For millennia, humanity has both revered and dreaded the notion of curses. Whether whispered by angry deities, cursed by spurned witches, or birthed from grim chapters of history, these dark spells have plagued the unsuspecting since the dawn of civilization. In the digital age, the word “cursed” has slipped into internet slang, describing images, videos, and audio clips that feel unnervingly eerie or outright disturbing. These unsettling media pieces form a niche corner of meme culture, designed to unsettle rather than amuse. This list dives into the top 10 cursed videos that have left viewers shivering, spanning everything from early YouTube oddities to legendary film misfortunes.
Why the Top 10 Cursed Videos Keep Haunting Us
Each entry on this roster carries its own brand of dread—some stem from alleged supernatural hexes that have allegedly claimed lives, while others are modern internet oddities that twist the mind. Whether you’re a skeptic or a believer, the sheer weirdness of these clips makes them impossible to ignore, and they continue to circulate, whispering their unsettling tales to new generations.
10 Rubber Johnny
This early‑YouTube oddball is often cited as one of the first truly “cursed” videos to surface online. Conceived as both an avant‑garde art piece and a music video for Aphex Twin’s track “Afx237 v.7,” the short film drips with discomfort from start to finish.
The centerpiece is a twisted young man confined to a wheelchair, his head wobbling erratically as he dances to the pulsing EDM beat. A tiny chihuahua watches his every move, while night‑vision filters and frantic cuts turn the whole scene into a dizzying, nauseating blur that feels more like a nightmare than a music video.
9 The Japanese Kleenex Commercial
In 1986, a trio of Kleenex ads aired in Japan, starring actress Keiko Matsuzaka dressed in pristine white, perched on a straw‑filled bed beside a child dressed as an ogre. On paper, it sounds like a quirky marketing stunt, but the footage tells a far more unsettling story.
A haunting, empty‑sounding love song plays in the background, casting an eerie, almost otherworldly atmosphere over the scene. Rumor has it the melody was a modern reinterpretation of an ancient German curse. Viewers flooded the network with complaints, leading to the commercial’s removal, yet the alleged curse lingered: cast members reportedly met mysterious fates, the lead actress allegedly gave birth to a demonic infant, and countless viewers claimed madness after watching it—especially at midnight.
8 My Dead Great Grandma’s Coffin in My Own Backyard
This clip feels chilling not just for its grotesque visuals but for its unsettling plausibility. A man, communicating solely via American Sign Language, explains that his local cemetery is so mismanaged that he has taken his great‑grandmother’s casket and placed it above ground in his own yard. The video culminates in him cracking open the coffin to reveal a partially decomposed corpse, which he then tenderly kisses on the mouth—an act that is simultaneously grotesque and deeply disquieting.
7 Atuk
The so‑called “Atuk” curse has haunted Hollywood comedy for decades. The tale revolves around a script adaptation of the Canadian satire novel The Incomparable Atuk, which follows an Inuit navigating the corrupting influences of big‑city life in Toronto. When studios attempted to bring the story to the silver screen, a string of high‑profile comedians were courted for the lead role.
First, John Belushi was offered the part and died a few months later. Sam Kinison then took the script, only to meet his end while attempting a rewrite. John Candy read the material and passed away months after. Chris Farley followed suit, dying within months of his involvement, and he allegedly showed the script to his friend Phil Hartman, who also met a tragic death soon after.
While some point to the actors’ health issues and personal demons as a more rational explanation, the uncanny pattern of untimely deaths keeps the legend alive, offering a convenient scapegoat for a series of unfortunate coincidences.
6 Man Gets Lost in the Catacombs of Paris
Whether fact or folklore, this found‑footage‑style clip sends shivers down the spine. The Paris Catacombs—a sprawling, maze‑like network of tunnels beneath the city—are officially open for tours only in a limited section, with the rest barred to the public. Yet thrill‑seekers and ghost hunters occasionally breach the forbidden zones.
In a 2000 episode of the TV series “Scariest Places on Earth,” a lone explorer is shown navigating the dark, endless passages. At first calm, his pace quickens, and he eventually drops his handheld camera, sprinting away. The camera continues to record, capturing a silent, dim tunnel after he disappears, leaving viewers to wonder whether he simply lost his bearings or fled from something far more sinister.
5 The Hungarian Suicide Song
Although the curse resides in the music itself rather than a specific video, any footage featuring the full, unaltered version of the song can feel ominously cursed. Known as “Gloomy Sunday,” composed by Rezső Seress in 1935, the piece earned the moniker “Hungarian Suicide Song” after a spate of suicides—estimated at around twenty—were allegedly linked to its mournful melody.
Eyewitness accounts often claim that victims listened to the song moments before ending their lives. Adding to the myth, Seress himself took his own life years later, and the popular Billie Holiday rendition was banned by the BBC for allegedly harming public morale.
4 Croatian Stalking Tape
This unsettling clip claims to be genuine footage released by Croatian authorities in an attempt to locate the video’s creators. Two teenage friends test a new camcorder in a park, only to notice a hunched, ape‑like figure with a sack over his head trailing them.
The stranger draws ever closer, eventually standing right beside the teens before they dart into a nearby building and lose sight of him. They rush to an elevator, and when the doors open, the footage abruptly cuts away, leaving only the sound of their terrified screams.
3 Poltergeist
Steven Spielberg‑produced “Poltergeist” (1982) remains a cornerstone of horror cinema, centering on a suburban family whose home sits atop a Native American burial ground, unleashing a vengeful supernatural curse. Beyond the on‑screen terror, the film’s real‑world production has its own dark legend.
Several cast and crew members met untimely ends: child star Heather O’Rourke died at age twelve, Dominique Dunne was murdered within a year of the film’s release, and both Julian Beck and Will Sampson passed away shortly after completing work on the sequel. Rumors persist of actual exorcisms performed on set and the use of authentic human remains in the infamous pool scene of the first movie.
2 Video Dating Tape
This eerie clip, likely fabricated, follows a man recording a personal video dating profile. Dressed in a loud Hawaiian shirt against a tropical backdrop, he earnestly presents himself as the ideal romantic partner—a surprisingly sad and awkward performance.
Mid‑recording, an off‑camera sound—resembling a gagged woman’s muffled moans—interrupts him, causing him to explode in a frantic outburst demanding silence. He then rises, seemingly to confront the source, but the camera cuts back to him calmly starting another take of his dating pitch, leaving viewers unsettled by the thin line between normalcy and horror.
1 The Omen
Producer Harvey Bernhard once warned that “the devil was at work and didn’t want this film made.” The ominous prophecy seemed to manifest: two months before shooting began, Gregory Peck’s son committed suicide. During production, Peck’s plane was struck by lightning, as was producer Mace Neufeld’s aircraft, and a bolt nearly hit Bernhard himself.
The IRA bombed the hotel where Neufeld was staying, and a re‑chartered aerial‑photography plane crashed, killing everyone aboard. An animal wrangler was mauled by a tiger, while a special‑effects assistant was decapitated in a car crash. Though many attribute these tragedies to coincidence, the sheer volume of misfortune fuels the legend of a genuine curse surrounding “The Omen.”