth on one night, but divination done on that night would be particularly effective. Since apples were always closely tied to fertility and female power, bobbing for apples became a more modernized version of channeling the wisdom of the dead. In some areas, girls would mark apples before bobbing for them, and whichever apple they got was thought to foretell their romantic future.

Apples were also thought to symbolize rebirth and lasting life, flourishing in the fall and reborn again in the spring. An apple peel thrown on the ground by a single girl would show her the first initial of her future husband, it was thought, and magic on Halloween was infinitely more powerful.

5The Original Jack-O-Lanterns

The roots of this tradition go back to ancient Ireland and a story about a man named Jack, who made the mistake of trying to play a trick on the devil himself. Jack was cursed to walk the earth for eternity, and the only thing he had to guide his way by was a hollowed-out turnip with a burning coal inside.

They were terrifying, and people began carving them and putting them around their homes to scare off the evil spirits that walked the land on that one, single night. Unfortunately, the tradition of carving turnips fell by the wayside once Americans discovered that pumpkins were easier to carve.

4The Real Danger On Halloween

If no one truly has to worry about poisoned Halloween candy, what is there to worry about? According to studies done by the US government, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an organization called Safe Kids USA, the answer is simple: car accidents. On Halloween night, there has been an average of 5.5 pedestrians killed by cars every year, compared to a 2.6 average deaths on any other day of the year.

There may be a couple of reasons for this. Not only are people distracted by everything from other groups of trick-or-treaters to Halloween decorations, but movement and vision can easily be restricted by costumes. At the same time, it is easy to trip in a long, flowing robe, and kids are also out in unfamiliar neighborhoods on strange streets, and that can all spell trouble for Halloween monsters.

3The Real Deal With Candy Corn

Candy corn has been around since the 1880s, and it has always been one of those things that most people claim to hate. Those who do love it probably already know about National Candy Corn Day, which is October 30.

The recipe for candy corn has not changed, and it is still made with fondant, corn syrup, marshmallow creme, vanilla, and sugar. In the early days, when each kernel was handmade, the original name was “Chicken Feed,” and it was first designed to tap into rural America’s most familiar images for a treat that was available year around. Its association with autumn is no coincidence, as it was part of a group of candies (that also included candy turnips, chestnuts, and clovers) that symbolized the fall harvest.

According to the National Confectioners Association, candy corn is the favorite Halloween treat of a whopping 12 percent of the population.

2The Witch’s Cauldron

The history and mythology of the cauldron involves much more than stirring whatever potion the witch happens to be brewing.

Before Christianity, the cauldron symbolized the womb of the cosmos. Everything—life, energy, matter, the physical and the spiritual—came from the cauldron and returned there at death. That made the crone figure powerful, in charge of overseeing the perpetual life cycle that kept everything going. According to ancient Irish lore, the cauldron was the domain of the Dagda and was the source for all life—and, specifically, poetry. Not until Christianity came along did the crone need to be discredited, and her cauldron was assigned a less than-honorable role of brewing poisons and potions.

1Halloween Birthdays

Studies have shown that anyone who has a birthday on Halloween has beaten the odds in a weird way. A study done by the Yale School of Public Health (whose data was supported by another, independent study done in Taiwan), found that births have a steep drop-off on Halloween. That wasn’t just induced labors and caesarian sections, either, but natural births as well. When 1.8 million birth records over a 20-year period were studied, it was found that birth rates took an 11.3 percent drop on Halloween.

Science absolutely does not have an explanation for this, but those behind the study think that it might have something to do with the general feeling—and, in turn, subconscious mindset—of people during various holidays. They also found a 5 percent rise in birth rates around Valentine’s Day, making them suspect that Halloween might be dishing out some heavy-handed havoc when it comes to expectant mothers.

Spiders, cemeteries, costumes, and ghost stories sound like a part of Halloween, not Christmas, but think again. The following Christmas traditions and beliefs sound like they got their holidays mixed up.

10Carved Vegetables
Mexico

For all of us who hated vegetables growing up, the Night of the Radishes may sound like the title of a horror movie. Nevertheless, it’s a longstanding traditional celebration in Mexico, going back to the main plaza of Oaxaca City in 1897. It’s been going strong ever since.

There are parades, feasts, and dances. But the main event, as the name suggests, are the radishes. The radishes are carved into amazing characters, scenes, and displays. They’re grown specifically for this occasion. Instead of being picked at their usual harvest time, they’re left in the ground to balloon to huge sizes. They have been known to grow as long as 50 centimeters (20 in) and weigh as much as 3 kilograms (6.5 lb).

December 23 is the official day on which the Night of the Radishes takes place. However, as with any good party, the celebration has often been known to last a couple days, up to and past December 25.

9Goblins
Greece

According to Greek folklore, underground goblins known as Kallikantzaroi make their way to the surface world to do mischief during the 12 days of Christmas. Most legends agree that they are hairy black creatures that look mostly human but with horns and tails.

To keep Kallikantzaroi away, some Greeks would burn incense or even burn stinky shoes in the fireplace. Others would mark their door with a black cross on Christmas Eve.

The worst part of the legend is that all babies born on one of the 12 days of Christmas are at risk of turning into Kallikantzaroi at a later Christmas when they become adults. Someone could be a Kallikantzaros and wouldn’t even know it until their 18th or 21st birthday. The only way to prevent it from happening is to singe the baby’s toenails or wrap them in garlic and straw.

8Spiders
Poland

If you never seem to get around to taking down your spiderweb Halloween decorations before Christmas, Poland may just be the country for you. In Polish culture, spiders symbolize prosperity and goodness in general. In one Polish legend, when baby Jesus was born, He was cold, and a spider wove a blanket for Him out of webs. As a result, Christmas trees are often decorated with fake spiderwebs and spider ornaments in Poland.

This tradition is also found in Germany and Ukraine, where it is inspired by a different legend. In a Ukrainian legend, a poor mother couldn’t afford Christmas tree decorations. However, her children woke up the next morning to find their tree covered in spiderwebs. That may not have been the most festive sight, but when the first rays of sunlight hit the tree, the webs turned into silver and gold. The family never found themselves in need again.

7Eating Bugs
South Africa

Speaking of creepy-crawlies, gummy worms and bug-shaped candy may be all the rage during Halloween, but at Christmastime, only the real thing will do. In certain regions of South Africa, no traditional Christmas feast would be complete without a nice big helping of deep-fried emperor moth caterpillars. Most caterpillars are seen as a delicacy, so it makes sense that families would consider them a treat at Christmas.

Caterpillars are actually quite nutritious. The proportion of protein is higher than found in fish and beef. A little more than half of every 100 grams of caterpillars is protein, and 17 percent is carbohydrates, with an energy value of 430 kilocalories. The exact amount varies by species, but caterpillars have been known to be good sources of iron, calcium, potassium, and several different vitamins.

6Witches
Bavaria

According to Austrian and Bavarian lore, a witch named Berchta knows which children have been lazy or hardworking throughout the year. She roams through the land and secretly enters homes during the 12 days of Christmas and the Epiphany to punish or reward the children. For those who have done all of their work, she leaves a silver coin in their shoe. For those who have been lazy, she cuts their stomachs open. And, as if that wasn’t enough, she removes their guts and replaces them with straw, stones, and any garbage lying around.

Berchta’s name is derived from the feast of the Epiphany, known as Berchtentag. In Slovenia, she is also known as Frau Faste, which translates to “the lady of the Ember Days.” Berchta’s traditional Feast Day is called Berchtaslaaf in Urglawee, the culture of Germans and Dutch in Pennsylvania. It takes place on December 31, which is Elfder Dagg and Zwelfdi Nacht (“The Eleventh Day” and “The Twelfth Night”).

5Monster Cannibals
Iceland

The folklore of Iceland includes an ogress named Gryla. Like Santa Claus and the aforementioned Berchta, Gryla had the supernatural power to know whether children have been naughty or nice throughout the year. Unlike Santa Claus and even Berchta, however, she does not bother with rewarding children who have been good. Her only concern is punishing the naughty.

Around Christmastime, she makes her way from her mountain lair and hunts through nearby villages for a good meal. Her favorite food is a stew of naughty boys and girls who disobey their parents. It’s said that she has a tremendous appetite and sadly never goes hungry.

Gryla wasn’t always a Christmas figure, but in the 17th century she was linked to the Yule Cat and the Yule Lads, being declared as their mother.

4Ghost Stories
England

Not too long ago, creepy ghost stories were a major part of Christmas Eve festivities. Even Andy Williams’s classic yuletide tune “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” promises “There’ll be scary ghost stories / And tales of the glories / Of Christmases long, long ago.”

In Victorian England, Christmas and ghosts were as much a package deal as tea and crumpets. Perhaps the greatest example of this is Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. It’s no coincidence that the plot of Dickens’s tale of the true spirit of Christmas is driven by four otherworldly spirits. In centuries past, Christmas had always had a strong connection to the supernatural. It was believed that the barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead was at its thinnest on Christmas Eve. This allowed ghosts to sneak back over to the living world for at least one night.

3Costumes
Newfoundland

Newfoundland has a tradition that’s an interesting blend of trick or treating and Christmas caroling.

People known as mummers or janneys disguise themselves in homemade costumes and make their way through the neighborhood, going from house to house. They knock on doors, play music, and dance on the front steps of homes, while the owners try to guess who the mummers are under their costumes. To do this, homeowners are allowed to ask the visitors questions.

To disguise themselves even more, however, mummers alter their voices. The most common technique is ingestive speaking, in which they talk while taking a deep breath. The janneys must take off their masks once their identity is guessed, and the homeowners tend to invite them in for food and drinks.

In the old days, mummering was much more sociable since nearly everyone knew one another in small towns. In the modern day, the practice is more reserved, as people are less comfortable with opening their doors or homes to masked strangers. Mummers sometimes call ahead to tell their friends that they are coming to their house so as not to be turned away.

2Cemeteries
Finland

In Finland, people visit the graves of their loved ones on Christmas Eve and leave lit candles in their honor. Those whose relatives are not buried nearby still visit the nearest cemetery and light a candle to acknowledge their memory. As a result, all of the cemeteries in Finland are alight with dozens upon dozens of candles on Christmas Eve.

Even people who haven’t lost any loved ones often stroll through the graveyards just to enjoy the festive scenery. So many people come out to visit the cemeteries that the government has to put special traffic procedures in action to deal with all of the cars on the roads.

Other countries remember the dead at Christmas as well. Portugal has a traditional feast on Christmas morning called Consoda. It is both a morning feast and a mourning feast. Those who have died are honored, and the families put out settings at the table for the family members they’ve lost.

1The Devil
Guatemala

We’d think that any mention of the devil would have no place during the holiday season. Guatemala, however, has a celebration on December 7 called La Quema del Diablo, or The Burning of the Devil.

Citizens clean their homes and pile up all of their trash, old clothes, and broken furniture in front of their houses. Next, they each make an effigy of the devil and put it on top of the pile. Then they do what the name of the celebration suggests and burn the entire pile. This symbolically chases away the devil and prepares for baby Jesus. It is also thought to purify the home and give people a release from year-long problems.

In recent years, many people now burn small pinatas and old bills instead of garbage inside their homes. Also, many companies have capitalized on the celebration by selling devil effigies. No matter what, Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without commercialization.

Halloween is approaching fast. One can just about taste the trick or treat candy and smell the Pumpkin Spice in the air. And of course, no Halloween is complete without a few scary urban legends. On this list are some lesser known, but still spine-tingling spooky stories to keep in your back pocket for those moonless nights around the campfire… or you know, the TV, for the less adventurous…

SEE ALSO: 10 Mysterious Urban Legends Based on Video Footage

7 El Cadejo

In South America, ancient legends tell of spirit dogs that help humans cross over to the other side after death. Now this may sound heart-warming, however one tale was adapted specifically to highlight the difference between good and evil.

According to this legend there are two types of Cadejo (which are ghosts or spirits that take on the form of a dog): the black Cadejo that represents evil and the white Cadejo that represents, you guessed it, good. It is said that God created the white Cadejo to protect people, while Satan created the black Cadejo to fight against the white one and cause havoc.

The black Cadejo stalks those who are out late at night and up to no good. It hypnotizes its victims with its red glowing eyes and steals their souls. The white Cadejo on the other hand protects all believers and shields babies and small children from the black Cadejo. Luckily you don’t have to rely on only the white Cadejo to protect you from the black one. It is said that the black Cadejo is easily scared off by burning incense.^[1]

6 The Curse of Lake Lanier

Lake Sidney Lanier lies in the northern part of Georgia and stretches out over 26 miles. It is the largest lake in Georgia and dates to 1948. It took 5 years for the lake to reach the desired water level. During this time many structures surrounding the lake were eventually abandoned, as the government relocated families and businesses. These structures included houses, buildings, fields, roads and more. Essentially this means that there are entire ghost towns lying underneath Lake Lanier’s surface, including the towns’ desecrated cemeteries.

As time went by, strange things started happening at the lake. People started noticing a high number of deaths including drownings, boating accidents and cars that crash land into the water. Reports surfaced of boats hitting invisible objects in the lake and capsizing. Swimmers who barely survived drowning, reported being pulled or held underwater. Very soon the lake earned the moniker of being cursed. Furthermore, people also disappear around the lake at an alarming rate. One of the most haunting stories that surround Lake Lanier is the disappearance of Delia Parker Young and her friend Susie Roberts in 1958. The two girls had paid a visit to a gas station near the lake and had allegedly driven off without paying. Across Lanier Bridge were skid marks that seemed to indicate the car they were traveling in had gone off the bridge and into Lake Lanier.

A year and a half of searching for the bodies of the girls proved fruitless. Then a fisherman got the fright of his life when a decomposed body appeared to float up from the depths of the lake, right in front of him. There were two toes missing from the left foot of the body and both hands were gone. Assuming the body was that of Delia Parker Young, it was buried in an unmarked grave. Many years later in 1990, when construction workers dredged Lake Lanier to set up pillars for the expansion of Lanier Bridge, they discovered the car with Susie’s remains still inside. She was eventually buried next to Delia.

Soon after, sightings were being reported of a transparent figure wearing a blue dress and missing its hands, walking the length of the bridge. Considering that Delia Parker Younger wore a blue dress the night she died, people claim it is her ghost looking for her lost hands.^[2]

5 Angelystor

In Llangernyw, a small village in Conwy, North Wales, villagers who visit the medieval church in the area do so to find out whether they would die in the coming months. It is said that an ancient supernatural being called the Angelystor appears in the church and recites the names of the parish members who would die soon. The Angelystor appears only twice a year, on 31 July and 31 October.

According to legend, a tailor named Shôn ap Robert mocked the idea of the ancient being while downing a couple of beers at the local watering hole. His drinking buddies dared him to take a walk up to the church, since he was a complete sceptic. ap Robert wasted no time in making his way to the medieval church, scoffing as he went. But his blood ran cold as he heard a voice from within the church reciting names; the first of which was his own. Terrified, ap Robert screamed that he wasn’t ready to die, but to no avail. He died shortly afterwards.^[3]

4 Selborne Dock

Simon’s Town is home to the South African Navy’s Naval Base and is located on False Bay, east of the Cape Peninsula. The town is the fifth oldest in South Africa and rumored to be among the most haunted. Part of its ghostly reputation began back in 1900 with the building of the Selborne Dock at the harbour to accommodate expanded steam propulsion vessels.

It took 10 years to complete construction on the dock and the intense labour of 3000 workers. Indian craftsmen and Italian masons were amongst the labourers. However, when it came to safety regulations, those who ran the building project were more concerned with finishing on time than ensuring all workers were safe. Consequently, because of the lack of safety measures on site, 33 workers died during the building process. Some of the dead included the Italian masons whose graves are located close to Selborne Dock.

It has been said that when visitors pass by the wall of the dock to visit Boulder’s Beach nearby, hands appear out of the structure, desperately grabbing at whoever is close enough. Giving up in despair, the hands fade back into the stone façade of the dock. Naturally, legend has it that these are the hands of the 33 dead labourers trying their best to pull themselves back into the land of the living.^[4]

3 The Last Bus to Fragrant Hills

China is well known for its creepy urban legends and superstitions. One of these legends tells the story of a young man who got on the last bus heading to Fragrant Hills in Beijing on 14 November 1995. The man had just taken his seat when two men outside tried to flag the bus down. As these men were not waiting at a designated bus stop, the bus driver almost sped right past them. However, the conductor on board told the driver to stop as this would be the last trip to Fragrant Hills for the night.

To the bus passengers’ surprise there were actually three men and they were wearing Qing Dynasty robes. One of the men had long, tangled hair. The other passengers felt a little troubled because the men’s faces were ghostly white, and they did not speak. However, the bus journey was uneventful and eventually all the passengers disembarked apart from the mystery men, the young man and one old lady.

Out of nowhere the old lady started yelling at the young man, claiming that he had stolen her wallet. A terrible argument ensued with the old lady insisting that they both get off the bus and go to the closest police station. The young man was livid as he got off the bus, seeing as how he would not get home and there was no police station in sight to clear up the misunderstanding. Just then, the old lady turned to him and said that the wind from the windows in the bus raised the robes of the mystery men and she saw that they had no feet. That was why she insisted that the young man leave the bus with her.

The following day it became known that the bus, which was numbered 302, had gone missing right after the old lady and young man disembarked. It was found three days later, miles away from Fragrant Hills, inside a reservoir. Inside the bus were the bodies of the driver, the conductor and one unidentified man with long, tangled hair. Another version of the tale states that instead of three ghosts on the bus, it was just one female ghost in a red dress. Yet another version says the gas tank of the bus was filled with blood, or that the bus was never found again.^[5]

2 Andrew’s Walk

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Dr Michael Schneider bought a mansion in Adelaide, Australia. Known as Clifton Manor, the mansion sprawled across 40 acres of land and Schneider and his wife and two daughters were very happy with their new home.

Schneider decided to treat patients at home, but away from his family. He saw the ill and diseased and schizophrenic in a cabin on the far side of his land. Five years had passed when tragedy struck and Schneider lost his wife and daughters to an accident. Schneider couldn’t deal with his grief and went insane.

At some point, nearby residents started reporting that they were hearing screams coming from Clifton Manor. Stories began to fly that in his insanity, Dr Schneider had begun performing surgeries on unsuspecting patients without using anesthesia. It was said that Schneider was offering his dying patients to the devil. For some reason no investigation took place at the property, until Schneider himself died. Only then did police descent upon Clifton Manor, to find the body of the doctor surrounded with the remains of his long-deceased family.

Legend has it that Schneider’s ghost and the restless spirits of his victims still reside at the mansion. Those who are feeling adventurous can visit the site, now known as Andrew’s Walk. Just watch out for vengeful spirits crawling from the tree line as you walk up the lane.^[6]

1 Gjenganger

In Scandinavia, the word ‘Gjenganger’ strikes fear into the heart of many. It is said that some who die in Scandinavia are resurrected and become Gjengangers for the purpose of haunting those who are still alive.

Legend has it that the lost souls who become Gjengangers were ordinary people who were plucked from their lives prematurely by means of murder or accident. Once transformed into a Gjenganger, these spirits make it their afterlife’s mission to disrupt the future of those still living and especially those who contributed to their death.

Gjengangers strike in the darkest hour of night, pinching their victims and then fleeing. Once their victim wakes, he or she will notice an unexplained blue mark on their body. This mark leads to illness and eventually death as the victim’s flesh rots until the disease reaches their heart.

Luckily there is a way to stop a Gjenganger in its tracks. If a person dies by murder or accident, it is advisable to bury them in the appropriate manner with a runic inscription inside the coffin which would prevent any resurrection efforts.^[7]

Since 2007 when I published the first list on , many Halloweens have passed—12 to be exact. In a recent site update I noted my return from a multi-year hiatus due to numerous family deaths. Given that my own love of horror and all things creepy was what drove my desire to create the site, it seems fitting upon my return to publish a big list of horror-related lists!

So here it is: I present you with a nice long list of creepiness from across the years. You will find movies, murderers, monsters, and more. So get reading and have a happy Halloween!

12 Halloween General

1. 10 Unique Halloween Traditions From Around The World
2. Top 10 Halloween Pranks That Went Awry
3. 10 Creepy Rituals We Once Used To Celebrate Halloween
4. 10 Things You Didn’t Know About The History Of Halloween
5. 10 Sinister Halloween Horror Stories That Really Happened
6. 10 Most Horrific Murders Committed On Halloween
7. 10 Creepy Reads For Halloween Based On ‘True Stories’
8. 10 Spooky Facts About Halloween
9. Top 10 Easiest Halloween Costumes to Make
10. Top 10 Brutal Unsolved Halloween Murders
11. 10 Creepy Unsolved Mysteries That Happened On Halloween
12. 10 International Customs That Turn Christmas Into Halloween

11 Macabre

1. 10 Macabre Tourist Attractions
2. 10 Perfectly Macabre Abandoned Buildings
3. Top 10 Macabre Collectibles
4. 10 Of The Most Weird And Macabre Medical Practices Of All Time
5. 10 Reasons New Orleans Is Master of the Macabre

10 Clowns

1. 10 Creepy Tales About Clowns
2. 10 Historical Clowns That Helped Make Clowns Terrifying
3. Top 10 Clowns You Don’t Want To Mess With
4. 10 Recent Sightings Of Strange And Sinister Clowns
5. 10 Psychological Reasons Why People Are Afraid Of Clowns

9 Vampires

1. 10 Creepy Historical Accounts Of Real-Life Vampires
2. 10 Graveyards Supposedly Haunted By Vampires
3. 10 Truly Creepy Vampires From Around The World
4. 10 Creepy Historical Vampires You’ve Never Heard Of
5. 10 Lies ‘Dracula’ Adaptations Tell
6. Top 10 Greatest Dracula Portrayals
7. 10 Fascinating Facts About The Real Dracula
8. 10 Dark Transylvanian Legends You Won’t Find In Dracula
9. 8 Recently Discovered Medieval Vampire Burials
10. Top 10 Vampire Movies

8 Ghosts

1. 10 Gruesome Deaths That Have Been Attributed To Ghosts
2. 10 Celebrities Who Had A Terrifying Ghostly Experience
3. 10 Real-Life Ghost Ships No One Can Explain
4. 10 Murderers Haunted By Their Victim’s Ghost
5. 10 Terrifying Ghost Stories Of Dead Prostitutes
6. Top 10 Famous Real Ghosts
7. 10 Mysterious Fires Caused By Ghosts
8. Top 10 Ghosts Videos
9. 10 Headless Ghosts And Monsters
10. 10 Alleged Ghost Sightings With Bizarre Consequences

7 Witches

1. 10 Notorious Witches And Warlocks
2. Top 10 Notorious Witches
3. 10 Scariest Witches Of World Mythology
4. 10 Tests For Guilt at the Salem Witch Trials
5. 10 Famous People Accused Of Witchcraft
6. 10 Bizarre Stories From European Witch Trials
7. 10 Unusual Male Witch Trials From Europe
8. Top 10 Horrific Modern-Day Witch Slayings
9. 10 Strange Stories Of People Executed For Witchcraft
10. Top 10 Bizarre Witch Burials

6 Hauntings

1. Top 10 Famous Haunted Landmarks You Didn’t Know Were Haunted
2. Top 10 Cursed And Haunted Household Items
3. 10 Truly Creepy Demonic Hauntings
4. 10 Horrifying Haunted Villages Around The World
5. 10 Haunted Asylums With Extremely Dark Pasts
6. Top 10 haunted Areas of the Whitehouse
7. Top 10 Most Haunted Places
8. 10 Most Haunting Cases Investigated By Ed And Lorraine Warren
9. 10 Surprising Facts About The Haunted House Industry
10. Top 10 Haunted US College Campuses

5 Serial Killers

1. 10 Creepy Places That Are Serial Killer Playgrounds
2. 10 Creepy Photos Of People Unaware They Are With A Serial Killer
3. 10 Still-Unidentified Serial Killers
4. 10 Creepiest Letters Penned By Serial Killers
5. 10 Childhood Warning Signs Of A Serial Killer
6. 10 Ravenous Cannibal Serial Killers
7. 10 Creepily Inappropriate Day Jobs of Infamous Serial Killers
8. 10 Strange Books Written By Serial Killers
9. 10 Forgotten Serial Killers From The Middle Ages
10. 10 Gruesome Killers With Unsettling Obsessions

4 Urban Legends

1. 10 Creepy Urban Legends Of Madness And Suicide
2. 10 Creepy Japanese Urban Legends
3. 7 Otherworldly Little-Known Urban Legends Just In Time For Halloween
4. 10 Creepy And Outrageous Urban Legends That Turned Out To Be Completely True
5. 10 Uncanny Global Urban Legends To Freak You Out
6. Top 10 Horrifying Urban Legends From Around The Globe
7. 10 Creepy Urban Legends From The UAE
8. 10 Bone-Chilling Urban Legends
9. 10 Unsettling Wartime Urban Legends
10. 10 Creepy Urban Legends Of Madness And Suicide

3 Unsolved Mysteries

1. 10 Unsolved Mysteries About Ancient Greece
2. 10 Unsolved Mysteries About Satan
3. 10 Unsolved Mysteries Surrounding Historical Tragedies
4. 10 Creepy Unsolved Mysteries Of The Mountains
5. 10 Unsolved Mysteries With Creepy Surveillance Footage
6. 10 Unsolved Mysteries From The Wild West
7. 10 Creepy Unsolved Rest Stop Mysteries
8. Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries
9. Another 10 Unsolved Mysteries
10. Yet Another 10 Unsolved Mysteries

2 General Creepy

1. 10 Creepy And Surreal Moments Caught On Video
2. 10 Terrifying Haunted And Creepy Mask Stories
3. Top 10 Curious And Creepy Mummified Remains
4. 10 Creepy Cases Of Body Snatching From Over 100 Years Ago
5. Top 10 Eerie Tales About Creepy Dolls
6. 10 Creepypastas About Home Invasion
7. 10 Creepy Accounts Of Sleeping With The Dead
8. 10 Creepy Murder Houses You Could Live In
9. 10 Creepy Pop Culture Conspiracy Theories
10. 10 Creepy Fairy Tales You Probably Don’t Know

1 Movies

1. Top 10 Stereotypical Horror Movie Victims
2. 10 Frighteningly Disturbing Movie Scenes
3. Top 10 Reoccurring Horror Movie Gimmicks
4. Top 10 Awesome Zombie Depictions
5. Top 10 Giant Movie Monsters
6. 10 Horror Movies On Netflix That Don’t Suck
7. 10 Lesser-Known Facts About Popular Horror Movies
8. Top 10 Highest-Grossing Horror Franchises
9. Top 10 Strangest Moments of Movie Monster Science
10. 25 Fascinating Facts About The Exorcist

And if that still isn’t enough to satisfy you, check out the entire Creepy Category. Be sure to tell us which list is your favorite in the comments below.

Watching a scary movie on Halloween has become as much of a tradition as anything else associated with the day, so let’s all stay in this Halloween, shall we? Not that there is much of a choice, given that a rampant plague will prevent us from going to a costume party or knock on stranger’s door and threaten them for a Mars bar or two… I mean, who’s even scared of masks anymore? Seems more like social responsibility nowadays.

Some of us enjoy subverting traditions, even newer ones like the watching of horror movies—so this is a list for you! Here are 10 non-horror movies (with as few spoilers as possible—you MUST watch these films) that are guaranteed to scare you at least 35% more than 2005’s ‘House of Wax’ starring Paris Hilton. It’s science.

WARNING: Some footage on this list is disturbing. Proceed with caution.

Top 10 Disturbing Movies You’ve Never Heard Of

10 Come And See (1985)

War is hell. This film is hell. This may well be the most uncompromising, visually terrifying, best acted and pants-shittingly tense war films ever made.

Based on the 1975 book “I Am From A Fiery Village”, the film shows the horrors of Nazi-occupied Belarus through the eyes of a teenage boy named Flyora. He joins the Belorussian resistance and bears witness to some of the most brutal atrocities mankind has ever inflicted on itself—piles of executed bodies, horrible maimings, random deaths from buried landmines, burnings and rape. But it is the reactions of Flyora, played by the incredible Aleksei Kravchenko, that’ll stick with you. It grounds the horrors in reality—you’ll imagine yourself seeing what he sees, you’ll feel his pain and terror. Or you could stick to Scary Movie 5…^[1]

9 Woyzeck (1979)

Almost any film from maverick German genius Werner Herzog could have made this list. From the depictions of individuals on society’s periphery in ‘Stroszek’, the uncaring cruelty of the natural world coupled with a protagonist’s slow slip into madness in ‘Fitzcaraldo’ and ‘Aguirre, Wrath of God’ to the strange, cruel world in ‘Even Dwarfs Started Small’, Werner Herzog is the king of the avant-garde weirdos. His attempt to finish Georg Büchner 1836(ish) unfinished play ‘Woyzeck’ is perhaps the most creepy and affecting film (Grizzly Man is pretty rough, but Woyzeck includes a wild-eyed Klaus Kinski at his best).

The film is a character study of an extremely downtrodden man. Franz Woyzeck tries to support his mistress and their illegitimate child by taking on menial, degrading jobs to supplement his wage as a common soldier in 19th century Germany. He undergoes various humiliating tasks and medical experiments, growing increasingly unhinged. His partner, played by the criminally little-known German actress Eva Mattes, gets bored of the hapless Woyzeck and sleeps with a handsome Drum Major. Woyzeck confronts the other soldier, only to get beaten up , emasculating him further. The depiction of madness in the film’s final scenes are deeply unsettling, giving the viewer a real window into what can happen when you push an unhinged man too far.^[2]

Fun Fact: Woyzeck was put to music in the opera entitled Wozzeck by Austrian composer Alban Berg who also wrote the opera Lulu, about prostitutes, lesbians, and Jack the Ripper—as featured on our Top 10 Truly Disturbing Classical Pieces.

8 Anything By Animator Jan Švankmajer (1964—2018)

Whether you watch one of this man’s feature length films or a selection of his short films, a bit of Czech animator Jan Švankmajer’s works are a perfect addition to your Halloween evening. You’ll certainly have the weirdest nightmares.

Watching his 1982 ‘Dimensions of Dialogue’ is meant to feel like cutting edge, conceptual art, a comment on late-stage communism, consumerism and ideological confusion. It’s more likely to make you feel uneasy and more than a little queasy. The sight of the stop-motion clay figures tearing into one another, ripping gobs of greyish ‘flesh’ and heavily pounding their heads to blown-out, roiling mush feels like you’re watching an Eastern European snuff film, albeit an artsy one.

1988’s ‘Alice’ a dark re-imagining of Lewis Carroll’s classic ‘Alice in Wonderland’ would be perfect for Halloween. Imagine the Disney version, but part live and part stop-motion, without the whimsy and wonder. If you have any qualms as to how horrific this silly little fantasy story could be, here’s Alice’s last line in the film (referring to everyone’s favourite dope from the Disney film—the White Rabbit) “He’s late as usual. I think I’ll cut his head off.”^[3]

7 Mulholland Drive (2001)

Like most of David Lynch’s output, ‘Mulholland Drive’ has plenty of strange, surreal and disconcerting sequences. But jump scares? In a non-horror flick? You better believe it, and it’s a whopper—perhaps the best shot, most tense, nerve-shattering jumps ever committed to celluloid. Or an SD card.

The film itself is a head-scratcher—Lynch’s penchant for blurring the lines between dreams/nightmares and reality causes any attempt at definitive explanations of his films quite futile. All we can say for sure is the diner scene is one of the best made, artfully set-up scares in cinematic history. Dreams and flights of fancy are hard to show on the big screen, but Lynch gets as close as anyone to capturing the essence of a nightmare in this scene, and more broadly, in his cinematic oeuvre.^[4]

6 Threads (1984)

For a good, long period during the 20th century, people across the planet feared potential nuclear annihilation above all else. Films like ‘Threads’ didn’t help that fear for the public (even if such works helped politicians visualise a nuclear catastrophe and realise the follies of their sabre rattling). No blurry symbolism here—just sledgehammer-to-the-gut realism depicting one of the worst possible outcomes mankind nearly faced.

The film is set in the northern English city of Sheffield. As the common English saying goes, “It’s grim up north”. A young couple, still living with their respective parents, prepare to get married due to an unplanned pregnancy. You get lulled into thinking this will be a Ken Loach-esque, gritty working class drama about some struggling twenty-somethings starting their lives together in a post-industrial England. Is that grim enough for you? It gets so much worse…

The Soviet Union and the USA exchange nuclear fire and the world burns, including Sheffield (a centre for UK industry that was indeed a Soviet target in the event of an all-out nuclear war). The film then charts the life of Ruth Beckett, the young expectant mother, as she traverses a post-nuclear attack England, showing us just how terrible it would have been. If you’re a fan of dystopian artworks, this may even be too rough for you. Orwell’s 1984 was scary, ‘Threads’ was scarily plausible.^[5]

Top 10 Disturbing True Crime Books You Won’t Want To Read Twice

5 Un Chien Andalou (1929)

Surrealist director Luis Buñuel, the man behind this strangest of films (collaborating with Salvador Dali), described it as “nothing other than an desperate, impassioned call for murder”. Horrified yet?

Much like David Lynch’s later efforts, Buñuel’s film is a musing on dreams, employing a Freudian free-associative lack of regular logic or chronology. Salvador Dali was employed to bring his strange styling to the creative process. The film has no discernible plot, but the imagery ranges from unnerving to haunting and even quite visceral—a death’s head moth, a gripping hand reaching through a door whilst covered in ants and, most memorable of all, a man slicing a young woman’s eyeball with a razor. Can we get back to melting clocks now, please?^[6]

4 High Plains Drifter (1973)

You’d be right to raise a eyebrow quizzically if somebody suggested a Clint Eastwood western movie for Halloween. Most of his cowboy films are about as scary as a tall glass of sarsaparilla (unless you are allergic to sarsaparilla, of course). ‘High Plains Drifter’ is different.

Eastwood stars as a nameless drifter (similar to his famous ‘man with no name’ character from Sergio Leone’s classic ‘Dollars’ trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns) who comes across an isolated mining town in California. The frontier feeling you get from this vision of the Old West is gritty and dangerous, stark and creepy—that’s before the action begins. After he kills the town’s sheriff and his deputies and rapes a local prostitute, the weak-willed and terrified townsfolk beg the stranger to be their new sheriff. Why would they do this? Because an evil band of grudge-baring criminals are about to be released from prison. What happens next is a master class in gothic mood-making, with enough misery and creepiness to make this one rootin’-tootin’ Halloween, y’all… sorry.^[7]

3 Spirited Away (2001)

This is perhaps the most beautiful film on the list. Hayao Miyazaki’s seminal work of cinematic magic is often held up as one of the greatest animated films ever made. It can also be pretty damned scary.

As cute as the little soot creatures are, the ‘No-Face’ monster is as scary. As wonderfully elegant Haku is as a dragon, giant-headed witch Humbaba is as tough to look at. Then there’s the scene where Chihiro (the film’s little girl protagonist) sees that her parents have turned into grotesque hog-monsters, gluttonously gorging on some magically prepared street food.

‘Kawaii’, romantic fluff? Hardly. As with most works from Studio Ghibli, there is a rough, gruesome and quite frightening undercurrent to even this most beautiful of movies.^[8]

2 Marathon Man (1976)

To many, a trip to the dentist is as fear-inducing as any scary film. What about a Nazi dentist? One that will use his tools to torture you for info? Sweaty palms yet?

This taught thriller isn’t the scariest film you’ll ever see. It does use Dustin Hoffman’s character’s love of running to great use, a device that adds to the tension, making us feel as though we’re as much on the run as he is. Is that enough to keep you under a blanket though? Not really.

Then there’s the torture scene. Much as ‘Jaws’ kept a generation of kids out of the water (even swimming pools), the pained screams of Dustin Hoffman’s character and the high-pitched whine of a drill wielded by Lawrence Olivier’s on-the-run Nazi dentist kept cinema-goers from their yearly check-up with the dentist.^[9]

1 Dead Man’s Shoes (2004)

This cult classic from director Shane Meadows really gets under your skin, then lays some eggs which hatch into tiny fear spiders that will eat you from the inside out long after you’ve finished watching. With a gritty realism reminiscent of many great English working class classics like ‘This Sporting Life’, ‘Kes’ and ‘Secrets & Lies’ crossed with outsider/revenge films like ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Death Wish’ and ‘Se7en’. That’s as close as we can get using existing films as references- it’s not even close, though. ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ is very much its own thing.

The film employs many classic horror/slasher film tropes—a scary mask (a particularly grim looking gas mask), gruesome killings, a general sense of foreboding and choppy editing. But a horror film this is certainly not. It’s a psychological thriller and, more poignantly, a study of brotherly love and loss as well as a look into the harsh treatment many disabled people receive without a support network. If that sounds too much like a charity PSA, fear not—for fear you will. I haven’t looked inside any suitcases for years since watching this movie…^[10]

Top 10 Disturbing Movie Props

About The Author: C.J. Phillips is a storyteller, actor and writer living in rural West Wales. He is a little obsessed with lists.

31 October might seem like the perfect time to watch Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street. Perhaps a slasher film like Haunt or Prom Night will suffice to make the evening a little spookier, especially if it happens to be dark and stormy outside. However, if you want a Halloween night with a difference, you should consider lining up one or more of the movies on this list. Not only are they underrated, they are chockful of thrills, chills and scares, just the way the scariest night of the year should be.
(Potential spoilers ahead)

The Compendium Of 113 Halloween Horrors

10 Session 9

There is something inherently creepy about a mental hospital. And even more so when it is an abandoned one. Session 9 ramps up the terror as tension rises between the employees of an asbestos cleaning crew after they were hired to clear out an abandoned asylum with a terrifying past.

The hospital scenes were filmed at the real-life Danvers State Mental Hospital in Massachusetts, which housed up to 4,000 patients and where doctors engaged in techniques such as lobotomization and repressed memory therapy. The building was soon overcrowded enough for some patients to be moved to the subterranean tunnels.^[1]

There is a scene of extreme nyctophobia (fear of the dark), that is incredibly unsettling as well as creepy recordings of a patient suffering from multiple personality disorder. All in all, Session 9 is a great option for a Halloween movie fest.

9 Goodnight Mommy

There are gory, over-the-top horrors and then there are psychological horrors that creep under your skin and stay with you for a good long time after you’ve watched it. Before Hereditary and The Babadook spooked the pants off people came the not-often mentioned Austrian horror film, Goodnight Mommy.

Imagine coming home to your twin boys and they don’t recognize you. And imagine this happening after you had reconstructive surgery and your face is wrapped in bandages. Additionally you’re not as loving, caring, and interested in your boys’ beetle catching activities as you used to be, and they soon suspect that you’re not their mother at all.

This is the core of Goodnight Mommy with the story ticking over at a steady pace while an uneasy tension builds after twin boys tie up their mother when they become convinced that she’s an imposter with a bandaged face. While she is tied up, they start torturing her for answers…^[2]

Throw in a killer twist and there you go, another great movie to watch on the creepiest night of the year.

8 Grave Encounters

Who hasn’t dreamed of being part of a ghost hunting team that descents on creepy buildings in the dead of night in search of beings from the other side, and finally getting indisputable proof of the paranormal? After watching Grave Encounters, I suspect most would let go of this fantasy in a heartbeat.

In this Canadian found footage horror, the crew of a paranormal reality TV show work up the courage to lock themselves in a rumored-to-be haunted psychiatric hospital in order to film the next episode. Little do they know what awaits them in the dark and that that specific episode would end up being their last.

Sure, the characters subtly mock their real-life counterparts, but there are sufficient scares to keep you hooked. Do you dare enter the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital this Halloween?^[3]

7 Dark Skies

Dimension Films has produced some gems over the years, one of which is the underappreciated Dark Skies featuring Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton. Fans of The Fourth Kind will delight in this low-key sci-fi horror that had viewers taking to Twitter to let people know how terrified they were while watching it.^[4]

There are weird missing food incidents, bird incidents and worst of all a young boy who starts dreaming about a terrifying being. The rest of the boy’s family start experiencing seizures, unexplained bruises and periods of stupor, causing the rest of the neighborhood to start looking at them askance. The ending also makes for one of the most riveting horror movie twists in recent history.

If you’re a sci-fi horror fan, this one might be right up your alley.

6 Pet

Pet is a slow burn horror about a loner who falls in love and eventually becomes obsessed with a beautiful waitress. Seth spends his days as an employee in an animal shelter and as his obsession with the waitress, Holly, grows. It seems almost inevitable that he would take out his frustration at failing to win her over on the defenceless animals. However, he remains relatively kind to them while putting a devious plan into motion.

After her kidnaps her and locks her in a cage below the animal shelter, Seth and Holly begin a power struggle that is not only memorable but leads to a most unpredictable twist. Just as you think you know what’s coming, the film takes a different direction.

As with most horror films, this particular one is not for everyone, but if you’re looking for a horror with a difference, this might just be the movie for you.^[5]

Top 10 Brutal Unsolved Halloween Murders

5 The Loved Ones

Her name was Lola but she was definitely not a showgirl. She was, however, insane. In The Loved Ones, Robin McLeavy makes a terrifying impression as a loner, Lola, who is turned down by her crush when she asks him to accompany her to prom. From here onwards, the movie is dominated by fear and sheer terror as her crush, Brent, is drugged and kidnapped, waking up tied to a chair at Lola’s dinner table. Lola and her father are waiting at the table and the house is decorated as though a prom would be starting any minute.

The best part of the film is McLeavy’s performance. She puts the meaning of menace into each of her scenes and the overall horror roller coaster ride that the film forces you on is enough to make even the hardiest horror fan a little queasy.^[6] If ever there was an anti-prom movie, this would be it.

4 Hush

Slasher films are either good, or terrible (here’s looking at you, Scream 4). And then once in a while a movie comes along that stays with you for a long time because of the excellent storytelling, acting and overall portrayal of true terror. Hush is a prime example of this. It follows the story of a deaf woman being stalked by a killer in her own home.

It is 82 minutes of simmering tension and terror without any unnecessary jump scares or loud music cues to alert you that something scary is about to happen. There is a clever nod to Stephen King and the ensuing cat-and-mouse game that follows (more cat than mouse for a while there) is a fascinating way of telling a home invasion story that never falls flat. There are quite a few surprises in this film that make it a worthwhile inclusion for any Halloween movie marathon.^[7]

3 It Comes At Night

A forest becomes a refuge for a family who is trying to outrun a contagious disease that has spread across the world. This is the core story of the post-apocalyptic horror It Comes At Night, taken from writer-director Trey Edward Shults’ real life experience with his dad’s death after a life of addiction.

The movie has both a shocking intro and ending, but the middle part fluctuates between family drama, violence, coming-of-age and the all-encompassing knowledge that sometimes humans are the biggest monsters out there. There are no ghosts, zombies or werewolves lurking in the dark, but there are humans who are just ‘slightly off’ and add to the terror of the biggest pandemic the world has ever seen.

Seeing as how the Covid-19 pandemic still has a strangle hold on the world, this movie won’t serve to take your mind off things per se, but it definitely is one of the best and most underrated horror movies of recent times.^[8]

2 One Hour Photo

Robin Williams was well-known and well-loved for his comedic roles in movies such as Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, and Fathers’ Day. When the 2002 film, One Hour Photo was released, fans saw a whole new side of Williams as he portrayed the role of Sy Parrish, a lonely technician, who becomes obsessed with a family.

In the movie, Williams is the opposite of his usual kooky self. His character is compelling and intense as he stalks the family and tries to become a part of their lives. When his illusion of what he deems to be the perfect family is shattered after an affair is revealed, his character becomes even more deranged.

This movie, too, is not going to be to everyone’s taste and is fairly disturbing in its subject matter, especially so for those who are used to seeing Williams in a light-hearted role.^[9]

1 A Dark Song

A mother’s grief can be an all-consuming fire, leading her to do the unexpected and even macabre. This is the message from A Dark Song, the movie that portrays a mother who wants to engage in a gruelling rite that lasts for months to be able to summon her guardian angel. Upon doing so, she wants to use the wish the angel grants her to be able to speak to her deceased 7-year-old son.

The rite comprises of ‘exercises’ in which the mother, Sophia, must face off against angels and demons. The irritable occultist helping her eventually accuses her of not being honest about her true motives for conjuring up her guardian angel, after which he tries to ‘re-birth’ her.
This Irish-British independent movie is dark, true to its title, and makes heavy use of occultic themes throughout. A true contender for one of the best horror movies of the 2010s and a great choice for Halloween night.^[10]

10 Non-Horror Movies That Will Scare You Silly This Halloween

Horror movies? How dull. A scary book? What, paper and glue? You can’t read a jump scare! Get with the 21st century, kids. Why not indulge in some new media this Halloween? In this list, you will get a handy guide to the darkest, most thought-provoking, terrifying channels on YouTube.

Gather up your loved ones, turn off the lights, open up the trash bag of sweet things you’ve extorted from your neighbors and watch these creators as they take you on a dark and twisted journey.

Related: 10 Spooky Supernatural Stories From 19th-Century England

10 Scary Mysteries—Delivering as Promised…

If you are a fan of things “doing what they say on the label,” you’re in for a treat. This channel covers mysteries. Scary mysteries, one could say. These binge-worthy 10–20 minute videos cover UFOs, ghosts, serial killers, and all manner of shocking, unsolved, and unexplained phenomena.

Starting Point: “5 Frightening Forests You Should Never Visit”—There’s something naturally unnerving about a forest. From being the setting for horror stories and films in pop culture to the fact that countless ancestors met their end in the world’s ancient forests, there seems to be more than lions, tigers, and bears to fear in the woods. Covering subjects as varied as folk cryptids like the Jersey Devil, serial killers, and a mysterious fifteen-foot-wide circle where no plant life can grow, this video will start your deep dive into the world’s mysteries.^[1]

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Twisted 2’s”—Videos that cover two prominent mysteries.
“Every Town Has a Dark Side”—Podcast episodes covering crimes and mysteries in small-town USA.
“Strange and Scary Mysteries of the Month”—A monthly roundup of the weirdest news reports and stories

9 Nexpo—ARGs and “Aaaaarghs”!

This popular channel provides long-form, deep dives into some of the strangest things found online. From ARGs (augmented reality games, usually with a horror theme) and creepy viral videos to genuine research into online pedophile rings, this channel is more than just a place for compiling disturbing online crap—he really aims to do good. This intrepid explorer of the darker fringes of the internet has invited you to see what he has found. Will you join him?

Starting Point: “Strange Flyers Around Portland, Oregon”—A weird prank, ARG gone too far, or evidence of a cult in the Pacific Northwest? This amazing look into this fringe phenomenon will leave you wondering what every flyer, poster, or graffitied tag you see in your town actually means.^[2]

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Disturbing Things from around the Internet”

8 Nick Crowley—Aleister Would Be Proud

Very much the same stylistic vein as the previous entry, Nick Crowley likes to cover the darker things found around the internet. One of the key differences is that Nick tends to focus more on the real horror found online—terrible animal cruelty scams, self-destructive cancer-chasing fetish communities, and emergent cults. Where Nexpo likes to leave you with a sense of mystery, a creeping dread that surrounds the question “I wonder if that’s real?” Crowley rarely allows for that question to enter the viewer’s mind. These things did happen. And here they are.

Starting point: “The Khamar Daban Incident”—You may very well have read about the Dyatlov Pass incident, the strange event that led to the deaths of a clutch of young Russian researchers in a remote part of Siberia (in fact, Crowley has a great couple of videos exploring the incident), but have you heard about the Khamar Daban incident? This (arguably) more shocking event is covered ably by Mr. Crowley. The perfect real-life tale for Halloween night.^[3]

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“YouTube’s Darkest Channels”

7 Bedtime Stories—Creepy Mysteries, Creepier Artwork

When you get a channel description that begins with “WARNING—These stories are NOT suitable for younger audiences. Turn off the lights, get into bed, and plug in your earphones. It’s time for a creepy bedtime story,” you know you’re in for a good time. This channel certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Covering well-known paranormal stories, some more obscure ones from beyond the anglosphere, and even a couple of viewer-submitted experiences, the team behind Bedtime Stories are among the best in the biz at new media paranormal content generation. The wonderfully drawn artwork accompanying the matter of fact, northern-English-accented narration draws you in as though watching a particularly good lecture. And then the subject matter hits you. Then you’re afraid.^[4]

Starting point: “The Flannan Isles Lighthouse Mystery”—Best to start from the very first video and go from there. This spooky event from the eerily atmospheric isles west of Scotland is a classic story that remains an exemplar of this channel’s aptitude at expressing the uncanny.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
Weekly uploads

6 Atrocity Guide—Weird Internet Tales

For a less horror-oriented (but no less unnerving) channel, check out Atrocity Guide. Although given the nature of her uploads, you may end up seeking out more hokey ghost or Bigfoot videos…

Covering weird stories about strange individuals and groups may not be as bed-wetting or terror-inducing an experience as some of the other channels listed here. Still, one thing is for certain—the subjects covered here are well-documented, meticulously covered, and 100% real/weird/unnerving.^[5]

Starting Point: “The Strange World of Breatharianism”—The title could just have easily swapped the word “strange” with horrific, deluded, or mystifyingly still going. This 50-minute long mini-doc on this dangerous cult is among the best found online. Sad, worrying, and sobering.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
Uploads every few months

5 Being Scared—Rain, Wind, and Horror Stories

Every once in a while, it is good for us to remember that tradition matters. Before all these new media guys bombarded us with mini-docs, deep dives, and compilation vids and before the word “meme” was used on a daily basis, people gathered ’round and told scary stories. Quite often, this was done on dark, stormy nights, the world outside setting the scene for some wickedly frightening tales to be told.

Many of us have memories of sharing urban legends around campfires, in abandoned houses we were dared to enter, or at a friend’s sleepover. This channel re-captures this like no other. Scary stories told with suitably atmospheric SFX—wind, rain, and thunder.^[6]

You’ll listen to one. Hear the rain in your earhole. You notice that your bedroom window’s blind is open. Didn’t you close it?

Nope.

Ok, just a few more tales…

Starting Point: Anywhere. Press play, sit back, pee your pants.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Scary Stories for a Rainy Night”

4 In Praise of Shadows—Peek Behind the Curtain of Horror Media

If you don’t fancy a night of direct terror, why not learn about the movies, comic books, and other media that have provided us with terror over the years? This channel offers a wonderful overview of horror fiction in all its forms. The deepest of deep dives into the history of horror comics throughout the twentieth century is a real highlight. But don’t get too comfy—the measured critique on offer here may make you say, “Hm, very interesting,” but the artwork that accompanies the commentary is often chilling enough to make you go check under the bed.^[7]

Starting Point: “Homunculus: What Does It Mean to Be Human?”—A retrospective of one of the most mind-bending shocking Manga ever. Thought-provoking and vomit-inducing.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Anatomy of a Franchise”
“Why You Should Watch…”
And definitely make sure you check out the three-part series on Horror Comics

3 Rusty West—Missing in the Wilderness

Anyone who is aware of the “Missing 411” phenomenon will love this channel. But even if you aren’t aware of the theories surrounding the comparatively high number of people who go missing in U.S. national parks, Rusty West’s soothing drawl will win you over—it seems to have been carved from prime mahogany and dipped in molasses. Despite the vocal attraction, these stories may make you think twice about venturing into the wilderness anytime soon.

These tragic, perplexing, and often creepy tales of hikers disappearing off the face of the earth, alongside a good selection of viewer-submitted stories of strange encounters, weird occurrences, and brushes with the preternatural, provide hours of material ready for your perusal.^[8]

Starting Point: “3½ Hours of Strange National Park Disappearances”—Don’t be daunted by this feature-length video of narrated accounts; you can dip in and out, settle in with some cocoa and a bowl of popcorn or lie back and fall asleep to Rusty’s voice recounting some cases that remain unsolved.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
Various compilation videos
“10 More Strangest National Park Disappearances” series
“Case Studies”—A selection of vids that focus a little more in-depth on individual cases

2 The Paranormal Scholar—A Fortean Look at Freaky Phenomena

Finally, an expert! Well, sort of. Outside the channel, it does seem that husband and wife duo Laura and Erik Rowton seek to bridge the gap between underground fans, paranormal researchers, and the traditionally stuffy academic domain (their feature-length documentary “In Search of the Dead” includes many interviews with academics).

Their YouTube channel is more about charting and listing paranormal events and anecdotes. Laura Rowton’s pleasant voiceover takes us through various “Top X-number” lists of a diverse range of Fortean phenomena—from historical instances of meetings with the devil to creepy “men in black” encounters that will freak you out more than the prospect of a continental greeting from Tommy Lee Jones.^[9]

Starting Point: “5 Terrifying Wartime Monster Sightings”—This list of monster sightings introduces an interesting angle that many viewers may not consider: soldiers who have witnessed cryptids. Are these accounts more credible given the trusted position fighting men hold in society? Or does the fact that these people are in high-stress, frenetic environments facing the constant threat of death breathing down their necks render their testimony even more unreliable? Whatever you think, these stories are awesome.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Unexplained Mysteries”
“Deities, Demons, and the Devil”

1 Lazy Masquerade—The Online All-Rounder of the Macabre and Unsettling

Finally, we have a channel that combines all the best points of the previous entries without losing any of the overall quality. If you’re going to binge, go hard and go…Lazy. Focused mini-docs on gory murders, unexplained events, and all manner of strange and singular phenomena, list vids, and scary story reads—this channel does the lot.

There is also a periodic focus on Southeast Asia, an area where news rarely permeates Western media. And, boy oh boy, there are some fascinating, terrifying tales to tell from that part of the globe.

Cuddle up on your couch and start watching. Make sure the lights are off, though. After all, “Lazy” always signs off with, “The best things happen in the dark…”^[10]

Starting Point: “3 Creepy ‘Region Locked’ Mysteries, FINALLY UNLOCKED”—Lazy covers three crazy stories from the Far East that you’ve probably not heard.

Regular Sections/Playlists:
“Photos with Creepy Backstories”
“Folklore and Urban Legends”
“USA Horror Road Trip”
And many, many, many more…

Here’s to scary binging!

Oh, Halloween, you’re nothing like the original holiday. But that’s okay(ish). Because thanks to our socioeconomic ideologies, we’ve found several ways to capitalize on the holiday and enhance the absolute best part of it all—the mass consumption of candy. There’s nothing like knocking on people’s doors, asking for candy, and coming home with a full pillowcase or basket of sugary treats. And we all know that there is an unspoken hierarchy to Halloween candy.

There’s the good stuff: King Size Snickers, Twizzler Pull n’ Peels, and AirHeads. You’ve got the candy bars you’re willing to trade: maybe that Three Musketeers Bar or Milky Way. And don’t forget the candy you give to your younger brother because he doesn’t know the difference between a delicious Reese’s peanut butter cup and a not-so-thrilling Mounds bar yet.

Then there’s the candy that your parents suspect has been tampered with. Though we’d rather enjoy our candy without fear that someone has done something malicious to it, we can’t. There are some creeps out there who delight in doing it. Here are the top 10 creepiest things people have done to kids’ Halloween candy.

10 Milk Dud Bullets

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/march-30-2019-minneapolis-mn-shopper-1354301834

It’s bad enough eating Milk Duds that get impossibly stuck to your molars, but finding bullets where your candy was supposed to be is probably worse.

Back in 2014, a mother from Ohio discovered bullets in her 4-year-old son’s boxes of Milk Duds. What made this an even more troublesome discovery was that her son’s preschool had handed them out during a Trick-or-Treat event. And they were certainly not duds. There were three rounds, all .22 caliber.

Though the school didn’t have anything to tell the press about the incident, they were not the ones who brought in the bullet-filled candy boxes. Parents brought in the candy from home, which means this is either a sick prank or a scary message. 

Whatever the case, it was not a mistake.

9 Something to Snicker About

States one by one are legalizing marijuana for recreational use. But before the prohibition on pot was lifted, people had to resort to clever ways of transferring drugs from dealer to user. One dealer from Hercules, California thought of the perfect plan: transport them in Snickers candy bar wrappers.

Great idea!

Unfortunately, if you are attempting to mail said marijuana, totaling five ounces, and you get the address and postage wrong, your plan can backfire. Call this one unintentional, but any mysterious appearance of drugs in an edible substance is creepy.

As the letter was left stranded at the post office, the worker decided to hand out the Snickers bars to kids. And that’s how four weed Snickers bars ended up in someone’s Trick-or-Treat bag.

Police noted that the Snickers bars were so perfectly resealed that anyone could have mistaken the “candy” for actual candy. Nobody did, though, obviously. When you opened the wrapper, you found marijuana buds wrapped tightly in a plastic baggy. And I’m pretty sure it didn’t smell like chocolate.

The post office worker was not charged for being an unintentional drug dealer to minors.

8 Sticking it to Your Cheek

Another 2014 Halloween candy horror story, a young boy from Spokane, Washington found a rusty nail in his Halloween candy. But it’s not like he was pulling apart his candy. No, Halloween candy is not an arts and crafts project. 

He was eating it. 

Yes, he bit down on the nail, and yes, it poked his cheek. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured, and he did not get tetanus. However, I’d personally be terrified of biting into a piece of candy from then on. 

The mother of the young boy’s friend proceeded to open up the rest of his Trick-or-Treat candy and found several other pieces of metal inside them. These included nails, staples, and what looked to be watch parts.

7 Arsenic and Old Laced Halloween Candy

Halloween is for kids, maybe high school teenagers, but definitely for kids. So when we see that person who looks questionably too old to be trick-or-treating, a part of us judges them hard. How dare they take the candy away from the children!

But it’s not like we ever do anything about it. Unless you’re Helen Pfeil.

Helen Pfeil had been passing out candy to young kids all day, but when she started seeing people who were too old to be trick-or-treating, namely the 14-16-year-olds, she got a little too wrapped up in a “practical joke.”

Pfeil took a dog biscuit, some steel wool, and ant buttons (ant trap poison), wrapped it up like a candy bar, and handed it out to a total of 12 teenagers. Five of the candies were discovered that evening.

When confronted by police she swore she meant it as a joke; there was supposed to be nothing malicious about it. But the judge had her admitted to a hospital for a psychological examination. He states that he didn’t understand how someone with reason could poison children as a joke.

6 The Parent Tax on Halloween Backfires

Your candy isn’t yours until after your parents sift through it. That’s just how it goes. They reach in, look for the best things, and take them. It is the mommy and daddy tax. But as seemingly unfair as it is, we’d never wish ill on them.

But I guess this one is karma?

Salinas, California, 2013, a mother was eating some of her daughter’s Trick-or-Treat candy when she started to feel some curious side effects. It started as anxiety and then quickly changed to euphoria. After feeling ill, she checked the candy wrapper for its ingredients. She notices a small hole in the wrapper that wouldn’t normally be there.

She checked herself into the hospital where the doctor told her she was tripping on LSD.

The woman didn’t suffer any long-term side-effects following the incident but had it been her daughter, that may have been another story. The lesson here is to always let your parents take the Halloween candy tax; they double as taste-tester.

5 Mystery Pills

After a fun Halloween night in Lloydminster, Canada, two children found pills in their candy. One had a full blister pack of pills. The other found an individual pill after biting into his Snickers bar. Though reports didn’t include what kind of pill it was, its markings, “APO,” indicated that it was a prescription of some kind. When the parents looked at the Snickers wrapper, it was evident that someone had tampered with it.

4 Nightmare Ingredients

Halloween candy tastes so good, but the ingredients that go into it are not. No, we’re not talking about caramel, chocolate, or even high fructose corn syrup. We’re talking about far worse ingredients.

If you were given instructions to make some of your favorite Halloween candy, it might include the preservative TBHQ. TBHQ, also known as Tertiary butylhydroquinone is a byproduct of butane; it is essentially lighter fluid.

The substance’s antioxidant properties are great for preventing the discolorization of candy that contains iron. But for humans, it’s been shown to cause behavioral problems and cancer. Preserves your food, but not you.

Of course, the FDA regulates TBHQ so we don’t exceed dangerous levels in what we eat. But if you ask me, it shouldn’t even be there, to begin with. 

3 Meth-Coated Candy

In 2018, a couple reported feeling ill after ingesting their children’s Halloween candy. The Sour Patch Kids had seemed fine before they opened the package, but it was obvious that they were not fine. The candy ended up testing positive for meth. Thank goodness their kids didn’t eat any of it.

2 This Candy Will Get You Going

Meet William V. Shyne, a quiet dentist from Fremont, California. On Halloween 1959, he handed out 450 pieces of candy to Trick-or-Treaters—that happened to be heart-shaped candy-coated laxatives. No one knows why he did it. But if he was out to make these kids sick, he succeeded.

Thirty kids fell ill. Parents traced the candy back to the man living at 4844 Norris Road, who was none other than Shyne himself. When Shyne found out the police were looking for him, he skipped town. Police arrested his good friend Hazel Engelby, who was handing out candy with him that night.

Shyne eventually turned himself in on November 11. He was charged with “unlawful dispensing of drugs” and “outrage of public decency.” The court dropped the drug dispensing charges and let Engelby off the hook. Shyne still faced a $500 fine and spent six months behind bars.

A few years later, he was arrested for insurance fraud and spent two months in county jail. Shyne passed away in 2007, but he left a legacy of laced Halloween candy that would haunt us to this day.

1 The Candy Man

Dr. Shyne may have started the laced Halloween candy trend, but this next guy made the idea of getting dangerous Halloween candy in your bag terrifying.

On October 31, 1974, Ronald O’Bryan tragically gave his five children Pixie sticks laced with cyanide. Ronald’s eight-year-old son, Timothy, was the only one to consume the poisoned Halloween candy. 

Timothy died not soon after.

No one saw Ronald lace the candy. But when investigators discovered that he had recently taken out life insurance policies on the kids, they made a critical connection. The court found him guilty of murder. Ronald received the death penalty via lethal injection. He was executed in 1984.

In late September, Candystore.com compared the sales of Halloween candy to determine the most popular. The top 10 candies weren’t surprising, but the breakdown of the favorites by state offered some interesting results. For instance, Ohio’s favorite Halloween candy is Blow Pops. In Montana, it’s Dubble Bubble Gum; Georgia’s fav is Swedish Fish and Lemonheads for Louisiana. But none of these four candies made the top 10 for the nation.

Here are those list toppers in order of popularity, least first, with morsels of their sweet—and not-so-sweet —origins mixed in.

Related: 10 Unique Halloween Traditions From Around The World

10 Candy Corn

If you’re scratching your head as to how candy corn made the top 10 in popularity, you are not alone. But the statistics don’t lie. According to the National Confectioners Association (NCA), 35 million pounds of candy corn are sold around Halloween. That’s nine billion kernels of candy corn sold, and if they were laid end-to-end, they’d circle the Earth more than four times.

The popularity of this candy is the most polarizing, most contentious of the confections on this list. People either love it or hate it, with the numbers tilting toward the latter. The secret to its popularity may be because it is also the oldest candy on this list. For most (52%), candy corn is a tradition, and Halloween cannot come and go without a bowl of it—sometimes with peanuts mixed in—sitting out for guests to graze on—followed by the traditional dumping of most of the bowl into the trash at Thanksgiving.

In the late 1800s, there were a number of candies on the market called buttercreams, usually molded into shapes inspired by agriculture or nature, such as clover, chestnuts, or turnips. In a country that was still heavily agrarian, these confections were meant to appeal to farmers and their families. Candy corn, too, was agrarian-inspired but was a novelty, layered in bright colors.

George Renninger, who worked 68 of his 87 years at Philip Wunderle Candy Company, is usually credited with creating the candy corn sometime in the 1880s. Renninger’s recipe called for melting corn syrup, fondant, vanilla, sugar, and marshmallow crème into a candy slurry, dividing and coloring them—yellow, orange, and white—then pouring them into triangular molds one color at a time. Allowing the candy to cool inside the mold melds the three colors in layers. The pouring of the colored slurry into molds had to be done by hand, the so-called stringers walking up and down the line. While now automated, the way to make candy corn has remained largely unchanged.

Lately, there has been a controversy over the right way to eat candy corn. The NCA surveyed consumers of the confection and found that 47% ate the whole thing in a gulp, while 43% ate it layer-by-layer, starting with the white tip. Just a tenth ate it by beginning with the wider yellow end.^[1]

9 Tootsie Pops

There has been a long-standing mystery surrounding Tootsie Pops. No, I’m not talking about the number of licks it takes to reach the Tootsie Roll center, but we’ll get to that. The mystery is why a Native American has appeared on some of the Tootsie Pop wrappers ever since the candy was inaugurated back in 1931. The man (boy?) wears a traditional headdress and points a bow and arrow at a star.

According to Snopes.com, only about 30% of all Tootsie Pops have the icon on its wrapper. Its relative rarity has led to a rumor that these “special” wrappers can be redeemed for a prize. While some candy companies back in the 1930s had promotions where kids could mail in a certain number of wrappers for prizes, the creators of Tootsie Pops—Sweets Company of America and later Tootsie Roll Industries (TRI)—have never been one of those companies.

TRI claims they still get about 150 letters with these special wrappers enclosed from kids hoping to receive a prize. Since 1982 the company has sent them a consolation letter with a short story about a Native-American appearing in the room of the unnamed Tootsie Pop creator, offering him the secret of making a new lollipop shape. When the inventor agrees, the Native-American shoots an arrow at a star, destroying it so that the inventor could be inspired by the moon’s shape to make a round lollipop. While charming, the story is not particularly satisfactory, especially if you were expecting a prize. Nor is the company’s other explanation for the icon: the star is a symbol for luck. That doesn’t explain what the Native-American signifies. A better answer is the mystery itself. It generates plenty of publicity.

TRI, after all, has a history of using mystery to sell Tootsie Pops. Enter a cartoon owl in 1970, sitting on a branch when a boy delivers the question for the ages: “How many licks does it take to reach the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?” Fifty years later, and still, there is no definitive answer, but not for lack of trying.

Engineers at Purdue University built a licking machine with a tongue modeled after that which lolls in a human mouth. They discovered it takes an average of 364 licks. Not to be outdone by a Big Ten rival, an engineering doctorate student at the University of Michigan built his own licking machine and came up with 411 licks. Other studies have discovered it takes anywhere from 144 to 2,500 licks. The commercial’s narrator was right: we may never know.^[2]

8 Snickers

Franklin C. Mars, the creator of Snickers, was stricken as a child with polio and spent hours in his mother’s kitchen learning to make candy and hand-dipped chocolate. By age 21, Frank supported a wife, Ethel, and son, Forrest, by selling wholesale candies, Taylor’s Molasses Chips, to shops around the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. But the market was so oversaturated that Frank’s venture failed. Ethel divorced him in 1910, gaining full custody of Forrest, then promptly sending the 8-year-old to live with her parents in Saskatchewan, Canada. Frank would rarely see his son in the coming years.

Attempting a new start, Frank remarried yet another Ethel and moved to Tacoma, Washington, where he tried manufacturing his own candy. When that failed, he and Ethel moved back to Minneapolis, where Frank started a basket candies business featuring Patricia Chocolates, named after their daughter. Two years later, they were doing well enough to incorporate, producing the Mar-O-Bar.

In 1923, Forrest was a traveling salesman for Camel cigarettes and was arrested in Chicago for posting cigarette ads illegally. Frank bailed his estranged son out of jail, and the two went to a soda shop. While drinking a chocolate malt, Forrest asked his father why he hadn’t produced a chocolate-malted candy bar. Thus was born the Milky Way, and within a year, Frank’s Mar-O-Bar Company’s revenue jumped 10-fold to $800,000 (about $11 million today), and by 1928, their gross was $20 million ($273 million today).

Frank and Ethel indulged themselves with all that money coming in, purchasing a 3,000-acre farm in Tennessee for Ethel to breed horses, naming the farm Milky Way. After three years of experimenting, Frank introduced Snickers in 1930, named after Ethel’s favorite horse (that had recently died). Today, Snickers usually tops the list for the most popular candy bar in America as well as the world. That is until 2020, when it fell behind Hershey bars in sales ($394 million in America versus $381 million). That still translates into 15 million Snicker bars made every day.^[3]

7 Hershey Kisses

Most people believe candy tycoon Milton Hershey invented these little teardrops of chocolate, but his version was actually a copy of a confection called Wilbur Buds released by Henry Oscar Wilbur in 1894. Wilbur Buds, however, were produced by pouring melted chocolate into tear-shaped molds and leaving them to solidify, each with “Wilbur” imprinted on their flat bottoms.

Hershey, the Henry Ford of the candy world, had already automated his production of Hershey Bars (released in 1900), and he found the teardrop shape could be achieved by simply squirting the chocolate onto a flat surface. Soon after its introduction in 1907, Hershey’s confection began outselling Wilbur’s, and the latter tried to sue Hershey to stop production. Unsuccessfully. Wilbur Buds are still available online.

For the first 14 years of production, Kisses were hand wrapped in silver foil. Then in 1921, the process became automated, the tissue paper tag or plume added at the same time. In 1962, Hershey’s Kisses became among the first candies to change their packaging (red and green) for Christmas. No one is sure why Hershey called his creation Kisses, but historians point out that candies packaged in paper with a twist had been called “kisses” since the 1820s, and the 1856 Webster’s Dictionary defines a kiss—aside from the affectionate smooch—as “a small piece of confectionary.” So common is the word that it wasn’t until 2001 that Hershey was able to trademark his “Kisses,” and only after the company surveyed the public to find that most people associated the word with their product.^[4]

6 Sour Patch Kids

If you can get past the fact that you’re eating a human kid-shaped candy, Sour Patch Kids (SPK) will reward you with first a sour, tangy taste, then a sweet one. It does this because the confection is a gummy with a coating that includes tartaric and citric acid. The acids are packed with protons activated by saliva, which the tongue registers as a strong sour taste. But once the coating dissolves, only the sugar-sweet gummy remains. It’s the coating, however, that makes it a target for tampering. In 2015, Florida drug dealers rolled gummies in a layer of Flakka—a synthetic drug that causes hallucinations—to make them pass for SPK.

Created in the early 1970s by Frank Galatolie when he worked for Jaret International of Ontario, Canada, SPK was originally named Mars Men and shaped like Martians. But, in 1985, when the confection was taken south into the U.S., it was renamed Sour Patch Kids to take advantage of the Cabbage Patch Kids craze. The shapes were altered to be more kid-like, and the new packaging sported a blonde boy with his tongue hanging out, based on Galatolie’s son, Scott.

SPK is not the only candy to also come in a cereal, but it may be the only one that makes the milk taste sour. SPK is not the only candy to flavor an ice cream and certainly not the only candy to appear in a video game. But it may well be the only candy to be added to beer. Mob Craft Beer has introduced Sour Catch, a Belgian pale ale flavored with SPK.^[5]

5 Hot Tamales

Hot, spicy candy isn’t for everybody’s tastebuds, but spicy-lovers are very loyal to certain candies, Hot Tamales among them. Introduced in 1950 by Just Born, Inc., Hot Tamales is a cinnamon-flavored candy that became a mainstay at movie theaters. Hot Tamales have been around for better than 80 years, but they are far from the first cinnamon-based candies. Cinnamon has a chemical called cinnamaldehyde, a skin irritant that the tongue registers as hot. Cinnamon is mentioned in the Bible, in Egyptian hieroglyphics, and in Sanskrit writings. Cinnamon flavoring found its way into candy and medicine in the 19th century, and Red Hots, introduced 18 years before Hot Tamales, are still its primary competitor.

Recently the trend is to make candy hotter, painfully hotter, hot enough to register on the Scoville Hotness Scale. The Scoville Scale measures the capsaicin—another chemical irritant—in food, typically peppers. On the scale, a bell pepper has a zero Scoville Heat Unit (SHU), a jalapeno pepper is between 2,500 and 8,000 SHUs, and a U.S. Grade pepper spray reaches as high as 5.3 million SHUs. Since Hot Tamales do not have capsaicin, the Scoville Scale cannot measure them, but one blogger says a Hot Tamales’ heat was equivalent to a Poblano Pepper, about 1,000 to 1,500 SHUs.

The same blogger said the more recent Hot Tamales Fire was equivalent to a Seranno pepper, or 10,000 to 23,000 SHUs. Atomic Fireballs, introduced in 1954, does have capsaicin and registers 3,500 SHUs. The candy touted as the hottest in the world is the Toe of Satan lollipop, which has cinnamon and a chile extract measured at nine million SHUs.^[6]

4 Starburst

In November 1938, Marcus Pfeffer was a Jewish physician operating out of his Vienna, Austria, home when a friend warned him of an impending one-night pogrom, where Hitler’s fanatical paramilitary (the SA) was to attack and destroy synagogues and Jewish property throughout Germany and Austria. Later known as Kristallnacht (“Crystal Night”), hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Jewish businesses were burned and destroyed, while tens of thousands of men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Jewish homes—including Pfeffer’s—were ransacked and valuables stolen. In the next two months, Marcus contacted a relative in England to act as guarantor or sponsor for the family. So Dr. Pfeffer packed up his wife Betty and three-year-old son Peter and fled just hours before the good doctor was to be arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. For ten days, the family tensely waited in Zurich, Switzerland, for arrangements to be completed before they could board a plane bound for London. They were still living in London when Germany began bombing the city, destroying their apartment building while they were away on holiday in Bansbury. The Pfeffers decided to stay in Bansbury.

After the war, Peter grew up to be a journalist, eventually moving into advertising. In 1959, Mars, Inc. in England developed little squares of soft fruit-flavored taffy, and they held a contest to come up with a name for them. Peter had changed his name to Phillips and worked as a copywriter for the Masius Wynne-Williams ad agency when he submitted and won the contest.

The new name, Opal Fruits, won him five pounds. The name lasted nearly 30 years in Europe, but when Mars took the candy to America, Mars called it M&M’s Fruit Chewies, followed by Starburst a few years later. In 1998, Europe joined the U.S. in calling them Starburst, although the name Opal Fruits makes a comeback now and then.^[7]

3 M&M’s

We’ve already talked about Frank and Forrest Mars, and after Forrest came up with the idea for Milky Way, Frank began to groom his son to take over the Mars Company. But when father and son fought in 1932, Frank removed Forrest from Mars, Inc., giving him $50,000 and foreign rights to Milky Way. Forrest went to Switzerland to learn chocolate-making and traveled Europe working for chocolate companies. Back home, Frank died of heart problems in 1934, his wife Ethel taking the reins of Mars, Inc., not Frank.

Forrest, by then, had moved to York, England, to work for H.I. Rowntree and Company and was instrumental in introducing their Kit Kat bars. Frank also opened his own factory in Slough, England, producing a sweeter version of the Milky Way called the Mars Bar. He was at Rowntree when the company, in 1937, began to make small beads of chocolate in a hard-shell called Smarties (not to be mistaken for the tart Smarties available today) and put them in the rations of British soldiers sent to fight in the Spanish Civil War. The hard shell kept the chocolate from melting in the summer heat. Forrest knew that sales of chocolate typically dropped during the warm summer months, and he realized the potential of these small, easily portable candies.

Forrest returned to America and filed for a patent of his borrowed idea, receiving the patent in March 1941. Forrest did not turn to his widowed stepmother or the Mars Company, striking out instead to form his own company. World War II broke out in America later that year along with rationing, and Hershey’s Co. had control of all rationed chocolate in the country. So Forrest invited Bruce Murrie, son of Hershey’s president William Murrie, to join him in starting the Mars & Murrie Company, M&M for short. Their product would be made with Hershey’s chocolate. Initially, M&M’s were offered exclusively to the U.S. Armed Forces. But as vets returned home, they brought word of the candy to civilians, and by the end of the war, M&M had an expanding market. Even today, Mars still donates M&M’s to America’s MRE program.

After the war, Bruce Murrie observed something that many would afterward verify: Forrest Mars was difficult to work with. Known for his volcanic temper and tirades, Frank would repeatedly throw his candy at a glass window simply because he found one mis-wrapped. Forrest would humiliate Murrie in front of employees, and eventually, Murrie sold his 20% share for a paltry $1 million. When Murrie tried to return to Hershey’s, he was snubbed because of his partnership with a competitor.

Forrest also tried to gain control of his father’s company, but it wasn’t until his stepmother died in late 1945 which gave Forrest 50% of her stock that he returned to Mars, Inc. He brought with him not just M&Ms, but his Mars Bar (the American version has almonds).^[8]

2 Skittles

Skittles are shaped like M&M’s and even sport a letter (S) just like its chocolate cousin. And it’s currently produced by the William Wrigley Jr. Company, a subsidiary of—you guessed it—M&M’s producer, Mars, Inc. But in taste, the two couldn’t be more different. Even when the two cross into each other’s flavors—such as the Chocolate Mix Skittles in 2007 and the Key Lime Pie M&M’s of the last couple of years—they each retain their distinctive flavors.

No one seems to know who invented Skittles, except that an uncredited British company first produced them in 1974. However, there’s a story circulating the Internet about the inventor, “Mr. Skittles,” looking up in the sky and spying a rainbow, then wondered what a rainbow would taste like. He then experimented for three years to produce a rainbow-flavored candy.

If this seems like the plot to an ad campaign, that’s because it is, originating from the 1994 “Taste the Rainbow” campaign. The name most likely comes from the European lawn or indoor pub bowling game called Skittles. The balls used in Skittles are heavy, usually round, and smaller than a bowling ball, often in different colors. The Yanks first tasted the rainbow in 1979.^[9]

1 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

The origins of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups arise from the fertility of its creator, Harry Burnett (H.B.) Reese. H.B. and his wife, Blanche Edna Hyson, had 16 children (that poor woman)—eight boys and eight girls—13 of whom lived to adulthood. For the first two decades of their marriage, H.B searched for a job he’d find fulfilling while supporting his expanding household.

He found working farms, fisheries, and factories unfulfilling but still worked two or three jobs to make ends meet. And those ends rarely met. While working at one of Hershey Chocolate Company’s dairy farms, he noticed how lucrative the candy-making business could be. “If Hershey can sell a trainload of chocolate every day, I can at least make a living making candy,” he later said.

In 1921, Blanche’s father bought a larger home for the Reese family in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and H.B. began working in the Hershey factory. Meanwhile, he made and sold confections from the basement of his home. They started small, making mints, hard candies, and chocolate-covered raisins and nuts sold directly to department and drug stores. H.B. invented a chocolate-covered caramel and coconut candy he dubbed the “Lizzie Bar” after his oldest daughter, Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth would later remember her father heading for the basement at 3 am to crack open coconuts, then peel and grate them. Her brother Johnny also had a candy bar named after him.

By 1926, H.B.’s candies were making enough money for him to quit his job at Hershey’s and move the operation from his basement to a factory. Two years later, H.B. developed peanut butter cups as part of a package of assorted candies that included coconut (cream, caramel, and honeydew), peppermint cream, chocolate jets, nougat, nuttees, and peanuts and raisin clusters. Mary Elizabeth remembered that she helped hand-coat the Hershey chocolate over the varied centers on marble slabs before letting the chocolate set in little paper cups. H.B. would often set up coating tables in the windows of stores to entice pedestrians to come in the store to taste their confections.

By 1935, the peanut butter cup became so popular, it was sold separately, and by World War II, rationing forced H.B. to produce his Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups exclusively. After H.B. died suddenly of a heart attack in 1956, his sons sold the company to Hershey Company in 1963 for 5% of its stock, worth roughly $23.5 million. Today that stock is worth $1 billion, in part because Reese’s tops many lists as the most favored Halloween candy.^[10]

Halloween haunted houses bring out the inner child for many enthralled with the spooky, candy-filled holiday. Though scary—with all good intentions—often, the dangers that come with such frightening attractions are overlooked or forgotten. The following ten experiences explore scenarios never anticipated yet, injurious to one’s psyche.

10 Zero Decency

Sadly, the only thing scarier than walking through a haunted house is working for one. Frequently, “scare actors” are confronted by intoxicated belligerents who can assault them with impunity. “You pretty much name it, and people have experienced it,” said William Gailit, an actor who was kicked in the face at Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights. Actresses face harsher treatment, including groping of breasts and genitals to threats of rape and actual physical assault.

Universal actor, John Deen, had to be rushed to the hospital with a concussion and skull fracture after being ambushed by a group of brazen drunkards. Actors also have a history of being kicked off their stilts, punched in the chest, repeatedly stomped on, and sometimes sexually assaulted. Catching assailants is usually impossible as they merely disappear into the crowd. More infuriating is that those caught are frequently told to merely “not return to that area of the park.” Keep in mind that a majority of actors outside of big-name attractions such as Universal Orlando tend to be teenagers simply trying to earn a buck in an environment they assumed would be fun. Truth is, it’s a crude and sad awakening of what some people in the world feel they have the right to do.^[1]

9 PTSD

Sarah Lelonek, a haunted house enthusiast, got more than she bargained for when she and her boyfriend, Ryan Carr, visited the Akron Fright Fest in Ohio. While walking through the spine-chilling rooms, a tall man who looked like “Leatherface” emerged from the shadows, grabbed her boyfriend, forcefully shoved him onto a plywood bed, and began to simulate a mock rape. “That’s my boyfriend!” said the 31-year-old, “Please stop!” Her demands fell on deaf ears as the mystery man continued to vigorously thrust away while stating, “He’s not your boyfriend anymore. I’m going to rape him.”

Eventually, the masked seducer freed Ryan, leaving him sore and feeling less of a man. The couple immediately left the premises, but the experience stayed with her, given countless friends who had experienced sexual assault: “It was a PTSD situation,” Sarah said. The following day she took to social media, stating, “If you are a victim of sexual assault, do not go to the attached haunted houses. This is a non-waiver house. Nothing was signed. I repeat. Not one thing was signed. Kids go in this.” The park fired back, claiming that their haunted houses are all “professional,” “safe,” and “in a controlled environment.” It is unknown whether the Halloween fanatic will ever return to her favorite pastime of frights.^[2]

8 Colorful Toys and Teddy Bears

Clowns have a tendency to unnerve certain people, and they did just that on the night of October 11, 2014, in Montgomery, Illinois. Upon arriving at the “Massacre Haunted House,” Regina Janito—along with her four children—was confronted by two employees who worked at the spooky attraction. Without warning, the men—both dressed as clowns and armed with sex toys—began accosting the 38-year-old and her teenage daughter. Specifically, one of the charming jokers, identified as Robert Keller, 23, was “holding a vibrating, purple sex toy” while the other unidentified character held a teddy bear with a “vibrator attached to the stuffed animal’s groin area.”

Keller then proceeded to use his colorful vibrator to poke at Janito’s daughter in a sexual and aggressive manner while repeating lewd and offensive remarks. Meanwhile, the other maniac was busy simulating a sex act with the poor defenseless teddy bear. Understandably, Janito and her girls fled as fast as they could from the haunted attraction. Keller was later arrested and charged with battery and disorderly conduct. Within days, Janito filed a lawsuit against the company that stated, “The acts committed by Keller and John Doe were beyond the standards of civilized decency and beyond the scope of what society is willing to tolerate.”^[3]

7 “You Call That A Knife?”

An overzealous actor at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Ohio took his performance quite seriously when he chose to use a real Bowie knife instead of a prop knife provided by the haunted house. In doing so, the 22-year-old turned the “7 Floors of Hell” into a real-life slasher flick. Wielding the weapon to elicit screams of terror, the unidentified “actor” found his weapon entering the foot of an 11-year-old boy who was accompanied by his mother. Surely, the family duo got their money’s worth in terms of panic.

Following a brief investigation, the performer agreed with police that using a real hunting knife “was not a good idea.” With paramedics on the scene, the boy was treated and, surprisingly, chose to re-enter the Halloween attraction yet again. Apparently, nothing—not even a 12-inch blade to the foot, let alone a haunted house—can scare this kid. In the end, police confiscated the bloody knife, and the actor was later fired.^[4]

6 Fading Fast

In 2011, Jessica Rue took a job at “Creepyworld” in Fenton, Missouri scaring guests as they walked through a bathroom drenched in fake blood. The scene included a bathtub, a mangled mannequin, and a noose. On Jessica’s second day, the 17-year-old slipped off the edge of the tub, causing her neck to become caught in the noose. She would hang there for up to 10 minutes as visitors passed by, thinking she was a dummy.

Jessica would remain in a coma and hooked up to a ventilator for the next three days due to a severe lack of oxygen to the brain. Miraculously, the high school senior pulled through, albeit with lasting side effects. A year following what could have been a catastrophe, Jessica was left with zero recollection of the accident or the weeks leading up to it. In addition, she suffered—and perhaps still does—from blackouts, short-term memory loss, change in personality, and heart flutters; nevertheless, she’s alive.^[5]

5 Scared to Death

On a Friday evening in 2014, 16-year-old Christian Faith Benge arrived at the “Land of Illusion Haunted Scream Park” in Middletown, Ohio. The teenager attended with her family to watch her father’s band perform at the festival. Following the performance, Christian and her mother entered the theme park’s haunted house; minutes later, the girl was dead. Despite efforts from her mother performing CPR, Christian succumbed to a heart attack. Autopsy results revealed that the teen had a pre-existing medical condition where the walls of her heart were unusually thick, causing the heart to be four times bigger than normal.

When questioned if fear had led to a fatal exacerbation, Coroner Doyle Burke could not provide a definite conclusion. “I guess that’s the million dollar question, we’re going to attempt to answer that, but I don’t know if we will ever be able to,” Burke said. “It did occur inside this haunted attraction, is there a connection? Maybe.”^[6]

4 The Full Experience

Always abide by the rules, especially around dangerous mechanical equipment that can turn you into pieces within a blink of an eye. Such was the case for a 21-year-old man at an attraction at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park in 2017. While visiting the fairgrounds with friends, a man by the name of Cheung decided to depart from his group inside the haunted house “Buried Alive.” Five minutes later, Cheung’s lifeless, shattered body was discovered.

For unknown reasons, the young man decided to enter a restricted area that housed mechanical machinery, according to the Hong Kong government. During his sightseeing shenanigans, the thrill seeker was crushed after being struck by the theme parks moving coffin-turned-slide. Part of the adventure of the haunted house places visitors inside a sliding coffin where one undergoes being “buried alive alone, before fighting their way out of their dark and eerie grave.” Apparently, Cheung wanted the full experience and, for that, ruined everyone else’s day at the fairground, given that the government ordered the closure of the haunted house in its entirety.^[7]

3 Kimberly Kitrinos

“The Nightmare at Floydville Road” in Connecticut saw hundreds of visitors on the evening of October 24, 1997. As they passed to make their way into the haunted house, many found it odd to see a Halloween mannequin lying in the road, not realizing it was Kimberly Kitrinos, 40, a victim of a hit-and-run. One passerby, Gale Fulton, even saw Kimberly reaching up for help but dismissed it, believing it was part of a Halloween act. When they realized it was not part of the performance, Kimberly was already dead.

As days passed with no suspects, detectives gathered evidence—a car mirror and red paint chips—and, with the help of automotive parts dealers, narrowed down the make and model. With a list of 250 vehicles registered in the surrounding area, police were closing in. The first door detectives knocked on was that of 54-year-old Bruce Imbt. Not at his residence at the time, police issued a warrant for his arrest.

The following day, the killer turned himself in. He had been drinking that evening and, in the days following, did everything he could to conceal the crime. Infuriatingly, Impt only received a sentence of two years imprisonment in August 2000 for the fatal hit-and-run that he so desperately tried to evade. Justice denied, yet again.^[8]

2 Halloween Spirit of 1957

In September 1957, in Utica, Kansas, high school English teacher Betty Stevens wanted to create a fun, wholesome, and above all, safe pre-Halloween experience for students to enjoy. The idea was to keep kids out of trouble one evening by arranging a trip through an abandoned farmhouse turned “haunted house.” Seniors helped arrange the scenery by setting up spooky decorations—steer bones, toy rattlesnakes and skulls, etc.—hoping the freshmen class would get a fun, memorable scare.

Even Principal William Hobert Sallee, 60, became part of the festivities by donning clothes splattered in ketchup and greasepaint. Principal Salle took it a step further, however, by creating a mock hanging of himself. At some point during the tour, Salle’s feet—which were initially barely touching the ground—slipped from beneath him, causing the rope to tighten around his neck, strangling him. As students filed past, he was noted moaning softly in a limp posture. When the tour was over, and Salle had yet to emerge from the barn, Mrs. Stevens found his corpse. She most definitely succeeded in making a memorable evening the students would never forget.^[9]

1 Lost

On the evening of May 11, 1984, smoke billowed over Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. A blaze had broken out in the amusement park’s haunted house attraction, “Haunted Castle,” a building constructed of 14 aluminum trailers measuring 70 by 100 feet (21m x 30m). Inside the attraction was a long, corridor-like maze of “spires and turrets and arches and walls that looked like they were made of yellow stucco” with the intention of someone surely becoming lost. When the fire was extinguished more than an hour later, authorities prematurely assumed that everyone had escaped with their lives.

After combing through the rubble later that night, eight bodies in a group were discovered in the rear of the building, only 25 feet (7.6 meters) from a fire exit. Authorities on the scene—surrounded by the nauseating smoke of seared and blackened melted aluminum—were puzzled as to how the teenage victims failed to make it out. After all, the design was intended for one to become disoriented like a rat in a maze. Unfortunately, in this case, that played into the deaths of all eight youths by smoke inhalation with no direction or knowledge of an escape route.^[10]